Killing Dao Fruit
Chapter 269 - 266: Above the Turbid River and Nine Heavens, Human Ghost Overlooks the Heavy Pass!

Chapter 269: Chapter 266: Above the Turbid River and Nine Heavens, Human Ghost Overlooks the Heavy Pass!

Boom!

A bloated corpse, stripped of all clothing, was pulled onto the small boat by several people from the Turbid River.

"How pitiful. I wonder from which upstream location this disaster victim has fled.

Looking at his body devoid of even a single piece of clothing, he probably froze to death in the snow during winter, having stripped off all his clothing before dying.

Only when the Turbid River thawed did he drift down with the melting waters."

"Even if there is no family to pay us, we have done a good deed. Let’s send him to Yizhuang later.

Otherwise, this tragic death might lead to some trouble."

"Rest assured, Lord Thirteen, we all know the rules."

The group was uniform in red conical hats, with a large rooster tied to the prow of the boat—clearly a group of Turbid River corpse recovery men!

Not only do they retrieve corpses from the river when paid, but they also take the initiative to recover any wandering ghosts they encounter, considering it a good deed.

That way, they prevent the vengeful spirits from transforming into murderous evil spirits on the river surface."

However, Ma Shisan, the leader, frowned as he looked at the gradually darkening sky and muttered to himself,

"The weather today has suddenly turned sour. I’m afraid we won’t be able to continue our business..."

Every profession related to the Turbid River has its taboos.

Taboo of Turbid River Boatmen: The river is divided by three Dragon Gates, and ferrying beyond these boundaries is forbidden. Crossing them means immediate capsizing and death.

The taboos for corpse recovery men are even stricter:

First, no boating to retrieve corpses in thunderstorm weather; second, a corpse that hasn’t been successfully retrieved after three attempts must not be tried for a fourth;

Third, each time they go out to retrieve a corpse, they must sacrifice a large red rooster to the Turbid River King (One-Eyed Stone Man).

With these ironclad rules, once it starts raining, they must immediately return to the shore, or else they might lose their lives.

However, sudden accidents are often more unexpected than one might imagine.

"Look everyone! It’s clear! The water in the river is clear now!!!"

A panicked shout made everyone aboard suddenly shudder, and they looked upstream.

After the muddy yellow, sandy flow passed by their side, the water coming from upstream gradually became clear. In just a moment, they could almost see the riverbed directly.

Logically, clearer water should be a good thing.

But these men, who had dealt with the Turbid River all their lives, always remembered that among the many well-known precepts related to the Turbid River,

— When the Turbid River suddenly clears, a great disaster is imminent!

"Quick! Everyone to shore!"

Ma Shisan roared as he was the first to grab the oar and paddle towards the shore.

Nobody dared delay even a second, all furiously paddling with all their might, driving the corpse recovery boat like an arrow toward the nearest riverbank.

Whirr...

The river water was clearing, but the surface of the Turbid River was violently rising.

In fact, the river had been rising rapidly for several days, but never as fiercely as today.

Every year around this time, the Turbid River experiences spring floods.

The main source of water is not rainfall but the melting snow within the mountains upstream.

In some places, thick snow could be completely melted by the warm spring winds within a few days.

The melted snow flows into the tributaries’ channels, then into the Turbid River, rushing powerfully towards the sea.

Especially after last year’s prolonged winter, not only the vast region upstream of the Turbid River, but even Qiongzhou experienced brief heavy snow and mountain closures.

One can imagine the terrifying chain reactions that might follow as the ice and snow upstream melt.

But today’s surge still caught people off guard.

Luckily, the corpse recovery men reacted quickly.

As they frantically rowed the boat to the shore and rushed up the bank, a large wave rose behind them and instantly swept the corpse recovery boat and the corpse on it to the bottom of the river.

Unfortunately, most of the people downstream were not as lucky.

With the clear water rolling in great waves on the river surface, like thousands of troops charging down, it swallowed all the boats daring to stay on the Turbid River in just a blink of an eye.

At this moment, not a single piece of driftwood was left on the entire Turbid River.

Meanwhile.

Ten miles beyond the Turbid River’s estuary, and even farther from the boundary between yellow and blue, above the sea.

A mist hung over the desolate area, suddenly echoing a voice:

"The tide has arrived! Prepare for battle!"

If there were a highly skilled Feng Shui Master here, one might faintly see military aura hovering in the sky,

Dense and long, black with a red center followed by a white mist, the air of hidden troops indeed!

