"I want to participate in the Ice Sea mission."

Gu Xiaoman's voice was firm. "When do we set sail?"

Five years. She had cultivated at the Source Tower for five years and had not yet returned to the Southern Continent... For some reason, when she heard the words Ice Sea, the deepest string in her heart was plucked.

A spiritual-type intuition, or perhaps the guidance of fate, told her in her heart.

She had to go on this mission.

"This news should only be known by Upper City at the moment."

Hong Long stood by the window, gazing into the distance, and said softly, "It coincides with the trial of the new Divine Envoy. According to the rules of the Source Tower, this voyage mission will probably be combined with the Divine Envoy candidate trial... If you decide to go to sea, you will inevitably be tied to the 'Divine Envoy Trial'."

"In other words... you have to try to take over the 'Hong Long' title."

He withdrew his gaze, slowly turned around, and looked at the black-cloaked girl. "Are you willing?"

"A good calculation. I guessed right. You want me to take over the mantle of 'Hong Long'."

Gu Xiaoman couldn't help but sneer, "You pretended not to see Yun Hu making things difficult for me before. Was that also for this reason? Did you want to stir up the anger in my heart?"

"It's not that serious."

Hong Long shrugged, "If he went too far and you couldn't handle it, I would naturally step in... But just now, didn't you enjoy the beating? Why refuse a chance to be beaten for free?"

"..." Gu Xiaoman was speechless.

"I'm not interested in any identity other than the 'Lord of Wine'."

Gu Xiaoman said calmly, "If I have to go to the Ice Sea with the title of 'Hong Long Divine Envoy' candidate... I don't care. But I don't understand, you clearly have other ways to arrange for me to go."

Hong Long only said indifferently, "The weight of the three words 'Lord of Wine' is not as light as you think. Just tell me, are you going or not?"

Gu Xiaoman glared angrily at this rather rogue fellow.

"...Go!"

After spending the last five years together, she knew Hong Long very well.

This guy's true face was completely opposite to his surface appearance.

Hong Long seemed lazy, but in fact, he had a clear dividing line. He never delayed and never allowed things that touched his bottom line to happen.

The reason why this guy had been the head of the Divine Envoys for so many years was because he possessed extremely high cultivation talent and killing power.

He was a monster on the same level as Master Bai Xiu!

But what Gu Xiaoman couldn't understand was... with such high talent, Hong Long's attitude towards cultivation was very casual. He didn't seem to be pursuing the highest point of transcendent cultivation, but was very interested in other things.

For example, cultivating herself.

He was truly a strange person.

She had visited Hong Long's residence once before. This guy clearly had the authority to live in the upper levels of the Source Tower, up in the clouds, but he insisted on living at the bottom of the Twin Gods Dreamland. Such places hardly saw any sunlight, but Hong Long raised many green plants. In the absence of light, no matter how carefully the owner took care of them, watering them regularly, those green plants would not grow very vigorously.

However, the flowers and plants that Hong Long raised were very tenacious, stubbornly eking out a living and never dying.

...

...

In the Eastern Continent, in the highest-level virtual conference room, an emergency high-level meeting was convened.

There were more than twenty people in attendance.

Those responsible for the Jiangnan and Jiangbei regions... the three heads, and the five family spokespersons, were all gathered here.

"Everyone, regarding the news of the Ice Sea Relic... what do you think?"

Old Master Gu Qilin sat at the head of the virtual long table, responsible for leading the meeting.

He had resigned from his position as commander-in-chief of the headquarters.

But a meeting of this scale had to be led by him personally to convince everyone in attendance.

The councilors and leaders sitting at the long table whispered and discussed.

Just now, a message spread among the high-level officials of the Eastern Continent... The Storm Divine Seat, who had been missing for six years, had finally returned from the Ice Sea.

Storm did not inform the highest council of his return immediately.

Instead, he secretly dispatched the Julu Saint southward.

The truth of this news had not yet been confirmed, but if it was true, then there was only one purpose... a relic had really appeared in the depths of the Ice Sea!

"This news is a bit strange. Forgive me for speaking frankly, but before we get definite confirmation, it's best for the Eastern Continent not to take any action."

A Jiangnan regional councilor spoke.

What he said was not unreasonable. Thinking carefully, how could such confidential information be leaked, and even if it was known to outsiders, why would they be so kind as to inform the Eastern Continent?

