Chapter 42: Dark Waters

The cold breeze awakened XuanZheng as she scrambled up from lying on her bed. She looked outside her window and noticed a faint glow faraway.

'Wait. That's—'

Her words mean nothing when a large hellfire casted against the dire necropolis. It was sudden but the impact sent her hurling across the room. She looked at the direction where the hellfire came and saw a shadowy figure behind the flames.

"You! Why are you here? Isn't it enough for you getting me banished? Do you want to kill me too?!"

She yelled at a truculent manner awaiting for the culprit to reveal himself. The man stepped forward against the flames and XuanZheng's face contorted in sober.

"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Zheng 'er. It's so pitiful to see you like this."

"Zhuge Liang. Why— How?"

"Oh, so you've heard. I've been imprisoned at the ninth heaven's dungeon and now, I'm standing in front of you..."

"An illusion eh? No one had escaped the ninth heaven's dungeons before."

"No... No... Dear... I'm right here in one piece. Do you want me to torch you to ashes to prove that I am here?"

"Preposterous! You shouldn't have been put in a dungeon. You should've been hanged! My sister was right. I shouldn't have listened to you!"

"Yes. And to think the security there is much too light, I took the chance to escape... And here we are now..."

"What do you want from me?"

"Want? Oh XuanZheng... You're not the one that I want."

Zhuge Liang prepared to torch her alive in hellfire when she casted a large barrier preventing her from being burned however, the hellfire's power is too great sending her away from the necropolis sinking into the sea.

XuanZheng pushed upward from the ocean and flew away from the burning necropolis. Meanwhile, Zhuge Liang went to the dark tower where XuanZheng tried to absorb the power of the ancient evil tree.

'So this is Hou JinTai. Now, I'm going to show the world who's the most powerful God of all!'

Zhuge Liang casted a spell on the ancient evil tree pulverizing it and mixing it on his own body. The black dust swirled and entered his body. His red eyes soon turned deep purple and his pale skin turned gray. Dark evil writings appeared all over his body and horns like deer antlers started growing from his head. He shrilled in agony as purple lightning glinted across the skies sending rumbles everytime.

After his complete transformation, he took his fan and corrupted it with his black magic conjuring dead bodies back to life from the jade coffins lying around the ancient evil tree.

'Now, the mortals will bow to me.'

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Dark clouds rolled up from the skies and ominous thunders rumbled along with it. Strange-colored flashes of lightning flashed across the sky sending chills on the spines on the good people of Old Jianghu.

Zhao Min noticed the sinister presence. Her battle with the Tian Lang was just the precursor of other future battles. Her eyes widened as she let a tight grip on her wounds. The wounds bled but she could not feel pain due to shock and anxiety.

"Sis Zhao! Please don't grip your wounds or it will never heal!"

"Nothing will ever heal as long as he's alive."

"Who's alive?"

"Elaa... I— I betrayed all of your trust."

"We're all imperfect sis. Although we are bound to Emei's teachings and principles, we're still human. And as a human, we all make mistakes."

Zhao Min's eyes started to well up in tears she gave Elaa a warm hug making her wounds bleed more.

"Aiyaa! Your wounds sis! Tsk Tsk. I shouldn't have let you move from bed! Sister Luo is going to kill me if she finds out!"

"*sniff* I'm sorry. Truly sorry Sis Elaa. Okay... You may bind my wounds now."

Elaa took a medicinal box and got some herbs and sanitizers cleansing Zhao Min's wounds and afterwards binding it up with clean and new bandages.

Elaa then sat down beside her and Zhao Min leaned her head on her shoulder.

"Long ago, I always thought of killing myself but everything changed when I met you and sister Luo."

"I guess we're the same too sis. My life wasn't a perfect one too. I— I was raped."

Zhao Min's eyes widened and put her hands on Elaa's shoulders.

"Who did that to you? I will murder him!"

"Aiyaa. It was long ago sis. And besides... The one who did that horrible thing to me was already dead..."

"Oh... Good for him."

"Because I killed him."

"What?"

"Yes. I killed him and it was against Emei's teachings but Grandmaster Jue Chen is so persistent in taking me in so I—"

"You... What? What did you do sis?"

"I allowed myself to be tortured at the repenting cliff."

