Chapter 1203  : The Old Port

The Karma Art was one of the most mysterious and powerful Dharma Spells in the world, which involved the laws of time, space and karma itself. Ordinary people were unable to use it and strong cultivators like Chen Fan couldn’t hold it for a long time. The light screen would shatter in almost a single breath.

“Swish.”

A light wheel which seemed like an hourglass with transparent ripples appeared slowly behind Chen Fan.

Then, the aura around Chen Fan’s body became unstable. Many tiny veins like threads of a spider’s web appeared on his face, but immediately vanished again. The black iron rod next to Chen Fan also let out a green light, making sounds from rumbling Dao Laws at that moment, which exploded in the sky like bolts of green thunder. All of it turned into a web that surrounded the entire valley.

A few breaths later—

The hourglass-like light wheel gradually dimmed and became shapeless, while the aura around Chen Fan also faded and stabilized slowly.

Finding his mother, Wang Xiaoyun, wasn’t as harmful to Chen Fan as his prior use of the skill when he looked for Fang Qiong; he had almost collapsed because of the backlash. That was certainly because Wang Xiaoyun was much closer, but the main cause had to do with the many secrets related to Fang Qiong. When Karma was involved with higher laws, more powerful energy and more prohibitions, its impact would surely be stronger.

When he spied on Fang Qiong—who was under the protection of the True Martial Celestial Sect—the Perfected Immortals weren’t provoked into attacking, slapping Chen Fan to death across the universe, which went to show that he had already been careful enough.

Chen Fan closed his eyes and thought, “The bloodline of that young boy and young girl undoubtedly belong to my parents. I feel extremely close to them, meaning that they’re directly related to me. Although my father isn’t there, things should be fine. If not, my mother wouldn’t be as calm.”

Even though the light screen had shattered, the appearance of that young boy in his teens and the ten-year-old young girl was imprinted deeply in Chen Fan’s heart. He looked at the two of them slowly in his mind.

“The clothes they’re wearing are different from those used in the Little South Heavenly Realm, but they are obviously exquisite enough. They are probably made of some Spirit Materials. I could sense Spirit Qi energy. This means that my parents aren’t rich, but they’re not doing poorly in that place.

“A boy and a girl. The boy is more mature, while the girl is a bit arrogant. Judging from their ages, he should be the big brother and she is the younger sister.

“Calculating by time, the older one should have been born before Master Cangqin visited Earth, but A’Xiu didn’t tell me about it. I wonder if she forgot or my parents hid it from me.

“Unfortunately, my Immortal Will can’t extend any further. I can’t detect their level and talent through the light screen. If not, I would have known if they’ve cultivated...”

Chen Fan closed his eyes and pondered.

He quietly got up after some time passed. Knowing his parents were safe and sound made Chen Fan feel relieved; he didn’t have to rush over to find them. And yet, the sight of that city in the light screen kept appearing in Chen Fan’s mind. He was doubtful about the direction the Karma Art had given him; he felt that somehow that direction seemed familiar.

Bright, developed cities like that one were rarely seen at the border of the Little South Heavenly Realm, but they were everywhere in the Star Ocean. The human civilization at the center of the universe had finally entered the glorious golden era after going through the difficulties during the Tinder Age and the rise in the Pioneering Era. Technology and Immortal Cultivation were developing at the same time, while Gods and civilizations coexisted. Those were truly brilliant times.

The very sight of that city in the picture was the thing that gave Chen Fan a sense of familiarity. He felt he had been there before, but he hadn’t visited the Star Ocean that life; the furthest he had gone was only up to Planet Tianhuang.

“Where is it...”

He thought about it for half a day, but it was too far away. Not even the Full Nascent Soul Power could show him things happening thousands of miles across so many planet regions with just a bit of connection between souls.

He soon made up his mind. It was useless to think so much at the moment; he should simply go there first.

“Whoosh.”

Chen Fan got up and picked up the rusty black iron rod. He tapped in the air and the ship sailed straight into the vast universe.

During the next few months, Chen Fan remained constantly on the road.

He was neither slow nor fast. Wang Xiaoyun and the others were safe for the moment, so Chen Fan wasn’t in a hurry to reach them. He mostly teleported across the galaxy with his peak-stage Soul Formation Dharma Power almost every time in his previous life; he had never truly seen what the places in space were like.

