Chapter 62: Alchemical Demonic Qi, Visitors from the West

Guided by Shrimp III and Crab II, Jiang Xiuyuan’s solitary flat-bottomed boat darted forward like an arrow released from a taut bowstring, heading straight into the depths of the eastern sea.

The further they traveled eastward, the more eerie the color of the seawater became.

At first, the azure blue was merely tinged with an ominous gray. Gradually, the surface of the sea began to drift with vast numbers of dead fish and shrimp. Their corpses were twisted and rigid, their skins covered in a greasy, black film, exuding a nauseating stench of putrefaction and decay. In the air, the spiritual Qi grew thin and chaotic, replaced by a chilling, deadened energy. Inhaling it into the lungs caused a sharp, stinging pain deep within one’s soul.

Jiang Xiaobai had long since put away his playful expression. His small face was pulled taut as he channeled successive bolts of purifying divine light, firmly enveloping the small boat to prevent the foul miasma from invading even in the slightest. Jiang Yiyi furrowed her delicate brows, her clear and cold eyes flashing with gravity and revulsion.

"Immortal Master, three hundred li ahead lies the Crystal Palace of our aquatic clan," Shrimp III said with a trace of tremor in his voice, pointing toward the distance.

Jiang Xiuyuan looked in the direction he indicated. Even across such a vast distance, he could see that the sky above that expanse of sea was shrouded in a massive, translucent, aquamarine curtain of light. That must have been the grand protective formation of the East Sea Aquatic Clan.

Yet at this moment, the curtain of light appeared dim and lackluster, its surface smeared as if splashed with black ink, clinging to vast, writhing patches of black spots. These dark patches were eroding and dissolving the energy of the light barrier at a speed visible to the naked eye. With every wriggle, the color of the barrier grew a shade dimmer.

The small boat soon arrived outside the Crystal Palace.

Countless aquatic warriors stood at strict attention both inside and outside the light barrier. Their expressions were laden with exhaustion and despair, yet they stubbornly held their ground. Seeing Shrimp III and Crab II return, accompanied by three human cultivators whose cultivation levels felt unfathomable, the defensive light barrier immediately parted to reveal a gap.

A young dragon clan member, wearing a purple-gold crown, draped in a flood-dragon robe, and bearing a heroic yet undeniably haggard countenance, personally came out to greet them, followed by a throng of aquatic ministers.

"This minor king, Ao Xuan, pays respects to the three Immortal Masters!" The young dragon clan member, none other than the Crown Prince of the East Sea, bowed respectfully to Jiang Xiuyuan and the other two. "Thank you, Immortals, for extending a helping hand in this time of crisis. The hundreds of millions of aquatic beings in the East Sea are eternally grateful!"

Jiang Xiuyuan waved a hand, his expression calm and detached. "There is no need for such formalities. First, take me to see the source of this 'Black Water'."

"The Immortal Master is truly a man of swift and decisive action!" A flash of admiration crossed Ao Xuan's eyes as he immediately nodded. "The source is located at the Black Coral Trench, three hundred li east of the aquatic realm. Only... that place is now completely submerged by the Black Water, intensely toxic and fraught with extreme danger. My royal father was injured right there. Please exercise the utmost caution, Immortal Master!"

"It is of no consequence."

Jiang Xiuyuan's voice was calm and confident. He turned to Jiang Yiyi and Jiang Xiaobai and said, "The two of you remain with the aquatic clan and help them stabilize their grand protective array. I shall go and return shortly."

He could sense that although the formation of the Crystal Palace was magnificent, its core nodes had already been infiltrated by the bizarre Black Water energy, and its collapse was merely a matter of time. With Jiang Yiyi and Jiang Xiaobai—two prodigies well-versed in arrays and purification—remaining here, it would be sufficient to temporarily stabilize the situation.

"Father, be careful," Jiang Yiyi admonished.

"I know." Jiang Xiuyuan smiled, his figure flickering into a streak of flowing light that vanished instantly from the spot, charging toward the deepest, most profound darkness in the east.

His speed was so extreme that even Ao Xuan, a true dragon, felt only a blur before his eyes and lost track of the other, filling his heart with even greater shock.

...

