Chapter 854: Ten Thousand Year Turtle Marrow Attached Supreme

"Him?" Zu An was startled. "Who is he? A man or a woman?"

For some reason, when Mi Li spoke of someone with such a sighing tone, if it were a woman, it would be fine, but if it were a man, it always made him a little uncomfortable.

Huh, why am I feeling this way?

Mi Li was unaware of his thoughts; otherwise, she probably would have picked something up and thrashed him by now. "Have you heard of Xu Fu?"

"Is that the Xu Fu who took three thousand boys and girls into the sea to search for the elixir of immortality for Qin Shi Huang?" Zu An smiled. "It would be quite difficult not to have heard of him, wouldn't it?"

"Precisely, that's him," Mi Li said, looking at the two lines of text beside the door. "These two lines are about Xu Fu. In fact, when I first saw the temple's exterior, I had a suspicion, and now it has been completely confirmed."

"After Ying Zheng unified the world, he had no more rivals. His ambition was immense; he considered his achievements to surpass those of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. Naturally, he was unwilling to simply turn to dust like previous emperors, so he began his quest for immortality."

"The news spread, attracting countless alchemists and sorcerers from across the land. Among the more famous ones were Lu Sheng, Han Zhong, Xu Fu, and Hou Sheng, with Xu Fu naturally being the most renowned."

"In the 28th year of Qin Shi Huang's reign, Xu Fu submitted a petition stating that there were three immortal mountains—Penglai, Fangzhang, and Yingzhou—in the sea, where immortals resided. Ying Zheng then dispatched him to sea with thousands of boys and girls, along with three years' worth of provisions, clothes, medicine, and farming tools, to seek immortality, at immense cost. However, Xu Fu and his group sailed for several years but found no divine mountains. In the 37th year of Qin Shi Huang's reign, when Ying Zheng was on an eastern tour to Langya, Xu Fu claimed that a gigantic monstrous fish had obstructed his voyage, preventing him from sailing further, and requested more experts to deal with it. Ying Zheng agreed, sending palace experts to slay the monstrous fish."

At this point, Mi Li paused and looked at the temple before them. "If I'm not mistaken, this temple was built using the skeleton of that monstrous fish."

Zu An was immediately taken aback. "Such a large temple made from a fish? Just how enormous was that fish?"

Mi Li rolled her eyes. "Do you think an ordinary large fish could have convinced Ying Zheng that Xu Fu had been blocked by it for so many years, prompting him to dispatch all his top experts to kill it? In truth, that monstrous fish's power was roughly equivalent to a Grandmaster in your world."

"A Grandmaster..." Zu An couldn't help but swallow. A gigantic monstrous fish with the power of a Grandmaster would clearly be the overlord of a sea region. Who did it offend to deserve such a sudden calamity?

"Since it had obstructed Ying Zheng's path to immortality, the monstrous fish's carcass was transported back. Ying Zheng even went to see it himself. However, there are no further records of it after that. I didn't expect him to place the fish bones here."

"What happened then? Did Xu Fu find the elixir of immortality?" Zu An couldn't help but ask. Although he was quite familiar with the related stories, the history of this timeline was not the one he knew; it was more like a mythical version of the Qin Dynasty. So he wasn't sure if the subsequent events would align with his memories.

"After that powerful monstrous fish was killed, Xu Fu led his group out to sea again. However, I don't know what happened afterward, as I was sealed not long after that." Mi Li chuckled self-deprecatingly. "But I assume he didn't find the elixir of immortality; otherwise, how would Qin have fallen?"

Zu An frowned slightly. "That's not right. You just said Xu Fu submitted his petition in the 28th year of Qin Shi Huang's reign, and the powerful monstrous fish was killed in the 37th year. You know all these details. By that time, Qin Shi Huang had been on the throne for thirty-seven years, putting him at least in his fifties, and you were Ying Zheng's empress... Hmm, how old were you then?"

He recalled that the moment he unsealed Mi Li, she had appeared as a young girl. While cultivators often possessed methods to preserve their appearance, there were absolutely no traces of age on her face. It was truly difficult to associate her with terms like 'old woman.'

