Suddenly, Su Yan felt an itch on his body and scratched urgently.
The meat-colored tentacles in the sky kept splitting, stretching down from the air, finding new plague people, plugging into their bodies, sucking their life force.
Su Yan's qi and blood were abundant, so the tentacles couldn't approach him for now.
The itch he felt was sympathetic resonance.
He saw black qi threads filling the air, entering the plague people's bodies with their breath, silently eroding their qi and blood.
These threads entered his Realm of the Subtle and were illuminated by the flame the coffin girl had given him, dissipating before they could affect him.
"What are these blood-colored tentacles?" Su Yan murmured.
"Plague God!"
Hearing his description, the great bell's tone was grave. "What you see is a heavenly god who controls plague and natural disaster!"
"Heavenly god?"
Su Yan shuddered. He had encountered many gods, even killed a few, but even the most powerful City God Xue was far from comparable to the Plague God filling the sky!
"Heavenly gods dwell in the Heavenly Dao World, mastering heavenly dao, wielding heavenly principles. They do not age, do not die, do not perish."
The great bell said, "The Heavenly Dao World is distant and unfathomable. Heavenly gods rarely descend. How did the Plague God come down? Ah, it must be that the demoness's accomplices, to rescue her, performed a blood sacrifice to the Plague God, causing massive death, leading to the Nai River's diversion and the netherworld invasion!"
It sneered: "The demoness truly had ill intent!"
Su Yan gazed up at the sky. The main bodies of those thick tentacles were still in another world. Was that the Heavenly Dao World the great bell spoke of?
The tower ship still sailed forward. The half-hour the coffin girl had promised drew near. Su Yan looked at the banks. Corpses piled like mountains—the bodies of plague people. Someone had stacked firewood beneath the corpses and set them ablaze.
The flames reached five or six zhang high, dazzling in the night.
Countless ghost fires floated beside the corpse mountains. When the netherwind blew, the ghosts within suffered tearing agony, their faces twisted, bodies contorting, emitting mournful wails!
Some ghosts struggled in the flames, as if burning their corpses made their souls feel it too, as if they hadn't fully died.
Su Yan also saw figures—human or ghost—pulling cartloads of corpses and piling them beside the corpse mountains.
By the Nai River bank, faint chanting drifted over. Su Yan followed the sound and saw several monks sitting properly beside a corpse mountain, striking wooden fish, chanting the Rebirth Mantra in low voices.
Those monks also had festering sores, their bodies covered in the Plague God's tentacles.
Was this truly the coffin girl's accomplices' doing?
The great bell was uneasy and urged: "A-Yan, the plague qi is growing heavier here. Before long it will corrode your qi and blood defenses, and the Plague God will suck you dry! Let's leave quickly!"
Su Yan shook his head. "No! A gentleman keeps his word. I promised someone. How can I go back on it?"
The great bell raged: "The ones who summoned the Plague God are the demoness's accomplices! Their purpose in summoning the Plague God was to divert the Nai River, strike Little Stone Mountain, and rescue the demoness! You still think the demoness is good?"
Its fury erupted: "Uncle Bell is the good one! That night you hid in my temple, I saw the Nai River divert, you creatures about to die in the water, and I acted to protect you. If not for protecting your lives, how would I have been severely wounded by the demoness, how would I have let her escape?"
Su Yan thought for a moment. "Uncle Bell, you were kind to me. I remember it, which is why I let you steal my qi and blood to heal. I'm a country boy. I haven't read many books, but we country folk value gratitude and honor. The coffin girl said her purpose was to send the god away. I don't think she has ill intent."
The great bell roared: "The demoness was confined and suppressed in Little Stone Mountain by my master because she committed countless evils. Can't you see she's using you? She didn't even tell you her name—clearly she plans to use you and discard you!"
Su Yan laughed. "I'm a nobody, without any special skills. What do I have worth using?"
He circulated his spirit sense, sending it into the flame, controlling the Pure Yang Fire to fly out of his Realm of the Subtle and ignite the tower ship.
The flames gradually grew, brighter and fiercer than the bonfires on the bank.