Zhao Min's jaw almost dropped. She couldn't say one more thing. Elaa averted her eyes so Zhao Min couldn't see the repressed emotions.

"I'm sorry to hear that sis."

"It's okay sis."

"Well as for me... I'm... My family disowned me."

"Why would they do that? What kind of family disowns their own daughter?"

"My family was rich. They were like aristocrats in Old Jianghu. But rich as they were, their evil doings disgusts me the most."

"You can't choose where you are born to sis."

"Yes sis. And... Also, young as I am... I fell in love."

"Huh? Well that's new. I never heard about you talk about guys in your life before."

"Umm... That's classified."

"Hao. Then? Did you elope with him?"

"I tried to but when I got disowned, his family declined to take me in and also he... He got married on the next day."

"Hmm... That's pretty sad."

"Yeah. I know."

"Help me make dumplings?"

"Hao. Let's head to the kitchen."

Both of them went straight to the kitchen chattering happily when they saw Hua Feixian giving torrid kisses on Na Yingluo at the corner of the pantry. Their jaws almost hit the ground but luckily, Yingluo acted fast kicking Feixian out of the way sending him flying across the pantry and into Moxiao's room.

"Are you alright Feixian?"

"Your sister kicks pretty hard. Do you mind helping me up?"

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ShaoTian volunteered on helping the people on the ship that he was staying at cook food for the trip. He soon learned their names and started chatting and interacting with them. The one with the one eye is called Brother Gyi and the other one is called Lui Zu. The one that likes to play with his pet parrot is Qiao Feng and the other one who loves reading books is Chen Hao.

"Brother Gyi. I am so pleased to have you accompany me to Old Jianghu and as a token of my thanks, I will help you cook food tonight."

"You have helped us plenty enough ShaoTian. You even washed our clothes. Take a rest."

ShaoTian insisted and Brother Gyi couldn't decline. Since ShaoTian cooks deliciously, the others helped convince Brother Gyi on letting ShaoTian cook for them.

When the food is cooked, they all partake of the food on a round table and sang and drank liquor until they are swayed by drunkness except ShaoTian. He lit a small fire using an ebony wood putting it on a canister. He took the duty of nightwatch since he couldn't sleep well at night.

He sat awhile in deep thought about the things that he'll do when he will arrive in Old Jianghu but his concentration halted when the ship bumped into something. The others were awakened by it also.

"ShaoTian. Did you feel that? Something bumped on our ship."

Chen Hao then rushed up to ShaoTian and showed him a page from the book that he was reading.

"Have you heard about the Lan T'sai? It's a sea serpent summoned by a demon to prey on sailors."

"Lan T'sai? Hmm... Haven't heard about it."

After a while, the ship began to shook again and an ominous sound of an unknown creature reverberated.

"Oh no... It's the Lan T'sai. Let's abandon the ship immediately or we'll all going to die!"

As ShaoTian saw the faces of his new friends, his heart sank. Innocent people will be killed if he won't act quick.

"Brother Gyi... Leave everything to me."

The Lan T'sai showed it's head against the darkness. It's fangs bared against ShaoTian but it did not scare him a bit.

ShaoTian rose in the air and tried to slice the Lan T'sai's head with a sword however, there was one problem. Everytime he slices one of the head, two more will sprout back.

'I guess I have no other choice. It can't be helped.'

ShaoTian closed his eyes and went inside the portal of his soul. There, the Shangguan Longyan glowed with greenish color. The jade box contained seven swords of the seven great Gods of the ninth heaven. He took a sword and afterwards, opened his eyes.

The Lan T'sai gave a horrific shrill and wanted to tip off the boat but ShaoTian raised the sword in his hand and with a small swing, the Lan T'sai exploded into bits. Some of the blood and flesh of it flew on the ship staining the faces of Brother Gyi and the others. They were astonished at what they have witnessed. After a while, ShaoTian collapsed unconscious sending him down back to the ship. Brother Gyi and the others caught him and as he reached them, the sword in his hand disappeared out of nowhere.

Seeing the Lan T'sai being blown into bits, Zhuge Liang laughed crazily. His plan is now working and he won't let another mortal or immortal ruin it for him.

'Now, the Gods will see the power of the box and they will probably execute him and take the powerful weapon by force. Hahahaha. Such power. Such bliss.'