Chapter 1000: Nervous. Exhausted. Drained.
The indistinct voice carried a frigid coldness that, upon entering the mind, became as icy as a glacier. In fact, it almost seemed like it could make chunks of ice form in the soul.
Waves of frigid will spread through Xu Qing’s soul, quickly affecting his senses, until he felt like all bits of warmth had left him. Cold permeated him. Every single word spoken to him was like a curse, sending the frigid energy into his sea of consciousness, causing his godsource to become as inert as if it was dead. And that made the frigid will seem like something eternal.
The sensation caused Xu Qing’s consciousness to stagnate. However, in the very last moment before his mind went completely blank, he sent some god perception to the golden crow within him. All of a sudden, the cry of the golden crow echoed in Xu Qing’s mind.
The sound was like a summoning, drawing the sun out from within Xu Qing’s body. As a result, Xu Qing’s body was like a world, and within that world, the sun rose, shining onto his soul! Black fire surged, spreading through every part of him. Ten beams of profound sun immortal light appeared, unleashing boundless light and heat. As of this moment, there was sunrise in his sea of consciousness, casting a boundless glow.
The moment it made contact with the frigid coldness, a faint sigh drifted into Xu Qing’s mind.
“Don’t forget about what I warned you, sweetie. Also, your friend is wrong. I’m not a freakish monster. If he badmouths me again, I’ll take him away with me.”
It was hard to tell if it was because of the sun within Xu Qing, or because the little girl had changed her mind, but either way, after the mysterious voice spoke, the coldness on Xu Qing’s back vanished. He heard laughter disappearing off into the distance.
All of a sudden, the darkness in front of him and the coldness inside burst into flames. The coldness was burned away, and his sensations returned. The moment he could see, he inhaled sharply and looked over his shoulder.
There wasn’t anything behind him, other than Erniu, who looked like he had been frozen into ice. That said, there was a warm flow pulsing off him, as well as the fragrant aroma of tea. As a result, the frigid coldness was already melting. The tea was the very same tea that Yu Liuchen had offered as a gift.
Upon confirming that his Eldest Brother was unharmed, Xu Qing forced himself to calm down. Taking control of the dreadnaught, he sent it speeding around the ruins, which took roughly an incense stick’s worth of time.
After getting a good distance away, Xu Qing turned to look back into the darkness, his face pale. He could still just barely make out the crumbling buildings. He was now more on guard against the outer sea than ever.
Was that... a god?
Xu Qing’s heart thumped with lingering fear. He had encountered many gods, and though that little girl had seemed like she was connected to gods in some way, she herself didn’t seem like a god.
At the very last moment, my immortal light seemed effective, except... that girl also seemed to leave of her own volition. Did the light really do anything? As for my ‘friend’ who called her a freakish monster....
Xu Qing looked silently at Erniu as an ice statue. Waving his hand, he sent some immortal light over to the statue. The ice gradually melted.
After enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, it was gone, and Erniu’s eyes opened wide. The first thing he did was open his mouth wide and deeply inhale the lingering frigid energy. He shivered, and frost formed on his eyebrows. Normally speaking, he was the person who used ice as an asset. But even despite the danger, he couldn’t suppress his greed. Even though the frigid energy made it seem like he might end up frozen again, he still consumed it.
A moment later, his face fell and he vomited. Out came a massive, rotting clump of head hair. As the head hair fell, it turned into frigid energy that scattered in all directions. It took a while to vomit up all the hair, after which Erniu shivered in fear. He dropped into a sitting position and looked back at the ruins.
“I miscalculated. That wasn’t frigid energy. That was a combination of death energy and corpse energy. Completely and utterly revolting! Eating it didn’t help me one bit! And that thing! That freakish mon—”
“It told me to tell you that if you badmouthed it,” Xu Qing quickly interrupted, “it would take you away with it.”
Erniu’s mouth clamped shut. He was actually shocked. Thinking back to the moment that little girl had turned around, he realized that his inner monologue had indeed involved calling her a freakish monster....
Could it be that she came over because of something I merely thought? How petty!
In the end, Erniu couldn’t be sure.
***
There was someone else who was even less sure of what had just played out, and that was Yu Liuchen. Hē was hiding in the void and looking at those ruins with a very serious expression. What hē could see was very different from what Xu Qing and Erniu had seen. What they saw as ruins did not appear to be ruins to hīm. Hē saw endless hair, wrapped up endlessly into a huge hairball....
