The Ship's Helm

Just as the Hu Mang was about to retreat, suddenly, the mud and sand on the seabed surged up without warning, and countless pale figures emerged from the shadows at the bottom of the ship.

Thousands upon thousands of water ghosts, densely packed and layered, like termites swarming from an anthill, emerged from every crack and hole in the bottom of the ship and gathered beneath the hull.

With their pale, deformed arms supporting the bottom of the ship, their shoulders bracing the keel, and their backs supporting the gunwales, they lifted the entire massive shipwreck inch by inch from the mud and sand.

Puff, puff, puff, puff

The footsteps were continuous, like hundreds of people walking in the mud at the same time, or like a torrential rain hitting the humus-covered ground, forming a strange and oppressive rhythm in the deep sea.

The originally grayish-brown mud and sand turned into a grayish-white, ashen-like texture after being trampled by the water ghost.

After being touched by the water ghost, a layer of fine black lines appeared on the surface of the reef.

The seawater where those ghost ships passed was tinged with a faint grayish-black, as if something had dissolved in the seawater, forming a visible, winding ghost trail on the seabed.

Any marine creature that steps into this ghostly path will quickly Ghost Transformation and become one of them.

"This is... the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons?"

Back in Dachang City, when Hu Mang was chatting idly with Old Third, he remembered Old Third mentioning this.

According to the Old Third, the most terrifying aspect of the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons is not the Ghost Qi power it creates, but its ability to transform ghosts.

Once the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons takes shape, it can transform everything along its path into beings of the Underworld.

But once this "Lesser Underworld" expands to a certain extent...

Then the Ghost Haunt appeared.

Within the Ghost Haunt, a thousand-year-old ghost king is bound to be born.

That's right, in the Underworld, the egg came first, then the chicken.

"Therefore, in this Ghost Haunt, the Ghost King must be this ghost ship."

"But isn't this thing the same as the Soul-Binding Willow?"

The Hu Mang opened its Tribulation Eye and confirmed this.

A faint, grayish-white vein, coiled on the seabed, resembles a giant python, slowly writhing in the darkness.

Ghost Dragon Vein!

Moreover, it's a natural Ghost Dragon Vein!

"If this Ghost Dragon Vein were to form Ghost Haunt, what kind of monster would it be?"

Hu Mang suddenly thought of the Soul-Binding Willow had fallen into the Yin-Yang Passage before, which frantically absorbed all kinds of ghosts. The willow branches even pierced through the Ghost Haunt and hooked a thousand-year-old vengeful ghost by the neck.

Although willow trees retain ghosts, this is a characteristic of the Soul-Binding Willow.

The ghost ship scenario is probably not that exaggerated, but who knows? This is the ocean floor, where there's far more Underworld than in the Heavenly Gate.

They're really fierce!

In this situation, we are truly caught between a rock and a hard place.

Being attacked from both sides would be disastrous.

Just as Hu Mang was about to retreat, he suddenly realized something.

Wait a minute, he's wearing a security guard uniform.

He is currently in a ghost state.

What's he afraid of?

Moreover, since this ship has only just begun to form Ghost Haunt, it means that the Thousand-Year Ghost King has not yet been born.

Does this ghost ship still need a captain?

Hu Mang's heart stirred. Instead of retreating, he slowly walked forward, facing the gray-black ghost path.

Sure enough, the water monsters supporting the bottom of the boat did not react at all. They kept their heads down, backs hunched, and moved their feet mechanically, as if they did not notice that a "fellow human" was approaching.

The Hu Mang imitated their posture, hunching over and holding the ghost ship in its hands, while opening its "Yin Eye." In an instant, it seemed to completely merge into the ghost ship.

A moment later, the members of the Flood Dragon Hunting Squad appeared where the Hu Mang had just been.

The Devil-Seeking Radar in Lin Zhiying's hand had completely failed, and even shut down due to the excessive Yin Qi.

"Captain, should we go back first?" a member of the Flood Dragon Hunting Squad asked.

Lin Zhiying shook his head, inserted his finger into the seabed, and when he pulled it out, his fingertip was covered with a trace of black stain.

"This is... Tribulation Oil?"

The other person followed suit, experiencing the Spiritual Qi blocking effect of the black stain, and exclaimed in astonishment.

The Tribulation Oil, a highly condensed substance of Turbid Qi, even a tiny amount of it, can disrupt the entire flow of Law Power of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

"Our experts' judgment is correct. Once the artificial Sea Dragon Vein is opened, there is a certain probability that it will induce the eruption of Turbid Qi from the seabed, forming Turbid Dragon Vein. Only by suppressing the Turbid Dragon Vein will the Sea Dragon Vein officially take shape."

"What if the suppression fails?"

"Then the entire Thirty-Six Islands of the Eastern Sea will be polluted by the Turbid Qi, Earth Star will lose a precious natural cultivation resource," Lin Zhiying said expressionlessly.

The members of the later squads exchanged glances.

Those Demon Cultivator on the East Sea Immortal Island really thought they had gotten a huge advantage.

If the Dragon Vein development fails, the entire East Sea Archipelago might not be spared.

"The Turbid Dragon Vein on the seabed is already brewing, and it's very likely that it will give birth to some very ferocious creatures. Even if we can't capture that cunning demonic cultivator this time, we can still gather some data on the seabed."

