chsdbacks Chapter 333 The Northern Underworld Dragon King
Chapter 333 The Northern Underworld Dragon King
Beiming is located at the northernmost edge of the primordial wilderness.
To fly from West Kunlun, one must traverse the entire Northern Continent.
Beiju Luzhou is the territory of the demon race, but the demon race has long been decimated.
Di Jun and Donghuang Taiyi led the remaining elite troops to guard the South Heavenly Gate, leaving Beiju Luzhou empty.
As Su Fan flew over the demon territory, he glanced down.
Below lay a desolate wasteland, littered with collapsed palaces and dried bloodstains.
The wind blew by, carrying a putrid smell.
Su Fan withdrew his gaze and quickened his pace.
After flying for four days and four nights, the air ahead suddenly turned cold.
It wasn't the coolness of autumn, but the cold of winter, a cold that seeped into your bones.
Frost had formed on Su Fan's eyebrows, and ice crystals clung to his eyelashes.
His breath condensed into white mist in the air, which froze into ice crystals as soon as it emerged and fell down with a whoosh.
Sun Wukong wasn't much better off.
His fur stood on end, not from fright, but from the cold.
He hunched his shoulders, clutching the golden cudgel to his chest, a thin layer of ice forming on its surface.
"This godforsaken place is colder than the Flaming Mountains."
Sun Wukong muttered something, his teeth chattering.
Su Fan didn't speak.
He flew forward, and it grew colder and colder with each flight.
The air felt like knives cutting into my face, leaving gashes.
The blood froze as soon as it seeped from the wound, sealing it completely.
After flying for another half day, a sea appeared on the horizon ahead.
The sea is vast, so vast that its boundaries are invisible.
The seawater is black, not because it's dirty, but because it's so deep that sunlight can't reach the bottom, which is why it turns black.
But the sea in the Northern Sea is not black, it is white.
It wasn't white, it was pale, like the face of a dead person.
There were no waves, no ripples, nothing at all on the sea.
The entire sea resembled a giant block of ice, yet it wasn't ice, because the seawater was still moving, moving very slowly, like a frozen snake wriggling.
Su Fan hovered above the sea, looking down at the water below.
The map Nuwa gave him flashed through his mind; the location of the White Frost Stone was at the deepest part of this sea, at the bottom of the trench.
"Great Sage, wait for me up there."
Sun Wukong shook his head: "I'll go down with you. Last time we went down to the East Sea, this time we'll go down to the Northern Sea, it's all the same."
Su Fan looked at him: "It's deeper down there than the East China Sea, and the water pressure is greater. Can you handle it?"
Sun Wukong patted his chest and said, "I, Old Sun, can handle it."
Su Fan didn't say anything more.
The two jumped into the sea.
The seawater was unbelievably cold.
Su Fan felt as if his body had been thrown into an ice cellar, and every inch of his skin was screaming in pain.
His blood was slowing down, his heartbeat was slowing down, and even his thoughts were slowing down.
He gritted his teeth and dived down.
One hundred zhang, five hundred zhang, one thousand zhang. The surroundings grew darker and darker, and the light shining down from above was filtered layer by layer by the seawater until only a faint blue light remained.
The blue light shone on Sun Wukong's golden armor, giving it an eerie cyan hue.
Three thousand zhang, five thousand zhang, eight thousand zhang.
The water pressure increased, and Su Fan felt as if something was pressing down on his body. With each foot he sank deeper, the pressure increased.
His bones were creaking, and the air in his lungs was being forced out. He gritted his teeth and continued to dive.
Ten thousand feet.
We haven't reached the seabed yet.
Nuwa's map shows that the White Frost Stone is located 30,000 zhang below the sea surface.
Su Fan took a deep breath and continued to dive down.
Fifteen thousand zhang, twenty thousand zhang, twenty-five thousand zhang.
It was completely dark all around; you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.
Only the golden light emanating from Sun Wukong cleaved through the darkness, illuminating the path ahead.
The seawater was no longer water; it was a semi-solid, viscous like paste.
It takes ten times the effort to dive one foot deeper.
Thirty thousand feet.
We've reached the seabed.
The seabed is not a plain, but a trench.
The trench is wide, so wide that you can't see either side. The trench is deep, so deep that you can't see the bottom.
