Chapter 182: A Crazy Plan
Seeing the flames burning hotter within Xu Qing, the Captain’s expression flickered.
“Don’t kill her!” he blurted. “I need her!”
Before the words finished leaving his mouth, Xu Qing was in motion, moving with blinding speed to arrive right in front of Third Princess. As she gasped, he raised his right hand and slapped her across the side of the face.
A boom rang out, and blood sprayed from her mouth as she flopped backward like a kite with its string cut, smashing through the side of the deck and off the ship. However, before she could fall, the golden crow sent out a chain of black fire, which wrapped around her and threw her back onto the ship, where she landed in front of the Captain.
Xu Qing didn’t kill her. He could have done it with his first blow, if he wanted to. But he did take her bag of holding.
Third Princess coughed up another mouthful of blood. Half the bones in her body were broken, yet there was no fear in her eyes, only confusion. As the blood oozed down her chin, she looked at Xu Qing and curiously asked, “He used your name to do all sorts of things. Don’t you care? Shouldn’t you have it out for him? Why hit me?”
The Captain sighed, squatted next to her, and said, “Because it’s a matter between us bros. It doesn’t have anything to do with you. And since you were riling things up, who did you expect him to hit? If I was in his place, I’d have done the same thing.”
Reaching out, he picked up one of her hands to check for broken bones. He shook his head. “All broken. But at least you can talk. If you can talk, you can breathe, so that’s good.”
Third Princess, however, was still confused, and didn’t think it made sense that Xu Qing hit her. In fact, she even opened her mouth to ask some more questions, but the Captain smacked his palm onto her head, rendering her unconscious. Putting her into a special bag of holding, he turned and faced Xu Qing.
Now that they were alone, Xu Qing looked back at him and said, “You swore an oath using my name?”
“Nah, she was kidding.” the Captain blinked a few times, then shouted, “HEY! You dropped a spirit note.”
Reaching down, he shuffled his hands on the deck, then produced a spirit note worth a hundred spirit coins. Grimacing, he handed it to Xu Qing.
Xu Qing took it, but his eyes never left the Captain.
“Struck five times by heavenly lightning?”
“Hahaha. That could never happen. Little Junior Brother, I think you weren’t listening carefully. Furthermore, I have to offer you some constructive criticism. Don’t be so gullible when dealing with strangers! As your Elder Brother, and as your superior, I would absolutely, positively never do anything like you’re suggesting. It’s similar to how you have never owed me any spirit stones.”
“Consort?” Xu Qing asked.
The Captain sighed.
Xu Qing stared at him.
A long moment passed, then the Captain smacked his own forehead.
“Xu Qing,” he said conspiratorially, his eyebrows dancing up and down, “forget all that. I have some good news.... The reason I’m disguised as a Seazombie is that I’m trying to get a high-level zombie heart.
“And there’s more. My other goal is a lot more risky, so I originally was planning to keep it secret. But since we’re out here alone, I guess I can tell you.
“As you might know, the Seazombies have a lot of precious treasures and even more top-secret locations. Any one of those top-secret locations could change the whole situation with the war. Of course, that doesn’t really have anything to do with the two of us. The point is that one of those locations is the main target of my plan. I’m trying to reach one of the Seazombies’ most holy relics... one of the divine likenesses of the nine Seazombie ancestors!!
“According to the legends, the Seazombies started out as a species because of those nine statues. They’re divine likenesses made of a special, one-of-a-kind material.
“The zombification that creates Seazombies is carried out by those nine statues. They’re scattered throughout the Seazombie ancestral land, and not only are they the source of the zombification power, but also, they’re known as holy locations where Seazombies can be healed.
“Most importantly, most of the Seazombies’ top experts are out on the battlefield, meaning their defenses in their ancestral land are flimsy. Though they do have some measures in place to keep things secure, that young woman you nearly beat to death is very important in Seazombie society. She’s their Third Princess, and with her to lead the way, the Seazombies won’t be suspicious at all. And by the time they realize something’s happening, we’ll be long gone.”
The Captain had the same look in his eyes that Xu Qing remembered seeing back in the Merfolk Isles, before he did something really crazy. Upon hearing the explanation, Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed. Obviously, sneaking into the Seazombie ancestral land was an act that would take a massive amount of daring. And it wasn’t just sneaking into their ancestral land. The plan also involved finding holy relics of the Seazombies. That was something the word ‘daring’ couldn’t even begin to cover. Even though the Seazombie ancestral land was much emptier than normal right now, it was still something that only someone who was absolutely crazy would try to do.
Xu Qing looked deeply at the Captain, musing that he was clearly just as crazy as before. Just as he was about to refuse to help, the Captain excitedly continued talking.
“Each of the nine zombie ancestor statues have shocking power, as well as incomparably strong godliness. And they’re not just useful to Seazombies. Human cultivators can use them as well. They can easily open dharma apertures! I’ve heard people say that if you only take a small bite out of one of the statues, you can easily open dozens upon dozens!”
