Most of the torches that the villagers had initially carried with them were soaked and had gone out. Although the crisis seed to have passed, the cold beca even more biting.
“Hiss, it’s so cold! Master, can we leave now? ”
“Master, was that monster scared away? ”
“It’s freezing, I’m freezing to death! ”
The master was also rubbing his hands and wringing out his clothes, but thankfully, with spiritual energy protecting his body, he at least wasn’t trembling from the cold.
“Let’s go! The monster has been scared away, let’s get out of here! ”
“Everyone, move, move! ”
“Hurry, let’s go ho, I’m freezing to death! ”
“Master, that monster just now was shouting for a powerful master to appear, is there another master nearby? ”
“That was a senior master from my sect. I had long sensed that the monster to the east was no ordinary one, so I specially invited a senior master of my grandmaster’s caliber to co down the mountain to assist. Now that the monster has fled, my elder must have chased after it, so everyone can rest assured!”
The crowd noisily rushed back. They had co in a grand, formidable manner, but now they returned in a scattered ss, most of the extinguished torches having been discarded.
“Watch your step, don’t trip, and don’t get too close to the shore! ”
“Everyone, keep an eye on your relatives and friends, see if anyone’s fallen behind!”
So elders occasionally shouted amongst the group.
Zhang Fu and Liang Pingle, who were also running and shivering, heard those words and suddenly realized sothing.
“Oh no! Where’s Mr. Ji? ”
Zhang Fu’s loud shout made both the Liang and Zhang families stop dead in their tracks.
“Quick, search nearby, see if Mister Ji is there! ”
“Right, right, look quickly!”
“Mr. Ji-! Mister Ji, are you there?”
“Mister Ji! ”
The two families looked around, but all they saw were villagers hunched over, running back. A few torches lit the path ahead, but their light barely illuminated the crowd, and they couldn’t spot Ji Yuan for a long while.
Before long, almost everyone had passed them by, running ahead.
The four mbers of the Zhang and Liang families, both fathers and sons, exchanged glances. Only Zhang Fu still held a torch, barely illuminating a small area around them, but it swayed wildly in the sea breeze.
The direction they had co from was pitch black, making it seem as if so ferocious beast lurked beneath the sea.
Gritting his teeth, Zhang Fu’s father, a renowned captain in the village, spoke.
“Let’s go, we’ll go back and look again! ”
After a mont’s hesitation, the others followed Old Zhang back to where they had assembled for the torch formation.
Under the illumination of Zhang Fu’s sole remaining torch, the shoreline was littered with discarded damp torches, and the waves from the ocean crashed relentlessly against the rocks.
The distant sea was pitch black. Zhang Fu shone his torch down along the shoreline, but could see nothing but the white spray of the waves.
“If he fell down there…”
“Mr. Ji! Mr. Ji, are you there? Please co back to the village!”
“Mr. Ji…”
The group called out over the shore and the ocean several more tis, but the only response was the mournful howl of the wind and the crashing of the waves. The fla of Zhang Fu’s torch flickered. It looked like it wouldn’t last much longer.
“Ugh, it’s so cold! We’re soaked to the bone, we can’t keep standing in the wind! ”
“Perhaps… perhaps Mr. Ji has already gone on ahead, and we just didn’t see him? ”
“That’s possible…”
“Yes, our torch won’t last much longer. Let’s hurry back. Maybe Mr. Ji is waiting for us!”
“That’s right, Mr. Ji is a capable man, he’s traveled all over the land and experienced so much. He will definitely be alright.”
Watching the torchlight of the large group ahead grow fainter in the distance, the cold and fearful group hesitated for a mont, then finally began to follow.
At this very mont, Ji Yuan was walking upon the waves, seemingly taking leisurely, unhurried steps, yet in reality, he was rapidly traveling over the surface of the sea, hardly any slower than he would travel on land.
If it had been Ji Yuan before he had achieved the Five Elents Returning to the Origin, while he could have done sothing similar, it wouldn’t have been so effortless; rather, it would have seed arduous, far less convenient than flying directly or controlling the water to ride the waves.
But now that Ji Yuan was attuned to the Five Elents Qi, his movents were as light as spring, his speed unaffected by the ebb and flow of the waves. Not only was his spiritual energy consumption minimal, but he also felt ethereal, almost like a celestial being.
The General Giant Whale in the distance continued its frantic underwater escape, swimming further and further away from the shore, diving ever deeper.
Ji Yuan simply trailed behind, not entering the water himself, following until they were about a few dozen li offshore.
At this point, the General Giant Whale, who had been hundreds of zhang below the surface, slowly began to rise once again. As ocean spray slid off its back, its imnse form was revealed once more.
The General Giant Whale gazed towards the distant shore, its tail swaying back and forth. Its fins couldn’t reach the rear part of its body, so it could only manipulate a current of water to brush against the underside of its lower spine.
There was a small spot there that was throbbing painfully, and hadn’t yet subsided. It was particularly intense, especially in the very mont of striking.
Just as an ordinary person would instinctively shake their hand if it were suddenly pricked by sothing, the General Giant Whale had also thrashed wildly. But it also possessed a strong sense of danger, and imdiately fled towards the open sea.
