Chapter 125

Chapter 125: Worth It!

Xu Qing’s injuries this time were unprecedentedly severe.

And this was already after all the defenses he’d set up. That pressure had to first crush the magic boat’s defensive sails, the protective barrier, the divinity-powered resistance, the entire front half of the boat, and a huge number of defensive talisman treasures before finally landing on Xu Qing’s body.

Even so, he had nearly died right there.

Even with the purple crystal’s power, Xu Qing could sense that recovering from these injuries would take some time. He still felt lingering fear in his heart.

If he had been lacking in just a little defensive power, he might already be dead.

“But it was worth it!”

Xu Qing gritted his teeth and endured intense pain as he mentally reviewed his losses.

All his talisman treasures had been used up, but more importantly, his precious magic boat had almost no divinity left by now.

Moreover, the front half of the boat had been destroyed. The cost of repairing it would be astronomical.

But even so, Xu Qing felt that it was worth it!

“And I still have the Spiritual Breath Lamp!”

“No wonder the captain goes so crazy. After succeeding, the rewards for going crazy are also insane…” Xu Qing thought about the captain. However, he felt that this wasn’t a good habit to get into. He was likely to end up getting himself killed sooner rather than later.

Taking a deep breath, Xu Qing suppressed his excitement and forced himself to circulate his cultivation base, trying to urge the purple crystal and make himself recover faster.

After all, he couldn’t move right now. It would be more dangerous the longer he stayed here.

Just like that, an hour soon passed.

Some distance away from Xu Qing, there was a small cave in the ground among the temples. Inside the cave was the fleshy statue, as well as Zhang San, who was staring at the cave’s opening vigilantly.

Outside, he had set up a large number of bombs. There was also dense poison in the surroundings, making it an extremely dangerous place where each step could lead to death.

Even Zhang San needed to be very careful when going out, following the specific path he had set up before.

However, Zhang San was still a little uneasy even with all of this and spread his silk threads all over the cave. He occasionally glanced over at the fleshy statue and sighed.

“Captain, you didn’t really end up dying there, did you?”

“Why bother playing with your life? Can’t you just play with the senior and junior sisters in the sect instead…”

“That’s Juying, you know? Although it isn’t a real god, it’s still a terrifyingly powerful divinity lifeform. Is there anyone in the merfolk race who’s a bigger deal? There’s probably only Mer, and who knows if Mer really exists?”

“Don’t die, captain. If you die, then all my investments over the years… it’ll be a huge loss.”

Zhang San sighed. He had been guarding the statue for almost four hours already, and he couldn’t help but start to feel that the captain was dead.

Shaking his head helplessly, he decided to wait for another stick of incense’s worth of time. If the captain still didn’t come out, he would have to give up.

Just as he was thinking whether or not to cut off a piece of the fleshy statue as a memento, the fleshy statue suddenly shook violently. Terrifying roars that made Zhang San tremble rang out.

Zhang San’s expression instantly changed, and he immediately backed away. The silk threads all around him quickly shot over and covered the fleshy statue.

At the same time, the gash in the fleshy statue began expanding and contracting rapidly, as if it was breathing. The muffled roars echoing out of it became clearer and clearer.

It was as if some terrifying existence was madly charging toward the other end of the passage. Zhang San quickly backed up until he was just about out of the cave, preparing to escape immediately if the situation took a turn for the worse.

Soon, as Zhang San stewed in his anxiety, a blood-soaked hand suddenly stretched out from the squirming gash in the fleshy statue. There were three fingers on the hand, and barely any flesh remaining to hide the stark white bones.

The hand gripped the flesh on the statue outside the gash, allowing the figure inside to continue climbing out. Soon, half of the captain’s body appeared from the gash in the fleshy statue.

His hair was all gone, and blood covered his head. The flesh of his face was corroded, and most of his visible skin was covered in blood. Overall, he didn’t even look like a human anymore.

Moreover, there were shocking wounds all over his body. The deepest ones even seemed to pierce all the way through.

However, his right hand firmly grasped a chunk of squirming golden flesh. Terrifying fluctuations filled with an astonishing power of divinity rolled of of this chunk of flesh. It was… Juying’s flesh!

The appearance of this chunk of flesh immediately caused the surroundings to distort. Countless shrill roars seemed to echo through the cave, making Zhang San’s mind buzz. He bled from his seven orifices, and his body even started swaying unsteadily.

“Help me out here!”

The captain seemed to have exhausted all his energy just to crawl out this far. With an anxious look on his face, he quickly called out to Zhang San.

Zhang San barely stabilized his unsteady body, and the silk threads in the cave wrapped around the captain’s body. With a wave of Zhang San’s hand, the captain was yanked out of the gash in the fleshy statue.

Only the upper half, that is. His lower body was gone.

And even the upper body was covered in blood and wounds, looking extremely miserable.

