Shang, Lan Yi

Zhu Yuanzhang amused himself, cracking a joke at his own expense.

He did this to stabilize his precarious sanity.

[Deep One (Spirit Form) conversion progress: 84%]

By now, his entire body was covered in black fish scales.

His five toes and five fingers had all fused together.

They had transformed into webbed feet, identical to those of the Deep One behind him, resembling some sort of reptilian appendage.

Drip, drip, drip...

A sound like water droplets hitting stone echoed in his ears.

This sound, mundane in any other context, now made Zhu Yuanzhang's skin crawl uncontrollably.

After all.

The Bitter Sea is still a sea!

Hearing the sound of dripping water in the deep ocean was unsettling, no matter how one looked at it.

Judging by the inscriptions on the stone walls.

This massive stone palace submerged in the deep sea likely had a prototype in the real world.

That was truly hellish!

At the very least, Zhu Yuanzhang had never heard of any city from before the Qin Dynasty sinking to the bottom of the ocean.

The system window, which had stopped flickering, allowed Zhu Yuanzhang to briefly regain a shred of clarity.

"Since I appeared directly before this ancient stone palace,"

"The entity that dragged me into the Bitter Sea wouldn't just let me linger on the outskirts of the palace."

Zhu Yuanzhang placed his hands against the stone doors.

He pushed with a gentle force.

Thud, thud, thud.

It sounded as if some mechanism was being triggered.

The seemingly impenetrable stone doors before him were pushed open.

Revealing the interior of the stone palace.

Zhu Yuanzhang's first impression was darkness.

Pitch-black, profound darkness.

Torches on both sides ignited.

Thousands of meters beneath the sea, Zhu Yuanzhang was shocked to catch the scent of stale, dry air, as if the place hadn't been ventilated for ages.

What the hell.

Zhu Yuanzhang walked into the palace.

The scene before him took him completely by surprise.

The broken statue located in the center of the palace was not the "Dagon," the outsider deity he imagined the Deep Ones would worship.

Instead, they were two statues—a man and a woman—that had clearly been violently destroyed, their heads missing entirely, leaving only their incomplete lower bodies.

Much like the stone pillars smashed with malice and the offering tables overturned all around.

This was no altar dedicated to Dagon.

It looked more like the final remnants of a destroyed ancient civilization.

Things were getting increasingly bizarre.

"This is..."

Zhu Yuanzhang picked up a complete ox scapula from the floor.

"Oracle bone script?"

Unlike the surrounding ruins, which looked as though they had been destroyed with premeditation, these few bones scattered evenly along the path leading to the two destroyed statues were perfectly preserved.

It was as if they had been left intentionally for a reckless intruder from later generations, like Zhu Yuanzhang, to examine.

Zhu Yuanzhang held the oracle bone in his hand; it felt icy cold to the touch.

It radiated an ancient chill.

Some of the characters on the bone seemed to have been intentionally erased.

The remaining characters were incredibly archaic, unlike anything seen even in the 21st century, leaving Zhu Yuanzhang feeling deeply puzzled.

He struggled to read the content on the ox bone using the few characters he vaguely remembered.

"...Shubu, divination: The King shall have no misfortune for the ten-day period..."

"Second month... stationed in Qi... only the King... Zhong Ding... came to attack... the Blue Barbarians."

The first part was easy to understand.

It was essentially a divination record for the "King" regarding disasters, performed by the Shang people.

The latter part was not particularly obscure either.

The meaning was roughly this:

In the second month, in the Qi Territory, the Shang King "Zhong Ding" launched a punitive expedition against the "Blue Barbarians."

A mere dozen or so characters.

Time, location, figures, and events.

Everything was clear at a glance.

It forced Zhu Yuanzhang to marvel at the wisdom of the ancients.

Viewed in this light, this must be a palace left behind by a vassal state named the "Blue Barbarians," located in the "Qi Territory," which had been destroyed by the Shang Dynasty.

However, doubts still abounded.

Zhu Yuanzhang surveyed his surroundings.

Buildings constructed from ancient, massive stone blocks.

A palace sunken into the deep sea.

Divination records of a vassal state carved onto stone steles.

And the ox bones bearing oracle bone script, left behind by the Shang people to boast of their military prowess.

"What were the Blue Barbarians? Why did their palace sink into the deep sea?"

