Black Water Marsh Skull

Chapter 21: The Skull in the Black Water Marsh

"Tonight, I'll try something new on you lot."

Meow Meow crouched by the window of Clear Radiance Pavilion, a glint in his eyes.

White Dew looked up at him.

She still didn't know what her cat master was up to, only that his tone didn't sound like anything proper.

Meow Meow didn't explain much either.

First, he used the Calming Bell to leave a soft chime within Clear Radiance Pavilion, then, through Sacred Flame Resonance, he summoned a few stray cats that often roamed the eaves of the Crown Prince's Mansion.

These strays weren't Sacred Flame Spirit Cats yet.

They were just drawn by White Dew's aura and scraped by on scraps near the mansion, barely counting as outer-circle cats.

"No fighting tonight."

"Just tailing people."

"If you see anyone in black clothes with a bloody smell on them, follow them."

Meow Meow left them a very simple thought.

The strays seemed to half-understand.

But after White Dew let out a soft meow, they all settled down considerably.

Meow Meow nodded in satisfaction.

"Not bad."

"Heavenly Dou Cat Net, initial launch."

White Dew tilted her head.

Meow Meow looked back at her.

"You stay here."

"If Qinghe comes back and something's up, use the bell chime to notify me."

White Dew nodded seriously.

With that arranged, Meow Meow leaped out from the window.

The night in Heavenly Dou City was still far from quiet.

But as long as you stayed off the main streets, the noise of people quickly faded away.

Meow Meow raced along the rooftops toward the city outskirts.

Once outside the city, he activated Moon Shadow Dash, turning his whole body into a pale white blur that skimmed across the grass toward the edge of Sunset Forest.

By the time he neared Black Water Marsh, the sky hadn't yet brightened.

The Sacred Flame mark he'd left last night was still there.

That wooden box was still there too.

But beside the box lay two more corpses of century-old soul beasts, corrupted.

They must have approached during the night, been provoked by the blood aura, and torn each other apart.

Meow Meow glanced at them but didn't approach immediately.

"Can't just leave it, after all."

"If this thing stays buried a few more days, all the low-rank soul beasts nearby will go mad."

He first found a spot in the shadows of a tree to hide.

About half an hour later, footsteps finally sounded in the distance.

There were more people this time than last night.

Five black-clothed soul masters.

Two Soul Ancestors, two Soul Elders, and one Soul King.

That Soul King wore a gray cloak, with a small Black Eagle Copper Badge pinned to his chest.

When Meow Meow saw that insignia, his eyes turned cold.

"Black Eagle Crest again."

"Looks like Qian Renxue wasn't wrong."

The leading Soul King walked up to the wooden box and said in a low voice:

"Take the thing away. Move quickly."

One Soul Ancestor asked:

"Sir, the contamination has already spread here. If we let it go any longer, someone from Sunset Forest might catch on."

The Soul King let out a cold laugh.

"What's there to be afraid of?"

"As long as Dugu Bo doesn't come himself, even if these outer-ring soul beasts go mad, who'd investigate a noble's estate?"

Meow Meow's ear twitched.

Dugu Bo.

Of course he knew that name.

The Poison Douluo, a Title Douluo.

One of the truly untouchable figures around Sunset Forest.

If this place wasn't too far from Dugu Bo's territory, then these people had some nerve.

"The one behind them is probably more than just some minor noble."

Meow Meow filed that away.

The five quickly lifted the wooden crate.

But just as they were about to leave, a string of bubbles suddenly rose from deep within the Black Water Marsh.

Gurgle.

Gurgle.

The sound was faint, yet it made them all stop at once.

The Soul King's expression shifted.

"Fall back!"

The moment the words left his mouth, the black water exploded.

A long black serpent, its body caked in mud, shot out from the water, lunging straight for the nearest Soul Elder.

The Soul Elder was a beat too slow, and its shoulder was caught in the serpent's jaws.

"Ah!"

A scream rang out.

The nearby Soul Ancestor acted quickly, slamming a soul skill into the serpent's head.

But the serpent seemed to feel no pain, clamping down even harder.

Meow Meow narrowed his eyes.

"A thousand-year soul beast."

"But heavily corrupted."

The next instant, two Swamp Wolves and a Mud Armor Beast crawled out from the Black Water Marsh.

Their eyes were bloodshot, all of them charging at the five soul masters.

Chaos erupted.

The Soul King reacted fast, five soul rings flaring beneath him.

Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black.

A standard Soul King configuration.

He struck out with a palm, sending one Swamp Wolf flying.

But the problem was, these corrupted soul beasts felt no pain and knew no retreat.

The blasted Swamp Wolf crashed into the mud and scrambled right back up.

"Don't get bogged down!"

