Living Creature?

It was the dead of night.

The small boat, laden with fishing gear brought by soldiers to curry favor with the three men, swayed and rocked as it headed towards the Great Marsh.

The fish basket swayed gently in the river breeze.

Ke Wenbin rowed the boat, Xiang Fangsu stared at the map, Liang Qu used Compass.

Great Marsh by waves on all sides, with no topographical markers, it's easy to get lost without Compass.

Once the ship was completely out of sight behind them, the small boat immediately turned around and circled in a long arc.

After a quarter of an hour, the three of them re-entered the Islet Region, carefully avoiding the spies stationed around them, and made their way to the vicinity of the island chain.

"Let's get off the boat and swim across."

The area around the island chain is swarming with scouts; ships are too large a target and easily spotted by scouts.

The three found a small island nearby, dragged their boat Shang An, covered it with bushes, and hid it in the woods.

Fireflies flitted around the bushes, providing perfect cover for the annoying cicada chirping that plagued them during the day.

After finishing up, the three grabbed their gear and dived down one after another, stealthily making their way towards the island chain under the cover of night.

The River Dolphin patrolling underwater noticed the unusual water flow and gathered around it.

Xiang Fangsu from his bosom and infused it with his Qi and Blood.

The token emitted an invisible wave, and the finless River Dolphin stopped fighting and dispersed.

Ke Wenbin patted the River Dolphin's head, and then, without realizing it, caught a large silver carp. He fed the River Dolphin to it and followed closely behind the two people in front of him.

Upon reaching the nearby waters, wisps of black smoke drifted in the water, and countless small fish, their bellies white, floated on the surface, their bodies shriveled.

Although they were soaking in water, they looked like smoked fish that had been dried on the shore, as if they would crumble into crumbs if you squeezed them.

Xiang Fangsu dared not move forward and took a step back to make way.

Liang Qu succeeded Xiang Fangsu as the leader, stimulating his Qi and Blood, and a faint golden light emanated from his body.

The black mist, like snow melting in hot urine, continued to dissipate to both sides, revealing a transparent channel.

Xiang Fangsu and Ke Wenbin followed closely behind, watching the black smoke gather again behind them, maintaining a safe distance to ensure they wouldn't get covered in it.

After a long and arduous journey, they finally reached the island, more than half an hour had passed since they set off.

"Let me repeat, do not split up. We don't know what's going on on the island. If there's anything unusual, whether it's just your imagination or not, speak up and discuss it. If you find anything, don't leave the group on your own."

Xiang Fangsu offered a reminder.

The evil thought of the dead coming back to life still lingered in their minds. They had already discussed it before setting off, and now it was just a matter of bringing it up again.

"I will stay by A Shui's side without wavering! I would never dare to leave, even if you killed me."

Ke Wenbin made a loud statement.

Just kidding, the black aura on the island is even worse than underwater. Liang Qu's radiation range is only two or three meters around him, so he can't leave even if he wants to.

Xiang Fangsu nodded, and the three of them, focusing on Liang Qu, quickly headed towards the center of the island.

Outside, cicadas chirped incessantly; inside, all was silent.

The corpses of snakes, rats, ants, centipedes, and millipedes all crawled out of the soil and lay dead on the ground.

Stepping on it causes it to shrivel and crumble, drifting away with the river wind, turning to ashes, and being buried deep in the desert.

Looking at the plants, they were all withered branches and broken leaves. A small portion had been burned to death, while the majority had been tainted by black mist, which had drained their vitality.

Several trees grew tall, their lower halves submerged in black smoke, dry and rotten, while their upper halves remained intact, lush and green, creating an eerie contrast.

Xiang Fangsu approached the tree, scratched it with his fingernail, and the bark of the entire giant tree fell off in a flurry. The trunk quickly cracked, and fine cracks spread continuously along the main body, stopping abruptly at the boundary between life and death.

It was as if the entire tree would topple over if he moved even slightly, and the current balance was merely an illusion.

Xiang Fangsu didn't dare to move again and followed Liang Qu deeper into the area, soon seeing several houses.

The Ghost Mother Sect has many buildings on the island, but they are not ordinary temples or courtyards; most of them are earthen houses built with rammed earth.

In terms of form, it was not much better than that of ordinary people, only more orderly and spacious, like a military camp.

