Chapter 197 Atlantis Part 2

Atlantis was not like Lynoria. 

It was, in its truest form, connected to the Greek Pantheon and was at the base of Mount Olympus. It was also connected to the River Styx which went all the way down to the Sea of Death. 

It was also within the Elemental Domain of Water, a place that functioned similarly to the Sea of Death and The Cosmic Forest, a place full of water and water Celestials, and something that could be navigated all on its own.

But I wouldn’t be going there, I wanted to navigate through the Chaordic Bound, heading from Atlantis to the Law Lands and off to the Shrine of Man. The Elemental Domain of Water was dangerous and traveling through it was almost as bad as traveling through the Sea of Death. 

I’d been through both once. Back when I was younger and thought myself capable, but I had learned my lesson from those adventures.

The Elemental Domain of Water was not safe, none of the Elemental Domains were. Imagine elementals the size of celestial realms, fourteenth and fifteenth rank serpents swimming through the dark blue depths. 

Imagine the spawn of Jormungandr swimming beneath you. 

To my senses back then, it had felt as big as a celestial realm. I thought I was in the presence of a God-Imperium. I wasn’t of course, but I only knew that after having seen a few of them myself. 

“Well,” I said to Fatty Wang. “This must be where we part ways. I don’t plan to go into the realm, only catch a ship from here out to the Law Lands.”

“Senior,” Fatty Wang said. “I too, am headed to the Law Lands. I thought this would be the place where we parted!”

“Truly?”

“Yes. I am headed to the Shrine of Man to meet with my uncle and then heading up to the Golden Lands and back to my home!”

That was a weird path to take, but navigating the void was a weird thing in general. 

“I have to meet my uncle there as he is meditating and consolidating his technique at the Shrine of Man, hoping to further his dao and self. He has been gone for a hundred million Lynorian years and I am to bring home and out of secluded meditation. What good fortune that we should walk together and be bound for the same lands!”

I looked around and searched for something, and somewhere, I imagined the rush of a river, the path of a fish, and all the rapids it contained. 

I frowned. 

“Fortune comes at a cost, Fatty Wang.”

I headed for the edges of the realm, bringing one rotund cultivator with me to go look for the ships. Now Atlantis was large and water filled as anything can be, but that wasn’t a problem for most cultivators. There were cities and realms, and mermaid queens and water sprites and all the water creatures of lore within it. 

But it was also a major trading hub. It was close enough to Lynoria, and it was connected to the Elemental Domain of Water. Water flowed everywhere, from the Sea of Death to the Cosmic Forest, to the Hive Lands, water flowed. 

It was one of the most interconnected Realms within existence, and if you could charge the Domain of Water, and navigate its endless depths, then you could go just about anywhere. 

It was like the Cosmic Forest in that sense, or the Sea of Death. It was a concept that was found everywhere and could be followed everywhere. 

Now trade might seem strange for cultivators, but people needed things and the Silver King had his endless coffers. 

The world flowed with spirit stones and the Heavenly Merchants as well as the Avarice Devils all worked to gain whatever resources they could. And thus, the money flowed. 

And thus, trade was eternal. 

At the height of it were God-Imperium things, objects infused with the quality of the seventeenth realm. There were God-Kings who sailed the Sea of Death within ships made from dead Imperiums who commanded nearly as much respect as the living ones themselves. There were also things living God-Imperiums could provide, favors, objects, tools infused with their nature, or merely their name and power as protection. 

The water from the river Forn had given me for example would be worth something. 

It was said that not even the void could keep a merchant from his trade, and not even the Heavens had all their wants. The merchant was the man who would buy from the Hells and sell to the Heavens. It was he who would take the dust of the celestial realms and sell it as spirit stones to the lower ones.

As we journeyed around the edges of the realm, we saw numerous ships, each the size of realms themselves. They weren’t realms though, not in their entirety. 

The true journeyer of the void was Plane and her Land of Lies. She was an Imperium and her celestial realm changed to be as she wished. One day it would be Heaven and could be found among the Heavenly Realms and one day it would be Hell and be deep within the Abyss. 

But that was an Imperium, these ships functioned in a similar way, well some of them did. We passed by a fifteenth rank dragon, something the size of a mountain compared to me. Its eyes looked like oceans and its pupils were so black that they seemed to make the world go dark.

The Dragon was serpentine and living. It had a long snake-like body and wings the size of the sky. On its back was a land all its own. Greenery, cities, continents, whole clans and sects, living on its back. 

And dragons, small, newly hatched dragons fluttering on its skin like mites-- no like cells, like molecules compared to the behemoth that it was. I saw mortals, immortals, cities, countries, empires, sects, beasts, insects, and a whole host of other beings upon its back. It had natives, people who were born, lived and died, spending their entire life on its back. It must have had billions of people. 

It was a ship, one of many. 

 and it had one rider, a fifteenth rank man from the Law Lands, someone from the Rider’s Order. His hands pet the beast’s head as he looked in our direction with an inquisitive look. He must have been the ruler of the land on the Dragon. 

He must have been their god.

I bowed. 

“We are headed to the Shrine of Man.”

He shook his head. He didn’t speak, I wasn’t worth being spoken to. But he did convey his intentions. 

He was headed to the Shrine of Beast and while he was headed to the Law Lands, Beast’s Shrine was far from Man’s. 

I nodded.

“Thank you senior!”

Then I left, cold sweat upon my back. 

I didn’t want to ride that thing anyway. It looked dangerous. But when the man had looked at me, he had offered me passage, probably on nothing but whims.

I couldn’t refuse that offer. Actually, I could have. I was a follower of the Tome after all, if only in name. I could formally refuse and he wouldn’t be insulted. 

But Fatty Wang over here couldn’t.

We would have been fine, most likely. Dragon Riders were all about order, and most of them were either of the orthodox or righteous path, but still. I didn’t like the chances. 

In the distance, in the far distance was where the demons docked and the ships from the Hells came in from. I had to avoid that. While there was policing here, it wasn’t Lynoria. Death could happen and while there would be consequences, it would be a fine at most. 

That wouldn’t happen to me, most likely, but to Fatty Wang over here, that was an option. 

“Lets head over to the more pleasant areas,” I said to Wang, who was also shivering just a bit. 

“Yes, senior.”

AN: Im working on the other two chapters right now. I hope to publish chapter 198 and 199 sometime tonight, probably midnight.