Chapter Seventy: A Mountain of Corpses and a Sea of Bodies

The giant whale lay prone upon the ground, transforming into vast islands; between these islands, torrents crashed against the reefs, eventually swallowed by the earth, while the spray reflected forests, canyons, and plains.

Far above in the sky, a mirage shimmered with extraordinary brilliance.

When the sunlight shifted to a certain angle, such mirages would be refracted into view.

It seemed to show the entirety of the secret realm.

“Tell me, do you think the sun above our heads is real or false?” Tang Yuan pointed to the distant setting sun, whose afterglow stained the clouds red.

That sun had hung in the west since their arrival and remained there still, even after three days and nights traversing the atoll beneath their feet.

“It must be false,” Li Feiyu replied offhandedly. “This place seems to be a cave heaven, and that sun is likely just an artifact shaped after the true sun.”

He gazed at the sun with longing, though he knew it was not his to claim. “But even if it’s just an artifact, after being sealed here for who knows how many years, it’s probably become a supreme treasure.”

As they spoke, Xu Zhong leapt into the water, and soon resurfaced with an ink-black whetstone, clear as amber. Li Feiyu couldn’t help but laugh, then asked, “Brother Xu, what’s this?”

Xu Zhong summoned the Cloud-Swallowing Sword, guiding it with his energy, using the whetstone to hone the blade.

“My sword hasn’t been sharpened yet, so its power is limited.” Xu Zhong seemed a little embarrassed. “Just as you were discussing the sun, I happened to spot this whetstone and thought to grind my sword.”

The stone was heavy and fragrant, its scent refreshing the spirit. Upon closer inspection, a dragonfish was sealed within, its scales translucent and tinged with red, visible only under sunlight.

“There’s still life in that dragonfish, it seems, though its soul has long since faded, leaving only its form,” Fang Yuan observed, using her eye technique to analyze it.

“Aren’t fossils always like that?” Xu Zhong replied, sharpening his sword as he spoke.

The Cloud-Swallowing Sword had no edge yet, so a swordsmith needed to hammer the blade blank with exquisite skill, forging edge, spine, and the whole body until it could truly be called a sword.

Xu Zhong wasn’t aiming for perfection—he just wanted an edge; the rest he’d leave to experts.

“But when I was underwater, I saw a passage down below,” Xu Zhong recalled. “It hung like a river of stars, magnificent—should we check it out?”

“An underwater passage?” Fang Yuan opened her mystical eyes, seeking through the balance of yin and yang, the five elements, but found nothing.

“We might as well look!” Yun Yong rose. “I suspect the reason we can’t leave this island is because we haven’t found the right path.”

Li Feiyu pondered, then nodded in agreement.

“Then I’ll trouble you to lead the way, Xu Zhong.”

Xu Zhong invoked the art of water entry and plunged beneath the surface.

This art allowed one to dive deep without drowning.

The others followed suit.

There was little life in these waters; only the occasional fish darted by.

But as soon as they entered, the party saw the passage Xu Zhong had described.

It was truly breathtaking.

Silvery light, dense as mist, illuminated the whole expanse as if it were day, while shimmering waves sent countless colored ribbons fluttering on invisible winds.

The passage appeared suddenly before them, as if conjured from nothing.

“This is the passage I mentioned,” Xu Zhong paused before it, and the others gathered round.

“There are inscriptions!”

He gestured casually.

They looked, and all drew a sharp breath.

“What are these?”

The inscriptions were carved as steles, three to each side of the passage.

The cloud seal script twisted in the shifting water, casting a strange golden light, though it was mostly drowned out by the brilliant silver radiance; if not for Xu Zhong’s pointing them out, they might not have noticed at all.

Xu Zhong couldn’t read cloud seal and took them only for inscriptions, but Li Feiyu and the others, born to noble families, understood.

“Heaven and earth are natural, foul vapors disperse, within the cave is mystery, splendid and bright is the great origin!” Fang Yuan read aloud the meaning of the first stele’s script without thinking.

“From all eight directions, mighty spirits empower my nature, talismans and decrees of the numinous treasure proclaim to the nine heavens!”

So read the second stele.

Xu Zhong’s heart skipped; he sensed danger and glanced nervously around.

Only rippling water surrounded them—nothing else.

“Heavenly dry net, cave steel most profound, slay demons, bind evil, destroy ten thousand ghosts!”

The passage seemed to tremble as Xu Zhong’s unease grew. “Don’t keep reading! Something’s wrong!”

But none of the others heeded him. Li Feiyu and his companions seemed entranced, reciting the inscriptions in a daze.

“Spell of Mount Zhong, primordial jade script, recite once for health and long life!”

A miasma seemed to rise in the water, suppressing even the silver light, sullying the waves and filling the space with a foul stench.

Xu Zhong’s heart pounded—he knew he had to act.

