48: Chapter 48 The Jeweled Underwater Temple

Guanhai County.

Deep in the mountains, more than half of the black candles on the altar had burned out.

The gloomy green candlelight flickered in the night wind, casting a ghostly glow over the entire valley.

Dark red light flowed across the stone surface of the altar, like living creatures slowly crawling.

At the top of the altar, the squatting figure of the weasel was even more massive than before.

Its oily fur shimmered with an eerie golden-brown hue under the green candlelight, its back arched like a bow, and its long tail dragged on the ground.

Every breath carried a dull roar.

The children on the altar were completely silent.

Their bodies still maintained the posture they had when they were tied up and brought here.

Curled up and crowded together, they looked like a pile of casually discarded rag dolls.

But there was not a trace of color left on their faces, their skin clung shrivelously to their bones, their eye sockets were deeply sunken, and their lips were gray.

All the stolen lives had merged into the squatting figure at the top of the altar.

Huang Zu closed his eyes.

His breathing grew deeper and heavier, and every exhalation carried a bloody heat.

The muscles beneath his fur twitched frantically, his bones clicked and popped, and his already massive body continued to expand.

Cracks opened up in the fur on his back, and new fur poked out from the tears.

His face was also changing; his muzzle contracted, and his skull bulged.

The human-like yet non-human face between his brows became even clearer.

Finally, he opened his eyes.

That pair of golden pupils shone horrifyingly in the dark, their vertical slits resembling two venom-tempered blades.

He opened his mouth to reveal a mouthful of dense, sharp teeth, letting out a hiss squeezed from the depths of his chest.

"Boom—"

The entire valley trembled.

The blood-red light on the altar suddenly exploded, and a dark red radiance soared into the sky.

The unburned black candles were overturned by the shockwave, rolling onto the ground, and the gloomy green flames splattered everywhere.

Gravel from the cliff face pattered down, landing right beside the kneeling martial artists, but still no martial artist dared to move.

Huang Zu stood up from the altar.

Standing at the highest point, the long tail behind him swayed slowly, stirring up a foul wind.

That pair of golden pupils swept across the entire valley and the martial artists kneeling on the ground, the corners of his mouth slowly spreading into a grin.

He was finally no longer at the Third-Turn peak.

He had finally crossed that chasm.

He had successfully broken through to become a great demon at the early Fourth-Turn realm!

Below the altar, a crowd of human lackeys knelt on the ground.

No martial artist dared to raise their head to look straight into Huang Zu's eyes.

There was only the muffled sound of foreheads touching the ground.

"Congratulations, Lord Huang Zu, on advancing to the Fourth-Turn!"

A black-robed person kneeling at the very front spoke up.

"Congratulations, Lord Huang Zu, on advancing to the Fourth-Turn!"

The rest of the black-robed figures also chimed in with congratulations.

The voices echoed through the valley.

Standing at the top of the altar, Huang Zu listened to those voices, the corners of his mouth parting even wider.

He raised his right front paw, and the tips of his claws lit up with a gloomy green radiance in the pitch black of night.

That light was even more intense than before.

With a gentle wave, his claw tips sliced through the air, leaving behind five lingering green light trails.

Huang Zu simply could not suppress the corners of his mouth.

As early as the Third-Turn peak, he had felt that he was already invincible in Guanhai County.

And now he had successfully advanced to a Fourth-Turn monster!

From now on, Guanhai County would be his sheepfold!

Standing at the top of the altar, Huang Zu looked down condescendingly at the kneeling martial artists.

He withdrew his gaze, as if taking one more look would be superfluous.

"This deity has matters to attend to."

His voice was casual and indifferent.

Before his words fully faded, he had already leaped into the air.

That three-zhang-long massive body traced an arc across the night sky, rushing out of the canyon.

The black-robed people knelt on the altar, their foreheads pressed against the cold stone surface.

Their peripheral vision only had time to catch a golden-brown afterimage sweeping across the horizon.

After Huang Zu left the valley, the valley fell frighteningly silent, with only the embers of the burned-out black candles still emitting a gloomy green glow.

After a long time, someone finally dared to raise their head.

It was a black-robed person kneeling at the very back, who stealthily glanced up at the altar.

Huang Zu was long gone; now, only the drained, withered bones of the children remained on the altar, lying haphazardly across the cold stone surface.

...

One day.

Qin Ling was sitting cross-legged inside the shrine, browsing his own mall.

"Lord Qinling, Lord Qinling!"

The Second-Turn Clam Spirit rolled in from outside the threshold, its shell seams wide open, its tongue flailing about outside, and said excitedly in an ecstatic voice.

"The temple is built! The Underwater Temple! It's built!"

Hearing this, one of Qin Ling's avatar split-souls grabbed the still-bouncing Second-Turn Clam Spirit, and with a flash of his figure, disappeared from the temple.

Seawater rushed past his sides, and sunlight filtered down from the sea surface, drawing pillars of golden light through the deep blue.

Schools of fish were cleaved apart by the golden light, dodging in a panic.

Descending, descending further, the light shifted from bright yellow to deep blue.

They had reached the ocean floor.

Qin Ling's avatar stopped.

On the ocean floor, a small temple stood quietly.

The body of the temple was stacked with whole chunks of coral reefs, each piece polished smooth and round by the seawater, emitting a faint pink luster.

The eaves of the temple curled upward; instead of tiles, they were layered upon layered conch shells, the large ones the size of a bowl rim, the small ones the size of a fingernail.

The conch shells were densely stacked together, making a wind-chime-like sound when brushed by the undercurrent.

The temple doors were two complete seashell halves, milky white and shimmering with the unique iridescent sheen of nacre.

Inlaid across the lintel was a row of fist-sized luminous snails, emitting a glow even in broad daylight, illuminating the entire temple entrance brightly.

Not just the lintel, but even the eaves of the temple were studded with pearls.

The large ones were the size of dragon eyes, and the small ones were as thick as a finger, densely embedded one by one in the gaps of the coral reefs, between the layers of the conch shells, on the lintel of the temple door, and along both sides of the stone steps in front of the temple.

White, pink, gold, and even a few glowing with a faint purple.

They emitted light in the dim ocean floor, like tiny stars, enveloping the entire temple in a jeweled and glittering radiance.

Seeing this temple built by the Clam Spirits, Qin Ling fell silent.

Looking at it this way, the temple he had in Qin Family Village was simply too crude to look at.

"Where did so many pearls come from?"

He lowered his head to glance at the Second-Turn Clam Spirit still held in his hand.

The Clam Spirit poked its tongue out from the seam of its shell and swayed it smugly.

"These are all tributes from the little ones! Every single First-Turn Little Clam Spirit has cultivated pearls for decades. Hearing that we were building a temple for Lord Qinling, they all rushed to bring out their very best."

Guided by the Second-Turn Clam Spirit, Qin Ling entered the temple.

The coral-paved floor was as smooth as a mirror, embedded with fine broken shells and nacre.

The offering table was polished from a single piece of white coral, with crude wave patterns carved along its edges.

The pearls on the temple eaves emitted light in the dimness, sparkling like stars and illuminating the entire temple brightly.

Only the shrine behind the offering table was completely empty.

"Where is the divine statue?"

Qin Ling asked.

"Right here, Lord Qinling!"

Hearing this, the Second-Turn Clam Spirit snapped its shell open with a pop and scrambled clumsily to the front of the offering table.

It opened the seam of its shell to the maximum extent, stretching its tongue out from inside, with something resting on the tip of its tongue.

It was precisely a huge, plump, and beautiful pearl!