Chapter 121: Valuable

This injury was the most severe Xu Qing had ever experienced. He had barely managed to resist, thanks to the two layers of protection from his magic boat, divine power, the boat's bow for defense, numerous talismans, and the full strength of his perfected physical body. Even so, he had nearly lost his life.

Although the purple crystal aided his recovery, Xu Qing felt that this injury would still take some time to heal completely, and a strong sense of lingering fear surfaced within him. He believed that if even one layer of his protection had been absent, he would have perished.

"But it was worth it!" Xu Qing gritted his teeth, enduring the intense pain, and checked his losses. Talismans were one thing, but more importantly, the magic boat he had painstakingly saved to build now had very little divine power left. Half of its hull had collapsed and disintegrated, and he knew the repair costs would be equally staggering. Despite this, Xu Qing was still immensely exhilarated, feeling that he had made a huge profit and it was incredibly worthwhile!

"And the imitation Soul Lantern is still here!" Xu Qing thought, recalling the Captain. "No wonder the Captain risked his life; the rewards are astonishing if it succeeds." However, he felt this was not a good habit and would eventually lead to death. Taking a deep breath, Xu Qing suppressed his excitement and forced himself to circulate his cultivation, trying to accelerate the purple crystal's healing process. After all, he couldn't move now, and staying there for too long would be dangerous.

Time passed, and soon half an hour went by. At this moment, some distance from Xu Qing, but still within the temple complex, a hole had been dug in the ground. Inside, statue flesh and blood were hidden, and Zhang San sat beside it, vigilantly watching the exit. Outside the exit, he had laid out numerous disposable self-detonating devices, and dense poison permeated the surroundings, making every step perilous. Breaking in would be extremely difficult. Leaving also required extreme caution, following only the specific path he had left.

Yet, Zhang San, unaware of these specific dangers, was still uneasy. Inside the cave, he also spread his threads in all directions. While being cautious, he periodically looked back at the statue's flesh and blood, sighing repeatedly.

"Captain, you didn't really get yourself killed in there, did you?" he mumbled. "Why did you have to do this? Why risk your life when you could have just played with the sect's senior and junior sisters? That's Juying! Though not a true deity, it's a terrifying divine creature. Among the entire Merman race, who is more powerful than it? Perhaps only the elusive Mi'e, if it even exists. Don't die, please! If you die, all my investments over the years will be lost."

Zhang San sighed deeply. He had been guarding for almost two hours, and in his heart, he felt the Captain was likely dead. Shaking his head in resignation, he decided to wait for another incense stick's time. If the Captain still didn't emerge, he simply couldn't wait any longer.

He scanned his surroundings, wondering whether to cut off a piece of the flesh as a memento before leaving, when suddenly the statue's flesh and blood began to vibrate violently. From within came roars that made Zhang San's heart tremble. Zhang San's expression changed, and he immediately retreated. His surrounding threads rapidly retracted, enveloping the mass of statue flesh. Simultaneously, with the vibration, the cracks on the flesh mass rapidly contracted and expanded, as if breathing. The roars emanating from within became clearer with each opening and closing. It was as if some terrifying entity was frantically approaching within this fleshy passage. This sight horrified Zhang San, who retreated further, all the way to the exit, ready to flee at the slightest sign of trouble.

Soon, amidst Zhang San's tension, a blood-soaked hand suddenly emerged from the writhing cracks of the flesh mass. Three fingers on this hand had barely any flesh left, only a few sinews, with the bones clearly exposed. As it extended, it grabbed onto the outer flesh mass, using the leverage to gain strength to continue crawling out. Soon, a small part of the Captain's body emerged from the fleshy crack. His hair was gone, his head covered in blood, and much of the flesh on his face had been corroded, leaving most of the exposed parts bloody and disfigured. He looked barely human. The sheer number of dense wounds was shocking, with the deepest ones appearing as if they would penetrate his body. However, his right hand was tightly clutching a writhing piece of golden flesh, from which terrifying fluctuations imbued with astonishing divine power emanated. It was Juying's flesh!

Its appearance instantly distorted the surroundings, as if countless mournful roars echoed, making Zhang San's mind hum, blood trickle from his seven orifices, and his body become unstable.

"Pull me out!" The Captain seemed to have used all his strength for crawling. At this moment, with an anxious expression, he quickly spoke to Zhang San. Zhang San barely managed to stand, and with a wave of his hand, the surrounding threads wrapped around the Captain. With a pull, the Captain's upper body directly fell out of the crack. His lower body was gone. Only his upper body remained amidst the mangled flesh, a gruesome sight.

