Sha Wujing gasped for breath.
He bent over, bracing both hands on his knees.
The deepest claw mark across his chest ran diagonally from his right shoulder to his left ribs. Flesh curled outward, its edges whitened by sweat.
He lowered his head and looked at his hands.
All ten fingernails had fallen off. The flesh at his fingertips was mangled and smeared with blood.
He had an immortal body, after all. These flesh wounds were no great concern.
He closed his eyes, drew a deep breath, and exhaled a mouthful of stale air.
His injuries quickly stabilized.
He rested for a moment.
Then opened his eyes.
He lifted the Demon-Subduing Treasure Staff and straightened.
Raising his head, he surveyed his surroundings.
No mast.
No gunwales.
No Divine Vessel.
He stood there, his fingers slowly tightening around the staff.
Before him stretched an endless bog, black as ink.
The sludge was a bizarre, lifeless black. Not a glimmer reflected off its slowly churning surface.
A bubble swelled up from the depths, grew to the size of a fist, then burst with a pop, scattering flecks of black mud.
The bog covered the entire mountaintop.
From one edge of the cliff to the other, there was not an inch of dry ground.
Though there was no Divine Vessel here, the place was not empty.
An enormous creature stood in the bog.
A giant elephant.
An elephant as enormous as a mountain.
Sha Wujing tilted his head back, his gaze climbing along that immense, ashen body.
Its back was broad and flat.
Viewed from the side, its outline looked remarkably like an enormous overturned ship.
Sha Wujing stared at that outline, his mouth slightly open.
The giant elephant remained motionless, sunk deep in the sludge.
Mud rose over its chest and