Chapter 126: Return to the Kingdom of the Dead (2)

"Woooo~"

Along the road of white bones, the weeping flowers twisted their stems, turning in unison to fix their gaze upon Wu Zui and his companion. The wailing grew more intense, wave upon wave, accompanied by a surging tide of resentment-filled energy that soon echoed across the entire path.

Xiao Ke'ai fell into an instant trance, standing frozen in place.

Within Wu Zui’s mind, the blue figure blazed with brilliant light. After a year of stalemate against the black substance, his cultivation realm had not changed much, but the figure had become significantly more solid. The mental corruption of the weeping flowers could no longer affect him.

Wu Zui stooped down, scooped up the dazed Xiao Ke'ai, and sprinted into the distance.

Far away, a gargantuan monstrosity was descending from the sky. Its eyes, the size of blood-red moons, belonged to the very creature the Lantern Ghost Spirit had warned them about—the one that constantly haunted the entrance. Any living soul that dared to enter the Realm of the Dead would be hunted down by it.

The bone path was uneven and soft underfoot, and the jagged, protruding bones made running difficult. While the sides of the path looked flatter, the endless sea of weeping flowers made Wu Zui hesitate; he knew well that the places which appeared safest were often the most perilous.

Suddenly, Wu Zui pulled to a halt. On both sides of the path ahead, the weeping flowers were swinging their bodies, tossing reddish-brown debris onto the road. From a distance, Wu Zui could not make out exactly what they were.

Just then, at the point where they had first entered, the bone road began to rattle and tremor. The surrounding flowers immediately pushed piles of flesh-streaked remains onto the path. As the road became blanketed in carnage, it began to roll and curl backward from the entrance, resembling a nimble, brown tongue. The flowers lining the path ceased their weeping, replaced by a chilling, sinister laughter.

As the path vibrated, the bases of some flowers were torn away, revealing the skulls beneath—some human, some animal, and others belonging to creatures clearly not from the Blue Planet.

Feeling the tremors behind him, Wu Zui looked back. A horrific tidal wave composed of bones and corpses surged toward him. He bolted. The stench of rotting flesh and gore rolling within that wave made him gag. Though Wu Zui was fast, the wave of remains was faster, catching up to him in mere seconds.

Instantly, the Chains of Conscience erupted from Wu Zui’s heart, spiraling outward to encase him and Xiao Ke'ai in a spherical iron cocoon.

The wave slammed into them, its immense force propelling the cocoon toward the end of the path. Inside, Wu Zui tumbled, struggling to keep Xiao Ke'ai held tight to prevent her from being tossed aside. The Karma Fire flared on the exterior of the chains, but because the wave was composed of discrete bones and flesh with gaps between them, the fire could only burn them piecemeal rather than consuming the mass as a whole. There was simply too much material, and the path continued to replenish the wave faster than the fire could destroy it. Thus, they were rolled along toward the end of the road.

At the end of the path waited a titanic entity.

From afar, its body resembled a colossal, elliptical brown sphere. It had no head, no arms, and no legs; only a massive fissure cut through its center, from which countless bone roads extended like tentacles. The creature was gargantuan, dwarfing even the tallest mountains. The path Wu Zui was on was merely one of the smaller, shorter ones—a mere morsel for such a beast.

Other paths extended outward, similarly lined with seas of weeping flowers that mechanically pushed flesh and bone toward the center. Once a path was covered, it would roll back like a tongue, delivering the payload into the fissure. It was as if a famished monster were feeding in a frenzy.

In the next moment, the wave carrying Wu Zui was swept directly into the fissure. A sense of weightlessness washed over him, but he was too dizzy to register the situation. Suddenly, all the remaining paths—even those not yet covered in flesh—retracted into the fissure at high speed. The surrounding flowers scrambled to retreat into the skulls beneath them, fleeing in a panic.

Then, the bone path that had just retracted suddenly shot back out, sweeping horizontally and dragging large swathes of flowers into the fissure. Moments later, the area for a hundred miles was barren.

"Hungry..."

A muffled, deep, masculine voice emanated from the fissure, which then began to reshape into a circle. A pile of stripped, bloodless bones was ejected. Except for the skulls, the rest had been ground to powder. The weeping flowers had been consumed entirely. The bone powder settled, and the path turned back into a simple brown road.

"I am hungry! I must eat!" The distorted, terrifying voice continued to echo.

Along with the sound came a surge of暴怨气 energy. It manifested as a black, blade-like hurricane, so dense it appeared solid. Flying monsters in the sky were sliced in two by the wind, falling onto the surrounding paths to become the creature's next meal.

This was the Gluttony Monarch, one of the seven sovereigns of the Realm of the Dead.

The flying monster Wu Zui had feared arrived, circling the area. Finding no sign of Wu Zui, it sensed the presence of the living deep within the Gluttony Monarch. The black hurricane erupting from the fissure lashed at the flyer, but it shattered the wind with wings made of black clouds. Seeing the Gluttony Monarch had no intention of releasing its meal, the creature finally turned and left.

With the departure of the cloud-like beast and the consumption of its fallen kin, the Gluttony Monarch settled into a calm state, and new brown paths began to extend across the landscape.

Inside the fissure, Wu Zui was trapped in absolute, impenetrable darkness. He could not even see Xiao Ke'ai, though she was held tight in his arms. He ignited a flame of Karma Fire to survey his surroundings, but after two seconds of light, the flame was shredded and extinguished as if by an invisible force. He tried again, with the same result.

Wu Zui’s brow furrowed. He attempted to open a spatial singularity to escape, but he remained rooted in place. He realized with a jolt that he could no longer sense any spatial singularities; the gaps that usually permeated space were now sealed tight like an iron plate. With no way to warp, he would have to find a way out on foot.

"Ah! What is this? Let go of me!"

Xiao Ke'ai woke up, and finding herself held in pitch-black darkness, she panicked. She began to kick and flail, striking out blindly in every direction.

"Ouch! It’s me!"

Wu Zui took a solid blow to the nose in the dark. He winced and spoke up.

"Huh? Master? Why can't I see anything? Wuuu... am I blind?" Xiao Ke'ai groped around, and upon catching his scent, she calmed slightly, though she began to cry at the thought of her blindness.

"..." Wu Zui remained silent.

The Chains of Conscience surrounding them began to glow with a crimson light. The Karma Fire clinging to the chains illuminated the space. Xiao Ke'ai saw Wu Zui’s bruised and bloodied face and scrambled out of his arms, embarrassed.

Wu Zui wiped the blood from his nose, secretly thankful she hadn’t remembered the golden hammer at her waist. One hit from that, and his head would have been finished. He squinted at her, his eyes narrowed with a hint of resentment.

"Master, it’s so..."

*Thump! Thump!*

Before she could change the subject, Wu Zui delivered two quick raps to her forehead. Two large bumps rose instantly, and Xiao Ke'ai’s eyes welled with tears.

"Next time you attack, try to see who your opponent is, would you?" Wu Zui said.

"Yes..." she replied, her voice trembling.

Wu Zui continued to rub his nose as he examined their surroundings. It was strange—looking out through the gaps in the chains, there was only dense, enveloping darkness above, below, and on all sides. They seemed to be floating in a void.

Having tumbled all the way here, they had no idea they were inside the belly of the Gluttony Monarch. They assumed they were merely trapped in a confined space created by an unknown monster.