Do You Know What Ambergris Is?

Do You Know What Ambergris Is?

Other than Fu Qian, no one had expected Feng Yunhong to launch a sudden attack, much less one that involved blowing himself up.

Li Weixuan bore the brunt of it. With nowhere to dodge, he was engulfed almost instantly.

The storm of flesh and blood swept toward them, carrying a suffocatingly terrifying force. Far beyond the pressure Feng Yunhong had exerted, it swept across everything with unstoppable momentum.

Li Weixuan's whole body shuddered violently, and countless wounds appeared on him in an instant.

But in the next moment, a tremendous sword aura shot out and collided with the storm.

Knowing there was no chance to escape, Li Weixuan chose to face the impact head-on.

The violent force surged in every direction. The sword light shattered, and Li Weixuan's body was torn to pieces in an instant.

Behind him, Ji Liushuang and the others used that tiny moment of respite to flee the storm's reach with all their strength.

Apart from them, the entire exploration team was wiped out in an instant, blasted into a mist of blood by the storm.

The next moment, the storm subsided, leaving carnage everywhere.

The area around the entire blood pool was plastered with a thick mixture of blood and flesh. Aside from Li Weixuan, there were hardly any bodies left intact.

Soon, as the storm died down, the thick streams of blood gathered together and wound their way into the blood pool beside them.

Fu Qian stood to one side, quietly watching what was happening before him, not missing a single detail.

The flesh-and-blood mixture flowing into the pool once again separated into clearly distinct parts.

Most of it quickly merged into that stinking lump, while a stream of blood wrapped around Li Weixuan's mangled body. It dissolved him bit by bit, and at the same time, a humanoid shadow of blood slowly took shape within it.

Just as I thought!

Fu Qian felt he now understood the state of this furnace.

First of all, Feng Yunhong hadn't told them the whole truth.

Fu Qian had already begun to suspect as much when he dripped blood into the pool.

Over all these years, surely some powerful Transcendents had gotten trapped here. If their bodies were unaffected after they died, where had those bodies gone?

Now the answer was clear.

In the cloud of blood that had burst apart just now, there had been not only Feng Yunhong's head, but far more than one twisted face.

The owners of those bloodied faces were the powerful Transcendents.

They had indeed been devoured, but not by this furnace. They had been devoured by Feng Yunhong.

Just like Li Weixuan now, they had all been "eaten" by Feng Yunhong.

Fu Qian had no doubt that another Feng Yunhong would soon grow from this, while Li Weixuan would become one of the many faces in the blood.

As for how Feng Yunhong could do this, Fu Qian recalled something he had learned in his course on fragrances and flavorings, about ambergris.

They said that giant squid had tough, horny beaks and toothed tongues that were very difficult to digest. After being swallowed by sperm whales, they accumulated in the stomach and intestines, irritating the gut. Over time, the intestines secreted a special waxy substance that enclosed the undigested food remnants, gradually forming ambergris.

Transcendents who reached a certain level of strength were impurities that this furnace could not digest.

And the Feng Yunhong they had just seen was ambergris formed over many years.

He wasn't one person, but a mixture of the remnants of all those Transcendents.

When they first encountered him, the lump of flesh on his lower body hadn't been controlling him. It had been encasing him to keep him from affecting the furnace.

So the way he had acted as if he'd lost his mind back then had all been an act.

"Why did this happen?"

In the distance, Ji Liushuang stood with blood at the corner of her mouth, staring blankly at the bloody scene before her.

Even the dean...

She had been among the luckiest. She was already far away, and after hearing Fu Qian's words, she had been mentally prepared, even if she hadn't really understood them.

So when Feng Yunhong blew himself up, she had escaped the storm's reach almost at once, suffering only a slight shock.

Other than her, only five people had survived, including Yuan Xin and Huang Zhaoyan.

They hadn't been nearly so lucky. Though Li Weixuan had risked his life to buy them a moment to catch their breath, every one of them had been caught in the storm. The most severely injured had half his body nearly reduced to mush.

Just moments ago, their huge group had become only a handful of people.

"How did you know?"

Yuan Xin struggled to his feet. He didn't hurry to check his injuries, but instead fixed his eyes on Fu Qian and asked, each word deliberate.

"Know what?"

Fu Qian looked at his blood-smeared face.

"That he was up to something."

Yuan Xin pointed toward the blood pool.

"From beginning to end, you were the one who told us we were trapped... told us we couldn't rest... told us to search the ruins for a way out...

"The whole team followed your instructions, and this is what we got. Tell me, how did you know all this?"

Yuan Xin's words brought a brief silence. Then everyone turned to look at Fu Qian, thoughtful.

Indeed, on closer inspection, there were plenty of suspicious things about this. From beginning to end, it seemed this guy had been directing the team's actions.

And then there was his strange behavior just now.

Fu Qian now had only four fingers on his right hand. He had torn off his little finger himself and thrown it onto Feng Yunhong.

"Now isn't the time to dwell on this. Let's find a way out first."

Ji Liushuang stepped forward and gave Yuan Xin a stern look, stopping him from continuing.

She also felt that Fu Qian had many secrets, but she didn't believe it was as Yuan Xin claimed.

Fu Qian's actions were more like those of a perfectly rational survivor, doing everything only to stay alive.

Don't forget, Fu Qian had just warned everyone to run.

But Yuan Xin was no longer as deferential as before. He merely looked at her with a cold laugh, refusing to back down.

Humans! Fu Qian sighed.

Often, the only reason certain people hated you was that you'd told them the truth.

Even when they were powerless to fight the truth, they would instinctively try to kill you, as if getting rid of you would make the predicament before them disappear.

Fortunately, Fu Qian had a special way of dealing with people like that.

The next moment, a chilling killing intent surged forth.

Fu Qian smiled as he looked at Yuan Xin.

"Have you got the situation mixed up? What makes you think I need to answer your questions?"

The moment he said this, Yuan Xin, who had been furious just a moment ago, turned as pale as paper.

He wasn't the only one. Everyone reacted the same way, and for a moment, not a sound could be heard.

That was right. In this situation, did Fu Qian have any reason to answer anyone's questions?

Forget that almost everyone but him was injured. Even if all six of them were unharmed, they might still not be a match for a sixth-rank Transcendent.

Considering the nature of these ruins, no matter what happened inside, no one outside would ever know.

No matter how powerful their families were, it wouldn't matter.

If they died here, they would truly be dead, without leaving a trace. No one outside would even remember them, let alone avenge them.

Even the dignified former dean of the academy had been trapped here for decades without making a ripple, and had ended up like this, neither human nor ghost.

To Fu Qian, their group was nothing more than meat on a chopping board.

If he really decided to kill them, they had nothing they could use to threaten him.

No, he had already killed someone.

Remembering the shattered assassin, everyone's hearts sank further.

Huang Zhaoyan most of all.

"Fu Qian, don't do anything rash."

Ji Liushuang was also ashen with worry, afraid Fu Qian might lose his temper and go on a killing spree.

"Don't worry. I never act rashly."

Fu Qian strolled to the side of the blood pool with a smile. A blood-red humanoid silhouette was slowly taking shape inside. He looked back at Ji Liushuang.

"Do you know what ambergris is?"