Xu Qing nodded slightly, his eyes shining mysteriously as he glanced at the Captain and then scanned the surrounding area.
In addition to the literal painted border marking the separation between the periphery and the depths of Ten Entrails of the True Immortal, there were visible differences between the two sections. In the depths, the jungle was thick, with long branches crisscrossing each other. In the dark night, it looked like the place was full of demonic monsters. It was even possible to hear faint whispers floating here and there, making the place seem incomparably bizarre.
Another clear difference was that in the depths, there were more dao fruits. And the eyes that made the fruits weren’t just open and staring. Instead, they blinked as they shifted their gaze back and forth in different directions.
A third difference was that in the depths, there were no leaves on the ground, nor any fallen twigs or any other such debris. The ground was dirt and nothing else.
Xu Qing waited until the other Black Guard cultivators had inspected the area ahead, then he let Lin Yuandong escort him forward.
As they walked further in, the countless eyes around them began to shift to look at them. They were malevolent gazes that seemed to pierce into the hearts and minds of those they touched. Everyone stopped walking, keeping their guard up and their cultivation bases active. After a short time passed in which they confirmed nothing further would happen with the eyes, they continued moving. The dao fruits here weren’t possible to harvest. Upon being touched, they would instantly collapse into a rotting, stinking sludge.
They encountered some dangerous things along the way, but Zhou Xingwu and Duke Heaven Zenith with their Spirit Trove cultivation bases were immensely helpful in that regard. In addition to them, there were all the Black Guard cultivators. As a result, Xu Qing never faced any real danger.
About two hours later, when they were far past the border, one of the Black Guard cultivators suddenly let loose a bloodcurdling scream. A shadowy form wrapped around him and pulled him up into the air. Before anyone could even attempt to save him, blood showered out of his body and his flesh withered. In the blink of an eye, he became a desiccated corpse. At the same time, dozens of egg-sized boils appeared on his skin, which then burst, sending out splashes of yellow liquid as they revealed eyes underneath. And the malevolent eyes were all looking at the people below.
The cultivators’ expressions were deeply serious as they realized that, further in the jungle were even more corpses suspended in midair! There were no less than 10,000 of them, as far as the eye could see.
Just about every tree had a corpse, or in some cases, multiple corpses all stuck together. It was a horrendous sight. Most of the corpses were rotten and wizened, with only scraps of tattered clothing remaining on them. From the clothing that did remain, it was possible to tell that these corpses represented a host of different species. The corpses all had egg-sized boils on their skin, in some cases dozens, in other cases, well over a hundred. As the wind blew, the countless corpses swayed back and forth.
As they swayed, some of the boils burst, causing yellow liquid to splash out as eyes opened, which glared viciously at the people on the ground. Then the breeze picked up, and the swaying corpses began to drop from the trees like ripe fruit. One after another, they landed below, until the ground was littered with corpses.
Duke Heaven Zenith’s expression flickered; he had never read anything about this phenomenon in the records kept by the thirty-six city-states.
Something really unusual is going on here. Eyes narrowing, he glanced at Xu Qing and the Black Guard cultivators, but didn’t give any warning out loud.
Xu Qing looked at the corpses with hard eyes as he backed up a few paces.
Suddenly, one of the corpses twitched. Its head moved, almost mechanically. Then it turned its neck, and as it did, countless eyes focused on Xu Qing and the others. The zombie burst into motion, running toward them like a wild beast.
One of the Black Guard cultivators in the front attacked, chopping the zombie in two. But then, a few dozen additional zombies rose to their feet and rushed toward them. Then hundreds of them. In the shortest of moments, all the zombies were on their feet, rushing forth with inaudible howls. The wind blew harder, and more corpses up above twitched and wriggled, breaking free to land on the ground and join the zombie charge.
Zhou Xingwu’s expression was grim as he waved his hand, causing several zombies to explode. The other Black Guard cultivators also attacked, and soon booming sounds and shockwaves spread out through the trees.
Xu Qing didn’t do a thing. He just watched coldly. The Captain stood next to him, his eyes narrowed.
There was more to the danger than just that. Before long, more zombies appeared, rushing out from the deeper parts of the jungle. Some of them were formed from numerous zombies stuck together to make a larger body, and they emanated Gold Core battle prowess as they rushed forth. More and more such composite zombies appeared. Things were devolving into chaos.
Before long, hair-raising howls echoed from even deeper in the jungle. Then, dozens of zombies appeared that pulsed with Nascent Soul fluctuations.
As rumbling sounds shook the ground, a massive beast appeared that was a composite of over a hundred zombies. The Spirit Trove fluctuations that rolled off of it caused expressions of shock to appear on the faces of everyone present.
But what was even more shocking was the realization that there wasn’t just a single Spirit Trove zombie beast. There were several.
Expression flickering, Xu Qing backed up.
As for the Captain, his eyes glittered brightly as he projected a message to Xu Qing.
“You know what this is? It’s Shaabii’s Zombie Tribulation! Little Ah Qing, remember how I told you there was some astonishing good fortune here? Well, this time it’s really going to happen!”
“You’ve been here before, Eldest Brother?”
The Captain looked off at the towering tree and frowned. “Not in this life.”
A thoughtful look appeared on Xu Qing’s face, and he was about to ask a follow-up question when the Captain’s expression flickered. Reaching out, he grabbed Ning Yan, who was staring blankly at the zombies, and started running.
“Follow me, little Ah Qing!”
Without any hesitation, Xu Qing reached out and grabbed the stunned Qing Qiu by the shoulder, then raced after the Captain.
As they flew along, Zhou Xingwu was in the middle of fighting zombies. Turning, he noticed them leaving, and was about to pursue.
