"A Divine Calculator? Yes, Elder Bai Yunrui of the main alliance is an expert in that field. He’s not only proficient in various forms of divination, but he can even locate spiritual veins and alter the flow of fortune in the mountains!"
Zhao Qianyue responded immediately, looking at Elder Wuu and saying, "Xiaowuu, go and fetch Elder Bai. Just say I sent you!"
"Yes, Senior Zhao."
Elder Wuu acknowledged the order and immediately left.
"Then what about this thing? Should we keep it for now?"
Chen Xuan held the three-headed sculpture in his hand.
"Let’s keep it. Elder Bai might be able to find a clue from it."
Zhao Qianyue replied.
"Sounds good. Let’s charter a large boat and wait out on the lake. The moment we pinpoint its location, I’ll go into the water immediately,"
Chen Xuan responded.
"Absolutely not. You stay out here. I’ll go in your place. If that ancient corpse has some terrifying, unusual abilities, it could be a huge problem,"
Zhao Qianyue said hurriedly.
"Are you kidding me? My mind is made up. I’m going in myself."
Chen Xuan turned and walked away.
"Then I’ll go with you!"
Zhao Qianyue quickly followed.
’Are all young people this reckless these days?’
The ancient corpse’s exact strength was still unknown. Once infected by its corpse qi, it would be a lifelong affliction.
Although Chen Xuan had strange methods, there was simply no need for him to take such a personal risk.
Before long, they had boarded a large boat.
They positioned themselves several hundred meters from the island and began to circle it, observing.
"Elder Chen, please reconsider. If you get infected with corpse qi..."
Zhao Qianyue said again.
"I’m not worried about myself getting infected. I’m worried about *you* getting infected. That’s why you’re staying out here."
Chen Xuan cut him off.
’He had the Innate Tyrant Body. As long as his head wasn’t carried away, he would never die.’
’Any injury would heal in an instant.’
’Corpse qi? What a joke.’
’If anyone was going to get infected, it would be Zhao Qianyue.’
’Zhao Qianyue was an Inner Realm master. If he were to be infected by corpse qi and turn into a Corpse Demon, it would be a devastating catastrophe for everyone on the island. Besides himself, no one would survive.’
"But..."
Zhao Qianyue was speechless, not knowing what to say.
But a sudden thought popped into Chen Xuan’s mind.
’No, when I get back, I have to see if there are any martial arts for strengthening my neck and head.’
’His entire body had only one weakness.’
’His head being carried away.’
’Just chopping off his head wouldn’t kill him.’
’Only if his head was taken away and couldn’t be retrieved for a long time would he actually die.’
’But if he mastered some kind of Iron Neck technique, how would you carry his head away?’
’Heh, you wouldn’t be able to chop it, and you wouldn’t be able to carry it off.’
’Even if it were only attached by a single layer of skin, it would heal instantly.’
’What are you gonna do then?’
While they were waiting, a fast boat from the shore sped toward them.
Two figures stood on the boat.
One was Elder Wuu, who had just left.
The other was an old man in a simple robe. He was thin, his face was covered in age spots, and his hair was nearly half-gone. This had to be the Alliance Leader’s Elder Bai Yunrui.
As soon as he arrived, Chen Xuan’s expression turned curious.
He saw that Bai Yunrui’s two eyes were completely different colors.
His left eye was golden yellow.
His right eye was a deathly gray.
When his eyes moved, they gave off an indescribably bizarre feeling.
The two of them leaped from the small boat, landing directly on the deck of the larger one.
"Greetings, Senior Zhao. Greetings, Elder Chen."
Bai Yunrui cupped his fists in salute, his attitude earnest.
"No need for formalities. Elder Wuu has told you everything, I assume."
Zhao Qianyue said, "Use your ’Golden Pupil Earth Vein Observation’ skill now and see where those Evil Cult members have hidden the ancient corpse."
"Yes, Senior Zhao!"
Bai Yunrui replied, then turned and stood on the deck, his gaze solemn.