From the purple jade gourd flashed a streak of sword light, which split into four and ensnared his companions, then Xu Zhong turned to flee.

But the four were as heavy as mountains, impossible to move.

Looking closer, Xu Zhong realized his sword light had bound not people, but the very inscriptions.

“Follow the Five Sacred Peaks, let Eight Seas bear witness, may demon kings bow their heads, guardians attend my throne!” Li Feiyu’s aura grew chaotic; his immaculate body collapsed, drawing countless miasma fiends, which vied to devour his flesh.

“Something’s wrong!” The inscription on the last stele had been erased.

Yun Yong, who had been studying that stele, suddenly awoke.

“This is the Purifying Heaven and Earth Spell.” He glanced at the stele before Tang Yuan. “Someone has altered the inscription. That line should not be ‘destroy ten thousand ghosts,’ but ‘deliver ten thousand souls.’”

A ghostly blue gleam flickered in his eyes. He opened his mouth and thundered, “Awaken!”

Li Feiyu and the others jolted as if struck by lightning, snapped out of their trance, and activated their Water Luminary Vaults to seal their vital essence, while the Fire Luminary Vaults shook off the miasma fiends, restoring their immaculate state.

By now, the world underwater had been overturned.

The silver light condensed into a breath of primordial energy, now shifting in length as if inhaling and exhaling, hinting at some awakening presence.

“Careful!” Xu Zhong’s scalp prickled with dread.

Within the miasma, aside from fiends, something else lurked.

He saw fierce monsters, swift as lightning, darting for the back of Yun Yong’s head.

Boom!

A divine glow flared, bouncing the fiends away.

“It’s souls!” Fang Yuan saw clearly and raised a flowing water-sleeve.

Her sleeve rippled out, conjuring whirlpools that engulfed the spirits.

“The souls lost in this endless sea cannot reach the underworld; they accumulate here. That Purifying Spell was meant to deliver them,” Yun Yong spat forth true fire.

Amazingly, the fire burned fiercer underwater than above.

Souls ignited in the flames, blue ghostly fire making the scene all the more eerie.

“Someone tampered with the inscription, erasing the final words about dissipating evil and preserving the vital breath. Without that, the spell no longer delivers souls.”

Without this power, souls amassed in untold numbers below.

Yun Yong turned to the primordial energy.

He gathered his full might, grasping a long spear.

With one thrust, he unleashed supreme divine light.

That light annihilated countless souls but could not touch the primordial energy.

And in its wake, an even mightier sword light surged forth.

Xu Zhong’s sword light stretched three hundred miles in a single line, cleaving the divine radiance.

In an instant, the pure and turbid primordial energy thickened into dense demonic miasma.

Demons arise from the human heart.

So too with demonic energy.

Anything that disrupts mind, soul, or will, corrupts a cultivator’s heart, and stirs greed, slaughter, or desire—all can be called demonic energy.

This miasma was ancient and oppressive; with each breath, whispers from ages past seemed to echo, chilling the blood.

Beneath the water, a demon lord dwelled.

The souls tainted by this demonic energy grew wild and violent.

“This is no place to linger—we must leave at once!” Li Feiyu suppressed his fear and summoned his flying shuttle.

The others did the same.

Xu Zhong hurriedly invoked his purple jade gourd.

The gourd swelled, and with a leap, he landed atop it.

Guided by his will, the gourd’s lid flew open, sword light gushed from its mouth, churning the water into furious waves and sending surges lapping the surface.

Riding this recoil, Xu Zhong’s gourd shot ahead, outpacing even Yun Yong and the others.

Countless souls perished in the sword energy from his treasure.

Xu Zhong soared on his sword, splitting his sword light to ensnare the slower Fang Yuan.

Sweating profusely, Fang Yuan clung nervously to the gourd, afraid she might fall off, but it remained steady.

The souls did not pursue them, instead flocking toward the demonic miasma.

Thus Xu Zhong and the others quickly broke the surface.

By now, the water was utterly fouled.

Once clear, it had turned a yellow-green, viscous as pus, and reeked with a nauseating stench.

The atoll was transforming before their eyes.

The black reefs they had walked upon for three days were becoming piles of corpses, twisted and tangled, arms and legs knotted together, even intestines interwoven—a ghastly, shocking sight.

From the air, Xu Zhong was speechless.

The atoll they had crossed for three days was not made of stone, but mountains of corpses.

He thought of the souls in the water.

“And the water?”

He looked down.

The yellow-green pus, thick and foul, was studded with floating heads—some human, some not—and countless severed limbs.

This was no water, but the liquefied remains of the dead.

The thought of having swum through that nauseated Xu Zhong.

Behind him, Fang Yuan’s face had gone deathly pale with fright.

Seasoned as they were, none had ever seen corpses piled into islands or corpse-water forming rivers; the fact that she hadn’t vomited was a testament to her resilience.

At that moment, the corpse-water stirred.

A hand reached up from below.