Ships in the Lair of Demons Shall Sink

Xie Lian asked, "One of the four Supremes, Ship-Sinking Black Water?"

"Four Calamities, not four Supremes."

"…" Xie Lian then remembered that he had forgotten about Qi Rong, and apologized. "Ah, sorry, my mistake."

There's no way that Night-Touring Green Lantern could be on the same level as the other three.

As someone who had crammed the scrolls, Xie Lian roughly knew a bit about this Ship-Sinking Black Water. According to legends, this was a powerful water ghoul who lurked in the outer seas. Just like the Crimson Rain Sought Flower, he slaughtered his way out of Mount Tong'lu. Although he tended to keep a low profile, that could only be said for the mortal and heavenly realms. Roughly counting, he had swallowed at least five hundred ghosts across the land, and among them, around four hundred were high-level water ghouls. The Black Water Demon Lair was his resting domain.

Ghost City was under Hua Cheng's jurisdiction; when one stepped foot into his domain, his word was law— "once within the boundaries, the world is lawless". It was just so here, as well. There was a saying that was even more widespread in the Underworld: "Crimson Rules the Land; Black Masters the Waters". Crimson obviously referred to Hua Cheng, therefore, Black was none other than Black Water Demon Xuan.

Pei Ming spoke, "Water Master -xiong, you're really unlucky this time. Demon Xuan isn't anything like the Green Ghost, even though he's not the type to cause trouble. Luckily, we haven't strayed too far, we should steer back before we're discovered."

The others stared at him. "Well, why don't you change course then? Aren't you the one in charge of this ship?"

Pei Ming was equally surprised. "It didn't already change course? This ship should do it automatically, it shouldn't require manual labour."

Yet, the rudder didn't budge at all. With no other options, Pei Ming resorted to steering it himself. When his hand landed on the rudder, he furrowed his brows. Xie Lian went up to help.

"It won't move?"

It's impossible that Pei Ming lacked the strength. Xie Lian, who was fairly confident in his own strength, wasn't able to move it either.

After examining the situation at hand, Ming Yi announced, "It might've been caught by something, I'll go down to take a look."

Shi Qingxuan chimed in, "I'll go with you, Ming-xiong!"

Shi Wudu said sternly, "Come back here! Don't go running around."

His brother was still in the middle of passing his trial, and shouldn't be distracted or emotionally agitated. Shi Qingxuan wouldn't dare risk it, and obediently came back, leaving Ming Yi to investigate under the deck by himself. Xie Lian wanted to help too, but he knew when it came to building and repairs, he wasn't as capable as the Earth Master. Even if he went, he wouldn't be able to help much anyway.

As he was gazing into the pitch-black sea that surrounded them, Xie Lian suddenly remembered something. He asked, "Are there any fishermen that ended up in this part of the sea?"

Hua Cheng, who had partnered up with Xie Lian in the search and rescue, was the first one to discover those stranded fishermen. He did a quick survey around and said, "It's unlikely. Black Water Demon Lair is in the South Sea, they wouldn't drift this far. Besides, the area here has a barrier; not just anyone can enter this place. Even if they did, there wouldn't be any hope for a rescue. There's nothing that wouldn't sink once it's drifted here."

The South Sea. They hadn't realized they'd drifted this far. Xie Lian tested his spiritual communication array, and the connection was indeed down. Even though the connection before was spotty, it was still usable; now, it was just complete dead silence. Although the sea looked peaceful, who knew what sort of danger lurked beneath, waiting for the chance to ambush them? The sky was turning darker, and Xie Lian felt uneasy.

"Since there's no stranded fishermen in these parts, if Lord Earth Master is not able to repair the ship, we might as well abandon the ship and seek land first. When Lord Water Master returns to the East Sea for his trial, we can continue the search and rescue there as well," he suggested.

"Might as well," Pei Ming agreed as he opened the cabin door.

Who knew that, after the door was pulled open, he would be met with the interior of an empty cabin instead of the scenery of land. His expression changed immediately.

"The Distance-Shortening array lost its power."

Hua Cheng laughed. "Isn't that normal? If you can't even use the spiritual communication array, how would the Distance-Shortening array be any better?"

Pei Ming looked over and asked, "This little buddy here seems quite calm for a youngster, and doesn't seem worried at all?"

