Chapter 704: Cork Island (1/2)

The skeleton's spatial ring was in a pretty bad state, and Zac guessed that it wouldn’t last more than a few more decades. It had probably lost more than three-quarters of its original space by now, and what remained was far smaller than even the backup rings he bought in Twilight Harbor.

The contents were left in a chaotic jumble, but Zac started to organize the loot into piles, something that had become a lot easier since his control over mental energy got stronger. It quickly became apparent that the previous owner had fought a few life-and-death battles before dying himself, as it looked like the items came from at least five different people.

There were four sets of cultivation manuals, all of them of different elements. There was a Body Tempering Manual as well, but it was locked just like the manuals were. Hopefully, he would be able to decode them through some service, since these manuals were most likely all things that could be used all the way into the D-grade.

Even if they were average in other aspects, that alone made them better than 95% of the manuals currently available in Port Atwood. Apart from the manuals, there were over fifty bottles with pills, but almost forty of them had golden runes emblazoned on them. It was a seal by the System that locked items of too high a grade until he left the trial.

It was the same with a number of talismans and two Low-grade Cosmic Crystals.

Those crystals were probably left for emergencies, as there were also two small hills of Supreme Nexus Crystals and Supreme Miasma Crystals. The fallen Hegemon was probably among the weaker ones who had entered the Twilight Ascent during some previous opening.

All-in-all, the tally was extremely impressive for an outer trove, though most of the value seemed to be in the crystals themselves. Two low-grade Cosmic Crystals meant 200 D-grade Nexus Coins, a shocking haul for most peak E-grade cultivators. In comparison, the estimated value of the Trove Catheya found was just in the vicinity of 120,000 E-grade Nexus Coins.

Unfortunately, there was not a single Twilight Fruit in the ring, which was a pretty big disappointment. By value alone, they were almost a match to the Cosmic Crystals. But more importantly, they might be the perfect food for [Love's Bond]. Zac's best guess was that D-grade Twilight Fruits were considered too great a reward, and removed by the System.

Zac was about to retract his vision but he suddenly spotted a familiar sphere, and he curiously took it out. He infused some energy into the ball, and he soon found himself in an illusion. It actually worked. He wasn't worried about the thing being a weapon or a trap since he had an identical sphere in his own spatial ring.

It was looked like a metal ball, but it was called an [Ocean Chart], and it was a specialized version of his [Automatic Mapper]. It was designed to chart the Twilight Ocean and it automatically added in and updated the map as Zac moved along, even while it was in his Spatial Ring. It was one of the first things he prepared for the trial, but until now he hadn't had much reason to take it out since it was almost completely blank.

The [Ocean Chart] he found was completely different, and large swathes were filled in with great detail. It wasn’t much help to Zac as the whole ocean had been rearranged since then though. But Zac suddenly spotted something interesting, something that pertained to him specifically.

In a certain part of the middle area of the trial, Zac spotted an all-too-familiar Volcano; the Volcano with the Shard of Creation. Zac’s eyes lit up, having found the first real clue to the remnants. The volcano obviously wouldn't be at the same spot as before, but most features stayed in the same general depth.

So if the volcano was around the midpoint during a previous trial, there was a good chance it was in the same general area this time around as well. Even better, there were over five distinctive markers close to it, any one of which might still be connected to the nondescript volcano. The ocean would gradually get charted by the trial takers, and he would be able to trade for or steal their [Ocean Charts] to supplement his own.

Finding the unnamed volcano had just become a lot easier thanks to this map since he could use its surrounding features as clues.

There were unfortunately no clues to the Splinter on the map. In the vision he had back during the Mystic Realm it was deep inside a cave hidden among jagged pitch-black rocks at the ocean floor. But he was just one week into the trial, and he had already made surprising inroads.

Zac had already come to a decision since discovering the remnants were here; as long as he could find both the locations, he would try to absorb a second set. Collecting more of the remnants was a huge risk, but Zac felt the potential rewards justified it. Making his ultimate attacks stronger was a welcome addition, but he was more interested in the passive effects.

Without the purified energies of Oblivion, it would have taken much longer for his soul to reach the state required for the First Reincarnation. He wasn’t like Vilari, born with a soul multiple times stronger than the norm. It was the same with his body. The Shard of Creation had kept nurturing his Bloodline over the past years.

It was the shard that had helped push his [Force of the Void] to 27% reserves even without a method to cultivate it. He had tried eating all kinds of things, but so far he had not found much that was of use. Most treasures were simply turned into Cosmic Energy by [Void Heart], while a few items with strong Spatial Energies seemed to nurture the Hidden Node to some degree.

Getting a second set of Remnants would mean both a faster soul cultivation and body tempering, without Zac actually having to spend any extra time on either. It was an important experiment as well, to see whether the cage could take on more remnants. Zac memorized all the features surrounding the volcano, after which he stowed away the old [Ocean Chart] to be used as a spare.

Cracking open the first hoard solo was pretty exhilarating, but the excitement quickly died down over the next hours. Troves obviously didn’t grow on trees, and Zac didn’t really gain much of anything over the next day. He did loot a couple of Twilight Fruits, but Alea still showed no indication of being stuffed as she greedily ate any fruit she could get. The monotony eventually ended though as another Ice Crystal formed next to him.

“Everyone gather,” the crystal said. “The Living Pulse is up ahead, which means we’re closing in on Cork Island. The risk of ambush is a lot higher here.”

The group all swam over to Catheya before advancing any further. The start of the living pulse was a small subaqueous mountain range, where the stream emerged out of the depths. From where, no one knew, as going against the current got you ripped apart. The stream was then rerouted through the canyons of the mountain until it turned into a powerful surge that shot through the ocean.

Their group obviously wouldn’t get too close to the mountain, since it was a popular spot to gather up for adventuring parties. They instead chose a roundabout way as they masked their presence as much as they could. It was hard to miss the Living Pulse even when it was in the distance, as Zac could sense a pure surge of life within the Golden Haze.

That was a unique point of the Living Pulse; it passed a lot of life-attributed points of interest, and it was marked by those locations and held strong life-attuned energies. Or perhaps it was the Pulse itself that made those points of interest possible at all. In either case, it made their work easier as they moved along its path toward Cork Island.

They soon spotted the island in the distance, or rather the fact that the depth of the ocean kept shrinking. They eventually reached a sheer mountain wall that went from the ocean bed to above the surface. They had reached the island proper. The Living Pulse actually cut straight through the island itself, but they would have to get onto it.

Sharpo wordlessly sent out a small snake that quickly turned translucent.

“The cliff is forty meters tall,” she said. “I can’t see any cultivators, but my snake can’t see through high-quality illusions. There are some odd fluctuations though, there might be someone lying in wait.”

Catheya frowned for a few seconds before she took out a talisman, but before she had a chance to use it Zac felt a weak push against his mind. He wasn’t even sure if his impression was real, but it looked like the ghost and Catheya had sensed the same thing.

“We’ve been spotted!” Sharpo said.

“We strike,” Catheya immediately said. “It’ll be trouble if they expose our group. We’ll take them out before hiding inside the forest.”