While Xu Qing sped through the Forbidden Sea, absorbing one sea beast after another, some distance away from him, three enormous warships made of black wood sped through the dome of heaven. They exuded an aura of ancientness, and almost looked like three enormous trees. The glittering black light they exuded kept the ships’ aura locked down and virtually undetectable. At the same time, they would make it difficult for anyone to see who was on the ships.

The truth was that it was a disguise ensuring that no one knew these were Seazombie warships.

The ships were powered by mutagen, and because they could constantly absorb mutagen from their surroundings, they could fly for shockingly long periods of time. There were over a hundred Seazombie cultivators on the ships, although most of them were only in the Qi Condensation level. There were four, though, who pulsed with the aura of Foundation Establishment. Those four weren’t ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators. They all had life flames.

The strongest among them wore a white robe. Though he wasn’t in the profound radiance state, he radiated the obvious aura of two life flames. He was in charge of these warships, and as he stared off into the distance, his gray pupils pulsed with intense coldness. In fact, his entire person radiated frigidity, as though nothing around him were possibly worth him paying attention to.

Standing next to him was a young woman. She was also a Seazombie, and had once been human. She had clearly been beautiful in life, and even after having been zombified, she was an important person. Because of that, she didn’t radiate any of the aura of zombie poison, and had fair skin without any necrotic patches. She was actually good-looking, and even a bit cute. Her eyes seemed livelier than the average Seazombie, and if she was standing in a crowd, it wouldn’t be immediately apparent that she was a Seazombie at all. She currently had an arm wrapped around the white-robed Seazombie’s arm.

“Big Bro Xu Qing,” she said, pouting a bit, “tell me! Come on, please! How’d you find me, huh? I was very careful to stay in disguise.”

The white-robed Seazombie shook his head slowly, but seemed to be having trouble resisting the young woman’s pleas. Then she took out a black stone and handed it to him. He took it.

Looking at her, he said, “Third Princess, knowledge is priceless. And since you value knowledge so much, I, Xu Qing, will tell you the answer to your question. Before I was a Seazombie, I was a disciple from the Seventh Peak in Seven Blood Eyes. Thanks to a little technique I learned back then, I was able to deduce your identity.

“Princess, your father the king is very anxious, which is why he posted the mission to find you and bring you back. Please, Princess, don’t make this hard for me. The return journey won’t take long. On the way back to our ancestral land, don’t throw things around randomly. If you provoke someone you shouldn’t provoke, it could lead to trouble.”

Grinning shyly, the young woman said, “Aw, fine. But don’t forget, Big Bro Xu Qing, you promised that you would be my special dao protector when we got back. I like your personality, Big Bro Xu Qing. You’re special. I can tell. You know, I can’t believe you dared to make me pay you a mutation stone just to answer my question. Not one other member of our species would do something like that.

“All those things you say, such as ‘knowledge is priceless’ and ‘respect knowledge,’ well… I just really like that. They’re very unique.” 𝒆𝙣𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝙚𝙩

The white-robed Seazombie clasped his hands behind his back and stared off into the distance. “I, Xu Qing, am a person who never goes back on his word. As long as you help me complete this mission smoothly, Princess, then I won’t stop at just being your dao protector. I’ll even be your consort, if you wish. And if I, Xu Qing, go back on my word, then let me be poisoned with the most deadly poison, and struck by heavenly lightning five times in a row!”

“You’d really be my consort, Big Bro Xu Qing?” Third Princess asked, her eyes lighting up.

“Absolutely!”

The white-robed Seazombie cleared his throat.

Meanwhile, in another part of the Forbidden Sea, Xu Qing shivered, and his eyes shone with vigilance as he slowly backed up.

Further ahead of him on the seafloor was a shocking group of ghostly figures moving through the water toward a city. The enormous city was full of buildings, as well as countless shadowy figures moving about through them. Xu Qing heard the hustle and bustle you would expect in a city; there were even vendor stalls and carts that the ghostly figures shopped from.

At a glance, this place looked just as big and bustling as the Seven Blood Eyes capital city.

The sight of it caused Xu Qing’s heart to pound. It didn’t matter how much he had advanced in cultivation base and battle prowess, this scene still filled him with dread. What he was looking at was a ghost city.

And what caused him to fear it weren’t the ghosts, but rather the city, which was an entity unto itself. That was why, without any hesitation, he backed away from it. The ghost city didn’t seem interested in him, and had no intention of pursuing him. However, Xu Qing didn’t have any desire to test that out. Picking another direction, he started moving, and only when he was some distance away did he breathe a sigh of relief.

The seafloor is a dangerous place. Given the level of my cultivation base, I need to be careful about exploring down so far.

