Laut kelihatan tak berujung, tentu saja itu relatif saja. Namun saat ini, Xu Qing dan Huang Yan sudah cukup dekat dengan pulau sehingga dapat merasakan segala sesuatu yang terjadi di sana. Pulau Lobster berbentuk seperti bintang lima, dan terdengar seseorang sedang memainkan seruling di suguhnya.
Di lain waktu, segelintir murid Tujuh Mata Darah sedang berlatih dengan giat. Ada yang bertarung dan membunuh, ada pula yang merampok harta karun. Semua tergantung pada kepribadian mereka. Apa pun halnya, sebagian besar mengikuti gaya Puncak Ketujuh, artinya mereka menyimpan kekuatan sebenarnya, berharap untuk menemukan keberuntungan. Segalanya sangat mirip dengan saat Xu Qing berlatih di Kepulauan Merfolk. Melihat aksi di bawah ini membuatnya teringat masa lalu.
Di tempat yang jauh di Laut Terlarang, sepertinya sebagai jawaban dari seruling itu, sebuah gelombang raksakawa sedang bergegas seperti tsunami menuju pulau.
Di dalam gelombang itu terdapat suatu entitas luar biasa. Saat semakin dekat, aura menakutkan mulai mengemfilli pulau, memengaruhi kubah langit, dan menyebabkan sebuah vorton raksakawa terbentuk di langit di atas kepala.
Segala murid Tujuh Mata Darah di pulau tiba-tiba merasa tidak nyaman.
Diregang jalur gelombang itu terdapat sesuatu yang besar dan sangat mirip dengan dreadnaught milik Master Ketujuh. Berbentuk seperti pedang raksakawa. Tentu saja, ini cocok sempurna dengan selera Senior Saudara Kedua.
Senior Saudara Kedua berdiri di atas dreadnaught itu, mengenakan zirah, kelihatan sangat gagah dan menggemparkan. Mata dinginnya menatap gelombang yang datang.
“Pergi lah kamu!” serumnya.
Seribu bintik api merah menyala di dalam gelombang. Mereka seperti ribuan sepasang mata. Pada saat yang sama, suara tinggi yang bisa menembus jiwa terdengar. Pulau berguncangan, laut bergelora, dan entitas di dalam gelombang mulai terlihat jelas.
Entitas itu adalah sepotong kain sobek yang menutupi permukaan laut! Ia menutupi area puluhan kilometer, hitam pekat seperti Laut Terlarang itu sendiri. Bahkan, jika dilihat sekilas, orang mungkin mengira bagian dari laut. Namun, lebih dari seribu nyala api yang menyala di atasnya membuatnya menonjol dari laut. Luar biasa, nyala api-nyala api itu adalah ribuan lentera merah. Mereka mengapung di atas kain sobek itu, menerangi segala arah, dan memberi warna merah pada kain itu.
Mereka juga mengungkapkan beberapa struktur tipis pada kain itu. Strukturnya seperti pembuluh daun sebuah pohon. Dan bahkan lebih menakutkan, ada jejak bintik-bintik cahaya bintang di dalam merah itu. Aura menakutkan menyebar ke segala arah, membentuk kabut yang mendalam.
Kabut itu seperti ribuan gerga yang tak terhitung jumlahnya, beberapa mengarah ke Pulau Lobster dan beberapa mengarah ke Senior Saudara Kedua. Namun, saat gergang-gergang kabut semakin dekat dengan Senior Saudara Kedua, nyala api menakutkan tiba-tiba muncul di sekelilingnya.
Api itu berubah menjadi proyeksi Flame Phoenix, sayapnya mengepak. Akibatnya, segalanya, termasuk langit dan laut, terbakar. Itu adalah langkah defensif yang Huang Yan pasangkan untuk Senior Saudara Kedua. Karena api itu, kabut pun terurai, dan kain sobek itu berhenti bergerak.
Mata Senior Saudara Kedua bersinar dengan cahaya dingin saat ia melompat turun dari pedang raksakawa besar itu menuju kain sobek.
