novelapdf Chapter 94 Searching for the Soul and Seizing the Map
Chapter 94 Searching for the Soul and Seizing the Map
The lower deck was dimly lit, with only a few fluorite lamps embedded in the ship's walls emitting a pale glow that reflected the blood and mangled limbs scattered on the floor. A strong smell of rust permeated the air, the distinctive odor of blood mixed with seawater.
At the top of the stairs, the two surviving Black Shark Gang henchmen were terrified. Seeing their usually arrogant boss, who possessed the cultivation level of the eighth level of Qi Refining, lying like a dead dog at the feet of that ruthless star, with his head even pierced through, their legs went weak, and they both knelt down in the puddle with a "plop".
"Senior...Senior, spare me! Senior, spare me!"
One of the henchmen kowtowed so loudly it shook the heavens, splashing up a spray of filthy water. His voice was choked with sobs: "We were forced into this Black Shark Gang by circumstances. We were just trying to make a living, and we never intended to offend your might, senior! If you're willing to spare our lowly lives, we're willing to offer our souls and blood, and serve you as your slaves for life!"
Seeing this, the other person also realized what was happening and hurriedly kowtowed and begged for mercy, swearing oaths and praying for that sliver of hope.
Gu An stood beside the corpse, the tattered leather armor still dripping water. He slowly pulled the broken sword from the one-eyed man's eye socket, casually wiped the bloodstains on the clothes beside him, and his deathly gray eyes coldly swept over the two men.
Slaves to souls and blood?
In his prime, taking two mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators as cannon fodder to scout ahead wouldn't be a problem. But now, he's barely able to protect himself, his spiritual energy is depleted. If he were to forcibly place a restriction, it would not only consume his divine sense, but there's also no guarantee that these two local bullies wouldn't turn on him at a crucial moment.
In this chaotic sea of stars, loyalty is the least valuable thing.
"Can you sail a boat?"
Gu An's gaze fell on the henchman on the left, who was slightly thinner and whose hands were covered in calluses.
"Yes! Yes! I'm the helmsman on this ship. I can navigate this 'Abandoned Bones Beach' waterway with my eyes closed!" The skinny henchman shouted eagerly, as if he had been granted a pardon.
"very good."
Gu An nodded slightly.
The next moment, a cold glint flashed in his hand.
"laugh!"
A soft sound.
The burly henchman who was still kowtowing didn't even have time to react before his head rolled into the water. The headless corpse twitched twice and then collapsed limply.
"senior?!"
The remaining helmsman was terrified, collapsing limply in the water, his crotch instantly soaked and emitting a foul odor.
"Too many people, too noisy."
Gu An's voice was indifferent, as if he had merely swatted a fly. He carried the broken sword and walked step by step toward the helmsman, his footsteps sounding particularly heavy in the flooded hold.
"I don't have time to waste with you, nor do I have the energy to test your loyalty."
Gu An walked up to the helmsman, looking down at him with eyes devoid of any emotion, only a chilling calmness. "Look me in the eyes."
The helmsman instinctively looked up.
In that instant, a faint green light suddenly shone from the depths of Gu An's originally deathly gray pupils.
He suddenly reached out his left hand and grabbed the helmsman's skull!
"Soul Search!"
This is not some profound soul-searching technique, but a rudimentary method that Gu An learned from a broken jade slip in the storage bag of the two Corpse Puppet Sect disciples when he was interrogating them—the "Spirit-Strengthening Mind-Capturing Technique".
This technique is extremely ruthless. The practitioner must forcibly insert their divine sense into the recipient's sea of consciousness, violently rummaging through their memories. The process is extremely painful, and the recipient often becomes an idiot or suffers brain death afterward.
But Gu An didn't care.
"ah--!!!"
The helmsman let out an extremely shrill scream, his eyes rolled back instantly, blood gushed from the corners of his eyes, and his body convulsed violently as if he had been electrocuted.
