Death qi was similar to spiritual energy; although it was more domineering and irrational, it was essentially another form of energy.
As long as it wasn't being produced continuously, it would slowly dissipate and return to the cycle of the world under long-term freezing, rather than accumulating indefinitely.
Chen Zhou's perception continued to descend.
Deep within the layers of ice, there were clusters of black material.
The black spots were completely different from death qi.
Suppressed by the cold, they had merely lost a bit of their activity and became sluggish.
However, the black spots did not dissipate or disintegrate.
Instead, they were like venomous snakes in hibernation, slowly moving, devouring each other, and merging within the ice.
Even when frozen, they still radiated a kind of wicked vitality.
"Stand back."
Chen Zhou gave a calm instruction.
The Sea Emperor was taken aback, but immediately feeling the terrifying aura surging from Chen Zhou, he hurried back.
Chen Zhou expanded his ghost domain, directly enveloping the entire frozen sea eye.
Then, controlling the defiled earth, he violently crushed the frozen seal that the Sea Emperor had worked so hard to maintain.
"My Lord?!" The Sea Emperor was pale with shock; this was a seal!
But in the next second, he shut his mouth.
As the ice layer shattered, the black spots that had accumulated for a hundred years erupted instantly.
A wave of malicious fluctuations radiated from the depths of the sea eye.
Countless black spots merged together, instantly transforming into a monster as massive as a mountain.
The black spot monster was like a mass of flowing sludge, covered in countless distorted human and beast faces, emitting a stench that reached the heavens.
This was a century's worth of accumulated disease.
The moment it broke the seal, it tried to spread frantically in all directions, attempting to flow into the earth.
But Chen Zhou would not give it the chance; within the ghost domain, he was the sovereign.
Countless bone spikes emerged from the void, instantly piercing through the monster's body and locking it firmly in mid-air.
【Hate Prison】.
The Hatred Fire burning on the bone spikes began to incinerate the monster's body wildly.
The monster struggled and writhed, trying to extinguish the flames on its body.
Chen Zhou pointed a finger out.
【Withering Venom】
Layers of toxins were injected into the monster's body through the bone spikes.
With the eruption of venomous divinity, the monster's body, which had been regenerating, instantly withered and decayed.
Finally, the ghost domain crushed down.
The defiled earth, carrying defiled divinity, transformed into a grinding stone, slowly crushing the monster into nothingness.
The confinement of Chen Zhou's Hate Prison, the burning of the Hatred Fire, the superimposed corrosion of the venom, and the physical crushing of the ghost domain.
Under the blessing of triple divinity, it took only a short moment for the black spot monster to be completely erased into nonexistence.
The Sea Emperor watched from the side, slack-jawed and trembling all over.
Too strong.
The nightmare that had plagued him for a thousand years was as simple as crushing an ant in the hands of the Dragon Ancestor.
Having dealt with the monster, Chen Zhou's gaze fell upon the exposed spring at the bottom of the abyss.
There, small wisps of black spots were still continuously emerging along with the water flow.
Though faint, the flow was unending.
"So that's how it is."
Chen Zhou withdrew his ghost domain, his expression somewhat grave.
"The source of the black spots is not the sea eye."
"The sea eye doesn't produce black spots; it's merely nature's porter."
"It is bringing the pollution from other regions of Gloomlight Province through the underground water system to the Eastern Region."
Hearing this, the Sea Emperor felt as if struck by lightning.
"What?"
"I thought it was because there was too much filth frozen for tens of thousands of years, and the concentration of foul qi was so high that it mutated into that black spot monster."
"It actually... actually came from somewhere else?"
"My Eastern Region has actually suffered an unwarranted calamity?"
The Sea Emperor was both furious and aggrieved.
It was like keeping your own house clean, only for your neighbor to dump trash into your yard every day until your house was buried.
Yet there was no way around it; the ocean was the ultimate gathering place where all rivers met. Being downstream meant enduring everything from upstream.
"But..."
The Sea Emperor frowned in thought, "Which region exactly are these black spots coming from?"
"Could it be the Northern Region?"
The Sea Emperor analyzed, "A while ago, I noticed that the underground water flowing from the Northern Region surged, and it was very pure. Normally, the water level of a spring wouldn't change so drastically unless a world-shaking change occurred over there."
Chen Zhou glanced at him and said softly, "No."
"The Northern Region is my territory. It is very clean now."
The Sea Emperor gasped, "Lo—Lord Dragon Ancestor?"
"You have even taken that frozen wasteland of death into your grasp?"
Although he knew the Dragon Ancestor possessed vast supernatural powers, the Northern Region was a notorious land of death. Its environment was so harsh that even demons were unwilling to go there.
His Lord was truly his Lord; not only had he returned, but he had also casually conquered a domain!
Regaining his composure, the Sea Emperor suggested, "Then it must be the Southern Region!"
"The Southern Region is full of poisonous miasma, with the most snakes, insects, rats, and ants—and the most filth."
"That Thousand-Eyed Toad Saint is no good either; it must be his doing!"
Chen Zhou shook his head again. "No."
"The Southern Region is also my territory now."
"Besides, the newly built Golden Chicken Mountain is guarded by Poison-Wing's sister."
"Development there has been excellent lately, with massive construction underway, and I haven't heard any news of anomalies."
The Sea Emperor: "..."
The Sea Emperor was already numb.
So in the entire Gloomlight Province, except for this Eastern Region and the provincial capital, everywhere else belonged to the Dragon Ancestor?
Was the Dragon Ancestor the 'Lord of Two Domains' that had been rumored so widely lately?
Then what on earth was I worrying about?
Chen Zhou was unaware of the Sea Emperor's mental state as he fell into contemplation.
Based on his current intelligence, the only places where black spots had been found were the provincial capital and the Western Region.
And since the provincial capital bordered the Eastern Region, the black spots followed the water flow.
Underground rivers flowed from west to east, so the source was likely in the Western Region.
"Something went wrong in the Western Region, causing the black spots to follow the underground rivers down, first polluting the provincial capital's underground, and finally gathering in the Eastern Region."
If the problem were in the provincial capital, the downstream black spots could pollute the upstream Western Region, but they would also likely flow against the current to pollute the Northern and Southern regions as well.
But since the Northern and Southern regions were fine, only this one line had a problem.
The clues were very clear.
Chen Zhou asked the Sea Emperor, "Do you know what's happening in the Western Region?"
Hearing the Dragon Ancestor's question, the Sea Emperor racked his brain for memories.
"I am not very clear on the matters of the Western Region."
"The Sea Race is relatively xenophobic, only accepting sea demons and human relatives. We often lock our borders, so our information is limited, and we know very little of mainland affairs."
"And the Western Region is even more closed off than the Eastern Region."
The Sea Emperor tried hard to remember. "Since I took the throne as Sea Emperor, in all these thousands of years, I have never seen the Yellow Spring Crossing of the Western Region open."
"The people there don't come out, and outsiders can't go in."
"The ancient texts left by my ancestors also have very little description of the Western Region, only saying that it is a place of exile inhabited by the Grave-keeper clan."
Grave-keepers?
Chen Zhou remembered what Piao had said—that she had seen countless graves in the Western Region, and just before she died, she had caught a glimpse of a figure carrying a coffin.
Guarding graves?
Rate on N.U.