Su Yan retracted the Pure Yang Fire into his Realm of the Subtle, leaped from the ship, and landed on the bank. He took the whip coiled at his waist.
The great bell was tense: "A-Yan, be careful not to fall for the demoness's scheme and cause a catastrophe!"
Su Yan surged with vital energy, raised the whip, and lashed it upward, following the coffin girl's instructions!
Crack!
His whip shot out, and against the wind, it grew longer and thicker!
What had looked like an ordinary whip now revealed countless details invisible before.
What had seemed like hemp rope weaving now showed countless scales, like countless headless, tailless dragon pythons coiled together!
In moments, the whip stretched three or four li. Su Yan gripped the handle, feeling the whip's surging power, as if he held the sinews of countless dragons, with divine dragons leaping at the other end!
Crack!
This lash struck the Plague God in the sky, tearing its flesh open!
The sky exploded. Flesh flew. Massive chunks of the Plague God's flesh fell down!
Su Yan was stunned.
The great bell clanged and twitched, its tone muted.
Su Yan's heart stopped. The coffin girl had told him to strike the sky. He had thought it was a simple ritual—after all, common folk had customs of beating drums and gongs and burning boats during plagues, hoping to scare the plague god away.
He hadn't expected the whip to expand and actually strike the boundless Plague God!
Accompanying the crack was a howling gale. Wind fed the fire, and the tower ship's blaze grew fiercer, flames consuming the hull!
In the screaming wind, the burning tower ship lifted from the river!
Earlier he hadn't had time to examine the vessel. Now he saw its details.
The tower ship had vermillion sides and a golden hull. On its four walls were ancient divine paintings.
The side paintings showed phoenixes carrying wood, building nests, igniting fire, nirvana rebirth.
The front painting was a Vermilion Bird, a sea of flames.
The rear painting was Zhurong, a fearsome, ugly god standing in a sea of fire.
The tower ship grew larger as it rose with the wind, higher and higher, the flames more ferocious!
Suddenly, phoenixes took flight from the walls, the Vermilion Bird spread its wings, Zhurong commanded the fire. The ship's flames spread, burning the sky crimson!
In the sky, the Plague God's tentacles sizzled and oozed oil in the fire. The massive writhing tentacles twisted and trembled in the flames.
Su Yan's eye twitched. He wasn't just whipping the Plague God—he was roasting it with fire.
"The coffin girl told me to strike until I had no strength left. Should I continue?"
Su Yan thought, hardened his heart, yanked the whip back, and thought: The god officials say I violate heavenly law, the magistrates say I break imperial law. There's no place for me to live in either netherworld or living world! Today I whip a heavenly god—it's just one more place in heaven that has no room for me! What do I fear?
The boy drew back the whip, and courage surged in his chest. He lashed at the Plague God in the sky: "If I can end this great plague, what harm in whipping a plague god? Plague God, I'll send you on your way!"
He pulled back hard. The whip, three or four li long, rapidly shrank to three or four zhang by his side. But as he struck again, it grew impossibly thick, countless dragon sinews surging, numbing his arms!
Crack!
Thunder roared in the sky. The whip was thicker and longer than before, dragon sinews churning with supreme power, striking the Plague God's tentacles, sending flesh flying!
Mountain-sized chunks of meat fell like rain. Heavenly god blood poured like waterfalls, turning into a bloody deluge, dyeing heaven and earth red!
This kingdom was called Zhudu. The plague had broken out, nine of ten houses empty, corpses everywhere, no one to bury them.
Thousands of nuo masters spread across Zhudu. Now they all looked up at the sky, each showing horror.
In the sky, a fire ship sailed through the gale, flames blazing. Around the ship, phoenixes, Vermilion Birds, Zhurong, and other divine and demonic manifestations appeared, feeding the flames!
The sky itself was ignited by the ship's strange fire, sizzling, burning out of thin air!
Suddenly, a fire whip ten li long struck out, like countless dragons linked head to tail. It hit the sky, and the sky seemed to crack, massive fragments falling down!
Even from the cracks in the sky, blood plasma poured like waterfalls!
The nuo masters of Zhudu were terrified. The sky bleeding—such things existed in legends, recorded in ancient texts or passed down in stories, but seeing it with their own eyes was the first time!