Sebelum ia sempat jauh...
Sebuah sosok yang gemuk muncul tepat di depunya dan memeluk erat-eratnya.
Dengan penuh kasih sayang, ia berkata dengan hati-hati, "Saudaraku, tenanglah! Jangan mengganggu bayi! Aku yang willangan."
Setelah selesai, ia mengucapkan jari-jempolnya. Sebuah nyala api kecil meluncur keluar, seperti sebuah jantung yang berdebar, penuh dengan keaktifan, terbang melalui kegelapan ke arah kain sobek. Di sepanjang perjalanannya, ia mengeluarkan suara seperti bisikan yang tidak kelihatan. Seolah-olah nyala api itu sendiri sedang memberitahu dunia tentang dirinya. Dan saat suara-suara itu menjadi semakin banyak, kekuatan tak kasat mulai terkumpul di dalamnya. Sejenak kemudian, ia memancarkan panas yang bisa mengejutkan dunia.
Suara semakin keras, seiringnya seolah menuju klimaks. Teriakan marah berubah menjadi suara seperti reaktor api yang bisa membakar seluruh langit dan bumi. Ia meninbuh pada kain sobek itu.
Seulang-ulang tahun air yang menyakitkan terdengar ketika kain itu terbakar. Lentera merah itu juga terbakar. Namun, kata 'nyala' bisa menggambarkan hal yang sangat berbeda. Dalam sekejap, seluruh lentera merah mencair menjadi endut. Kain sobek terbakar. Langit terbakar. Laut Terlarang terbakar. Bahkan udara juga terbakar. Segalanya terbakar. Bahkan, api itu sangat menakutkan...
Bahkan mutagen juga terbakar.
Xu Qing ditonton pertunjukan langka ini. Bagian Laut Terlarang ini tidak lagi hitam. Segalanya terleleh, mengungkapkan apa yang dulu terlihat di sini bertahun-tahun lalu. Ia biru! Seperti pembersihan! Berkat baptisan api itu, lumpatan dan kotoran terbakar habis, menyisakan struktur murni di bawahnya.
Ini adalah pertama kalinya Xu Qing melihat Flame Phoenix dalam aksi.
Sungguh membantu untuk memahami mengapa Flame Phoenix bisa ada di dunia dewa, mengapa ia bisa mendominasi benua Phoenix Selatan dan disebut sebag sebag raja selatan di Revered Ancient. Ia tidak menghormati dewa-dewa. Ia tidak mengorbankan kepada mereka. Ia adalah raja Phoenix Selatan!
Dan kini, raja itu dengan lembut memeluk Senior Saudara Kedua. Bagi dirinya, nyala api itu hanyalah sebuah puff. Bahkan ia tidak memperhatikan hal-hal di sekitarnya. Seluruh perhatiannya tertuju pada Senior Saudara Kedua.
Di sisi lain, Senior Saudara Kedua menatap Huang Yan seolah ingin mengutukinya. Namun ketika ia melihat Xu Qing bersamanya, ia menahan diri.
Huang Yan menghela napas lega, lalu hendak berkata sesuatu, tiba-tiba matanya keras dan ia menatap ke bawah ke Laut Terlarang.
Xu Qing sedang hendak memberi salam kepada Senior Saudara Kedua ketika ia merasakan hal yang sama. Ia menoleh ke arah tempat abu-abu kain sobek tersebar di permukaan air.
Api sudah padam. Namun di bawah permukaan air, terdapat sepotong kain sebesar telapuk tangan. Meskipun telah melalui nyala api kebakuan mutlak yang Huang Yan luluhkan, ia masih ada. Dan ia sedang tenggelam dengan cepat ke dasar laut. Masih terbakar, tetapi kenyataan bahwa ia bertahan hingga saat ini mengindikasikan ia luar biasa.
"Eh, menariknya bukan?" Huang Yan berkata dengan mikir.
Mata Xu Qing bersinar, campuran kaget dan curiga. "Aku hanya melihatnya sekilas. Sekarang baru kuduhulukan... ada sesuatu yang familiar di dalamnya."
