172: Chapter 171 Deep Sea

Yun Ming flew straight toward the deep sea.

Relying on the memories obtained from soul-searching that crustacean monster, he quickly found the waters near the Sea Demon base camp.

Without hesitation, without pausing, he retracted his Escape Light and plunged into the sea, continuously sinking deeper.

One thousand zhang, two thousand zhang, three thousand zhang.

The water pressure grew increasingly intense, and the light barrier supported by his spiritual power creaked under the strain.

All around was pitch black; sunlight had long been unable to reach this place.

He could only rely on his Divine Sense to scout the path. The range of his Divine Sense in water was much smaller than in the air, but it was sufficient.

Then, he saw light.

The light filtered up from deeper below, a faint, ghostly blue that flickered in the darkness.

He swam toward the light, the seabed beneath his feet becoming increasingly steep, as if climbing an inverted mountain. The light grew brighter and closer, and then he saw the city.

It was not a chaotic nest, but a true city.

A vast complex of buildings was constructed on the edge of the deep-sea abyss, spreading out in the ghostly blue light.

The architectural style was quite peculiar, seemingly imitating human pavilions, yet pieced together from shells and bones.

Giant whale ribs served as beams, turtle shells as tiles, clam shells as walls, and coral as pillars.

Those bones cast a ghastly white color in the ghostly blue light, while the shells emitted a warm, pearlescent glow. Although it looked rather bizarre, it had a unique charm.

The central area of the city was the brightest, with light spreading outward from there; the further out one went, the darker it became.

The closer to the center, the denser and more exquisite the buildings were.

The outskirts were much more chaotic, looking like shanties piled up at random.

The entire city was shrouded in a thin, translucent membrane, like an inverted bowl, keeping the seawater out. Light flowed across the membrane, which appeared quite resilient.

Yun Ming circulated the Fuli Heaven-Concealing Record, completely concealing his own aura.

He landed above the membrane and stepped onto it; it felt soft, like treading on a thick layer of rubber.

He tried stomping on it hard, but the membrane did not budge.

He tried piercing it with spiritual power; the membrane slightly indented and then sprang back, undamaged.

He could not get in.

He squatted on the membrane and waited for a while.

Not long after, a figure swam over from the distance. Upon reaching the membrane, the figure pressed against it, and the layer dissolved like water, allowing the figure to pass through.

It was a Clam Demon. Her figure was very thin, and while her features were delicate, she looked sickly, her face deathly pale without a trace of blood.

Her hair was plastered wetly against her face, and she wore a short shirt made of unknown Materials, revealing her thin arms and legs.

She carried a flower basket in her hand, woven from thin vines, filled with some pearls of various sizes, emitting a faint, ghostly glow.

The moment she passed through the membrane, Yun Ming followed closely against her body and slipped in.

The Fuli Heaven-Concealing Record concealed his aura completely, and the Clam Demon remained entirely unaware.

After passing through the membrane, she walked forward along a path paved with gravel.

Yun Ming followed behind her, neither too far nor too close, like a shadow.

The interior of the city was far more complex than he had imagined.

The roads were winding with numerous forks, lined with densely packed buildings of varying heights, lacking any unified planning as if they had been built at random.

Some places were spacious, while others were so cramped that only one person could pass through.

The air was filled with the salty, fishy smell of seawater, mixed with an indescribable scent of decay.

He observed the terrain as he walked.

The routes obtained from the memories of those Sea Demons were incomplete; he needed to figure out the layout here himself, at least to know where the escape routes were.

He noticed that the entire city was roughly divided into several regions, spreading from the center toward the outskirts.

The closer to the center, the more orderly the buildings and the brighter the light; he could faintly sense powerful auras coming from that direction.

The further toward the outskirts, the more dilapidated the buildings and the weaker the auras.

Large numbers of Sea Demons were stationed all around, swimming toward the water's surface in batch after batch; the procession was long, with no end in sight.

Occasionally, injured Sea Demons returned from the opposite direction, some missing arms or legs, others covered in wounds, dragged along by their companions, with screams and moans rising and falling one after another.

Yun Ming followed the Clam Demon for about the time it takes to burn an incense stick, arriving before a cluster of low houses on the outskirts of the city.

The buildings here were even more crude, mostly just a few shells pieced together to form a shed, which counted as a room.

The Clam Demon walked into one of them. Yun Ming followed to the doorway, stopped, stood to the side of the door, and looked inside.

