Chapter 123

Chapter 123: Temple of Mer

There was no doubt that such a thing was bizarre.

But Xu Qing and Zhang San had seen far more bizarre things. Even now, compared to what the captain was trying to do, just some invisible enemies seemed like nothing.

From his childhood to now, Xu Qing couldn’t say he held many people in admiration. There was the teacher in the slums, Captain Thunder in the scavenger camp, and Grandmaster Bai, who taught him about plants and vegetation. When it came to heartfelt admiration, it was pretty much just these three.

But now… there was one more.

In the captain’s case, what Xu Qing admired was his madness and willingness to risk his life.

To dare to head to the depths of the sea at this sort of time, betting his life to snatch Juying’s flesh and blood… Only someone who was completely insane would dare to do it. As for the captain’s true identity and real cultivation level, Xu Qing didn’t care to guess. It was pointless, anyway.

“I hope he succeeds.”

The captain had already given him Foundation Establishment Pills, so in exchange, he would guard this place for a stick of incense’s worth of time. Xu Qing’s body flickered and he appeared in front of the temple door.

Glancing at the seemingly empty space outside, Xu Qing raised his right hand and scattered poison powder that rapidly spread into the surrounding seawater.

The poison powder wasn’t colorless this time, instead being various shades of black, red, blue, green and whatnot. As it spread into the surroundings, the seawater instantly became dazzlingly colorful, as well as exceedingly toxic.

In the blink of an eye, a harsh sizzling sound echoed throughout the originally empty surroundings, and violent fluctuations caused distortions to appear outside the temple.

Suddenly, a fleshy tentacle as wide as a person’s leg drilled out from the empty space in front of Xu Qing and stabbed toward him.

It was so fast that the water rippled wildly wherever it passed, and it wasn’t just one. Dozens such tentacles appeared one after another, shooting toward Xu Qing from all directions.

Cold light flashed through Xu Qing’s eyes, and after twisting his body to avoid the first tentacle, he slashed out with his dagger, slicing it in two before stepping forward and slashing toward the rest of the tentacles.

The tentacles were instantly rent into chunks of flesh and blood. Because there were just too many tentacles, Xu Qing’s dagger quickly became entangled. However, a fierce gleam shone in his eyes, and he let go of the dagger before grabbing onto one of the tentacles and yanking hard.

With a rumble, Xu Qing yanked a strange, tadpole-like beast out of the ground. It writhed and opened its huge maw, lunging toward Xu Qing to bite down on him.

Xu Qing’s expression didn’t change. The Droughtdemon Shadow appeared behind him as he sent out a punch toward the beast.

The tadpole-like beast collapsed with a bang, and the sea itself seemed to explode under the immense force.

It wasn’t over yet. Xu Qing grabbed another tentacle, yanked out another beast, and sent out another devastating punch.

Watching all this, Zhang San couldn’t help but take a deep breath.

“Although he’s not as crazy as the captain, this Xu Qing is also quite ferocious…” Zhang San muttered. At the same time, he formed a hand seal, and the thin silk threads around his body suddenly rushed out to kill the enemies outside the temple.

The bombs planted outside detonated one after another, and figures stained with colorful poison eventually revealed themselves.

They were merfolk.

However, they were a little different from ordinary merfolk. They seemed to possess an innate ability to conceal themselves, as well as being more ferocious. Although they spurted out blood and showed signs of poisoning, none of them retreated. All of them rushed straight toward the entrance of the temple.

Their target wasn’t Xu Qing. It was… the fleshy statue in the temple.

The fleshy statue seemed to stir up some waves that they were desperate to stop.

But just as those merfolk cultivators approached the temple gateway, a loud boom rang out.

Zhang San had buried a huge number of bombs at the entrance. Earlier, Xu Qing had been fine, but now that the merfolk tried to enter, the ground immediately exploded.

A violent impact swept across the area, forcing the surviving merfolk backward. At the same time, fighting the tentacles, Xu Qing’s expression suddenly changed.