The sound of discussion at the long table rose, becoming very noisy.

"Everyone..."

Just then, a dignified female voice spoke: "I can ensure the authenticity of the news."

The noisy conference table fell silent in an instant, and everyone looked at the speaker, Lu Nanzhi, who was sitting to the right of Old Master Gu.

The Dadu District was the head of the four districts of Jiangnan.

And Lu Nanzhi had proven her position with iron-blooded methods in recent years... Whether it was influence or reserve strength, she could be called the number one in Jiangnan.

As soon as these words came out, the Jiangnan councilor who had raised the question immediately smiled and said, "I see... Since 'Madam' guarantees it, then I will withdraw my statement just now."

The head of the Gong family asked in a deep voice: "I'm sorry, the news is sudden. It's not that I'm questioning your prestige, but I want to know... Is there any definite image of such important news?"

"No."

Lu Nanzhi shook her head.

"This news comes from my 'informant'. As for who it is, it's inconvenient to disclose."

Lu Nanzhi paused and said, "You also know that secrets involving the Fire Seed level cannot have images circulating. However, I can tell you that not only has the Storm Divine Seat dispatched a fleet southward, but the Source Tower and Guang Ming Bi Lei have also begun to take action... If the Eastern Continent does not follow immediately, it is likely to miss the opportunity."

This news was naturally revealed to her by Hong Long.

After Hong Long received the news from Yun Jing, he contacted Lu Nanzhi with the identity of "064" and completed the information transmission.

As for images.

It was impossible to transmit them. Once the Yun Jing image was leaked, Hong Long would be directly exposed, and the entire Ancient Text Association conference room might be uprooted.

So the problem facing this matter was... whether Lu Nanzhi could persuade the Eastern Continent to take action based on a mere verbal message.

Gong Qing frowned, obviously lost in thought.

"Xiao Chi, do you have any news?"

Old Master Gu looked at the head of the Bai family.

Bai Xiao Chi said in a low voice: "I sent someone to the Mausoleum the moment I received the news, but Mr. Bai Shu seems to be 'busy' and has not responded at all."

"Oh?"

Although Gu Qilin was old, the sharpness in his eyes had not disappeared.

With the ears of a god and the eyes to see in all directions, what could make such a supreme being so busy that he couldn't reply?

After thinking about it, it was probably only a conversation between the highest council.

The return of the Storm Divine Seat... was very likely to be true!

Old Master Gu made a decisive decision and said in a deep voice: "Everyone, we shouldn't hesitate... I propose that Changye dispatch a vanguard team, and each district provide a supplementary list, and then go south to sea. No matter what the situation is now, let's first find out what exactly is in the depths of the Ice Sea."

"I second the motion."

"I second the motion."

Every member participating in the meeting was a shrewd old fox.

They had already guessed seven or eight points from Bai Xiao Chi's subtle reply.

Plus Old Master Gu's opening.

This proposal was immediately passed smoothly.

...

...

In the deepest part of the Deep Water Zone, a meeting was also taking place.

In recent years, the Deep Sea had been iterated and upgraded. Due to the increasing amount of source matter in the transcendent era, and the increasing amount of mental calculation provided by transcendents, this deep water area had expanded and deepened dozens of times compared to five years ago!

But one thing had not changed.

That was that the "foundation" virtually constructed by the power of the Fire Seed was always in the deepest, untouchable part of the Deep Water Zone.

"Storm, now that you're back, why didn't you let us know?"

The Sky Divine Seat, Qing Long, casually condensed his spiritual image, appearing as a twenty-year-old in a red robe and barefoot.

Perhaps because he was addicted to playing ancient chess in the real world, he still held a black chess piece in his hand when he came to the bottom of the Deep Water Zone.

"Was it really necessary to say it? I haven't even entered the mainland, and a spiritual meeting has already been convened."

Storm said with a faint sneer, "Put away that hypocritical face, your Yun Jing can see everything, why pretend to be blind?"

Just then, the divine light of the Fire Seed gradually reflected into the deep sea, and several Divine Seats who had condensed their figures saw Storm angrily rebuking Sky.

"Heh... hehe..."

Everyone gathered, and the Sky Divine Seat just smiled indifferently at Storm's sarcasm.

The relationship between the Seven Gods was very delicate.

When the news of Gu Changzhi's death had just broken, the Northern Continent had just ended its liaison with the Western Continent and instead merged with the Eastern Continent.

