First Encounter with a Sky Demon

Nan Zhi thought for a moment, and an idea came to mind:

“I still want to try. Please give me a jade token.”

In the memories left behind by the Locust God, the fall of the North Province had begun in the mortal realm. Five hundred years later, the Wuwang Sea had churned with unrest, and countless trillions of hungry ghosts and Sky Demons from the source of the black mist had surged ashore, slaughtering the twelve nations of the four directions.

From then on, the North Province was no more. The once-sacred lands of spiritual cultivation were reduced to scorched earth, dominated by massive demon kingdoms.

“Some people just can't be saved from their own folly!”

Seeing that she could not be dissuaded, the cultivator let out a sigh, casually grabbed a jade token, and tossed it to her.

“Killing one hungry ghost gets you one low grade spirit stone. If you obtain the corpse of a demon beast, regardless of its type, as long as you can bring it up, our Wuwei Sect will purchase it at market price. Just pick any Vermilion Bird Lock, tie yourself to it, and jump down. This chain is made of South Sea black dark iron; even if your bones shatter, this chain will not break. If you run out of strength and cannot hold on, grit your teeth and cling to the chain—there might still be a path to survival. Also, keep this jade token on you. Once the light on it fades, climb back up as soon as possible, lest you run out of spiritual energy and die down there.”

“A single hungry ghost is only worth one low grade spirit stone. This really is hard-earned money.”

Nan Zhi took the jade token and examined it closely, finding that formations were carved on both sides, likely used for tracking time and count.

“Fellow Daoist, you still haven't mentioned what the price is if I kill a Sky Demon.”

“A Sky Demon?”

The cultivator was amused upon hearing this. He exchanged a glance with his fellow disciples sitting nearby, and the group burst into laughter.

“Those things dwell deep in the Wuwang Sea and cannot climb up. Even if a rare few bypass the formation and you happen to run into one, how could a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator like you talk so big about slaying a Sky Demon instead of thinking about how to save your own life?”

“I am afraid you do not understand the power of a Sky Demon, fellow Daoist. Although it has the word 'demon' in its name, it is neither demon nor beast, neither spirit nor monster. Ordinary techniques cannot harm it at all.”

“Exactly. Those things are incredibly troublesome. They devour pills when they find them and swallow formations when they encounter them. They can even gnaw through dharma treasures and flying swords.”

Someone smiled and comforted her, “But you need not worry, fellow Daoist. We have a sect ancestor guarding the Splendid Platform, and the grandmasters of our formation lineage have laid out the Map of the Heavenly Net on the ship. Sky Demons generally cannot get close to the hull.”

Nan Zhi knew very little about Sky Demons, and the memories of the Locust God were fragmented and blurry, offering no real clues.

—The prompt given by the system was that as long as she collected forty-nine secret realm fragments in the real world, she could rewrite the collapse of the Four Provinces Continent.

But as for why the Four Provinces Continent would collapse, Nan Zhi had never been able to find the reason.

She had a premonition that her trip to the Rakshasa Sea Market this time might unravel this mystery.

...

Following the directions of the Wuwei Sect cultivator, Nan Zhi unfastened a length of iron chain from a vacant Vermilion Bird Lock and secured it around her waist.

Beneath each Vermilion Bird Lock was an iron wheel. If the hanging black iron chain remained still for too long, a Wuwei Sect disciple would come over to check and pull the Vermilion Bird Lock back up.

“Sigh, another one gone.”

—A yellow-robed cultivator turned an iron wheel. At the end of the long black iron chain, only a bloody half of a corpse was attached, looking like the remains of an Alligator Dragon.

Seeing this, the people nearby grew hesitant. Staring down into the dark expanse, they wavered, not daring to leap.

Nan Zhi also cast a glance down, but then she leapt, her entire body riding the wind as she plunged straight into the abyss!

The wind was incredibly fast!

During her rapid descent, the stinging clouds and mist turned into steel needles, pricking her face in dense succession. The iron chain clanked behind her, and with a sudden splash, she had clearly reached the bottom!

If one did not control the force well, they could easily be snapped in half by the iron chain!

“Ah!”

Several screams echoed through the mist.

Nan Zhi did not panic at all. Keeping her eyes straight ahead, she ran rapidly along the hull as if walking on flat ground. Just as she was about to reach the bottom, she twisted her waist, rode the wind upward, and landed steadily on a small protrusion on the ship's underside that was barely large enough for a single person to stand on!

Only then did she begin to observe her surroundings.

Black mist filled the air.

