In Dire Straits

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

Terrifying feral aura rose from the black shadows, instantly binding 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 murderous feral aura. He was already injured, and neither the black shadow nor the dragon was something a Jindan Stage cultivator could handle. Charging in now would be no different from throwing his life away.

Chu Zeming had always brooded over missing out on the dragon egg at 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 from 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 long worms entwined in battle, Chu Zeming felt his heart bleed.

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

Xiao Hei's shadow was still fighting the silver dragon.

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

During its brawl with the black shadow, the little silver dragon seemed slightly inferior. After who knew how long they fought, one of the black shadow's heads bit into the dragon's body. Half the silver dragon's body gradually turned transparent, and in the end, it struggled before transforming into a wisp of silver smoke that the black shadow swallowed in one gulp.

The black shadow let out a satisfied burp and withdrew into Xiao Hei's shadow.

Once the shadow behind it returned to normal, Xiao Hei came back to Chu Zeming's side and affectionately rubbed against his calf. Chu Zeming lowered his head, only to see that Xiao Hei had grown a fourth head.

Chu Zeming stood dumbfounded.

He crouched down and held Xiao Hei in his palm, examining it closely. His expression gradually turned grave.

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

Xiao Hei froze. Its tail tip poked its new head, as though it wanted to argue, when a tremendous boom suddenly rang through the cave.

Man and pet abruptly raised their heads and looked toward the center of the cave. The old dragon atop the stone pillar had somehow turned into a stone statue. It began cracking apart piece by piece and falling down. The moss-covered stone pillar broke and collapsed with it, while countless rocks rained down from the ceiling. The cave, already on the verge of collapse from the dragon and snake's battle, finally began to cave in.

Startled, Chu Zeming grabbed Xiao Hei and swiftly transformed into a streak of light. Dodging the falling rubble, he flew out through the widening opening overhead.

The night was deep.

At this point, he no longer knew what hour it was.

The silver moon hung in the sky like a round disk, its pale radiance spilling over the entire forest.

Countless lights hovered in the sky. They belonged to disciples of other sects who had remained near the secret realm forest after entering the Extreme Sea Secret Realm. At this moment, every gaze was fixed tightly in the same direction—

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

Such a terrifying disturbance could only mean one thing: someone had found a treasure.

Suddenly, a massive roar rang out. That great mountain collapsed with a thunderous crash, and immediately afterward, a figure flew out of the mountainside like a shooting star.

The moment their divine senses detected the person emerging from the mountain, everyone's expressions changed. They brought out secret treasures and magical artifacts, then rushed toward the flying figure as though by prior agreement.

With such a terrifying battle having taken place in the mountain, going in would have meant certain death.

Better to wait until the person inside had obtained the item, then reap the fisherman's profit.

The cultivation world was like this: no one hid their envy. They killed for treasures, and the strong preyed upon the weak.

The instant Chu Zeming emerged, he discovered roughly twenty divine senses rushing at him with ill intent. He glanced back, then spurred all the spiritual power in his body and continued flying forward. Suddenly, a malicious divine sense swept toward him.

Caught off guard, it felt as though his mind had been pricked by a sharp needle. Chu Zeming's consciousness wavered, and he nearly plummeted from the sky.

—Someone had already begun using divine-sense attacks to ambush him, attempting to stop him from escaping.

Chu Zeming's face instantly darkened. His divine sense transformed into an incomparably sharp sword and viciously stabbed at the strand of divine sense attempting to coil around him again.

"Aah—!"

A pained cry came from behind him as a disciple in white fell straight down.

Chu Zeming drew the Luminous Glaze Sword. Vast, gentle Autumn Water Sword Intent emerged, and with one slash, a sweeping, terrifying killing intent struck at the twenty-odd people behind him.

While they dodged, Chu Zeming directly put away the Luminous Glaze Sword and circulated spiritual power beneath his feet, continuing his flight for his life into the distance.

There were more than twenty of them, including four or five Jindan Stage 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 Xiao Hei to quickly call out the black shadow to help. But Xiao Hei coiled in his arms as though it could not understand human speech, wearing an innocent and bewildered expression—clearly, the black shadow was not something it could summon whenever it wished.

Chu Zeming's expression darkened further.