Now, after fleeing for a while, and sensing no auras pursuing it, it cautiously rose to the surface to investigate.
The distant horizon was a stretch of pitch black, devoid of sound or light.
‘It seems they let go?’
The General Giant Whale swam in circles a few tis, hesitant about whether to leave this place and head for other waters.
‘To act on behalf of mortals… this must be one of those ddleso immortal cultivators. It’s rare to encounter one, but they don’t seem very approachable.’
After a mont of hesitation, the General Giant Whale felt hunger gnawing at its belly, so it dove underwater and, opened its enormous jaws, and inhaled sharply.
On the surface, the waves didn’t seem to change much, but underwater, currents swirled, drawing countless fish of all sizes from afar, like a siphon draining water, feeding them directly into the General Giant Whale’s mouth.
The General Giant Whale’s mouth was like a bottomless pit, indiscriminately sucking in fish, shrimp, crabs, and everything in between. It took enough ti for a dozen ordinary breaths before it finally closed its mouth.
“Grrr… Grrr… Grr…”1
A grinding sound emanated from the General Giant Whale’s belly.
Although Ji Yuan couldn’t see clearly underwater from his position on the surface, he could sense the whale’s imposing aura and the changes in the auras of the ocean as countless fish, shrimp, and crabs were drawn in.
No wonder the coastal fishern couldn’t catch any fish; they weren’t scared away by evil spirits, they were simply being eaten by this General Giant Whale! It ate them wave after wave, so how could the fishern catch anything?
After finishing its al, the General Giant Whale wasn’t gluttonous; or rather, it was full. It surfaced again, still staring towards the shore it had fled from earlier.
Ji Yuan finally stopped waiting and revealed himself, speaking aloud.
“General Giant Whale, do you still have so lingering attachnt to this coastline? ”
The voice right beside him startled the General Giant Whale cold.
“Oh, mother-!”2
It spun around around and saw a “tiny little creature” standing on the surface of the ocean, not too far away. It wasn’t riding the waves or controlling the water, but rather floating up and down alongside the waves, as if its body were as light as a goose feather.
“You… are you that senior master who just attacked underhandedly? ”
“What harsh words. How can my strategy be called an underhanded attack? It was rely a minor punishnt. With your ability to devour fish, can you not go anywhere to eat? Why must you linger by the shore? The coastal fishern are practically starving to death. ”
Ji Yuan asked with a disdainful smile, then added.
“Also, you call yourself General Giant Whale. Which underwater palace’s general are you? And where are your troops? ”
Now that they were in deeper waters, the General Giant Whale was a little bolder.
“I am naturally General Giant Whale! This lord was appointed that title by my mother! As for my troops, hmph, none of them are worthy of my attention, so of course, I wouldn’t bring them along. My reasons for going to that part of the coast are my own business. What’s it to you? ”
Ji Yuan thought for a mont, then smiled and said to the General Giant Whale.
“You have a point. But what if I, Ji Yuan, still wish to know? ”
“Why? But what if I still want to know?”
“Why? If I told you just because you wanted to know, what would happen to my reputation as the General Giant Whale? ”
Ji Yuan solemnly reached his hand skyward and grasped the Green Vine Sword that had materialized before him.
“This sword, wrapped in green vines, its sharpness concealed from the heavens, is an immortal sword. It wouldn’t even need to be fully drawn to slay a monster like you. So then, why would you tell what I want to know? Naturally, it would be under duress!”
As he spoke, Ji Yuan gently drew out a third of the Green Vine Sword’s blade from the scabbard. A ribbon of pure white light seed to sweep across the surrounding sea, dimming the starlight in the sky. A bone-chilling cold swept through the air. The General Giant Whale’s massive body froze completely.
This was the first ti in its life that it had directly faced the might of an Immortal Sword. rely seeing a portion of the Immortal Sword’s blade had its mind uncontrollably begin to conjure various illusions.
Illusions like a silver light cleaving it to pieces, like flying swords circling to strip its bones, like cold ice freezing it solid, and like sword light pressing down and crushing him…
Ji Yuan was rely trying to scare him, but the General Giant Whale couldn’t withstand it at all. It was truly a classic example of being ‘grand in body, cowardly of spirit,’ and it hurriedly cried out in a panic.
“Don’t kill , don’t kill ! You’ll regret it if you kill ! I was waiting for Master Mo by the coast! I was waiting for Master Mo! ”
Ji Yuan sheathed the Green Vine Sword, his heart stirring slightly, but his face furrowed in a frown as he asked.
“Master Mo? Which Master Mo? What’s his background? Could he be an aquatic creature from the inland waters? ”
“Yes, yes, yes! Master Mo is a black flood dragon with profound cultivation. He passes by here every year. This ti, I traveled a long, long way and waited for over a year, but he never arrived! I’m not an evil demon who likes to harm people! I truly am not! ”
‘Mo Rong! ’
Ji Yuan’s heart stirred, and that na naturally surfaced in his mind—it was indeed the black flood dragon, Mo Rong, who had died after fleeing back to Dazhen all those years ago.
T/n: All I could think of was “the whale has a built in garbage disposal!” XD “Oh my god” but localized. Feel free to keep it as is or secretly headcanon the rest of the swear
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