Lin Zhiying continued, her face expressionless.

The team members exchanged glances again; they knew their captain's obsessive-compulsive disorder had flared up again.

On the other side,

Hu Mang, who joined the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, experienced a very "Underworld" feeling.

His consciousness seemed to be split into two layers.

A layer of human consciousness, clear-headed, vigilant, and ready to respond at any time.

The other layer is the collective consciousness of the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, chaotic and numb, with only one simple command repeating: move forward, lift up.

He could sense the "thoughts" of the water ghosts around him, those fragmented, unformed thoughts, which seemed to be mixed with fragments and images of their memories when they were alive.

But these distracting thoughts will soon be dispelled.

Because this ghost ship "heartbeats" every now and then.

Its "heartbeat" was transmitted through those grayish-white Ghost Qi veins to the bodies of each water ghost that supported it, like a muffled drumbeat resonating in their chests.

Then, all distracting thoughts will be swallowed up, replaced by an unprecedented sense of belonging.

Hu Mang looked down and realized that his security guard uniform was even dirtier.

Some seaweed and shell debris even appeared on the surface.

He realized that once the security guard uniform became too dirty to wear, he probably wouldn't be able to take it off anyway.

"Grandpa, didn't you even wash it first when you gave it to me? It's almost half dirty."

Moreover, Hu Mang had a feeling that the farther the "Night Parade of a Hundred Demons" went, the more serious the spread would be, whether it was the security guard uniform or the ghostly consciousness in his mind.

Take control of this ghost ship as soon as possible!

Hu Mang looked around and spotted a hole in the bottom of the boat. He grabbed it and climbed inside.

The Hu Mang flipped itself over and crawled into the hole, its feet landing on a rotten piece of ship plank with a soft creak.

Despite the numerous holes, seawater couldn't get in.

He steadied himself and looked around.

This is a typical structure of an ancient ocean-going multi-story ship. The interior of the cabin is more than ten feet high and the depth is so great that you can't see the end of it. In the darkness, you can vaguely see rows of thick wooden pillars supporting the upper deck.

The wooden pillars were covered with a thick layer of grayish-white mold, resembling hairy bones, and gleamed with a cold, eerie light in the darkness.

Most of the ship's planks beneath our feet were rotten, and in some places they had collapsed, revealing the lower cabins. We could see piles of unidentifiable debris covered in grayish-white mold.

Upon entering the cabin, the Yin Qi intensified, and each breath felt like inhaling ice crystals, chilling from the nasal cavity all the way to the depths of the lungs.

The amount of gray seaweed on the surface of the security guard uniforms has also increased visibly.

The Hu Mang's vigilance was frantically reminding him that he couldn't wander off; there were many dangerous and dirty things on the ship!

He absolutely couldn't stop those filthy things; people would die!

Hu Mang stood in the center of the cabin, closed his eyes, took a deep breath of the air mixed with musty smell and Yin Qi energy, and then suddenly opened the Eye of the Tribulation Dragon.

This time, it wasn't a superficial spying; the Hu Mang had pushed the perception of its Tribulation Eye to its limit.

In his view, the internal structure of the entire ghost ship had completely changed.

The rotten planks and grayish-white mold spots disappeared, replaced by a three-dimensional network of grayish-white Tribulation Qi —like the blood vessels and nervous system of the human body, densely distributed in every corner of the entire ship.

The Tribulation Qi varied in thickness; some were as thick as an infant's arm, running through the longitudinal keel of the entire ship; others were as thin as spider silk, spreading to every plank and every rivet.

They pulsated at an extremely slow frequency, each pulsation causing the entire ship to tremble slightly, like a sleeping giant breathing.

"This shouldn't be happening, how can there be such a strong Tribulation Qi?"

Hu Mang guessed that there might be Tribulation Qi evolving on the Ghost Dragon Vein, but he didn't expect there to be so much.

"It's even more concentrated than when we were at the Liu Household's house. What's going on?"

Hu Mang switched to Yin Eye mode again. This time, he only saw Yin Qi from all directions, as well as ghostly creatures at the core of the Yin Qi. These were mainly concentrated in the various bedrooms of the ship's cabins. There were ancient-style cultivator corpses, as well as curled-up and shriveled sea monsters, and even a few bony dragons.

"That's more like it."

The Hu Mang switched between the two eye techniques repeatedly, following the "Tribulation Qi meridian" towards the core while carefully avoiding areas with abundant Yin Qi using its Yin Eye.

Fortunately, the "Ghost King" has not yet been born, and these dangerous things are still dormant.

The Hu Mang didn't even dare to use a flashlight, for fear of stimulating these creatures.

Following the veins of Tribulation Qi, the Hu Mang finally grasped the core.

It was in the deepest part of the ship's cabin, near the stern, a thing shrouded in layers of Tribulation Qi, like a silkworm cocoon.

This mass of Tribulation Qi was about the size of a millstone, and its surface was covered with dense, grayish-white runes. These runes did not appear to have been carved by a person, but rather were formed naturally by the Tribulation Qi, layer upon layer, like the annual rings of a tree, forming a natural sealing structure.

Through the Tribulation Qi, the Hu Mang could vaguely see what was inside.

That's a ship's wheel!