The trench walls are black rocks covered with white things—not coral, not seaweed, but bones.
It was densely packed with bones—human bones, animal bones, bird bones, fish bones—piled together like mounds of earth.
Su Fan swam into the trench.
It was colder inside the trench than outside; so cold that he had lost all feeling in his body.
He looked down at his hands; they were still there, but he couldn't feel them anymore.
He moved his fingers; they moved, but he couldn't feel them moving.
After swimming for about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, a rock appeared at the bottom of the trench.
The stone was small, about a foot square, and was entirely white with silver veins on its surface.
The rocks were emitting a white light, which illuminated the entire trench.
White Frost Stone.
Su Fan swam over and reached out to grab it.
The moment my finger touched the rock, the entire trench trembled.
The tremor was so strong that Su Fan was thrown back several feet.
The rocks on both sides of the trench cracked open, and white light gushed out from the cracks.
The light falls into the water, transforming into countless shadows.
It wasn't one person, it was a group of people.
They were covered in white scales with silver edges.
Their faces were human, but the features were blurred and their appearance was indistinct. Their hands and feet were webbed, and they had fins on their backs.
Their eyes were silver with white pupils, like two dead fish eyes.
Sea people.
There were at least a hundred of them, densely packed together.
The leader of the sea creatures was a size larger than the others, and his scales were golden with silver patterns dancing on them.
His aura indicated he was at the fifth level of the Dao Realm.
The auras of other sea creatures ranged from the first to the fourth level of the Dao Realm.
More than a hundred Dao Realm experts formed a circle, trapping Su Fan and Sun Wukong in the middle.
The leading sea creature looked down at Su Fan, his silver eyes expressionless.
"Human? Fifth level of Dao Realm? You dare to steal my White Frost Stone?"
Su Fan didn't speak.
He picked up the white frost stone from the ground and stuffed it into his pocket.
The stone was icy cold to the touch, so cold that he instantly lost all feeling in his chest.
The leader of the sea creatures watched his movements, a hint of murderous intent flashing in his silver eyes.
"lay down."
Su Fan didn't let go. He pulled his hand out of his pocket, and a golden light shone from his palm.
The golden light was very faint, like a flashlight that was about to run out of power, flickering in the seawater.
The path of the corpse is reduced to its last vestige.
The leader of the sea creatures stared at the golden light, his brow furrowing slightly.
"With such meager strength, you dare to come to Beiming?"
With a wave of his hand, more than a hundred sea creatures attacked simultaneously.
Water arrows, ice spikes, and icy currents rained down on Su Fan.
Su Fan couldn't dodge it and could only take the hit head-on.
He held the golden light in his hand and slashed out with his sword.
The golden light struck the water arrow, shattering it.
It struck the ice spike, and the ice spike shattered. It struck the icy current, and the icy current was split in two. But the golden light was too weak; it shattered what was in front, and what was behind surged up again.
A jet of water pierced his left shoulder. An icicle pierced his right leg. A blast of cold air froze his left arm.
Su Fan gritted his teeth and continued to swing his knife.
One cut, two cuts, three cuts.
Each strike shattered a multitude of attacks, yet none could withstand them all.
He had more than a dozen wounds on his body, and the blood that flowed out was washed away by the sea, turning the surrounding seawater red.
Sun Wukong rushed forward, his golden cudgel sweeping across, sending five sea creatures flying.
But he was alone, facing over a hundred. He knocked five away, and ten more surged up. He knocked ten away, and twenty more surged up. He was surrounded, his golden cudgel whirling like a windmill, but there were too many sea creatures to kill them all.
As Su Fan watched Sun Wukong being surrounded and the sea creatures swarming up like ants, only one thought crossed his mind.
I can't die here.
He sheathed the golden sword and took out the Investiture of the Gods from his robes. The Investiture of the Gods unfolded, and three hundred and sixty-five golden rays shot out.
The golden light shone on the sea creatures, like needles piercing stone, unable to penetrate. The sea creatures' scales were too thick for the golden light to pass through.
A large portion of the gold lettering on the Investiture of the Gods had darkened.
Su Fan put away the Investiture of the Gods and took out the gray fragment from his pocket. The fragment glowed faintly in his palm, like a candle about to go out.