It was rotting, withered, and putrid as it spread out in all directions. The little girl was actually made from a huge conglomeration of hair, and emanated a boundless sense of vile evil as she stared at Yu Liuchen.
Was it Xu Qing’s special qualities that attracted that thing, or was it the ox’s unusual attributes...?
After a moment of hesitation, Yu Liuchen chose the path of peace and harmony. Extracting a thread of godsource from hīmself, hē turned it into a cup of tea that hē sent floating over to the little girl.
“Please, drink.”
The little girl smiled and sent out a mass of hairs that wrapped around the teacup. The teacup was pulled back into the hairball ruins, where it vanished.
***
Time passed.
Erniu vomited a few more times, yet was clearly still having stomach issues. About half a month passed during which his entire body turned black, and he began to grow rotting hair all over. Eventually, he had so much hair that if he shed his clothing, he looked like was covered in fur. Not even shaving could get rid of it.
Of course, there was little need to mention that Erniu’s personality was unusual. Although he was a bit upset at first, after a few days, he got used to the hair, and even started to seem pleased with it.
“Little Ah Qing, based on what I can tell, this hair has some amazing defensive properties. Now that my body is covered, it’s basically like having a suit of hair armor! Plus it’s very warm and comfortable! This is great. Truly great! I think I’ll grow it out a bit longer, then figure out a way to cut it off and weave it into a garment. I bet I could sell it for a very hefty price!”
Eyes gleaming, Erniu stroked the hair.
“What’s more, I’ve come to realize that after growing this hair out, things have been much safer than before. Think about it, during this entire time, we haven’t run into anything dangerous.... Sadly, the pressure here is too intense to be able to fly very far. Otherwise, we could probably make much better progress.”
Xu Qing wasn’t inclined to pay much attention to Erniu’s ramblings. Sitting down, he closed his eyes to meditate while Erniu took a breath to continue blustering. But then, Xu Qing’s eyes snapped open, and Erniu stopped talking. Both of them looked off into the distance.
Far ahead of the dreadnaught in what had previously been a mass of complete darkness, something unexpected had appeared....
A sun was rising up from the surface of the water. It was huge and majestic, and the moment it appeared, it cast brilliant light into the sky. The sea water rippled, reflecting the sun and its light, casting it out in all directions. It was the blood-red color of sunset.
Xu Qing shivered inwardly. Erniu’s eyes went wide. And yet, it didn’t take long for them to realize that this thing wasn’t actually a sun. That was because... all of a sudden, a second ‘sun’ rose from the surface of the water in a different direction.
And things weren’t over after that. Further off, a third one appeared. Then came a fourth, a fifth, and a sixth.... Heaven and earth grew brighter and brighter as, in the space of an incense stick’s worth of time, more than thirty ‘suns’ rose up into the air! All were bright, though some were more intense while others were somewhat weak. The light they cast couldn’t travel very far, and definitely couldn’t cover the entire outer sea. It could only shine on certain areas. Strangely, they didn’t emanate any heat whatsoever.
And even more gruish was the fact that these rising ‘suns’ would quickly drop back down. They did so at different rates, occasionally shooting up into the sky, and occasionally dropping down into the sea.
As a result, the outer sea areas that were affected experienced intersecting periods of light and dark. Mutagen grew stronger. The godly aura grew more viscous.
Moments later, even as Xu Qing and Erniu felt their hearts pounding, a slit appeared on one of the more than thirty suns, the one closest to them. The slit ran right down the middle of the sun.
The slit opened. It looked like an eye.
In fact, precisely speaking, it was an eye! It was as if it had been woken from sleep, and was now staring at the dreadnaught occupied by Xu Qing and Erniu. The moment the gaze landed on the dreadnaught, it started crumbling away. Ripples and distortions spread in the air, and Xu Qing and Erniu were affected. Their bodies almost immediately showed signs of mutation.
Shockingly, Erniu shivered, and when he spoke next, his voice was shrill.
“Ah Qing, hurry up and start dancing with me. This is the dream of some unknown god. And it’s a terrifying god, with dreams that are half-real!!”