He felt fluctuations coming from underground. There was a terrifying aura approaching the temple.

“Senior Brother Zhang San, get the statue!” Xu Qing immediately called out in a low voice.

Zhang San reacted instantly, turning around and picking up the fleshy statue without hesitation. A fierce expression appeared on his face as he rushed out of the temple, sharp silk threads slicing everything around him.

As soon as he left the temple, the entire temple actually collapsed. From the rubble, a huge, rotting hand slowly stretched out from the ground. Grabbing onto nothing, the hand smacked against the ground and pushed as an immense figure, thousands of meters long, crawled out.

Dense corpse poison instantly spread into the surroundings.

Clearly, this thing was a corpse, and it was formed from the amalgamation of a large number of mixed corpses. After crawling out of the ground, it beat its hands and feet against the ground as it rushed toward Zhang San like a wild beast.

Zhang San’s expression changed, and he instantly threw the statue to Xu Qing.

Xu Qing leaped up and grabbed the fleshy statue with one hand. Holding the dagger in his other, he stepped back and slashed toward an empty spot nearby. Blood spurted out and a head separated from an invisible body.

At the same time, the giant corpse in the distance changed direction, letting out a roar and charging toward Xu Qing.

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed. He exploded out with speed and dashed into the distance. At the same time, Zhang San also moved, seemingly pulled along in the same direction.

Xu Qing wasn’t surprised. When he caught the fleshy statue, he’d sensed that there was a silk thread on it, and the other end must have been connected to Zhang San.

“What is this thing? It let the captain enter the depths of the sea, and the merfolk and sea corpses are going crazy over it.” Using the silk thread, Zhang San quickly came to Xu Qing’s side with a shocked expression on his face.

Xu Qing didn’t have an answer. However, he remembered that the captain had only asked for them to guard it for a stick of incense’s worth of time, so he tossed the fleshy statue back to Zhang San.

“Senior Brother Zhang San, you stand guard here.” With those words, towering killing intent blazed in Xu Qing’s eyes. His left hand held the dagger, and his right held the black skewer. The Droughtdemon Shadow appeared behind him and let out a roar as he rushed toward the giant corpse.

He was so fast that he was practically upon it in an instant. Booms rang out as the Droughtdemon Shadow let out punch after punch, and Xu Qing spread poison ceaselessly.

Wherever he passed, transparent bodies would suddenly turn visible and scream as they fell to the ground. The giant sea corpse was forced back again and again by Xu Qing’s bombardment.

In the end, Xu Qing summoned countless water droplets that turned into a cage, sealing the huge sea corpse inside. Xu Qing’s eyes shone with a cold light, and he magic boat appeared with a wave of his hand.

A golden beam of light that seemed to have the power to purify all things pierced through the seawater and landed on the giant corpse.

A boom echoed out, and the corpse trembled violently. Then tears appeared all over its body, and it completely collapsed.

Xu Qing didn’t want to waste his power of divinity and quickly put away the magic boat. Killing intent flashed in his eyes as he walked toward the surviving merfolk in the surroundings.

With every wave of his dagger, blood splattered all around. The black skewer shot back and forth, piercing through merfolk foreheads one after another. Although the Vajra Sect ancestor was still sealed, the black skewer that had gained an artifact spirit became increasingly lethal.

A moment later, the entire area had been emptied.

Blood covered Xu Qing’s body, and he showed clear signs of exhaustion. Nevertheless, the killing intent in his eyes hadn’t abated at all.

The black skewer at his side emanated a terrifying baleful aura. There was even a hint of Foundation Establishment aura exuding from it, as if the Vajra Sect ancestor was about to awaken.

Behind Xu Qing, the Droughtdemon Shadow hovered with a sinister gaze, as if bearing witness to the slaughter.

Zhang San’s heart trembled as he watched all of this.

He looked at the blood coating the ground and at Xu Qing’s figure, tall and straight like an unsheathed sword. He felt that his previous judgment was wrong. Xu Qing might not be as crazy as the captain, but his ferocity… wasn’t any less!