"Quick, let's break this flesh door! Something is chasing me!" After emerging, the Captain immediately shouted, forming a hand seal and pointing towards the fleshy door behind him. Zhang San knew the danger and gritted his teeth, launching an attack. Immediately, intense magical fluctuations erupted around them. Combining their powers, they simultaneously struck the fleshy door, causing it to instantly collapse and shatter. From within, a faint roar of anger was heard. Just a trace of it made Zhang San shudder violently, spitting out several mouthfuls of blood. As he reeled back, there were cracking sounds; at least forty jade slips shattered to mitigate the impact, yet he was still severely wounded and fell to the ground. Struggling to retrieve and swallow a pill, his pale face finally regained a hint of color.

The Captain also vomited blood, his half-body flung to the side. Yet, his right hand still clutched the Juying flesh tightly. With an expression of exhilaration, he burst into laughter. "Who can compare to me? Ever since I knew we were attacking the Merman Island, I started planning. Finally, I got the flesh of such a divine creature! I'm rich, I'm rich! This time, I'm truly rich!" The Captain was incredibly excited, but his laughter aggravated his injuries, making him grimace in pain. He quickly put away the Juying flesh.

"Was it worth it? You've lost half your body," Zhang San said, looking at the Captain with a wry smile.

"Absolutely worth it! It's just half a body. I've specifically cultivated a secret technique for limb regeneration. With some powerful medicines from the sect, it'll only take a few months to grow back. Plus, with this Juying flesh, I can integrate it to refine its divine power, which will speed up my recovery even more." At this point, the Captain, still excited, looked around. "Where's my Vice-Captain?"

"That wasn't an incense stick's time; it was almost two hours! Junior Brother Xu guarded for two incense sticks' worth of time. When he saw you hadn't returned, he had other arrangements and left sadly. Before he went, he left me a lot of poison powder," Zhang San replied, taking a pill.

"No problem, I didn't expect it to take so long either; I almost didn't make it back," the Captain said, taking an apple from his person and biting into it. Just as he was about to continue speaking, the ground suddenly rumbled.

At that instant, the entire Juying Island violently trembled, as if an earthquake was occurring. All buildings within sight instantly collapsed, and tendrils of black mist surged from the fallen structures, rose from the seaweed, and emerged from the sea anemones. At this moment, across the entire underwater world, vast amounts of black mist ascended from every object. These mists rapidly converged, forming rolling black fog that spread outward in all directions with a thunderous sound, aiming to engulf the entire underwater realm. It contained a dense foreign substance that could corrode everything. It also seemed to hold a strange power, causing all the corpses in the underwater world to stir at that moment, as if reanimated.

As the black mist continuously formed, the black fog's scope grew wider and wider, rolling in from all directions and enveloping everything. All Seven Blood Eyes disciples in Juying Island's underwater world changed their expressions, and immediately sped towards the exit. The earth's tremor, like a land dragon stirring, caused the Captain's half-body to be tossed up, and he almost dropped the apple in his mouth. His expression changed again, and he quickly climbed onto Zhang San's back.

"This is the Merman race's ultimate doomsday trump card! I came out late. Quick, we need to hurry and get out through the exit!" Zhang San's face changed. As the mist surged around them, he sprinted towards the exit.

Meanwhile, in another part of the temple complex, Xu Qing, who had partially recovered with the help of the purple crystal, quickly opened his eyes. He felt the earth rumbling and saw the rolling black fog surging from the distance, his pupils contracting. Without hesitation, Xu Qing struggled to his feet, retracted his flight-disabled magic boat, gritted his teeth, and dashed forward. Not long after he left, the surrounding black fog enveloped the area, not only saturating his previous resting spot but also encroaching upon the ruined temple. Within the mist, no one could see that on the blank walls of the ruined temple, the murals were constantly flickering, as if trying to reform, but ultimately failing. In the brief moments revealed, the carving of the Merman Emperor slowly weathered and completely disappeared.

At this moment, as all Seven Blood Eyes cultivators in the underwater world raced towards the exit, changes also occurred outside. Not only Juying Island, but Yimeiqi, Youzang, and Mi'e Island all simultaneously erupted with this seemingly all-consuming mist. From a distance, vast amounts of black mist rose from these four islands, spreading in all directions, as if this was the Merman race's final resort.

In the sky, Seventh Master on his large wing looked down at the Merman islands enveloped by the formation. Although the formation obscured his sight, he could still sense the changes occurring within. However, these changes did not make him solemn. Instead, he smiled at the Merman Ancestor beside him. "Not bad. Finally, some decent tactics. I was wondering earlier if this trial was too easy for those wolf pups." He chuckled. "This isn't a trial; it's practically handing out resources! Good thing you've stepped up and added some difficulty for these cunning wolf pups, so they don't have it too easy."