Chapter 257 : Midnight Song
A tremendous "BOOM" echoed through the night as the ghost ship seemed to collide with something.
In the dead of night, this impact came so suddenly that not only were the unprepared cultivators caught off guard, but even Jiang Mo, who had received advance warning through her mission prompts, was momentarily stunned—wasn't this ship supposed to be unable to collide with anything? It could pass straight through rocky islands and even spirit beasts couldn't touch it, so what could it possibly have encountered in the middle of the night?
Many people hurriedly left their cabins and rushed to the deck, where they immediately spotted enormous tentacles gripping the edge of the deck. The tentacles appeared tough and slimy, covered with suction cups of various sizes, a sight that was both terrifying and revolting.
Some cultivators who had never encountered the ocean before couldn't help but ask with disgust, "What is that?"
Others who had spent considerable time by the sea, including Jiang Mo who had even sampled seafood delicacies, weren't faring much better—in fact, they covered their mouths, feeling nauseated: "It might... might be a giant octopus?"
Even if it was an octopus, it clearly wasn't an ordinary one. More accurately, it should be some kind of octopus-type spirit beast, and its cultivation level must be quite high. However, after seeing all manner of deep-sea spirit beasts these past days, the focus wasn't on what this creature looked like, but rather why it had appeared here and how it had successfully made contact with the ghost ship.
A quick-thinking cultivator immediately levitated into the air, flying to the height that would normally be blocked by the ghost ship's barrier. This time, however, he wasn't blocked and actually flew beyond the barrier's range, immediately shouting, "This is bad, the barrier is completely gone!"
Before anyone on the ghost ship could react to these words, a dark shadow swiftly darted through the night sky, and the levitating cultivator vanished before everyone's eyes. The last sound he made was a scream filled with terror and agony. The scream was deeply unsettling in the darkness, and it stopped halfway through—clearly, his chances of survival were slim.
Cold sweat broke out on the backs of the cultivators aboard the ghost ship as they immediately realized that the air was not a safe place to be—after all, not everything in the deep sea was a fish. But without its protective barrier, the ghost ship no longer seemed like a safe haven either.
As these thoughts crossed their minds, they felt the ghost ship violently rock beneath their feet as the giant octopus began to exert its strength.
The ghost ship was large, but the deep-sea spirit beast was even larger. With a crisp "snap," several more tentacles attached themselves to the ship's railings. The giant octopus seemed intent on climbing aboard, or perhaps it was trying to capsize the ghost ship. Once the entire octopus had attached itself to one side of the vessel, the massive ship immediately lost balance and began to tilt.
Someone quickly realized the danger and shouted, "This is bad, it's trying to flip the ship!"
The sky was now off-limits due to lurking spirit beasts, and the sea was likely even more dangerous, with even more creatures hiding beneath the surface. Even though the ghost ship had lost its protective barrier, it was still their best option, so naturally, no one was willing to watch idly as the octopus capsized it.
Several attacks were immediately launched at the creature, the spiritual light from these attacks briefly illuminating the deck. The cultivators who attacked were quite powerful, yet when their attacks landed on the giant octopus, they were immediately deflected by the slime covering its body, diffusing most of the force. The actual impact probably felt little more than a tickle to the creature, and instead only served to enrage it.
The giant octopus began attacking the ghost ship, but the vessel's durability was something Jiang Mo had personally tested before. If a Fusion stage White Tiger could barely scratch it, the giant octopus would clearly find it extremely difficult to destroy.
Spirit beasts develop intelligence as they advance in rank, and this giant octopus was no less clever than humans. Realizing that damaging the ship was too difficult, it immediately changed tactics, redoubling its efforts to capsize the vessel.
Seeing this, the cultivators knew they were in trouble and launched even more attacks. Multicolored spiritual lights exploded across the octopus's body.
Now they could appreciate the advantage of competing to board the ship—none of the cultivators who had made it aboard were weaklings. Even though the octopus's slime could absorb much of the attacks' power, the barrage of strikes still managed to inflict numerous wounds on its body. The tentacles gripping the ship's railings suffered the most damage, with one nearly severed and on the verge of falling off.
As the giant octopus sustained more injuries, it became increasingly violent. Initially only grappling with the ghost ship, it now diverted four tentacles to attack the people on deck.
The cultivators reacted quickly and dodged, but in the crossfire of attacks, some unfortunate souls couldn't escape and were struck by the flailing tentacles—though these tentacles appeared flexible and soft, being hit by one felt no different than being struck by steel. Even with bodies tempered by lightning tribulation, those who were hit spat blood as their internal organs were crushed.
