Chapter 111
Chapter 111: The Stone Pearl
As soon as these words echoed out, Cang Yin Yue’s eyes flickered with shock. She sharply turned her head, staring at the torch-lit waters.
Li Mu Sheng, however, frowned deeply. Why did things keep getting scarier the more they spoke?
“You, kid, better not be frightening me for no reason,” he murmured, stepping forward and instantly vanishing from his spot. In the blink of an eye, he appeared above A’Bin’s head.
Yet soon, Li Mu Sheng’s expression abruptly changed. “Oh dear, these corpses really started moving?”
Ahead, in the deeper waters where corpses drifted, there were dozens of bodies dressed in robes of red, purple, and blue. Their heads, previously submerged quietly, were now twisting strangely, causing their black hair to float and writhe wildly.
Before long, their limbs began rapidly flailing, speeding up with every second. They looked like drowning victims struggling desperately, splashing wildly, and the echo of their chaotic movements filled the silence of the cave.
“My lord, see? I wasn’t lying!” A’Bin raised his head anxiously towards Li Mu Sheng, his face pale. He suggested softly, “Perhaps we should retreat first? I think we might have gone the wrong way.”
Hearing this, Li Mu Sheng thoughtfully rubbed his chin and glanced back at Cang Yin Yue. “He might be right, Miss Cang. What do you think?”
Cang Yin Yue’s pale face flushed slightly, and she glared softly at Li Mu Sheng from a distance. According to her memory, the direction she chose should be correct. Those surviving remnants of Great Qi had deliberately built these hidden waterways toward Dragon Abyss Lake, precisely for their secret passage. They wouldn’t intentionally set up such a bizarre group of corpses blocking their path.
But seeing the current situation, she had to admit it was possible she had misjudged the correct path underground, subtly drifting off course in the dark.
Yet, while Cang Yin Yue pondered over her mistake, A’Bin suddenly screamed from the distant water.
“Oh heavens! That corpse—it just turned its head and looked at me!”
Li Mu Sheng glanced down at A’Bin, thinking amusedly how quickly the boy was learning his speaking style. But indeed, the boy hadn’t exaggerated. Those dozen or so brightly robed corpses had suddenly turned their heads, staring blankly toward the two of them. Their eyes were pure white without a hint of black, faces pale as if they’d been dead for centuries.
The next moment, the corpses swiftly flipped over, thrashing limbs wildly as they began swimming rapidly towards Li Mu Sheng and A’Bin.
Seeing this, A’Bin’s expression grew dark with fear as he looked up at Li Mu Sheng for reassurance.
Li Mu Sheng casually waved his hand, saying confidently, “Relax, you’re so high above the water. They can’t leap up here to catch you, can they?”
But just as he finished speaking, those corpses abruptly launched themselves several meters into the air, lunging fiercely toward Li Mu Sheng and A’Bin.
Not only that, the corpses released a dreadful scream, their harsh cries piercing the silence, sending vibrations through the water and shaking loose rocks from the cave’s ceiling.
At the same time, countless other corpses floating motionlessly nearby suddenly awoke, stirred by the screams, splashing violently until the whole water surface seemed to boil.
Water splashed everywhere, the noise like roaring waves, threatening to collapse the cave itself.
A’Bin was frozen in horror, unable to move within the Qi binding him. He watched helplessly as pale faces and sharp claws rapidly approached.
Just then, Li Mu Sheng standing mid-air, gave a faint but cold hum.
A’Bin’s eyes widened in astonishment, an expression of disbelief filling his face.
The corpses, suspended mid-air and rushing toward them, suddenly froze. In the next instant, they melted like candles into streams of liquid, flowing back down into the darkness.
Simultaneously, all the other corpses frantically splashing in the water below dissolved in the same manner, becoming streams of corpse water merging silently into the cold underground river.
Everything happened swiftly—in just the blink of an eye, every corpse vanished, leaving silence profound enough to hear a pin drop.
“You corpses sure are courageous, trying to embarrass me like that,” Li Mu Sheng remarked, raising an eyebrow lightly. A’Bin looked up, deeply shaken.
At this moment, A’Bin truly witnessed Li Mu Sheng’s martial dao strength. Hundreds of corpses reduced to nothing instantly, yet he hadn’t even seen Li Mu Sheng move. It was hard to believe someone this young could possess such frightening martial prowess.
Meanwhile, Li Mu Sheng’s gaze flickered forward, narrowing slightly. He waved his hand, and the Qi around A’Bin dispersed, freeing him completely.
“Miss Cang, stay here for now. I’ll return shortly,” Li Mu Sheng called back gently to Cang Yin Yue, then disappeared in the blink of an eye, moving deeper into the cave.
“Be careful!” Cang Yin Yue urged. She, too, began sensing an ominous presence rising from deeper within the water.
A’Bin, regaining his freedom, lightly stepped across the water and perched himself upon a nearby rock. He stared intently after Li Mu Sheng, unable to shake off the lingering awe from earlier.
Crack!
A sharp sound of splitting rock echoed faintly from within the darkness. Li Mu Sheng moved swiftly and silently, traveling deeper into the cavern.
As he ventured further, strange whispering filled his ears, like countless voices murmuring close by. But their words were blurred and unclear, impossible to decipher.
“Quiet!” Li Mu Sheng paused abruptly, uttering softly.
Immediately, about a hundred meters away, the water suddenly surged violently, bursting upward in an explosive fountain. Innumerable droplets sprayed upward, shaking the cavern walls fiercely.
From the burst water rose a circular stone pearl, glowing faintly gray as it spun mid-air. From the surrounding darkness, countless anxious whispers seemed to rise urgently, as if calling to the pearl itself.