Chapter 260 : First Landing on the Island
There were many cultivators aboard the ghost ship with greatly varying cultivation levels—the lowest at Nascent Soul, the highest at Fusion or even Grand Achievement stages. These individuals weren't just highly cultivated but also advanced in age. With their vast knowledge and experience, how could they be so easily affected?
A battle immediately erupted on the sea surface. However, the deep sea was ultimately the territory of spirit beasts. No one knew how many years they had been amassing their strength here—even Fusion stage beasts appeared in groups, and the even more powerful Grand Achievement stage beasts weren't particularly rare. Additionally, spirit beasts naturally possessed tough hides and thick flesh, giving human cultivators no advantage in direct combat. Before long, those dozen or so powerful cultivators found themselves at a disadvantage.
Some were injured, some captured alive, some fell into the sea, and others escaped in the chaos...
Hearing the system's description from beneath the sea, Jiang Mo couldn't help but feel deeply moved—she had thought her current cultivation level was already quite high, but it seemed the difficulty of this dungeon had risen accordingly. Looking at those deep-sea spirit beasts, they were truly not to be trifled with.
After this reflection, she couldn't help feeling grateful that her senior sister had stopped her; otherwise, she probably wouldn't have fared well either.
Amid these jumbled thoughts, the giant fish carried them swiftly through the seabed. The fish swam much faster than the ghost ship had sailed. The merperson island, which Jiang Mo had originally thought they would reach by afternoon by ship, took less than an hour to reach by fish. Then, without ceremony, the fish spat out all the cultivators in its mouth with a "ptooey."
With the system's prompt, Jiang Mo had naturally prepared well in advance and didn't forget to hold onto her senior sister when the fish spat them out. Seeing they had reached the merperson island, Jiang Mo felt less concerned and, not wanting to appear too disheveled, pulled her senior sister down to land gracefully.
The others weren't so fortunate. They had all fallen into the fish's mouth while unconscious and remained so when spat out, thus landing hard on the ground. With a clatter, the cultivators fell in a heap. The only consolation was that they landed on a sandy beach, so there was no need to worry about serious injuries or death from the fall.
Now that Yun Qingyue was being pulled by Jiang Mo, she no longer pretended to be unconscious. After landing, she looked around: "Where is this?" Before Jiang Mo could answer, she continued to herself: "Seems to be some island?"
Jiang Mo nodded, about to explain the situation from the beginning, when her expression suddenly changed.
Not only Jiang Mo, but Yun Qingyue's expression also changed, because in the brief moment since landing, both had sensed their internal spiritual energy rapidly draining away. The feeling was like a wooden bucket full of water suddenly developing a hole in its bottom, with water gushing out—even if discovered, there was no way to plug the leak.
It's important to understand that a cultivator's power comes from their internal spiritual energy, the foundation for activating all spells. Not just Yun Qingyue, who was born and raised as a cultivator, but even Jiang Mo, after eighty years of cultivation, had grown accustomed to the power that came with abundant spiritual energy.
Almost without thinking, Jiang Mo grabbed Yun Qingyue, intending to fly away from this strange merperson island. However, while landing had been easy, taking flight again proved incredibly difficult—they couldn't rise more than half a meter before falling back down. Worse still, the island beneath their feet seemed to sense their intention to leave and became even more relentless in draining their spiritual energy. The energy they had accumulated was depleted almost instantly.
Having suddenly lost their spiritual energy, both stumbled and fell.
Jiang Mo dropped to one knee, quickly extending a hand to support the similarly falling Yun Qingyue: "How are you? Are you alright?"
Yun Qingyue tightly gripped Jiang Mo's arm, recovered for a moment, then shook her head and stood up again: "I'm fine, thank you."
Jiang Mo adapted even faster than Yun Qingyue. Having lived as a mortal for over twenty years previously was one factor, and being a White Tiger by nature, her physical constitution was naturally much stronger than human cultivators. After recovering from this bout of weakness, she didn't even have time for pleasantries with her senior sister before immediately asking the system: "System, what's happening? Is there something strange about this island?"
The system, being a technological product with a different energy system, had noticed nothing before landing on the island. Fortunately, it had access to the host's data panel, which it quickly pulled up and scanned before telling Jiang Mo: "Host, look at your panel—you've gained two debuffs."
Only then did Jiang Mo remember to check, hastily opening her character panel to see that her status bar indeed showed two new debuffs: "Skill Lock" and "Spiritual Energy Drain." Seeing the time limit displayed as 99 seconds but never changing, she immediately drew a sharp breath, feeling darkness before her eyes—the entire tiger was about to lose it.
The system tried to console her: "Host, look on the bright side—at least you didn't revert to your original form, right?"
Jiang Mo wasn't comforted by this at all; instead, she only wanted to sigh—she had imagined countless possibilities but never thought that upon landing on the island, she would lose all her spiritual energy. Having lost all her power in an instant, she felt anxious and insecure.
Just then, her senior sister's voice came from beside her: "Fellow Daoist Jiang, Fellow Daoist Jiang, what's wrong?"
Jiang Mo snapped back to reality, turning her head to meet eyes filled with concern. Her uneasy heart suddenly steadied again, and she asked solemnly: "Fellow Daoist, how much spiritual energy do you have left?"
