Chapter 157: The Central Mainland

The giant turtle plodded through the void.

No one knew that when Si Wenming smashed that stone tablet, he had left yet another small, delightful surprise for the Jia clan. To avoid any potential pursuit by the Kangyue Legion, the giant turtle risked its life to flee at full speed through the void, weaving back and forth like a thief along a heavily detoured route.

Along the way, Ji Hao sat upon the giant turtle’s neck, witnessing countless wondrous sights, myriad magical living beings, and encountering endless perils.

Natural disasters, human malice—in the void, one could never predict what might cross their path in the very next instant.

The giant turtle had once been dragged into an invisible, swirling black hole in the void; had it not been for the concerted efforts of Si Wenming and the other Divine Warlocks, the turtle—along with the entire merchant city upon its back—would have been swallowed whole.

Terrifying torrents of heavenly fire and boiling sand had swept past. Despite the giant turtle’s formidable defensive power, it had been battered and bruised, its layer of blade-and-arrow-proof calluses roasted completely through.

Frenzied hordes of void beasts had launched desperate attacks, treating the giant turtle and the caravan members within the city as prey. Unlike the beasts encountered previously, the weakest among this swarm of void beasts were peak Junior Witch-level fierce monsters. Everyone in the caravan fought for their lives with desperate ferocity, leaving even Si Wenming battered and begrimed before they finally managed to break free from the danger.

There were also terrifying void parasites that struck silently and without warning. This time, Ji Hao made a monumental contribution. If not for the warning given by the mysterious shadow within his spiritual space, and Ji Hao’s divine sense discovering those formless and traceless void parasites in the nick of time, the number of survivors among the entire caravan and the giant turtle combined would definitely not have exceeded the fingers of one hand.

Every single step was fraught with peril, with the constant threat of total annihilation.

Ji Hao finally understood why, when Ji Bao was young, he had gathered a large group of experts to accompany a caravan to the Central Lands, only to suffer such catastrophic casualties. Given how immensely powerful the Turtle Spirit Caravan was this time, they had still come within a hair's breadth of perishing several times. This boundless void was truly terrifying.

Yet along the way, Ji Hao’s vision and experience had also expanded exponentially. In the boundless void, countless lands of all sizes drifted about. Every time the giant turtle passed by these lands, it would briefly pause upon them while conducting various trades.

All sorts of exotic and bizarre clans, tree spirits, stone monsters, mountain sprites, and water demons—as well as powerful fiends that had gained sentience over long ages and transformed into human form—had filled the warehouses of the Turtle Spirit Caravan to the brim with rare local specialties. The previously heavy expressions on Old Man Gui and the others gained a few more traces of smiles.

Time flew, and years lost their meaning in the void. Exactly a year and a half later, a vast expanse of lush mountains, clear rivers, and charming scenery suddenly appeared in the void ahead. Countless lands of various sizes floated gracefully in the void, revolving slowly around a gigantic, peerless continent at the very center.

Old Man Gui finally let out a long breath. He laughed heartily and shouted, "We've reached the Central Lands! Brothers, we're home!"

The members of the caravan burst into wild cheers simultaneously, howling at the top of their lungs until their voices grew hoarse, and dancing joyous, frenzied dances.

Ji Hao quietly watched these ecstatic caravan hands and guards. For him, this was a long journey that had consumed a full year and a half. But for these caravan members, this single round trip meant that nearly ten years had passed.

If their children had just been born when they set out, those children would now be nearly as old as Ji Hao.

Their elderly parents back home—after ten more years, their brows surely bore more wrinkles, their hair more strands of white. As they leaned against their doorways, looking out and yearning for the safe and early return of their children, the light in their eyes must have grown much dimmer.

"A traveler's clothes..." Ji Hao just barely murmured the first four words before giving his own cheek a light slap with a smile. "Plagiarizing poetry is a bad habit. Heh! The Central Lands. Is this the Central Lands?"

Even from afar, Ji Hao could feel the boundless, infinite breath of life radiating from that limitless, magnificent world composed of countless lands. Rolling surges of heaven and earth primordial Qi swept past like hurricanes, slowing the giant turtle's forward momentum significantly.

The primordial Qi of the boundless void was already extremely abundant, but the Central Lands were clearly the ultimate core of this world—the most vital source of primordial Qi. At every moment, immense quantities of heaven and earth primordial Qi were engendered within the Central Lands, spontaneously diffusing outward to places lacking in primordial Qi.

Thus, the closer one got to the Central World, the more turbulent and violent the hurricanes formed by the primordial Qi became. Only mighty creatures of the giant turtle's caliber could stabilize themselves in such tempests, constantly cleaving through the gales of primordial Qi and advancing steadily.

Ji Hao estimated inwardly that without the strength of a peak Divine Warlock, ordinary tribesmen from the four desolate regions of the east, south, west, and north would not even dream of approaching the Central World from the void by half a step!

The hurricane tore at the giant turtle's body, the physical wind and waves hissing and scraping against its calluses and shell, erupting into countless sparks and trailing a blinding wake of fire a thousand miles long behind the turtle.

Near and far, hundreds of magical creatures comparable in size to the giant turtle—or even more colossal—were tearing through the gales of primordial Qi, stepping forward one by one toward the Central World. Behind every giant creature trailed a long tail of fire; the larger the body, the longer the fiery tail.

Ji Hao looked around in shock and awe. What a majestic and magnificent sight.

In the hazy void, hundreds of giant creatures carrying cities of various sizes, along with magnificent and ornate palace complexes, broke through the gales step by step, advancing slowly toward the picturesque world at the center.

Unconsciously, he opened his arms and embraced the direction of the Central World. Just the things visible before his eyes alone made Ji Hao fall deeply in love with the Central Lands, falling in love with this indescribably magical world.

"I belong right here—to make the name of the Azure Dragon echo across the entire heaven and earth!" Ji Hao muttered unconsciously to himself. "In my past life, the so-called strongest humans? Heh, a mere Junior Witch could have crushed the me of back then. But in this life, the strongest humans, you say? This is getting interesting!"

A loud boom resounded. Terrified, Ji Hao looked to his left, his eyes widening in horror:

He saw a giant standing a thousand miles tall, holding a small land spanning tens of thousands of miles aloft in both hands. Like a bamboo being split right down the middle, the giant cleaved through the gales of primordial Qi and sprinted with giant strides toward the Central World. In the blink of an eye, the giant had shouldered that piece of land and vanished completely without a trace.

"This, this, this..." Ji Hao's tongue tied itself in knots, unable to speak for a long time.

"That was a descendant of Kuiae, an ancient deity of the Celestial Court... With the Celestial Court in decline today, no longer possessing its ancient grandeur, many deities of the Celestial Court frequently descend to the mortal realm in secret to play. Which wealthy tycoon was that, spending a vast fortune to hire a descendant of Kuiae to go into the outer stellar void and mine landmasses to build his own estate, I wonder?"

Si Wenming quietly appeared behind Ji Hao, smiling as he watched the distant giant depart.

A buzzing sound echoed wildly inside Ji Hao's head, and his eyes instantly turned bloodshot.

The Celestial Court!

Ancient deities!

What kind of tycoon could afford to hire deities of the Celestial Court to do manual labor for them?

The Central Lands were truly a mad world! (To be continued.)

PS: Everyone should be quite familiar with Kuiae, right?