So Guang Ming Bi Lei leaned towards the Source Tower, and took the opportunity to win over the Southern Continent to suppress and block the Queen, preventing the Northern Continent from successfully obtaining the Traveler Fire Seed.

And now.

The situation had changed again.

The merger of the Northern Continent and the Eastern Continent had entered the second stage.

Guang Ming Bi Lei and the Source Tower had also formed an alliance in the past five years... It was just that they had not brought the Southern Continent into their camp.

A continent without a Divine Seat was destined to become a chessboard.

In the past five years, Guang Ming Bi Lei and the Source Tower had regarded the Southern Continent as a land of blood extraction, extracting resources without end. The Holy City could only endure this, and as for this stomach full of resentment, it could only wait until their own Divine Seat returned to confide in. At this moment, the Storm Divine Seat participating in the meeting already knew about the various unfair treatments that the Southern Continent had encountered in the past five years.

Although he didn't care about the lives of his people.

The divine power system he had established had suffered great suppression in recent years!

This was what Storm could not tolerate...

The Southern Continent was his territory, and even if he wanted to extract the lives of those people, it should be done by him!

But ironically.

If this situation happened in a foreign continent, and Storm encountered the situation where other Divine Seats of the highest council left and disappeared, he would also act in this way, and would unite with other forces to carry out plunder jointly.

The Divine Seats who arrived in the Deep Water Zone this time were still only five.

The Lord of Wine had fallen, and the King of the Underworld was absent as always.

"Everyone is here, why not take a look at this first."

Qing Long was very generous and waved his hand to distribute the image of Yun Ting Island captured by Yun Jing.

After several Divine Seats had seen it.

Qing Long looked at the Storm Divine Seat meaningfully and said with a smile, "It seems that someone found something good in the six years they were away... As soon as you came back, you sent a fleet out to sea. Why not share the good news with everyone?"

"..."

Storm's expression didn't change much.

In fact, he had already guessed that the news of his dispatching a fleet would be captured by Sky, but he didn't care anymore.

What he wanted was to be one step ahead.

Even if Sky was aware of it, now that the entire highest council knew about it, they would not be faster than the Julu Saint's fleet.

According to the rules set by the highest council for six hundred years, any task that required a Divine Seat to go out to perform must be a major event involving the future destiny of the human homeland.

After such a task was completed, the information must be shared free of charge... This was the responsibility that those who refined the Fire Seed had to bear.

"The Ice Sea Relic is real. I saw 'it'."

Storm waved his hand and summoned the internal scene of his spiritual sea.

It looked like a huge protruding "iceberg", shrouded in countless snow-white aurora. Just looking at the part exposed on the sea surface, it looked like a giant whale tens of thousands of meters long.

The Light Divine Seat frowned, "What is this thing?"

"A part of the Ice Sea Relic exposed on the sea surface."

Storm said calmly, "This thing is dead, but as source matter flows to the five continents and the sea level in the depths of the Ice Sea drops, a part of the outline is gradually revealed. This is also why no one discovered the relic six hundred years ago... Six hundred years ago, it was still submerged under the sea."

The Light Divine Seat asked again, "Didn't you go in to take a look?"

"I wanted to... but if I went in, you wouldn't see me again."

Storm sneered, "Do you know how much time I spent on this task to the Ice Sea?"

"...Six years and one month." Bai Shu remembered very clearly.

"No."

Storm shook his head, "In my perception, including the round trip and the days of stay, I only spent thirty days!"

"???"

The other four Divine Seats of the highest council were shocked.

"There is a 'time-distorted zone' around the Ice Sea Relic!" Storm smiled and said, "If I really tried to enter it, I'm afraid that by the time I came back, the five continents would have changed beyond recognition."

"That's why I stayed around the Ice Sea Relic for seven days. I tried to use divine sense to wrap the authority and enter the barrier to explore, but later I found that... this relic seems to have a strong restraining effect on the Fire Seed authority. After my spiritual power entered, it melted like ice and snow, and the authority was lost along with it."

Storm asked playfully, "Otherwise, why do you think I want to send the Saint... If the Ice Sea Relic could be entered so easily and had no side effects, I would have completed the exploration and returned long ago!"

...

...

(The drafts are all sent out, that's all for tonight. Good night everyone, there will be five more chapters tomorrow during the day!)