“It really is the bone galleon!!” he shrieked. To him, that rift was like a fiendish monster. After all, the bizarre nature of the bone galleon had left a deep and terrifying impression on him.
Whether it was the three ghost faces on the flags on the deck of the ship, the mural on deck 1, or the skeletons and rocking chair on deck 2, they all left him trembling in fear….
There was also how Song Que and Master God-Diviner had lost their minds, and the most nerve-wracking thing of all… the ghostly mother on deck 3!!
Bai Xiaochun was absolutely certain that, without the gravekeeper’s command medallion, he would have most certainly died on the bone galleon.
“The thing about accepting a new apprentice was a complete smokescreen. The Celestial obviously had some other reasons for bringing the cultivators of the four rivers here to help him find the exit. He obviously couldn’t get onto the bone galleon by going into the Deadmire, thus the use of teleportation. Furthermore, he apparently didn’t dare to just come here by himself….
“All the evidence points to the conclusion that… he wants something inside the bone galleon, and is using the lower-level cultivators to get it!! In turn, that means… that the Celestial has been in the trial by fire all along!!” Shivering, he thought back to the young man who had been traveling with Du Lingfei.
“Back when I slapped that guy across the side of the head, I could tell that he didn't feel like a demigod….” Sweat began to pour down his face. “I actually slapped the Celestial….
“Wait, if the Celestial is here… then that means Gongsun Wan’er is probably here too!” The only person Bai Xiaochun feared more than the Celestial was Gongsun Wan’er. All of a sudden, he had no desire whatsoever to get out of the desert. He needed to find Big Fatty Zhang and his other friends, and then hide somewhere until the dust settled.
Even as he came to this conclusion, a mysterious and sinister voice suddenly echoed out from the rift he had just discovered.
“Now that you're here, why don’t you come in and look around…. After all, this isn’t your first time aboard.”
Bai Xiaochun let out a yelp of shock, then began to stammer, “This is a misunderstanding. That’s all, a misunderstanding…. Um… I took a wrong turn….”
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Chapter
945: First Time Here?
Even as Bai Xiaochun attempted to flee, a powerful gravitational force emerged from the rift.
It didn’t affect the air, or the ground below, or anything else in the entire world. Neither did it emit fluctuations that would be noticed by anyone else.
However… it did exert massive force on Bai Xiaochun, so much so that it felt as if his soul and cultivation base would be ripped out of him!
He could struggle against it, and perhaps escape, but in the process, his soul would be torn away from him and swallowed up by the rift!
To Bai Xiaochun’s horror, he found that it was the same with his cultivation base, and even his blood. In fact, as he struggled, blood began to ooze out of his pores and fly through the air toward the rift.
It seemed like he might be torn to pieces at any moment. At the same time, though, the sinister, female voice continued to speak into his ear, describing what she clearly envisioned to be a most wonderful image.
“Stop struggling. Let me absorb your divine soul, and your blood… and eventually, the only thing left behind will be a skeleton….
“Save me some effort. Help me turn you into a most delectable feast….”
Bai Xiaochun screamed inwardly as he suddenly visualized… himself, with his divine soul sucked away, his cultivation base gone, bereft of blood, flesh, internal organs, and even his head…. The only thing left behind was a skeleton which crashed down onto the ground, held in place only because it was made of Undying Bones….
Years later, a passerby would be overjoyed to find such a precious treasure, and would turn his skeleton into medicinal pills, or a magical item, or perhaps even a skeleton puppet….
“Nooo….” Slowly, his mind went blank because of the intense gravitational force. Soon, the power reached a point that defied imagination, and in despair, he stopped struggling. At that point, he became of streak of bright light that shot into the rift.
With Bai Xiaochun gone, the rift closed up and disappeared. The entire time, nobody noticed what had occurred, neither Du Lingfei nor the young man with her, both of whom were trying to break through the shield of light in the desert.
Also near that shield was Hou Xiaomei, her eyes gleaming with anticipation, but her brow slightly furrowed as she looked off in the direction of the swamp. A moment later, the shield in the desert trembled as though it might collapse, and Hou Xiaomei looked over at it, the anticipation in her eyes growing more intense.
“At long last… I can return…. I wouldn’t be doing this unless there were no other choice, Ghostmother…. I very much look forward to the joy on your face when you see me again….”
As the shield shook violently back in the desert, Bai Xiaochun’s vision was finally growing clear, revealing a very familiar scene….
He was in a room that looked very much like a lady’s bedchamber….
There was a bed covered in dust and cobwebs, a vanity, and a cracked mirror….
A scream escaped his lips, and he spun to leave, only to find that there was no exit in sight….
Seated at the vanity was a woman in a long, red gown. Her back was to him as she combed her hair and softly sang that familiar, spine-tingling song….
Tears of terror threatened to spill out of Bai Xiaochun’s eyes….
“What do I do, what do I do…!?” he thought. He felt like his scalp was about to explode, and wished for nothing more than to escape. And yet, there didn’t seem to be any way to do that. Without any hesitation, he pulled out the gravekeeper’s command medallion and gripped it tight in his hands.
“Don’t eat me, Big Sis….” he blurted in a quavering voice. Not quite sure of what to say, he began to babble a bit. “Uh… do you know the gravekeeper? He’s my Master! You and I are probably on the same team….
“Oh, right. There are some people outside who mean you harm, Big Sis. Why don’t you go check the situation out? No need to worry about me…. I didn't want to come here. You… you dragged me here, Big Sis….”
It was at this point that the woman’s shoulder moved, as though she were about to turn and look at him.
“Don’t look back!” he shrieked. “Just… don't look back. If you have anything to say, you can--”
In the middle of his sentence, the woman stopped singing. Continuing to comb her hair, she quietly said, “This is your first time here.”
“Huh?” he replied. Then, he began to nod his head vigorously. “Um, if you say it’s my first time here, Big Sis, then of course it’s my first time….”
“Now that you’re here,” the woman said, her voice undulating in bizarre fashion, “I can’t help but wonder what you’re thinking about as you stand there….”
A look of confused surprise appeared on Bai Xiaochun’s face. “Wait, first time? No, this is my second time. And you’re the one who brought me here!”
“Nobody brought you here…. And your two friends are still right above us.” She waved her finger at the mirror, causing an image of the bone galleon’s deck 2 to appear. There, Song Que and Master God-Diviner stood on either side of the rocking chair, completely unmoving, blank looks on their faces.
The image, combined with the woman’s words, struck Bai Xiaochun like a thunderbolt, causing him to gasp.