Gu An remained expressionless, enduring the chaos and madness emanating from the other's sea of consciousness, forcibly searching for the information he wanted among those fragmented memories.
Naval charts... Distribution of influence... Patrol patterns...
A jumble of images flooded Gu An's mind.
This sea area is called "Abandoned Bone Beach". It is the slum on the edge of the Chaotic Star Sea and also the hunting ground of the Black Shark Gang.
This ship is the Black Shark Gang's third patrol boat, and it has to return to its base to report every three days.
There is a place nearby called "Chaotic Reef Forest," with complex terrain and treacherous currents, making it an ideal hiding place after a murder and robbery...
About ten breaths later.
Gu An felt a sharp pain in his mind, a warning that his spiritual energy was about to be exhausted.
He let go.
The helmsman had long since stopped screaming, drool dripping from the corner of his mouth, his eyes glazed over, and he slumped limply into the water, clearly having lost all his senses.
"The chaotic reef forest... thirty miles southeast..."
Gu An muttered to himself, processing the information he had just received.
Then, without even glancing at the idiot, he exerted force and snapped the man's neck with a clean and decisive "crack".
Weeds and roots.
After doing all this, Gu An did not stop.
Despite the excruciating pain, he swiftly dragged all the corpses in the hold, including the one-eyed man at the eighth level of Qi Refining, to the dump chute at the stern.
"Thump, thump..."
Corpses were thrown into the dark sea.
A few breaths later, the sounds of tearing and churning water came from underwater. The carrion-eating fish that had been lingering nearby would help him clean up the last traces.
After disposing of the body, Gu An rinsed the bloodstains in the hold with seawater, then dragged his injured leg and climbed onto the deck.
At this moment, the Black Shark was taking on water in its bilge, causing its waterline to deepen considerably and the ship to list slightly.
Gu An arrived at the bridge and, based on the memories he had just obtained through the soul search, somewhat awkwardly cast a few spells to activate the ship's control array.
"Buzz—"
The bone boat emitted a low hum, its bony fins on both sides slowly gliding, cutting through the black waves, turning its bow, and heading towards the deeper darkness in the southeast.
……
Half an hour later.
The Black Shark veered erratically into a body of water riddled with jagged rocks.
Everywhere you look, there are black reefs protruding from the water, each with a different shape, resembling a ghost. The underwater currents are swift and turbulent; without someone familiar with the nautical charts to guide you, even a Foundation Establishment cultivator's spirit boat could easily run aground here.
Gu An carefully maneuvered the bone boat and stopped behind a huge, skull-shaped reef.
Surrounded by rocks on three sides, with an extended rock wall overhead to block the view, this place is a natural haven.
"call……"
After confirming that it was temporarily safe, Gu An's tense nerves finally relaxed a little.
He leaned back against the dashboard, feeling as if his bones were about to fall apart, and his vision blurred. The previous battle and the soul search had completely exhausted his remaining strength.
But he can't sleep.
There is another person waiting for him to rescue.
Gu An struggled to get up and returned to the warehouse filled with the smell of blood.
In the corner, Shen Wan remained unconscious.
Her condition was worse than before. Her skin, which had only been slightly dark, now had an eerie purplish-red tinge. Her body was burning hot, and her brows were tightly furrowed, as if she were enduring immense pain.
That's a sign that the poison gas is affecting the heart.
Although the pollen of the Bone-Rotting Spirit Flower is miraculous, it ultimately only suppresses, not detoxifies. After all this trouble, its medicinal effects have long been exhausted.
"What a debt collector."
Gu An sighed, reached out and picked up Shen Wan. Although his movements were rough, he did not touch her injuries.
They took her to the drier captain's cabin on the upper deck and placed her on a soft couch covered with animal hides.
Gu An sat cross-legged to the side and took out the storage bag he had looted from the one-eyed man from his bosom.
This was his only hope.
This one-eyed dragon was, after all, a minor leader at the eighth level of Qi Refining. Having spent so many years in this Chaotic Star Sea, he should have some means of survival.
