Source Marsh

Exchange: favorable and steadfast; firm within, yielding without; following Heaven and responding to humanity.

What the hell was this place now?! How could something go wrong every time he sat on a meditation cushion? Was he fundamentally incompatible with meditation cushions? And closing his eyes was completely useless! Was he really going to be pulled out again??

Li Fan was utterly speechless. Sitting in that sea of gray sludge, he truly did not want to stand up, but he had no choice. He could vaguely feel himself sinking! Just like he had fallen into a swamp!

Hiss... Don't panic, don't panic! The more you struggled in mud, the faster you sank. Increase the contact area and reduce the pressure... System, shut the fuck up!

'Li Fan's mood has decreased by 1 point.'

'Li Fan's mood has decreased by 1 point.'

'Li Fan's mood has decreased by 1 point.'

The system was still shrieking, roughly once every three seconds. That meant Li Fan's mood could probably last five minutes. Five minutes was fine. At least he would go insane before he sank into the swamp and drowned. Still, that should be enough time for Real Person Wanshu to notice and pull him back into reality, right?

Li Fan had no confidence in that, but he could only gamble.

He checked himself over. The jade pendant and jade talisman could not be used. Naturally, this was another spacetime even the system could not reach. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, he could still use Zhenqi. Could you believe that?

And it was more than merely usable. He could clearly feel the vortex in his Inner Landscape spinning madly, like a tiny electric motor going brrrrr. No wonder cultivators risked their lives to worship the moon. Acquired cultivation was an air pump, while innate meditation was a blower!

Cautiously, Li Fan drew out a strand of Zhenqi through his right hand and pressed it against the sticky, slick swamp surface. He first tried Xuanming Zhenqi, hoping to imitate what he had done in the bamboo grove and use Zhenqi to float over the swamp.

It was completely useless. The Xuanming Zhenqi in his hand spread into blue-white hexagonal frost blossoms. Because the Zhenqi was too powerful when dispersed, it nearly froze Li Fan's sleeve solid.

Hm, then Return to Dust or Purple Radiance... Huh? Neither worked. The green light of Return-to-Dust Zhenqi in his left hand and the purple mist of Zixia Zhenqi were both incompatible with the swamp's nature, yet it did not feel like they were "outside the Five Elements."

When he thrust his right hand into the watery marsh, the cluster of Zixia Zhenqi was swiftly devoured by the gray swamp without a trace. But the cluster of Return-to-Dust Zhenqi in his left hand was wrapped in a large mass of gray mud, faintly emitting green light.

Hm... Could it be...

Li Fan seemed to understand. He gathered his Zhenqi at the heart of his Triple Burner, then explosively spread it out!

With a sharp whoosh, Chisha Zhenqi burst from the acupoints across Li Fan's body. Wrapped in Zhenqi, he lit up like a torch, forcing away the gray, murky swamp all around him. The next instant, Li Fan withdrew the Chisha Zhenqi and switched to Divine Astral Zhenqi. He tucked his right leg beneath himself, planted his left foot on a single point, and rose onto one foot. At that moment, the mud gathered again, undulating like a trampoline and bouncing Li Fan onto the swamp's surface, sending ripples spreading outward.

So that was it. This gray mud swamp was actually Metal among the Five Elements.

Li Fan released Divine Astral Zhenqi and stood on one foot atop the swamp. He no longer sank.

But this was actually a world belonging to the Taiji Five Elements? Then where was the Innate Great Dao? The system was still screaming like a ghost...

Li Fan looked around in bafflement, but all he saw was the same endless gray swamp. There was nothing in sight... "What the fuck was that!"

Suddenly, he felt a weight on his left foot, followed by a stabbing pain. Startled, Li Fan sprang up like a cat. Looking down, he saw some gray, snake-like thing had bitten through the sole of his foot and was burrowing into it!

'Li Fan's mood has decreased by 1 point.'

'Li Fan's mood has decreased by 1 point.'

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Li Fan instinctively grabbed the snake with both hands and tried to pull it out, but its skin was slick and hard. He could not budge it at all! It was still burrowing deeper! The pain was excruciating!

"Sword Qi! Sword Qi! Qiankun Flying Dragon Sword!" He wildly fired Divine Astral Sword Qi and Chisha Sword Qi from his hands, even using the Qiankun Flying Dragon Sword Technique that he only half understood, but it was all fucking useless!

Even the Flying Dragon Sword's black-and-white twin swords only left a few marks on the gray snake's hide. Instead, they seemed to stir up its ferocity. It shook its body, looped around Li Fan's waist and shoulders, coiled tightly around him, and dragged him down into the depths of the mud swamp!

"Cough, cough, cough!" Li Fan could hear the cracking sounds of bones breaking throughout his body! His chest and lungs were crushed together so tightly that he could barely breathe. Whenever he opened his mouth, gray mud poured in. In an instant, he had no idea how far he had been dragged beneath the swamp!

'Li Fan's mood has decreased by 1 point. Warning! Li Fan, mood: 50/100. Extreme danger!'

