Chapter 125: It Was Worth It!
Xu Qing had never even come close to being this badly injured. Both of his dharmaboat’s lines of defense had been destroyed, and even though he fought back with godliness, the front half of the boat was crushed. He had used a large number of talisman treasures as well, and had fought back with every scrap of his great circle fleshly body strength. Despite all that, he barely made it out alive.
In fact, he could tell that even with the violet crystal’s powers of regeneration, it would take quite some time before he was back to normal. Fear still lingered in his heart despite the fact that he’d made his escape. He had the feeling that if he’d been missing even a single line of defense, then he would be dead right now.
“But... it was worth it!” he murmured as he gritted his teeth against the pain. Then he decided to take a quick inventory.
He didn’t care as much about the talisman treasures as he did his dharmaboat, which he had worked so hard to upgrade. Right now, it had almost no godliness left. The front half was almost completely destroyed. It was going to cost a lot to get it back in shape.
Even still, he was extremely excited at how much he had benefited.
And I still have the knockoff Spirit Breath Lamp! Now I understand why the Captain was willing to put everything on the line. As long as you succeed, the rewards are spectacular!
That said, Xu Qing didn’t think it was a good idea to make a practice of this sort of thing. Otherwise, he really would end up dead one day.
Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to calm down, then circulated his cultivation base and tried to get the violet crystal to heal him faster. At the moment, he couldn’t even move, and knew that the longer he stayed in place, the more danger he would be in.
Before long, an hour had passed.
***
Some distance away from Xu Qing, but still within the bounds of the temple complex, was an area where someone had dug out a small cave in the ground. Inside the cave was a flesh-covered statue, and sitting next to it was Zhang San.
Zhang San was guarding the entrance of the cave. Outside were a host of explosive devices, as well as a lot of poison. Anyone who tried to approach would have a hard time not dying while doing so. Leaving the cave would be tricky, but Zhang San had left a path and knew how to tread it.
But not even all those preparations were good enough for Zhang San, so he had spread his thread weapon throughout the area as well. Occasionally, he would look back at the flesh-covered statue and sigh.
“Come on, Captain. You’re not going to die inside there, are you? Did you really have to do this? Why are you so interested in risking your poor little life? Wouldn’t you rather have some fun with some of the girls back in the sect?
“That was Joine! She might not be a real god, but she’s a terrifying godly entity. None of the Merfolk are on her level, except for maybe that Meegah, although who knows if he’s even real.
“Don’t die on me, Captain. If you do, then all these years of investments in you will have been for nothing.”
Zhang San had been sighing in this manner for about four hours, and had already resigned himself to the fact that the Captain was probably dead. Shaking his head, he decided that he would wait for the time it takes an incense stick to burn, and if the Captain didn’t come out by then, he would stop waiting.
Looking around, he was contemplating whether or not he should cut off a chunk of flesh from the statue to keep as a souvenir, when suddenly the statue trembled. And then, a cry echoed out from inside that made Zhang San shiver.
Expression flickering, he backed up, while simultaneously manipulating his thread weapon to surround the statue.
Then the statue trembled again, and the crevice in the flesh split open, growing larger and then smaller, then back and forth between those two states, as if it were breathing. The howling inside also grew clearer. It seemed like some terrifying creature was inside, trying to get out.
Astonished, Zhang San backed up again, until he was at the entrance of the cave, ready to flee at any moment.
As he waited there nervously, the flesh on the statue twitched, and a hand stretched out from inside. It was covered in blood, and only had three fingers attached. Most of the skin was flayed off, making the bones clearly visible.
The hand gripped the flesh on the statue, and used it to struggle out from inside. Eventually, the Captain’s torso appeared. He had no hair, and his head was completely covered in blood. Most of the skin on his face was melted off, and all the bloody flesh made it seem like he wasn’t even human. He was covered in all sorts of ghastly wounds, some of which pierced all the way through him. However, his right hand was tightly gripping a wriggling chunk of golden flesh. From the terrifying godliness that radiated off of the bloody flesh, it was obvious that it was Joine’s flesh! As soon as the flesh was out in the open, the air around it rippled and distorted, and seemed to fill with countless agonized shrieks.
Zhang San’s mind spun, and blood oozed out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. His entire body felt unstable.
“Pull me out!” the Captain said urgently.
It took effort, but Zhang San wrapped his thread around the Captain, then pulled. Slowly but surely, the Captain’s torso emerged from the crevice in the statue.
Then he dropped to the ground.
His lower half, including both legs, was gone. Only his upper half remained, though it was all a mass of mangled flesh.
