After leaving Dongyu Town. Ye Qin mingled among the cultivators of the "Qing Dan Sect," flying eastward over the Eastern Sea alongside tens of thousands of Foundation Establishment cultivators from the Central Continent.

Although Elder Sun had forewarned him of the journey's hardship, the difficulty of crossing the sea still exceeded Ye Qin's expectations.

On the vast surface of the Eastern Sea, boundless water stretched in every direction, with no sight of land whatsoever. Flying like this would take at least a month, day and night, enduring the blinding sun, and at night, gazing at the moonlight on the pitch-black, star-studded sea—there was nowhere to rest.

At times, Ye Qin became so numb from flying on his artifact that he even doubted whether he was actually flying or merely hovering motionless above a patch of water.

Were it not for the presence of so many other cultivators flying together, the willpower of a single Foundation Establishment cultivator would have been insufficient to sustain the effort.

The other Foundation Establishment cultivators from the Qing Dan Sect were faring no better.

Especially those at the lower tiers of Foundation Establishment; although flying on a sword consumed little mana, such prolonged travel rapidly depleted their spiritual power. After flying for only a day, they required spirit stones to replenish their cultivation base.

The long and monotonous flight on their artifacts quickly ground away at the patience and spirit of this group crossing the sea.

Fortunately, having experienced various trials across the Central Continent, this minor hardship did not cause any lasting negative impact on them as established Foundation Establishment cultivators.

And all of this, was only just the beginning.

For the first half-month of the sea crossing, the waters were calm, and they encountered almost nothing frightening—not even a sea beast. However, shortly after this initial period, they ran into a major crisis.

Those flying at the very front of the cultivator crowd spotted a small black dot on the ocean ahead and gasped in surprise.

The small black dot was moving incredibly fast across the water's surface.

"Huh, what is that thing?"

"Look quickly, it seems huge. It doesn't look like a sea beast..." "It kind of does."

The leading Foundation Establishment cultivators had never seen such a thing and discussed the small black dot animatedly, completely unaware of the danger.

Ancestor Sun Ran of the Qing Dan Sect gazed intently. He saw a black whirlwind rising from the sea into the sky, churning up a water column several thousand zhang high. The vortex swept across a range of several tens of li, moving rapidly toward their vicinity.

His face instantly changed drastically. He cursed inwardly, spun around, and roared a stern warning to the Qing Dan Sect cultivators behind him:

"It's a Demonic Typhoon! Scatter immediately and flee as far as you can!"

The Demonic Typhoon approached with terrifying speed. In merely three to five breaths, a massive, swirling black cloud vortex was upon the crowd of cultivators. Faint flashes of lightning and thunder could be seen within the vortex, accompanied by intense wind blades and hailstones that screamed as they swept over everything. Even before the vortex arrived, the surrounding wind blades had sent countless Foundation Establishment cultivators tumbling, unable to maintain their footing on their flying swords.

This large assembly of cultivators, long accustomed to life on the Central Continent, had never witnessed such a ferocious Demonic Typhoon. From a distance, it had seemed small, but when it arrived before them, they realized it was an earth-shattering behemoth, making the cultivators appear smaller than ants. They were frozen in shock.

The cultivator group was too vast, and the Demonic Typhoon's speed was too great. Many cultivators hadn't even reacted before the typhoon was upon them.

With the arrival of the Demonic Typhoon, the massive flying formation descended into chaos. Beams of light from various magical artifacts flashed haphazardly as cultivators desperately fled toward the edges of the sea at breakneck speed, trying to escape the typhoon's sweep.

This Demonic Typhoon over the sea was more terrifying than high-level wind-elemental mass spells.

The vortex formed by the typhoon generated an immense attractive force. Any Foundation Establishment cultivator caught within it was instantly torn to shreds.

Even a Golden Core Ancestor would not dare to test the sharpness of such a fierce Demonic Typhoon head-on; they could only choose to evade it.

Ye Qin, flying near the middle of the group, did not notice this terrifying danger immediately. It was only when the typhoon bore down on the formation, causing widespread panic, that he realized this monstrosity was only a few li away.

His face instantly went deathly pale.

Ye Qin could no longer afford to conceal his power. He opened his mouth, shooting out the Southern Bright Li Fire Sword to tear through the crisscrossing crimson and green wind blades ensnaring him. He struggled desperately to break free from the typhoon's vortex. However, the vortex's massive suction made him feel as if he were glued in place, immobile. Trying to evade it on his sword seemed almost impossible.

Unable to escape, Ye Qin gritted his teeth and abruptly changed direction. The Primordial Spirit Flying Sword beneath his feet erupted in a dazzling light, spewing forth powerful flames, which shot straight down toward the sea water a hundred zhang below, plunging deep into the depths. Whether he could escape via the seabed was no longer something he could control.

A short while later.

The sudden, violent Demonic Typhoon passed by and moved far away, and the sea surface returned to tranquility, as if nothing had ever happened.

The tens of millions of scattered cultivators regrouped, nervously scanning the ocean surface. They reformed their flying formations according to their cultivation sects and clans. However, as they gathered again, they realized that many familiar faces were missing.

No bodies were left floating on the water, only patches of dark red—it was unclear if it was cultivator blood or the blood of deep-sea demonic beasts.