The Soul King barked.

"Take the crate and go!"

Meow Meow eyed the wooden crate, sneering inwardly.

Want to leave?

Not happening.

With a thought, the Holy Fire mark he'd left on the crate's bottom flickered faintly.

The glow was so dim it was nearly invisible to others.

But to the corrupted soul beasts, that clean, pure fire was glaringly conspicuous.

Two of the beasts that had been lunging at the soul masters suddenly veered toward the crate.

The two Soul Elders carrying it went pale.

"Why's this thing coming for the crate?!"

"Idiot, don't let go!"

The Soul King roared in fury.

But it was already too late.

A Swamp Wolf lunged forward, knocking over one of the Soul Elders.

The wooden crate rolled to the edge of the muddy water.

The lid jolted, and several bottles of black liquid spilled out.

Two of them cracked open directly.

As the red-black liquid hit the ground, the nearby mud immediately began to boil.

Meow Meow's expression darkened.

"This stuff smells even nastier than last night."

He didn't wait any longer.

The Calming Bell chimed softly.

Ding.

As the bell's sound faded, the contaminated spirit beasts all slowed for an instant.

At the same time, Meow Meow activated Moon Shadow Dash, his form flickering as he shot straight to the crate's side.

He didn't touch the black bottles. Instead, he pressed down with Holy Fire around the perimeter.

Golden-white flames descended, and the red-black liquid let out a faint sizzle.

That chilling, sinister aura was suppressed considerably.

Only then did the five Soul Masters notice him.

"A cat?"

The Soul King's face changed.

Clearly, something clicked in his memory.

"It's that White Cat!"

Meow Meow's ears perked up at the words.

"You know me?"

He didn't say it aloud.

But his mind stirred.

So last night's men had already passed the information back.

Or rather, someone in the Black Marsh already knew that an abnormal White Cat had been causing trouble lately.

The Soul King reacted swiftly.

"Kill it!"

A black soul skill blasted directly at Meow Meow.

Meow Meow didn't take it head-on.

Moon Mark Time Slow activated.

The skill's descent seemed to lag by a beat.

Seizing that moment, Meow Meow grabbed the small wooden box holding the black bottles and dodged to the side.

The skill slammed into the muddy water, sending up a wave of black sludge.

"Pretty hot-tempered."

"Too bad the aim's off."

Meow Meow grumbled inwardly, but his movements didn't stop.

He couldn't afford to get tangled in a direct fight with the Soul King here for too long.

Right now, he only had three thousand years of cultivation. He could use tricks to annoy people, but if a Soul King really locked onto him, it'd be trouble.

So he directly rang the Calming Bell.

Ding—

This time, the sound was clearer than before.

The contaminated spirit beasts all froze in unison.

Then, Holy Fire swept through their eyes, briefly suppressing their frenzy.

Those spirit beasts weren't fully restored, but they finally stopped biting wildly, instinctively backing away from the red-black liquid.

Seeing this, the Soul King's face grew even uglier.

"It can suppress the contamination!"

Hearing that, Meow Meow felt a flicker of relief instead.

Contamination.

So these people really did know what this thing was.

"You've confessed without being pressed."

He tucked the small wooden box into the Calming Bell's space, then turned and walked away.

The Soul King naturally wouldn't let him leave.

The fifth soul ring beneath his feet lit up, and the phantom of a Black Eagle spread its wings behind him.

"Trying to run?"

"Stop him!"

The two Soul Ancestors immediately flanked him from left and right.

Meow Meow didn't look back.

From the bushes ahead, a few wild cats he'd lured over earlier suddenly burst out.

They didn't attack anyone.

They just grabbed a few small pebbles in their mouths and tossed them in different directions.

The pebbles carried traces of Holy Fire that Meow Meow had left on them in advance.

As the sparks scattered, the Soul Ancestors were momentarily distracted.

Meow Meow seized the chance and slipped straight into the shadows of the trees.

"Useless!"

The Soul King cursed.

But before he could give chase, the depths of the Black Water Marsh churned again.

The two bottles of Black Liquid that had just burst open had already stirred up something deeper underwater.

A shadow larger than the long snake from before slowly rose from beneath the surface.

The expressions of those Soul Masters changed instantly.

"A ten-thousand-year soul beast?"

"No, it's a contaminated ten-thousand-year Swamp Flood Dragon!"

Meow Meow glanced back from a distance, and his heart skipped a beat.

This thing—he couldn't fight it here.

If a ten-thousand-year soul beast went berserk, the nearby towns and villages would all suffer.

Thinking this, he paused for a moment in his retreat.

"Trouble."

"Really troublesome."

He turned back to look at the Swamp Flood Dragon that was breaking the surface, his mind racing.

