Nanjiang City may be a provincial capital, but the fact that it's still only a third-tier city shows most plainly in this: in other big cities, the counties have long since been merged into districts, or at the very least there's an intercity metro line or a maglev running straight out to them.
But to reach some of the counties under Nanjiang's jurisdiction, aside from the airport shuttle, you actually still have to ride a prehistoric long-distance bus or minibus down the provincial highway.
Chu Ge griped about this with immense disgust. Qiu Wuji, on the other hand, was thrilled.
After all, she'd never ridden one, and it looked a little different from a city bus. The whole way it bounced and swayed, which actually gave her a hint of what riding a sedan chair felt like.
Farmland lined both sides of the highway; the golden sprawl of autumn put Qiu Wuji in a fine mood. She leaned against the window, watching lazily, the corners of her mouth curved in a smile the entire way.
Setting aside that trip out to the suburbs to pick dog-tail grass, this has to be my first time leaving Nanjiang City, right?
Truth was, Qiu Wuji had never harbored much longing for poetry and faraway places. Her cultivation career had held too many days of sitting withered in the mountains, a hundred years at a stretch; she was far too used to it, her heart as still as water. And the years of roaming the Nine Provinces and taking in every splendor of the mortal world—she'd long since had her fill.
Viewing the whole world from inside one room, surveying it all through a mere little box of a laptop—that was actually newer and more interesting to her, and it made her even less inclined to stir.
But now that she was truly out in it, Qiu Wuji's heart still opened up; even the diesel reek of the bus became a rare and fascinating experience.
The only thing that made her want to complain was the ad printed on the fabric seat covers... Infertility, impotence, premature ejaculation... XX Hospital will solve your troubles.
Chu Ge studied it with great interest and even snapped a photo, meaning to send it to the group chat—until Qiu Wuji stopped him as though he were an idiot: "You're currently pretending to be sick and on leave. So if you post this, are you trying to tell everyone what disease you've got?"
Chu Ge broke out in a cold sweat and canceled the send.
Qiu Wuji said coolly, "It actually suits you fine. Shorty Ge—the five-second man. Five seconds and your whole chapter's done."
"Hey, hey, hey!" Chu Ge glanced left and right, then said urgently, "They've been a bad influence on you. How could words like that possibly be appropriate coming out of your mouth? Promise me—a fairy maiden can't go low... uh, can't talk about what's below the belt, all right?"
"You people say it in that group every single day. I'm a moderator there—am I not allowed?" Qiu Wuji said scornfully. "Besides, some people do more than talk. Who knows what's going on in their heads."
"Now that you mention it, this is exactly what I should have a word with you about. Do you really think a stud who leaves dents in the floorboards has anything to do with that?"
"You're awfully proud of yourself, aren't you?"
Qiu Wuji felt the conversation was getting more improper by the second—but she was the one who'd brought the subject up... So she simply turned her head to look at the scenery outside and ignored him.
Chu Ge, however, started needling her: "Hey—the reason you want to see the sea, is it because over there you never once crossed it?"
Qiu Wuji said crossly, "You wrote the setting. You know best. Satisfied?"
True enough—Qiu Wuji had swept across the Nine Provinces, but she had never once gone out to sea.
The Nine Provinces were vast, larger than all the land on Earth put together; that was practically standard-issue worldbuilding for xuanhuan and xianxia writers, since a big map made it easier to expand the plot. But vast as the Nine Provinces were, they never extended out to sea.
Ocean ringed the Nine Provinces on all sides. Once a cultivator went too far out, they lost their power and could no longer fly, and mortal seafaring was nowhere near capable of reaching such distant waters. So everyone believed that ahead lay the end of the sky, and that it could not be crossed.
Qiu Wuji had believed that too, once—because the world Chu Ge had designed was a realm of round heaven and square earth, not a planet. A round-heaven, square-earth world having an edge was only natural.
But now that she had read the outline, she knew perfectly well that it wasn't the end; there was another world on the far side of the sea. Only, in the original setup, none of it had anything to do with her—from first page to final chapter of the book, she would never go to sea... That side had originally been a map designed for the protagonist, Chu Tiange, to level up, train, pick up girls, and then come back to show off.
So now that she knew another world lay across the sea, how could Qiu Wuji not want a look at it?
