276: Return to Shenzhou
Looking at the scattered corpses before him, those exceeding a thousand zhang were already nearing complete decay, emitting a faint Immortal Lord aura.
Those exceeding ten thousand zhang were still somewhat well-preserved and had not yet rotted; the Immortal King fluctuations emanating from them were also slightly stronger.
But without exception, these Immortal Lords and Immortal Kings were dead; the aura of death's vitality was very clear.
Stepping forward, he passed through the numerous corpses. There were humanoids as well as demons; some bizarrely shaped, free-spirited monsters swam out from the hands of the rotted bodies.
Before long, he had looked over all the corpses and found himself somewhat speechless.
These corpses, totaling several hundred, included multiple Immortal King remains. This was simply unimaginable!
When exactly did these Immortal Lords and Immortal Kings die? And what caused their deaths?
In this world, does a power truly exist that can kill so many Immortal Lords and Immortal Kings?
While pondering, he suddenly raised his head, his gaze sharpening as he abruptly looked behind him.
He saw that a figure had appeared silently atop an Immortal King's corpse at some unknown point.
Platinum radiance illuminated the waters, and all the monsters born from the rotting corpses fled rapidly.
As the platinum light shone, it also illuminated the form of that figure.
Qin Jiang focused his gaze. This figure wore tattered robes, its cheeks were shriveled, and its hair had turned a withered gray.
But Qin Jiang seemed to remember something, and his pupils suddenly constricted.
Although the figure's face was shriveled and its skin had turned blue-black, one could still see from the residual clothing and skeletal outline that this person was the original of the statue at the Black Tortoise River Bottom.
Xuanwu Immortal King!
No, it should be the corpse of the Xuanwu Immortal King.
A small platinum cauldron appeared in his palm as Qin Jiang warily watched the opposite side.
Even if it was just a corpse, it was an Immortal King's corpse and needed to be handled with caution.
Time passed minute by minute. After a full fifteen minutes, the Xuanwu Immortal King's corpse had not made any movement.
Qin Jiang's eyes flickered slightly as he walked toward the other party.
As he drew closer, a strange aura was captured by his immortal sense—an aura nearly identical to that of the Nematode Creatures.
He raised an eyebrow. Could it be that when the Xuanwu Immortal King suppressed the Nematode Creature's true body back then, he was also contaminated by it?
But if that were the case, why didn't the Xuanwu Immortal King, who ascended to the heavens, remove the contamination?
Was this contamination too difficult to clear, or had he underestimated the strength of the Nematode Creature's true body? Had the Xuanwu Immortal King actually been heavily injured after suppressing it?
Therefore, it led to his defeat and death after ascending to the heavens.
Walking up close, he put away the overlord cauldron. By now, he was certain that this corpse of the Xuanwu Immortal King no longer had any self-awareness, and even the Physical Body's instinctive reactions had nearly disappeared.
Looking at the shriveled cheeks of the Xuanwu Immortal King's corpse, he thought for a moment and then took out the mass of Nematode Creatures from his spatial dimension.
After the Nine Luminaries Immortal King and the consumption of a massive amount of skeletal insects, these Nematode Creatures had been in a deep sleep, as if they had fallen into hibernation due to digestion.
But the moment he took these Nematode Creatures out of the spatial dimension, they seemed to be stimulated by something.
All the branches on their bodies split open, revealing the fangs within, as they let out a silent hiss.
In the next instant, the Xuanwu Immortal King's corpse beside Qin Jiang suddenly moved. Its blue-black palms, withered like tree branches, reached out to grab the Nematode Creatures.
Qin Jiang instinctively wanted to stop it, but he controlled himself at the last moment, quietly watching the claws of the Xuanwu Immortal King's corpse seize the Nematode Creatures.
Pfft~
The sound of air mixing with flesh being crushed and gushing out was heard. The Nematode Creatures were directly crushed into a pulp by the Xuanwu Immortal King's claws, and even the fangs were pinched to pieces.