Xie Lian interrupted. "The ship has already drifted into ghost territory and is sinking as we speak. We can't leave even if we want to. Let's solve the problem at hand first."

Shi Qingxuan called out to the person under the deck, "Ming-xiong, how's the situation looking down there? Can you fix it?"

Ming Yi's voice came from underneath. "Nothing's broken! The ship isn't caught in anything, either. It's something else that caused the ship to lose its power."

"This is Demon Xuan's playground now," Pei Ming stated.

As he was speaking, the ship dipped again. Upon a glance, Xie Lian saw that water had already swallowed half of the ship. If it was a normal boat, it would've given way by now. However, since this was crafted by gods, it was still resisting sinking and fighting to stay afloat.

"There must be exceptions. It's impossible that everything would sink here," he insisted. "There must be something that wouldn't sink."

"There is," Hua Cheng said.

The attention fell on him instantly. With his arms folded, he lazily said, "There's one type of wood that's able to float across the Black Water Demon Lair without sinking."

Xie Lian guessed a few common special wood types. "Sandalwood? Agarwood? Elm?"

"Coffin wood," Hua Cheng answered.

"Coffin wood?!"

"En," Hua Cheng said. "There's no one who has returned alive after they've stumbled into the Black Water Demon Lair, except for one person. That person was travelling home with his deceased loved one's corpse. When the boat sank, he drifted back to land on top of the coffin."

Pei Ming raised his brow. "This little buddy sure knows a lot."

Hua Cheng mirrored his expression and replied, "It's not much. You just know too little, that's all."

Even though Shi Wudu didn't move from his seated meditation pose, he turned his attention to Hua Cheng and narrowed his eyes. "Pei-xiong, I had wanted to ask earlier, just who is this?"

Pei Ming explained, "I'm afraid you'd have to ask His Highness for that. After all, it's someone from his palace."

Shi Qingxuan interrupted, "Alright, alright, it doesn't matter how much or how little he knows. Now that the spells have lost their power, where does one go to get a coffin around here?"

"No need, it's simple," Pei Ming answered. "Gege and I will build one for you right now, and show you what it means to take things into your own hands and be rich in food and dress."

"…"

"It won't work," Hua Cheng pointed out. "It has to be a coffin that has carried a corpse."

They couldn't possibly build a coffin, then off a person in the group and toss them in there.

In the midst of their conversation, the boat dipped again. The slightly-tilted deck that they were standing on was almost at the same level as the water surface. Shi Wudu, who was sitting dignified in his meditation pose, almost tipped over.

"I give up. Let me handle this," he said coldly.

He took out his fan and tapped it lightly against his forehead before fanning it out, revealing the water character on the front and a wave pictogramme made up of three curving lines on the back.

He lifted his arm and called out, "Water, come forth!"

Instantly, Xie Lian felt the ship being lifted up; the deck under him rose several inches above water, bringing back a sense of safety.

"The Water Master fan can even control the water in the Black Water Demon Lair?" he asked in surprise.

"Not the water here," Hua Cheng corrected. "He channeled the water from the outside."

It seems that they had just crossed the boundary into the Black Water Demon Lair, and hadn't ventured too far into it. Shi Wudu was able to draw water from the seas nearby to lift the ship up from underneath.

Pei Ming praised, "Beautifully done, Water Master- xiong! Now that the rudder is useless, the boat can't turn back. You should hurry and use the water to pull the ship back."

Before Shi Wudu could reply, the ship dipped once again. The Demon Lair water refused to back down, and clashed with the current from the outer seas. This time, the dip was stronger, causing the deck to tilt even more. Losing balance, the crew slid to the portside of the ship. Although Shi Wudu was born with a delicate and handsome face, his personality was extremely stubborn, refusing to back down. When he felt that something was going against him, a flash of anger appeared on his face. He snapped his fan shut and he opened it again, the three wave lines grew bigger. The current in the ocean doubled in force and the ship was yanked up once again.

With one force commanding the boat to sink and another forcing it to rise, the back and forth made it seem like a giant tug-of-war game. The erratic movements of the ship along with the constant lifts and drops caused the seawater around them to splash wildly and gush in and out. If it was anyone else on the ship, they'd be scared witless by now. Xie Lian grasped the ledge with one hand and tightly held on to Hua Cheng with the other.