“Hurry up and destroy the statue!” the Captain cried. “There’s something behind me!!”
At the same time, he performed a one-handed incantation gesture and pointed at the statue.
Zhang San could sense the danger, so he gritted his teeth and joined in the effort. Booms rang out as they attacked the flesh-covered statue. A moment later, it exploded.
As it was destroyed, a howl of rage echoed out from inside.
The mere echo of that howl caused blood to spray from Zhang San’s mouth, and he staggered backward, cracking sounds emanated out from him as upwards of forty jade slips on him shattered. Then he fell to the ground, heavily injured. After struggling to produce some medicinal pills, he consumed them. Only then did some of the color return to his face.
The Captain also coughed up blood as he tumbled off to the side. However, he didn’t let go of the chunk of flesh.
After it was all over, he laughed uproariously.
“Who else could have done this but me?” he said excitedly. “As soon as I heard about the attack on the Merfolk Isles, I hatched this plan. And now I finally got some flesh from a godly entity. I pulled it off! I really pulled it off this time!”
Grimacing in pain, but still chuckling, he quickly put away Joine’s flesh.
“Was it worth it?” Zhang San asked, smiling wryly. “You lost your legs in the process.”
“It was worth it!! Who cares about half a body? I specifically cultivated a secret magic for regrowing lost limbs. Couple that with some of the best medicine from the sect, and I’ll have my legs back in a few months. And with the godliness from Joine’s flesh, I’ll recover even faster.”
The Captain looked around. “Hey, where’s the deputy captain?”
Continuing to consume some medicinal pills, Zhang San said, “You told us to wait for the time it takes an incense stick to burn. That was four hours ago. Junior Brother Xu stood guard for two incense sticks’ worth of time. When you didn’t come back, he went to take care of some other things. Before he left, he gave me a bunch of poison powders.”
“That makes sense. Even I didn’t think I would be in there that long. And I almost didn’t make it back.” The Captain produced an apple, took a bite, and was about to continue explaining what happened when a huge rumbling sound reached their ears.
In fact, all of Joine Island shook down to its core, so violently that all of the buildings collapsed. At the same time, streams of black mist emerged from the buildings, the seagrass, and the anemones. Massive amounts of it seeped out of everything in the underwater world, and as it congregated together, it turned into black clouds that roiled out in all directions.
The mutagen it contained was so strong it melted everything it touched. What was more, there was something gruish in it that, when it touched the mangled corpses in the underwater world, caused them to come back to life.
More black mist seeped out, and it made the black clouds thicker and thicker, covering everything. Seeing this development, the Seven Blood Eyes disciples in the underwater world reacted with shock. Without any hesitation, all of them rushed toward the exits.
The ground trembled as if dragons were hidden in the earth, to the point where the Captain’s torso fell over. Barely managing to keep his apple in his mouth, he scrambled to climb up Zhang San’s back.
“The Merfolk are finally using their ultimate trump card. I took too long getting back. Hurry, we have to get out of here! Get us to the exit!”
As the black mist surged toward them, Zhang San started running toward the exit.
***
In another part of the temple complex, the violet crystal had healed Xu Qing enough that he opened his eyes. When he sensed the rumbling, and saw the black clouds gathering, his pupils constricted.
Without the slightest hesitation, he put away his dharmaboat, which was so badly damaged it couldn’t fly. Gritting his teeth, he started running. Only moments after he left, black clouds filled the area where he had been recuperating.
Because of the masses of black mist, no one could possibly see that, on the seemingly blank walls of the temple, the mural was glittering, almost as if it wanted to reveal itself. However, the Merfolk emperor in the mural slowly faded away and disappeared.
All of the Seven Blood Eyes disciples under the water were now rushing to escape.
Dramatic things were also happening in the outside world. Black clouds weren’t just appearing on Joine Island. They were also present on Emiche Island, Meegah Island, and Nethervault Island.
From a distance, it looked like all four islands were being covered with black clouds.
This was the final trump card the Merfolk had to play.
High in the air on his dreadnaught, Master Seventh looked down at the Merfolk Isles and the spell formation covering them. Although the spell formation blocked physical sight, he could sense what was happening. However, instead of causing a serious expression to appear on his face, it prompted him to turn to the Merfolk patriarch and laugh.
“Nice. You’re finally doing something impressive. And here I was worried that this competition was going to be too easy for these wolf pups. Up to this point it was hardly a competition. It was more like you just giving us gifts. Thankfully, you do have some fight in you. Now that the difficulty has been ramped up, the wolf pups are finally going to face some real danger!”