"That demon god is actually still waiting here?" Xu Ying was astonished, his thoughts drifting back to events from over four thousand years ago.
Back then, he, Xu Fu, and the elites of three thousand sects had arrived here, only to plunge into chaotic time and space. When their multideck tower ship sailed into these waters, everyone discovered that the Heavenly Dao did not exist here. All Dao methods and divine powers had been rendered utterly ineffective; only Xu Ying, recalling the divine powers of Lord Ying from his first life, could still muster any real might. At that time, they had been ambushed by a demon god, which threw their Dao hearts into disarray and drove them to slaughter one another.
Xu Ying's cultivation in those days had been meager. Even though he wielded a portion of Lord Ying's divine powers, he was still no match for the demon god. Xu Fu had negotiated terms with the entity, promising that if it allowed them to pass, they would return with Mount Fangzhang and offer the fairy mountain as a tribute.
To seal the bargain, Xu Fu offered over a hundred young boys and girls as hostages, abandoning them to the demon god until they could locate Mount Fangzhang to redeem them.
However, Xu Ying had never brought back the fairy mountain.
"This fellow actually waited four thousand years. What patience. Could those boys and girls still be alive?" Xu Ying mused silently.
Chu Xiangxiang circulated her magic power, attempting to resist the colossal hand descending from above. She realized her magic power was still present, yet every Heavenly Dao rune on her body and all her insights into the Heavenly Dao had been rendered completely useless. Even the Heavenly Dao cloak Xu Ying had gifted her turned dim, robbed of any chance to display its might.
This was a world where the Heavenly Dao was entirely absent—a domain ruled by demon gods. In this place, the laws of the Great Dao that held sway across the heavens and myriad realms were utterly powerless.
Lin Tianhua turned deathly pale, staring blankly at the descending hand. The magic power he possessed was impossible to wield, his yuan qi lay dormant, and his Dao methods and divine powers had lost all their previous potency.
Xu Ying called out, "Seventh Master, steer the ship!"
Yuan Qi came to his senses and instantly plunged his tail into the sea, swimming with tremendous speed so that the tower ship surged forward.
As the demon god's palm plummeted from the heavens, brilliant cave-heavens spun into existence behind Xu Ying, illuminating the void and turning the ocean translucent. He raised his hand, and a beam of sword qi shot through the air!
Demonic blood sprayed across the sky as the demon god's hand was sheared off at the wrist by the sword light!
Back then, Xu Ying had been no match for this demon god. But now, he was no longer who he once was.
The demon god thrust out its other hand. With an earth-shattering clang, it shattered Xu Ying's sword light and formed a massive fist that plunged down across a hundred li of open sea, its power unmatched and savage. Before the blow even landed, the surface of the ocean buckled under the terrifying pressure, and the Penglai tower ship was instantly driven down toward the seabed!
The mountain-sized fist hovered directly above their heads, poised to crush the vessel and everyone aboard into dust!
Xu Ying soared into the air. Behind him, the two great cave-heavens of the Mud Pill and Crimson Palace whirled frantically. In a split second, violent vital qi, blood, and strength coursed through his entire body. He thrust out a punch—
Boom!
The sky seemed to burst as countless bone fragments scattered. The descending fist of the demon god was shattered completely by Xu Ying's single blow! The Penglai tower ship groaned and creaked under the colossal shockwave.
The demon god wailed in agony. Its body surged as its remaining arms drove downward like jagged black mountain peaks. At the same time, flesh and sinew sprouted furiously from its severed stump, while new arms burst forth from under its armpits—it was truly immortal! It rained down blows at blinding speed, its gargantuan frame whipping up phantoms of fist peaks across the sky.
Hovering midair, Xu Ying met the frenzied assault of mountain-sized fists, throwing strike after strike. Explosions thundered incessantly, and within moments, an untold number of the demon god's arms were snapped in half.
In mere breaths, he shattered every single one of the demon god's arms. Taking advantage of the brief delay as the flesh on the severed limbs regenerated, Xu Ying shot up from the bow of the ship, traversing a hundred li in a single bound to land right before the demon god's face!
The multi-armed demon god's forehead caved in, and the back of its skull blew open as Xu Ying burst through the erupting gore. With a single punch, the momentum of his body had driven straight through the creature's head!
The residual force of that blow stirred up a hundred-li gale across the sea, cleaving the waters in two!
The multi-armed demon god spun around. A newly grown hand seized Xu Ying, clenching him in its palm. Its face twisted into a savage, ferocious snarl. "Xu Ying, you faithless cur! You dared to deceive even a demon god... and now you murder your creditor..."
Xu Ying looked up and asked, "Where are the hostages you kept here?" A faint ember of hope still burned within his heart—hope that those people might still walk the mortal earth.
"After you left, I devoured every last one of them! Did you truly believe that bringing Mount Fangzhang would have earned your freedom?"
A bizarre grin spread across the multi-armed demon god's face. Its eyes lost focus and it toppled backward, its vitality hemorrhaging at terrifying speed. Its voice grew fainter and fainter: "I told you... everyone aboard your ship was cursed by me, never to return alive. And this ship of yours is no different. I curse your ship... the vessel upon which you stand... no one shall survive..."
Xu Ying raised a hand and slashed outward; a beam of sword light flashed past, severing its head!
The multi-armed demon god's corpse crashed heavily into the sea. At that very moment, however, demonic qi billowed from behind it, condensing into a black lotus.
The black lotus swooped straight toward Xu Ying's face. Xu Ying swatted it away; the flower struck his palm, only to disperse with a sharp snap. He raised his hand and saw a black lotus brand stamped into his flesh. His expression shifted slightly. He had already tasted a demon god's curse once before.