Upon arriving nearby, the signs of destruction became even more apparent.

Most of the trees bore sword and knife marks, and the ground was littered with corpses lying haphazardly. Bloodstains, not yet dried, were scattered across the mud, leaving red and black spots everywhere.

There were many bird carcasses around those corpses, shriveled but intact, without any signs of external injury.

Liang Qu suspected that birds were trying to steal food, rushing into the black smoke only to find that they could no longer fly.

He entered a relatively large earthen house, but there were no valuable porcelain pieces or nanmu wood furniture.

All you can see are earthenware pots, wooden basins, and furniture made entirely of cheap woods like birch, pine, and Red Toon.

"What's the point?"

Ke Wenbin felt incredibly shabby; he couldn't imagine living in such a dilapidated house for years.

Even taking a bath requires chopping Wooden Head and boiling water yourself. If the water isn't hot enough halfway through, you have to go outside naked and boil another kettle.

"I hope that one day I can live the life you and I have."

Xiang Fangsu ended the conversation with a single sentence.

Ke Wenbin felt bored, but after thinking about it carefully, he realized that this made perfect sense.

The Ghost Mother Sect's goal is to overthrow the Da Shun and restore its former glory. Isn't it all for the sake of one day living their life? The surrounding houses are almost identical, so there's nothing much to explore.

The real Treasure Vault was mostly near the Grandmaster's residence. They quickly searched for a while and then continued deeper into the area.

The closer you get to the cliff at the center of the island chain, the more terrifying the interwoven traces of battle become.

The knife marks, stretching for hundreds of meters, are clearly visible; it's hard to imagine that a human could have done this.

As they approached the cliff from which Xu Yuelong and the others had jumped, an even more "magnificent" courtyard appeared before them.

While it was described as magnificent, Liang Qu felt it was only about the same level as his previous second time in the same building.

Just imagine that Great Martial Master or even Grandmaster- level martial artist lives in the same place as you used to, and you'll know how shabby their lives must have been.

"Shall we go in and explore?"

Ke Wenbin offered his advice.

"Etc!"

Liang Qu stopped the two.

The two men were tense, glancing around.

"What's wrong?"

"There's a sound, but the sound is wrong!"

sound?

Xiang Fangsu and Ke Wenbin frowned and strained their ears as much as they could.

There was complete silence all around, and no unusual sounds could be heard.

Their strength was far superior to Liang Qu's, so why could Liang Qu hear it while the two of them couldn't? But the two of them didn't suspect anything; they just buried their confusion and drew their weapons as they moved closer to Liang Qu.

The three formed a triangular formation to defend against attacks from all directions, ensuring that no gaps were missed.

"A Shui, what did you hear?"

Liang Qu pointed to the stones that had risen on the ground, covered with large clumps of yellowish, dried soil exposed to the air.

"Those rocks were turned over two hours ago!"

Xiang Fangsu and Ke Wenbin were speechless. "How did you know?"

"I could tell from my voice."

The different moisture content of moist and dry soil results in drastically different sounds, as evidenced by the information conveyed by the two stones.

"You can tell from it? You'd be more reliable to say you can see it than to hear it!" The two found it unbelievable, but quickly realized something was wrong.

Two hours!? There are other living people on the island! No, are they really living people?

The battle lasted for a full twelve hours, which is too long even for Great Martial Master!

Either you land on the island in the middle, or...

The three of them looked at the courtyard again and felt a chill run down their spines, sensing an indescribable eeriness within.

The stone slabs in front of the courtyard were empty, the shade of the trees rubbed against them, and the scattered moonlight pierced through the gaps between the leaves, casting a hazy gray light on the ground.

Surrounded by islands, the river breeze has become extremely weak here, and the leaves are almost still.

But with Liang Qu's prompting, the three of them carefully observed and finally discovered something gently swaying in the shade of the tree, easily breaking free from the shadows of the leaves. It seemed to be... a human figure? All three of them saw it and confirmed it, but none of them dared to move.

They concealed their presence to the extreme, afraid of being discovered by something in the courtyard.

Separated by a wall, the three watched the dark figure slowly move from the east side to the west side, and then back again.

Dull, rigid.

The thing on the other side of the wall seemed unaware that anyone had arrived at the door.