Coral Shallows had a very different aesthetic from Deep Shore, but the population seemed just as diverse and also populated with the same floating octopus headed people. Deep Shore was filled with stone and smaller sea shells bonded into larger structures with what he could only describe as undersea cement. The Coral Shallows on the other hand was far more fantastical, instead of an undersea metropolis it was much more whimsical. Immense conch shells and snail shells hundreds of feet tall were tipped over on their sides and spearing upwards. On the sides of them Sage could make out many small openings cut into their sides. After a little more examination he realized they were windows and the giant shells were the equivalent of many storied buildings.

A mountainous coral reef surrounded the city, reminding him of a city in a valley nestled among a mountain range. Coral Shallows also had a dome of air around it, so it was still just as accommodating for the foreigners as Deep Shore was. The look of the place was very different but it turned out to be very similar to Deep Shore. The general rules were the same, and the only major differences seemed to be the style of the buildings and the varieties of wildlife that were sold in the city and hunted outside it. There was a much higher quantity of sea life around Coral Shallows than there was around Deep Shore because of the reef. It was teeming with creatures living inside and around it. The majority of them were weaker than what would normally be found at Deep Shore but because of their high quantity the overall number of high ranking creatures was roughly the same as Deep Shore.

Only after the water cultivator ran into a few Shadow Capes and did some information gathering to get a list of their targets did Sage and Blue Tiger dare to show their faces in Coral Shallows. Sage had gifted Blue Tiger a bottle of dark water from the Eye of the World. He gave it to him to thank him for sharing so much information, or at least that’s what he told Blue Tiger. Upon being asked for more, he said it was from a remote and very dangerous place and perhaps he could find more in the future. He wasn’t foolish enough to speak about its real origin or claim that he could get more because that might incentivize Blue Tiger to turn against him. Their current relationship was pretty shallow, so Sage wouldn’t be surprised if Blue Tiger was tempted to give him up in return for great rewards. Even so, without confirmation that Sage had more it would be very dark if Blue Tiger turned against him just to gather information.

Why would he give something so valuable to Blue Tiger? It would be quite absurd to give such a valuable gift to someone he barely knew, but the thing is that it wasn’t really that valuable to Sage. The whole point of gifting the dark water was to see just how valuable and useful it would be to Blue Tiger. The water from the Eye of the World strengthened the soul, but he’d been using it for thousands of years. For him it was quite literally a drop in the ocean. Since the Martial Spirit seemed to be related to the soul, he wanted to see if it would be useful to them. Blue Tiger drank the water and even Sage noticed a difference in Blue Tiger’s Martial Spirit. Its fur looked more vibrant and its claws looked larger. Blue Tiger didn’t talk about how much it changed, but since Sage could even tell from the outside then it must have experienced a significant improvement.

That amount of dark water is only a single day’s worth. How much would a Martial Spirit benefit with a large quantity?

Despite his interest, it was already too late for Sage to form a Martial Spirit. His curiosity merely applied to the future generations of the Lang Clan. He wasn’t sure how much effort was required to cultivate a Martial Spirit, but if he could add this extra strength to his clan they would become even more powerful. There were many unique methods that different groups had, but Martial Spirits were strong enough to act as the main method of at least a whole empire. At least that’s what he gleaned from his chat with Blue Tiger. The people of Blue Tiger’s home nation used Qi Cultivation Techniques, with each clan and sect having their own secrets and styles just like the place where Sage was from. Yet at the same time they also had Martial Spirits. For it to become so ubiquitous it meant that they had to be powerful, right?

If Sage could find some awakening stones then couldn’t he try to bring this power to his own clan? Then he could use the dark water to give the best of them a boost. Since he had a limited production rate he would make it an incentive for them to trade clan points for. The clan was still using an internal contribution points system if he remembered right. It was a fair way to reward those who worked hard rather than relying on nepotism and favoring the children of the most highly ranked.

At this point, Sage and Blue Tiger went their separate ways. Sage hadn’t helped the man out in the interest of forming a relationship. He was merely curious about the Martial Spirit and pounced upon the opportunity to gather more information. On the other hand, he spent an amicable few weeks with the man and left him with a valuable gift so if that put them on good terms in the future then it was never bad to have more friends. Blue Tiger tried to explain why that fellow Bartok was after him, but Sage didn’t really care. He knew it was a treasure of some sort that the guy was greedy for, but if Sage had no idea what it was then he had no need to feel any sort of greed over it. Better to leave it with Blue Tiger and let him be a target. What if the item in question could be tracked? Maybe it was only hidden until the man took it out. Better to let sleeping dogs lie.

After getting the lay of the land, the two of them split apart and Sage gave the water cultivator a pile of Spirit Stones and a token he would need to head to the Dou Kingdom. If the man wanted assistance he could head there and join up with the Lang Clan. Otherwise he was free to do as he wished. For a person that longed to explore another world it was like a dream. Sage equated it to finding an alien planet, even going alone and without knowing a thing, there were many who would take such a deal to explore the uncharted.

As for Sage himself he spent a few days getting accustomed to the Coral Shallows before finally heading out into the sea to start hunting and capturing all new sets of creatures. It didn’t take long for him to lock in on his first target when he saw a cloud of blood spreading into the water.