Chapter 175 Finding a Way Out Anyway, it's all the fault of those inhuman scoundrels...
"Ah Cong!"
For more than ten years, Acong had stayed by her side, protecting her and accompanying her as she grew up. Chen Ying knew very well that if it weren't for this elephant, she would have died in the ditch in Shanzhou City long ago.
It was because of Ah Cong by her side that she dared to walk around recklessly, no longer having to be bullied and insulted by others. It was as if she no longer had to fear any storms, because a celestial being had shielded her from all those who had inflicted "storms" upon her.
Under its protection, Chen Ying grew from a vulnerable weed into a ruthless killer, able to do whatever she pleased without regard for anyone's life or death.
She and Acong have depended on each other for life. The silent Acong is more important to her than anything else in the world. So even if it costs her nothing, she will send Acong and the elephants back to their hometown.
In truth, life is meaningless, but the search for the hidden realm became the most significant meaning of her life.
Now that they've finally reached this point, Chen Ying certainly can't allow anything to go wrong.
"Ah Cong!"
She shouted several times into the distance but received no response. Although the water was Wangxiang's domain, Chen Ying couldn't help but feel a little worried.
The sea, sometimes bright and sometimes dark, was calm and still, eerily so.
Seeing that the yin image emitted by the yin fire had further obscured the sun, Chen Ying couldn't wait any longer: "Let's go take a look."
The large ship, now hidden in the sea fog, was closer than before, and seemed to be heading in the same direction as the small boat.
In the instant the entire large ship crushed him from above, Ah Cong, who had been submerged in the water, clung to the bottom of the ship like a fish, and climbed up the ship's timbers using both his hands and feet.
The moss was slippery, and Ah Cong fell into the water several times because he couldn't hold on. He pulled out his knife, embedded it firmly in a cracked, rotten piece of the boat, and then used it to grip the gunwale. Just then, something brushed lightly across the back of his hand. Ah Cong looked up abruptly and saw a torn piece of canvas slowly drifting by.
Ah Cong hesitated for a moment for no apparent reason, then jumped onto the boat. As he did so, the boat creaked and swayed. In that instant, he seemed to hear a faint and indistinct breathing sound behind him.
Ah Cong suddenly turned around, and the canvas just happened to flash past his eyes, blocking his view for a moment.
The canvas was acting up, so Ah Cong reached out and grabbed it, pulling hard. With a tearing sound, a small piece of the old and fragile canvas was easily ripped off and slowly floated down into the air.
Ah Cong stood still on the deck, staring at the corpses scattered everywhere. They were lying in different positions, like mummies whose blood had been drained. They were not skeletal, but rather weathered into withered mummies by the salty sea breeze.
Ah Cong could tell at a glance that these mummified corpses were extraordinary.
It strode toward the nearest body lying on the deck, half of the person's face wrinkled and covered with gaping scars, the other half covered in blue snake scales that disappeared into the collar from the neck...
Ah Cong lifted his sleeve, and his entire arm, covered in snakeskin, drooped down, looking just like a green snake growing on his body.
Ah Cong gripped the fabric tightly and suddenly ripped open his robe.
It wasn't that it hadn't seen those abandoned Fuxi bodies in the underground caves of fishing villages before, but it was the first time it had ever seen someone like this, whose body was mostly covered in snakeskin.
Anyone who saw this person would get goosebumps and their scalp would tingle.
Ah Cong examined several mummies on the ship one by one. Among them, two mummies had snake veins inside them, and their condition was similar to that of Lu Bing.
If the bodies of Fuxi in the fishing village were all unprocessed, then the serpentine features on this boatload of people were even more pronounced.
Therefore, the bodies of Fuxi in the fishing village were all defective products that were rejected after failed attempts at processing, while the bodies on the ship were processed to the point of near success before Fang Xiandao boarded the ship to go to sea to use the Yin Sui to search for the secret realm.
