Ascension Day

Suddenly, Xu Ying felt an itch and hurriedly scratched himself.

The flesh-colored tentacles in the sky continued to multiply, unfurling and descending to find new plague victims, plunging into them to suck away their Life Force.

Xu Ying’s Qi Blood was abundant, and for the moment, the tentacles could not get near him.

The itch he felt was one of empathy.

He saw wisps of black vapor permeating the air. It entered the bodies of the plague victims with every breath they took, invisibly corroding their Qi Blood.

However, when these wisps of black vapor entered his Mysterious Domain, they were instantly dispelled by the light of the small flame the girl in the coffin had given him, leaving him completely unaffected.

"These flesh-colored tentacles... what in the world are they?" Xu Ying murmured.

"The Plague God!"

Hearing his description, Da Zhong’s tone grew grave. "You’re seeing the Celestial God who controls the calamity of plagues!"

"A Celestial God?"

Xu Ying shuddered. He had encountered many Divine Spirits, and had even killed a few himself, but even the most powerful of them, City God Xue, was nothing compared to the Plague God that permeated the entire sky!

"Celestial Gods reside in the Heavenly Dao World. They grasp the Celestial Dao, wield the Celestial Principle, and are ageless, deathless, and indestructible."

Da Zhong continued, "The Heavenly Dao World is lofty and unfathomable. Celestial Gods don’t descend to the Lower Realm lightly. So why would the Plague God come down? Ah, that’s it! It must have been the Demoness’s accomplices! They performed a blood sacrifice to the Plague God to rescue her, causing this immense death, which in turn diverted the Naihe River and triggered the Underworld’s invasion!"

It sneered, "Just as I suspected! That Demoness is nothing but trouble!"

Xu Ying looked up at the sky. The main bodies of those massive tentacles were still in another world. ’Is that the Heavenly Dao World Da Zhong was talking about?’

The Tower Ship continued to sail forward, the time for his one-hour appointment with the girl in the coffin drawing ever closer. Xu Ying looked toward the banks, where the bodies of plague victims were piled high like mountains. People were stacking firewood beneath the corpses and setting them ablaze.

The flames reached fifty or sixty feet high, a dazzling sight in the dark night.

Countless Ghost Fires floated beside the mountains of corpses. When a ghastly wind blew past, the Ghost Souls within the flames immediately writhed in the agony of being torn apart. Their faces twisted into monstrous expressions, their bodies contorted, and they let out unending whimpers!

Other Ghost Souls struggled within the flames of the pyres, as if burning their bodies also inflicted pain on their souls, as if they weren’t truly dead.

Xu Ying also saw figures, impossible to tell if they were human or ghost, hauling out corpses by the cartload and adding them to the mountains of bodies.

From the banks of the Naihe River, the faint sound of chanting drifted over. Xu Ying followed the sound with his eyes and saw a few monks sitting upright beside a mountain of corpses, tapping on Wooden Fish and softly chanting the Rebirth Spell.

Those monks, too, were covered in festering sores, the Plague God’s tentacles embedded all over their bodies.

’Is this really the work of the girl in the coffin’s accomplices?’

Da Zhong grew uneasy and urged, "Ying, the plague’s aura is getting thicker! At your level, it won’t be long before it corrodes your Qi Blood’s defenses. Then the Plague God will start to suck you dry! We need to get out of here as soon as possible!"

Xu Ying shook his head. "No! A gentleman’s word is his bond. I made a promise, how can I break it?"

Da Zhong roared in fury, "The ones who summoned the Plague God are the Demoness’s accomplices! Their entire goal was to divert the Naihe River, smash into Little Stone Mountain, and rescue her! And you still think she’s one of the good guys?"

Its anger flared, and it bellowed, "I, Lord Zhong, am the good guy here! That night, all of you were hiding in my temple. I saw the Naihe River change its course and that you few souls were about to die in its waters, so I intervened to protect you. If I hadn’t been protecting your lives, would I have been so severely wounded by that Demoness? Would I have let her escape?"

Xu Ying pondered for a moment before replying, "Lord Zhong, you did me a great service, and I am deeply grateful. That’s why I’ve been letting you siphon my Qi Blood to heal your injuries. I’m just a country fellow. I may not be well-read, but we country folk take kindness and loyalty very seriously. The girl in the coffin said her goal on this trip was to ’send off a god.’ I don’t believe she has any ill intent."

Da Zhong shouted, "That Demoness was imprisoned by my master and suppressed on Little Stone Mountain precisely because of her countless evil deeds! Can’t you see she’s using you? She hasn’t even told you her name! It’s obvious she plans to use you and then toss you aside when she’s done!"

Xu Ying laughed heartily. "I am just an uneducated man with no special skills. What could I possibly have that’s worth using?"

He channeled his Divine Sense, sending it into the small flame. He controlled the ball of Pure Yang Anomalous Fire, making it fly out of his Mysterious Domain and set the tower on the ship ablaze.

The fire grew steadily, becoming even more brilliant and intense than the massive pyres on the banks.

Xu Ying recalled the Pure Yang Anomalous Fire to his Mysterious Domain, then leaped from the ship to the bank. He unwound the whip coiled around his waist.

Da Zhong said nervously, "Ying, be careful! You might be falling for the Demoness’s trap and about to cause an unimaginable disaster!"

Xu Ying surged his Primordial Qi, raised the whip, and with a mighty flick, lashed out at the sky just as the girl in the coffin had instructed!

CRACK!

As he swung the whip, it suddenly began to grow in the air, becoming longer and thicker!

The whip had originally appeared to be ordinary, but as it grew thicker and longer, countless previously unseen details emerged.

What had once looked like simple hemp rope now revealed innumerable scales, as if it were formed from countless headless, tailless Dragon Pythons coiled together!

In an instant, the whip stretched to a length of a mile or two. Gripping the handle, Xu Ying felt the long whip thrum with power. It felt as if he were holding onto the Dragon Sinews of countless dragons, and at the other end of those sinews, Divine Dragons were leaping and bucking!

CRACK!

This lash struck the Plague God in the sky with vicious force, tearing its skin and splitting its flesh!

The sky seemed to explode as flesh and blood flew everywhere. Huge chunks of the Plague God’s flesh began to rain down from above!