Killing Dao Fruit
Chapter 254 - 251: Yaksha Lighting, Daoist Seeking Revenge

Chapter 254: Chapter 251: Yaksha Lighting, Daoist Seeking Revenge

Boom, boom, boom...

Above the vast expanse of the East Sea, the heavy atmosphere was stirred, dark clouds raged furiously, and thunder rumbled faintly, as if a demon was ruling over the tempestuous storm in the sky and sea, emitting a ghastly shriek.

The black ink-like seawater formed into continuous peaks soaring high before crashing back down again.

In the midst of the wind and waves, a solitary fishing boat seemed like a helpless peach, tumbling from one "mountain peak" to another, endlessly flipping over and over.

Creak...

The sound of the wind, the rainfall, and the creaking wooden structure of the boat filled the ears of the fishermen, causing everyone to involuntarily hold their breath in fear.

Fearing that after the next wave hit, they would sink to the bottom of the sea forever.

Ruan Xiaosi, who was on his first sea outing with fellow villagers, had tied himself tightly to the mast, praying fervently in his heart.

"Living Yama, please bless us! Living Yama, please bless us!"

After an indeterminate amount of time, the storm on the sea finally began to subside somewhat, and with the aid of the lightning flashes, they could faintly make out a dark line of land in the distance.

A cheer went up among everyone on board the boat.

Ruan Xiaosi was no exception. They had had a bountiful haul this trip, and as soon as they landed safely, they were poised to make a fortune.

Especially significant was a giant Dragon Dab weighing two hundred jin—a tribute fit for the Imperial Family. Just one fish alone could exempt the entire crew and their families from three years of labor.

Even if sold secretly to merchants, it could fetch a thousand liang of Patterned Silver!

Good times seemed to be right on the horizon.

But it was at this juncture, amidst the misty thin rain behind the fishing boat, that suddenly two red lights appeared and rapidly approached in their direction.

The two red glows grew larger and larger, and in the blink of an eye, they became bigger than the red lanterns hung at the entrance of Lord Zhang’s mansion in their village.

Upon seeing this scene, everyone aboard couldn’t help but turn pale, and someone even cried out with a sobbing voice:

"It’s the ’Yaksha Lighting’! The Sea Patrol Yaksha is here! Our catch... is gone!"

Upon hearing this cry.

Ruan Xiaosi, who had grown up by the sea despite this being his first time out at sea, couldn’t help but recall a legend his elders once told.

In the East Sea, there often lurked a Sea Patrol Yaksha with a pair of huge red eyes.

Whenever fishermen were fishing at sea, they might occasionally encounter it. In the midst of a storm, it would leap onto the fishing boat and selectively take away the biggest catch.

If the fishermen resisted, it would randomly take away one of them to satisfy its hunger instead of the fish!

Indeed, just a few breaths later, the fishing boat suddenly lurched.

A creature with green skin and a white belly, fins on its back, webbed hands and feet, and bearing a ferocious fish head had leapt from the sea onto the deck.

The Sea Patrol Yaksha didn’t go anywhere else, but strode directly towards the large tank holding the Dragon Dab.

However, the Ship Captain, wielding a harpoon and with a group of fishermen firmly behind him, shouted loudly:

"Yaksha, you can’t have this fish!"

Because the Sea Patrol Yaksha generally wouldn’t slaughter indiscriminately.

So the Ship Captain made it clear he was prepared to sacrifice a companion’s life in order to keep this extremely precious Dragon Dab.

This was worth at least a thousand taels of silver, after all. How much was a human life worth?

In years of famine, a life could be traded for just a couple of buns!

Though "random" meant that anyone on the boat could end up dead.

"Truly valuing money over life. If the fish is lost, there’s more to be caught, but if life is lost, then everything is gone!"

Ruan Xiaosi, who hadn’t had the chance to untie himself from the mast yet, suddenly turned pale, as this was his first time at sea, and he was far more open-minded than his companions.

His future was limitless, and sooner or later, he would be able to catch treasures even more valuable than the Dragon Dab.

He would then have his own fishing boat, crew, and a grand mansion...

Yet.

The next moment, including the Sea Patrol Yaksha, everyone’s gaze spontaneously turned towards him, causing Ruan Xiaosi’s heart to skip a beat.

"No, no, no..."

His face twisted in terror as he desperately tried to untangle the ropes binding him.

But in his panic, how could he untie them quickly?

Seeing the Sea Patrol Yaksha’s huge, rake-like hand reaching towards him, Ruan Xiaosi couldn’t help but scream out in horror.

It was at this moment.

Crack!

Suddenly, there came a crisp sound beside him.

The air shattered like a glazed mirror, revealing behind it a pitch-black other space, within which there was a long spiraling staircase.

Then, under the glow of a dim green lantern light, a strange duo slowly descended the staircase.

Leading the way was a slender girl in a colorful skirt, and behind her was a breathtaking bride in wedding attire, holding a baby.

The infant held a green lantern in his hand that contained seven or eight demons branded with the names of fierce gods, their heads aflame, emitting a bright green flame.

Normally, such a grouping would appear even more bizarre and terrifying than the fleshy Sea Patrol Yaksha.

But upon seeing the two [Merit Golden Wheels] behind the ghost baby’s head, Ruan Xiaosi’s heart immediately calmed.

"Tsk, tsk, so this is the Sea Patrol Yaksha? What an eye-opener.

The public dream of Dengzhou Prefecture has certainly gathered all the wicked legends I’ve heard of, and even those I haven’t."