Killing it head-on was out of the question.

Suppressing it might not work either.

But letting it keep getting stimulated by the contaminated liquid would only make things worse.

Meow Meow gritted his teeth and directly pulled out the Golden Feather that Qian Renxue had given him.

"Borrow a little light from you for now."

He ignited the Golden Feather with Holy Fire, and a faint golden light instantly spread outward.

The pressure of sacred attribute soul power bore down, forcing the Swamp Flood Dragon's violent aura to pause.

Meow Meow took the chance to ring the bell.

The Calming Bell's chime fell together with the Holy Fire.

He didn't try to tame the Swamp Flood Dragon—he just burned away all the cracked bottles of Black Liquid.

As soon as the contamination source vanished, the red light in the Swamp Flood Dragon's eyes faded a little.

It didn't lunge toward the shore anymore. Instead, it sank back into the water and slowly retreated into the depths of the Black Water Marsh.

Meow Meow let out a breath.

"Good thing."

"That Golden Feather wasn't wasted."

But using it had already stirred up quite a commotion.

From the direction of Heaven Dou in the distance, someone might have sensed the soul power fluctuation.

He couldn't stay here any longer.

Meow Meow immediately put away the fading Golden Feather and turned to leave.

The Soul King wanted to give chase, but the Swamp Flood Dragon had only just retreated and the water was still churning—he didn't dare leave.

All he could do was watch helplessly as that white cat vanished into the night.

"Damn it!"

The Soul King punched the tree trunk.

"Report back."

"That cat has to be dealt with."

Meow Meow heard those words.

But he didn't look back.

He raced on without stopping, only halting on a hill after completely shaking off the Black Water Marsh.

He opened the Calming Bell space and looked at the wooden box he'd just snatched.

Inside were seven intact bottles of Black Liquid.

And a thin iron slip pressed beneath them.

Words were engraved on the iron slip.

The characters were tiny.

But legible.

[White Tiger Sample, Third Batch.]

Meow Meow's gaze sharpened.

"White Tiger?"

"From Star Luo?"

Heavenly Dou nobles, Black Eagle Crest, polluted soul beasts, White Tiger samples.

This thread was more tangled than he'd imagined.

And just as he was staring at that iron slip, a faint stir came from deep within the Calming Bell space.

As if something had been jolted awake by the words "White Tiger."

Meow Meow's mind moved.

A faint white silhouette floated out from the edge of the Golden Feather's residual light.

It wasn't a cat.

Nor a human.

It was a tiny white tiger phantom.

Its paws tucked in, its gaze wary, its aura so thin it seemed ready to dissolve at any moment.

Meow Meow was stunned.

"What are you?"

The white tiger phantom looked at him, as if hesitating for a long time, before speaking in a low voice:

"I am not a 'what.'"

"I am... Jianbing."

Meow Meow: "..."

That name instantly flooded his mind with a jumble of chaotic thoughts.

Jianbing.

White Tiger.

That title wasn't something an ordinary soul beast could have.

Meow Meow stared at the impossibly small white tiger phantom before him, and a bad feeling crept into his heart.

"You say your name is Jianbing?"

The little white tiger nodded.

"Mm."

"Then why are you here?"

The little white tiger lowered its head.

"I don't know."

"I only remember that my home was in the White Tiger Blood."

"Later, someone chopped me into pieces."

Meow Meow fell silent.

Shredded.

Contamination experiment.

This clearly involves the Star Luo White Tiger Lineage, and might even be tied to some experiments with spirit bones or martial soul bloodlines.

And this little white tiger phantom before him didn't seem like an ordinary remnant soul of a spirit beast.

It carried a very strange bloodline aura.

Weak.

But extraordinary.

Meow Meow stared at it for a long time, then finally sighed.

"Fine."

"Don't scatter yet."

"When we get back, I'll question you slowly."

The Little White Tiger watched him warily.

"You're not going to stuff me into a bottle too, are you?"

Meow Meow's eye twitched.

"Do I look like that kind of cat?"

The Little White Tiger hesitated.

"You look... very good at stuffing things."

Meow Meow: "..."

That wasn't pleasant to hear.

But in a way, it was pretty accurate.

He couldn't be bothered to argue with the Little White Tiger, so he just used the Calming Bell to mark out a small quiet space for it, then pressed down the lingering black aura on its body with Holy Fire.

The Little White Tiger visibly relaxed.

Its form stabilized a bit too.

After doing all this, Meow Meow looked up toward Heavenly Dou City.

"White Tiger Sample."

"Black Eagle Nobility."

"Prince Xue Xing."

"And a little white tiger remnant named Jianbing."

Meow Meow took a deep breath.

"This Heavenly Dou City really doesn't let a cat have any peace."