The surface of the sea was completely obscured.

Unlike the fresh and damp white fog, this black mist had no physical form. It was more like a sticky, soft shadow draped over the sea.

Boundless and endless.

And on the underside of the ship, dense crowds of hungry ghosts were indeed crawling upward. Screaming and howling with hideous countenances, they huddled together like barnacles clinging to the hull.

These hungry ghosts came from the sea. Wherever the black mist drifted, these pitch-black creatures clung tightly to the bottom of the ship like leeches.

The hungry ghosts possessed no capacity for thought, only burying their heads to gnaw on the wooden planks. Yet, despite gnawing for a long time, they could not even scratch the outer surface of the hull.

Suddenly, they caught the scent of a living person. Naturally, they immediately turned around and crawled toward Nan Zhi—

“Ugh...”

“Roar!”

“Go!”

Nan Zhi unleashed a Fire Curse. The basketball-sized fireball split into three, turning into three sparks that slammed into the crowd of hungry ghosts. Instantly, several hungry ghosts were struck, struggling as they fell back into the black mist.

Nan Zhi waited patiently for a long time, but she never heard the sound of the hungry ghosts hitting the sea. Filled with doubt, she also felt that the circulation of her spiritual energy had become slightly sluggish—

—just like high computer latency, like gaming with a 460ms ping, channeling her internal spiritual energy within this black mist was somewhat difficult.

Fortunately, her wind-riding did not rely on the spiritual energy of her sea of qi, which saved her a great deal of effort.

While clearing the hungry ghosts beneath the ship, Nan Zhi pondered the peculiarities of this black mist, completely unaware that the light on her jade token was gradually fading—

The iron chain began to turn, and Nan Zhi felt a massive force pulling her upward. However, wanting to observe a bit longer, she pulled out the Fish-Dragon Guillotine and struck the chain to signal them.

Sure enough, the sound of the pulling chain came to an abrupt halt.

...

“Logically speaking, hungry ghosts are evil spirits transformed from people who committed numerous misdeeds during their lifetimes. They should be active in the Underworld. How could they appear near the Wuwang Sea?

And this black mist—why can it interfere with the circulation of spiritual energy? Could it be related to the great disaster of the Wuwang Sea five hundred years later?”

Nan Zhi stroked her chin, lost in thought. Suddenly, her gaze sharpened, and she stared directly at a certain spot within the black mist.

That damn, familiar fragrance.

It was back.

She had smelled this scent on Huiyuan before.

It had been particularly strong on the locust corpse, Ma San.

A rich, dense aroma interwoven with all kinds of different fragrances.

Now, it had appeared here again, in the middle of the boundless Wuwang Sea, tens of thousands of feet in the air.

Without so much as blinking, Nan Zhi stared intently at that patch of black mist.

The flying boat sped forward as the wind howled.

The fragrance drew closer and closer.

Yet there was no change in their surroundings, and even her divine sense could not detect anything.

Nan Zhi suddenly surged forward, riding the wind beneath her feet as she slashed down fiercely with her Fish-Dragon Guillotine. A spray of black liquid erupted from thin air!

“Ha!”

From the shadows of the void, a ten-foot-tall black humanoid monster emerged, completely different from a hungry ghost—

It had a human-like body but an exceptionally large head, with a face only the size of a palm. Aside from a pair of hollow, emotionless white eyes, it had no other facial features.

That fragrance was emanating precisely from its body.

It was very similar to a hungry ghost.

But this thing feared pain, possessed intelligence, and knew how to dodge.

【Low level Sky Demon (Zhemu): Level 10】

“What on earth is this? It only has a Qi Refinement cultivation, yet it could actually evade my divine sense?”

Nan Zhi slashed down forcefully with her long blade, but there was no sensation of cutting through flesh at all. Instead, it felt like hacking into a giant block of modeling clay.

A series of sharp, hissing sounds rang out from the edge of the Fish-Dragon Guillotine. Shocked, Nan Zhi immediately withdrew her blade, only to find that in just this short moment, the tip of the blade had been corroded and dulled!

Damn it!

This blade was worth eighteen fecal stones!

Flying into a rage, Nan Zhi swapped her blade for her fist, throwing a punch straight at the monster's head—

Fortunately, this thing was not immortal. With its head shattered, its body instantly lost all strength and went limp, falling downward.

Nan Zhi reached out to grab it, intending to put it into her storage bag, but she felt a distinct layer of resistance.

What kind of bizarre creature was a Sky Demon anyway?!

She widened her eyes.