Unfortunately, right now she had the formidable Yan Qianlie to deal with; their rivalry had become a long-running main thread spanning whole volumes, and she couldn't leave until it was settled. Besides, the plot across the sea wouldn't even open until Chu Tiange's cultivation rose to Golden Core—not any time soon. All she could do was gaze at the ocean and sigh.
Chu Ge knew exactly what she was thinking. "My outline doesn't count for much right now. After I switched to an ensemble cast, a lot of the later outline never got properly adjusted... The way I'm writing it now, there'll definitely be more conflict and crossing of paths between the cultivators across the sea and the cultivators of the Nine Provinces. You'll still have plenty of room to shine. No need to rush it."
Qiu Wuji said, "But that's all in the future, isn't it?"
Chu Ge nodded. "The far side of the sea in this world isn't all that mysterious. Earth these days is just a village."
Qiu Wuji said absently, "So people actually live on a ball. The ground beneath our feet is a star too... It's really astonishing."
Chu Ge said in surprise, "When did you figure that one out? I never even told you... Did you search—mm..."
It's not in her search history either. But I can't say that out loud...
Qiu Wuji didn't catch the subtext. She laughed and said, "I watched some popular-science videos about the universe on that video site you recommended... The cosmos is so vast. Truly stunning."
"Goodness. And there you were, never letting on—I've never heard you mention a word of it."
"Were you saving it to knock me for a loop at the right moment, or to threaten this ten-thousand-year-old old lady into not running off from home whenever she likes?"
Chu Ge: "..."
Oh no. How have you gotten this good at reading me...
Qiu Wuji gave a cold snort. "Chu Ge, by comparison, the scope of your world really is small. You know perfectly well that the starry sky is boundless and endless, that countless civilizations might exist out there, and you yourself write worlds with your own pen—yet your horizons are still that small."
"So you've already started turning up your nose at your own world?"
"I'm turning up my nose at you!"
"Hey..." Chu Ge wasn't about to take that lying down. "You really think that world is small in scope? The real world counts as infinitely broad, and your world can be infinitely nesting—ascending to all sorts of different planes... And a higher plane can be a universe too. Who says every single one has to be round heaven and square earth?"
"That's playing dirty."
"It's not playing dirty, it's an ambush of an idea," Chu Ge said breezily. "When you ran out, that book had only just gone to paid release. Even now the protagonist hasn't reached Golden Core. It's early days yet—how much of the world could you possibly have seen?"
Qiu Wuji couldn't help saying, "Is this why I see some of your books hit twenty or thirty million characters and never finish?"
Chu Ge: "This disciple grows more perceptive by the day."
"Bah." Qiu Wuji went back to looking out the window and ignored him.
In her heart, though, she was a little curious. Chu Ge surely had a different picture of that world in his mind—he simply hadn't pinned it down, so it never made it into the outline. Even the heaven realm of the original ascension setting had never been written out. Maybe it really was a universe.
Or maybe...
The end of all those nesting dolls of ascension actually led right here.
She had merely arrived at the final stop ahead of schedule.
Qiu Wuji lifted her head and looked out the window into the distance. The sea itself was already faintly visible.
There seemed to be dampness in the air, and seabirds skimmed past high overhead. She strained her ears to catch the sounds: distant waves, weaving into a grand and majestic melody, mixed with people's laughter and chatter—nothing at all like the seaside fishing village she had pictured.
The sea in that world made people sigh in wonder. What was the sea in this world like?
Was it also countless people wrestling with nature's mighty power, longing for the scenery on the far shore?
"Come on." Chu Ge pulled Qiu Wuji off the bus and headed eagerly for the seaside park. "Two tickets."
"Why do you need a ticket just to visit the sea?" Qiu Wuji muttered under her breath. "Does he own the sea?"
"It's mainly for maintenance and services," Chu Ge said, grinning as he tugged her inside. "For instance, look up ahead... we didn't bring swimsuits."
Qiu Wuji followed his pointing finger. A crowd of girls in bikinis were running around by the water, some in just three tiny points. The men wore nothing but big baggy shorts, chests bare.
Many people had set up parasols on the sand and were lazily enjoying the sea breeze.
Others had rolled over onto their stomachs, men and women rubbing sunscreen on each other, hands wandering all over.
Qiu Wuji's mouth slowly fell open.
No, wait—this isn't the sea-viewing I wanted!