It had eaten a dragon, grown one head, and caused him a heap of trouble, leaving the mess for him to clean up. Taking a deep breath, Chu Zeming suppressed the urge to throw Xiao Hei to those cultivators who had gone mad with greed for treasures and fled at full speed.

Chu Zeming was fast, yet more than twenty people chased and blocked him frantically without managing to catch him.

As dawn drew near, the secret realm was only open for five days in total. They did not dare waste more time on Chu Zeming, and one by one, they dispersed.

Chu Zeming landed somewhere more secluded. Only after checking and confirming that no one was pursuing him did he finally let out a breath of relief.

He was already exhausted, and after flying for so long, the moment the taut string in his heart loosened, Chu Zeming immediately wilted. Supporting himself against a tree trunk, he felt both legs trembling.

He closed his eyes and rested briefly to recover his strength. When Chu Zeming opened them again, a pale fish-belly white had begun to rise in the east.

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

He had fled for his life in blind panic last night and now found himself in an area of the Extreme Sea Secret Realm never mentioned in the original novel—countless broken stone statues stood silently across the earth, each far taller than the towering trees around them. Every statue wore a strange expression. Some were joyous, some furious, and each assumed a different posture, yet all their eyeballs stared directly 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 precisely where he stood.

He did not know what this place was, but Chu Zeming's instincts told him it was not good.

He spread out his divine sense to scout the way, only to discover that the surroundings seemed to be under some powerful restriction. His divine sense could not penetrate it at all.

Withdrawing his divine sense, Chu Zeming took a deep breath and decided to walk out himself. Yet after walking for a long time and circling around and around, he ultimately returned to where he had started—the countless boulders were still scattered in disorder, but the eyeballs on their faces had all turned in another direction.

Chu Zeming's scalp had already begun to prickle, but now he was also a little angry.

There was a limit to this ghostly pretension!

He brought out the Luminous Glaze Sword, and immense Sword Qi slashed viciously toward one of the stone statues.

A Jindan Stage cultivator's sword strike was immensely powerful. The stone statue was cut apart like tofu, split into two down the middle before crashing to the ground. Nothing unusual happened. Chu Zeming put away the Luminous Glaze Sword and was about to turn and leave when chaotic spiritual-power fluctuations suddenly came from behind him.

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

All the stone statues rapidly shifted, changing positions in a chaotic yet subtly ordered pattern. Then, a terrifying spiritual-power vortex appeared at the heart of the earth and swallowed the young man in dark 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 as well, replaced by a dense forest.

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

Occasionally, treasure-seeking cultivators passed through this place, only to leave in hurried haste.

The sound of water dripping, "drip, drip," rang beside his ears.

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

He felt that his injuries had worsened further. Even the bones in his body felt as though they were about to break.

The spiritual-power vortex had been far too tyrannical. Even though he had resisted with all his strength, he had still been dragged inside.

Picking up Xiao Hei, who had been flung so hard it was thoroughly dazed, Chu Zeming raised his head and looked around.

Above him was pitch-black 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. Due to the dampness, the steps before the hall were covered in moss.

There was no exit nearby.

He was trapped here.

The surroundings were deathly quiet. He could even hear his own breathing with perfect clarity.

Chu Zeming's expression was grim.

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

Chu Zeming cautiously surveyed the area, when his gaze suddenly fell upon the steps.

He spotted something unusual—footprints.

A fresh footprint.

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

Aside from himself, someone else was in here.

Chu Zeming summoned the Luminous Glaze Sword and slowly walked toward the palace in 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 through the sky, deer calling melodiously, immortals gathered together, a peaceful and harmonious sight. Yet the bottom of the stone gate was covered in fierce-faced humans and beasts, baring fangs and brandishing claws, their eyes split wide with rage. Water seeped from the stone gate, like the dripping blood of the humans and beasts trapped within it.

Simply standing before the stone gate, he could already feel the intense unwillingness and resentment radiating from the creatures painted at its base.

Looking at the image that resembled a living hell, an inexplicable sorrow welled up in Chu Zeming's heart. He stretched out his hand, and the instant his fingertips touched the gate, the scene before him abruptly changed.

The stone gate vanished.

A strange and bizarre formation appeared before Chu Zeming.

At the center of the formation sat a young man in white whose aura was terrifying and utterly dreadful.