Erniu jumped up and started dancing, causing the fur covering him to sway back and forth. This, of course, was a dance especially designed to be performed for gods. He even started chanting some sort of lyrics, which were some sort of sacrifice. Xu Qing didn’t dare to react too slowly, so he jumped up and started dancing with Erniu.
In a past life in the Moonrite Region, Erniu had been the Grand Dancer, and thus had learned a lot about the dreams of gods. And thus, as he danced, the sun-like eye stopped in midair and watched the show.[1]
Time ticked by. Six hours later, the huge eye slowly closed. Then, along with the other sun-eyes, it dropped back down into the sea and disappeared.
Without any hesitation, Xu Qing sent the battered dreadnaught flying off into the darkness. After some time passed in which they confirmed nothing unusual was going on. Xu Qing and Erniu breathed sighs of relief. Looking at each other, they chuckled bitterly.
“Little Ah Qing, do you think that Yu Liuchen fellow is still around? I feel like this place is just too dangerous. Yu Liuchen probably already caught the fish hē was after. What do you say we head back?”
Xu Qing mulled it over, looked around, and then nodded. “We can go back the way we came. If Senior Yu Liuchen has an issue with that, hē can just come out and tell us....”
“Exactly. And if hē doesn’t show up, then it will prove that hē’s okay with us leaving.” After exchanging another glance, they unhesitatingly sent the dreadnaught shooting back toward the inner sea.
***
The very same Yu Liuchen they were wondering about was currently down on the seafloor....
Down there, the more than thirty ‘suns’ that had sunk down under the surface of the water had reverted to their original appearance, and were now clustered together in a group. They looked like more than thirty enormous eyeballs, connected with draping strings of slime. To some extent, they somewhat resembled grapes.
And they were staring at Yu Liuchen.
Yu Liuchen wasn’t making any moves. But inside, hē was cursing. This was not hīs first time in the outer sea. In fact, hē had explored it on many occasions.
The outer sea was a mysterious place, and had many locations that even hē would consider dangerous. But the reality was that it was massive to the point of being boundless, and thus, as long as hē didn’t explore too deeply, it was unlikely that hē would encounter anything that would prompt hīm to extend an offer to drink tea.
But things had changed this time around. It might have been possible to chalk up that little girl to coincidence. But what hē was looking at now was something that, normally speaking, lived in the depths of the outer sea. It was quite unexpected to encounter something like this here. After all, this location was far, far away from the true depths. In fact, it could be considered coastal waters.
Granted, I brought them here to be bait. But... why are they attracting so many random things?
Yu Liuchen sighed inwardly. Realizing there was nothing hē could do about it, hē waved hīs hand to send a cup of tea over.
“Please, drink.”
The grape-like eyes all narrowed their eyelids, then sent out a branch-like tentacle that wrapped around the teacup and slowly dragged it down to the seafloor. Then the grape-like eyes vanished.
Yu Liuchen was mentally exhausted. Sensing that Xu Qing and Erniu were leaving, hē hesitated briefly, then decided not to stop them.
Coastal waters are coastal waters, after all. Hopefully things will be safer going forward. Besides, I can already sense... that the True God I want to hook is on the move. And this god is definitely very weak....
Expectation started to build within Yu Liuchen.
However, there was quite a big difference between expectation and reality. The story told by this god whose godly authority related to stories was apparently being influenced in the outer sea.
That became very apparent a few days later on the very still and peaceful outer sea....
***
“Ah Qing,” Erniu said, “I was thinking about the past few days, and I realized that the situation with that little girl happened after I badmouthed her in my inner dialogue. And then the situation with the suns happened after I mentioned us being safe....” He looked seriously at Xu Qing. “Something strange is going on! It’s almost as if my words have some unusual power here in the outer sea! Could it be that the ancient legend is true?”
Xu Qing looked back at Erniu, and his expression turned very serious. The truth was that he had been thinking something very similar, although his conclusion wasn’t that everything had to do with his Eldest Brother, but rather, his own connection to Golden Crow. Ever since coming to the outer sea, he had felt as if there was an ancient gaze secretly focused on him. After what Erniu just said, Xu Qing couldn’t help but ask, “What legend?”
