Chapter 126

Chapter 126: Reunited

Xu Qing moved rapidly through the underwater world below Juying Island, feeling pain wrack his body with every step. The wounds that had just barely scarred over were once again torn open, and the blood flowing from them dyed his tattered Daoist robe a deep red.

Although the spiritual energy barrier around his body prevented seawater from touching the wounds, the pain grew sharper the more he moved.

Xu Qing’s injuries were too severe, to the point that even the purple crystal couldn’t heal him in a short time.

Currently, fog was rolling in from the surroundings, engulfing everything, including Xu Qing. He didn’t care about the heterogeneity in the fog, but there was also the strong corpse poison to worry about.

When Xu Qing encountered corpse poison, the purple crystal would have to allocate some of its power to detoxify him, leaving less to help recover from his injuries.

He also saw some corpses that were covered by the fog suddenly standing up, roaring like beasts and running about within the fog.

Once he was enveloped in the fog, he was bound to fall into a life-and-death crisis.

“I have to get out of here as soon as possible.” Xu Qing gritted his teeth and endured the severe pain as he sped forward.

The jolting and jostling of his body as he ran only increased the pain he was feeling, but he had no choice but to endure, heading toward the exit at full power and even using a flight talisman to increase his speed.

However, his body was already severely injured, and his spiritual energy was all but exhausted. Moreover, he had to preserve some life-saving power for emergencies, so he couldn’t use his cultivation to increase his speed and had to rely on the flight talisman.

A stick of incense’s worth of time later, Xu Qing finally left the temple complex.

All around him, aside from a thin fog suffusing everything, there was nothing else. Off in the distance, even more fog could be seen rolling in, swallowing up temples and coral buildings wherever it passed and turning everything pitch black.

By now, the area was void of people, and the only sounds were the roars of resurrected corpses echoing through the fog.

Xu Qing’s expression was gloomy. He noticed that there seemed to be an even thicker black fog rising up from the bottom of the sea, blocking anyone from passing through in that direction. Thus, Xu Qing had no choice but to continue rushing toward the exit, from where he could return to Juying Island’s upper world.

But he was very far from the exit to begin with, so after another incense stick’s worth of time passed, his figure ended up enveloped in the fog,

As soon as the fog engulfed Xu Qing, his spiritual energy barrier flickered rapidly and began to corrode away. Furthermore, his vision was almost completely obscured.

And he could hear the roars of resurrected corpses closing in on him from all directions.

Killing intent flashed in Xu Qing’s eyes. He suddenly lifted his right hand and struck out with the black skewer. A ferocious growl rang out from the nearby fog. It was a resurrected corpse.

This wasn’t a member of the sea corpse race, but instead a dead disciple of Seven Blood Pupils. Its whole body was black, and so were its eyes. Although the iron skewer cut open its neck and its head fell to the ground, its body still grabbed toward Xu Qing viciously.

Xu Qing formed a hand seal, and a curtain of water immediately billowed outward, shoving the corpse more than thirty meters away.

Xu Qing didn’t press the attack. There were more and more roars coming closer and closer, so he decisively waved his left hand. Countless water droplets manifested beside him, converging into the shape of a plesiosaur in an instant.

As soon as it appeared, the plesiosaur expanded to hundreds of meters long, carrying Xu Qing and charging forward with a low roar.

Wherever it passed, any corpses trying to block it were sent flying.

This was Xu Qing’s last resort. If this plesiosaur ended up collapsing, it would be even more difficult for him to escape.

Fortunately, the plesiosaur was extremely fast, and its huge body carried immense momentum. Although the fog constantly corroded it and it shrank inch by inch, the abundant spiritual energy stored within allowed the plesiosaur to charge rapidly through the fog, bringing Xu Qing closer and closer to the exit.

Along the way, Xu Qing saw some other Seven Blood Pupils disciples. All of them were running toward the exit as fast as they could, sparing no attention for each other.

But just as Xu Qing neared the exit, countless roars rang out from in front of him. Clearly, there was a huge number of revived corpses up ahead.

Many fleeing Seven Blood Pupils disciples were halted by this tide of corpses. Xu Qing’s expression turned dark, and he immediately stretched out his hands and clenched them into fists.

The plesiosaur suddenly shrank as if withering away, and the spiritual energy inside quickly returned to Xu Qing’s body, replenishing his stores of spiritual energy that had dried up earlier.

Naturally, the price for this was the dissipation of the plesiosaur.

But Xu Qing couldn’t care too much about that. As the plesiosaur disappeared, Xu Qing’s body was once again filled with spiritual energy. Although his physical injuries were still grievous, overall, he had recovered some battle prowess.

With a wave of his hands, water droplets appeared all around him, spinning rapidly. Xu Qing rushed out and leaped over the tide of corpses. Whenever he encountered an obstacle, some of the water droplets whirling around his body would separate off and envelop the obstacle in a bubble, preventing it from blocking him.

Just like that, wherever Xu Qing passed, corpses would be caught in water bubbles and moved out of the way, allowing him to advance at full speed. After a while, Xu Qing finally arrived near the exit.