This was the second entity Xu Qing had run into recently that left him palpitating in fear. The first time, he had seen an enormous head rise up from the water, then splash back down, as if it were playing. And it had cackled with laughter. That time, just as this time, he immediately fled. There had been no conflict, and yet Xu Qing didn’t dare to stay around such beings for long. And he had the feeling that if he ran into a third such entity, it would lead to true danger.

Therefore, he left the seafloor, went back to the surface, and got onto his dharmaskiff. There, he had the shadow and his Forbidden Sea dragonwhale keep watch.

I’m almost finished with the second phase of Golden Crow Assimilates Myriad Spirits. Going forward, I need to be more careful.

Sitting down cross-legged, he sent his senses down toward his Forbidden Sea dragonwhale.

His life essence dragon no longer resembled a snakeneck dragon. Instead, it had changed into something more like a bluegreen dragon. After having hunted and killed that bluegreen dragon, he had applied that enlightenment to adjust his Forbidden Sea dragonwhale.

Unfortunately, I’ve only killed one, so my imitation isn’t perfect.

Xu Qing closed his eyes. Seven days passed in a flash.

He had been out at sea for months now, and had no idea how the war was going back at the Merfolk Isles. However, his identity medallion indicated that his ranking had dropped from the fifties to past a hundred. That seemed to indicate that the war was raging.

However, Xu Qing wasn’t worried about that right now. For the past week, he had been completely focused on Golden Crow Assimilates Myriad Spirits, to the point where it was almost complete.

I just need one more Foundation Establishment sea beast, and then the legacy seed will be fully activated!

Xu Qing’s eyes shone with anticipation as he sent his bluegreen dragon down into the water to search for more sea beasts. The shadow also sent out quite a few shadow eyes to help in the search, and Patriarch Golden Vajra Warrior joined the bluegreen dragon.

In the middle of that search, Xu Qing suddenly looked up into the sky. It was evening, and as the sky turned as red as autumn leaves, he saw three enormous black trees flying through the air in the distance. They looked like strange warships. He couldn’t sense any fluctuations coming from the ships, nor could he see who was on them. Thinking back to the sea annals in Seven Blood Eyes, he didn’t remember seeing anything like this mentioned. Therefore, he had no way to know where these ships were from.

It looked like they were just going to pass by, but he kept his guard up nonetheless, and also activated his dharmaskiff’s defenses. He even sank down below the surface of the water. That way, if they were planning to just pass by, then it was more likely they would leave him alone. And if they did attack, he would be ready to either fight back or flee.

However, even as he sank below the surface of the water, the hand of a woman reached out from the lead ship. It was as fair as white jade, and held a black pearl, within the depths of which was sealed a magical symbol. Then she released the pearl, and it shot with lightning speed toward Xu Qing.

Xu Qing’s pupils constricted, and he sent his dharmaskiff shooting away in the opposite direction.

Except, to his shock, the magical symbol in the pearl glittered, and the pearl suddenly blinked out of existence, then blinked back into existence right in front of his dharmaskiff.

It happened so quickly that Xu Qing couldn’t react. His dharmaskiff slammed into the pearl and exploded into countless pieces. Huge waves splashed out everywhere, and then wreckage floated up to the surface.

From a distance, the flotsam and jetsam roughly corresponded to the shape of a dharmaskiff.

Up in the sky, Third Princess leaned over the rail of the warship, a grin on her face. “Aiya! That was too easy! It exploded with one hit! So boring. The waves were pretty though.”

Next to her, the white-robed Seazombie was holding his breath, and had a strange look on his face as he looked down at where the dharmaskiff had exploded. After a long moment, he exhaled and said, “Third Princess, what are you doing? I just want to finish this mission. Why are you causing so much trouble?? Can’t you be a bit more low-key? What happens if you provoke some fiendish, monstrous, murderous killer? What then?”

Feeling very depressed, the white-robed Seazombie produced an apple and took a bite.

Smiling up at him, Third Princess said, “What’s the big deal, Big Bro Xu Qing? It was just a boat from Seven Blood Eyes. And all it took was one strike of my damned father’s divine lightning to destroy it. Who cares?”

The white-robed Seazombie shook his head. He felt like explaining more, and also lecturing her about the way she talked about her father the king, but in the end he kept his mouth shut and piloted the ship onward. As the three tree-like warships passed overhead and disappeared into the distance, the waves dispersed the scattered remnants of the dharmaskiff.

Meanwhile, another dharmaskiff sped along under the surface. It was smaller than the previous one, but looked more vicious, almost like a sealizard. And it was following the three warships!

The boat that had exploded was the external shell that Zhang San had specially crafted to distract enemies. Currently, Xu Qing stood on his actual dharmaskiff, an unsightly expression on his face. As he looked up toward the surface, his eyes burned with killing intent.

“Seazombies?”