Erniu took a deep breath. “The legend tells the story of the Outer Sea Lord of yesteryear. He was incomparably handsome, matchless in the world, graceful, with innumerable concubines. He was primeval, ancient, and gloriously holy. But one day, he grew tired of being so unequaled, and thus he left the sea. On the eve of departure, he said, ‘When I return, all gods will come and bow to me.’”
Erniu cleared his throat.
At first, Xu Qing had been paying very close attention, but he quickly came to realize that something about the story sounded off.
“Eldest Brother, where did that legend originate?”
“Me, of course!” Erniu chuckled, and his fur jiggled. “I’m just joking around! Hahaha! I could tell that you were feeling more and more nervous the past few days, and I just wanted to calm you down. Based on my calculations, we passed through his area earlier, and it’s a very safe—”
Before Erniu could finish speaking, something extremely dramatic happened! Intense rumbling sounds filled the area they were in, completely shattering the calm of the outer sea. Huge waves even broke out on the surface of the water.
It was like a tsunami. This was unlike anything that had happened before.
Xu Qing shivered. Erniu’s eyes went wide, and he gasped. Neither of them hesitated at all to immediately power up the dreadnaught and send it flying up into the air and away from the surface. Unfortunately... the water was actually rising up into the air as well!
If one could look down on the scene from high, high above, it would be obvious that the rising portion of the sea was circular in shape. And it was so massive that, compared to it, the dreadnaught was like a tiny dot.
As that circular section of sea rose higher and higher, it became clear that it was actually a bowl! Astonishingly, this area of the sea was actually inside a gigantic bowl.
Next to become visible was a many-armed sea demon larger than an entire prefecture, rising up from the water. The only words that could describe it were hair-raising, destabilizing, and extremely disturbing! Īt was just too big! Īt held something in each of īts hands, and in one of those hands... was the sea-bowl Xu Qing and Erniu were in.
And īt was on the move.
Xu Qing and Erniu were reeling, and didn’t dare to move a muscle. Clearly, they were as insignificant as dust to this terrifying sea demon. A few hours passed, whereupon the gargantuan sea demon sank back down into the water, disappearing as if īt had never been there. The bowl also sank away.
Xu Qing and Erniu stood on the dreadnaught, their faces pale.
***
Some distance away in the void, Yu Liuchen’s face was also pale.
There’s something seriously wrong with these two. Otherwise, why would they be attracting the notice of so many ancient entities? I brought them to be bait, but I didn’t mean for them to hook things like this!
Yu Liuchen was starting to get the sense that if these two were allowed to roam free, they would very likely attract even more terrifying entities. And if that happened before the fish hē wanted to hook arrived, then... it was very possible that both the fisherman and the bait would perish.
With such thoughts in mind, Yu Liuchen unhesitatingly vanished, then reappeared on the dreadnaught with Xu Qing and Erniu.
***
Upon seeing Yu Liuchen, Xu Qing and Erniu guiltily clasped hands and bowed.
“There’s no need for bowing and scraping,” Yu Liuchen said. “I’m taking you out of here!”
“Huh?” Erniu blurted. “You’re not going to just let us go on our own?”
“If you go on your own, I’m afraid I’m going to run into something that’ll end up devouring me in a single bite.” Not wanting to waste any time, Yu Liuchen waved hīs hand to grab up Xu Qing and Erniu, then stepped up into the dome of heaven.
“Stop joking around, Senior,” Erniu said. “With you around, it wouldn’t be possible to run into something that’ll devour—”
Right then, Xu Qing inhaled sharply, and his scalp tingled as he thought back to what his Eldest Brother had mentioned earlier. He was just going to speak up to warn Yu Liuchen when Yu Liuchen suddenly looked to the side. Hīs face fell. Xu Qing and Erniu could sense that something was off, so they turned to look in the same direction.
“Why’s the sky turning red?” Erniu murmured, his eyes widening with panic. “Do my words really have this much of an effect on the outer sea?”
As for Xu Qing, he was dumbstruck, but at the same time, sensed something else. He felt more clearly than ever that there was an ancient gaze focused on him.
All of a sudden, the sky fell! It was as if some heaven-shaking, earth-shattering entity had opened its mouth.... Either that, or this entity’s mouth had always been opened, and now it was taking a bite.
1. We learned inchapter 578 that Erniu was the Grand Dancer. It was mentioned in a few other chapters, notablychapter 679 . ☜