Whether those struck would survive remained uncertain, but having landed a successful hit, the giant octopus clearly had no intention of stopping. On the contrary, its tentacles began to flail even more wildly. Occasionally, the tentacles would fling slime, and those who were touched by it initially felt only disgust, but gradually lost their strength and collapsed to the ground, defenseless.
Everyone quickly realized the slime was poisonous, but the discovery came too late—many cultivators had already been affected.
While this account seems lengthy, the events actually unfolded in the blink of an eye. Just as the situation was turning dire, a flash of white sword light streaked across everyone's vision, striking with lightning speed at one of the wildly flailing tentacles.
With a "thud," the flailing tentacle fell to the deck, its foul-smelling blood spreading across the planks... The tentacle had been severed with a single sword strike and continued to writhe on the deck, a sight both nauseating and terrifying.
No one dared approach the poisonous severed tentacle, but many looked toward the source of the sword light. They saw a woman in cyan robes and a mask standing atop the mast, looking down at the giant octopus. The creature, having just lost a limb, was clearly not going to back down. A sharp sound pierced their souls as several thick, long tentacles whipped toward the figure on the mast.
Simultaneously, under the cover of darkness, a black shadow silently glided through the night sky, also heading toward the figure standing at the high point.
Yun Qingyue had spent years traveling abroad, and as her cultivation rapidly increased, she had faced countless dangers—to say nothing of her habit of causing trouble for the Nine Abyss Sect, whose members wouldn't show mercy for the sake of the Crimson Blood Sect Leader. On the contrary, their methods were ruthless, with assassinations and traps constantly emerging. While accumulating numerous injuries, Yun Qingyue had also gained extremely rich combat experience.
At this moment, without even looking carefully, she had the intuition of being targeted by danger. Moreover, this intuition came not only from the visible attack but also from a threat lurking in the darkness... It was an instinctive reaction developed from countless ambushes.
Caught in a pincer attack, Yun Qingyue remained calm. Just as she was about to dodge, she suddenly sensed another figure beside her. A golden light shot out from her side, carrying immense pressure toward the incoming tentacles.
Yun Qingyue only hesitated for a moment before stopping her planned evasion and instead turning her sword to face what was behind her.
Almost simultaneously, a shrill cry echoed through the night sky as a unidentified spirit beast taller than a human was struck by Yun Qingyue's sword and fell into the sea. The giant octopus fared no better in the frontal assault—previously it had only lost one tentacle, but now it couldn't even save the remaining three. With three consecutive thuds of massive objects hitting the deck, all the tentacles on one side of the giant octopus had been severed.
"Ssss..." someone who clearly saw the two figures standing on the mast couldn't help but exclaim, "So powerful!" Indeed worthy of the people who had disregarded the rules and forcefully broken through the barrier to board the ship.
At this moment, those standing on the deck were mostly Void Crossing and Spirit Division cultivators, with a few Nascent Soul cultivators mixed among them. As for the Fusion stage powerhouses leading the seven sects, not one had appeared. Perhaps they wanted to train their disciples, or perhaps they felt the current situation didn't warrant their intervention, which left Jiang Mo as the only Fusion stage expert to take action.
And with Jiang Mo's intervention, the outcome was essentially decided—as mentioned earlier, the giant octopus was not stupid. Realizing it was completely outmatched by Jiang Mo, it no longer cared about its severe injuries and immediately released its remaining tentacles.
With a tremendous "splash," the giant octopus that had been clinging proudly to the ghost ship just moments ago fell back into the sea.
The churning waters took on a bloody tinge, mixed with the scent of blood.
No one knew whether the giant octopus could survive after escaping back to the sea, or if it would return for revenge. This thought had barely crossed their minds when they saw another golden light shoot into the sea. The deep blue water churned briefly, and the blood color intensified.
Temporarily out of danger, everyone breathed a huge sigh of relief. Although the entire incident had lasted only moments and only one or two people had died, everyone still felt a lingering fear when they thought about what had just happened. Some ran to the railing to look down, but the seawater was pitch black, and they couldn't see anything clearly.
Someone worriedly asked, "The ghost ship's barrier is gone, and with all this blood in the water, what if more spirit beasts are attracted?"
This concern prompted many others to worry as well, and the deck once again filled with the buzz of discussion. Jiang Mo and Yun Qingyue, standing atop the mast at some distance, could only hear half of what was being said as the night wind carried the voices away.
Yun Qingyue sheathed her sword, still confused about the night's events. She turned her head, about to thank Jiang Mo, when she suddenly paused. She tilted her head slightly, as if listening for something, and changed what she was about to say: "Fellow Daoist Jiang, do you hear something?"
Jiang Mo did hear it—the night wind was carrying a song.