Chapter 442 - 8: The Might of the Snake-haired Gorgon
After deciding to detour through East River Sea Route, Yue Jinghua commanded Chi Xi and Weiwei to turn the ship back and enter the East River Sea Route.
Meanwhile, she summoned the Mosquito King and ordered it to immediately return to Five Saints Town to inform Feng Buhui and the others about the changes that occurred on Cloud River, and also notified the Mercenary Branch about the events.
For an earlier investigation of the East River Sea Route, Yue Jinghua also summoned Snake-haired Little Gore.
When Snake-haired Little Gore, with her hair like waves of gold and her blue eyes on a human torso with a serpent’s tail, appeared before everyone, Weiwei issued a gasp of astonished admiration.
Chi Xi also appraised Snake-haired Little Gore, up and down; they knew Yue Jinghua harbored many secrets, but the presence of this half-snake being, shining with a divine brilliance, was still a shock to them.
As a Half-snake man proficient in water, Gore was the most suitable among Yue Jinghua’s Dark Beasts for diving underwater to search for Lady Qingyan’s whereabouts.
"This is my companion, Gore," Yue Jinghua briefly introduced, then Snake-haired Little Gore whipped her tail and elegantly leapt into the water, leaving behind only a glint of sunlight reflecting off her scales for everyone to see.
"The few of us will now reroute the ship through the East River Sea Route," Yue Jinghua hastily made her decision, facing the East River Sea Route where the waters were rolling eastward directly into the sea.
The ship traveled backward, and after several twists and turns, finally made it smoothly into the East River Sea Route.
Upon entering the sea route, the river banks and terraced fields on both sides immediately disappeared.
The waterway ahead grew wider, and gradually, the scenery on both banks changed drastically; fertile lands turned into barren mountains, and the low-level Dark Beasts also vanished.
As the current became rougher, the ship’s movement on the water was like a vehicle on a steep slope, heaving up and down, at times as slow as an old ox climbing, and at times like a roller coaster, its helm completely out of control.
What came blowing in their faces was no longer the brisk autumn river breeze, but a piercingly cold river-sea wind, sharp as a knife.
To prevent the ship from falling apart in the tumult, Yue Jinghua urgently took out several Dark Pills, instructing Weiwei to continuously strengthen the two Dark Arrays at the bow and stern of the ship.
Yue Jinghua herself stood at the bow, spreading her Spiritual Sense, anticipating the waterway conditions ahead.
Whether it was her first time taking the water route or there were indeed ancient Xuan Beasts causing mischief in the sea, after Yue Jinghua entered the East River Sea Route, she faced noticeable greater disturbances to her Spiritual Sense than before.
Her Spiritual Sense Cultivation could already probe dozens of miles away, but in the East River Sea Route, her Spiritual Sense capabilities were compressed to only about a mile or so.
This also made navigating the ship even more perilous, but fortunately, after a few days of working together, Chi Xi and the others had developed a tacit understanding with her. After encountering and narrowly avoiding several reefs, the ship finally entered what appeared to be a stable area of the river.
At this moment, the sun was setting in the west, and a layer of hazy red clouds rolled across the sky.
Below the water’s surface, Gore glided smoothly through the water, diving deeper and deeper.
Different from the surface of Cloud River, the deeper one dived, the clearer the water became. After descending fifty or sixty meters, Gore suddenly found her vision opening up magnificently.
She widened her blue eyes, curiously observing the Water Element river and sea creatures around her.
The Cloud River System, expansive in scope, connected to the unfathomable outer sea. With higher water temperatures in the inland rivers and colder temperatures in the outer sea, a large number of Sea Beasts would swim back to the Cloud River Sea Road area each year at the end of autumn and beginning of winter to spawn and hatch, waiting until the next spring to return to the outer sea.
A multitude of spirit wood and Water Element Dark Beasts, invisible from the river surface, appeared in groups.
There were Bone-eating Fish, tiny as grains of rice yet swarming in packs, and Electric Saw Fish with huge bodies shaped like sharp saws.
The schools of fish quickly noticed the stranger among them, and an Electric Saw Fish more than five feet long bared its teeth and emitted an intimidating blue light, charging ferociously at Snake-haired Little Gore.
Although Snake-haired Little Gore hailed from Dark Hell, she had been reverted to her original form by Zong Shaoqing, and all her past memories had vanished.
Now she was like a naïve and ignorant child, experiencing the creatures of Canglong Continent for the first time, and inevitably she was somewhat curious, wholly unaware of the other party’s ill intentions.
She watched as the Electric Saw Fish maliciously spouted a streak of ice-blue Thunder Flash.
Struck by the Thunder Flash, Snake-haired Little Gore suddenly realized the oppressive power emanating from her Star Pendant Necklace.
"Hiss hiss--" Her previously delicate and unmatched little face suddenly changed, and her soft golden hair instantly turned into more than a hundred fierce golden snakes, emitting a piercing hissing sound.
The pressure of a Half-Saint Beast was not to be underestimated, and once released, it was extraordinary.
For a moment, the Water Element Dark Beasts that had been swimming beside Little Gore, both benign and malevolent, were startled and immediately fled.
The Electric Saw Fish that had originally intended to attack Little Gore was particularly unlucky, as it saw snake hair entwining it, with several small snakes instantly coiling around it firmly.
Fear filled the eyes of the Electric Saw Fish.
"Hiss hiss--" The Snake-haired Little Gore roared angrily again.
A woman, a woman clad in a black robe.
The Electric Saw Fish shivered, realizing what was happening.
The esteemed Half-Saint Beast was searching for a woman who had submerged into the depths of the water.
It shook its tail fin, swimming towards a certain direction in the Cloud River System. Little Gore paused for a moment, relayed the message to Yue Jinghua, and then quickly followed.
Underneath the water, calm was restored.
On the ship, everyone was utterly exhausted, their nerves having been on edge the entire journey.
Yue Jinghua received the message from Snake-haired Little Gore and roughly determined the location in the direction of the Cloud River Sea Route, where there indeed existed a large expanse of shipwrecks.
It seemed that Lady Qingyan’s destination was there; if they could find the remains of the ships, it was likely they could also find the bones of General Mo Lin.
What puzzled both Yue Jinghua and Little Gore, however, was that along the way, both on the surface of the river and beneath the water, there was no trace of Lady Qingyan.
As a mere woman, could she really be faster than a ship bolstered by a Dark Array, or Gore who was acquainted with the water? Yue Jinghua was somewhat perplexed.
Seeing that the day was about to pass, and that the dangers of the river surface were much greater at night than during the day, Yue Jinghua ordered Chi Xi and the others to rest first.
Chi Xi prepared some food, and after gobbling it down, they each sat down to meditate and recuperate, waiting to search again after nightfall.
If they could get through this night safely, by early morning the Mercenary Branch and Feng Buhui among others should also arrive, and then with sufficient manpower, they could launch a wide-scale search on the waters.
What they needed to do now was to endure through the long night.
After a brief rest, "Something seems off," Chi Xi said, looking at the serene river surface, which under the adornment of the setting sun’s afterglow, looked like a piece of top-quality silk flowing wave after wave.
"The ship has stopped moving," Weiwei also walked to the side of the vessel, realizing that the boat, which had been moving forward with the current, was now stuck on the water’s surface, motionless for some time.
"Slap slap slap---" Strange sounds came from beneath the boat, as if it was caught in a crevice in the rocks, and unable to move.