So, is Fangxiandao really the secret realm found using these bodies of Fuxi?
Could it be that the calamity of that year really had nothing to do with Azhaosu?
How could that be?
How could that be!
Even with these bodies of Fuxi right before his eyes, Acong refused to believe it.
It couldn't believe that they had been captured alive by Fang Xiandao in their previous lives, suffered all kinds of persecution and were burned to death, and that their resentment had not dissipated after death, turning into monstrous creatures that hated A Zhaosu for hundreds or thousands of years, wishing they could devour this traitor alive. In the end, they had actually hated the wrong person?
Acong shook its head repeatedly, it didn't believe it. Acong stubbornly thought that even if Fang Xiandao found the secret realm with these Fuxi bodies, it couldn't prove that Azhaosu and Fang Xiandao weren't colluding.
The wooden boat beneath my feet has been drifting here for thousands of years, carrying corpses. It is so decayed that it seems unable to bear the weight of another Wangxiang. The planks creak and groan, as if it might collapse at any moment.
At the same time, it heard Chen Ying's shout.
"Ah Cong!"
As the words fell, a faint breath brushed past his ear. A-Cong realized something was wrong, abruptly turned and stood up, only to find a leaden-gray sea mist floating and spreading before him.
"Ah Cong!"
As the shouts drew closer, Acong went to the ship's side and saw the small boat drifting slowly in the sea mist. He responded by tapping the side of the boat a few times with his scabbard.
"Ah Cong!"
The small boat gradually approached the large ship.
Because of the sea fog, A-Cong could not see clearly. He threw down a knife chain, which Chen Ying on the flatboat immediately grabbed and climbed up the hull.
Ah Cong bent down to grab her hand, trying to pull Chen Ying onto the large ship, but what he grabbed was a wet and cold object.
Suddenly, a blurry, grayish-white face was pulled closer, almost touching the iron mask—this was not A-Ying!
Ah Cong suddenly drew his sword with his other hand and swung it.
The blurry human-shaped face dissipated into mist like wisps of smoke under the blade.
“Ah Cong”.
The cries of A-Ying still echoed in its ears, over and over again. It looked down and saw a figure similar to A-Ying standing on the small boat again, only blurred in the sea fog.
At the same time, Chen Ying heard the sound of a scabbard striking the side of the ship, and the ethereal creature in the water pushed the small boat closer to the large ship.
She called out, "Ah Cong."
Immediately afterwards, a chain of knives was thrown down from the high side of the ship. Chen Ying grabbed it and climbed up the chain. Then she grabbed the hand that was reaching down to her. The moment she held it, her hand was wet and cold to the touch.
A foul odor wafted towards her, carrying the salty smell of the sea. Chen Ying's eyes widened in horror as a body resembling a cloud of mist protruded from the ship's side, and a grayish-white, sinister ghost face suddenly loomed in front of her.
Chen Ying's hair stood on end. She broke free and plummeted as if weightless.
The sea monsters leaped out of the water and, with their many hands and feet, lifted her up.
“That’s not Ah Cong.” Chen Ying’s face turned pale. “That’s a mirage.”
The mirage demon transformed into something resembling Ah Cong, attempting to lure her onto the ship.
The mirage's appearance resembled the moon; she should have realized earlier that having Lu Bing use the Yin Sui to search for the secret realm might give rise to certain mirages.
Before Chen Ying could regain her balance, she saw the phantom formed from the mirage leap off the boat, stretching out its sharp claws and lunging at the small boat.
Lu Bing!
Chen Ying felt a chill run down her spine and quickly pulled on the side of the boat.
The mirage's claws reached out towards Lu Bing, aiming straight for the Yin Sui in his arms. Just as it was about to seize the Yin Sui, the small boat was pulled away by Chen Ying in time.
The mirage in the water suddenly rose, and the water splashed up by the long sword swept across the descending mirage.
The mirage was suddenly dispersed, dispersing into a hazy gray mist. After a short while, this gray mist slowly condensed and took shape, plunging towards Lu Bing.