Inside the room stood a Shrimp Soldier.

The Shrimp Soldier was significantly taller than the Clam Demon, covered in a dark red carapace, with two eyes perched atop its head, bulging high and darting around.

Its two pincers were unequal in size; the larger one was fully half the length of its body, covered in sharp spikes.

Seeing the Clam Demon enter, it slammed one pincer onto the table with a "slap."

The Clam Demon shrank her neck in fear and hurriedly handed over the flower basket.

The Shrimp Soldier looked down. Inside the basket lay a dozen or so pearls, the large ones like thumbs, the small ones like beans, their luster dim and quality mediocre.

The Shrimp Soldier waved its pincer, sweeping the flower basket to the floor, and the pearls rolled everywhere.

"How is it so few!" The Shrimp Soldier's voice was sharp and piercing, like iron scraping against stone. "Thirty! How many did you hand over? Count them yourself!"

The Clam Demon dropped to her knees with a thud, her body trembling, her voice tearful: "My Lord, I truly tried my best. The little clam spirits are still young and cannot produce that many. Tomorrow, I will definitely make up for it tomorrow..."

"Tomorrow?" The Shrimp Soldier sneered, raising its pincer and waving it over the Clam Demon's head. "The rules from above: thirty per day. For every one missing, you pay with essence blood. You clam spirits have no combat strength and cannot go to the front lines to fight, so you can only contribute to the Great Demon Lord using these pearls. That is the rule. How many are you short today?"

The Clam Demon knelt on the ground, not daring to look up, her voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz: "Fifteen..."

"Fifteen!" The Shrimp Soldier laughed heartily. "Then pay with fifteen drops of essence blood! One drop for one pearl, not a drop more or less!" As it spoke, it raised that large pincer, the tip directed toward the Clam Demon's arm.

The Clam Demon shut her eyes in fear, shivering like a sieve.

Yun Ming could not watch any longer.

He stepped into the room without any warning, without a sound, and slammed his fist into the Shrimp Soldier's head.

The Shrimp Soldier didn't even have time to scream before its head exploded, shattered shell and flesh splattering everywhere, coating the wall.

Its body swayed, then collapsed to the floor with a thud, the large pincer hitting the ground with a dull sound.

The Clam Demon opened her eyes and saw the Shrimp Soldier's corpse, her mouth agape in terror, but she could not make a sound.

She looked up and saw a young man dressed in moon-white robes standing before her, completely clean, without a single drop of blood on him.

The young man did not look at her, merely casting a glance at the several large chests behind the Shrimp Soldier.

The chests were made of shells, half a person tall, stacked in two layers.

He walked over and lifted the chest lids; they were completely filled with pearls.

The large ones were as big as fists, the small ones the size of thumbs, every one round and plump, emitting a soft glow.

He swept the contents of the chests clean, storing them all into the map of mountains and rivers.

Then he turned and walked out of the room without looking back.

The Clam Demon knelt on the ground, watching that figure disappear at the doorway, only coming to her senses after a long while.

She looked down at the Shrimp Soldier's corpse, then at the empty ground, and then scrambled up. Without screaming or calling for help, she just covered her mouth and ran stumbling toward the back of the house.

She ducked into a narrow alley behind the house, so tight that one could only pass through sideways, and vanished into the darkness.

Yun Ming stood not far away, watching the Clam Demon flee without giving chase.

She had run away without shouting or alerting anyone.

This was very smart, and it spoke volumes.

She dared not alert the Sea Demons above because she could not hand over the pearls. The Shrimp Soldier was dead, and even if she ran, she might not survive, but not running was definitely a dead end.

She chose to flee, which meant she had no attachment to this place and no loyalty to this so-called "Great Demon Lord."

She was merely afraid, merely forced to eke out a living here.

Yun Ming withdrew his gaze.

The subordinates of this Great Demon Lord were not monolithic.

These Sea Demons, including those sent to the front lines, were likely mostly forced.

They were not truly loyal to the Great Demon Lord; they only feared the Great Demon Lord's power.

They feared being punished, feared being eaten, and thus had no choice but to obey.

A rule maintained by fear would not have a very stable Foundation.

He walked forward along the increasingly narrow alley, avoiding the occasional passing patrol of Sea Demons, and crept step by step toward the center of the city.

There, the auras were stronger, the lights were brighter, and the things he was looking for were there.