Several hours later, dozens of black pills were seen on the refining table. Grey quickly swiped his hand and they disappeared Into his storage bag.

Several days had passed but to him, a cultivator, the concept of time was bland. Cultivators lived much longer than normal people, so they were not afraid of wasting several days on a project.

To Grey, this little refinement may be the difference between life and death. You could never be too prepared and must never be caught unprepared.

And as he was planning on staying out to sea for a very long time, he wanted to be as prepared for anything as he possibly could.

That meant every single piece of information, every improvement that may seem minuscule would be sure help to him.

He planned on increasing his control over his shadow while cultivating the Forbidden Monarch art.

After many days, Grey was finally ready to go out to sea. But before he did that, he informed the Captain and the detective agency. The Captain gave him a leave of absence and would not be paid the corresponding time he was absent. He also informed Ange that he might be gone for over two months.

After final preparations, Grey added some spirit stones and slowly set out to sea. The Magic Ship cut through the waters like hot knife cutting through butter.

As some point, he reached the border of Sky Mist city. After gaining approval from the patrol department that stayed at sea, Grey departed from the harbor.

As soon as he left the invisible barrier of Sky Mist city, Grey felt the corrosive substance in the air increase! Well, it wasn't like it actually increased, it was just that Sky Mist's barrier isolated most of the corrosive substance.

Besides the dead sea was filled with more corrosive substance than on land. With an indifferent expression, Grey put on the mysterious cloak from the Devil's race cultivator storage bag.

He found out that it had some certain properties like hiding the appearance of the user. Out at sea, there was no law and to prevent unforeseen events, he decided to put on a disguise.

Grey took a quick glance at the map on his Jade slip before a destination appeared in his mind. After some mental calculations, he plotted a course.

Then, he sat down on the cold wooden floor and began to circulate the cold energy within his body.

But only a few minutes later, he suddenly opened his eyes. His gaze contained a sharp glint as he looked at the direction ahead.

A long ship was sailing towards his attention. The owner was standing on the bow. He had long silver hair and a nonchalant disposition, but in his eyes held wariness. The hems of his clothed were torn and dyed with blood and some other colours.

Evidence that he had battled a lot while at sea. His long ship had several cracks and scratches. The magic ship let out weak energy fluctuations as if it could fall apart at any moment. Even the sails were torn! If it wasn't for the fact that magic ships ran on spirit energy, Grey did not think it would be able to move or even float while looking so tattered and in a miserable condition.

Grey warily steered his ship from the incoming person. With Dragon eyes, he saw a badge on his chest. Grey immediately realized that he was a student of Sky Mist, but that didn't make him less wary.

The other party also tilted his ship away from Grey as well. While the other party's ship was long and looked very slender and sleek, his was like a strong immovable mountain, with strong tyrannical energy being expelled.

He had been at sea for several weeks and had been attacked several times. There were even some times when he thought he would die, but he persevered.

Heaven knew that he was not in good fighting shape. If this stranger who emitted strong cold energy fluctuations attacked, he would be in trouble.

Fortunate, Grey was only passing by and had no intention of attacking. He was as wary of the other party as the other party was wary of him. Even from the distance separating them, he could smell a strong stench of blood and a heavy baleful aura coming from the other party.

Soon, they both passed each other while remaining eye contact. The other party seeing Grey not attacking, gave a short nod. But with his cold and nonchalant expression, along with the baleful aura coming from him, Grey felt like he was watching a corpse nod at him.

Only after they a considerable distance had passed did the other party let out a sigh of relief. His long silver hair fluttered in the wind.

"At least my hair is still as gorgeous as ever!" He then sped up towards Sky Mist city. He glanced at the retreating ship before averting his gaze.

***

After Grey had gone a long distance away did he sit down back to cultivate. He found out that the dead sea was an ideal place to cultivate the Forbidden Monarch art.

Since cultivating the Forbidden Monarch art required yin energy, a place with lots of corrosive substance and sufficient yin was ideal.

And the dead sea was coincidentally a great place place to cultivate. Just hours after sailing the sea, he felt the second level of the Forbidden Monarch art drawing nearer.

***

Ange dropped the Jade slip after Grey told her that he would be going out to sea for some time. After wishing him safe travels, she stared at the small brown cauldron in front of her.

A small ball of blue fire could be seen directly under the cauldron at the time. A faint medicinal fragrance could be smelt from the cauldron.

Ange cleaned the sweat that had accumulated on her forehead. Her auburn hair drooped downwards slightly.

With a silent sigh, she removed the cover of the cauldron and a tantalizing smell of fresh pills wafted out in all directions.

Her face held a tired expression, but when she looked at the cauldron her lips curled into a wry smile.

After the Sky mist exams, she found out that she had been assigned to the Resource department which fit her just fine.

She could not be considered a fighter but could hold her own in a fight, unless she met someone who could totally suppresse her with brute strength, she could more or less handle most in the Qi accumulation realm.

Only after a few days, her level rose once again to the eight level of Qi accumulation. One had to know that only a few weeks ago she just broke through to the Seventh level. Her speed if advancement was very fast.

'But it's still not fast enough, and I'm still not as strong as him!' She said inwardly. After Luo suddenly left, she felt a little lost. Her parents died under the attacks of scavengers, Luo found her wounded and on the verge of death before taking her in.

After staying with her for several days, she realize her talent in the Dao of medicine. Even Luo who was a pro had been impressed. This continued until Luo decided to hand over anything concerning pill refinement to her.

And with this, she felt her true talent showing forth. Despite her parents saddening death, she had always been optimistic and lively. Even as after she met Grey, who was usually nonchalant and seemingly detached from the world, she still displayed her optimistic behavior.

But the battle with the Shadow sect opened her eyes to a lot of things! She suddenly saw the world for what it was. Constant danger lurking at every corner.

Like deranged beast ready to devour at the sight of weakness. She finally realize Grey's paranoia! She finally realized why he was always wary, always careful! Because life after God descended was not safe!

To be able to live to the next day was hard. Even though she was in the resource department, she had been forced to kill more than she could have expected. Yet, the growing threat of insecurity was still there.

***

As his Magic ship continued on course, Grey sat down to cultivate. His breathing was calm, like a tranquil lake. Every breath he took in was reflected by a chilling exhale.

With the abundant source of yin energy, Grey soon reached the second level of the Forbidden Monarch art. His body was already uses to the chilling energy and had adapted accordingly.

His body housed to energies respectively, the cold yin ene, and spirit energy. Grey felt his bones density increase silently. His pores had long opened to release some foul smelling fog.

Grey had already experienced the cleansing of the Sky Mist art, when blackish too would flow out from his body whenever he achieved a breakthrough so he did not panick, and instead used the opportunity to further rid his body of impurities.

Since his body did not contain the dreadful corrosive substance, the cleansing was short compared to before.

Strangely, those purple lines that he had seen appear once on his body did not come out as he broke through.

Which left Grey pondering as to what warranted their appearance before. He already guessed that those purple lines stemmed from the purple crystal, so maybe the purple crystal made such a reaction happen on his body because of the fusing of the two crystals.

Except for his recovery abilities reaching new heights, Grey did not feel anything different about it. But he felt that there was still more awaiting him and the purple crystal.

Grey felt that when he broke through to Foundation establishment, he would be able to have clearer ideas about the purple crystal. What it's purpose was and what changes were made to his body.

-----

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