Plague Rat crossed his arms, feeling the power draining from his body, and couldn't help but curse under his breath.
"Again! It's happening again! Lord Rat finally made it to the seventh-stage, and now I've been kicked right back down to the sixth-stage."
He glared at Wu Gou. "Hey, bald ass, is this bug of yours even working right?"
Wu Gou spread his hands innocently. "This is just how realm crossing works. Everyone's cultivation drops."
Plague Rat opened his mouth to retort, but his body suddenly swayed.
The sense of emptiness vanished, replaced by a sudden feeling of weightlessness.
Pop—!
The yellow bubbles burst, and Chen Zhou's feet hit the ground. He stepped onto a patch of gray-green earth.
He looked up and surveyed his surroundings.
The sky was a dull gray-green, with thick layers of clouds hanging so low that the sun was invisible.
Only a few faint glimmers of light seeped through the cracks in the clouds.
The ground was riddled with massive sores.
Each sore was dozens of yards wide, with jagged, upturned edges that continuously oozed a yellow-green pus.
The fluid flowed along the terrain, gathering into small streams that eventually vanished into the distance.
Silence reigned over the area. There were no signs of living humans, no demons, and not even a single insect.
However, between the sores, there were countless human-shaped outlines.
They were packed tightly together, covering every inch of the ground as far as the eye could see.
It looked as if people had been lying there before something had burst out from inside them.
Only their silhouettes remained.
Chen Zhou retracted his gaze and checked the death qi within his body.
From the seventh-stage third contract, he had dropped to the second contract.
He looked at the others. Everyone seemed to have dropped from the seventh-stage to the third transformation of eerification.
Diting lay listlessly on the ground, its luster gone, gasping for breath with what little strength it had left.
Wu Gou walked over and patted its head.
"You've worked hard, baby. Take a rest first."
Diting whimpered and buried its head in the dirt.
But it quickly jerked its head back up and let out a pained shriek.
Wu Gou's expression changed instantly.
"This is bad. There is something wrong with the ground."
He quickly scooped up Diting, moving it away from the earth.
Chen Zhou looked down.
The spot where Diting had just been lying, that patch of gray-green soil, was slowly writhing.
It was as if it were alive.
Wu Gou inspected Diting's body and let out a sigh of relief.
"Fortunately, it only touched it for a moment."
He looked up at Chen Zhou. "Lord, the ground of Tianchi Province is not suitable for Diting to stay on for long. It still has a body of flesh and blood; it will get infected."
Chen Zhou nodded. "Huaishuang, help it out."
Jian Huaishuang gave a soft acknowledgement. Several sheets of white paper flew out from his armor, wrapping Diting tightly.
He then walked to a slightly cleaner area and buried the large paper cocoon into the ground.
"Go on. Recover your strength first."
Diting obediently tunneled into the earth and vanished.
Jing Hui knelt on the ground and wept bitterly. This was the land he had once protected, yet he never imagined it would look like this a thousand years later.
Chen Zhou allowed him to vent his emotions; suppression was never as effective as release. He surveyed the surroundings again; the environment was indeed extremely hostile.
Plague Rat took a deep breath, smelling the familiar stench, and spoke with excitement.
"Lord, this is Tianchi Province."
"The place we're standing on now is called the Hundred Corpse Wilderness. It's basically a no man's land."
"The environment in Tianchi Province is brutal. There are very few places where living beings can survive."
"Lord Rat used to live in the Earth Dissolving Cave, which isn't too far from here."
Plague Rat pointed toward a distant direction, his eyes filled with nostalgia.
"It should be over that way. It's about three hundred miles to the north."
"Lord Rat was born there."
"The Earth Dissolving Cave is one of the few places in Tianchi Province where people can still live."
"Though I say 'live,' it's really just waiting to die."
"New plagues emerge every day, and every day, demons and monsters who can't hold out any longer get infected."
"But at least they can still breathe."
"Lord, shall we head there now? Lord Rat can lead the way!"
Chen Zhou nodded.
"Very well. Let's find a place to settle down first."
"In the meantime, we can see what the current situation in Tianchi Province is really like."
Plague Rat's eyes lit up.
He rubbed his paws together, his face full of excitement.
"Alright!"
"Lord Rat is finally home!"
"I'll show those punks just how impressive Lord Rat is now!"
Chen Zhou glanced at him.
"Don't get ahead of yourself. Recovering our strength is the priority."
Plague Rat curled his lip. "It's fine, Lord. There aren't any powerful monsters in the Earth Dissolving Cave. A sixth-stage is enough to walk with impunity."
Chen Zhou felt the death qi flowing slowly within him.
The depletion caused by crossing the realm was gradually being restored. Su Xue must have already reached the City of the Wrongfully Dead and begun the conversion.
As expected, when the logistics team was competent, those on the front lines had no worries at all.
At this rate, it would take a week at most for him to return to his peak.
The essence of an evil spirit was a cluster of death qi. As long as there was sufficient death qi, they could recover rapidly—an advantage other living beings did not possess.
"Alright, let's go."
Chen Zhou took the first step, heading in the direction Plague Rat had pointed.
Behind him, Wu Gou, Jian Huaishuang, Plague Rat, and Jing Hui followed in order.
A trail of footprints, some deep and some shallow, was left on the gray-green earth.
As soon as the footprints were made, they were swallowed by the slowly writhing soil.
It was as if no one had ever been there.
...
Meanwhile, in the City of the Wrongfully Dead.
Su Xue left Cang Che behind, dumping all the greening work onto him before practically sprinting through the city gates.
As soon as she reached the Myriad Herbs Life-Death Realm, Su Xue gave instructions to a small demonling tending to a flower bed.
"Go to Dingnai Hall and tell Yu He that I need food to replenish vitality."
The demonling nodded and scurried off.
Su Xue steadied her mind and communicated with the Myriad Herbs Life-Death Realm, beginning to convert the massive amount of vitality stored within the realm into death qi.
In Dingnai Hall.
Yu He was currently researching a new recipe.
The demonling ran in and relayed Su Xue's message.
After listening, Yu He nodded.
"Understood."
He turned and took a box from a shelf.
Inside the box were three unaging pine cones and over a dozen fragments of the Wanshou Tortoise shell.
The emerald-green pine cones were as large as fists, radiating a dense vitality.
These had grown from the unaging pine over the past few days and were personally picked and handed to him by the Lord before his departure.
The Lord hadn't given specific instructions for their use, only telling him to use them as he saw fit.
Yu He then looked toward the stove.
The Nine-Age Crane was crouching there, dozing with its eyes closed. It was dreaming that Yu He had made a new dish and was inviting it to taste it.
It almost laughed out loud in its sleep.
Yu He walked over and plucked a handful of feathers from the Nine-Age Crane.
"Screech—!"
The Nine-Age Crane let out a miserable cry and jumped up, glaring at him with fury.
Yu He comforted it softly.
"Big Sister Su Xue needs to replenish her vitality. You know this, A Ling. Your feathers can become the essence of a hundred flavors, purifying the dish's spiritual rhythm. They are the catalyst for the supreme delicacy of heaven and earth."
"Don't worry. I'll make you something delicious later. The feathers will grow back."
He tucked the feathers away and turned to begin processing the pine cones.
The Nine-Age Crane clutched the small bald patch on its belly, looking at Yu He with grief and indignation.
It was as if it were accusing him: 'You've changed! You actually plucked the feathers of your favorite crane for an outsider!'
Rate on N.U.
