159: Chapter 159 Incense Burns on the Whale Demon's Corpse

Qin Ling hovered inside the trench, looking up at the Green-backed Dragon coiled around the Whale Demon's corpse.

Golden light flashed in his eyes as divine power surged into his sight, allowing him to clearly see the situation inside the Green-backed Dragon's body.

There was an extremely dense evil aura inside this Green-backed Dragon!

He wasn't surprised by this, as he had already learned about it from Pei Se.

Martial artists who broke through to Fourth-Turn would be contaminated by the world's evil aura, and demons advancing to Fourth-Turn were naturally no exception.

The demons in Zhenhai Prefecture bought official positions to absorb the incense of the common people, but the demons in the sea couldn't do that.

Therefore, as a Fifth-Turn demon, it was only normal for this Green-backed Dragon to have so much evil aura inside its body.

What surprised him was the corpse of that Whale Demon.

His gaze shifted away from the Green-backed Dragon and fell upon the massive corpse.

The Whale Demon was already dead, its life force severed, but something else still lingered within its corpse—

It was incense, something Qin Ling was all too familiar with!

Qin Ling quickly realized that this Green-backed Dragon wasn't eating flesh and blood; it was consuming incense.

No wonder it wanted the corpse all to itself, no wonder it refused to let other demons draw near, and no wonder it wanted to prevent the Whale Fall.

It wasn't afraid of other demons stealing its meat; it was afraid they would steal the incense.

After all, incense could cleanse the evil aura. For the Green-backed Dragon, whose body was filled with dense evil aura, incense was its lifeline.

This was also why it was acting so madly, killing any demon that dared to draw close.

Qin Ling's eyes glittered with excitement.

This was a scene he hadn't anticipated.

Why was there incense on the Whale Demon?

Why did incense remain inside the corpse even after the Whale Demon died, to the point where the Green-backed Dragon could absorb it by devouring its flesh?

Could this be the mystical nature of a Whale Fall?

He remembered that after killing Huang Zu, he couldn't sense any incense remaining on him at all.

It seemed that after Huang Zu died, all that incense simply dissipated.

Numerous questions flashed through Qin Ling's mind.

Right at that moment, Bengbu and Mantis Shrimp returned to the cave they had previously stolen from Haishen.

Seeing Bengbu and Mantis Shrimp, Sea Turtle poked its head out of its shell, Starfish unclasped its five arms from the cave wall, and Blue Crab twitched its claws.

The three demons looked at Bengbu, who cracked open its shell slightly and spoke in a muffled voice.

"I've brought Lord Qinling's divine statue."

Sea Turtle, Starfish, and Blue Crab bowed reverently toward the statue of Lord Qinling inside Bengbu's shell.

"What happened after we left?"

Bengbu asked.

"After you left, those three Fourth-Turn demons couldn't sit still anymore,"

Blue Crab answered in a gruff voice.

"They joined forces. All three Fourth-Turn demons struck together and commanded the impatient demons in the trench to charge as well."

"Those Third-Turn, Second-Turn, and First-Turn demons all rushed forward, trying to get close to the Whale Demon's corpse or even fight the Green-backed Dragon."

Sea Turtle raised its head, its slitted pupils fixed on the Green-backed Dragon coiled around the Whale Demon's corpse above the trench, its voice trembling.

"And as you can see, the demons that charged up were easily slaughtered by the Green-backed Dragon."

"A massive number of First-Turn, Second-Turn, and Third-Turn demons died, and even those three Fourth-Turn great demons were injured."

"They were no match for the Green-backed Dragon. The Green-backed Dragon didn't pursue them only because it didn't want to leave that Whale Demon's corpse."

Listening inside the cave, Qin Ling remained silent.

Blue Crab finished speaking, and Sea Turtle finished speaking as well, but Starfish continued to chatter endlessly, adding details.

How the Third-Turn demons had charged forward, how the Second-Turn minor demons were swiped into meat paste by the dragon's tail, and how the ink spewed from Giant Squid's severed tentacle had blackened half the trench.

