roccoschili Chapter 328 - 321: Change in the Destiny Golden Toad! Returning to Mount Everest
Chapter 328 - 321: Change in the Destiny Golden Toad! Returning to Mount Everest
Elder Zhou returned to Da Yu.
During his meeting with Shi Ming, he had hinted at as many details as he could. He didn’t know how much Shi Ming would grasp, but regardless, the first Saint Hall Level Awakener was undoubtedly an ally of Da Yu.
Moreover, his character was far from sinister.
For power to be in the hands of someone like him was a blessing for the Endless Ocean.
He sat down on the Jiuzhou Platform.
The next step was to have the Xirang Research Institute accelerate its research. Whether it was escaping the control of the "web," finding a way to suppress the Unceasing Water, or researching the artificial marvel known as Xirang—as long as any one of these projects made progress, Elder Zhou believed that with the help of a Saint Hall Level Awakener, the future he envisioned would arrive much sooner!
He stroked the Destiny Golden Toad.
He infused his Spiritual Power into the Golden Toad and, as usual, observed the two remaining golden and four purple strands of fortune.
Hm?
In an instant, he noticed a new change!
The golden strand of fortune symbolizing the toppling pillar had lost its brilliant light. Even the trace of red that had been growing deep within it was completely gone!
All that remained was a towering, lightless piece of dead wood, and even that was about to vanish completely from within the Golden Toad.
’The fortune is gone?’
...
...
...
For the three days after killing the Great Black Heaven Dragon, while he was absorbing the Holy Hall Origin deep beneath the sea, Shi Ming’s communicator had been buzzing with messages. But he was too immersed in his own advancement to bother with the endless attempts to curry his favor.
By the time he left the seabed, too many messages had piled up.
His crew was even "busier." Even the chef had important figures from various factions adding him on his communicator daily, making offers an ordinary person would find difficult to refuse, all in a vain attempt to get a line to Shi Ming through him.
But he rejected them all.
"Look, I’m just a cook,"
"I don’t get what you’re all talking about."
The crew all understood.
When it came to the captain’s affairs, they could never make a decision on their own.
The buzz on the official papers and various tabloids from the major King-level Wandering Ships had recently skyrocketed. A dizzying flood of "news" articles, both formal and informal, appeared one after another.
Dragon-Slaying Hero of the Sea of Soaring Dragons! Single-Handedly Saved a King-level Wandering Ship! Da Yu: "We Can Confirm It Happened!"
The Lighthouse’s Sins and Retribution: What Unspeakable Secrets Lie Behind Their Occupation of the Fujing Mountain Sea Region?
Exclusive Interview with the Sole Surviving Princess of the Vortex Country Shipwreck: A Blessing in Disguise After Being Kicked Off the Renhuang? Child Born Safely, Now Devoting Herself to a Quiet Family Life.
Leader of the Criminal Organization Snow Country, Catherine, Captured by the Lighthouse While on the Run in the Columbia Sea!
News from official sources had mostly been reviewed multiple times.
Information deemed unsuitable for ordinary Awakened had been sanitized to some extent. The tabloid stories, however, were three parts truth and seven parts fiction, using exaggerated headlines to embellish speculative tales that were, conversely, all the more enticing to readers.
This time, however, Shi Ming had no time to concern himself with such trivial matters.
After retrieving the rest of the Great Black Heaven Dragon’s corpse, Shi Ming stuffed it into the Captain’s Space in his cabin to keep the Jianmu seedling company. Only a space that vast could store so much Holy Hall-level Flesh and Blood.
The various factions were desperate to purchase it, but given the precedent set by the Lighthouse, Shi Ming announced that for now, it was not for sale.
’Who knows what kind of crazy stuff those brilliant scientists could cook up with it.’
Without wasting any time, he turned down all invitations and social engagements and returned to the summit of Mount Everest.
’I have to find out as soon as possible what that terror inside the mountain truly is!’
’With my Saint Hall Level status,’ Shi Ming thought, ’I refuse to believe I’ll still just see a pile of blocks when I probe it now!’
Everything was now calm on this sole patch of land in the Endless Ocean. Da Yu was methodically investigating the clues from last time, but unfortunately, it seemed they hadn’t found anything new.
"Eye of the World, acquire information!"
[BEEP~ BEEP~]
[Organizing information...]
[Searching. Confirming detailed coordinates... Search successful. Summarizing information... Information generated.]
[Jianmu Wreckage.]
[Having lost its Life Holy Hall Origin, the ten-thousand-year-old Jianmu now decays deep within the mountain range... The immense energy of its trunk has been completely devoured, leaving behind only a collapsed pillar several thousand meters high.]
[...]
?????
’Seriously? That’s it?’
Last time, Ah Jian had seen the fallen body of the Creation Celestial Pillar being corroded, nourishing a new terror.
’So where’s the terror?’
’Ah Jian couldn’t have been wrong. And my Eye of the World was interfered with—censored—before. A mere Jianmu wreckage couldn’t possibly have enough influence to prevent even a derivative skill of the Eye of the Divine like the Eye of the World from seeing through it!’
’Something’s changed!’
Shi Ming’s expression turned grave.
"Ah Jian!"
"Use your Spiritual Power to penetrate Mount Everest. See if the terror from before is still there."
The Twelve-winged Black Insect vibrated its wings.
"Yes, Master,"
Though afraid, it followed Shi Ming’s command. Its even more powerful Spiritual Power permeated the mountain as illusory threads, seeping through cracks in the stone, into layered strata, past bedrock and soil, cautiously probing toward the mountain’s core.
With the last experience still vivid in its mind, Ah Jian was much more cautious this time.
Shi Ming monitored Ah Jian’s condition, ready to intervene at a moment’s notice.
A moment later.
"Master."
"Yes?"
"I’ve detected the remains of the Creation Celestial Pillar. The terrifying creature it was nourishing within... is gone."
’Gone?’
’It’s been less than half a month since I left, and it’s already gone?’
Shi Ming frowned.
After a moment’s thought, he quickly took out the Map of the Endless Sea from his inventory.
The power of the Fallen Sanctuary filled the map, turning it a deep azure. After its limit break, the Map of the Endless Sea’s detection range had expanded enormously, and it could now pinpoint the hidden lairs of Holy Hall-level Sea Beasts.
To Shi Ming, the lairs of the Holy Hall-level Sea Beasts were no longer a secret.
"One, two,"
"Three, four..."
"Only four left?"
"The Holy Hall-level Sea Beast at the Extreme North Ice Eye... is gone too?"
Shi Ming’s pupils dilated uncontrollably. He clearly remembered that the first time he used the Map of the Endless Sea to locate the Holy Hall-level Sea Beasts in the Endless Ocean, there were six of them on the map. They were at:
Fujing Mountain;
The Sea of Boiling;
The Fichaz Sea Abyss;
The Extreme North Ice Eye;
The Amazon Earth’s Lung;
And the Great Salt Lake!
He had come here, to the place where the Creation Celestial Pillar fell, without a moment’s delay after killing the Great Black Heaven Dragon. He had come specifically to nip this out-of-control "terror" in the bud. And yet, it seemed he was still a step too late?
’Did that thing slip away?’
’And at the same time, the Holy Hall-level Sea Beast at the Extreme North Ice Eye vanished, too?’
"Ah Jian, can you detect any traces it left behind?"
’If there are traces, I can use spiritual reconstruction to isolate them. Then I can use the Eye of the World for a targeted probe to get some detailed intel and decide my next move.’
"No, it vanished completely."
"What about the Creation Celestial Pillar’s Holy Hall Origin?"
"It’s gone."
...