“Come on, we’ve gotta smash the passage. Something was chasing me!” After leaving the passage, the captain immediately pointed at the gash in the fleshy statue.

Zhang San knew how dangerous it was and immediately attacked. In an instant, spell fluctuations filled the cave, and with the combined attacks of Zhang San and the captain, the fleshy statue that served as a passage was immediately destroyed. A furious roar echoed out from inside.

The pressure of that short roar alone made Zhang San tremble violently. He coughed up several mouthfuls of blood and backed up repeatedly, and cracking sounds rang out as more than forty broken jade slips fell to the ground. Even after all that, he was still seriously injured.

It was only after he took out some pills with trembling fingers and swallowed them that his complexion improved a little bit.

The captain also coughed up blood, and the remaining half of his body was knocked around by the pressure of the roar. However, his right hand still held the flesh of Juying tightly and he laughed crazily.

“Who can compare to me? I’ve been plotting ever since I knew we were attacking the merfolk. Haha, I did it, I got the flesh of a divinity lifeform! I really did it!” The captain was full of excitement and laughed loudly. Wincing in pain as the laughing opened up his wounds again, he quickly put the chunk of Juying flesh away.

“Is it worth it? Half your body is gone.” Zhang San smiled wryly as he looked at the captain.

“Worth it, it’s completely worth it!! Isn’t it just half a body? I cultivate special methods for regenerating lost limbs. If I add in some powerful medicines from the sect, it’s just a matter of months before it grows back. Plus, I have this chunk of flesh that I can integrate into my body. If I refine the divinity within, I’ll recover even faster.”

With that said, the captain looked around excitedly.

“Where’s my vice captain?”

“Do you really think you took an incense stick’s worth of time? It’s already been four hours. Brother Xu had other arrangements, so after waiting for two incense sticks’ worth of time, he left. Before leaving, he gave me a lot of poison powder.” Zhang San continued shoveling pills into his mouth as he spoke.

“That’s okay. I didn’t expect to take so long either, you know. I almost didn’t make it back.” The captain took out an apple as he spoke and bit into it. He was about to continue talking when…

The earth suddenly rumbled.

The entire Juying Island shook violently. The coral buildings all around collapsed instantly, and wisps of black gas appeared everywhere. They rose from the collapsed buildings, from the scattered seaweed, and from within the sea anemones…

All across the underwater world of Juying Island, countless wisps of black gas rose out of all objects. They converged into patches of black fog that rolled out in all directions, as if trying to swallow the entire underwater world.

This black fog contained dense heterogeneity that seemed as if it could corrode all things, and as it swept through the underwater world, the corpses of the dead began twitching, as if they were reviving.

Black gas continued to rise up from every crevice in the underwater world, joining the black fog and spreading in all directions. The Seven Blood Pupils disciples paled and all sprinted toward the exit of the underwater world without hesitation.

The trembling earth was like a dragon thrashing around, causing the captain’s half body to be tossed into the air. He almost let the apple fall, but he managed to grab it with his mouth. Paling, he quickly climbed onto Zhang San’s back.

“This is the merfolk race’s trump card for mutual destruction. I came back late, hurry, we’ve got to get out of here.”

Zhang San’s expression changed, and he sprinted toward the exit of the underwater world at full speed.

At the same time, a distance away but still in the temple complex, Xu Qing had managed to recover a little with the help of the purple crystal. Feeling the shaking of the earth, he quickly opened his eyes and saw the black fog rolling in. He narrowed his eyes.

Without hesitation, Xu Qing put away the wrecked magic boat and sprinted away, gritting his teeth. Not long after, the black fog enveloped the area he was previously in and swarmed into the run-down temple.

With the black fog covering everything, no one could see that on the blank wall of the temple, there was a constantly-flickering mural. It was as if it wanted to reform, but it still failed in the end.

The image of the merfolk emperor in the mural slowly eroded and eventually disappeared.

At that moment, as all the Seven Blood Pupils cultivators underwater were hurrying toward the exit, the same thing was happening in the world outside.

The strange, all-devouring black fog appeared not only on Juying Island, but also Image, Serenity, and Mer Islands as well.

From a distance, it could be seen that a huge amount of black fog was rising from all four islands of the merfolk race. This seemed to be the merfolk race’s last resort.

Up in the sky, Seventh Master looked down from his Greatwing at the merfolk race’s islands, still covered by the sky-sealing array. Although his vision was blocked by the array, he could still sense the changes happening inside.

But these changes not only didn’t make his expression turn serious, they actually made him smile at the merfolk ancestor beside him.

“Good, you've finally pulled out something decent. Up until now, it could hardly be called a trial, more like giving away free resources."

"Luckily, you’ve still got some tricks up your sleeve. We can’t let those little wolf pups have it too easy, now can we?”

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