"What's happening? The ship is turning!" he asked in bewilderment.

True to his words, the ship already started spinning towards a certain direction. The faster it spun, the lower it sank. It was then that Xie Lian realized that the ship had fallen into a giant whirlpool, and was being slowly sucked into the eye!

"Everyone, be careful!" he warned. "The two forces of water are battling!"

It was obvious that Shi Wudu wasn't in his home turf. The water that he summoned from the outer seas was powerful, but once it crossed the border, the strength was suppressed significantly. To go against the Demon Lair current, it was at a great disadvantage. As expected, as soon as the words left Xie Lian's mouth, the giant ship fell into the eye of the whirlpool. In that last second, Xie Lian tossed out Fangxin. He pulled in Hua Cheng, and the two stepped onto the sword and flew up.

At first, he was worried that Fangxin wouldn't have the strength to fly, but the moment they left the deck, he let out a sigh of relief. Although shaky, it was still able to fly. Looking down from above, the entire area was painted in a terrifying black. It was easy to see the collision between the two different-coloured currents. Their fierce battle was what formed this enormous whirlpool. As the eye swallowed the ship whole, the two currents of water separated.

However, the battle was far from over. Like two venomous vipers, they continued to snap at each other. Each collision was followed by a mountain of angry waves.

Xie Lian looked around and called, "Lord Wind Master? Lord Earth Master? General Pei?"

Shi Qingxuan's voice came from ten feet behind him. "Your highness! We're here!"

"Did you also jump on your imperial sword…" Xie Lian turned around, and the scene that unfolded before him rendered him speechless.

Ming Yi was standing on top of the handle of a shovel, while Shi Qingxuan was sitting on the head of said shovel, waving at him.

This wasn't an imperial sword, it was an imperial…shovel. This sort of imagery was undoubtedly hard on the eyes!

On the other side, Pei Ming's voice sounded. "What about Water Master-xiong?"

Seeing that Pei Ming was on his sword alone and there was no sign of the Water Master, Shi Qingxuan also called out, "Ge? Ge?!"

Xie Lian reassured, "No need to panic, he's the Water Master, it'll be hard for him to sink." But when he recalled the power of that whirpool, he turned to Hua Cheng. "San Lang, hold on tight to my waist, don't fall."

Hua Cheng put on an obedient act and replied, " En, okay, but gege, there's something that I have to tell you."

"What is it?" Xie Lian asked.

"You can't fly in the Black Water Demon Lair. It'll attract things."

Not a second after, a sharp cry pierced through the air. A giant white creature broke through the water surface, heading straight for Pei Ming.

Pei Ming was a master swordsman. The moment when he sensed killing intent, his hand reached for his sword, only to realize said sword was under his feet. Luckily, his reaction was quick. With a leap, he grabbed his sword in mid-air and sliced the incoming creature in half. Before gravity could take control, he flipped back onto the sword, with not a single hair out of place.

As if it was nothing, he steadily flew up and asked in total calmness, "What was that thing?"

The sliced corpse of the creature was slightly visible from the water surface. Xie Lian squinted his eyes to get a better look.

"Fish?"

It was definitely a fish, but not an average fish. It was a fish bone that was as wide as a fish tank, and many feet in length!

This "fish" had neither flesh nor scales, but only stark white bones that connected to a sharp teeth-filled mouth. Whether it was poisonous or not, if bitten, it would surely be painful as hell.

Pei Ming flew higher and warned, "You all be careful, there's probably more than one of them!"

As expected, when he mentioned "one", a second one shot out from below. This time, it headed straight for Ming Yi and Shi Qingxuan!

Unfortunately, the Earth Master wasn't a martial god, and his fighting power wasn't as strong. The Wind Master was now just a god in a mortal's body. On top of all this, Ming Yi was rather rusty with his imperial…shovel. Even though the two didn't get bitten, they were still knocked off-balance and into the sea. As they were falling in mid-air, Shi Qingxuan cried out in despair.

"Ming-xiong! I hope you'll remember to practice using your treasure more often after today ah—"

Ming Yi retorted, "Get lost."

Pei Ming sighed and rushed over to rescue the two. Seeing that Pei Ming went forward to lend a hand, Xie Lian knew that he would be able to handle it alone.