In the next second, the Xuanwu Immortal King's corpse directly grabbed the Nematode Creatures and stuffed them into its mouth. The dancing branches of the Nematode Creatures stuck directly to the head of the corpse like a mass of nearly solidified slime.
A tooth-aching chewing sound came from the mouth of the Xuanwu Immortal King's corpse. The friction between the teeth and the Nematode Creatures sounded like two rusted iron plates scraping against each other, which was extremely piercing to the ears.
Before long, the Xuanwu Immortal King's corpse completely swallowed the Nematode Creatures. Almost at the same time, in Qin Jiang's perception, the Xuanwu Immortal King's corpse became somewhat different.
It seemed that those deathly vitalities showed signs of being reversed, but they were quickly suppressed again, returning to their original state.
After thinking for a moment, he raised his hand, and hundreds of miniature Heavenly Formations fell like frosted autumn leaves, covering the Xuanwu Immortal King's corpse.
In a short while, the Xuanwu Immortal King's corpse was submerged by the Heavenly Formations. Then, with a flash of light, the corpse transformed into a light cocoon, slowly shrinking until it was the size of a palm.
Storing the light cocoon formed by the Xuanwu Immortal King's corpse into his spatial dimension, he looked around. There seemed to be no other Immortal King corpses similar to the Xuanwu Immortal King's.
He didn't have any other plans for collecting the corpse; he just wanted to conduct an experiment.
Since consuming the Nematode Creatures could have some impact on the Xuanwu Immortal King's corpse, and even had the effect of reversing that deathly vitality,
Then, if he were to release the true body of the Nematode Creature at the Black Tortoise River Bottom, would the Xuanwu Immortal King have a chance to be resurrected?
He shook his head; he didn't know.
However, even if he didn't know, he had to try.
The Gates of Hell were about to open. If several Immortal King-level beings really ran out then, he would find it a bit difficult to handle.
Besides, even if he failed, he wouldn't lose anything.
With his current strength, he was already capable of suppressing the Nematode Creature's true body.
He looked around and didn't stay long. These corpses had been here for an unknown amount of time; the oldest ones might have fallen here during the ancient era.
Passing through the mountain range, he saw more corpses along the way. They were basically all at the Immortal Lord level, and their degree of corrosion far exceeded that of the corpses in the mountain range.
A long time later, in the pitch-black seawater, only a glimmer of platinum light illuminated the sea area.
Outside the illuminated area, countless strange fish wandered, as if coveting this sole light source.
But not a single ripple of emotion could be seen from those already whitened dead fish eyes; everything seemed to be executing some kind of program.
Time and space were distorted here. After walking an unknown distance, a strange pulling force came from all directions.
Qin Jiang extended his immortal sense, penetrating that pulling force and directly seeing the source—it was precisely where the Divine Province was located.
Without hesitation, he followed this pulling force, and his figure disappeared into the pitch-black seabed.
After his figure disappeared, massive monsters emerged from the depths of the darkness, opening their mouths to swallow the waters that still held residual platinum radiance.
The Divine Province, the end of the East Sea, the boundless Sea Abyss.
A platinum light flashed and vanished as Qin Jiang's figure appeared above the sea. He glanced at the Sea Abyss behind him and swept his immortal sense toward the Divine Province.
In an instant, a massive stream of information flooded into his mind.
The Great Xia Country had already unified the entire Divine Province. Whether it was the demon kingdoms or some powerful demon races, such as the Tiger Clan and the Dragon Clan, they all acknowledged Great Xia's status as the overlord.
For no other reason than that the current Great Xia had unified the Divine Province, and the number of True Immortal Old Ancestors in the imperial court had reached multiple figures. No force on the continent dared to contend with them.
Moreover, the strongest sea power, Dragon Island, whose number one expert—and indeed the world's number one expert—the Demon Dragon Old Ancestor, was on good terms with Great Xia.
This led to Great Xia's current status as the undisputed overlord of the Divine Province.
Having understood this, he did not linger and headed straight for Dahei Mountain, his figure disappearing over the sea surface.