Chapter 625: Divine Sense Enlightenment, Demon Cave Mutation (Combined and Updated)
Eastern Sea, on an unnamed island.
Accompanied by a burst of dazzling white Spirit Light, two massive Spirit Boats appeared above the island.
"So this is the ocean? Truly majestic, boundless!"
"Is this the Transmission Formation? It's truly profound." Lin Changxue and Lin Yanyu, along with others, marveled either at the vast expanse of the sea or at the mystique of the Transmission Formation.
As they understood, traveling from Yunzhou in Zhao Kingdom to the Eastern Sea required crossing vast territories, including those of the Qingyun Sect and Spirit Beast Sect, as well as spanning the entirety of Chu Country.
Chu Country's land area was even larger than Zhao Kingdom.
However, in terms of resource richness, it was inferior to the Qingyun Mountain Range, Qingxuan Mountain Range, Spirit Beast Valley of the Spirit Beast Sect, and the Xuanyu Mountain Range of the Spirit Talisman Sect in Zhao Kingdom.
Of course, for the Lin Family members who had lived in the Southern Sea before, such things appeared rather ordinary.
In fact, they even started critiquing the scenery of these islands.
Considering how small the island was, in their view, it would likely struggle even to house a Foundation Establishment family.
Let alone accommodate the basecamp of a Purple Mansion Family or a Golden Core Family.
Lin Shiming at this moment neither spoke nor directed the Spirit Boat forward.
Instead, he stowed away the treasure he obtained from the Qingyun Fox Clan, his gaze bright and clear, reflecting back on the feeling of his recent epiphany.
He was also summarizing the insights gained from the epiphany.
After all, epiphanies are exceptionally rare, and in this case, the appearance of the Qingyun Fox Clan had already disrupted it, reducing his time in that enlightened state significantly.
Otherwise, when facing the Qingyun Fox Clan, he might not have been so quick to harbor killing intent.
Fortunately, the system's notification had appeared; otherwise, he might very well have slain Bai Ling'er outright.
Had he done that, the Qingyun Fox Clan might have pursued him to the ends of the earth.
Now, with the Southern Sea Cultivation World and the Northern Plains Cultivation World, as well as the Western Desert Cultivation World, all having been exposed, the Lin Family's desire to remain uninvolved in the Southern Sea was proving extremely difficult.
If that weren't the case, Lin Shiming wouldn't have returned so actively this time.
Compared to being swept away by clandestine currents, boldly developing their territory now to accumulate enough strength to advance to higher realms was what Lin Shiming aimed to achieve.
And this time's epiphany had yielded significant gains for Lin Shiming.
A faint smile appeared on Lin Shiming's face as his Divine Sense expanded outward, experiencing the boundless ocean and the breadth of the Eastern Domain mainland.
The more he sensed, the broader his smile became.
One thousand zhang.
Five thousand zhang.
Finally, it reached eighty thousand zhang.
Such a range of Divine Sense, though somewhat indistinct, could essentially cover the majority of a prefecture.
This demonstrated the vastness of Lin Shiming's Divine Sense.
This epiphany significantly increased his Divine Sense, as if a weight pressing on his heart had lifted, allowing his Divine Sense to ascend to the Golden Core pinnacle.
Breaking through to a range of one hundred thousand zhang was the mark of a Nascent Soul Cultivator.
Typically, the Divine Sense range for a Golden Core pinnacle cultivator was only fifty to sixty thousand zhang; after all, Lin Shiming had cultivated the Soul Fusion Secret Tome, and now his Divine Thought Soldier cultivation had been fully realized.
The resulting feedback of power was tremendous.
Besides the terrifying growth in Divine Sense, Lin Shiming's mental state had also undergone a breakthrough.
This relaxation of his mindset made him feel that his path forward was entirely unhindered, as though just by diligently cultivating, he could advance unobstructedly to the Golden Core Late Stage.
And at the Golden Core Late Stage, he could begin preparations for the Nascent Transformation Pill to break through to the Nascent Soul realm.
Only by reaching the Nascent Soul realm could one secure a place in the Cultivation World.
"Let's go clear out the Demon Cave first!" Lin Shiming spoke.
The Heavenly Demon Sect's two major Demon Caves had already seen one destroyed by the Lin Family previously. Under his Divine Sense, he could detect demon energy seeping into one of the caves, indicating either the presence of Golden Core Demon Cultivators or the emergence of a Demon Treasure within.
In either case, Lin Shiming had to investigate.
Furthermore, within his Divine Sense's range, he perceived no traces of Qingxuan Sect cultivators' movements, suggesting the Qingxuan Sect had indeed relinquished control over the Demon Sect.
The Fifth Rank War Treasure Ship advanced swiftly, while True Person Xu Ye's Fifth Rank Spirit Boat struggled to keep pace.
The latter looked enviously at the Lin Family's Spirit Boat but knew well that such treasure ships were tied to Shuangmu Island's Lin Family secrets and would never be revealed to outsiders.
Nevertheless, Xu Ye's thoughts whirled; obtaining such a Fifth Rank War Treasure Ship would undoubtedly be worthwhile.
The speed of the treasure ship was astonishing; what once required two days' travel using the Zifeng Boat now took only half a day.
As Lin Shiming once again reached the Demon Cave, the scene unveiled before his eyes.
A new gathering site had already formed—a relatively small town market.
This market, compared to what Lin Shiming had seen last time, was far smaller, clearly having been raided by the Qingxuan Sect once before.
In the next moment, Lin Shiming's gaze showed a hint of intrigue; he noticed that the people inside were not Heavenly Demon Sect members but rather a True Person from the Corpse Refining Gate, who was cultivating over ten Spirit Corpses here.
The demonic energy of this place naturally benefited corpse refinement.
That was also why Lin Shiming had assigned Lin Shimo to guard the Heavenly Demon Sect's territory—this maximized Lin Shimo's cultivation speed, which was more suitable than having Lin Shiming or Lin Shijie oversee the area.
This time, Lin Shimo didn't come simply because he had just undergone a breakthrough.
From a distance, the Golden Core True Person seemed to sense Lin Shiming and immediately controlled two Fifth Rank Refined Corpses to fly out.
"Who are you? This is a restricted area of the Heavenly Demon Sect!"
"A restricted area of the Heavenly Demon Sect with the Corpse Refining Gate's Golden Core? Truly a 'restricted area,' indeed!" Lin Shiming responded mockingly.
However, before the mocking retort could be replied to, the two Fifth Rank Refined Corpses grew enraged.
"You dare trespass and set up a Formation?!" The two corpses, both equipped with Rakshasa Wings, surged forward with incredible speed.