Of the many corpses strewn over the ground, a majority had died from slashed to the throat…

At that moment, a stick of incense’s worth of time had passed.

But the captain hadn’t returned.

Xu Qing was silent. Staring at the fleshy statue in Zhang San’s hands, he waited for another half an incense stick’s worth of time to pass.

Zhang San had also noticed that it had been a while. His expression turned a little solemn.

“Senior Brother Zhang San, time’s up. There’s another place I have to go to. Take care.” Xu Qing handed Zhang San a bag of poison powder. After explaining how to use it, he turned his head to look further into the temple complex and sped off.

He hoped for the captain’s success, but Xu Qing wouldn’t spend too much time waiting for him to come back. After all, Xu Qing had more important things to do.

At that moment, he erupted forth with full speed. When he reached a spot with nobody around, he took out the Spiritual Breath Lamp and placed it in his shadow to sense the resonance. Soon, Xu Qing determined the precise position. He put away the Spiritual Breath Lamp and sped deeper into the temple complex.

Time passed slowly. The merfolk’s temple complex was immense, so it took a full hour before Xu Qing finally stopped and looked up at a very ordinary-looking temple in front of him.

This temple seemed to be no different from the surrounding ones, but the fluctuations of the Spiritual Breath Lamp were clearly resonating with this location.

Xu Qing scanned his surroundings with vigilance. After confirming that nobody was around, he quickly scattered poison all around, covering the entire temple as well as much of the surrounding area.

He didn’t act rashly, but concealed himself and waited in silence for a while. When he found that there was nothing unusual, he quickly rushed into the temple and looked around.

The temple was bare and empty, with only a single statue inside.

This wasn’t a statue of Juying, but rather an elderly merfolk. His expression was dignified without seeming angry, and he wore a crown on his head. All in all, there was nothing unusual about the statue.

Xu Qing continued looking around, and his eyes eventually fell on the walls of the temple.

But the walls were also completely ordinary. Xu Qing looked around for a long time, but couldn’t find anything unusual about the temple. He took out the Spiritual Breath Lamp, but nothing changed.

Xu Qing thought about it for a while, then lit the Spiritual Breath Lamp and walked around the temple. He still didn’t find anything.

After some thought, Xu Qing finally put the lamp in his shadow.

The light of the Spiritual Breath Lamp instantly changed from a dim yellow to a dark green. As the light shone out, some of it fell on the wall, and there seemed to be something different.

Xu Qing narrowed his eyes and slowly walked over.

As he approached, the dark green light gradually covered more of the wall, and the wall seemed to distort. Xu Qing’s mind trembled as he saw the wall change from an originally blank canvas to a majestic mural.

This mural painted a vast scene that seemed to depict a place with an enormous altar. Countless bones surrounded it, and in this sea of bones, there were three towering figures.

Two were bowing their heads in worship to the remaining one, which stood tall and upright.

The worshiper on the right was the elderly merfolk man whose statue was contained in the temple. In the mural, he seemed majestic, like an emperor. Power itself seemed to radiate from him, and the crown on his head was inlaid with a majestic jewel.

The other one was an old woman wearing a robe of fish bones. Her robe was filled with tentacles, and there was a ghostly face behind her. It was Juying.

And the one they were worshiping was a giant figure with a nine-headed serpent wrapped around its body.

This giant figure was wearing a suit of armor filled with countless runes. He carried two worlds on his shoulders and a huge sword floated above his head. The huge sword emanated a terrifying aura, as if it could slice open heaven and earth once it was drawn.

Worshiped by Juying and the merfolk race emperor, this figure seemed to be truly like a god.

The snake on his body held a burning lamp in its mouth.

This lamp was shaped like an upside-down umbrella, and it was pitch black. It looked exactly the same as the Spiritual Breath Lamp, but it gave off a completely different feeling, as if the two weren’t on the same level at all.

It was like the difference between a common stone and a precious jade.

It also contained the supreme might of a sovereign. Anyone who saw it would know at a glance that it was no knock-off. This was the genuine product.

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