His gold and gray pupils scanned the entire island. From time to time, he would take out a Compass to check it, while his other hand held a constantly spinning dowsing rod.
Chen Xuan watched this with great surprise.
’So even a fantasy world has this kind of stuff.’
’It truly is a wide world, full of all sorts of wonders.’
’To be honest, he was quite interested in this kind of thing.’
"Elder Bai, how does that thing work?"
Chen Xuan asked with a smile, like a curious child.
Seeing Chen Xuan’s question, Bai Yunrui immediately became extremely respectful. "Elder Chen, please look at the water. It has a corpse-like cyan color, and the center of the lake is a drowning black. This indicates the ’Yin Sore Submersion’ phenomenon. The water veins here have been destroyed."
Chen Xuan leaned over to look and nodded lightly.
"Now look at the wind. There are spiral vortexes on the lake’s surface despite there being no wind. This is not a normal current; it’s a sign of ’Earthly Fiend Surging Spring.’ The air forms a swarm of black flies that doesn’t disperse, which is a sign of resentful souls clinging to this place,"
Bai Yunrui said.
Chen Xuan nodded gently again.
"And then?"
"And then, the yin and baleful energy here is thick, different from the surroundings. It’s like a natural soul-gathering place."
Bai Yunrui explained, "A long time ago, I observed this area closely and found it to be a land of Ten Yin and Ten Absolutes. Later, I checked the Martial Alliance’s records and confirmed that a dark, foggy night appears here every ten years, during which all sorts of Demons and Monsters gather in a frenzy. A place of certain death like this should have been naturally sealed off, with no one allowed to approach. I don’t know why the Alliance Leader would establish a black market here."
"I’ve thought about that too. Can you find the ancient corpse buried by the Evil Cult?"
Chen Xuan asked.
"Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible. But they left behind the formation’s eye, and that is their greatest weakness!"
Bai Yunrui looked at the black sculpture in Chen Xuan’s hand and said, "Elder Chen, could I trouble you to hand that sculpture to this old one for a moment!"
"Be my guest!"
Chen Xuan handed the three-headed demon sculpture to him.
Bai Yunrui took the sculpture, bit his fingertip, and dripped blood onto it. Instantly, the sculpture seemed to come alive, flashing with a dark light.
At the same time, the needle on the Compass began to spin rapidly, as if disturbed by a mysterious magnetic field.
Bai Yunrui immediately had the men row the boat, beginning to triangulate the position based on the Compass and the sculpture.
About half an incense stick’s time passed.
Finally! The large boat came to a stop.
The needle on the Compass was no longer spinning wildly.
The sculpture, however, was now flashing even more bizarrely.
"Incredible! Truly incredible! Elder Chen, Senior Zhao, the Evil Cult’s ancient corpse should be right below this area of the lake."
Bai Yunrui’s expression shifted. "This place gathers yin but embraces yang. There is death within life, and life within death. Without using their formation’s eye as a guide, an ordinary person could never find it. Besides the Corpse Demon, I’m afraid there might be a treasure nurturing here as well."
"Treasure?"
A glint appeared in Chen Xuan’s eyes.
’Then he *definitely* had to go down and see for himself.’
"Senior Zhao, you stay here. I’m going down to take a look!"
Chen Xuan leaped up, enveloped his body in fiery True Essence, and with a SPLASH, jumped straight into the water.
HSSSSSS...
The vast, cold currents of water rushed in, only to be completely blocked by his True Essence.
Chen Xuan swam toward the bottom. His eyes were open, but everything before him was pitch-black, as if he were swimming into a bottomless abyss.
Logically, as a True Essence Realm master, seeing underwater should have been effortless for him.
But the water here was completely different. It was gloomy and dark, severely obstructing his vision. He could barely see more than a dozen meters ahead. The deeper he went, the colder the aura became, and he could feel powerful, chaotic currents surging upward.
He dove about seventy or eighty meters, but it was still bottomless.
This made Chen Xuan suspicious.