This time, he traveled and watched at the same time.

He went past a giant planet with signs of life and saw countless people in ancient clothes, like those in ancient China, working hard on cultivating the land; they farmed for the Immortal Cultivators above them during all four seasons of the year. They couldn’t even have a bite of the produce they grew with painstaking efforts, and the cultivators in charge had already taken them away. Whoever resisted would be burnt to ashes with Dharma Spells, just like lowly slaves.

He saw that a member of a poor family showed signs of having cultivation talent and was immediately recruited by the cultivator from an Exalted Sect. His entire family was thrilled; they moved from the cold, dangerous suburb area where they used to live, and joyfully relocated in the city. They didn’t have to pay taxes to the sects and wouldn’t be attacked by low-level monsters anymore.

He saw a Nascent Soul cultivator who lived a luxurious life, who had countless farms and mines in a magnificent, towering palace with many gorgeous maids in thin tulle dresses that showed their bodies as they walked around. The Dharma Power around his body was still strong, but his Divine Soul had started to decay.

He saw that a bastard in a large family was being scolded, disdained and treated like a pig or a dog by his seniors when it was detected that he had no cultivation talent whatsoever. As for the young boys and girls who had been tested to have cultivation talent, they immediately became arrogant, thinking of themselves as superior. They glanced around their brothers and sisters in disdain, as if they weren’t of the same kind anymore, treating them like lowly beings.

He saw...

Chen Fan only watched expressionless as he passed by.

He saw a beautiful but poor young girl being bullied by a low-level cultivator. All she could think of was to die, since she was beyond frightened and desperate... But Chen Fan summoned a thunderbolt and struck that cultivator to pieces. Countless others were stunned. Under the lead of an old Connate Cultivator, all of them immediately knelt and said as they faced the sky, “Senior, please don’t kill us. Please don’t kill us.”

When he passed through a city overrun by monsters, he also held the rod in his hand and launched an attack, creating a ten-mile trace and bright, solid golden light. The monsters then retreated in fear. People in the entire city immediately burst into bouts of cheering; only the cultivators were terrified, as they had no idea how that happened.

Chen Fan also went past two countries waging war. Dozens of thousands of soldiers were fighting and both parties had become birdbrains at that point. They used all kinds of Dharma Treasures and Deity Arts, which made the sky collapse, the ground crack and the water in the lakes evaporate. Chen Fan was also interested and he stopped to watch the battle for a while, as if he were enjoying a wonderful movie. Upon seeing the Commanders of both parties think hard about their opponents’ next move and then coming up with countermeasures; seeing the cultivators work themselves into a killing frenzy and the high-level cultivators use all of their treasures they had gathered in the past few centuries; seeing the Kings of both parties sitting in their palaces, watching their own countries fall apart and witnessing their people die without any power to resist... Chen Fan could no longer stand it in the end. He smashed the cultivators of both parties to ashes and immediately stopped the war...

Just like that, he kept observing along the way.

He would at times lend a helping hand when he saw someone suffering an injustice, but he only watched quietly most of the time.

Things he saw didn’t just happen on the planets he went past, but also in the whole Little South Heavenly Realm. High-level cultivators were rich and had assets and power they had acquired in the past few hundred to a thousand years, as they wielded absolute power. The ordinary people who didn’t cultivate and the cultivators at the bottom could only fight with wild dogs over food, and with fierce monsters over places to survive.

The humans in the Star Ocean had experienced those things for countless years during the “Tinder Age.” Chen Fan had also seen them in many foreign worlds or border areas of the universe in his previous life.

And yet, the civilizations around the universe had already gone through barbaric eras, having truly entered the dazzling era of humanity after a few generations, while the Little South Heavenly Realm was still stuck in the past. That was indeed because the whole region was trapped inside the black sandstorm zone and was separated from the higher civilizations in the universe. That also meant that cultivators themselves didn’t want to change. After all, they practiced so hard not because they hoped to ascend to Heaven, but because they merely wanted to live longer and better.

It was also the case that the cultivators in the Little South Heavenly Realm apparently felt happier by oppressing low-level cultivators and ordinary people.

“There are only people who betray the class, but no class betraying the class itself.”

Chen Fan watched silently.

