Walking down the empty streets, Grey felt very cautious. But with a particular goal set in mind, he did not stop. Eventually, the sounds of footsteps resounded. Grey quickly his by the side of an alley.

A few seconds later, a nonhuman cultivator rushed by him. Having studied the wanted list on his jade slip, Grey could tell that he was the wanted criminal with a fifteen spirit stones bounty on his head.

But Grey did not apprehend him, instead, he followed him to his hideout. If he could find where more nonhumans were gathered, it would be better.

And so, under the cover of the dead night, Grey cautiously trailed the nonhuman cultivator. Because of his careful nature, he always stayed twenty meters away or more.

The nonhuman cultivator would always look back in fear, but Grey was well hidden so he couldn't find him. As Grey saw the nonhuman cultivator running towards a closed casino, a sharp glint flickered in his eyes.

A dark gleam quickly advanced upon the nonhuman cultivator, but he seemed to have foreseen it and dodged. His fear got the best of him that he didn't bother to look back, only increasing his pace.

The dagger Grey had thrown out embedded into the nearby wall, the nonhuman cultivator meanwhile escaped Into the casino. Grey took a few seconds to remember the location and appearance of the casino before he quickly left.

He prowled the streets several hours later but no other criminals appeared in sight. Everywhere was locked up and empty. The only other people he met were some other detectives from different sequences.

Although seeing themselves, they kept to a distance and even changed directions. Grey felt that the subsequent night raids and wanted criminals being brought in had warranted then to act cautious.

As of now, Grey didn't want to return to his port! Neither did he want to stay at the detective agency. Recalling that magic ships sometimes went out to sea, Grey browsed the Jade slip for information.

He planned on going to the dead sea! Sky Mist city had very cruel criteria for living, especially cultivators. Not only because resources was scarce, but because it was also hard to get.

Out on sea, many things could be found and sold for a lot of money. Although Grey had over two thousand spirit stones, in a matter of weeks, they would soon be finished on his cultivation and poison refinement.

Quietly, Grey returned to the detective agency but didn't change his appearance. Like a specter, his body seemed illusionary as he swayed like he was the wind.

Entering his office, he activated the invisible barrier and sat down to read information concerning the dead sea as he planned to go ojg to gather resources.

Most of the details about the dangers of the dead sea was long but detailed, even including how they came to be and who made this discovery.

"Southern double faced shark! Suspected cultivation base to be at the ninth level of Qi accumulation reaching the Foundation establishment realm. If seen and confident in defeating it, proceed with caution. If not, run away and don't look back..."

Baffled, Grey could only keep reading.

"Ghost pirate land whale! Extremely aggressive, has been known to destroy magic ships on sight. Has a defect of the eye and relies on vibrations in the water to determine location of other things. Likes to hang out near the shallows of bays. Suspected cultivation base to be at the Foundation establishment realm. Do not fight if you're not confident of killing it..."

"Bleeding willow crocodile! Aggressive, will attack magic ships on sight. Has no physical defects and prefers solitude. Hangs out in the deepest reaches of the Archipelago routes to the three major islands..."

"Ever night snapping wind turtle! Very docile, has very Strong defensive capabilities. Known to ignore magic ships and prefers solitude, only coming out of it's shell once every few years and each time it does, it produces a rare byproduct that comes out of it's eyes. The byproduct is one of the main ingredients used in producing Blood Qi scattering pills..."

"Corrosive swordfish! Not dangerous but have very dangerous capabilities. Sometimes likes to hang around boats. Strong attack capability and swim in schools. Each swordfish is known to at least be in the seventh level of Qi accumulation..."

"Giant iguanadons! Extremely aggressive towards humans and magic ships. Likes to hang around one of the small floating islands near the three major islands. Known to be extremely venomous and possesses a venom spiked tail. No particular cultivation base but the highest recorded so far was the high level stages of Foundation establishment..."

As Grey read, more apprehension towards the sea arose in his heart. He felt that the sea was a lot more dangerous than land. The dead sea had twice the amount of corrosive substance that any corroded zone had.

Legends had it that when God's blinding radiance shone upon a small island on the sea, the whole sea turned corroded! The once boundless sea filled with life and spirit energy turned into the dead sea filled with lurking creatures filled with malevolence.