Mi Li snorted. "It's not polite to ask a woman her age."

Zu An chuckled awkwardly. "It's just that we're so familiar with each other now; what's there to hide?"

"I wasn't his original empress..." Mi Li explained, then grew a little impatient. "Whether I was eighteen or eighty back then, now I'm eight thousand eight hundred and eighty years old! Being your great-great-grandmother is more than enough for me, hmph!"

Zu An was left speechless.

A woman three years older brings good fortune, but a woman eight thousand eight hundred and eighty years older? How should one describe that?

He could only keep reassuring himself that matters in the cultivation world couldn't be judged by old concepts of age. Didn't the goddesses in myths easily live for tens of thousands of years? Hmm, from that perspective, Mi Li was still young.

Just then, Bi Linglong's voice reached his ears. "Ah Zu, what are you muttering about to yourself?"

Zu An snapped out of it. "N-nothing..."

Communication through spiritual connection was incredibly fast. Although he had exchanged so many words with Mi Li in his mind, in the real world, not much time had passed for others.

"Come quickly and look, what are these statues?" At that moment, Bi Linglong pointed at two rows of dark statues ahead, her voice trembling slightly. The entire place exuded an eerie aura.

Because the temple was too dimly lit, Zu An directly used his Flame Blade to ignite some torches and candlesticks nearby. He hadn't expected them to still be flammable after such a long time.

Soon, the temple was brightly lit, and they could clearly see the situation inside.

On both the left and right sides stood a total of eight sculptures, each with either pointed, monkey-like faces or ferocious, hideous expressions.

"It seems many evil gods are worshipped here." Bi Linglong felt a chill down her spine and subconsciously moved closer to Zu An. Neither the temple's appearance nor their various encounters along the way, coupled with the fierce looks of these statues, could make her associate anything good with this place.

Mi Li scoffed. "Ignorance! These are Thunder Generals, Lightning Goddesses, Wind Gods, Rain Gods, Yakshas, and so on. They are not evil gods."

Zu An was puzzled. "Why are these deities worshipped in this temple?"

"I imagine it's because Xu Fu and his group were at sea for many years and encountered various disasters like storms, lightning, and tsunamis. They worshipped these to pray for safe journeys," Mi Li explained.

Zu An nodded subtly. Although cultivators in this world were far more powerful than ordinary people in his previous life, the power of heaven and earth in this world was also far greater than the disasters on Earth in his past life. Many times, even powerful cultivators couldn't resist it and could only build temples and pray.

"Then the main deity in this temple should be the Sea God." Mi Li said, floating forward. She saw that there was indeed a statue directly ahead, but her expression froze the moment she saw its face.

Zu An took the opportunity to comfort Bi Linglong for a few moments, and then led her to the main deity's position. There, they saw a statue almost twice the size of the previous ones, its base a colossal stone tortoise.

Compared to the appearances of the Thunder Lords and Yakshas they had just seen, this statue's face was far more benevolent.

It looked like a human, even possessing a somewhat immortal and ethereal air.

However, Zu An couldn't help but frown. He always felt there was something inexplicably strange about the statue. How to describe it? Its body was extremely imposing, and theoretically, its overall appearance should have been fierce. Why was its head so different?

The two styles didn't quite match.

"Huh, there seem to be characters carved on the base," Bi Linglong said, her elegant brows furrowed. She prided herself on her extensive knowledge, but at this moment, she couldn't recognize the writing.

Zu An recognized them as Small Seal Script. His many experiences in secret realms had almost taught him this script. He wiped away the dust from the surface and read aloud, "A thousand-year-old fish bone as the frame, a ten-thousand-year-old tortoise marrow attached to the Supreme One..."

Just then, Mi Li, standing beside them, let out a cold snort. "Arrogant!"

Zu An was surprised, and looked at her questioningly, wondering why she had suddenly become so angry.

Mi Li pointed at the statue and said, "Do you know who he is?"

"Isn't it the Sea God?" Zu An was startled.

"It should have been the Sea God, but the face of this statue is that of another person," Mi Li paused, her voice growing cold. "Xu Fu, by what right do you dare to call yourself the Supreme One?"