Dengan kata-kata itu, Xu Qing masuk ke Laut Terlarang dan bersiksuik meluncur ke arah kain sobek itu. Pada saat yang sama, ia melepas tanaman dewa roh roh roh roh.
Tanaman dewa roh roh roh roh tumbuh dengan cepat dan meluncur turun, menggelegar seperti anak panah yang dilepas dari busur.
Xu Qing menyempitkan mata. Kagetannya sejenak sebelumnya disebabkan oleh fluktuasi yang jelas yang ia rasakan dari tanaman dewa roh roh roh roh.
Apa yang mirip adalah striasi pada kain sobek....
Kelihatan sangat mirip dengan permukaan tanaman dewa roh roh roh roh.
Dengan pikiran seperti itu, Xu Qing bersaksundi dengan tanaman dewa roh roh roh roh dan kain sobek.
Setelah cukup waktu bagi sebuah tusuk incens, Xu Qing akhirnya menyambar. Namun...
Kain sobek itu telah mencapai batas waktu setelah terbakar oleh Huang Yan.
Di mata-mata Xu Qing, ia hilang dalam sekejap. Tinggal beberapa bintik cahaya bintang yang berkilau.
"Itu tentu saja aura tanaman dewa roh roh roh roh. Apakah artinya tanaman ini juga ada di Revered Ancient bahkan sebelum Feng Lintao datang?"
Ia menggelancang tanaman dewa roh roh roh roh di sampingnya. Tanaman itu bergelora seperti ingin mencari sesuatu, lalu tiba-tiba berubah arah dan meluncur kencang.
Xu Qing mengikutinya. Selama beberapa jam, ia akhirnya tiba di sebuah tempat yang sangat misterius, penuh dengan terusan laut yang rapat dan tertindih. Hampir seperti luka.
Tanaman dewa roh roh roh roh memancarkan fluktuasi rasa ingin tinggi saat meluncur ke salah satu terusan. Saat mencapai dasarnya, ia mulai menggali di dalam lumpur.
Xu Qing tidak langsung mendekat. Ia berhenti di tepi terusan, mengandalkan hubungannya dengan tanaman itu untuk merasakan apa yang sedang dilakukannya.
Akhirnya, tanaman dewa roh roh roh roh tiba di area terbuka di seberang lumpur. Di situ, ia menemukan suatu benda.
Itu adalah sebuah pagoda! Sebuah pagoda yang megah namun sudah runtuh!
Dan di sekitarnya tertimbal sebuah tanaman dewa roh roh roh roh yang sudah kekuningan. Sepertinya telah terdampar di tempat ini selama bertahun-tahun, memancarkan aura yang sangat kuno.
The sea seemed endless, but of course, that was only relatively speaking. At the moment, Xu Qing and Huang Yan were close enough to the island that they could sense everything happening there. Lobster Island was shaped like a starfish, and it was possible to hear someone playing a flute there.
At the same time, numerous Seven Blood Eyes disciples were in the midst of their training. Some fought and killed. Some looted treasure. It just depended on their personalities. Regardless, the majority conformed to the style of the Seventh Peak, which meant that they kept their true strength hidden in the hopes of encountering good fortune. All of this was very similar to the time Xu Qing participated in the training at the Merfolk Isles. Looking down at the action caused him to reminisce about the past.
Meanwhile, some distance away in the Forbidden Sea, apparently in response to the call of the flute, a huge wave was rushing like a tsunami toward the island.
Within that wave was some enormous entity. As it neared, a terrifying aura built up, covering the island, influencing the dome of heaven, and causing a huge vortex to pick up overhead. All of the Seven Blood Eyes disciples on the island suddenly felt uneasy.
Located directly in the path of the wave was something huge that was very similar to Master Seventh’s dreadnaught. It was shaped like a gigantic sword. That, of course, conformed perfectly to Second Elder Sister’s sense of style.
Second Elder Sister stood on the dreadnaught clad in a suit of armor, looking very valiant and formidable. Eyes cold, she glared at the incoming wave.
