Scions of Heaven - Calamity

Chapter 29

At the tip of the world was Bihai Cangling. There, continuous mountain ranges enclosed the holy spring. It was called a holy spring but it was as large as half of the North Sea. Then deep inside this forest was a majestic stone palace erecting in the middle of the holy water. - Pillowbook 2

"This is your domain, isn't it?" Dong Hua nodded. She sighed in relief and said, "Then I didn't say anything wrong. This is our home, isn't it? Even if we only stay here for a short time each year, it's still our home." - Pillowbook 2

Bai Xun (Gungun)--------------------------------

The token in his hand was not an item that allowed him to cloudstep, or teleport to Bihai Cangling, apparently when its defences were raised and partially sealed, one had to travel there physically, overcoming many barriers along the way.

He and Yu Shi had first cloud-stepped to the coastline that was the border of the eastern sea.

They flew over the sunken island of Yingzhou, only visible because the water in that area was shallower, and looked lighter from above. Bai Xun knew Yingzhou where the divine fungal grass and four ferocious divine beasts had dwelled, but he'd never visited the sunken island before. When Fushen greeted the golden lotus with half his cultivation to preserve Ye Huas soul, that cultivation remained with Ye Hua after he had been born. It was this cultivation Ye Hua used to destroy the divine fungal grass and the beasts, and the rest he'd used to destroy the Donghuang Bell forever.

From there they had spent the last half hour flying swiftly through and above the clouds toward Bihai Cangling, each holding the tokens in their hands to allow entry. They flew through barriers and arrays, he had resist the temptation to stop and try to analyse them. There were many he could only barely sense, while others were well hidden and unobtrusive; he hadn't been able to tell there was anything there at all, until the token in his hand flared briefly.

His fathers domain was not small, Bihai Cangling was half as large as the north sea. Metals in the mountains that ringed the holy place existed there and nowhere else. Rare spiritual and divine beasts also thrived within this domain, and died elsewhere. There were rare plants he'd catalogued, then he and Zhe Yan had carefully experimented with them. Bathed in pure yang, spiritual and divine energies, some plants had changed since the ancient era, and were more potent or had new uses.

For him Bihai Cangling was a place to sate his curiosity or study in peace and quiet without Bai Chen rudely appearing in his hall unannounced and uninvited trying to drag him into some foolish scheme. It was not home, as he considered Taichen Palace to be, but it was his second favourite place to be, with many happy memories. He felt a mix of emotions to be going there now, in the wake of everything, would it feel strange or comforting to return there? Melancholy because his mother would never again ask him to help tend the vegetables with her? He could not know before he arrived there, and so he placed any worries aside, there was no use thinking about something that couldn't be altered or changed by doing so.

Bai Xun had read every book and scroll on nearly every subject that had ever been written. It had been almost ten thousands of years since he'd completed his schooling, and only his father was able to reliably provide him information that he did not know.

But there was a reason much of the truly ancient times were still referred to as the prehistoric era. Even now much of it was unknown even to the most devout scholars and historians. The few that had written about those times relied mostly on guesswork and conjecture, a fact that had spurred Bai Xun to begin collating information to write his own.

The trait he took pride in most was that he was thoughtful and considerate of others. The only gap in his learning was the history of the prehistoric era, that long period of history before his father and his generals had brought peace and stability to all worlds and realities. He had never asked questions that strayed into these areas, even though he was one of the only beings in existence who could get away with it.