"Most importantly, what was their relationship with Dagon? How could their palace exist within the Bitter Sea?"

"And those Deep Ones outside the palace—the system refers to them as the 'First People'."

As the [Deep One (Spirit Body) Conversion Progress] reached 100%.

An invisible repulsive force suddenly permeated the space around Zhu Yuanzhang.

In an instant, it expelled him from the Bitter Sea.

At the very moment he was cast out of the Bitter Sea.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked up, as if sensing something.

Inside the megalithic palace, two shattered divine statues had somehow restored themselves.

They had transformed into two massive, faceless statues of Deep Ones—one male and one female.

They were watching him silently.

BOOM!

White light descended abruptly.

Zhu Yuanzhang's consciousness returned to Taicheng.

"Lean closer, Minghe."

"I shall transmit the Sangqiwo Jataka Secret Technique to you, that you may command the Tiger-Skin Monk Robe and survive this tribulation."

Faci's hollow voice echoed in his ears.

In a place where Zhu Yuanzhang could not see, Faci looked at Zhu Yuanzhang, who had completely transformed into a [Deep One], a flicker of imperceptible disappointment flashing through his eyes.

"This disciple obeys."

Zhu Yuanzhang replied.

He felt his body suddenly become incomparably heavy.

It was as if he were inside a furnace.

Even his breathing had become searingly hot.

A faint, ethereal calling reached his ears.

It was the call of "home" from the endless deep sea east of Jinling.

"Minghe!"

The voice came again, still hollow, yet like a shattered great bell.

Zhu Yuanzhang shivered, and a White Bone Dharma Image seemed to appear before his eyes.

It held great extinction! Great terror!

It instantly sobered his mind, which had been drifting due to the murmurs in his ears.

"Many thanks, Zen Master Faci."

Zhu Yuanzhang pressed his palms together to thank him, his hands now webbed and covered in slick, viscous slime.

"No need; you should adapt to your new body as quickly as possible."

Looking at the hideous and terrifying creature before him, Faci felt no disgust or aversion in his eyes.

A pair of eyes glowing with green light, like ghost fires, seemed to pierce directly through this ugly skin to see the essence hidden behind it.

"Only by refining this demonic body with the Great Wisdom Zen Technique as soon as possible can you better cultivate the Sangqiwo Jataka Secret Mantra, avoid the great calamity within Taicheng, and preserve the heritage of our Tongtai Temple."

"I don't believe a word of your nonsense!"

Zhu Yuanzhang raised his eyebrows.

Yet his attitude remained respectful as he replied.

"Ever since I cultivated this demonic body, I have often heard a certain calling from the sea. It seems I must dive into the depths of the ocean to fully smelt and master this demonic form before I can use the Great Wisdom Zen Technique to dissolve it."

"...Is that so?"

Hearing Zhu Yuanzhang's ghost stories, Faci's tone fell silent for a moment.

Clearly, he had been bluffed.

After all, with the myriad methods of Buddhism, these high monks of Tongtai Temple were truly idle.

Otherwise, who would go out of their way to cultivate such Outer Path arts?

Not to mention that the prerequisite for cultivation was to master the Great Wisdom Zen Technique, a technique that went against human nature.

"Perhaps Heaven truly does not wish to cut off our Tongtai Temple... I have a passage of oral formulas here. If you recite it diligently, perhaps even in the body of a Merfolk, you will still be able to wear the tiger-skin monk's robe."

"Merfolk?"

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes flickered slightly upon hearing Faci's words.

"..."

Watching the look of confusion in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes.

Faci fell into deep thought.

He seemed to be doubting just how far the Scripture Transmission Hall of Tongtai Temple had fallen these days.

The disciple tasked with receiving the transmission did not even know such basic common knowledge.

Faci spoke slowly.

"These are the guardians under the Outer Path Demon God Dagon. They are born at sea, and there are often rumors among fishermen of wild Merfolk attacking fishing boats and coming ashore to plunder women and children."

"At this stage, your Mountain-Shrinking Fist must rely on the water veins of the four directions to make any progress."

"However, you should abandon that plan. The royal aura of the Qinhuai River is currently drifting eastward; I fear that the moment you enter the water, you would be drained into a dried corpse by this heaven-and-earth killing tribulation."