Setting off a humanitarian revolution after being reborn so that ordinary people and Immortal Cultivators could be on an equal footing and live peacefully, didn’t sound like Chen Fan at all. He was just a normal person, not a Saint. He cultivated only to have a better life without being bullied. There was once a saying: “You strengthen your body so that idiots can talk to you calmly.”

The transformation of a civilization requires energy from the bottom. Some day, the energy at the bottom would form a tinder and things would naturally change. By then, iron and fire might be needed and countless generations of people would have to offer their lives and blood. Only in blood and fire can a new civilization rise gloriously.

What Chen Fan was thankful for was that Earth had followed the right path since the beginning.

A few months later.

Chen Fan had already arrived at the border of the Little South Heavenly Realm. He saw a terrifying black sandstorm zone when he went past the border and continued for dozens of thousands of miles more. As you peered into the universe from a planet, there used to be a need to use a long black screen lying horizontally in the sky covering the area, as if it were about to fall down like a mountain. What was more terrifying was that the black screen seemed to be made of water; it was flowing slowly as if it were alive.

The black sandstorm zone...

The natural forbidden zone of the universe.

Even the Nascent Soul cultivators who tried to cross such a region would die. There weren’t only black sandstorms that took away people’s powers, but also groups of meteorites flying at a high speed, many universe monsters that lived in the black sandstorm zone and a lot of unbelievable danger places and prohibitions. Those monsters wandered around the zone like bloodthirsty wolves; even high-level cultivators would be attacked if they were discovered. The monsters would tear their flesh off their bodies and even take their lives. The zone was so vast it was as large as a few planet regions; those under the Soul Formation Level would die if they entered.

Luckily—

In the early years. The South Heavenly Realm had already developed a passage in the black sandstorm zone during the early years. The passage went across the entire black sandstorm zone, all the way to the Little South Heavenly Realm. The planet Chen Fan was standing on was called Yellow Maple, which was the only port going to the South Heavenly Realm by boat.

People jostled one another on Planet Yellow Maple; beams of light were shot into the sky and glitters of treasures were everywhere. Given that it was the only port to the South Heavenly Realm, countless Ancestral Patriarchs, disciples of big sects and rogue cultivators for the planet regions around the Little South Heavenly Realm while they gathered there, trying to get to the South Heavenly Realm. Many members of the Chambers of Commerce rode on the enormous universe monsters, carrying tons of precious resources and special local products of the Little South Heavenly Realm were sent. They were hoping to go to the opposite side to make money.

Businessmen, large races, sects, rogue cultivators, pirates, ordinary people...

A city would naturally become flourishing. When people gathered, there would be bars and hotels everywhere on the entire planet. Besides, there were many universe ports and a lot of reception companies were there.

Chen Fan quietly approached a ship.

One disadvantage about a Nascent Soul Cultivator of the Deity Realm was that his energy was too mild. All the Dharma Power, energy and spirit were concentrated into his own small universe. He wasn’t like the high-level cultivators at all, who were surrounded by Spirit Qi and rumbling Dao Laws, even if they didn’t let their energy out. If Chen Fan didn’t do anything or refrained from releasing his energy, everyone would think he was an ordinary person without Dharma Power. Not even Soul Formation cultivators were able to see it with ease.

Chen Fan also felt helpless about it.

Hiding his power was indeed a good thing, but he also had to show it to people sometimes. Otherwise, they would treat him like a normal person. A Connate Cultivator on the street would have the power to kill him casually with one hand. Especially when he was in a region which had all kinds of beings, no laws and countless people, he had to show his power to scare them.

Chen Fan had only released some Golden Core level energy; someone had already approached him to strike a business deal.

A fat, honest guy came and said, “Are you going to the South Heavenly Realm, brother? Do you have relatives, friends or seniors of your sect there? Or are you one of the thirteen registered Chambers of Commerce? Or, is it that you’re a disciple of a large race and received permission from Immigration to travel back and forth to visit the South Heavenly Realm?”

“Neither.” Chen Fan was startled.

“Then, you need a boat ticket.” The honest fat guy cracked an even bigger smile. “Same price for everyone. One for ten thousand star coins.

“Oh, in the Little South Heavenly Realm, this equals to...

“A hundred million Spirit Stones!”