He gripped the fragment tightly, pouring all the protective energy within his body into it.
The Path of Protection surged into the fragment, and the fragment suddenly lit up. The light was so bright that it turned the entire trench golden.
But it only lit up briefly before going dark. The power within the fragment had been used up.
Su Fan felt as if his body had been hollowed out. His dantian was completely empty, devoid of any strength.
His legs buckled and he knelt on the ground.
The leader of the sea creatures swam up to him and looked down at him.
"Is that all you've got?"
Su Fan looked up at him and smiled.
"Give it a try."
The leader of the sea creatures frowned and slapped Su Fan on the head.
Just then, the seawater suddenly burst open.
It wasn't an explosion, it was a blast. The entire trench's seawater seemed to have been overturned by something, surging upwards from the bottom, reaching the surface, and bursting into the sky.
Huge waves surged across the sea, crashing against the shore of Beiming and shattering the rocks.
Su Fan was swept up by the seawater and propelled upwards. He felt like a leaf being carried upwards by a gale.
He couldn't see anything around him, only hear the roaring sea, the cracking rocks, and the screams of the sea creatures.
He burst out of the sea.
The seawater tossed him into the air, where he tumbled more than a dozen times before crashing onto a hard, solid surface.
He lay on the ground, panting heavily. Seawater flowed down his body, onto the ground, and froze.
Sun Wukong landed beside him, his golden cudgel planted firmly on the ground, panting heavily. His golden armor was covered in cracks, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
"What's going on?" Sun Wukong asked.
Su Fan shook his head. He didn't know. He struggled to his feet and looked down at the surface of the Northern Sea.
The sea has changed.
No longer was there a calm, pale expanse, but rather raging, towering waves. One wave after another, each a thousand feet high, crashed against the shores of the Northern Sea, shattering the rocks piece by piece.
Countless whirlpools appeared on the sea surface, each whirlpool being hundreds of miles wide, and white light surged from within them.
The sea creatures rushed out of the sea, but they weren't chasing him. They were running, running desperately, as if being chased by something.
Those who were slow were swept into the vortex and disappeared before they could even scream.
The leader of the sea creatures charged ahead, half of his golden scales shattered, and silver blood flowed from his wounds, dripping onto the sea surface and turning the water silver.
He saw Su Fan, his silver eyes filled with fear.
"What...what did you do?"
Su Fan looked at him: "I didn't do anything."
The leader of the sea creatures opened his mouth, as if to say something. But before he could utter a word, the sea suddenly split open.
It wasn't that the seawater parted, but that the sea surface cracked open. It was as if an invisible knife had cleaved down from the sky, splitting the entire surface of the Northern Sea in two. The seawater surged to both sides, revealing the seabed.
The seabed is a huge trench, from which white light surges.
The light grew brighter and stronger. Finally, the light exploded.
The moment the light exploded, a figure burst out of the trench. The figure was so large that Su Fan couldn't see its entirety.
He could only see white scales, silver patterns, and a pair of eyes.
Those eyes were golden, with white pupils, like two suns.
When the sea creatures saw those eyes, they all knelt. They knelt on the sea, in the water, and on the rocks.
Of the more than one hundred Dao Realm cultivators, not one stood. Their bodies trembled, their scales quivered, and their lips quivered.
"Dragon... Dragon King..."
The leader of the sea creatures lay prone on the surface of the water, not daring to lift his head.
The figure emerged from the light.
It is a dragon.
The dragon was enormous, so large that Su Fan couldn't see its head or tail. Its entire body was covered in white scales with golden edges, and each scale was as large as a door panel.
Its eyes are golden, with white pupils like two lamps. Its horns are silver, branching into nine forks, each a hundred feet long. Its whiskers are black, like two black dragons, fluttering in the wind.
Ice dragon.
Its aura indicates it is at the sixth level of the Dao Realm.
Su Fan's heart sank to the bottom.
The Ice Dragon looked down at the sea creatures, its golden eyes expressionless.
"How long have I been asleep?"
The leader of the sea creatures lay prone on the surface of the water, his voice trembling: "Thirty...thirty thousand years..."
Ice Dragon paused for a moment.
"Thirty thousand years. I slept for a full thirty thousand years."