"It's really not Earth Master's fault," he thought to himself. "With a shovel like that as a treasured weapon, no one with any shame would dare to take it out."

Just then, a bone- chilling breeze went through him. Xie Lian gathered his thoughts and said softly, "San Lang, hang on tight. Watch out, there's something coming our way."

"Okay." The hands wrapped around his waist tightened.

Not long after, four water walls shot up from below and surrounded them. Four giant bonefish rose from the sea.

The four gigantic bone-white corpses were more like dragons than fish. The combination of hills of dorsal fin bones, dangerously sharp horns, long snake-like bodies, and protruding four claws circled around Xie Lian and Hua Cheng, leaving no room for escape. As for flying upwards, this was as high as Fangxin could go. If they were to go down, they'd come face-to-face with the dead-silent ocean.

Xie Lian sighed in defeat. "Alright…Who's first?"

After a moment of consideration, he clasped his hands together. "Together it is."

Soon after, the bone dragon on the east side let out a howl and rushed forward. Xie Lian raised his hand and pointed in its direction.

Instantly, the bone dragon froze. For such an enormous monster to be detained by one sword, one person, and one finger, and not being able to even fly an inch forward, it angrily thrashed around its tail and claws, creating walls of waves. The other three lunged forward as well. Xie Lian turned his pointing finger into a claw. He grabbed the bone dragon's horn and whipped it in a circle as if it was a weapon.

A loud whoosh tore through the sky. The three incoming dragons were instantly skewered by the one Xie Lian threw out, before dropping down to the ocean as scattered pieces of bones.

Xie Lian dusted off his hands and let out a breath. He turned around and asked, "San Lang, are you okay?"

With crescent eyes, Hua Cheng smiled. "Under gege's protection, how can anything happen to me?"

Hearing him respond like that made Xie Lian feel rather awkward and embarrassed. Now that he thought about it, dealing with these sorts of things was an easy task for Hua Cheng, how could there be any problems? It made Xie Lian's question seem as if he was intentionally asking for praise. Though, in all honesty, he asked for the sake of asking. Lost in his thoughts, the sword suddenly sank and before Xie Lian could even register what had happened, they were already rapidly falling, plunging into the icy-cold water.

It wasn't because they were grabbed by something. It was simply due to the fact that Fangxin was too old—after holding on for so long, it needed to rest!

The bone-chilling seawater gushed in from all directions. After accidentally swallowing two gulps of water, Xie Lian closed his mouth and swam upwards. However, the Black Water Demon Lair water was as wicked as they described. Xie Lian considered himself to be a fairly good swimmer, yet in these waters, his body felt like an iron block. No matter what he did, it refused to float. He opened his eyes, but the water was just as muddy, and he wasn't able to locate Hua Cheng anywhere. He felt around with his hands. Other than Fangxin, he wasn't able to grab hold of anything else, and he could start to feel the panic rise from inside of him. However, the more anxious he was, the more sluggish his movements were, and the faster he sank. Luckily, not long after, it was as if someone had parted the fog; Xie Lian felt a ray of light shining down on him. He felt someone grab his hand and waist, and quickly lift him up to the surface. Once out of water, Xie Lian gasped for breath, and when he wiped the water away from his face, he saw that his saviour was none other than Hua Cheng.

It was quite strange, as according to the common saying, "the dead sink". Hua Cheng, who was technically a corpse, should've sunk faster than Xie Lian. Yet, he was floating lightly and effortlessly on the water surface. He bent his head down and looked at Xie Lian.

"Are you alright?"

Xie Lian nodded. The familiarity of this scene suddenly brought memories of a similar situation that had happened not so long ago. Instantly, he felt his face heat up. With one hand wrapped around Xie Lian, Hua Cheng used his spare hand to stir and leisurely glide through the water.

"Gege, hold on to me. You'll sink if you let go."

At a loss for words, Xie Lian blankly nodded several times. Not far from them, there was a stir of movements in the water, and a row of horn-like bones rose to the surface. Like a school of sharks, it swam towards them with incredible speed. The four bone dragons that were badly beaten by Xie Lian were back for revenge.

They circled the two with the starving gazes of predators, and finally, after they couldn't hold themselves back any longer, they dove in viciously. Grasping Fangxin tightly in his hand, Xie Lian waited for the moment to strike. Above him, Hua Cheng clicked his tongue in annoyance.

