Chapter 61: Escaping Death, the Black Paper Boat

"Ah..."

The heart-rending screams echoing from behind made everyone's backs turn cold...

"Hoo..."

Everyone on the seabed broke through the resistance of the water, each fleeing for their lives.

Mengchen had all ten Cave Heavens fully opened, his Divine Power pouring out and releasing a brilliantly dazzling radiance as he pulled the Tianhu girl, weaving and fleeing desperately between the reefs.

He looked around; the Little Bear, the girl in purple, and the others were nowhere to be seen. At this moment, only Heizi and the Heavenly Fox girl were by his side.

"Ssh!"

In an instant, a brilliant golden light shone from behind, growing brighter and brighter. He hurriedly turned his head, only to see a golden blade of light slashing toward him. The endless divine radiance it emitted was terrifying to the extreme; wherever it passed, all the reefs were instantly shattered into powder.

He hurriedly dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding it as the golden blade of light slashed past just an inch in front of him.

"Boom..."

Everything within sight ahead was smashed to pieces by the golden blade of light, with wisps of divine radiance remaining and shimmering.

"Kill!"

A cold, bone-chilling cry came from behind; the headless creature holding the golden battle spear had caught up.

"Damn it, why did it have to chase me?"

Mengchen's eyes widened abruptly at the sight, a chill rising in his heart and seeping into his marrow.

At this moment, he exerted his Divine Power to the limit, instantly escaping several miles away.

However, to his shock, the speed of the headless creature was even more terrifying, arriving in an instant.

"Shoo!"

The golden battle spear thrust toward his forehead. Mengchen dodged quickly, missing by only a hair's breadth—extremely dangerous.

The Tianhu girl was dragged back and forth by Mengchen, facing life-threatening danger time and again.

The terrifying nature of the headless creature made her drop her usual demeanor and become incredibly serious. She shouted loudly at Mengchen: "Stinky little brother, hurry and undo the seal within my body; let us face the enemy together."

"Impossible. If I undo your seal, it might be even more dangerous. You little Fox Spirit, I absolutely cannot trust you," Mengchen refused in one word.

This Fox Spirit was a dangerous character. If it were normal times, he wouldn't fear her, but now he was facing a powerful enemy; if he undid her seal, there was no guarantee she wouldn't play a trick on him.

Therefore, he would rather expend a little more effort than ever undo her seal at this time.

In the next few moments, Mengchen was nearly pierced by the golden spear several times; had his reactions not been fast enough, he would have long since become a ghost under the spear.

The headless creature's offensive grew increasingly terrifying, the golden battle spear slashing and thrusting in its hands with power that grew more formidable and horrific with each strike.

"Hoo!"

Having failed to slay Mengchen after several rounds, the headless creature seemed to grow enraged in an instant, unleashing an earth-shattering momentum.

It held its battle spear high, and a brilliant golden light shot out of the sea and into the void, causing the endless seawater to surge back toward the firmament, gradually forming a tornado.

The tornado instantly swept across dozens of nautical miles, and in an instant, lightning flashed and thunder rumbled. Endless golden lightning struck down from the void, all converging upon the golden battle spear, its power unparalleled.

Seeing this, the Tianhu girl instantly wore a tearful expression and said: "It's over, it's over. You stinky little brother, big sister is going to be killed by you!"

"Shut your mouth!"

As Mengchen's shout fell, he cast a stern look, and the Tianhu girl instantly covered her mouth, not daring to speak again.

She knew that this bald youth had far too many secrets; he should have a countermeasure.

And since her life and death were now entirely in his hands, she dared not be anything but obedient. If she angered him and was discarded, she would truly be finished.

"Hoo! Ssh..."

The headless creature swung the golden battle spear held high, and the endless golden lightning transformed into thousands of battle spears, shooting over like a golden rain of light.

This strike was truly unavoidable and inescapable; if hit, his life would be forfeit! At the critical moment, Mengchen shouted in a deep voice: "Gangzi!"

"Ssh!"

In an instant, as Mengchen's shout fell, the Vajra Pestle that had been hanging on his chest emitted an incomparably brilliant divine radiance, instantly enveloping Mengchen, Heizi, and the Tianhu girl.

"Clang...!"

Then, the divine radiance enveloped the three of them and, braving the barrage of spears, vanished rapidly. The speed was extremely fast, and in the blink of an eye, they were over a thousand nautical miles away.

The sea here was dim and covered in a thick fog, making visibility blurry.

"Shoo!" The divine radiance flew out of the sea, looking like a great sun in the fog, and wherever it passed, the fog instantly dissipated.

"Bang!"

After the divine radiance flew a distance away from the sea, it crashed onto a pitch-black broken ship, making a dull thud.