This confirmed that the recent Demonic Typhoon had been horrifyingly real.

The scale of their massive cultivator gathering had shrunk by at least a tenth. This meant that several thousand cultivators had perished in that single typhoon.

The cultivators fell silent, a sense of shared sorrow arising in their hearts.

This was only the first half-month of the sea crossing. This journey would still take several years, and who knew how many more dangers they would face? The number of cultivators who would ultimately reach the Eastern Sea Islands might be less than a third of the original assembly.

After the Qing Dan Sect cultivators gathered again, Huangfu Bing'er looked anxious. She noticed that Ye Qin had not returned to the Qing Dan Sect's flying formation; he was nowhere in sight. However, the Blood Seal Soul Mark between her brows had not registered Ye Qin vanishing from the world, so she was certain he was still alive. But where could Ye Qin be? Had he flown too far away while scattering during the escape and become lost at sea?

"Martial Uncle, our sect has lost... seven disciples at the Foundation Establishment level," Huangfu Bing'er reported to Sun Ran after taking a tally.

"Mm, let's go!" Elder Sun Ran said expressionlessly upon hearing the casualty count.

"Martial Uncle, shouldn't we wait a little longer? Perhaps some of the scattered disciples will return soon?" Huangfu Bing'er urged anxiously.

Elder Sun Ran looked surprised. Casualties during the sea crossing were normal. Huangfu Bing'er was usually steady; why was she suddenly so agitated? "The journey to the Eastern Sea Islands is long. We must travel with the main body of the larger forces for safety; we cannot delay."

Sun Ran glanced at the Star Fixing Compass in his hand and led the Qing Dan Sect cultivators flying eastward.

Huangfu Bing'er stood motionless over the sea surface for a long time, her eyes anxiously scanning the surrounding waters. But Ye Qin's figure did not appear. Seeing the main body of cultivators about to vanish into the horizon, she finally flew quickly to catch up.

After an unknown period of time.

A burst of azure light shot out of the sea with a splash. A young cultivator clad in a full set of silk armor artifacts stood, looking like a drowned rat, atop his dimming fire-elemental flying sword, scanning the surroundings blankly. The sky was pitch black, dotted only with stars; it was already night.

This person was Ye Qin, who had plunged into the ocean.

"Have they all gone?"

Ye Qin looked around but could see no other cultivators, forcing a bitter smile.

It seemed he was the only one left in this stretch of ocean.

With the danger past, his nerves relaxed, and the spiritual power within him was utterly drained. He couldn't even maintain his protective shield and nearly fell back into the sea. He quickly downed several large mouthfuls of spirit wine, sat cross-legged on his flying sword, and began rapidly restoring his mana.

That Demonic Typhoon had struck too fiercely. Unable to evade it effectively, he could only desperately dive toward the deepest parts of the seabed.

The immense pulling force of the seawater tore apart his protective shield in an extremely short time.

However, thankfully, he was still wearing a set of Thorn Chain artifacts, which he had worn since leaving shore as a precaution. It was this set of artifacts that allowed him to save his life. Only after sinking to the deep seabed did he manage to escape that terrifying suction. Even so, he had lost consciousness and only awoke after drifting in the water for a good while.

Now, his silk armor was tattered and severely damaged from being battered in the storm.

On the seabed, he occasionally spotted large fish with terrifying rows of sharp teeth, but these fish were darting about frantically, fleeing the terrifying Demonic Typhoon, and none showed interest in him.

Ye Qin hovered briefly on the water surface. After recovering some spiritual power, he opened the "Map of the Sea Areas Near the Shore" scroll and checked the Ding Lan Compass to confirm his location.

A moment later.

He frowned.

His current location was still about several hundred thousand li away from the nearest small island—the designated stopover point for crossing the sea. It would take nearly a month of flying on his sword to reach it. He wasn't sure how long he had been unconscious.

He hoped to catch up with the main Qing Dan Sect force at that island outpost.

With this thought, Ye Qin put away the scroll and compass and immediately transformed into a streak of crimson light, flying toward the east over the sea.

Ye Qin was not the only cultivator to have narrowly escaped death.

"Splash!"

An ugly, bald-headed man surfaced from the water. His spiritual power was completely exhausted, and he could only float weakly on the surface, waiting for his mana to recover. He muttered curses, "Damn it, what the hell was that thing? So terrifying! I nearly perished on the Immortal Cultivation battlefield, and now I almost died at the hands of that damn thing."

If Ye Qin had lingered a moment longer, he would have been astonished to see this malevolent cultivator, A'mu Meng from the Tianqiong Primordial Realm. He, too, had been terribly unlucky, swept into the depths by the Demonic Typhoon, and he would have died countless times over had his protective artifacts not been potent.

In the time Ye Qin spent escaping the seabed, dozens more cultivators burst out of the water sequentially—some from the Lingwu Realm, others from the Tianqiong Primordial Realm, and so on. Most of them carried rudimentary map scrolls.

But looking around the surrounding sea, unable to pinpoint their position, they were all stunned into silence.

Fortunately, most Foundation Establishment cultivators could interpret basic celestial movements, at least distinguishing east from west.

They braced themselves and flew their artifacts toward the east.

Whether they would find the designated stopover island—only heaven knew.