Trapped in a Predicament

Nine black shadows shot upward and tangled with the little silver dragon.

Terrifying feral aura rose from the black shadows, instantly coiling around the little silver dragon.

Chu Zeming wanted to stop their fight, but after taking only two steps forward, he was forced back by the terrifying dragon's might and the baleful feral aura. He was already injured, and neither the black shadow nor the dragon was something a Golden Core cultivator could handle. Charging in now would be no different from courting death.

Chu Zeming had always been bitter over missing out on the dragon egg in the Spirit Realm Platform. He had thought his luck had finally turned this time, that perhaps he might have a chance to contract a silver dragon. But judging by the situation now, the black shadow and the silver dragon were clearly locked in a fight to the death...

The cave trembled. Watching the two black-and-white longworms entwined in battle, Chu Zeming felt as though his heart were bleeding.

Forced into a corner, Chu Zeming desperately circulated his spiritual power to protect his body. While resisting the dragon's might and feral aura, he also guarded against falling rubble and dust from the cave.

Little Black's shadow was still fighting the silver dragon.

Chu Zeming knew the black shadow had no physical form, but what surprised him was that the little silver dragon was not corporeal either. It seemed to be merely a dragon spirit.

In its scuffle with the black shadow, the little silver dragon appeared to be slightly outmatched. After an unknown length of fighting, one of the black shadow's heads bit into its dragon body. Half of the silver dragon gradually began to fade, and in the end, it struggled as it turned into a wisp of silver smoke, which the black shadow swallowed in one gulp.

The black shadow let out a satisfied belch and shrank back into Little Black's shadow.

Once the shadow behind it returned to its original appearance, Little Black went back to Chu Zeming's side and affectionately rubbed against his calf. Chu Zeming lowered his head and saw that Little Black had sprouted a fourth new head.

Chu Zeming was dumbfounded.

He crouched down, held Little Black in his palm, and examined it closely. His expression gradually turned grave.

"A dragon in exchange for half a snake. What a loss."

Little Black froze. The tip of its tail poked at its new head, as though it wanted to argue. Then, without warning, a tremendous boom rang through the cave.

Man and pet both jerked their heads up and looked toward the center of the cave. The old dragon atop the stone pillar at the center had somehow turned into a stone statue. It began cracking apart piece by piece and falling down. The moss-covered pillar broke and toppled over as well, while countless rocks crashed down from the ceiling. Already on the verge of collapse from the dragon and snake's battle, the cave finally began to cave in.

Chu Zeming was startled. He snatched up Little Black and swiftly transformed into a streak of light, dodging the falling rubble as he flew out through the widening opening overhead.

The night was at its deepest.

It was impossible to tell what hour it was.

The silver moon hung in the sky like a round disk, its bright white radiance spilling across the entire forest.

Countless lights hovered in the sky. They belonged to disciples from other sects who had remained near the forest after entering the Extreme Sea Secret Realm. At this moment, all their gazes were fixed tightly in the same direction—

There stood a sizable mountain range. From that location, terrifying divine might and spiritual pressure rippled outward, accompanied by an unknown baleful aura leaking into the air.

With such a terrifying disturbance, there was no doubt that someone had found a treasure.

Suddenly, an enormous crash rang out. The mountain collapsed with a thunderous roar, and immediately afterward, a figure shot out from within it like a meteor.

The moment their divine senses detected the person emerging from the mountain, everyone's expressions changed. They brought out secret treasures and magical artifacts, rushing toward the flying figure in unspoken accord.

That terrifying battle in the mountain just now meant going in would have been a death sentence.

They might as well wait for the person inside to get their hands on the item, then reap the fisherman's profit.

That was the cultivation world: no attempt to hide one's envy, murder for treasure, the strong devouring the weak.

The moment Chu Zeming emerged, he discovered roughly twenty divine senses rushing at him with ill intent. He turned his head for a glance, then mobilized all the spiritual power in his body and continued flying forward. Suddenly, a malicious divine sense swept toward Chu Zeming.

Caught off guard, it felt as though a sharp needle had stabbed into his mind. Chu Zeming's consciousness wavered, and he nearly plunged from the sky.

—Someone had already begun launching a sneak attack with a divine-sense technique, trying to prevent him from escaping.

Chu Zeming's expression darkened in an instant. His divine sense transformed into an incomparably sharp sword and viciously stabbed toward the divine sense trying to coil around him again.

"Aah—!"

A pained scream sounded behind him as a disciple in white fell straight down.

Chu Zeming drew the Liuguang Sword. Vast, gentle Autumn Water Sword Intent emerged, and with a single slash, an unbroken tide of terrifying killing intent swept toward the more than twenty people behind him.

While they dodged, Chu Zeming directly put away Liuguang and circulated spiritual power beneath his feet, continuing to flee for his life into the distance.

There were more than twenty of them, including four or five Golden Core cultivators, while he was a lone wolf.

Even at his peak, he might not have been their match, much less now, when he had suffered internal injuries.

Chu Zeming lowered his head and told Little Black to quickly call out the black shadow to help. But Little Black curled up in his arms as though it could not understand human speech, wearing an innocent, bewildered look. Clearly, the black shadow was not something it could summon whenever it wanted.

Chu Zeming's face darkened further.