When Xu Qing heard that, his words of refusal stuck in his throat, and his heart started to pound. Right now he had 49 dharma apertures open, with the 50th just barely cracked, and a long way from being fully opened.
At this point, it was really getting hard to open them. Generally speaking, cultivators grouped dharma apertures into tens. In other words, going from 40 to 50 was a major upgrade. And the only way to open the next dharma aperture was going to be to kill an enemy with a life flame.
Truth be told, Xu Qing was making rapid progress. Without the Balefire Soulswallowing Scripture, and also the war, he would have been hard-pressed to progress this quickly. Normally speaking, Foundation Establishment cultivators would take ten years to start their first life flame. And in terms of the second... it wasn’t unusual to spend thirty years or more. And of course, they had to deal with threats to their life, plus the challenge of purging mutagen. For that reason, there weren’t very many cultivators with two life flames. As for three life flames, that usually took even longer.
50 to 60... that’s going to take a lot of soul power.
Xu Qing felt like he wasn’t progressing fast enough, and therefore the Captain’s description of the zombie ancestor statues was very enticing. After thinking about it for a moment, he looked at the bag of holding with Third Princess in it.
“I don’t trust her,” he said.
“Don’t worry about that, I’ll handle it,” the Captain said, slapping himself on the chest. “Besides, you don’t know her situation. If you did, you’d feel sorry for her. Trust me.”
Xu Qing shook his head. If the entire success of the plan hinged on Third Princess, then she would have to be completely and sincerely on their side. That was the only way they would be able to successfully sneak into the Seazombie ancestral land. She would have to provide cover to get them through all the defenses, inspections, and whatever else stood in their way to reach the zombie ancestor statues. Even the slightest slipup during that process would leave them damned by myriad tribulations.
The Captain blinked a few times as he saw Xu Qing hesitating. Then he chuckled. “Look, there’s a simple way to solve this problem. I can just disguise you as Third Princess! I’ve been around her long enough to know her well, plus, I got my hands on lots of information about her. I can’t claim to know her like the back of my hand, but I can give you some tips on how to talk like her, act like her, and so-on. It wouldn’t work long-term, but for our purposes, it’ll be perfectly sufficient.”
Raising his eyebrows, Xu Qing said, “If you know so much about her, you disguise yourself as her.”
“Deputy Captain Xu, I’m your superior!” the Captain said somberly.
“Consort?” Xu Qing replied.
The Captain’s expression suddenly wasn’t as somber. He sighed. “Why don’t we have a little bet? Whoever loses has to be Third Princess?” He looked around, then spotted a sea snake off in the distance. Apparently, it wasn’t very smart, as it was glaring at their warship aggressively. “That thing. Whoever kills it wins!”
The moment the words left the Captain’s mouth, he lit his life flame and simultaneously sent out a shocking frigid energy that froze everything around him, including Xu Qing. Then he burst into motion toward the snake. At the same time, an enormous hand appeared over the water, rumbling toward the sea snake.
Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed. Behind him, the golden crow cried out, causing flames to erupt that canceled out the Captain’s frigid energy. Xu Qing also burst into motion. At the same time, he summoned a huge hand which shot, not toward the sea snake, but toward the Captain’s magical technique.
Rumbling echoed out as the two hands slammed into each other. Then, Xu Qing rammed into the Captain, and more deafening rumbling echoed out. At the same time, Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior sent the black iron skewer shooting toward the sea snake.
However, even as lightning bolts crackled around the skewer, a frigid energy surged toward it. Cracking sounds rang out as it was sealed, leaving the patriarch shocked and unable to fight back.
Ice also built up around the sea snake, freezing it in place. But then the golden crow cried out, and fire roiled out, melting the ice.
Xu Qing lifted his hand, and the heavenly saber slashed down, backed by volcanic force. At the same time, he clenched his hand into a fist and punched out, backing his fleshly body power with Golden Crow Assimilates Myriad Spirits.
That shocking fist strike caused a vortex to spring up in front of Xu Qing. At the same time, it emanated wisps of zombie poison!
The Captain’s eyes narrowed, and he performed an incantation gesture to block the move. A huge boom rang out, and the Captain staggered backward.
Meanwhile, Xu Qing accelerated.
“It hasn’t been that long, and you’ve changed so much!” the Captain blurted. “Your fleshly body power is off the charts! Combined with your profound radiance state, you’re comparable to the three-flame level! Also, what’s with the zombie poison? You seem more like a Seazombie than I do! You’re bullying me with that imperial-class technique!”
A crazy look appeared in the Captain’s eyes. In order to ensure that Xu Qing had to become Third Princess, and also to save face for himself, his eyes suddenly shone with golden light.
Within that light was a golden magical symbol, and as it pulsed, he erupted with power that surpassed the two-flame level!