Chapter 496 - 495: Deep Rising

Chapter 496: Chapter 495: Deep Rising

The faces first contorted with rage, then spat curses. One, that of an old woman, even began to wail. At last, their expressions shifted to desperate pleading. They begged not only the strange roots that had appeared, but also Hee Lingchuan to spare them, claiming they were merely being controlled and would expose their master if he granted them a chance to live.

Hee Lingchuan swung the severed head in his hand, ignoring their pleas.

’Don’t I have a mouth right here that can confess?’

He glanced around but saw no new opponents. He then recalled Floating Life, and with a flick of its tip, hooked the net bag that had nearly been carried away by the current.

Inside the bag, only four Monkey Bats remained, their eyes rolled back after having been waterlogged in the pool.

The dozens of Human-headed Bats were gone, with only scattered black and gray fragments stuck to the mesh.

The monster’s head kept roaring, "You’re a dead man! Just you wait..."

Hee Lingchuan simply used its own hair to gag it.

The trick worked surprisingly well. No matter how wide the monster’s mouth was, it couldn’t swallow its own hair and was reduced to muffled whimpers.

Hee Lingchuan tossed it into the net, leaving it to keep the bats company.

’Since when did this kind of monster appear in the Northwest Cave of the Chipa Plateau?’

’This is intelligence worth reporting.’

Looking back at the monster’s body on the cave wall, it had already been sucked nearly dry, resembling a desiccated corpse.

The brown roots were clearly enjoying the taste.

Anything that helped kill the monster was a friend, not a foe. Hee Lingchuan paid them no mind and turned to swim back.

’The right move is to get out of this cave, fast.’

’Maybe next time I should go to Spirit Island and buy a Seahorse Puppet. It’s a very simple Puppet, woven from coarse, hard Copper Pattern Grass. But if you toss it in the water, it transforms into a half-zhang-tall seahorse that can carry a person for a quarter of an hour before falling apart.’

’Bringing something like that to the water-scarce Panlong Wasteland to sell... I wonder what genius came up with that idea. The Seahorse Puppet has been on Bai Guo’s shelf for a month now, still collecting dust...’

He was getting sidetracked. Hee Lingchuan reined in his thoughts. Suddenly, a blue light seemed to flash from the deep water below.

This time, he saw it.

’How can I run into so many strange things just by exploring a bat cave?’

Hee Lingchuan simply hung the net bag on a stalactite, took a few deep breaths, and dove down to investigate.

Patrolling the Chipa Plateau and eliminating potential threats was the duty of every soldier in the Panlong City Army.

The water grew colder and the light dimmer. This part of the cavern seemed to be bottomless.

Soon, another flash of blue light emanated from below, and a dark shadow appeared, rushing toward Hee Lingchuan.

’A crocodile? A whale?’

Hee Lingchuan tightened his grip on his Long Saber.

But his expression immediately turned to shock.

It was another monster!

Only this one was more than ten times the size of its companion, over six zhang long (more than 19–22 meters)!

That was the length of a sperm whale. The closer it got to Hee Lingchuan, the more immense and oppressive it felt!

Hee Lingchuan instinctively glanced down at Floating Life.

’Whether I slash or stab, it would feel like a toothpick to this thing, wouldn’t it?’

"Tribute!" Its furious roar resounded in Hee Lingchuan’s mind, unaffected by the water. "Where is my Clone!"

’Holy shit,’ Hee Lingchuan thought, stunned. ’The thing I defeated before was just a Clone?’

That made sense. Its body was a patchwork of over a hundred faces—some even belonging to beasts or Demons. It had four arms but no legs, its lower half a swirling mass of black smoke.

’Defeat the small fry, and the big boss shows up.’

A creature like this was obviously going to be tough.

And this was all happening underwater, where his Body Technique was restricted and evasion was impossible. Hee Lingchuan’s scalp prickled with dread.

’The difference in power is massive—the size difference alone is more than tenfold. What am I supposed to do?’

The thought was fleeting. Just as Hee Lingchuan was about to create a diversion to cover his escape to the surface, the monster roared and pointed. Dozens of faces on its body dissolved into black smoke, detaching and swarming toward him.

’Son of a bitch, run! Who could possibly fight that?’

Hee Lingchuan had just turned to flee when the sound of clanging metal rang out from the depths—loud and resonant, like the tolling of a Divine Temple’s bell.

The sound had barely reached his ears when two brilliant red Lock Chains shot out from the pitch-black depths!

They were thick and flexible, coiling like Flood Dragons emerging from the sea.

Before either Hee Lingchuan or the monster could react, the two Lock Chains had ensnared the creature.

It struck with the speed of a hunting anaconda. Hee Lingchuan could even sense eagerness and greed in their movements.

The monster had only managed a single roar before the chains coiled around it again and again, wrapping it tightly from head to tail!

The hundred-faced monster, unwilling to be captured, let its form blur, preparing to dissolve into countless black shadows and escape through the gaps between the chains.

But the Lock Chains immediately began to glow with a dazzling red light.

As the light washed over it, the monster’s dissolving form was instantly forced back into a solid state.

Forced from ethereal to corporeal.

Even the great cloud of black mist that formed its tail was constricted into its true form: a chain of skulls from animals, humans, and other unidentifiable species.

Only then did Hee Lingchuan notice that the Lock Chains were engraved with countless Talisman Seals. It wasn’t the Ancient Immortal Language, but every single character radiated a golden-red light.

