Chapter 120: Leaving Poison Behind
As Xu Qing watched the Captain drop into the chasm, his words also fell, except not into the chasm, but rather, into Xu Qing’s heart.
This new information was very astonishing. In the past, Xu Qing’s understanding of forbidden regions came mostly from the jungle outside the scavenger basecamp where he’d lived. All he knew was that the deeper in you went, the more sinister danger there was.
He had heard about Forbidden by the Phoenix on the other side of the continent, but had been under the impression the only difference was that it was larger, and the mutant beasts and grues inside were stronger.
Now he realized that understanding was mistaken, and what he knew before was just the tip of the iceberg. The world was huge, and humans were just a small part of it. And the larger part was made up of nonhumans and numerous forbidden regions. Above the forbidden regions were the forbidden grounds, which were on a completely different level, and could produce new species of intelligent life. And then... the Captain mentioned god domains, but offered no explanation about them.
Regardless, there were many types of powerful entities and grues in the world. It made Xu Qing think of the saber-wielding statue in the temple complex, the giant pulling the dragon chariot, and the true form of Sealizard Island.
Looking over his shoulder at the Seazombie Ding Xiaohai was fighting, his eyes shone. Forbidden by the Zombie had produced Seazombies, and they were very powerful.
If Xu Qing had faced a Merfolk or human cultivator in the great circle of Qi Condensation, he would have killed them much faster.
I wonder what Foundation Establishment Seazombies are like.
He had the feeling that there were definitely Foundation Establishment Seazombies below. The spell formation above restricted cultivation bases, but even still, he would have to be very cautious about engaging any Seazombies. That was especially true considering the spell formation was obviously becoming increasingly unstable.
The more he learned about the mysteries of the world he lived in, the more he felt like he was simply too weak. He needed to get to Foundation Establishment as quickly as possible. He needed to get stronger.
Taking a deep breath, he jumped into the pit. It was essentially a huge tunnel carved through the dark soil, and it was so deep he couldn’t see the bottom.
He could just barely make out the Captain as a tiny dot below him. As Xu Qing fell, his eyes narrowed. He didn’t attempt to control his speed, but just allowed himself to fall, while simultaneously examining his surroundings.
The further down he got, the more humid it became. He saw lichenoid plants growing, and even spotted a few places where flowers bloomed in the darkness. As the humidity grew, he eventually heard a sound from below. It didn’t seem like the Captain had been attacked, but rather, had splashed into water.
Xu Qing tapped into his cultivation base, then took out his iron skewer and stabbed it into the wall. A grating sound rang out as the skewer dug a huge furrow into the soil. Eventually, the friction caused him to slow down.
He could see water at the bottom of the tunnel. It was pitch black, and he couldn’t see anything underneath the surface. However, it was obvious that the path forward went through the water. After some thought, he scattered some poison powder, then waited a few moments. Nothing happened.
Next, he took everything that wasn’t waterproof and put it in his bag of holding. Finally he dropped into the water, surrounded by the defenses of the Seaforming Scripture, which kept the water at bay.
After proceeding through the water for a time, he realized the Captain was nowhere to be seen. It made it seem like this dark tunnel contained some unknown danger that had swallowed the Captain whole.
Without any hesitation, Xu Qing took out a bag of varied poison powders that he had prepared for a situation like this, and sent it outside of his defenses. Once it was in the water, the poisons started spreading everywhere. Keeping a good grip on the bag, he continued sinking down. As he went, the black water was infected by the poison, and turned even darker.
Perhaps because of how deadly Xu Qing’s poisons were, as he sank down, no dangers appeared. As he got closer and closer to the end of the tunnel, he ran lower and lower on poison. Finally, he shoved the bag down toward the exit of the tunnel. There, it opened, and the poison spread out like a cloud of ink.
If there was no enemy waiting there to ambush him, nothing would come of it. But if there was an enemy there, then they would regret setting an ambush. Suddenly, the water below seethed, and screams could be heard as six Merfolk cultivators emerged who had been lying in wait. Their skin was already turning greenish-black and rotting away. Moments later, they were dead.
Coldness filled Xu Qing’s eyes as he moved as quickly as possible toward the exit. As soon as he was out of the tunnel, he heard rumbling booms everywhere, along with muffled shouting through the water. He was in the middle of a chaotic battle.
At the same time, the magnificent underwater world spread out in front of his eyes. Everything here was upside down, and in fact, you had to turn yourself around so your feet would touch the surface of the island. Multicolored coral was everywhere. Every building was made of it, and they were all very luxurious. And there were sea anemones all over. The anemones had red centers surrounded by masses of swaying white tentacles, all of them covered with sharp spines. The tentacles of the anemones were of varying lengths. Some were only a handful of meters long, others were dozens of meters long. But the way they swayed made the underwater world seem exceedingly beautiful.
