Chapter 4516 — The Vortex Channels
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 3
"Up there?" Wei Zhao was slightly taken aback, but he did not hesitate much, doing just as the ghostly thing instructed. Yet when he finally swam up to the surface and took in the scene around him, he was instantly stunned.
All about was dense, verdant primeval forest. Wei Zhao's position was no longer the vast open sea but a great lake—no wonder the water was so utterly different from before. So it really was a world apart!
"Senior, what place is this?" Riding a surging vortex and being swept clean from the ocean into a forest lake—even Wei Zhao could not help finding it incredible. And all of this had clearly been within the ghostly thing's expectations; otherwise he would never have had Wei Zhao leap into the sea earlier, much less had him charge headlong into the vortex as though courting death.
"South Island," the ghostly thing said, its tone somewhat complicated, and explained for Wei Zhao's benefit: "The waters of the South Continent sea region and the South Island mainland are interconnected. Many parts of the sea have vortex channels that link specifically to the inland lakes of South Island. So long as one can enter a vortex channel, one can reach it swiftly."
"So marvelous? That's convenient enough, but how come I've never heard anyone speak of such a shortcut?" Wei Zhao said in some surprise.
He had not spent long in the South Continent sea region—though by the same token, not so short a time either—and had even made a circuit of the Lu Feng Forest earlier, yet never once had he heard of any vortex channels. He knew only that South Island was not so easily entered.
The miasma that hung everywhere had all but completely cut South Island off from the surrounding sea. Only at certain specific times, and only through special teleportation arrays, could one get in; apart from that, he had never heard of any convenient shortcut like a vortex channel. Otherwise, so many people would have had no need to queue up and hand their spirit jade over to the teleportation arrays—after all, the price of a single teleport was no small sum.
"These vortex channels are a highly guarded secret of our spirit beast clan. Only a few top elders and a small handful of spirit beasts know of them; the vast majority of spirit beasts are wholly unaware, to say nothing of those human cultivators. And even if someone did learn of them, they would have to be silenced—after all, this concerns the safety of the entire spirit beast clan of the South Continent. If just anyone could casually intrude into the South Continent interior, that would be unthinkable!" the ghostly thing said dismissively.
The vortex channels had been discovered only under extremely chance circumstances, and not every vortex concealed a channel. If one picked a vortex at random in the South Continent sea and dove in, nine times out of ten the end would be being ground to death alive. Who in their right mind would dare charge blindly into one without knowing precisely how the vortex channels were distributed?
What was more, many vortex channels were one-way passages. Even if one made it into South Island smoothly, how would one get out again? Quite possibly there would be no return at all, and no human cultivator, however bold, would dare take such a risk.
At the words "silenced," Wei Zhao could not help giving a start, and said with a bitter smile, "Senior, I'm a human cultivator too, you know. You're not going to silence me as well, are you? This is condemning me without even a trial..."
"Heh heh, scared now, boy?" The ghostly thing gave a queer cackle, then said, "Rest easy—you're one of us. Besides, do I look like such an unreasonable sort?"
"Of course not," Wei Zhao answered glibly, then added in the depths of his heart: because you're not even a person at all.