Looking at the hideous monster, Wang Yuan couldn’t help but marvel.

The current public dream realm of Dengzhou Prefecture had gone through a drastic change compared to the previous sea of fog dotted with countless orbs of light.

The barriers between individuals’ dreams had been shattered by the power of "Evil God · Moon Breaking Great Loss," morphing into a gigantic collective dream that replicated the Yang World on a one-to-one scale!

Moreover, each region was split into countless layers.

From Wang Yuan’s perspective, the entire human spiritual world of a region resembled an archipelago upon the sea.

Land rising above the surface represented the conscious parts of individual consciousness, while land revealed by tidal movements beneath the water represented the unconscious aspects of individuals.

And the sea bed, which was the foundation of all islands, was the collective unconsciousness, where the collective dream was located.

Theoretically, this dream world could be stacked with an infinite number of layers.

For Magicians adept at manipulating dreams, they could use the overlapping layers of dreams to trap enemies until their bodies collapsed and time itself became meaningless.

Normally, dreams are mainly divided into three major layers: shallow, deep, and the lost layer.

In the shallow layer, one still retains some consciousness, and many ordinary people can even realize they are dreaming, capable of bringing some vague memories back to the real world upon waking.

This is what’s commonly known as a lucid dream.

But the deeper one goes into the dream, the deeper memories they encounter, even ancestral memories ingrained in the bloodlines of the land’s numerous descendants.

To the point where one can no longer distinguish whether the sights before their eyes are the dream or reality.

The "public dream" at this moment, influenced by some weird source, was continuously distorting, transforming towards a direction that was horrific, gloomy, bizarre, and dangerous.

While they were talking, the Sea Patrol Yaksha that had evidently become a dream monster, had already silently charged towards them.

Wang Yuan reached out his hand and grasped his own Fox Tail Fan, belonging to the "Fire Official," and then swung it forcefully at the charging Sea Patrol Yaksha.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

As the folding fan danced, fierce flames turned into wheels of blades, crazily sweeping through a giant fan surface, cutting everything in front of it into pieces, igniting roaring fires.

It wasn’t just the Sea Patrol Yaksha, but also other fishermen and the better half of the boat that were instantly reduced to ashes by this one strike.

The center of the firestorm then opened up a black hole leading to reality.

This was just Ruan Xiaosi’s own deep dream, aside from the real man-eating Sea Patrol Yaksha, everything else was an illusion.

Before a grateful Ruan Xiaosi could express his thanks, Wang Yuan pushed him into the black hole.

"Next time don’t be so lucky, to sleep on your own. If you fall into deep sleep again, you might not be so fortunate."

Wang Yuan was not exaggerating.

Because of their proximity to the East Sea and Turbid River, various water-related calamities had long become the common nightmare of everyone in Dengzhou Prefecture.

Ever since they captured and turned the deceit monsters that were after Duan Zhiyin into Soul Summoning Lamps,

The group had journeyed from the shallow dream realm, passing through various bizarre nightmares, all the way into the deep realm here.

Paper boats of "Big Flower Shoes," used for worshiping the Sea Goddess but filled with human heads; the "Granny Stone," which spells instant death upon sighting during a receding tide...

The "Sea Goddess Temple" where damaging a single blade of grass brings deadly disease; the "Yaksha Lighting" that demands fish and fishermen as its meal...

All the strange legends that circulated in Dengzhou Prefecture became real and deadly nightmares.

After saving that unfortunate person, as they were preparing to delve deeper into the most dangerous "Lost Layer,"

A loud clap of thunder suddenly sounded from the increasingly collapsing dream sky.

Boom!

Immediately, they saw a yellow light and a blue light, chasing and fleeing across the sky, accompanied by the absurd singing of an Inverted Taoist’s song heard by their ears:

"When they say you’re nonsensical, you are, on the five more days until the year, the heavens call locusts in the pavilion, and black beans are hit with salted soup.

On the fifteenth of May comes the flooding, sweeping away the sorghum sprouts’ heads. Catching the small to grind eight stones, catching the large to grind a dou. Sorghum heads hatch swallows, and swallow nests cradle horse monkeys..."

With the rise of this inverted song, the already chaotic and bizarre realm of dreams instantly became even more disordered.

A storm of summer and autumn turned instantly into heavy snow, almost immediately freezing the entire sea...

Ephemeral mayflies taller than mountains leaped high, blocking the path of the yellow light...

Wang Yuan naturally recognized the yellow light—it was the Yellow Seal Strange Immortal in yellow clothing. As for the blue light...

Within the Five Senses Altar City inside his body, Nie Hongying suddenly trembled.

That blue light was none other than the No-Life Mage, Inverted Taoist, who had killed her!

Although continuously hindered by the Inverted Chaos Heaven Technique, the child in yellow clothes was obviously more familiar with the terrain of the dream realm, lifting a corner of the sky and fiercely diving into it.

Wang Yuan and his companions, realizing the dire situation, were about to find cover when a cold, lightning-like gaze suddenly shot down from the sky.

They felt as if they had been plunged into an ice cave.

At this moment, the page of the Small Book of Life and Death that read "Book Owner Bing · Lu Renjia" lit up slightly, and Wang Yuan respectfully bowed and said aloud:

"Peach God Tao disciple from Five Organs Temple, Song Bingyi, pays respect to Uncle Inverted!"

The Inverted Taoist, who was unaware that all those he had called uncle, elder, or senior brother... were no more, his expression immediately softened.

"Oh? Since you’re from a friendly sect, come along with us."