Shen Yi had not acted on a whim.

After seeing with his own eyes that the so-called kalpa of birth meant, literally, breaking out of a shell to be born, he had a rough guess at the kalpas that came after.

After the great city of Longhan came the turn of the great city of Chiming; joined to the "birth" of the first, this second city stood for "age."

Vitality did not go on bursting out forever. There was always a peak, and after it a long slide down into boundless dark.

Death was frightening enough, certainly. But watching yourself weaken by degrees, like a dull knife cutting flesh, was its own torment, and just as hard to accept.

As the saying went, a soft-shelled turtle lives a thousand years and a tortoise ten thousand.

Shen Yi could not help feeling that Wu Jun, of the gold-veined turtle demon clan, might be quite well suited to being put through this one.

Of course, there was one other reason.

It was that in Nanhong there were truly not many demons whose talent and understanding could stand beside Ke the Thirteenth's.

Its cultivation was low only because it was young.

For background: the South Dragon Palace was more than half the master of Nanhong, and Ke Xuanjian was one of only thirteen dragon grandsons in that first-rank power.

Thirteen might sound like a lot.

But the Nanhong Seven at that same level ought to have seven Dao-sons among them just to begin with; and once the personally transmitted disciples under all the great elders were added in, the number very likely passed a hundred.

By comparison, Ke the Thirteenth's standing as a dragon grandson was worth enough to frighten a man. Among the younger generation, counting humans and demons together, there would not be twenty whose background outweighed its own.

For bloodline: it carried the yellow-miasma venom dragon inheritance, and with it the divine power of the purple-pearl clam demon, another great clan of the waters.

And on top of that it was extremely clever.

Add that no two Anchor-Stones could be…