Chapter 191: Forbidden Sea Bounty!
Up above was a moderate wind and a beautiful sun. Waves billowed on the sea as far as the eye could see. The sky was blue, the water was black, and the high noon sun created beautiful, touching scenery. As waves crested, a group of swordfish flew out of the water in a graceful dance. When they splashed back down, colorful rainbows appeared in the resulting spray. The warm beauty made the black, cold waters seem slightly more forgiving and peaceful.
This part of the sea was very far away from Seven Blood Eyes, and relatively close to Seazombie territory. Because of the war, there weren’t as many trading ships as normal. Furthermore, the mutagen was strong, and thus, there were many large sea beasts under the surface.
At the moment, a bluegreen dragon sped along underwater. It had a vicious countenance and many sharp teeth. Because of the aura it emitted, most of the sea beasts it encountered fled in terror.
Nothing stood in the way of this dragon as it sped along rapidly. That said, if a Gold Core cultivator were present to look at it closely, they would be able to tell that this bluegreen dragon wasn’t alive!
It was the manifestation of a magical technique. What was more, inside of it was a young man sitting cross-legged in meditation. However, a flaming black umbrella over his head masked his aura. His clothing was tattered, and he himself was in a bad state. He was covered with deep wounds, and his aura was unstable. He was injured internally as well, and within his body was a strange black thread.
The thread wasn’t physical. It was illusory, yet it was embedded deeply within his flesh and blood, and was preventing him from recovering. All of the flesh around it was withered, and its presence made him feel like his body was breaking down.
This young man was, of course, Xu Qing, still in the process of fleeing from the Seazombies. After escaping from the restricted area around the seventh zombie ancestor’s divine likeness, he was able to successfully teleport away. That said, he hadn’t been teleported out to the open water, but rather, to the shoreline. Using his ability to disguise himself, he had forced his injuries into temporary stability, and then snuck out to the sea. Along the way, he had encountered various Seazombie experts, but by being very careful, had avoided any dangerous situations.
The most relevant factor in his ability to escape was that, because of information provided by Ying Ling, most of the Seazombies’ efforts were focused on the ringleader of the disaster, the Captain. Though they were also looking for Xu Qing, he obviously wasn’t as important to them.
As of this moment, ten days had passed since the seventh zombie ancestor’s nose had exploded.
During that time, Xu Qing relied on the speed of his bluegreen dragon to get him deep into the Forbidden Sea. Unfortunately, his injuries weren’t healing, which was very frustrating. The source of that trouble was the illusory black thread inside of him, which came from the three-headed six-armed Gold Core Seazombie. Though Xu Qing managed to escape with his life, he had taken that black thread with him.
The thread was strong. He had used his life flame to try to burn it away, but it didn’t work. He had tried suppressing it with his life lamp, but that didn’t work either. Some of that was because Xu Qing’s cultivation base wasn’t at the level to fully unleash all of the lamp’s capabilities. Regardless, he was currently far from being in top form, but at least he wasn’t dead.
Eventually, he had summoned the black umbrella to prevent his aura from leaking out. And then he had attempted to use Golden Crow Assimilates Myriad Spirits to assimilate the black thread. The imperial-class technique existed on a very high level, so even though Xu Qing’s cultivation base wasn’t at the point to fully utilize it, when combining it with his life lamp, and further adding in the consuming ability of his shadow, he was finally able to make some progress.
Another seven or eight days passed. He had now been traveling with his bluegreen dragon for half a month. At that point, he finally managed to eradicate the black thread.
The moment it happened, he coughed up a huge mouthful of black blood that obviously contained poison. When Xu Qing saw that it was about to infect his dragon and the surrounding water, he quickly took out a small bottle and collected the blood. He could tell that it contained a type of poison that he had never seen before. Either that, or it wasn’t actually poison. Looking closer, he realized that the blood contained countless black beetles that weren’t visible to the naked eye. Actually, the black ‘thread’ that had existed inside him earlier was actually made up of these black beetles.
If I research these things, I might be able to turn them into one of my trump cards.
Taking a deep breath, he put the bottle away and focused on his injuries.
Without the black beetles inside him, he was already starting to heal. Seeing that, he finally was able to consider how much he had profited from his latest venture. The most obvious aspect was the fact that he had 65 dharma apertures burning inside of him. That alone made him feel very satisfied.
“It was worth it!” he murmured.
Beyond that, he had acquired an interesting item, which was currently in his bag of holding. Specifically, it was an item about 30 meters tall, so irregular in shape that it was hard to tell what it was at first glance. Only by taking in its shape as a whole was it possible to realize that this item was none other than… the seventh zombie ancestor statue’s nose! Now that it was away from Seazombie territory, the material had transformed, and it was ordinary in nature. It was gray, and didn’t seem miraculous at all.
However, Xu Qing didn’t want to just throw it away. Perhaps he could find some use for it later. After all... the nose was a holy item to the Seazombies.