The last time he had ventured here with Xu Fu and the others, Xu Fu had struck that pact with the multi-armed demon god. The demon god had detained more than a hundred mortals and laid down a curse: if they failed to return with the fairy mountain, every soul aboard their vessel would perish at sea, leaving no survivor.
Subsequent events had very nearly fulfilled that curse. Those on board had died terrible deaths one after another, and even Xu Fu had ultimately been slain by Xu Ying. Only Xu Ying had survived to escape this horrifying ocean.
Xu Ying's survival could be viewed as proof that demon god curses were mere fabrications—or that the curse was real, but Xu Ying was a prisoner of the Immortal Realm, endowed with an imperishable true spirit so formidable that not even the Immortal Realm could obliterate him, rendering the curse powerless.
Xu Ying flew back toward the Penglai tower ship. He hesitated for a moment and refrained from landing on deck, thinking to himself, "At worst, I simply won't ride the ship."
"Uncle Ying, hurry and board!" Chu Xiangxiang shouted anxiously. "We never know when we might cross into another time and space!"
Just as the words left her mouth, a colossal wave surged up, swallowing the tower ship and everyone on board!
When the spray subsided, the Penglai tower ship had vanished without a trace.
"I cannot say for certain whether the demon god's curse will take effect," Xu Ying murmured softly, staring down at the black lotus brand upon his palm.
Aboard the tower ship, Chu Xiangxiang grabbed hold of the bronze bell's suspension loop to keep it from being swept away by the surging waters. Yuan Qi coiled tightly around the mast, while Lin Tianhua, soaked to the skin, frantically clung to a pillar.
Once the great wave passed, clear skies stretched overhead, and bright sunlight filled their vision.
They had traversed that stretch of sea and arrived in another world. While everyone was still reeling from the shock, the Penglai tower ship was drawn by Mount Penglai, sailing toward uncharted waters. The magic power and cultivation that had previously deserted them returned at once.
The Penglai tower ship gradually gathered speed. "Ah Ying didn't board!" Yuan Qi cried in distress.
At that moment, another towering wave crashed down, tossing the ship onto its side. In that fleeting instant, the vessel crossed into yet another world!
Everyone rushed to the stern and peered backward, but they saw only an endless, boundless expanse of water. There was no telling which mysterious sea of which world Xu Ying had drifted into.
Chu Xiangxiang offered soothing words: "Do not worry. Uncle Ying copied down the runes from this ship. Relying on those runes, he will certainly be able to find Penglai."
"Let us hope so," the others murmured, their hearts heavy with concern.
Xu Ying set foot upon the surface of the sea. Rather than immediately activating the homing runes from the Penglai tower ship, he turned his gaze toward the far horizon of this dark ocean.
Over there lay an immensely ancient world inhabited by heavenly fiends and demon gods. Long ago, he and Xu Fu had sailed to that very place. Mount Fangzhang was sealed right there.
That ancient, mysterious world was what they called the demonic realm.
"Mount Fangzhang, Mount Penglai, and Mount Yingzhou... Ah Fu said I brought them down from the Immortal Realm. But why did I hide Mount Fangzhang in the demonic realm? And where is Mount Yingzhou?"
Xu Ying gathered his thoughts. He still had many unanswered questions regarding this demonic realm. However, countless mighty and terrifying demon gods lurked within its borders, so he had not dared to explore deeply back then.
"It is better to search for Penglai first and reunite with Xiangxiang, Seventh Master, and the others."
Xu Ying closed his eyes, bringing to mind the key guiding runes from the Penglai tower ship and visualizing them with utmost focus. After a moment, his eyes opened. Yuan qi naturally welled up from beneath his feet, coalescing into seven runes that circled around him.
As he visualized these runes, he sensed a mysterious space in the unseen depths connecting to him—undoubtedly the Penglai Fairy Realm.
"If I hadn't copied down the guiding runes from the Penglai tower ship, I'm afraid I truly would have been stranded in this ocean."
Just as he was about to set off, the sky above the demonic realm began to violently churn. Then the firmament tore open, and a figure plummeted from the heavens, descending toward the ocean.
The rift sliced across the celestial canopy from east to west, forming a bottomless abyss flanked on both sides by precipitous, towering crags—grim and treacherous!
"Weixu!"
Xu Ying's heart skipped a beat. He immediately dissolved the guiding runes to the Penglai Fairy Realm, thinking, "Could the newcomer be Hua Cuoying? Her treasure, the Twelve-Storyed Mansions, was refined from my Twelve Storeyed Pavilions realm!"
A young man's clear, resonant voice echoed through the air: "King Tuyu! My master has commanded me to invite Your Majesty for a visit, saying that traces of the Penglai Fairy Realm have been discovered. King Tuyu?"
Standing upon the water, Xu Ying saw that the newcomer was not Hua Cuoying, but a handsome, fair-skinned youth. He wore a purple-gold hair-binding crown set with an egg-sized green jade, dressed in lavish robes and stepping forward in green satin court boots.
The splendidly dressed youth swept his gaze across the water and called out twice more. Finding no trace of King Tuyu, he looked bewildered. Just as he turned to leave, he suddenly caught sight of Xu Ying standing upon the sea and paused, slightly startled.
Xu Ying offered a faint smile. The youth returned the smile, feeling an odd sense of perplexity: "This person looks rather familiar, as though I have seen him somewhere before."
Xu Ying asked, "Brother, do you hail from Weixu? Might I ask who your master is?"
The youth did not answer, countering instead, "Brother, do you hail from the demonic realm? Whose disciple are you among the revered kings?"
Xu Ying smiled faintly. "I am a disciple of King Tuyu. My name is Ying Shaozong."
The youth replied, "I am Nalan Du. My master is the Ninth Immortal King."
Chapter 316