Chapter 497: Extreme Deep Cold

The faces first contorted in anger, then cursed, and one old woman's face even burst into tears. Finally, they devolved into desperate pleas, begging not only the mysteriously appearing root system but also Helingchuan to spare them. They claimed they were merely manipulated by others and would reveal their master if given a chance to live.

Helingchuan shook the head in his hand, completely ignoring their pleas.

"Isn't there still one mouth that can confess?"

He looked around, finding no new opponents. He then extended his hand to recall Fúsheng, using the tip of the blade to retrieve the net bag that had almost drifted away with the current.

Only four monkey-bats remained in the bag, each with its eyes rolled back, waterlogged by the pool's depths. The dozens of human-headed bats were gone, with only scattered black-gray residue clinging to the net.

The monster's head continued to roar, "You must die! Just you wait..." Helingchuan simply used its own hair to seal its mouth. This surprisingly effective move worked wonders; even with its large mouth, the monster couldn't swallow its own hair and could only whimper. Helingchuan tossed it into the net, letting it keep the bats company.

"When did this kind of monster appear in the northwest caves of Chipa Plateau?" This information was definitely worth reporting.

Looking at the monster's body on the cave wall, it was already almost a mummified husk from being absorbed. These brown roots were clearly very pleased with its taste. Anyone who helped fight monsters at this point was a friend, not an enemy, so Helingchuan left it be and turned to swim back. The priority now was to get out of the cave quickly.

Next time, he might consider buying a seahorse puppet from Yunling Island. It was a very simple puppet device, woven from tough, coarse copper-patterned grass. When thrown into the water, it would transform into a half-zhang (approx. 1.5-2 meters) tall seahorse, capable of carrying a person for about fifteen minutes before falling apart. Bringing such a device to the water-scarce Panlong Barrens for sale—it was a mystery whose brilliant idea that had been. That seahorse puppet had been sitting on Baiguo's shelf for a month, still gathering dust.

Getting sidetracked, Helingchuan reined in his thoughts. Suddenly, a blue light seemed to flicker in the deep water below. This time, he saw it clearly. "How could entering a bat cave lead to so many strange encounters?"

Helingchuan simply hung the net bag on a stalactite, took a few deep breaths, and dove down to investigate. Patrolling Chipa Plateau and eliminating potential threats was the duty of every soldier from Panlong City.

The water grew colder, and the light grew dimmer. This section of the cave appeared to be bottomless. Soon, a blue light flashed again from below, and a dark shadow emerged, charging towards Helingchuan. Was it an alligator, or a whale?

Helingchuan tightened his grip on his long blade. However, he immediately looked surprised: "This is another monster!" Only, this one was over ten times the size of its previous companion, reaching more than six zhang (over 19-22 meters) in length! This was the length of a sperm whale, and as it drew closer to Helingchuan, it appeared even more massive and oppressive!

Helingchuan instinctively glanced at Fúsheng in his hand. Whether he hacked or stabbed, it would probably be like a tiny toothpick to this colossal creature, wouldn't it?

"Tribute!" Its enraged roar echoed in Helingchuan's mind, unaffected by the water. "Where is my clone?!"

"Holy cow," Helingchuan was greatly alarmed. Had what he defeated earlier merely been a clone of this creature? Yes, it was covered in patchwork, with hundreds of human faces on its body, some even belonging to beasts or monsters. It had four arms but no legs, its lower body a swirling mass of black smoke. He had beaten the minion, and now the master had appeared. A creature like this was clearly not easy to deal with. And this was in the water, where his movements were hindered and there was nowhere to escape. Helingchuan's scalp began to tingle. The disparity between them, purely in terms of size, was more than tenfold. What was he supposed to do?

This thought flashed through his mind in an instant. Helingchuan was just about to release a smokescreen to cover his retreat to the surface when, after its roar, the monster extended a finger, and dozens of faces on its body transformed into black smoke, detaching from its main form and pursuing him. "Damn it, run!" Who could possibly defeat this thing?

Helingchuan had just turned when he heard several clang-clang sounds of metal clashing from the seabed, resonant and distant, like the ringing of temple bells. The moment the sound reached his ears, two vivid red chains suddenly shot out from the dark depths below! They were thick and agile, coiling like dragons emerging from the sea. Neither Helingchuan nor the monster had time to react before the two chains wrapped themselves around the creature. The chains moved with the speed of a hunting anaconda; Helingchuan even perceived a sense of eagerness and greed in their movements. The monster had barely let out a roar before the chains had spiraled around it, three times to the left and three times to the right, wrapping it tightly from head to tail!

This hundred-faced monster was naturally unwilling to submit. Its form blurred, and it was about to disintegrate into countless shadows to escape through the gaps in the chains. However, the chains immediately emitted a dazzling red light. Under this light, the monster's ethereal form was instantly forced back into a solid state. It was compelled to solidify from its insubstantial state. Even the large mass of black mist that originally formed its lower body was now constricted into its true form: a string of skull heads, ranging from animals to humans and even unknown species. Only then did Helingchuan notice that the chains were engraved with countless talismans. They weren't in an ancient immortal language, but each character radiated a golden-red light. The light emitted by tens of thousands of talismans rivaled the midday sun, illuminating the surrounding water.