He was just about to jump into the passage leading out of the underwater world when Xu Qing suddenly turned around to look at a figure running over from a different direction.

While running, this figure continuously threw contraptions that exploded when touched. As booms echoed out, a familiar voice came from the person on his back.

“Alright Zhang San, throw ’em just like that, blow ’em all up! Ouch, you threw that one in the wrong direction, you should’ve chucked it over there instead.”

Zhang San was the one running, and the captain was the one talking.

Zhang San panted heavily as he ran with all his might. On his back, the captain seemed quite carefree despite the circumstances, laughing and continuing to blabber.

“Shut up!” Zhang San roared.

“Hey, Zhang San, how can you talk to your former captain like that!” The captain said with a dissatisfied tone. He took out an apple and bit into it.

“If you don’t shut up, I’ll throw you down and run by myself.”

“Urk- Go go, big brother San!”

Xu Qing’s expression turned a little strange. He glanced at Zhang San, who was running over rapidly, and the captain on Zhang San’s back, especially noting the captain’s lack of a lower body. In his heart, Xu Qing re-evaluated the captain’s madness.

At the same time, Zhang San also caught sight of Xu Qing. His eyes lit up, and he immediately shot a silk thread over to Xu Qing. Using the silk thread as an anchor, he closed the distance with a leap.

“Ah, vice captain Xu, what happened to you? Could it be that you went to the merfolk princess’s bedroom and got yourself squeezed dry?”

The captain’s eyes lit up when he saw Xu Qing’s sorry state.

“Will it grow back?” Xu Qing didn’t answer, instead replying with a question and glancing at the missing half of the captain’s body.

“Heh, no problem. Once I get back, I’ll be perfectly fine.” The captain said proudly.

“Alright. Then I’ll send you a feather[1] once we get back.” Xu Qing replied lightly.

“Huh? Why would you send me a feather?” The captain was taken aback.

“Don’t stand around chatting, let’s get out of here.” At the side, Zhang San was growing anxious. He felt that Xu Qing and the captain were a pair of freaks. Even in such a situation, the two were still chatting.

Xu Qing turned his head and sped forward, carrying Zhang San and the captain along with him on a silk thread. Just like that, two and a half bodies quickly approached the exit and disappeared inside.

Soon after that, black fog completely submerged that spot.

By now, the entirety of Juying Island’s underwater world had been engulfed by fog. However, the fog didn’t stop there. It continued rising form every crack and crevice, creeping up into the island’s upper world.

In the passage that led to Juying Island’s upper world, Xu Qing moved extremely swiftly. The poison that he’d scattered here was mostly gone, although Xu Qing didn’t know if it had dissolved or spread somewhere else.

After half an incense stick’s worth of time, his body broke through the water with a loud splash, and the flight talisman erupted with full strength, turning him into a long ray of light that headed straight to the top of the passage.

Zhang San also took out a flight talisman and followed closely behind in silence. However, the captain continued to blabber.

“Xu Qing, what did you mean by sending me a feather?”

Xu Qing didn't speak.

“Vice captain Xu, you still owe me 8,000 spirit stones, don’t you? What did you mean by sending a feather?”

Xu Qing didn’t even spare him a second glance and sped out of the passage.

Once he stepped back into the outside world, he felt a violent wind blow against his face. He immediately scanned his surroundings, and his expression changed drastically.

Zhang San was no different. After rushing out and taking in his surroundings, his expression also changed.

Right now, the outside world was in utter chaos.

Pillars of billowing black fog were spiraling up into the sky, connecting to the merfolk race’s formation like dragons rising to the heavens. There were a total of eight such pillars, two on each island.

There were also countless wisps of black qi still on the ground that turned into silk threads and fused into the eight dragon-like pillars of fog, causing them to continuously expand. Moreover, just as Xu Qing and the others were looking around, the spiraling pillar of fog not far away from them seemed to suddenly undergo a change.

At the top, branches spiraled off from the pillar of fog, and these branches quickly turned into snake heads. There were nine such snake heads in total, and all nine let out deafening roars toward the people on the ground.

These roars seemed to make the earth itself quake.

It was as if the snake heads were a single titanic snake venting out boundless heterogeneity and endless corpse poison with its roars. The giant snake’s cultivation base began rising exponentially, swiftly breaking through Seven Blood Pupils’ sky-sealing array and reaching the power of Core Formation, and still continuing to climb.

Xu Qing’s heart trembled as he looked upon this scene. He recognized this nine-headed snake. It was none other than the snake from the mural which had been wrapped around the giant’s body and held the Life Lamp in its mouth.

The other seven spiraling pillars of fog were the same. All of them formed into giant nine-headed snakes that let out earth-shattering roars, causing dense heterogeneity to instantly suffuse the merfolk race’s four islands.

Regardless of whether they were surviving merfolk or Seven Blood Pupils disciples, every living thing on the islands was instantly inundated by heterogeneity.

And one after another, corpses opened their eyes and returned from the dead.

[1] Possibly a reference to the feather tents in the scavenger camp where prostitutes sold their services.

Previous Chapter

Table of Contents

Next Chapter