His divine sense probed in and forcefully broke through the not-so-sturdy restriction.
Splash!
Gu An dumped everything from the storage bag onto the table.
There weren't many items, but they were quite varied.
The first thing that catches the eye is a pile of thumb-sized stones emitting a faint red glow. There are about a hundred of them, irregularly shaped and with rough surfaces, yet they contain a trace of violent and mixed spiritual and blood energy.
"Blood Fiend Stone".
Gu An recognized the item. It was a unique currency of the Chaotic Star Sea and a primary resource for low-level cultivators. Although its quality was not as pure as genuine spirit stones, it was abundant and had remarkable effects on cultivators practicing demonic arts and bloodline techniques.
Besides the Blood Fiend Stone, there were also several bottles of pills with labels.
Gu An uncorked each bottle and sniffed it.
"Inferior fasting pills... Qi-regulating powder... Hmm? This is..."
His gaze lingered on a small black porcelain bottle. A simple skull and crossbones symbol was engraved on the bottle, and it contained half a bottle of thick, blood-red ointment.
【Bloodthirsty Muscle Regeneration Ointment】
This is a healing medicine circulating within the Black Shark Gang. It is made by mixing the essence and blood of sea monsters with blood-fiend stone powder, and its medicinal properties are extremely potent. When applied to wounds, it can forcibly stimulate flesh regeneration and has an excellent hemostatic effect, but the process is extremely painful and easily leaves indelible scars and fiendish toxins.
"It's good enough if it's even useful."
Gu An didn't show any disgust. For them right now, survival was the key; whether or not they would be scarred was something to consider later.
He picked up the bottle of muscle-regenerating ointment and then looked at the pile of blood-fiend stones on the table.
My mind quickly flashed through the records of folk remedies in "The True Explanation of All Poisons" about using poison to fight poison and borrowing evil spirits to suppress acupoints.
The poison in Shen Wan's body is "Living Wood Poison," which is wood with fire in its properties and is inexhaustible. To suppress it, a more domineering energy with opposing properties must be used to seal her meridian nodes.
The blood-fiend energy within the blood-fiend stone is yin in nature and carries evil energy, making it perfect for constructing a temporary sealing wall.
"Bear with it, it might hurt a lot."
Gu An looked at the unconscious Shen Wan and whispered something, not caring whether she could hear him or not.
He reached out and tore open Shen Wan's already tattered clothes again, revealing her upper body covered with purplish-red poisonous patterns.
There was no romantic thought whatsoever.
Gu An's gaze was as calm as if he were dealing with a corpse.
He first crushed two pieces of Blood Fiend Stone with his fingernails, poured the dark red powder into his palm, then mixed it with a large amount of Muscle Regeneration Ointment, and rubbed it vigorously until his palms felt hot and the ointment turned into a chilling blackish-purple color.
Then, his fingers, like iron hooks, pressed hard on several acupoints on Shen Wan's chest!
"laugh--"
The moment the ointment touched the skin, it made a sound like a hot iron scalding flesh, and emitted puffs of white smoke.
"Ugh—!!!"
Shen Wan, who was originally in a deep coma, suddenly arched her body into a shrimp shape under the stimulation of this intense pain, let out a shrill scream, and opened her eyes abruptly, but then lost consciousness for a moment due to the pain.
Gu An did not stop.
His movements were extremely fast, his hands flying as he applied the ointment mixed with blood-fiend powder to several vital acupoints on Shen Wan's body, including the Tanzhong, Qihai, and Guanyuan acupoints.
Each finger strike was accompanied by a muffled groan from Shen Wan and violent convulsions of her body.
The purplish-red poisonous patterns that had been spreading wildly under her skin were forced to retreat and flow back after encountering this domineering blood-fiend medicinal power, just like a flood that had been dammed. In the end, they were forcibly sealed in a small area near her dantian.
This treatment method is extremely brutal, and can even be described as drinking poison to quench thirst.
It will not only damage Shen Wan's meridians, but also taint her body with an inescapable bloodthirsty aura.