The bone dragons were almost within an arm's reach from tearing them apart, but upon hearing the sound, their killing intent instantly vanished. The teeth-filled mouth that was about to snap Xie Lian's throat, instead, came forth and nudged at Fangxin as if giving it a few pecks.

Xie Lian was confused. "???"

While he was still floating there dumbfoundedly, the four creatures scampered away with tails between their legs. Xie Lian was speechless, but Hua Cheng had already continued swimming.

"Gege, now you know. If you're gonna get any pets in the future, definitely don't consider those ones. They're useless trash."

"…"

Pets???

Xie Lian replied meekly, "No, I wasn't considering anything…"

Suddenly, a bone dragon broke through the water surface and shot up straight into the sky. Xie Lian looked up and saw that Shi Wudu sat on top of the creature's head; his hands clasped together to form an aggressive attack hand seal. His face was tense, as if he was vigorously fighting against some force. The once-peaceful and calm ocean was now tossing and turning.

Not seeing any sign of the Wind God or the others, Xie Lian called out, "Lord Wind Master! Lord Earth Master! General Pei! Where are you?!"

He scanned across his surroundings under the dim moonlight. Instead of finding his comrades, he found himself being swallowed up by a huge shadow. He spun around and his eyes widened at the sight of a ginormous wave that was as tall as the sky, falling his way. In the next second, he fell into complete darkness.

…

After being carried by the ebb and flow of the ocean for a long time, Xie Lian finally opened his eyes.

Although he didn't sit up, he could feel from beneath him that he arrived on land. As he laid there, regaining his strength, he lifted up an arm and saw that his hand had become pruney from the prolonged soak in the water.

He felt something under his waist, and when he tilted his head to take a look, he realized that the object was Hua Cheng's arm. Judging from the position of the figure lying next to him, it seemed that Hua Cheng had never once let go of him.

Though he had already woken up, Hua Cheng had not. His eyes were still shut. Xie Lian sat up, and gently nudged him.

"San Lang? San Lang?"

Hua Cheng didn't respond. Xie Lian nudged him again while scanning their surroundings. They were on land, but aside from the vast amount of trees that crowded together to form an endless forest, there were no signs of docks or people at all. Rather than mainland, it was more of an isolated island. Above all, the most surprising thing was that it was already daylight. They must've floated for an entire night! Where could they have ended up?

After repeated poking, Hua Cheng was still deep asleep, and hadn't moved an inch. Ghosts couldn't drown, at least that's what Xie Lian thought. However, just because Hua Cheng couldn't drown, it didn't mean that other things in the ocean, such as the poisonous bonefish, couldn't have attacked him. Thus, Xie Lian patted Hua Cheng down, starting from his chest, to his arms, and all the way to his legs to make sure there weren't any wounds. Yet, other than discovering Hua Cheng had a fine body, there were no other finds. Xie Lian was at his wit's end and started to worry.

"San Lang, don't joke around."

No response.

In a moment of panic, Xie Lian actually put his head against Hua Cheng's chest in search of a heartbeat. Then, he immediately realized, how could ghosts have a heartbeat? However, to his surprise, he actually heard it. Xie Lian was stunned. A thought quickly came to him.

Logically, in his true form, Hua Cheng shouldn't be able to drown, but now he had become a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old human, so did the same rule still apply?

Although he felt that Hua Cheng wasn't the kind to overlook these sort of flaws, there was really no other explanation. No matter what, he wasn't able to wake him up. After a long internal debate, Xie Lian slowly reached out with his hands and placed them gently around Hua Cheng's face.

The features on this face were beyond stunning. Cupping Hua Cheng's face like this and thinking about what he was about to do next made it extremely difficult for Xie Lian to calm his poor heart. Sitting in this tangled position, making sure that no one was around, he looked at Hua Cheng again. No signs of waking up. This was it. He prepared himself and gritted his teeth.

He managed to squeeze out, in barely more than a whisper, " …I apologize in advance."

His voice was practically shaking when he said it. He clapped his hands together to make a silent prayer before bending down with closed eyes and pressed his lips against Hua Cheng's.

At the same time, Hua Cheng suddenly snapped open his eyes.