Chapter 703: The Salty Raindrops Taste like Tears
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The Drifter left Tianguang Peak and Green Mountain under the starlight; then she got in the small green curtain sedan.
She and Ping Yongjia had lived in Zhaoge City for more than ten years. It was the Water-Moon Nunnery’s turn to guard Jing Jiu at the time. As such, the Chief Nun knew her very well. She put the Drifter on her knees, and they arrived at the East Ocean overnight.
The morning sun had just risen. Yet, the frost on the wild gra.s.s throughout the mountain was obviously not natural; a large amount of wild gra.s.s was snapped in half. And the collapsed cliffs and the corpses indicated that the battle here the day prior was immensely fierce.
“Chief Nun!” the people of the Water-Moon Nunnery and the Fruit Formation Temple got up in tandem, feeling delighted to see her.
The small green curtain sedan landed at the foot of a cliff. A green light shot out of the curtain and brushed against Tong Yan’s body like water to awaken him.
Seeing Tong Yan here, the Drifter exclaimed in surprise, “You should be in the underground; why are you here?”
Tong Yan told her briefly about what had happened before asking, “The Broadsword King has entered the Underworld, and he should be able to control the situation there. What about the situation on Green Mountain?”
The Drifter had no time to relate to Tong Yan what had happened at the Green Mountain Sect the day before because there were so many significant events that had occurred. She said while waving her hand, “Teacher said that your former Master had gone to the underground. He bade you to make a plan and let Cao Yuan kill her.”
With a slight change in his countenance, Tong Yan asked, “Why did my Master go to the Underworld?”
“How do I know?” snapped the Drifter. “Teacher always tells me half truth to make everything seemingly mysterious. All you need to do is go down there as soon as possible.”
Tong Yan was extremely intelligent; he had guessed the reason from Jing Jiu’s words that the Drifter recounted. “It’s impossible…She has always considered herself as the leader of the orthodox sects. How could she do such a thing?” exclaimed Tong Yan with a pale face.
The Drifter thought that Tong Yan was like her Teacher, who liked making things appear mysterious. “What the heck is the matter?” she demanded urgently.
Tong Yan turned to the small green curtain sedan and asked, “The Grand Priest is her ally, and the Underworld Master will support her too. She will get help from the whole of Underworld. Even the Broadsword King can do nothing about her. Why didn’t Jing Jiu predict this?”
The voice of the Chief Nun of the Water-Moon Nunnery rang out behind the green curtain, “If we can predict where she is, we might have a chance.”
After a moment of silence, Tong Yan gazed at the deep end of the East Ocean illuminated by the morning sunlight and said, “She should be there.”
The Chief Nun of the Water-Moon Nunnery waved her hand a few times, and a peach flower appeared on the green curtain. An exceedingly elegant energy emerged from the flower petals and fell on the amulet paper slips on the cliff walls and the scripts carved by the masters of previous generations. The amulet paper slips and the scripts suddenly glowed brightly, looking like a huge flower of fire, which had even suppressed the brightness of the morning sun.
This flower of fire illuminated the entire East Ocean. It was believed that those on the distant Green Mountain should be able to see it.
…
…
Countless Underworld soldiers, led by dozens of swordsmen, risked their lives to cross the Underworld River that still had some light green smoke remaining on its surface to charge toward the cliff on the other side. The advancing soldiers looked like endless waves of ocean tides.
The two sides that had been fighting against each other as archenemies and with all their strength suddenly became comrades fighting together for their common survival. The situation changed so quickly that those subordinates loyal to the Underworld Master and the Grand Priest felt hard to get used to.
A large Buddha sat in the cliff, with a huge iron broadsword in his hands, puffs of faint green smoke still lingering around his nostrils and mouth.
He came down to the Underworld to save lives, but he became someone they all wanted to kill. This was even more ridiculous than the collaboration between the Underworld Master and the Grand Priest.
He was the most powerful swordsman in both the above world and the underground world besides the Queen of the Snowy Kingdom.