They couldn't see the Plague God in the sky. They only saw the fire ship and fire whip. That was why there were phenomena of the sky igniting, breaking, and bleeding.
But Zhudu was a great kingdom, and it had its share of hidden experts who could see the true phenomena. And the more they could see, the more terrified they became.
That long whip struck again and again, lashing the Plague God, sending wild thunderbolts racing through the sky, making the Plague God convulse!
The Pure Yang Fire filling the sky roasted the Plague God until it oozed oil, twisted and burned, and together with the lashes, the tentacles kept contracting, squeezing back toward the Heavenly Dao World.
In the sky, the Plague God's boundless body was actually shrinking.
This unstoppable heavenly god was actually being driven back to the Heavenly Dao World by the fire ship and fire whip!
The coffin girl stood quietly on a hilltop not far from the Nai River, her dress fluttering in the wind like an immortal about to fly away.
The girl was gentle and serene, but when she occasionally looked at the sky, her heart was not calm.
Finally, the fire ship ascended, the sky caught fire, and then the long whip rose from the earth like a dragon, striking the Plague God in the sky!
A smile crossed the girl's lips.
But after that first lash, there was no movement. The second lash didn't come.
The light in the girl's eyes dimmed. She said softly, "I can't blame him. Anyone seeing such a terrifying sight would find it hard to continue..."
She had just thought this when suddenly a second lash shot into the sky. The divine whip carrying blazing Pure Yang Fire struck the Plague God again, tearing its tentacles open, sending flesh flying!
The divine whip raised a gale, driving the tower ship, making the fire connect to heaven, roasting countless tentacles until they sizzled!
The girl smiled and said softly, "Daring to defy the world, in an age where qi cultivation has died out, someone still dares to become a qi cultivator. As expected, someone as bold as me!"
Her eyes shone as she gazed at the sky. "Summoning the Plague God came at a great cost. If it were me, I'd never let anyone send the Plague God back to the Heavenly Dao World. I'd definitely act to eliminate whoever was sending the god away! Let's see who you are!"
Her eyes flickered. These people had indulged the Plague God in killing, made the Nai River divert, besieged Little Stone Mountain, rescued her from the well bottom, then disappeared without a trace.
She knew there must be a scheme!
"We qi cultivators defy heaven in our cultivation. Since we dare defy heaven, how could we be used by petty men?"
She gazed at the sky, and suddenly her eyes lit up. Below the sea of fire, a figure shot through the air at extreme speed, heading straight for where the fire whip had risen!
That was exactly where Su Yan was wielding the whip!
"Found you!"
Behind the girl, the black coffin shot into the sky, chains dancing, racing toward that figure!
"Stay!"
Beneath the sea of fire, a radiance brighter than the sun erupted!
Su Yan was still wielding the whip. The whip grew longer and more powerful with each strike, making the sky rain blood. As for the tower ship, it had turned into blazing flames, igniting every part of the Plague God!
The Plague God's tentacles kept retracting toward the Heavenly Dao World, about to completely return—when the sky split open, and an impossibly thick tentacle descended from above, aiming to crush the place where the whip rose, where Su Yan stood!
That tentacle was like a massive finger, as if the Plague God had grown truly enraged, intent on crushing the one who dared whip and burn it!
Su Yan's whip was already catching fire, burning toward the handle. He had been terrified all along. Using his Heavenly Eye, he saw that tentacle descending from beyond the heavens. He couldn't care less, immediately throwing aside the burning whip and sprinting away, shouting: "Uncle Bell, run!"
The great bell was injured and couldn't move so swiftly. Su Yan immediately turned back, grabbed the bell's nose, and raced off!
Above them, space kept exploding. The Plague God's tentacle compressed the surrounding shattered space, thunder and fire rolling in all directions.
Boom!
An incomparably terrifying wave surged out, raising a hurricane that uprooted everything—trees, houses, rocks—sending them all into the air!
In the hurricane, a great bronze bell tumbled and bounced, sometimes hitting trees, sometimes hitting mountain rocks, flying who knew where.
Inside that bronze bell, a boy braced himself against the bell walls to keep from falling.