Chapter 28: The Endless Sea

"You... were looking for me?" Jing Hong scanned the room as he stepped inside. Finding only Qiu Ci there, his expression visibly eased, and he even took the initiative to ask.

"Yes, there is something I wanted to ask you." Qiu Ci poured a cup of tea and slid it across the table toward him.

Jing Hong sat down silently. He looked at her, then at the teacup, but his gaze became fixed on a single drop of tea that had slid down the side of the cup. His brows knitted almost imperceptibly, and his entire posture stiffened.

The corner of Qiu Ci's mouth twitched as she realized what was wrong. "If you want to wipe it, just do it. Or you don't have to drink it!"

He froze, then, as if realizing she didn't mind, he slowly pulled a handkerchief from his robe. He picked up the cup, poured out the tea, and scrubbed the inside and outside of the vessel with intense focus until it shone as if translucent. Only then did he let go, and then... he picked up the other cups on the table and gave them a 360-degree deep clean as well.

Well, it seemed that besides being socially anxious, he was also a germaphobe.

Qiu Ci watched in silence for over ten minutes until he finished cleaning every cup. His gaze then slowly drifted to the cup in her hand.

"Wait, you don't mean to clean this one too, do you?" Where is your sense of personal space?

"..." Jing Hong said nothing, merely staring at the half-finished tea in her hand.

Qiu Ci felt a headache coming on, so she handed it over. "Fine, fine, go ahead and clean it!"

Jing Hong's expression remained unchanged, but as he took the cup, his brows visibly relaxed. He cleaned the entire set until they were spotless. He then performed a few dust-removal incantations, conjured fresh water with a water spell, heated it with his internal energy, and, picking up the bubbling teapot, brewed a new cup for her, placing it in the most perfect, central position.

The entire sequence of movements was fluid and practiced, as if he had done it countless times in private.

Qiu Ci: "..." Fine. Who was she to judge a socially anxious person?

"I heard you possess dragon bloodline."

"Yes." Jing Hong nodded, taking a sip of tea. He didn't have that rigid, tense look he usually displayed around strangers. Ever since she had exposed his social anxiety, he seemed to have unlocked some strange mechanism; he felt much more at ease in her presence. Though he remained a man of few words, he now answered whenever she asked, no longer the silent statue who couldn't squeeze out a sentence.

"Do you know anything about the dragon race?"

"Know anything?" Jing Hong paused. "What kind of knowledge?"

"Anything at all!" Qiu Ci asked in a low voice. "Temperament, history, abilities—anything." She knew nothing about these things; the more she learned, the better she could confirm what the main system was trying to tell her.

Jing Hong was silent for a moment before shaking his head. "I don't know."

"What?"

"Although the bloodline I awakened is of the dragon race, it is only slightly stronger than other lineages. Dragons have always been creatures of legend; I have never seen one." He replied earnestly.

"Is there... not even a single special trait?" Qiu Ci persisted.

"None!" He shook his head.

Qiu Ci felt a wave of disappointment. It seemed she had overthought it. The so-called beast clans had nothing to do with people like them who had awakened special bloodlines, and Jing Hong had no connection to that scale.

She glanced at the few azure scales manifesting on the side of Jing Hong's face, then pulled out the one she had found at the research institute. They looked almost identical—why could there be no connection?

"Senior, what is that?" Jing Hong asked, catching sight of the object in her hand.

"It should be a dragon scale," she replied. A scale inscribed with an agreement between two clans could only be a dragon scale.

"A dragon scale?" Jing Hong was curious. "May I see it?"

"Go ahead." Qiu Ci placed it on the table. She wasn't worried; only the system could decipher the content of the agreement.

"So there really are dragons in this world..." As soon as Jing Hong touched the scale—

Suddenly, a brilliant azure light erupted. The once-dim scale seemed to be activated, shooting a beam of light toward Jing Hong that instantly enveloped him.

Before he could react, Jing Hong saw a flood of images flash before his eyes. A sharp pain pierced his consciousness, and the spiritual energy within him began to churn uncontrollably. His blood boiled like a turbulent river, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

*Pfft!*

Oh, for heaven's sake! This unlucky kid—why does he start spitting blood at the slightest provocation?

It all happened in an instant. Startled, Qiu Ci rose and moved to his side, channeling her own spiritual energy to suppress his surging power. She then kicked the table, along with the scale, far away.

Miraculously, the moment her energy touched the light, it receded like a tide, becoming impossibly docile. Jing Hong’s internal energy stabilized, and if not for the slight damage to his meridians, one would never have known he had been in such distress.

"What happened? Why did this scale attack you?" She had held it for so long without it showing any aggression.

"It... it wasn't an attack!" Jing Hong coughed heavily, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth. "I... I think I heard something calling!"

"What?" Qiu Ci blinked.

Jing Hong took a deep breath until his breathing steadied. "The moment I touched the scale, I heard a voice..."

"What kind of voice?"

"I'm not sure." Jing Hong shook his head. "The sound was strange, impossible to describe. I only know it was calling me to go somewhere."

"Do you know where that is? Where is it?"

"I don't know! But I know the direction." Jing Hong stood up and pointed out the window to the east. "It is to the east, very, very far away—farther than any region I know."

Qiu Ci pondered for a moment and made a swift decision. "Let's go! We'll ask the Sect Leader first!"

Qi Hong was well-versed in the terrain of the continent.

"The east? You mean... the Endless Sea!" Qi Hong shook his head immediately, warning her in a low voice, "Senior, you really shouldn't go there!"

"Why? What is out there?" Qiu Ci asked.

"Alas! The Endless Sea is also known as the Sea of Death," Qi Hong sighed. "Legend says it is an infinite expanse of water, filled with countless terrifying savage beasts. Anyone who ventures deep into the sea is buried in the bellies of these monsters. It is a place of no return."

"Savage beasts?" Qiu Ci froze. Could they be the beast clans from the agreement?

"Exactly. These beasts are so terrifying that it is rumored they have the ability to suppress a cultivator's spiritual energy. No one can escape their maws. Even Nascent Soul cultivators have no hope of survival if they enter. Over time, no one has dared to approach those waters." It was, without a doubt, a forbidden death zone that no one on the Linyuan Continent dared to touch.

"Has no one ever returned from there?" Qiu Ci asked skeptically.

"No!" Qi Hong looked grave. "There were rumors that the sea held countless hidden treasures, and some even claimed the end of the Endless Sea connected to a continent even larger than Linyuan. But those are merely legends; no one has ever returned alive."

"So mysterious?" The more Qiu Ci heard, the more she felt that the secret of the beast clans was hidden within those waters. As long as she went there, she would find the answers.