It raised its head and looked at the sky. The sky was gray, not the gray of the Chaos Realm, but the gray unique to the Northern Sea. Gray sky, gray sea, gray wind.
"Thirty thousand years ago, Nuwa mended the sky. I was severely injured and sank into the Northern Sea Trench, where I have slumbered ever since. Thirty thousand years later, I have awakened."
It lowered its head and looked at Su Fan.
Su Fan stood on the shore, covered in wounds and bleeding profusely. His clothes were torn to shreds, and his chest, left shoulder, right leg, and back were all covered in wounds.
His ten fingernails were gone, the soles of his feet were scalded, and the skin on his chest was charred by the red flint. He stood there like a withered tree about to break.
Ice Dragon looked at him, a hint of surprise flashing in its golden eyes.
"Human? Fifth level of Dao Realm? Did you awaken me?"
Su Fan remained silent. He didn't know how he had awakened the Ice Dragon.
It could be the path of corpses, it could be the Investiture of the Gods, it could be the path of protection, or it could be nothing at all, just a coincidence.
The ice dragon stared at him for a long time.
"You possess three paths: the path of Pangu, the path of the corpse, and the path of Nuwa. These three paths are the same path: the path of protection."
Su Fan was startled. The Ice Dragon immediately saw the three Daos within him.
It is stronger than the Fire Phoenix, stronger than Lu Wu, and stronger than everything he has ever seen in the Chaos Realm.
The Ice Dragon continued, "You embody these three paths in one; are you trying to mend the heavens?"
Su Fan nodded.
Ice Dragon paused for a moment.
"Thirty thousand years ago, Nuwa mended the sky. I helped her. Now, you want to mend the sky. I can help you too."
Su Fan was stunned.
The Ice Dragon looked at him: "But there's one condition."
Su Fan asked, "What are the conditions?"
The Ice Dragon lowered its head, its golden eyes fixed on Su Fan's eyes.
"I have been asleep for thirty thousand years, and my body has not yet recovered. I need the Five-Colored Stone to repair it. After you refine the Five-Colored Stone, give me one. I only need one, not many."
Su Fan fell silent. The five-colored stones were used to mend the sky; not a single one could be missing.
But when he looked into the Ice Dragon's eyes, those golden eyes held no greed, no deceit, only weariness.
"Okay," Su Fan said.
The ice dragon nodded, opened its mouth, and spat out a stone. The stone was small, about a foot square, and was entirely white with silver patterns on its surface.
The stone was emitting a white light, which illuminated the entire sky.
White Frost Stone.
Su Fan reached out and took the white frost stone. The stone was icy cold to the touch, so cold that his palm instantly went numb. He stuffed the stone into his robes; he already had four stones in his robes.
Jadeite, Firestone, Yellow Essence Stone, and White Frost Stone—four stones squeezed together—emitted four different kinds of light, shining through his clothes and illuminating his chest in a kaleidoscope of colors.
Bingchi watched him put the stone away, a complex emotion flashing in his golden eyes.
"The Five-Colored Stone is missing its final piece. The Obsidian is in the Netherworld. It's even more dangerous there than the Northern Underworld. The Ghost Emperor is at the peak of the sixth level of the Dao Realm, stronger than me."
Su Fan nodded: "I know."
Ice Dragon paused for a moment.
"I'll see you off on your journey."
It opened its mouth and exhaled a breath of white, cold air.
The cold air enveloped Su Fan and Sun Wukong, rolled them up, and flew them into the sky.
The cold air flew so fast that Su Fan couldn't see his surroundings clearly.
He only heard the wind whistling in his ears and felt the cold air carrying him upwards. After flying for about half an hour, the cold air stopped.
Su Fan landed on a desolate plain. There was nothing on the plain except for a door.
The gate was black, ten thousand feet high, and five thousand feet wide.
The door was engraved with two words: Netherworld.
The strokes of the characters were very deep, so deep that they seemed to be carving through the door panel. Black mist welled up from the crack in the door; the mist was so cold that Su Fan shivered.
Sun Wukong landed beside him, looking at the door with a grim expression.
"Kid, something's not right with this door."
Su Fan didn't speak. He walked to the door and reached out to push it open.
The door opened.