On the Star River Path, the mist was even pallider and greener than a dead man's face.
Chu Qing stood barefoot on the cold spinal keel of the Black Bone Ship. The roughness beneath his soles felt real, mixed with that indelible scent of decay.
The Gray Fog of the Chaos Sea clung to his skin like a layer of wet hide that could not be peeled away.
The Purple True Blood within him flowed rapidly, pounding against his veins with dull thuds.
"Master, that is the flagship of the Tian Lan World." Nangong Xue stood behind him, her fingernails digging deeply into the Array Disk in her hand, leaving pale marks between her fingers.
Chu Qing said nothing.
He stared ahead.
The Golden World Ship lay across the center of the riverway, its entire body cast from red gold, its deck covered in thick spirit jade. At its prow hung a Liuli lamp larger than a man, its flames forcibly illuminating the Gray Fog for tens of thousands of miles around.
That firelight was blinding, carrying an air of lofty arrogance.
"Hey! You mountain-hauling coolie!"
At the prow of the Golden World Ship, a young man in brocade leaned against a white jade railing, half his body extending over the side.
Pinching his nose, he curled his lips upward, revealing a mouthful of ghastly white teeth.
"Your ship stinks too much. It's fouling this Young Master's Eternal Light. Understand?"
A soft, low laugh escaped Chu Qing's throat.
He remembered the rainy night in Stone Rock County. He remembered Zhao Wuji sitting atop the pavilion, looking down at him in exactly the same way.
That gaze was as if he were looking at a pile of rotten flesh that could move.
"Heh."
Chu Qing moved.
He neither stepped forward nor