The “underground world” referred to the Underworld. Nothing, including those soul fires that could harm the Dao Hearts and the crossbows that were attached with the dark and gloomy force, could hurt him. However, the Underworld swordsmen and soldiers were simply too many in number. They looked like a throng of jam-packed ants intending to overflow the large Buddha.
Standing on an isolated hill in the distance, the Underworld Master looked at the scene on the other side of the Underworld River. The glows on his face indicated that he was having a complicated emotion at the moment. Yet, the most apparent sensation he had was astonishment.
“Within the s.p.a.ce of a day and a night, he had gone to the Secret Realm of Singing Spring and killed the Dark Phoenix, and then came back to the seash.o.r.e of the East Ocean and killed the Great Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect. Normally, he should have used up a great deal of his energy, and also he is badly wounded…But looks like we can’t inflict any harm to him even if the two of us fight together against him; we will be sliced in half by his iron broadsword.”
Standing on another isolated hill, the Grand Priest said sentimentally, “Fortunately, the whole of Underworld will be under our control when the two of us collaborate. As for this person…we have to wait until the Immortal uses the Fairy Book to suppress him after she is done with the urgent matter at hand.”
…
…
There was a line in the Underworld River; the ashes of the lotus flowers and the corpse boats separated as the line cut them apart, exposing the glowing water. Once in a while, a few soul fires would poke out of the water and looked around curiously.
The Fire Carp was swimming at the front of the line. He didn’t slow down to a stop until he came to a place where it was raining.
It was sunless in the Underworld; as such, the rainfall was rare there and it was rather odd that the raindrops fell down from the sky.
The Fire Carp flew up into the sky, heading toward the raindrops.
The higher he flew, the denser the raindrops became.
The Fire Carp was a being in the fire source in Chaotian and grew up in the lava river. He didn’t mind the Underworld River that much, but he surely disliked this sort of real and strange water. The puzzling thing was that the water and water steam in the underground, according to the eldest son of the Grand Scholar Zhang, should be tasteless and colorless; but why did the rainwater taste so salty?
He smacked his lips a few times and spit out the rainwater that dripped into his mouth, his eyes full of misery and annoyance. And yet, he didn’t dare complain in words and traveled forward as requested by the Immortal Bai. After a long while, they had finally reached the highest point in the sky.
It was a patch of solid and dense black rocks on which countless cracks formed. If one looked at the place from a distance, they would mistake it as a spider-web.
The water kept seeping out from the cracks and fell to the ground as raindrops from the Underworld sky.
Standing on the back of the Fire Carp, the Immortal Bai looked at the scene in front of them, displaying a complimentary expression in her eyes.
She waved her sleeve softly; the salty rainwater in the sky started twirling around abruptly. One of the cracks began to expand on both sides, exposing the dark and gloomy inner part. It was unclear where this tunnel would lead to.
The Fire Carp flew into the dark and gloomy tunnel, trying his best to suppress his discomfort and fear.
It took a long time before he saw an opening in front of him and the blue sky.
As they arrived in the blue sky, the Fire Carp heard thunderous rumbling, which was the noise of endless seawater rus.h.i.+ng down to the bottom of the ocean like waterfalls.
The sky was blue, and so was the seawater. There were innumerable b.l.o.o.d.y threads formed by the drops of blood in the s.p.a.ce between the blue sky and the sea.
The b.l.o.o.d.y threads were giving off a dreadful energy even when they were in the process of dissipating.
The Immortal Bai entered the Underworld on the back of the Fire Carp, and flew out of the Underworld from the Huge Whirlpool.
It was the first time that the Fire Carp came back to the ground of Chaotian from the underground; he looked around nervously and found that he was surrounded by the waterfalls.
Seeing the transparent walls of seawater, he thought of his own home.
However, the b.l.o.o.d.y threads made him feel extremely ill at ease; he wished to go back to his own home.
The Immortal Bai leapt up to the sky and touched a drop of blood with her finger, sensing the force of the demonic spiritual souls while remaining silent.
Wiggling his tail softly, the Fire Carp asked in a trembling voice, “Immortal, am I going to die?”
“Yes.”
The Immortal Bai flicked her finger lightly, the drop of blood breaking into tiny pieces and vanis.h.i.+ng without a trace.