At the same time, Helingchuan seemed to hear a chorus of whispers, like countless voices speaking in unison. Though the sound was low, it contained an undeniable, surging power.

"What are you?!" the monster cried out, both shocked and enraged. "How can you seize me? How dare you seize me?!"

This creature was truly amusing, asking if its captor was worthy even while being seized. Helingchuan drew his long blade; there were still several escapees in the water. The black shadows that had burst from the monster earlier had only gone halfway when they witnessed the anomaly below: their main body was being restrained. Their true form roared at them, "Come back, save me!" But their first reaction was not to go to its rescue, but to scatter and flee for their lives! If they managed to escape, it would be troublesome; these things were even harder to catch than Jindu Ghost Children.

Helingchuan was about to move closer to hunt them, aiming to catch as many as he could, when unexpectedly, a crimson mist emanated from the chains and drifted towards the black shadows. It appeared slow but was actually swift. Even the furthest escaping black shadow only managed to slip away a dozen zhang (approx. 30-40 meters) before it was heavily enveloped by the crimson mist, after which it let out a piercing wail. The crimson mist spun rapidly around it, and the black shadow's volume visibly shrunk. They seemed to be... gnawed?

Just then, a wisp of crimson mist drifted past Helingchuan's eyes. He focused his gaze and nearly choked on water. "These are... these are—" Three-Corpse Worms? Ever since he had fed the divine bone necklace on one occasion, he had been able to see the Three-Corpse Worms with his naked eye. However, these small creatures, under the control of the Grand Flask, rarely left the city gates to go elsewhere and did not disturb ordinary humans. Helingchuan had never imagined he would encounter them here, at this very moment. The Three-Corpse Worms were even perched on the chains, working in tandem with them to hunt. Everything about the situation defied logic.

The few escaping black shadows were completely annihilated by the Three-Corpse Worms, while the gigantic monster was simultaneously dragged to the bottom by the chains. It struggled fiercely, but in terms of brute strength, it was still at a disadvantage. Helingchuan even saw its face contorted in terror. This was an expression it usually saw on the faces of its prey.

"Why?!" Its voice echoed up from the deep water, filled with profound indignation. "Who are you? Who *are* you?!"

Helingchuan blew two bubbles. *Hmph*, as if he could reply while underwater.

Before the chains retracted, he used their crimson glow to discern a massive red shadow. The gigantic monster was six zhang long, yet beside this shadow, it looked like a small fish used as bait by an angler. This red figure looked very familiar to Helingchuan. Outside of the Soul Land, this was the third time he had seen it. It was not a whale, but immense beyond measure.

This time, he was closer to the colossal shadow than ever before, less than ten zhang away, yet he still couldn't make out its precise form. Unwilling to give up, Helingchuan quickly dove deeper. The closer he swam, the more absurdly massive it felt. However, Helingchuan couldn't distinguish its shape or features at all, because the surface of this colossal shadow was entirely covered in Three-Corpse Worms! They were densely packed and innumerable. Every inch of its body was covered by squirming Three-Corpse Worms, not a single patch of skin visible. The sight was truly chilling. Even an ancient whale that had lived for centuries in the water couldn't possibly have so many barnacles growing on it.

The hundred-faced monster also caught sight of this enormous shadow. For a moment, it forgot to scream, merely staring dumbfounded, murmuring, "This... this is real?" And then, it was dragged into the colossal shadow.

Everything returned to silence.

What was peculiar was that, despite the close proximity of mere several zhang, Helingchuan never felt any hostility from this colossal shadow, just as before. How was he supposed to greet it? Wave and say "Hi"? Fortunately, it had no intention of acknowledging him. The crimson colossal shadow, having apparently fed, slowly turned around and began to descend into the deeper waters. Just as a large ship is difficult to turn, so too was this immense creature. With a single sway, an undercurrent surged from the seabed, sending Helingchuan tumbling.

A small cluster of crimson mist was thrown off and swept past Helingchuan. Anger, sorrow, surprise, fear, indignation... In that instant, dozens of emotions erupted in Helingchuan's mind, each one violent and unyielding. But the most terrifying among them was despair. A bottomless despair, an inescapable despair, a despair of being powerless to change anything. Even Helingchuan, who prided himself on being unfeeling, felt his heart turn to ashes in that instant, unable to muster even a shred of attachment to the mortal world. He even doubled over in pain, his heart suddenly contracting, unable to withstand such intense stimulation.

At that moment, his ears were filled with desperate cries and malevolent curses. They weren't the giant monster's, nor his own, yet they sounded strangely familiar. Helingchuan endured the pain, looked up, and was stunned: The cluster of crimson mist that had just swept past him was now pursuing the colossal shadow, but from within it, a human figure emerged, its features clearly discernible. This face, he would recognize even if it were reduced to ashes.

Sun Fuping!

Helingchuan truly never would have dreamed that he would encounter this long-dead old enemy here, deep underwater in a dark cave, within a crimson mist composed of Three-Corpse Worms! Sun Fuping glared at him, his eyes spitting fire, his mouth moving incessantly as he furiously ranted. His face was grotesquely contorted, bearing no trace of the elegance he possessed in life.

The hatred for his death, the resentment for his life taken, was irreconcilable.