“Screw off!” she growled.
A thousand red sparks lit up within the wave. They looked like numerous pairs of eyes. Around that time, a high-pitched sound rang out that could penetrate the soul. The island trembled, the sea churned, and the entity in the wave became visible.
It was a tattered cloth spread across the surface of the water! It covered an area of dozens of kilometers, and was pitch black, like the Forbidden Sea itself. In fact, if you looked at it casually, you would probably assume it was part of the sea. Of course, the well over one thousand sparks burning on it made it stand out from the sea. Astonishingly, the sparks were actually a host of scarlet lamps. They floated above the tattered cloth, casting light in all directions, and adding a red hue to the cloth.
They also revealed that there were some faint striations on the cloth. The striations looked like the veins of a leaf. And even more gruish was that there was the faint hint of starlight within the crimson. A terrifying aura spread out from it in all directions, giving rise to a dense mist.
The mist looked like a host of innumerable tentacles, some of which stretched toward Lobster Island and some of which shot in Second Elder Sister’s direction. However, as the mist tentacles closed in on Second Elder Sister, terrifying flames suddenly erupted off her.
The flames turned into a projection of Flame Phoenix, whose wings flapped. As a result, everything, including the sky and the sea, burst into flames. That was a defensive measure that Huang Yan had put on Second Elder Sister. Because of the flames, the mist was driven away, and the tattered cloth stopped in place.
Second Elder Sister’s eyes glowed with cold light as she leaped off of the huge sword and toward the tattered cloth.
Before she could get far... a rotund figure appeared right in front of her and hugged her.
Looking at her tenderly, he cautiously said, “Elder Sister, calm down! You might disturb the baby! I’ll handle this.”
When he finished, he snapped his fingers. A tiny spark flew out from his fingers. It was like a beating heart, full of boundless agility, as it flew through the darkness toward the tattered cloth. Along the way, it emanated a sound like faint whispering. It was as if the spark itself were telling the world about itself. And as the voices proliferated, an intangible power began to gather in the spark. An instant later, it emanated a level of heat that could shock the world.
The sounds got more intense as well, as if building to a crescendo. Angry howls turned into a sound like a furnace that could burn all of heaven and earth. It landed on the tattered cloth.
An anguished scream echoed out as the cloth burst into flame. The red lamps were also flames. But you can use the word ‘flame’ to describe very different things. In the blink of an eye, all of the red lamps melted into slag. The tattered cloth burned. The sky burned. The Forbidden Sea burned. Even the air itself burned. Everything burned. In fact, the fire was so terrifying... that even the mutagen ignited.
Xu Qing was treated to a very rare sight. This part of the Forbidden Sea was no longer black. Everything was melted away, revealing what this area had looked like countless years in the past. It was blue! It was like a purification! Thanks to that baptism of fire, the impurities and filth were incinerated, leaving behind the pure substructure.
It was Xu Qing’s first time seeing Flame Phoenix in action.
It really helped him to understand why Flame Phoenix could exist in a world of gods, and why he could occupy the continent of South Phoenix and be called the southern emperor in Revered Ancient. He did not show respect to gods. He did not sacrifice to them. He was the emperor of South Phoenix!
And now, that emperor was tenderly hugging Second Elder Sister. To him, that spark was like a mere exhalation. In fact, he wasn’t even paying attention to the things around him. All of his attention was focused solely on Second Elder Sister.
Meanwhile, Second Elder Sister was glaring at Huang Yan as if she were considering berating him. But then she noticed that Xu Qing was with him, and she held back.
Huang Yan breathed a sigh of relief, and was about to say something, when all of a sudden his eyes hardened and he looked down at the Forbidden Sea.
Xu Qing had been about to bow in greeting to Second Elder Sister when he sensed the same thing. He looked over at the spot where the ashes of the tattered cloth were drifting down into the water.
The fire was already out. However, beneath the surface of the water, there was a piece of cloth roughly the size of a palm. Even after the terrifying flame of purity that Huang Yan had unleashed, it was still around. And it was sinking rapidly down toward the sea floor. It was still burning, but the fact that it had survived up to this point indicated that it was extraordinary.