He had no idea what dramatic ramifications would result from his actions. He had some speculations, but in the end, didn’t think that they would be too severe. He and the Captain had absorbed some of that blood elixir. Also... the Captain bit off a chunk of the statue’s toe, apparently causing the statue to become unstable and resulting in the nose exploding.
It wasn’t that big of a deal. Besides, the Captain had mentioned that the zombie ancestor statues could repair themselves, and therefore, it was entirely possible the statue was already back to normal.
As for the Captain....
He won’t die that easily.
Xu Qing wasn’t sure exactly why he felt that way, he just knew that the Captain was not the kind of person who could be easily dispatched. Not wanting to waste time thinking about it, he sat down cross-legged within the bluegreen dragon, focusing on healing and also directing the dragon toward the Merfolk Isles.
His plan was to get back to Seven Blood Eyes. He was so far from the sect that it would probably take a year and a half to get back on his own. It would be a lot more convenient to use the teleportation portals at the Merfolk Isles to shorten the journey. Because he was participating in the war, he could use that portal for free.
***
While Xu Qing was traveling and healing up, the Seazombies were in absolute chaos. Although they had tried to prevent news from spreading about the seventh zombie ancestor’s nose, word eventually leaked.
The news of the matter struck the Seazombies like a bolt of lightning. Once the matter got out into the open, word spread like wildfire. Before long, virtually all the Seazombies knew about it, and they were all enraged.
That was especially true of all the Seazombies that had been zombified by that specific zombie ancestor statue. Their relationship with that divine likeness was like that between a child and a mother, and therefore, their reaction was even more intense.
The fact that their zombie ancestor’s nose was missing couldn’t be any more humiliating. After a thorough investigation, they found out that the perpetrators were two damnable Foundation Establishment disciples from Seven Blood Eyes.
To mortals, Foundation Establishment cultivators were incredibly powerful. But when considered from the perspective of an entire species, they didn’t count for much. How could the Seazombies not devolve into a violent rage when they discovered that low-level people like that had committed such a heinous crime?
It wasn’t just the ordinary Seazombies who were angry. The nobility, and especially the king, were absolutely incensed. It was the same with their powerful old-timers.
After the news spread through Seazombie territory, it eventually reached the front lines of the war.
On the one hand, it caused the Seazombies at the front line to fight with almost reckless abandon. On the other hand, their troop formations suffered. There were some military commanders who could turn their subordinates’ rage into an asset. But it was a double-edged sword, and without extreme care, could be self-destructive.
There was no way the wily old foxes in Seven Blood Eyes would fail to take advantage of a situation like that. Once they realized what was happening, they started fighting even harder. Over the course of roughly half a month, they made serious progress in the war.
The Seven Blood Eyes leadership was surprised by this turn of events, but it didn’t take long for them to realize what was happening. They soon learned that two Seven Blood Eyes disciples had done something absolutely astonishing behind enemy lines. After hearing the news, quite a few of the peaklords couldn’t help but look in shock at Master Seventh. They knew full well that only Master Seventh’s Seventh Peak apprentices could possibly pull off something like this. After all... it was only sixty years ago that Master Seventh had done something very similar. That said, his escapade wasn’t as shocking as this event.
Even Master Seventh was taken aback, and had a very odd expression on his face. When he heard the news, it looked like something clicked in his head, but he didn’t say anything out loud.
Regardless, the matter raised the spirits of all Seven Blood Eyes disciples. The patriarch was extremely pleased, and issued a proclamation that the two disciples who perpetrated the affair would be handsomely rewarded.
Before Seven Blood Eyes could even determine who the two disciples were, the Seazombies did them the favor by announcing the names. It took a lot of investigation on the Seazombies’ part, but they had managed to discover the identities of the criminals and put bounties on their heads! And the rewards weren’t just for Seazombies, but for anyone who brought in the bounty! The list had existed for a long time, and the number one name on it had always been Sir Bloodsmelter. The reward for his head was very high. In the number two spot was Master Seventh. After him were various peaklords and vice-peaklords.
Virtually everyone in the top ten was a Gold Core expert. But now, the list was different.
Wanted: Dead not Alive.
#1 - Chen Erniu - This Seventh Peak disciple is currently the director of the Violent Crimes Division. He is the mastermind behind the plan to desecrate the divine likeness of our zombie ancestor. Any Seazombie who lays eyes on this person should do anything possible to kill him, dismember him, chop him into pieces, and consume his flesh and blood! Whoever kills him will be rewarded with a great dao legacy, will be placed in the king’s echelon, will be given the right to take ten items from the Treasure Storehouse, and will be given 100,000,000 spirit stones! [1]
#2 - Xu Qing - This Seventh Peak disciple is currently a vice-director in the Violent Crimes Division. He is an accomplice in the plan to desecrate the divine likeness of our zombie ancestor. Any Seazombie who lays eyes on this person must kill him immediately. Whoever kills him will be placed in the king’s echelon, will be given the right to take ten items from the Treasure Storehouse, and will be given 70,000,000 spirit stones!
#3 - Sir Bloodsmelter is the patriarch of Seven Blood Eyes….