Countless semitransparent eggs floated everywhere, and within each one was a child of seven or eight years old. Shockingly, these were the Merfolk children.
This was the true world of the Merfolk, and their real foundation. As Xu Qing took in the sights, he looked around at the surrounding fighting.
There were Seven Blood Eyes disciples plundering both the coral itself and anything else of value. And there were large numbers of Merfolk cultivators, viciously attacking the disciples. Because blood couldn’t fall to the ground, it floated everywhere in the water. Before Xu Qing could fully take stock of the situation, his eyes glittered coldly, and he lunged forward to bash into a Merfolk cultivator that had been about to ambush him.
A thump rang out as the Merfolk cultivator’s body collapsed, sending out clouds of blood everywhere. At the same time, one of the nearby anemones opened its mouth and sent its tentacles sweeping toward Xu Qing. Before the tentacles reached him, they started withering up. The effect spread to the anemone’s main body, and it turned pitch black. Ignoring the anemones, Xu Qing started moving while simultaneously looking around.
There weren’t just Merfolk fighting the Seven Blood Eyes disciples, there were also Seazombie cultivators. At a glance, Xu Qing could tell there were around a hundred in total. They were all extremely fierce, and there were seven or eight who seemed very close to the Foundation Establishment level. To fight Seazombies like that, disciples had to work together in groups of five or more.
Seeing all that, Xu Qing waved his hand, and his iron skewer shot out, stabbing into the forehead of an enemy that had been rushing toward him before returning to him.
He kept moving.
He rarely took the initiative to attack anyone. He wasn’t here for killing. Rather, he wanted to find the source of the fluctuations that had called out to the Spirit Breath Lamp. Actually, he didn’t even want to be on this battlefield. As he moved in the direction of the fluctuations, a sense of danger suddenly rose up in him.
Stopping, he looked off into the distance.
Across the battlefield, he noticed a group of a few dozen Merfolk who looked different than the ones he was familiar with. They wore white robes, and emanated bizarre fluctuations that were neither mutagen nor spirit power. In fact, when he sensed those fluctuations, Xu Qing was reminded of the godliness in his dharmaboat. His pupils constricted.
What was more shocking was that each of these Merfolk had a vicious mutant beast with them!
Some of them were humanoid, except extremely tall and slender. They were dozens of meters tall, making them seem as slender as bamboo. Furthermore, they had very large heads and green skin. Some looked like giants with two heads, their faces vicious as they walked along snapping their teeth in attacks. Some had eyes that looked like boils, with extremely long tongues snaking out from the pupils. And there were some that looked like rotting sharks with rusting weapons stabbed all over them.
“Godpriests,” Xu Qing murmured. He had learned of the godpriests from Huang Yan’s jade slip. They were a special type of Merfolk cultivator who were very rare, and didn’t use magical techniques powered by spirit power. Instead, their power stemmed from the Merfolk’s gods, and they were known as god magic.
The strange beasts the godpriests led were materializations of their god magic.
They immediately had a big effect on the battlefield. The Seven Blood Eyes disciples seemed flustered. However, the disciples were like venomous bugs in a jar, and were ruthless by nature. In fact, many of them seemed interested in targeting the godpriests with attacks. After all, since the godpriests were high-level Merfolk, they obviously had riches that surpassed those of ordinary cultivators.
Xu Qing wasn’t interested. Looking away from the godpriests, he prepared to continue on his way when his expression suddenly became very odd. On another part of the battlefield, he noticed a mangled ‘corpse’ that, despite being covered with blood and very grisly wounds, was actually crawling along at high speed. It would crawl, then stop, occasionally stopping at the corpses of Merfolk and disciples, where it would clearly search through them for things to take. It would then keep moving.
If it encountered some powerful enemy, the corpse would just lay there unmoving. If it encountered someone with an ordinary cultivation base, it would suddenly attack and kill them, take their belongings, then continue to act like a corpse. Although this ‘corpse’ had a good disguise on, Xu Qing still recognized who it really was. Elder Brother Zhang San....
The moment Xu Qing noticed Zhang San, he sensed some fluctuations from behind him, and he spun in place ready to throw out his iron skewer. That was when he heard a familiar voice.
“Hey, Deputy Captain Xu! It’s me!”
It was the Captain.
However... he looked quite different from earlier. He was greenish-black, and looked like he might have been poisoned recently, as his lips were purple. As he walked toward Xu Qing, he popped antidote pills into his mouth.