Yun Qingyue looked at her and, for some reason, didn't conceal the truth despite the personal nature of the question: "None at all."
Hearing this, Jiang Mo's lips twitched into a bitter smile: "Same here." But after the bitter smile, she quickly regained her spirits and declared confidently once more: "But don't worry, I'll still protect you."
After a long moment, a faint "Mm" seemed to come from the beach.
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Jiang Mo and Yun Qingyue discovered the trouble as soon as they landed on the island, but at least they were awake—if danger arose, they could still find ways to save themselves. The cultivators who had been spat onto the merperson island with them were in an even worse situation. They remained unconscious and utterly defenseless; even passing crabs could bully them.
The two watched as one unconscious cultivator blocked a crab's path, and the ill-tempered crab immediately pinched him right on the face. Soon after, the cultivator's entire face swelled up!
Jiang Mo wasn't one to meddle in others' affairs, nor was Yun Qingyue, but both had been raised in righteous sects and couldn't simply stand by and watch people die. Moreover, among the fallen people were cultivators from the three righteous sects, possibly even acquaintances. So before Yun Qingyue could speak, Jiang Mo proactively asked: "Fellow Daoist, what should we do with these people?"
Yun Qingyue thought briefly before saying: "Let's see if we can wake them first."
Jiang Mo agreed and began going from person to person, trying to rouse them—ordinarily, this wouldn't have been so troublesome, but with their spiritual energy completely drained, they couldn't even access their storage spaces, much less use any medicinal pills.
The White Tiger's innate space hadn't been affected, but Jiang Mo didn't want to reveal her identity so soon, and the situation wasn't desperate enough to warrant it. So to avoid arousing her senior sister's suspicions, she didn't take out any pills from her innate space and instead went about slapping faces to wake people up. Fortunately, after trying three to five people, one or two would wake up, though those who did were injured and in a sorry state.
"What happened?"
"Where is this?"
"How did we get here?"
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As more people woke up, a clamor of questions arose. However, Jiang Mo couldn't be bothered to respond to each one, and Yun Qingyue clearly had no interest in solving their confusion either. So questions were asked one after another, but none received answers.
Jiang Mo moved quickly, abandoning those she couldn't wake, while Yun Qingyue went in another direction. When all the cultivators on the beach had been checked once, Jiang Mo turned over the last prone figure only to see a familiar face—it was actually Zhong Heng. Although Jiang Mo and Yun Qingyue had spent over a month on the ghost ship and had encountered Su Hao and the others, they hadn't seen him. Who would have thought he was on the ship as well!
Zhong Heng now lay on the beach, with surging seawater soaking half his body, yet he remained oblivious. His eyes were tightly shut, his face pale, with traces of dried blood at the corner of his mouth—clearly injuries sustained the previous night.
This was truly an acquaintance, and moreover, one whose life and death she couldn't disregard casually.
Jiang Mo secretly frowned, reaching out to pat his face: "Fellow Daoist, Fellow Daoist, wake up..."
Zhong Heng's cultivation wasn't considered high on the ghost ship, at most early Void Crossing stage, and whoever had attacked him had shown no mercy. After calling several times without waking him, and unable to leave him unattended, Jiang Mo had no choice but to secretly take out a medicinal pill and slip it into Zhong Heng's mouth while her senior sister wasn't looking.
Just as she slipped the pill in, Yun Qingyue arrived and asked from behind: "Fellow Daoist Jiang, how is it going?"
Jiang Mo gave a start, unsure if she had been seen, but maintained a nonchalant expression: "Nothing special. I've tried waking everyone else; this is the last one. But he seems injured, and quite seriously at that."
As her words fell, Yun Qingyue's gaze swept past her shoulder to the unconscious Zhong Heng on the ground. Despite being a junior brother she had personally taught, and even though Yun Qingyue had intentionally distanced herself from her sect, seeing Zhong Heng in such a state, she still couldn't ignore him. Yun Qingyue immediately anxiously circled around Jiang Mo, kneeling on one knee to examine Zhong Heng's injuries.
Whether by coincidence or because of the medicinal pill Jiang Mo had just administered, the moment Yun Qingyue's fingertips touched Zhong Heng, he awoke. His eyes were sharp and full of wariness as he immediately grabbed Yun Qingyue's hand that was checking his pulse.
However, with just one glance, his grip loosened, and he stammered: "Senior Sister?!"
Yun Qingyue paused, seemingly surprised that she had been recognized despite wearing a mask. Given the circumstances, she didn't have the heart to continue concealing her identity and lightly acknowledged with an "Mm" before asking: "How are you? Are your injuries serious?"
Zhong Heng's eyes brightened even more as he supported himself to sit up: "Don't worry, Senior Sister. I'm fine, very well." After saying this, he assessed his internal condition and found that his injuries had indeed mostly healed, though his spiritual energy was completely gone. So he asked with confusion: "Did Senior Sister give me medicine to heal my wounds? But why is all my spiritual energy gone?!" Before Yun Qingyue could answer, he noticed the unfamiliar surroundings, paused in surprise, and asked again: "And where is this place?"
With these three questions posed in succession, Yun Qingyue didn't rush to answer but instead turned her gaze toward Jiang Mo, who was pretending nothing had happened.