No one had fully explored the boundless sea, much less the dead sea! Some places were even sanctioned to prevent people from provoking the wraths of bizarre divine existences.

Most of the bizarre divine existences that attacked humanity at the time came from the dead sea. The amount of divine properties they had was very baffling. Humanity suspected them to be former Divine creatures that were mutated by God's blinding light.

Although the sea was one of the places where resources where found, it was also a place of constant death. The creatures of the dead sea were extremely vicious. Both humans and nonhumans struggled in this area.

Many times, strong would not even dare to go out to the sea for the fear of a really strong divine creature attacking them on sight due to trespassing on territory.

Divine sense was almost useless when used to scan the sea since it was boundless before it became dead. The information on the Jade slip even advised against scanning the sea with divine sense as you may gain the attention of a much stronger creature.

You could only use divine sense to scan the surface of the water for threats and local creatures but scanning the depths was a way of looking for trouble... And courting death.

As Grey read on, more information gradually sinked into his head. For example, never put on a bright fire at night on the dead sea, it irritated divine creatures.

Once you begin to hear murmurs and ravings on the lake, leave the area immediately! It could be a divine creature inviting you to death!

Also, never drop corrosive scattering pills in the water! It invited trouble!

And always leave the area where you made a kill! Unless you want to be killed by the stronger creatures that would arrive!

There were so many rules and precautions that Grey was thankful he hadn't rushed out to sea just like that! The Jade slip emphasized on Magic ships a lot, saying fhag if your magic ship was not at least in level four, it was not sea worthy.

Grey had already checked and his Magic ship was at level five, not only that, it possessed very strong divine energy attacks. As a level five magic ship owner, Grey would have to be very careful despite his ship's level. Level four was the barest minimum for Magic ships.

Grey wanted to go out to sea for some amount of time so that the incident concerning his weird advancement would blow off! He also planned on using the experience to sharpen himself more and to increase his level of poison. So far he found out that his poison was not very lethal towards some particular nonhuman race like the Devil's race cultivator.

He had long dispersed his poison back then but the other party acted like he didn't even feel it. At that moment, he felt that his poison needed to be improved.

And he also hoped that by the time he gets back, the eight level wouldn't seem so far away. Gathering money to ready for his advancement to Foundation establishment was also on his mind, so he didn't want to waste time.

He informed the captain of his plan of going to sea and she gave him a weird look before shrugging.

"How long do you plan to stay out there?" She asked.

"Probably two months, more or less." He answered.

"Okay, just don't die and forget the 1000 spirit stones you owe me, Little Grey!" She said then waved him off.

'Since when did you start calling me Little Grey, we're not even that close?' Grey said inwardly but didn't show any expression on his face naturally.

"Wait a moment..." She called him back. 'There it is...' Grey said inwardly. "Help me if you find an Amorphous poison dart fish, I heard their very tasty!" Grey's eyebrows twitched incessantly before he turned to leave, but before he did, he heard her call again.

"Hold up, is your Magic ship at the fifth level?" She asked. After Grey nodded, she nodded as well. But before he left her office, she spoke one of time again.

"If I were you, I would come back to Sky Mist city in the next two months! From the detective work you did concerning the Devil's race cultivator, I think war is already on our hands. Sky Mist City can no longer take such acts of insolence and plan on finally wiping out the entire Devil's race." she threw a Jade slip at him which he caught effortlessly. On it was the description of a cultivation art called the Forbidden Monarch art! Grey could feel there was some sort of malevolence around this art. Like it was stained with blood.

Captain looked at him before biding him goodbye. Her last words were simple and short but left a deep imprint on his mind.

"This art would help a lot in the incoming war! Don't worry, you don't need to thank me! Just take it as part of the fee you owe me." Of course that last part of the sentence made his lips curl up and twitch, but still, he was very grateful. Heavens knew he was in need a better attacking cultivating art.

And thankfully, the Forbidden Monarch art assimilated well with his Sky Mist art. Meaning that bringing it up to the same level as he was wouldn't be so hard.

-----

If there are any broken sentences, out of place words or incorrect grammar or spellings, please leave a comment below so that it can be corrected. Like it ? Add to library!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.