The divine radiance gradually dissipated, and Mengchen, Heizi, and the Tianhu girl appeared. Upon seeing the scene before them, all three instantly had their hair stand on end.

At this moment, they saw they were standing on an incomparably huge ship. The hull was pitch-black and ancient, with the wooden planks nearly all rotted away. The entire ship was massive, floating on the sea like a small mountain, looking weathered and ancient.

However, what made their hair stand on end was that this ancient ship had an inexplicable, chilling aura permeating it, as if it pierced into a person's flesh and blood, deep into the marrow, making one unable to stop trembling.

They stood on the deck, and inside the cabin ahead, it was as if a terrifying creature existed. Whether it was an illusion or not, heavy breathing sounds emerged from time to time, chilling one to the bone upon hearing them.

"Damn Gangzi, where have you brought us?" Mengchen shouted angrily in a deep voice.

However, he never received a response from Gangzi.

"Ssh..."

Quietly, under the gaze of the three, several streaks of black light suddenly leaped out from the cabin entrance.

The black light was extremely swift; before Mengchen and Heizi could react, they were tightly bound by it, and the Tianhu girl on the side could not escape the same fate.

In an instant, the three were trussed up by the mysterious black light, unable to move a single bit.

The situation was extremely critical; after being bound by the black light, it tightened more and more, their bodies already severely deformed and blood being squeezed out.

The black light became even more intense upon staining with blood, and it had already begun to drain their vital energy, Divine Power, and blood.

Mengchen had all ten Cave Heavens fully opened, pushing his Divine Power, yet he could never break free.

"Gangzi, if you don't come out now, I'm finished," Mengchen said with difficulty.

Finally, the Vajra Pestle detached itself from Mengchen's chest, then rose into the air and radiated a brilliant divine light, casting it downward.

"Disperse for me!"

Wherever the divine light shone, all the black light completely dissipated.

In an instant, the three of them—Mengchen, Heizi, and Tianhu Shaonü—regained their freedom.

Tianhu Shaonü stared blankly at everything, looking at the Vajra Pestle in mid-air, feeling deeply astonished, "This must be the greatest reliance of that stinky little brother! Truly formidable; I fear this is no ordinary object."

For a time, the entire sea area was filled with the endless radiance emitted by the divine light of the Vajra Pestle; golden light swirled, covering the firmament, and the blue sea became holy and flawless because of the divine light, filled with brilliant golden clouds.

As the black light retreated more and more, the large ship seemed to lose its energy, beginning to shrink severely, constantly becoming smaller, until it finally turned into a black Zhipinchuan!

The originally gargantuan ship, which had been incomparably chilling, had transformed into a black paper boat after the black light was gone.

All three widened their eyes, feeling it was too incredible, and focused their attention, beginning to examine it carefully.

"Gangzi, what is going on? How could it be like this?" Mengchen asked, puzzled, turning to the knowledgeable Vajra Pestle.

After observing it carefully for a while, the Vajra Pestle said in surprise: "This ship was not forged, but folded by hand. To possess such power despite being hand-folded, the person who folded this paper boat must be a transcendent, supreme existence."

"This ship likely does not originate from this current age; it may come from some past life, or from an unknown number of years in the future."

"Alas! There is writing on the boat!"

Suddenly, Tianhu Shaonü noticed a few words on the Zhipinchuan: "Only I am left."

After reading those words, Tianhu Shaonü frowned with a grave expression: "What does this sentence mean? Why does it sound so incomparably sorrowful?"

Hearing this, the Vajra Pestle, Mengchen, Heizi, and Tianhu Shaonü all stepped forward to examine it closely...

"Why is there blood here... and it's still wet; could it have been left recently?" After walking closer, Mengchen discovered a smear.

"There is some here too..." Tianhu Shaonü also discovered a smear of blood that looked fresh.

Subsequently, the Vajra Pestle and Heizi each discovered a smear as well.

They leaned in close to look and discovered that the bloodstains seemed to have been stained by the hands of the person who folded the paper boat; curious, they reached out to touch the fingerprints within the bloodstains.

In a split second, the Vajra Pestle, Mengchen, Heizi, and Tianhu Shaonü all shuddered, their backs turning cold, as a scene appeared in their minds.

It was a long, winding river, appearing like water yet not water, resembling dots of starlight, and also like a pitch-black long night; what was flowing by seemed to be time.

A masked woman stood at the downstream end of that great river, her hands covered in blood, folding one black Zhipinchuan after another, writing the words "Only I am left" on every single one of them.

Then, pushed by her, the paper boats traveled upstream, sinking in different regions and disappearing from the surface of the river.

(End of this chapter)