It had eaten a dragon and grown only one head, yet it had caused him a heap of trouble and left the mess for him to clean up. Taking a deep breath, Chu Zeming suppressed the urge to throw Little Black to those cultivators crazed with lust for treasure and fled at full speed.

Chu Zeming fled quickly, and though more than twenty people madly chased and blocked him, they still failed to catch up.

Dawn was about to break. The secret realm was open for only five days in total, and they did not dare waste any more time on Chu Zeming. One by one, they dispersed.

Chu Zeming landed in a more secluded location. Only after confirming there was no one pursuing him did he finally let out a breath of relief.

He had already been exhausted, and after flying for such a long time, the moment the taut string in his heart loosened, Chu Zeming immediately went limp. He supported himself against a tree trunk, feeling both his legs tremble.

He closed his eyes and rested briefly to recover some strength. When Chu Zeming opened his eyes again, the east had begun to pale with the first light of dawn.

Only then did Chu Zeming have the chance to carefully inspect where he was.

He had spent the previous night fleeing for his life and had chosen his path in blind panic. Now, Chu Zeming had arrived in an area of the Extreme Sea Secret Realm that had never been mentioned in the original novel—countless broken stone statues stood silently across the ground, each far taller than the towering trees around them. Every statue wore a strange expression, some joyful, some furious, each in a different pose, yet all their eyes stared straight in the same direction—

Chu Zeming suddenly felt a chill run through his entire body.

Because the place those giant stone statues were watching was exactly where he stood.

He did not know what kind of place this was, but Chu Zeming had a bad feeling about it.

He spread out his divine sense to scout the way, only to find that the surroundings seemed to have been sealed by some powerful restriction. His divine sense could not penetrate it at all.

Retracting his divine sense, Chu Zeming drew a deep breath and decided to walk out himself. Yet after walking for a long time, circling around and around, he ultimately returned to where he had started—the countless stone statues were still scattered about in disarray, but the eyes on their faces had all turned in another direction.

Chu Zeming's scalp had initially gone numb, but now he was getting angry.

There was a limit to this pretentious ghost-playing!

He summoned the Liuguang Sword, and immense Sword Qi slashed viciously toward one of the stone statues.

A Golden Core cultivator's sword strike was immensely powerful. The statue was sliced apart like tofu, split down the middle and crashing to the ground. Nothing unusual happened. Chu Zeming put away the Liuguang Sword and was about to turn and leave when a chaotic fluctuation of spiritual power suddenly rose behind him.

Chu Zeming turned his head and saw that the stone statues, which had been standing silently across the land, had suddenly moved!

All the statues were moving at high speed, rapidly shifting their positions in a disorderly manner that concealed a pattern of order. Then a terrifying spiritual-power vortex appeared at the heart of the earth, swallowing the young man in black robes standing at its center with lightning speed.

The spiritual-power vortex gradually shrank and vanished. At the same time, the stone statues on the ground disappeared without a trace, replaced by a dense forest.

The wind was calm and the waves still, as though none of it had ever happened.

Occasionally, treasure-seeking cultivators passed through this place, only to hurry away again.

The sound of water dripping, "drip, drip, drip," echoed by his ears.

Chu Zeming slowly opened his eyes and struggled up from the ground.

He felt his injuries worsening, as though even the bones in his body were about to break.

The spiritual-power vortex had been far too tyrannical. Even though he had used every ounce of his strength to resist, he had still been dragged inside.

He picked up Little Black, which had been flung about until it was utterly disoriented, then raised his head to examine his surroundings.

Above him was utter darkness, with no trace of daylight. Water seeped in from some unknown place, dripping onto the ground one drop after another with soft tapping sounds.

This was an abandoned underground palace. Because of the dampness, the steps before the hall were covered in moss.

There was no exit nearby.

He was trapped here.

The surroundings were silent beyond measure. Even his own breathing could be heard with perfect clarity.

Chu Zeming's expression was grim.

What the hell were those stone statues, to suck him into this place?

Chu Zeming cautiously surveyed the area when his gaze suddenly landed on the steps.

He found something unusual—a footprint.

A fresh footprint.

It seemed someone had stepped on the moss not long ago.

Other than himself, there was someone else in here.

Chu Zeming summoned the Liuguang Sword and slowly headed toward the palace along the direction of the footprints.

After an unknown amount of time, the footprints suddenly disappeared. A broken stone gate a hundred zhang tall blocked Chu Zeming's path. Beautiful scenes were painted above the gate: colorful clouds drifting by, deer calling softly, immortals gathered together in a scene of peace and harmony. Yet the bottom of the gate was covered in grotesque humans and beasts, baring their fangs and claws, their eyes split with rage. Water seeped from the stone gate, like the streaming blood of the humans and beasts imprisoned within it.

Simply standing before the stone gate, he could already feel the intense unwillingness and resentment of the creatures painted along its bottom.

Looking at the image that resembled a living hell, an inexplicable sorrow surged through Chu Zeming's heart. He reached out, and the instant his fingertips touched the gate, the scene before his eyes abruptly changed.

The stone gate was gone.

A strange and bizarre formation appeared before Chu Zeming.

At the center of the formation sat a young man in white robes, his aura terrifying and utterly dreadful.