After listening to all this, Qin Ling knew his deduction was correct.

The Green-backed Dragon monopolized the Whale Demon's corpse not to fill its stomach, but to devour the remaining incense inside the corpse.

That was what caused the Green-backed Dragon's bizarre behavior.

The evil aura inside its body was far too heavy, slowly corroding its vitality bit by bit.

It needed incense to purify that evil aura; it needed to survive.

However, Qin Ling, who was intimately familiar with incense, knew all too well.

The incense inside the Whale Demon's corpse was still far too thin. While it could indeed purify some of the evil aura within the Green-backed Dragon, it was nowhere near enough to cleanse it all.

Qin Ling moved his gaze away from the Green-backed Dragon, which was still gnawing on the Whale Demon's corpse, and looked at the demons cowering inside the caves along the trench.

Those Third-Turn demons didn't even dare to poke their heads out, while the First-Turn and Second-Turn minor demons huddled themselves into tight balls.

Seeing the situation with these demons, Qin Ling knew he needed to make a move.

Otherwise, given the Green-backed Dragon's current behavior, the demons in this trench would either die or leave.

No demon would remain in this trench, especially with a demon-slaying Fifth-Turn Green-backed Dragon looming overhead.

Qin Ling didn't want to see such an outcome. He needed this trench, he needed those demons, and he needed their incense.

On land, Prefect Yin Wuji prevented him from expanding his jurisdiction, so he had to grip the incense in the sea even tighter.

There were over a thousand demons in this trench. If he could build a temple here, it would be almost comparable to the entirety of Guanhai County!

And if he wanted so many demons to gather in this trench long-term, the only way was to ensure the Whale Demon's corpse successfully completed its Whale Fall.

Once the Whale Fall was complete, all the demons would be able to receive the gifts of the Whale Fall for a long time to come.

And here, he was the only one capable of accomplishing this.

Qin Ling exhaled slowly and turned his eyes toward the Green-backed Dragon.

He didn't act rashly. Upon sensing that the Green-backed Dragon was no newly minted Fifth-Turn demon, he decided to empower himself first.

Qin Ling opened his status panel.

[Host: Qin Ling]

[Rank: Guanhai City God]

[Jurisdiction: Guanhai County, Pearl Reef on the East China Sea Seabed]

[Cultivation: Xiansheng Realm 45%]

[incense points: 18,540]

[Divine Spells: 10]

[Teleportation], [Exorcism], [Primary Talisman Art], [Divine Split Art], [Dream-Entering Technique], [Seven-Kill Demon-Slaying Sword], [Divine Travel Across the World], [Summoning Lightning], [Undying Divine Light], [Bountiful Harvest]

After expanding his jurisdiction to the entirety of Guanhai County, Qin Ling's rate of acquiring incense was far faster than before.

Of course, incense points were limited, while the places requiring incense points were limitless.

Therefore, Qin Ling could only dedicate his limited energy into the infinite endeavor of expanding his jurisdiction to gain incense points.

He first spent 15,000 incense points directly on boosting his cultivation.

[Cultivation: Xiansheng Realm 50%]

Seeing that 15,000 incense points only raised his cultivation by a mere 5%, Qin Ling shook his head.

Nevertheless, despite the massive cost, after reaching Fifth-Turn, every bit of increase in cultivation brought multiplied feedback.

Qin Ling could feel that the divine power within his body had become significantly more robust than before.

Is this Fifth-Turn? Every threshold passed brings a brand-new transformation.

Feeling this, Qin Ling couldn't help but feel even more wary of Prefect Yin Wuji.

Qilianshan, the vice president of the Demon Slayer Association, had mentioned before leaving that Prefect Yin Wuji's strength was at the late Fifth-Turn stage, and very close to the peak of Fifth-Turn.

He was definitely an extremely troublesome opponent!

Which was all the more reason why he needed to become stronger!