But at least, her life was saved.
After an incense stick has burned.
Gu An, covered in sweat, withdrew his hand and looked at Shen Wan's face, which was still pale but whose breathing had gradually become steady. He let out a long breath.
Whether you survive or not depends on your own fate.
He grabbed a rag and wiped the medicine residue off his hands, then ignored Shen Wan.
Gu An turned around and swept the remaining items on the table into his storage bag.
Besides the Blood Fiend Stone and pills, the One-Eyed Dragon also had a few low-grade magic artifacts in his possession—a spare Water-Splitting Dagger and a tortoise shell shield with some cracks.
Although they are all common products, something is better than nothing.
Finally, Gu An's gaze fell on a palm-sized, jet-black iron plate.
The one-eyed man hid the iron plaque deep inside his storage bag, clearly indicating that he valued it highly.
The iron plaque is not made of metal; it feels cold and heavy to the touch, and its material is neither gold nor wood. The front is engraved with an eerie spider lily pattern, its petals long and curled, as if writhing as if alive. The back is blank, except for an ancient character "引" (yin) engraved in the very center.
Gu An tried to probe it with his divine sense, but found that as soon as his divine sense touched it, it disappeared without a trace, like a mud ox sinking into the sea, making it impossible to probe its internal structure.
"What is this?"
Gu An frowned slightly and played with it a few times.
Judging from the materials and craftsmanship, this thing was definitely not made by a third-rate force like the Black Shark Gang. Even a major sect like the Corpse Puppet Sect might not be able to create such a token that isolates divine sense.
"How could a rogue cultivator at the eighth level of Qi Refining, a one-eyed man, possess something like this?"
A hint of doubt arose in Gu An's heart.
But he didn't delve into it; he didn't have the energy to solve the mystery right now.
He carefully put the token away, keeping it close to his body and tucked it into his bosom.
Gu An dragged his tired body out of the captain's cabin and onto the deck.
The sky outside was still dark. There was no sun or moon in the underground sea, only the unchanging eerie light and the occasional phosphorescent flashes in the distance.
The sea breeze was cold and salty, making Gu An's clothes flutter loudly.
He plopped down on the deck, leaning against the railing, and pulled out a rough nautical chart from the helmsman's memory.
This is a map drawn on some kind of animal hide, with the general outline of the Chaotic Star Sea drawn crookedly on it.
Countless islands are scattered like stars on the black sea.
At the very center of the nautical chart, there is a huge red circle marked with three blood-red characters next to it: "The City That Never Sleeps".
That is the core of the Chaotic Star Sea, a place where, according to legend, one can buy anything with spirit stones, and a money pit that all rogue cultivators dream of.
In contrast, the "Abandoned Bone Beach" where Gu An is now is a desolate corner that is so bad that even a map doesn't bother to mark it in detail.
"The city that never sleeps..."
Gu An's fingers lightly traced the three words, a hint of longing flashing in his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by calmness.
It's a nice place, but given his current state and strength, going there would be like offering himself up as food.
"First, survive here and recover your cultivation before planning anything else."
Gu An put away the nautical chart and looked up at the endless darkness in the distance.
He took out a blood-red stone from his pocket and held it in his palm.
The chaotic and violent spiritual energy made him frown slightly, but he immediately activated the mutated cultivation technique and began to forcibly devour and refine the energy within it.
A wisp of dark red malevolent energy seeped into his meridians along his arm, colliding and merging with the Wood Qi within his body, ultimately transforming into a deeper and more aggressive force.
In this lawless, chaotic sea of stars.
Gu An knew that his "Gu An" self was already dead.
From this day forward, the one who lives is a demon who has crawled back from hell, a demon who will stop at nothing to achieve immortality.
"Chaotic Star Sea, here I come."
He whispered to himself, closed his eyes, and entered a deep state of meditation.
Only the broken sword in his hand emitted a slight hum in the sea breeze, as if yearning for the next feast of slaughter.