Grinding EXP From a Demon Hunting Ship

The bronze door trembled.

The gray-white mist churned. From behind the door, a booming sound echoed.

’Have they made their move?’

A gleam flashed in Su Ye’s eyes.

He immediately realized that Lu Chen and the other real-world cultivators were trying to kill the lord.

"Hm, they didn’t notify me beforehand. Tsk, tsk... looks like they don’t quite trust me..." Su Ye murmured, but his expression remained calm.

This was perfectly normal.

Putting himself in their shoes, he would also find it difficult to fully trust an entity that never revealed its form and only communicated in a strange, disembodied manner.

After all, there was no shortage of malevolent, intelligent beings within the ruins.

With several hundred years of life and rich adventuring experience, Lu Chen was no Qin Wuyou—a novice who, despite his high cultivation realm, had spent his years in seclusion and lacked practical experience.

’But...’

’Since they’ve made their move...’

Su Ye muttered to himself.

Lu Chen had acted, and it seemed to be having a good effect.

It had even caused ripples that affected the dreamscape.

’In that case...’

’I’ll go take a look.’

Su Ye hadn’t forgotten.

There was some kind of mechanism within this shrine.

To kill the monster of the ruins, both the parties in the real world and the dreamscape had to work together.

Only then could it be killed with relative ease.

In other words...

’If I choose to stay out of it and just wait here... and Lu Chen’s group suffers a crushing defeat in the real world, then I’ll have to face the lord all by myself.’

’I’d rather not do that.’

Of course, there was another possibility.

Lu Chen was far stronger than he imagined and had managed to defeat the lord in the real world.

In that case, Su Ye would only need to do some simple clean-up.

’It’s possible...’

’...but not very likely.’ Su Ye sighed softly and stepped into the gray mist.

...

The door swung open.

A dense, gray-white mist enveloped Su Ye.

A biting cold touched his skin, feeling as if it would seep into his very heart.

THUMP!

His heart beat.

Pumping scalding blood.

Su Ye’s formidable physique radiated the warmth of life, warding off the biting chill.

A few breaths later, Su Ye strode out of the gray mist.

And now, a completely different scene unfolded before his eyes.

A magnificent hall, brightly lit chandeliers, and gorgeous carpets—the feeling was utterly different from the tomb-like catacombs he had been in before.

A heroic and majestic deity sat high upon a throne. Holy spirits and Angels, brimming with divinity, lined both sides of a long table, indulging in an endless feast and drinking fragrant, mellow wine.

This scene looked as if it could last until the end of time.

Of course, it only looked that way.

TAP.

Su Ye walked at a slow, unhurried pace.

He reached the edge of the banquet, looked up, and gazed toward the deity seated high on the throne at the end of the long table.

"Greetings to you, strange deity... It seems you’re quite nostalgic for this scene?" Su Ye’s eyes flickered as he scrutinized the jubilant feast.

But the many heroic spirits and Angels showed no reaction to Su Ye, this intruder at their feast. They continued to drink, lost in their revelry.

It was as if... they were illusions?

"Heh..."

"Strange sea-spawn, you must find this amusing..." On the throne, the deity—who looked heroic and extraordinary, almost identical to the marble statue—looked at Su Ye and sighed softly.

VMMMM.

The lights abruptly dimmed.

The reveling holy spirits suddenly vanished. The festive scene transformed into a dilapidated and deathly silent circular plaza.

But the greatest change was to the deity sitting on the throne... His flesh instantly shriveled and withered. In a flash, his handsome face became as terrifying as an undead creature’s!

Moreover...

Compared to his appearance in the real world, the lord in the dreamscape had another abnormality!

Su Ye’s gaze fell on his left chest, where a pitch-black broken sword was embedded... An incredibly dense, cold, and sinister aura seeped out from it!

THUMP.

The panel materialized, trembling slightly.

’This broken sword can make the panel react?’

Su Ye was startled and spoke.

"Is this... the seal?"

"Not really... This is merely a shallow seal. The true, deep seal is located in a far more profound and inconceivable dreamscape."

A hoarse voice replied.

This lord seemed to have retained more of his sanity than the Corrupted Knight.

As Su Ye thought this, he asked tentatively, "Respected deity, I know nothing about this Grotto Heaven or the seal. Could you enlighten me?"

"I can offer compensation?"

"Heh... You wish to understand the seal?" The Undead Lord’s withered cheeks twitched a few times, and he let out a harsh, grating laugh that sounded like scraping metal.

"That can be arranged."

"Join me and become a part of this seal!"

The Undead Lord let out a long howl.

In this dreamscape, time had already lost all meaning.

Even a deity like him, over an unimaginably long stretch of time, had been completely corrupted by the very thing he was meant to guard.

He had fallen from a guardian to a prisoner. He had even lost the ability to take his own life. All he could do was add a few more prisoners to this cage.

That was all.

Then, the Undead Lord rose to his full height. His eyes were filled with a vicious light. He raised a hand, still covered in a layer of shriveled flesh and blood, and made a grasping motion in the air.

An ancient bronze ge—a dagger-axe—materialized in his hand. The Undead Lord lunged forward, sweeping the ge toward Su Ye!

The ge seemed to grow as it cut through the air. It appeared slow, but in reality, it was as fast as an arrow loosed from a bowstring.

In the blink of an eye, the blade’s edge crossed a distance of a hundred zhang!

WHOOSH!

It descended from above.

Like a steep mountain peak crashing down!

And then...

CLANG!

The ear-piercing sound of metal on metal rang out.

An invisible shockwave spread out, and dust and smoke billowed.