“Niujiao Town’s people are all dead?”
Li Hai was first stunned, then looked coldly at Dr. Zhao, and asked in a deep voice,
“Dr. Zhao, tell me everything about this matter, clearly and in detail.”
“Alright, Li Hai.”
Dr. Zhao took a breath, wiped the mud and tears from his face, and began to recount.
And through his narration, Li Hai gradually came to understand the astonishing changes that had befallen Niujiao Town… no, not just Niujiao Town, but the entire Zhou Family Fortress and the adjacent Yupan Mountain.
Around dusk three days ago, Dr. Zhao, returning from purchasing medicinal herbs from out of town, passed the foot of Yupan Mountain and was about to reach the territory of Zhou Family Fortress.
The sky, which had been perfectly calm, suddenly became filled with strong Yin winds and flashing blood-red lightning, and even tens of thousands of ghostly wails abruptly appeared from all directions.
Dr. Zhao, not knowing what had happened, frantically urged his cart towards Niujiao Town.
But just then, before his very eyes, the peak of Yupan Mountain… exploded.
And after it exploded, from the misty mountain hollow, a… Dragon slowly flew out.
Dr. Zhao couldn't see what kind of Dragon it was, only that it was enormous, emerald green, emitting an endless aura of Yin Qi, like a Netherworld Green River, hovering high in the sky, constantly drifting and circling around the Yupan Mountain area.
And as the green Dragon circled in the sky, the entire sky grew dark and gloomy, and large streams of muddy, foul water gushed from the ground.
After these turbid waters emerged from the ground, they spontaneously gathered into rivers like living things, flowing rapidly and windingly to cover all directions.
And Dr. Zhao watched with his own eyes as withered arms constantly clawed out of these turbid yellow rivers, and pale ghostly faces continually emerged from the river surface, crying, laughing, roaring, or screaming.
And as soon as those turbid rivers flowed past, whether it was rocks, large trees, or wild deer and rabbits, they would instantly be covered with a layer of deathly white.
Then, as if they had endured a thousand years of wind and rain, they suddenly shriveled, collapsed into fragments, and finally floated up and down in the turbid river.
Perhaps by the grace of heaven, the section of the road Dr. Zhao drove through happened to be in the gap between two turbid yellow strange rivers, so he did not die on the spot.
So Dr. Zhao, caught between the two turbid rivers, fled in terror and unease under the gaze of countless ghostly faces, eventually reaching Niujiao Town safely.
But after returning to Niujiao Town, he discovered that the turbid rivers that had already arrived there… had converged in Niujiao Town, forming a large, deathly yellow lake that almost submerged the entire small town.
As far as the eye could see, all the streets, alleys, buildings, and houses from Dr. Zhao’s memory… were dark and collapsed, quietly floating in the eerie yellow water.
He even saw many withered corpses and fragmented remains curled up in heaps, also drifting in that turbid yellow death lake, being pushed and bumped by ghostly faces and withered hands, sometimes sinking, sometimes floating.
…
“Then what?”
Li Hai asked in confusion, “In that desperate situation, how did you escape with your life?”
“It was a Demon Slayer Commandant.”
Dr. Zhao said with lingering fear, “It was a person who called himself a Demon Slayer Commandant who saved me and escorted me all the way to a safe place, and then he himself returned to Niujiao Town.”
He took a breath and said tiredly, “My younger brother lives in Hong Hua Town, so after escaping the danger, I walked sleeplessly for half a day to the ferry crossing, and then took a boat for two days and two nights to get here.”
After listening to Dr. Zhao’s account, Li Hai fell silent.
Because he thought of Zheng Dashan’s family; they lived in a cave within Yupan Mountain.
But now that Yupan Mountain had suffered such a shocking change, Zheng Dashan’s family… likely met a grim fate.
“I must go back and see.”
Li Hai thought coldly, “If their family is gone, I will find the instigator of this calamity and slay him to honor their memory.”
Slowly regaining his composure, Li Hai patted Dr. Zhao’s shoulder, and casually pulled out a gold bar from his pocket, handing it to him: “You’ve worked hard.”
“Uh… Li Hai.”
Dr. Zhao took the gold bar blankly, puzzled, “You are…?”
“Take the money and live well here.”
Li Hai instructed, then turned and walked towards the river crossing, saying calmly, “As for Niujiao Town, don’t go back there.”
“Li Hai, you…”
Dr. Zhao held the gold bar, stunned, “Are you going to Zhou Family Fortress?”
“Yes, I have an old friend living there.”
Li Hai said as he walked, “So I have to go, whether they are alive or dead, I must find out.”
After speaking, he stepped onto the river surface as if walking on solid ground and swiftly moved towards the distance.
And Dr. Zhao on the bank, looking in the direction where Li Hai disappeared, prostrated himself and refused to get up for a long time.
…
After advancing to the Void-Reality Grandmaster realm, Li Hai’s running speed surged to a terrifying thousand zhang per second.
Correspondingly, when he sprinted at full speed, the destruction he caused to the outside world also increased, becoming truly frightening.
So, after sprinting for more than ten li over the great river, to avoid accidentally harming the ferry boats along the way, Li Hai immediately activated the Qimen Arts escape technique from Lang Yun-sheng—Rushing Moon Startle Soul—transforming himself into a phantom crescent moon, seemingly real yet illusory, and continued to sprint at full speed.
It must be said that although Qimen Arts are often strange and sometimes even sinister, in many aspects, they are indeed more effective than the straightforward and singular Martial Dao.
For instance, this Rushing Moon Startle Soul escape technique, though lower in rank than the Heaven’s Calamity Demonic Fist Scripture, is not slower than a Grandmaster Martial Artist’s full-speed sprint, and it does not create much commotion, making it extremely secretive.
It was so secretive that even when Li Hai, with a speed of a thousand zhang per second, passed through numerous ferry boats without dodging, the people on the boats would not be harmed in the slightest, nor would they even notice that someone had swiftly passed by them.
Thus, sprinting at full speed all the way, Li Hai took only a minute and a half to cross six hundred li and reach the outer edge of the Zhou Family Fortress territory.
Upon arriving here, he distinctly felt the intense Yin Qi, which was practically boiling over, even far surpassing the central area of Guo Family Fortress’s Evil Ground, so dense that black rainwater condensed from the murky sky, dripping continuously.
Perhaps it was precisely because the Yin Qi was too dense that an endless expanse of hazy mist also appeared in this area, making it impossible to see clearly.
However, these mists could not obscure Li Hai’s keen perception; with just a thought, he ‘saw’ the tens of thousands of winding, turbid, strange yellow rivers within the Zhou Family Fortress territory.
And upon seeing this strange phenomenon, Li Hai suddenly recalled the information in the Demon Slayer Division’s outpost warehouse.
It had a clear record of such an unusual sight.
“Black rain from the sky, turbid springs gushing from the ground, these characteristics clearly indicate…”
Li Hai murmured, “A place where ghosts gather that is even higher in grade than an Evil Ground—a Yellow Springs Domain.”