But then Duke Heaven Zenith, who was in the middle of fighting two Spirit Trove zombies, coughed up some blood and backed up. Without him in the way, the two zombies rushed toward Zhou Xingwu. Then the duke unleashed his own attack to block Zhou Xingwu’s path.
Zhou Xingwu’s face fell as he was forced to give up any thoughts of chasing after Xu Qing. As he fell back, he turned and glared at Duke Heaven Zenith. 𝑖𝑟𝘦𝒶.𝒸𝘰𝘮
“My apologies, exalted Zhou,” the duke said coolly. “The godchild has a personal Nightshade matter to handle. It wouldn’t be convenient for them to take us along, so please don’t try to force the matter.”
Looking very dour, Zhou Xingwu said, “Are you sure they’re actually Nightshades? They rushed off and prohibited us from following? Something suspicious is obviously going on!”
“Let me ask you, exalted Zhou. Are you sure they’re not Nightshades? Regardless, your mission wasn’t to determine if they’re authentic or not. Our superiors can make that call. Why should you take responsibility for it?”
Zhou Xingwu didn’t say anything further. He understood basic reasoning principles. In fact, he had been hoping that the duke would say something like this. Considering he had, if anything really did go wrong, Zhou Xingwu would have a better explanation for his actions.
Meanwhile, Xu Qing and the others were taking advantage of the distraction provided by the zombies to leave the Black Guard cultivators behind. The Captain took the lead, moving at top speed and dragging along the terrified and trembling Ning Yan.
Ning Yan was on the verge of tears. He had no idea why this Nightshade had grabbed him, but he knew it couldn’t be for a good reason.
Qing Qiu was thinking the same thing. She was in Xu Qing’s grasp as he flew along after the Captain. She was indignant, and wanted to fight back, but also knew it didn’t make sense to do so.
As they fled, Xu Qing didn’t ask any questions. He just kept his eyes on the surroundings and the Captain. He had decided that, since he had chosen to trust his Eldest Brother, then there was no reason to go around asking for details. That said, what the Captain mentioned earlier had cleared up a lot of Xu Qing’s suspicions.
He hasn’t been here ‘in this life.’ And that means he must have come here in a previous life….
Ducking past a tree branch, he followed the Captain deeper into the jungle. He could already see that the Captain wasn’t moving in a straight line. He was zig-zagging in a specific pattern.
“Eldest Brother, what are you looking for?”
The Captain’s eyes glittered, but not with a crazy look. Instead, it was unprecedented longing.
“I’m looking for Aalloh’s Nightmare! Why hasn’t it shown up? My calculations can’t be wrong! It starts with Shaabii’s Zombie Tribulation. After that is Aalloh’s Nightmare Tribulation…” [1]
At almost that exact same moment, they heard a sound from off in the distance.
Thunk!
Thunk-thunk!
Thunk-thunk-thunk!
Both Xu Qing and the Captain noticed it immediately, and looked over to see a roughly one-meter-tall bird in a tree. The bird had no feathers at all; all its muscles were visible, and it was covered with blood that slowly dripped to the ground below. It had no eyes, only vacant black holes. And its entire body rocked back and forth as it pecked at the tree. A freakish vibe filled the area. If this area was a painting, then it would be a painting full of holes. Left and right, there were pieces missing, making the entire place seem riddled with damage. In the empty spots there was nothing but darkness, like a void.
As Xu Qing took in the bizarre scene, the thumping of the woodpecker echoed out. Then his pupils constricted as he realized that the very sounds coming from the woodpecker were materializing and fusing into a huge musical symbol that drifted about and devoured whatever it touched. It didn’t matter if it touched the ground, or trees, or anything else. Whatever it touched vanished and turned into black, empty holes.
“It’s here!” the Captain said, his voice thrumming with joy. As the sound of the woodpecker continued, causing the musical symbol to drift everywhere, he turned and nodded at Xu Qing. Then he hoisted Ning Yan in front of him and continued toward the musical symbol.
Xu Qing took a deep breath, gripped Qing Qiu tight, and pressed onward.
In the blink of an eye, the four of them reached the musical symbol. When they did, they smashed into it, and the symbol exploded. The four of them disappeared, along with everything for about a meter around them. Left behind was nothing but a dark hole.
The woodpecker was still on the tree, pecking away. Everything in the area continued to disappear, until eventually the woodpecker looked up. Stretching its featherless wings, it let loose an ear-piercing cry, then flew off in a different direction.
Eventually, it found a new tree, where it settled down and started to peck again. A new musical symbol appeared, which began floating around and causing everything to disappear.
***
Beneath a blood-colored sky, violet mountain ranges stretched this way and that. There was no moon; the blood-colored light rose from the lands below to illuminate the dome of heaven.
This was the place where Xu Qing and the others appeared after slamming into the musical symbol. There were no flowers, plants, or trees anywhere. Ground and mountains alike were made from rock and soil. The ground was firm, yet it sank slightly underfoot. To Xu Qing, it felt like walking on flesh.
As the red light shone, Qing Qiu breathed heavily and studied her surroundings just as Xu Qing was. Ning Yan trembled, and when he felt the ground beneath his feet, he let loose a moan of grief.
“Finished! We’ve been devoured by the nightmare of the Woe-Immortals! There’s no way to get out this—”
“Shut up!” the Captain said, glaring at Ning Yan.
Ning Yan closed his mouth. He appeared to be on the verge of tears as he smiled fawningly at the terrifying Nightshade that held him.
The s𝒐urce of this content is 𝙡𝒊𝓫𝙖𝙙.𝓬𝒐𝙢