Just as he continued his descent, a strange feeling of being watched suddenly surged through him. Something in the area ahead seemed to be approaching rapidly, bringing with it an even more bizarre and sinister feeling.
A dark mass shot up quickly from the depths.
Chen Xuan focused his gaze to observe it.
He finally saw it clearly.
It was a mass of dark, sinister hair—so dense and black it was terrifying, and as large as a water vat.
As it drew near, the hair parted like seaweed, revealing more than a dozen twisted faces stitched together inside. Their pupils were ghostly white, and their faces were contorted in savage grins as they stared straight at Chen Xuan.
"Chen Xuan!"
The dozen or so faces shrieked in unison.
Their voices were a mix of pain, madness, and strangeness—unspeakably horrifying in the gloomy depths.
At the same time, a countless number of hairs surged toward Chen Xuan to engulf him.
Chen Xuan immediately threw a punch.
His terrifyingly hot and virile True Essence fell like a massive iron hammer.
BOOM! The punch landed on the chaotic mass of faces. All dozen-plus faces let out shrill screams, and more than half of them exploded on the spot.
The remaining seven or eight faces were terrified. They tried to flee quickly, like a jellyfish.
But Chen Xuan let out a savage laugh, grabbed a handful of its dense black hair, and began pulling it upward with alternating hands.
"Trying to run?"
’I fucking came down here looking for you.’
’And you’re trying to run from me?’
The last seven or eight faces shook their heads desperately, utterly terrified. They were like a wounded little rabbit that had just run into a huge tiger, trembling in absolute fear.
"Spare me, I won’t do it again..."
"You won’t do it again?"
Chen Xuan slapped it without holding anything back.
SLAP! The last seven or eight faces all exploded into countless bits of flesh and blood.
’As if I’d let you go. I have to kill you either way!’
’And let you live to harm other people?’
[You have killed an underwater ghoul formed from the convergence of yin and resentful energy. Your satisfaction is exceptional. Retribution points +25,000!]
A line of text appeared.
Chen Xuan continued to dive toward the bottom.
After diving another forty or fifty meters,
he finally reached the very bottom of the lake.
His gaze fixed, and he finally discovered something unusual.
Not far in front of him,
a tangled mass of seaweed grew, a dark and seemingly endless expanse.
Chen Xuan wasn’t even sure if it was seaweed; whatever it was, it was a chaotic mess.
He sent a wave of True Qi sweeping past, instantly clearing all the seaweed from the area.
Suddenly!
His pupils contracted.
He saw a massive bronze coffin resting in the depths. It was ancient and weathered, mottled with rust. Its surface was densely carved with countless blood-red runes, giving it a sinister and unusual appearance. He could even see that the coffin lid was covered in hair.
All around it lay corpses, their faces deathly pale and their skin bloated from the water.
Some of the bodies were recently deceased, while others had been dead for an unknown amount of time.
’So this is where the ancient corpse is?’
Chen Xuan’s eyes flashed.
He swooped down, heaved up the bronze coffin, and started swimming upward. A thick iron chain, as wide as a water bucket, was locked to the bottom of the coffin.
But without a second thought, Chen Xuan chopped down with his palm, instantly severing the chain. He then hoisted the bronze coffin onto his shoulder and swam for the surface.
The creature inside the coffin seemed to sense that someone was moving it. It let out a low, muffled groan—sinister and cold—and was about to crawl out.
But Chen Xuan slammed his large hand down, firmly holding the lid in place. He wrapped the entire bronze coffin in fiery True Qi, trapping the creature inside, and focused only on swimming upward.
"ROAR!"
The roar from the creature inside the coffin grew even more deafening. It struggled violently, ramming against the lid with all its might, trying to send it flying.
Its transformation was not yet complete; it absolutely could not see the light of day.
The moment it saw daylight, its several hundred years of accumulated yin energy would rapidly dissipate into nothing.
But it never imagined that this rune-covered coffin would become its tomb. No matter how hard it rammed, it couldn’t break free. The runes seemed to have locked it in place, and Chen Xuan, carrying the coffin with the creature still inside, raced toward the surface.