Chapter 353: Blacktide
Serena Blacktide left the blonde-haired twerp half dead in the mud. She hadn't planned to do anything to the kid until he started spouting such nonsense as being a cultivator despite lacking a soul flame.
These land dwellers are so strange. Are their heads on straight? In the Abyssal Tide Sect, saying something so ridiculous would result in death. Serena Blacktide pondered as she strode through the storm toward the distant looming building dominating the center of Ashfallen City.
Five years ago, a land dweller stole the stone of Abyssal Tides from her sect. Furious, the Patriarch of her sect ordered everyone capable of taking a ship to the continent's shores to conduct a realm-spanning search. Without the stone, the sect was crippled. In the Patriarch's words, the abyssal tide affinity was not 'naturally occurring' and originated from a higher realm. The crazed man had spared no expense, raiding the sect's ancestral grounds to outfit every cultivator that agreed to leave with as many spirit stones and treasures as they wanted.
Serena Blacktide had naturally jumped at the opportunity to leave the small island they called home with a large starting fund and explore the rest of the world. So here she was, aimlessly drifting from one city to the next while keeping her eyes and ears open for any sign of her sect's treasure. Of course, she had no plans to return if she were to stumble across it. Time inside the abyssal chamber was reserved for the talented disciples—a group she hadn't belonged to and despised. She hated people that were 'talented.' No matter how much effort she put in, her progress in getting to the point she was at now had been grueling, which made that twerp's claim of being a cultivator so laughable.
Using her peak Soul Fire Realm Qi, she warded off the rain and guarded her shoes from the mud as she walked through Ashfallen City. So far, it was one of the strangest cities she had seen. It seemed built among a forest of selectively bred demonic trees? The usual smell of decay that lingered around demonic trees she had seen in the wild was absent. There wasn't even any evidence of half-dissolved carcasses.
Serena Blacktide stepped under the canopy of a nearby tree. Two stone huts sat on either side of its trunk, and with her spiritual senses, she could feel groups of people inside.
More strong mortals? Serena raised a brow. While she had knocked some sense into that boy earlier, it was true that he was above a mortal, as were these people. While none of them were in the Soul Fire Realm, she could tell they were cultivating while waiting out the storm by the Qi's flow. This place is so strange. I've never seen so many people capable of cultivating while all being so weak? It's as if this is the land of the weakest sect in existence... or the strongest, where even their servants and farmers are cultivators. Both options are ridiculous.
Serena frowned as she noticed more oddities with the demonic tree. Wait, how is this possible? Wrapping around the demonic tree like a snake was a root. Running her finger along it, she felt a level of Qi far beyond her own and also a hint of... divinity? There were also Blaze Serpent Roses that she had seen growing in volcanic regions sprouting from the root. While not an especially rare flower, they wouldn't be left alone to grow like this. Especially with how poor the people who live here look. Do they simply not know the value of this flower?
Plucking one, she twirled it between her fingers.