“Well, isn’t that interesting,” Huang Yan said thoughtfully.
Xu Qing’s eyes shone, partly with surprise and partly with suspicion. “I only glanced at that thing before. Now I realize that there’s something familiar about it.... Second Elder Sister. Second Brother-in-Law. Hold on while I go take a closer look.”
With that, Xu Qing dropped into the Forbidden Sea and raced down toward that scrap of cloth. At the same time, he threw out the sageheaven god vine, which rapidly grew larger and shot down excitedly like an arrow loosed from a bow.
Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed. His sense of surprise from moments ago was because of the clear fluctuations he had felt from the sageheaven god vine. What looked familiar to him were the striations on the tattered cloth....
It looks very similar to the surface of the sageheaven god vine....
With such thoughts in mind, Xu Qing sped downward after the god vine and the cloth. After enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, Xu Qing caught up. However...the piece of cloth had reached the limit of how long it could last after being set on fire by Huang Yan.
Even as Xu Qing watched, it burned out of existence. The only thing left behind were a few glimmering bits of starlight.
That’s definitely the aura of the sageheaven god vine. Does that mean that this type of vine was in Revered Ancient even before Feng Lintao came?
He looked at the sageheaven god vine next to him. It was zipping around begrudgingly as if looking for something. Then, it suddenly shifted into one specific direction and shot off.
Xu Qing followed. He pursued it for several hours before arriving in a very mysterious location that was full of densely packed marine trenches. They almost looked like scars.
The god vine emanated fluctuations of excitement as it shot into one particular trench. Upon reaching the bottom, it started burrowing through the sludge there.
Xu Qing didn’t proceed immediately. He stopped at the edge of the trench, relying on his connection to the vine to get a sense of what it was doing.
Eventually, the god vine reached an open area on the other side of the sludge. There, it found an object.
It was a pagoda! A towering but dilapidated pagoda! And around it was wrapped a withered sageheaven god vine. It looked like it had been buried in this spot for many years, as it emanated an extremely ancient aura.[1]
***
Around the time that Xu Qing found the pagoda and Huang Yan was in the middle of comforting Second Elder Sister, there were five locations in Revered Ancient where the power of a homing signal shot out into the area beyond the heavens.
Those five homing signals all came from different locations in Revered Ancient. But in each of those spots there was a group of three or four cultivators clad in silver robes and seated cross-legged. They were all from different species, but their clothing was the same and they had similar auras. They all resembled the group of three led by Feng Lintao! They were from the holy lands!
The areas where they sat featured complicated spell formations. As they performed incantation gestures, the spell formations silently rotated and emitted mysterious threads that somehow connected to the starry sky beyond the Revered Ancient mainland.
***
Out in the starry sky, starlight rippled and distorted as numerous celestial objects flew along. Some looked like planets, some looked like land masses, and some looked like mountains. From the look of it, there were well over a hundred of them.
They were holy lands!
If there were a pair of eyes that could look down on the starry sky they would see that these holy lands... were all heading toward Revered Ancient.
They formed a line, and they maintained distance between each other. They seemed to be organized into groups.
In the lead position there were five holy lands. Two were terrifyingly huge mountains. One was a boundless land mass. And two were gruish statues. Immense pressure radiated out of them and into the surrounding starry sky, which caused countless asteroids to shatter into dust. They were getting closer and closer to Revered Ancient.
In one of the huge holy lands was a mountain, atop which stood an old man in a golden daoist robe. He looked very similar to a human, except that he had bright red skin.
As he looked at Revered Ancient off in the distance, he muttered in a raspy voice, “I never thought I would live to come back here....”
1. At this point in the story, the author uses a single Chinese character to describe the “pagoda,” and that character could be interpreted in different ways, including “tower.” In my original translation pass, I interpreted it in that way (tower). Later, the author adds another character to create the word that more specifically means “pagoda,” although usually it’s used to describe very tall, tower-like pagodas, such as the ones in these images . ☜
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