The light from tens of thousands of Talisman Seals rivaled the midday sun, illuminating the surrounding water.

At the same time, Hee Lingchuan seemed to hear a chorus of whispers, like countless people speaking at once. Though low, the sound held an undeniable, surging power.

"What are you!" the monster shrieked, both shocked and furious. "How can you capture me! You’re not worthy of capturing me!"

’This thing is something else,’ Hee Lingchuan thought. ’It’s already caught and it’s asking if its captor is worthy.’ He drew his Long Saber; there were still a few stragglers in the water.

The black shadows that had rushed from the monster’s body were halfway to him when they saw the commotion below and their original self being captured.

Their main body roared at them, "Come back! Save me!" But their first instinct wasn’t to mount a rescue; it was to scatter and flee for their lives.

’It’ll be a problem if they get away. These things are even harder to catch than Jindu Ghosts.’

Just as Hee Lingchuan prepared to join the hunt and catch what he could, clouds of red mist drifted from the Lock Chains toward the fleeing black shadows.

It moved with deceptive speed.

The shadow that had fled the farthest only made it a dozen zhang before the red mist enveloped it, drawing a piercing wail.

The red mist swirled around it, and the black shadow visibly shrank.

It looked as if they were being... devoured.

A wisp of red mist drifted past Hee Lingchuan’s face. He focused his eyes on it and almost choked on the water in shock.

’Aren’t these... aren’t these—’

’Three Corpses Insects?’

Ever since feeding his Divine Bone Necklace that one time, he had been able to see the Three Corpses Insects with his naked eye. But under the Grand Square Pot’s control, these little monsters rarely left the city gates and never harassed ordinary people.

Hee Lingchuan never, ever expected to see them here.

The Three Corpses Insects were even clinging to the Lock Chains, working with them in the hunt.

None of this made any sense.

The last of the escaping shadows were annihilated by the Three Corpses Insects. At the same time, the giant monster was dragged to the bottom by the Lock Chains.

It struggled with all its might but was still overpowered.

Hee Lingchuan could even see the terror written on its many faces.

That was the expression it was supposed to see on its victims’ faces.

"Why!" its voice echoed up from the depths, thick with resentment. "Who are you? What are you!"

Hee Lingchuan blew a couple of bubbles.

’Heh. As if I could answer you from under the water.’

Before the Lock Chains retracted, he used their red glow to glimpse a gigantic red shadow.

The monster was six zhang long, but next to this shadow, it looked like a tiny fish on a hook.

The red silhouette looked very familiar to Hee Lingchuan.

This was the third time he had seen it outside the Soul Village.

Whale-like but not a whale, incomparably massive.

This time, he was closer to the giant shadow than ever before—less than ten zhang away—but he still couldn’t make out its true form.

Unwilling to let the chance slip by, Hee Lingchuan dove deeper.

The closer he got, the more absurdly huge it seemed.

But Hee Lingchuan couldn’t discern its shape or features at all, because the giant shadow’s entire surface was covered in Three Corpses Insects!

A dense, countless, writhing mass.

Every inch of its body was covered by the squirming Three Corpses Insects, leaving not a single patch of skin visible.

The sight was enough to send a shiver down his spine.

Even an ancient whale that had lived for centuries wouldn’t be covered in so many barnacles.

The hundred-faced monster saw the giant shadow too. For a moment, it forgot to scream, simply staring, dumbfounded, as it muttered, "Is this... is this real?"

And then, it was dragged into the giant shadow.

Everything returned to silence.

Strangely, despite being only a few zhang away, Hee Lingchuan felt no hostility from the massive shadow, just as before.

’How was he supposed to greet it? Wave and say, "Hey?"’

Fortunately, the creature had no intention of acknowledging him. Having eaten its fill, the giant red shadow slowly turned and descended into the depths.

A large ship is difficult to turn, and the same was true for this behemoth.

Its turn created a powerful undercurrent that sent Hee Lingchuan tumbling.

A small cloud of red mist was flung off, passing right through Hee Lingchuan.

Rage, grief, shock, terror, resentment... In that instant, dozens of emotions exploded in Hee Lingchuan’s mind, each one violent and absolute.

But the most terrifying of them all was despair.

Bottomless, inescapable, hopeless despair.

Even someone like Hee Lingchuan, who prided himself on being unflappable, felt his heart turn to ash in that instant, losing all attachment to the world of the living.

He even doubled over in pain as his heart constricted, unable to bear the potent stimulus.

At that moment, his ears were filled with desperate screams and venomous curses.

They weren’t from the monster, nor were they his own, yet they sounded strangely familiar.

Fighting through the pain, Hee Lingchuan looked up and froze.

The cloud of red mist that had just passed through him was now chasing after the giant shadow. But within it, a human figure had materialized, its features clearly visible.

He would recognize that face even if it were reduced to ash.

Sunx Fuping!

Hee Lingchuan could never have imagined in his wildest dreams that he would see his dead arch-nemesis here, deep underwater in a cavern, within a red mist of Three Corpses Insects!

Sunx Fuping was glaring at him, eyes spitting fire. His mouth moved nonstop, unleashing a silent, furious tirade. His face was utterly twisted, showing none of the elegance he possessed in life.

The hatred of a life stolen, a grudge that could never be resolved.