Barlin nodded. "In that case, I will take the north and the south."-While the three high elders eagerly left seclusion, it was dinner time at the Elliot.Captain Tracen had gathered everyone at the mess hall as asked, suggesting that he would introduce Charlie's group to them.No one found it suspicious, as it was a typical sailor tradition. Even for the research, since everyone was going to be stuck with each other for two weeks or so, getting to know each other would make life much easier.In fact, as Charlie's group just arrived at the mess hall, everyone aboard the Elliot was waiting in the mess hall.The Norwegian crew had stacked the ship's dining tables into a single long dining table over thirty feet long. Dishes—primarily Norway's specialty seafood including smoked salmon, various sausages, shrimp, and crab, were the main courses.Captain Tracen, still under Charlie's mind-bending influence, remained compliant and respectful, smiling at everyone as he called to the cr

Unlike the four seasons elsewhere across the world, those who work in Antarctica only had two seasons. For them, there was only one summer that started from November to March, and one winter from April to October—the latter was naturally much longer, lasting seven months.That also meant there would be no tourists on the Antarctic continent for the next seven months, while all commercial shipping would be completely suspended. Currently, a small number of research vessels were still traveling to and from Antarctica, but by late April, there wouldn't be ships traveling to Antarctica. After all, even research vessels would be unable to handle the extreme temperatures in that period.In other words, people who stayed on the Antarctic continent would be unable to leave even if they wanted to, as the next ships will only arrive in October.Still, even though six months would have passed in the blink of an eye for him, Charlie couldn't help but worry for his family and friends, in cas

Back then, Barlin's comrades were recruiting new members to their cause with paganist rites and invocations, gaslighting recruits into believing that they were physically invulnerable… which naturally was a complete lie.But then again, not all of them were charlatans, as Barlin once encountered a comrade down south, who was practically a cultivator.Although Barlin had already attained enlightenment, Fleur made him disguise himself as an ordinary peasant to infiltrate the ranks of other rebel cells to gather intelligence. It was during one of those paganist rites, that one of the senior figures gathered everyone around and told them a story—perhaps to boost morale, about a special denomination before the Degenerate Age of Dharma.He said that before the Degenerate Age of Dharma came, the world was filled with powerful cultivators, who set up countless sects. Their strength was many times greater than that of cultivators in the Degenerate Age of Dharma, and transcendence was com

Barlin nodded, and warned, "You must be extremely careful while you're interacting with modern society, as there's this CIWS thing that reduced one of our best men to mincemeat. Tarlon was saying that nonsense will chase you down while also being too fast to outrun, even changing directions if you did. It would have seen you before you got too close, and would have launched dozens—if not hundreds of shells straight at you. No human being stands a chance."The other two elders nodded repeatedly—in fact, the more they learned about modern technology, the less faith they had in dharmic cultivation.Pausing, Barlin sighed out loud again. "I'll be honest. Before I went into seclusion, I thought I would have nothing to fear once I stepped out… Only for us to improve in cultivation, but the world also improved even more in just a hundred years. "Think about it, a hundred years ago, a cannonball could at most destroy a small boat or a house. Just 80 years ago, a bomb could level an entire

Just because you reached a certain point in cultivation, the Cosmic Order would somehow strike you with lightning to assess if you were really worthy?If there really were a Cosmic Order, it would be busy dealing with millions of galaxies, trillions of stars, and countless planets throughout the universe. In short, they were way too busy for some insignificant lifeform on one of those countless planets. Honestly, whatever made those cultivators think they were worthy of the Cosmic Order's attention?Indeed, Barlin believed that the so-called "Trial" was more like a cultivator meeting the minimum requirements for selection. The judges simply noticed you and are giving you a shot at a better prospect, while the lightning bolts were an appraisal and nothing more.Survive, and they open the portal for you to perhaps join their ranks. And then once again you find yourself a nobody, caught at the bottom of an entirely new hierarchy.After all, there was always a bigger fish.That was