Within a mere few breaths, Jiang Xiuyuan crossed three hundred li of ocean and hovered high above the expanse known as the Black Coral Trench.

Below him, there was no longer any "sea."

It was a boundless expanse of viscous black liquid, thick as petroleum. It slowly churned and bubbled; with every bubble, a purer, more malevolent black vapor billowed upward, dying the sky a leaden gray.

Here, there was no breath of life.

Dead silence—pure, absolute dead silence.

It resembled an ulcer upon the universe, a graveyard of the world.

Jiang Xiuyuan did not hesitate. A faint, chaotic-colored halo manifested on the surface of his body, and like a falling meteor, he plunged silently into the viscous black water.

*Hiss—*

The moment he entered the water, the endless Black Water reacted like sharks smelling blood, surging toward him frantically in an attempt to corrode his protective divine light. Yet the moment this highly toxic black water—capable of easily eroding magical treasures and polluting divine arts—came into contact with that layer of chaotic halo, it melted like snow meeting a blazing sun, instantly decomposed and annihilated without leaving even a trace behind.

Jiang Xiuyuan paid it no mind. He closed his eyes, and his divine sense, vast enough to cover a radius of a thousand li, was released instantly.

Instead of scanning the terrain, he condensed his divine sense into countless microscopic probes, beginning to analyze the composition of this "Black Water" from its very root.

In an instant, an endless torrent of information flooded his sea of consciousness.

"The composition is extremely complex..."

"The primary component is highly concentrated abyssal demonic qi. Its purity far surpasses any point of demonic qi leakage I have previously witnessed on the mainland."

"Yet it is not merely demonic qi. Although demonic qi is overbearing, it is relatively 'pure' and lacks such intense characteristics of 'erosion' and 'assimilation'."

Jiang Xiuyuan's divine sense delved deeper and deeper, analyzing relentlessly like the most precise instrument in the world.

"Found it... mixed within the demonic qi is yet another... no, at least seventeen types of extremely trace catalytic substances that I have never seen before."

His divine sense began to simulate the structure of these substances.

This was a structure filled with "order" and "logic," entirely distinct from the immortal cultivation civilization’s system of comprehending the nature of heaven and earth and following the Dao of nature. It resembled something more... artificial, meticulously calculated, and compounded—an alchemical product.

"By 'modifying' the violent and chaotic abyssal demonic qi through certain alchemical catalysts to stabilize it, while endowing it with characteristics such as 'high infectivity,' 'strong corrosiveness,' and 'energy devouring'... this is akin to taking a natural virus and modifying it through gene editing into a biochemical weapon targeting an entire ecosystem."

Jiang Xiuyuan abruptly opened his eyes, a brilliant flash of light crossing his gaze.

"This is not the method of the Eastern Domain's cultivation civilization!"

Although the demonic cultivators of the Eastern Domain also utilized demonic qi, their approach was crude—absorbing and refining it, or using it directly to pollute treasures and derange minds. They possessed neither the capability nor the inclination to modify the demonic qi itself in such a "scientific" and "precise" manner.

This was an entirely new system of power, full of exotic traits, which he had never encountered before.

"Interesting."

The corners of Jiang Xiuyuan's mouth curved upward slightly. He had come to the right place. This world was indeed far more complex than he had imagined.

His divine sense, like invisible tentacles, tracked all the way downward along the region of highest Black Water concentration.

Passing through tens of thousands of meters of viscous darkness, he finally reached the ocean floor.

Here lay the so-called "Black Coral Trench." The trench that ought to have been covered in beautiful coral was now reduced to a stretch of charred, jagged, and grotesque rocks continuously spewing black smoke.

At the very depths of the trench, Jiang Xiuyuan's divine sense perceived an extremely well-concealed cavern.

The entrance to this cavern was shrouded by a layer of constantly warping light and shadow, radiating faint spatial fluctuations. This was a remarkably sophisticated illusion barrier; had Jiang Xiuyuan's divine sense not reached an unfathomable realm, it would have been nearly impossible to discover.

The source of the Black Water flowed incessantly from within this very cave.

"Found you."

Jiang Xiuyuan's figure penetrated the illusion barrier like a ghost, slipping directly into the cavern.

He wanted to see precisely what manner of sacred entity was stirring up such a commotion on the shores of the East Sea.