Chapter 129: Gems Are Alive Too
Drake stared at Li Nuowei in a daze for a moment, “You’re really not holding back with me at all.”
After he spoke, with his throbbing heartbeat, he walked down the corner.
The green glow that met his eyes struck his eyeballs directly. Drake felt his spirit pierced by that greenness, followed by an unbearable tingling in his body. He felt somewhat dizzy, but he didn’t fall down. A strange power forced his swaying body to continue forward.
There was a muddy swamp woven from the departed souls of the unjustly dead surging endlessly underground. As Drake approached step by step, it was as if the slumbering muddy swamp suddenly reacted with high-pitched screams from the corpses inside it. It first “sniffed” the approaching prey and instinctively lunged toward Drake.
The overwhelming demonic muddy swamp carried a foul smell and sharp roars from the departed souls, more violent than ferocious waves, crashing down in sheets toward Drake.
Drake instinctively closed his eyes tightly, crossed his hands in front of him, despair in his heart.
But just when he thought he would die with resentment, Drake didn’t feel any pain in his body or other sensations of being touched for a long time. He opened his eyes and found that the muddy swamp rolling in like a sea tide had stopped right in front of him, not crashing down. The departed souls floating and sinking in the muddy swamp’s body were all staring at him in terror—or more precisely, at the Sea God Ancient Texts in his hand.
“Uh, it… it really works?” Drake was somewhat confused. He gradually began to adapt to the noisy strange cries from the muddy swamp, his consciousness no longer blurry, and the boundary between reality and illusion became clear. Despite this, the horrific scene visible before his eyes was no better than illusory imagination.
He began to believe in the mysterious power contained within the Sea God Ancient Texts, which might be the power of the Sea God of Anhai.
The power released by the Sea God Ancient Texts was formless, but as Drake got closer to the muddy swamp, he gradually saw the boundary of the power, like a spherical shield protecting him inside.
The muddy swamp avoided him. Although the muddy swamp might not have eyes of its own, every departed soul on the muddy swamp was its eyes, and every glare from the evil spirits was an angry death gaze.
Drake felt uneasy in his heart. He reached the last stair before him, lifted his foot, and was about to step onto the muddy swamp bubbling with eerie bubbles. Those muddy swamp parts shrank back like frightened kittens, actively pulling back the mud under Drake’s foot, clinging tightly only to the boundary of the protection range of the ancient book in Drake’s hand, both fearful and unwilling to leave.
Seeing this, Drake suddenly no longer felt so panicked and nervous.
When you discover that the thing you fear is also fearing you, you naturally feel surprised, your awe greatly diminishes, and instead, you get the urge to taunt it and release your remaining fear.
But Drake didn’t dare to really court death like that. He told himself that what he needed to do was get the Green Light Gemstone tightly guarded by the muddy swamp, use the power of the Green Light Gemstone to help him expel the curse, and also help Li Nuowei to kill the Sea God of Anhai that was about to resurrect from the sea.
Even though he learned the truth—that the big fish from outer space might be his own dad—Drake said he would rather put on a show of fatherly kindness and filial piety than acknowledge this relative.
As the muddy swamp watched Drake getting closer and closer to the Green Light Gemstone it carefully guarded, it began to grow restless. Although Drake couldn’t see the muddy swamp’s true intentions, he could judge from the frantic and urgent roars of the departed souls around him that the muddy swamp was nervous about his behavior.
Detecting Drake’s “stealing” behavior, the muddy swamp quickly moved the Green Light Gemstone, and Drake chased after it fiercely.
“Give me that thing!” Drake shouted. He tried to negotiate with the muddy swamp, “Don’t you want revenge against the big fish that sealed you here? Give it to me, and I’ll help you get revenge.”
The muddy swamp was unmoved by Drake’s words; it continued to accelerate the relocation of the Green Light Gemstone.
In response, Drake felt doubly shocked and suspicious. He naturally wouldn’t doubt the wisdom of the muddy swamp, that is, the sea monster. As an eternal being, it surely wasn’t lacking in wisdom and should be able to understand his meaning, yet the muddy swamp still refused to hand over the Green Light Gemstone.
Either the muddy swamp didn’t trust Drake’s ability, or the Green Light Gemstone was extremely important to the muddy swamp, important to the point of being inseparable.
Drake suspected that the Green Light Gemstone might be some crucial component of the muddy swamp, just like a human’s brain, heart, and other vital organs—losing it would mean death.
And the muddy swamp moved the Green Light Gemstone too quickly, and its own formless existence state made its methods of transferring the Green Light Gemstone ever-changing and unpredictable. Drake felt that even if he ran himself to death, it would be hard to catch the Green Light Gemstone in his hand.
Standing in place fatigued, Drake was pondering what to do next.
Suddenly, the evil spirits fused together with the muddy swamp let out miserable screams. Drake was so overwhelmed by these intense screams that he nearly lost his soul, kneeling uncontrollably to the ground. Then blood seeped from all seven orifices of his body. Drake saw his vision turn crimson, blood dripping from his face onto the ground.
“I was careless. Although the Sea God Ancient Texts can let me resist the muddy swamp’s influence on my spirit, it does nothing for the physiological aspects.” Drake thought. He covered his ears, feeling scalding hot blood slipping through the gaps between his fingers. He felt his actions completely restricted, unable to move.
Drake barely opened his eyes and looked toward the stiff muddy swamp. Although it surged with intense ripples at times, the surging “waves” would occasionally “stutter” abnormally. Kneeling in the anomalous muddy swamp, he looked around and finally saw the reason for the muddy swamp’s sudden anomaly.
He saw Li Nuowei holding some metal fittings from who knows where, throwing them one by one into the muddy swamp. The muddy swamp writhed like a voodoo doll that had been pricked, unable to move. As more and more metal treasures were thrown into the muddy swamp, it lost its previous violent activity.
When Drake saw the muddy swamp could no longer move violently, he resolutely seized the opportunity to snatch the Green Light Gemstone guarded by the muddy swamp into his hand.
The moment the Green Light Gemstone was in his hand, Drake felt a softness. Feeling those soft substances up close, he felt his own body beginning to change as well.
His body twisted unnaturally out of control, as if something wanted to burst out from his body.
Additionally, Drake discovered something horrifying: although the softness he touched had no clear entity visible, covered by a green glow obscuring the Green Light Gemstone’s original appearance, upon touching it, he seemed to hear countless tiny things whispering and cursing him, and that Green Light Gemstone seemed to have a heartbeat.
This Green Light Gemstone… is actually alive?!
Let me adjust my state this week. Weekends as usual, will make up updates as much as possible. These workdays have left me mentally exhausted; I don’t even have the energy for typing when I get back.