'Li Fan's mood has decreased by 1 point. Warning! Li Fan, mood: 49/100. Extreme danger!'

He was going to die.

This time, he was really going to die.

'Li Fan's mood has decreased by 1 point. Warning! Li Fan, mood: 48/100. Extreme danger!'

'Li Fan's mood has decreased by 1 point. Warning! Li Fan, mood: 47/100. Extreme danger!'

His internal organs were all tangled together.

He could no longer feel pain.

His eyelids were so heavy.

He was going to die...

'Li Fan's mood has decreased by 1 point. Warning! Li Fan, mood: 46/100. Extreme danger!'

'Breath is universally useful, the heart remains undivided. Qiankun repels, yin and yang unite. Wuji without delusion, neither close nor distant.'

Fuck, what use was saying that now? Hadn't he already tried it just now?!

Qiankun Flying Dragon Sword!

See! It could not cut through! Fuck, his hands were tied up! They were breaking, breaking—his arms were going to snap!

'Li Fan's mood has decreased by 1 point. Warning! Li Fan, mood: 45/100. Extreme danger!'

Fuck! Stop burrowing in! His foot hurt like hell!

"Waaahhh, waaahhh!!"

With a mouthful of muddy water, Li Fan let out a roar and drove all the vortices in his body into his left leg, kicking out with all his might!

With a muffled bang, a black-and-white sword vortex actually erupted from the meridians in Li Fan's left foot! It poured directly into the gray snake's mouth, twisting from the inside out and shredding its body inch by inch, segment by segment. A huge mass of flesh, blood, and gray mud exploded apart!

'Li Fan's mood has decreased by 1 point. Warning! Li Fan, mood: 44/100. Extreme danger!'

The force binding Li Fan's entire body abruptly slackened. Li Fan exploded outward, flinging open his limbs, spitting out a mouthful of muddy water, and roaring again!

"Waaahhh, waaahhh, uuuugh!!!"

Then, with an explosive boom, black-and-white tornadoes erupted from the meridians in Li Fan's hands and feet, as well as the major acupoints all over his body. His Zhenqi exploded, blasting a huge hollow into the surrounding mud! Even the bloody hole in his left foot spurted a jet of blood like a sword, spraying mud, flesh, and blood everywhere!

'Li Fan's mood has decreased by 1 point. Warning! Li Fan, mood: 43/100. Extreme danger!'

The agony in his left foot filled him with rage. Li Fan abruptly opened his eyes and swept his gaze around. He saw that he had sunk deep into the gray mud swamp, as if he were at the bottom of a gray sea. The eight black and eight white, sixteen Flying Dragon Sword gales he had just unleashed had not yet dissipated, temporarily forcing back the surrounding swamp and leaving a pocket of empty space.

That was why Li Fan could see that on the other side of the gray swamp and curtain of muddy water grew countless gray "snakes," dense as aquatic weeds. No, of course they were not snakes. They were heads—one after another, grotesque and varied, large and small, inhuman in shape, but all heads. Their "snake bodies" were esophagi, one end joined to a head and the other buried deep in the swamp bottom, connected to something moving, larger, and more terrifying...

'Li Fan's mood has decreased by 1 point. Warning! Li Fan, mood: 42/100. Extreme danger!'

Damn it, there was no time!

Li Fan suddenly looked up and saw that the deep furrow he had carved while being dragged down was slowly closing!

And the heads around him were all turning to look at him!

"Wah—ptui! Qiankun Flying Dragon Sword!!!" Li Fan ignored his still-bleeding left foot and roared as he blasted both hands and feet fiercely in the opposite direction!

The enormous boom nearly ruptured his eardrums, but who cared about that while fleeing for his life?!

'Li Fan's mood has decreased by 1 point. Warning! Li Fan, mood: 41/100. Extreme danger!'

"Aaargh! Flying Dragon Sword, Flying Dragon Sword!"

Using the endless Sword Qi unleashed by the sword gales as reverse thrust, Li Fan charged headfirst upward through the closing passage, blasting through the gray mud!

Such a huge disturbance immediately drew a response! This time, it was not just one. Hundreds, thousands of heads were drawn in and rushed toward him!

'Li Fan's mood has decreased by 1 point. Warning! Li Fan, mood: 40/100. Extreme danger!'

"Fuck, fuck, fuck! Flying Dragon Sword, fuck aaahhh!"

But the swamp above had already closed! Li Fan could only wave his right hand uselessly, using sword vortices to carve a path upward. His speed immediately slowed, and he was instantly caught by a mass of heads!

'Li Fan's mood has decreased by 1 point. Warning! Li Fan, mood: 39/100. Extreme danger!'

"Get lost! Get lost! Get lost, motherfuckers!"

Li Fan fired sword gales with both hands and feet, knocking away the approaching heads. But before, his sword had happened to twist directly into a head through its mouth. Striking from outside, with the current strength of his Qi Refining Stage refined Sword Qi, he could not shatter them at all! He could only barely use sword gales to knock the heads away, yet more and more Head-Snakes gathered, drawing ever closer!

