Chapter 350 – Dark Moon Island
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There were many dangerous locations within Sky Spill Continent, and there were countless places where Xiantian masters had perished. There were even many dangerous places that would be fatal to Revolving Core masters.
Relatively speaking, Dark Moon Island wasn’t much of a dangerous land; at most, it was threatening to Houtian masters. When a true Xiantian master came, they naturally wouldn’t be threatened by an existence like the Ghost King. In fact, even if a Xiantian master and the Ghost King met, chances were that the two masters wouldn’t fight each other. With two strong beings fighting, there would definitely be injuries on both sides. If it wasn’t for some great treasure or benefit, then naturally there was no need to risk a life or death battle.
With Lin Ming’s current cultivation, it was still dangerous coming to Dark Moon Island. But with the Moon Seizing sect’s secret skill to hide one’s breathe, the chances of being found by the Ghost King were slim.
Before coming to Dark Moon Island, Lin Ming also visited Huoluo Nation’s Seraphic Pond along the way.
This was from a bet that Huoluo Nation’s Seven Profound Martial House Master Liang had lost before. But because Lin Ming had been constantly busy dealing with other matters, he hadn’t had time to visit Huoluo Nation.
Now that he was going to Dark Moon Island, he just happened to pass by.
With Lin Ming’s arrival, even though Martial House Master Liang loathed to do so with all his heart, he still had to treat him with utter respect, and show an expression of awe and amazement.
This was something he couldn’t help. Lin Ming’s current status was too terrifying. Let alone Martial House Master Liang, even his backer at the Seven Profound Valleys had to treat Lin Ming with respect.
Huoluo Nation’s Seraphic Pond certainly had its own good points. Its water was like a fine jade nectar, and as he scooped up a handful, it was incomparably clear and even a bit sticky. As he held it in his hand, it didn’t leak through his fingers.
As Lin Ming plunged into the pond, his entire body was comfortable. He took a deep breath, and then dove straight to the bottom and sealed away all six of his senses. He was just like a baby suspended in his mother’s womb.
Lin Ming didn’t intend on being polite. He swallowed big gulps of the fine nectar-like water, and let the water flow through his body. Then, black oils began to discharge from all the pores of his body, and the foul Houtian air in Lin Ming’s body left along with it. A pure heaven and earth origin energy flowed through his meridians, and a part of it stayed within.
Slowly, Lin Ming began to realize the benefits of the Seraphic Pond. The thin origin energy of the Seraphic Pond couldn’t be compared to a top quality pill, but this sort of thin origin energy actually had a purifying effect on the impurities in his body; this was just to Lin Ming’s liking.
While underwater, he immediately began to revolve the ‘Vermillion Bird Forbidden Divine Chronicle’, manipulating the Fire Essence so that it burnt off small amounts of pill toxins.
Lin Ming soaked in the Seraphic Pond for an entire day, using up all of the heaven and earth origin energy that had been saved up within the Seraphic Pool for half a year. The anxious Martial House Master Liang could only bear the pain as his heart bled, and cheerfully smile as he waited for Lin Ming to finish.
Finally, at sunset, Lin Ming stepped out of the Seraphic Pond and dried his wet hair. Martial House Master Liang forced out a smile, and had a maid bring Lin Ming a dish of fruits.
There was no need to kick a person while he was being so polite. Like this, all matters between Lin Ming and Martial House Master Liang were settled.
After he left the Seraphic Pond, Lin Ming’s cultivation hadn’t increased – it was still at the late Pulse Condensation period. It was only that many of the pill toxins in his body had been cleared. Although it had a wonderful effect, half a year of the Seraphic Pond saving up heaven and earth origin energy was only enough to soak a single time. This was somewhat useless; no wonder the Seven Profound Valleys had let Huoluo Nation’s Seven Profound Martial House take over the Seraphic Pond.
These days, Zhou Xinyu had been very silent. When she had been in the Lin Family residence, she had usually stayed in her room, not leaving.
As the two crossed the sea, the color of the sea became increasingly deep. Lin Ming probed the sea with his perception. The bottom of the sea had already surpassed the limit of his sense, and was over half a mile deep.
It was said that in the deep regions of the South Sea, the sea went down hundreds of thousands of meters. This was at the Rue Abyss, and horrible terrors lived there—massive vicious beasts of the sea. For instance, there were rumors of the Giant Leviathan Saint Beast, a creature that was said to be tens of thousands of feet long. Of course, no one knew the veracity of these rumors.
“Is that Dark Moon Island ahead?” Lin Ming stood on the Winged Flood Dragon and asked Zhou Xinyu as he pointed at a gray shadow in front.
Zhou Xinyu nodded, “Mm.”
When Lin Ming saw Dark Moon Island with his own eyes, he realized that it was much larger than he had imagined. As he stood tall above the Winged Flood Dragon, he quickly passed a few hundred miles. The land below him was completely dark red, with a chilling black fog swirling above it. From above, it was impossible to see anything.
“How big is Dark Moon Island?”
“At least a few thousand miles long and wide, I don’t know the specifics.” Zhou Xinyu casually said.
Lin Ming let out a light breath. A range of a couple thousand miles wasn’t much smaller than the entire territory of Sky Fortune Kingdom. He had heard that Dark Moon Island was just a normal island of the South Sea. If he had to speculate, then it was very likely that the main islands of Divine Phoenix Island and the South Sea Demon Region were tens of thousands of miles long and wide.
Was that still an island? Even calling it a mini continent wasn’t an exaggeration.
After some reflection, it realized that this was natural. If it really was a small land, then it wouldn’t be able to support such great powers.
“Let’s go down, it should be near.” Zhou Xinyu took out two symbol papers from her spatial ring and gave one to Lin Ming. “Pour some true essence into this and stick it to your body. It will isolate the vitality in your body so that you won’t be bothered by ghosts and demons.”