Lu Bing stared in disbelief as he came face to face with the approaching mirage.
As they looked at each other, the mirage-like figure tilted its head slightly, as if sizing him up.
The surrounding air currents suddenly stirred, as if a cold wind had risen, and the wind and air currents created a kind of indescribable sound that echoed in this deadly sea.
It was as if it were calling out: Fuxi.
Lu Bing felt a chill run down his spine, the cold sensation shooting from his tailbone to the top of his head.
The mirage raised its hand and reached out towards him in a daze, as if to cup Lu Bing's face.
The strange wind blew again, murmuring: Fuxi.
Lu Bing felt so cold that he couldn't help but shiver. With each rapid breath, he almost inhaled the mirage in front of him.
Chen Ying suddenly saw it and recalled the scenes of mirages possessing fishermen, just like now, taking advantage of each breath to slip into a person's body.
The mirage demon not only attempted to seize the Yin Sui, but also set its sights on Lu Bing.
Chen Ying dragged the small boat and shouted, "Lu Bing, hold your breath!"
Lu Bing was pulled away from the mirage, and Wang Xiang, who had leaped up, drew his sword again, ruthlessly scattering the mischievous mirage.
Using the momentum, Chen Ying stepped onto the boat and said, "Get out of here quickly."
As the gray fog gradually gathered and took shape, the ethereal creatures in the water pushed their boats forward at breakneck speed.
Chen Ying looked around and hurriedly raised her eyes, only to see that figure who looked just like Ah Cong standing on the big ship again, using the same trick as before to tap the ship's side with the scabbard, making a banging sound.
This was Ah Cong's usual way of doing things. Because he couldn't speak, he could only make noise by tapping the scabbard to let her know his location.
They say you learn from your mistakes, and Chen Ying had just been tricked, but looking at that figure now, she inexplicably felt that it was Ah Cong by the ship's side.
If that was a mirage, where did Ah Cong go?
Chen Ying's heart sank. The mirage energy slowly floated around her, and the mirage ghosts could gather anywhere at any time, making the surroundings suddenly seem dangerous.
Lu Bing had recovered his senses by now: "They want the Yin Sui."
"They want more than just the Yin Sui," they also want Lu Bing's body, which is the body of Fuxi, capable of manipulating the Yin Sui.
Chen Ying, still possessing a modicum of reason, wondered if all of this was real.
Logically speaking, mirages are nothing more than illusions, but at this moment Chen Ying could not tell whether these misty, shadowy mirages were like the things in the fishing village.
At this juncture where the truth is unclear, Chen Ying dared not let her guard down.
Several eerie phantoms were faintly visible in the sea fog surrounding the boat. All the mirages stood guard around the small boat, preventing any sudden attacks from the phantoms.
"Why do the mirages want to seize the Yin Sui? Is it because they're trapped in this sea and can't get out?" In contrast, Lu Bing was the least nervous. He stared at a mirage that had formed a human shape in the mist and asked, "I'm wondering where these mirages came from? They couldn't have just appeared out of thin air, could they?"
Everything has an origin. For example, the ethereal creature is the remains of the immortals, but whose remains is the mirage spirit?
Fangxian Dao?
It doesn't seem like it.
The body of Fuxi?
Very likely.
In their lifetimes, they were all sacrifices in the search for secret realms. The bodies of Fuxi, created to manipulate the Yin Sui, naturally transformed into mirages within the Taiyin image after death.
Anyway, it's all the fault of those wicked and inhumane people.
Lu Bing said, "Just like Ah Cong and the others tried every means to find a way back, the mirage ghosts trapped here also want to find a way out."
Whether going out or coming back, they may need Yin Sui to guide them.
Fangxian Dao did not leave any records of things like mirages and ghosts. Originally, Chen Ying had not thought about these things, but now that Lu Bingyi said so, she suddenly realized something.
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