Close enough for Li Fan to see the expressions on their faces.

They were looking at the joy of a soon-to-be-born...

Kindred.

'Li Fan's mood has decreased by 1 point. Warning! Li Fan, mood: 38/100. Extreme danger!'

"Fuck your mother! I refuse to turn into freaks like you!!" Li Fan roared, shoving his left hand into his mouth!

The mass of heads pounced!

Then Li Fan felt someone tug his right wrist and pull him out of the swamp!

For a moment, the heavens spun and the stars shifted.

Li Fan abruptly opened his eyes and saw the Ink Bamboo Grove beneath the moonlight once more. He was still sitting safely upright on the meditation cushion. His throat churned, and with a "Bleurgh—," he vomited up a huge puddle of gray filth, like swamp mud.

"Heh... heh... heh... heh... fuck..." Li Fan sprawled over the meditation cushion, gasping for air. His entire body was drenched in sweat, wet and sticky. When the wind blew over him, it chilled him to the bone. His left foot still vaguely ached, but when he examined it closely, it was as if he had no wounds at all...

'Li Fan's mood has decreased by 1 point. Warning! Li Fan, mood: 37/100. Extreme danger!'

Li Fan glanced at the message. At least the system had stopped screaming.

At that moment, the white light also stealthily slipped back into his hand.

Heh—ptui! Sword Intent, you traitor who ran away in the middle of battle!

'Profound Heaven Sword Intent states that the host need not worry. With it guarding the physical body, that fiend dared not act rashly. It merely held and licked you, nothing more.'

What? Held and licked him? Like an Oreo or something...

Li Fan was about to curse out the bastard for fleeing and abandoning its master when he suddenly frowned, catching a strong smell of saliva. Only then did he realize that his hand was wet and sticky—not with gray mud, but seemingly... saliva...

Wait. That fiend you mentioned was...

'Profound Heaven Sword Intent states: the one above your head.'

So Li Fan looked up and came face-to-face with Fairy Wangshu's head.

Now he knew what the Non-Thing Fairy Wangshu had seen earlier was. He also knew whose shed husk that Revered Heavenly Demon on the altar had been. He even knew exactly what those intestine-like worm masses were...

They were necks.

Fairy Wangshu's jade-like face was still smiling, but it had twisted and warped grotesquely. Her cherry lips had expanded at least twentyfold! The rest of her face had been squeezed together, skin and bone condensed into a small hard knot. At first glance, all one could see was her mouth, dripping copious viscous saliva and packed with grooves and fangs.

And that demonic, mutated head was only a small portion of the front end. What drew the eye even more was that thick, long, pale, soft neck. Like the white flesh of a giant python or dragon, it twisted and knotted beneath the moonlit sky, winding into a huge tangled mass. There was no sign of the rest of her body, much less her Daoist robes or limbs. Filling his entire vision was a massive lump of pale flesh like an intestine. The portion hanging in midair, lowering its head to drool on Li Fan, was alone over ten zhang long. It looked exactly like some mouth-bearing yin... yang... worm-like invertebrate mollusk...

'Li Fan's mood has decreased by 1 point. Warning! Li Fan, mood: 36/100. Extreme danger!'

'Profound Heaven Sword Intent states that the host should not panic. At present, this fiend seems able to restrain itself. At least the host was pulled out, rather than pulled out.'

...You sure knew how to talk, Sword Intent. Since you were so good at talking, shut the fuck up!!

Then saliva came gushing from that abyssal maw like a waterfall, drenching Li Fan from head to toe.

'Li Fan's mood has decreased by 1 point. Warning! Li Fan, mood: 35/100. Extreme danger!'

Watching that smiling giant mouth slowly draw nearer, Li Fan's scalp went numb with terror.

Were you fucking sure that thing could still restrain itself?! He was the one who was about to lose control aaahhh!

Then the worm-like long-necked Devil Form with the giant mouth suddenly had its throat swell, as if it were about to vomit something up. It raised its head to the sky, then with a "Waaah—," turned half its mouth inside out, revealing the deep-red flesh of its oral cavity.

Bleurgh... No, he could not take it. He really could not... Bleurgh...

"Hehehe, Qingyue, your talent truly is shocking. You sank so deeply that I had to reach all the way into the intestines to pull you out.

"Fortunately, you were lucky this time. You only wandered around the surface of Source Marsh and did not disturb anything truly dreadful. Otherwise, even I could not have saved you."

Li Fan stared wide-eyed as Fairy Wangshu emerged halfway from the flesh wall inside that monstrous throat. Her humanoid torso shone with white light, her skin radiating protective brilliance from within. Not a trace of saliva clung to her. Yet the muscles in the throat had rubbed away her moon robe, leaving only her undergarments—wet, sticky, nearly transparent, and tightly plastered against her body. Normally, Li Fan would not have needed a second thought before standing at attention and bowing to show his respect.

But now, looking at that smooth, soft, jade-white neck that could expand by hundreds of zhang at any moment, Li Fan felt only one pure desire...

"Bleurgh—!!!"