Lin Ming received the yellow symbol paper and saw that a strange red mark was drawn in the center of symbol paper. This was most likely a blood curse. This was likely from the same area of inscription symbols, and also another skill domain unknown to Lin Ming.
As he poured true essence into the symbol paper, the symbol paper burnt away and formed into a red line of blood that sunk into Lin Ming’s body. The power of Lin Ming’s blood vitality was instantly hidden, and his originally healthily tanned and exquisite skin was now pale with an ashy color. His body temperature was ice cold, and an aura of death was emanated. This symbol paper had caused a strapping young boy that was brimming with blood vitality to look like a dying man.
“What an impressive method.” Lin Ming was thoroughly impressed. According to ghost stories, ghosts loved to eat blood vitality. It was said they could smell a stranger’s blood vitality from dozens of miles away. If a person’s blood vitality was sealed so that they were no different from a corpse, then naturally these ghosts wouldn’t come looking for food.
“It’s just an insignificant skill. The Moon Seizing Sect didn’t refine weapons or set down arrays; all they were good at were symbols. Whether they were offensive symbols, defensive symbols, or inscription symbols, they were skilled in them all.” Zhou Xinyu sighed as she spoke. She was sad as her heart remembered all the inheritances and legacies of her sect that had been destroyed.
“Oh? They also understood inscription symbols?”
“Mm. My master Shui Yue was an inscription grandmaster.” Zhou Xinyu spoke and no longer dwelled on this. She lit the symbol paper in her hands, and soon her blood vitality was sealed. Her rosy face turned white like paper, and she gave off a feeling as if she was ill with several terminal diseases.
As the two went down and set foot on the land of Dark Moon Island, they immediately felt a chilling wind, seeing only an endless black fog wherever they turned. If a normal mortal were to come into contact with this sort of black fog, they would immediately die from corpse poison, and then turn into a zombie, becoming an undead slave of the land.
Even a Pulse Condensation period martial artist couldn’t stay out here for too long. If they weren’t able to supplement their true essence with pills, then the true essence around their bodies would fade, and they’d be poisoned to death.
This was the first time that Zhou Xinyu had come here. She carefully advanced forwards, holding the jade slip in her hands and constantly comparing the contents to the environment.
Not to mention the ghosts that lived in the black fog, the black fog also carried the faint sounds of ghosts crying. Even the land of Dark Moon Island was creepy; it was all a dark crimson red, as if massive amounts of blood had been spilled here. Lin Ming tried to send out his perception to check and see if he really couldn’t penetrate the ground, but as he did so, he quickly drew his soul force back. The red rock was just like a sponge that absorbed water.
The ground everywhere was covered with half-foot tall stalagmites, every one of them incomparably sharp, just like the fangs of a red demon. If a mortal wasn’t careful, they could fall and impale themselves on a stalagmite. Their intestines would be punctured, and their stomach would soon rot.
After walking such a long distance, they still hadn’t seen a living creature. They only saw some scattered bones everywhere, and over some of these bones were flowers. These flowers were a deep bright red, as if they were made of blood. The flowers had no leaves, only thick and countless roots that dug deep into the corpses, sucking out all of their nutrition.
The air was rank with a mixed smell of blood and sulfur. The deeper they went, the stronger this smell was. This strangely cold wind seemed to directly penetrate their bodies, and seemed just like a knife that was scraping against the soul.
Lin Ming didn’t feel much, but Zhou Xinyu seemed like she couldn’t persist much longer. She had even pasted a few blood symbol marks on her body, but she couldn’t stop shivering, her arms subconsciously grasping her own body. At this time, Zhou Xinyu’s response was just like a thinly clad and fragile mortal girl who was standing in the cold.
Lin Ming breathed out a light breath and with a flick of his fingers, sent several threads of azure true essence into Zhou Xinyu’s body. The azure true essence’s power and endless vitality bloomed, and the chilling Yin wind was expelled. As they walked, Zhou Xinyu felt several warm currents echoing in her body, keeping her limbs warm. With the chilling ghost wind expelled from her body, Zhou Xinyu turned and was surprised to see Lin Ming already receiving his hand. As for those several threads of true essence, they remained in her body without even the slightest bit of dissipation.
This caused Zhou Xinyu to be surprised. Normally, the true essence that a martial artist released would dissipate once it lost the support of the body’s soul force; it would slowly unravel out of control, and then slowly dissipate. Without the support of soul force, the true essence would become uncontrolled and gradually dissipate. To help protect someone from the chilling wind, someone would need to place a hand on her back and continuously input true essence.
But none of this applied to Lin Ming. That strange azure true essence he released seemed to have a life of its own, continually destroyed the chilling Yin mist. As more and more of the black mist was being destroyed, his consumption of energy was actually very little.
As long as more than 50% of Zhou Xinyu’s true essence was consumed, Lin Ming would flick his fingers and send two more threads of azure true essence into her body, completely eliminating all of the chilling air in Zhou Xinyu.
“Thank you.” Zhou Xinyu whispered.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s been quite a bit of time hasn’t it?” The two had already used almost an hour to search around.
Although Zhou Xinyu had a map in her hands, identifying the direction in which they were travelling in such a thick black mist wasn’t easy. Especially since this was her first time coming here, and she wasn’t able to use her perception to sense the surroundings.
Zhou Xinyu said, “If I’m not wrong, it should be in front of that stone wall.”
Lin Ming looked up. The stone wall that Zhou Xinyu had mentioned was less than a hundred feet away. It was just like a red monster that was hidden in the black fog.
“The entrance should be in the stone wall.” Zhou Xinyu said with confidence as she compared once again with the jade slip.