Past an invisible boundary layer, which seemed like a misty haze, one could see thousands of warships, large and small, stationed on the sea.

Black sails amassed into a thick dark cloud, seemingly pressing down the sea surface by three inches!

Most of these were also emitting faint ghost fires, clearly hundreds of ghost ships.

These represented all the military forces under Wang Yuan and Zhou Jinhuan, all gathered here in full strength.

Wang Yuan couldn’t help but marvel at how convenient the "Ghost Path" techniques were.

As long as his enemies didn’t kill him, it was highly likely they would join him and make him increasingly stronger.

There’s a joke that goes something like this:

Swordsman: "Brother, I swear on my sword I will avenge your death!"

Divine Archer: "My bow will lend you a helping hand!"

Swordman: "And my sword!"

Ghost Path: "And your dead brother..."

All the enemies were like supply team leaders, and without these benevolent people selflessly dedicating their post-007 lives, Wang Yuan’s forces could never have swollen to such an extent.

The greatest gain among them was Ghost General Lingxiao, who stood by his side like a Gate God, at the fourth realm of "Military Dao Dharma Image."

Wang Yuan silently applauded his own wise decision from the past.

The four innate divine abilities of the "Coiling Dragon Military Skill" are: "Spit Clouds and Suppressing Qi," "Shouting Thunder Technique," "Soaring to the Eight Extremes," and "Traveling the Four Netherworlds."

Zhou Jinhuan’s divine ability was "Traveling the Four Netherworlds," and the Ghost General’s was "Spit Clouds and Suppressing Qi."

He could open his mouth and spit out a sea of clouds formation covering a dozen miles.

Aside from being a huge illusion, it also had the ability to greatly amplify capabilities over a large area, enhancing speed, strength, recovery ability... and so on for the Daoist Soldiers.

Using it at this moment, it easily concealed his navy and pirate coalition.

They still felt it wasn’t safe enough.

They also used the Nine Dragons Nine Phoenix Crown, bought from the Great Yan Treasure Ship (Chapter 200), which consumed the Dragon Energy of Dengzhou Prefecture, to activate the "Sacrificial Technique: Blend with Dust."

Ensuring that even if the One-Eyed Stone Man wasn’t looking closely, he would not see them.

"Nine Dragons Crown, Nine Phoenix Crown, relics of Human Dao, if worn by someone with great merit, can forcefully command the dragon energy within a certain range and execute the ’Sacrificial Technique.’

If worn by a couple of the emperor and empress rank, combined into the Nine Dragon Nine Phoenix Crown, the effect is optimal!"

Logically speaking,

most of Dengzhou Prefecture’s Dragon Energy was concentrated on Wang Yuan and Zhou Jinhuan, and if the two of them performed it, the effect would be optimal.

But due to a serious disagreement on who should wear the "Phoenix Crown," in the end, it had to be used by Wang Yuan and Huang Wu.

Although Huang Wu’s accumulation of Yin Morality was far less than Wang Yuan, who was the main force,

Having gone through countless major events together, she wasn’t far from lighting up her own Merit Golden Wheel.

The effect of this Sacrificial Technique now seemed to be quite good.

Not far outside the fleet on the sea’s surface was a densely packed area, stretching from here all the way to the estuary, filled with all sorts of fish, turtles, shrimps, and crabs of various sizes.

Yet none could detect the ambush hidden beside them.

In fact, a few days earlier,

under the drive of their bloodline instincts, vast numbers of fish, turtles, shrimps, and crabs in the seas and in the Turbid River had gradually gathered at the estuary.

Among them, the Spirit Monsters that had opened their spiritual wisdom were the most.

With only one chance every thirty-six years to jump over the Dragon Gate and change their fate against the heavens, no Spirit Monster wanted to miss it.

Although none of them had ever seen their predecessors who had leaped over the Dragon Gate and then returned home,

driven by the beautiful illusion of the future, this troop continued to enlarge until now.

Standing on the ship, Wang Yuan looked out and couldn’t even count exactly how many millions or tens of millions of Water Clan gathered between the river and the sea!

At that moment,

Thunder rumbled!

When that clear water tide message passed through the estuary and reached the original blue-yellow boundary at the Living Dragon Gate, a deafening thunder suddenly reverberated over the sea.

The Yin Yang Realm immediately began to churn violently.

Directly above, four dragon-shaped clouds began to encircle, forming a circle like four dragons biting their own tails, with white clouds to the west, red clouds to the south, black clouds to the north, and blue clouds to the east.

Mist began to rise from the sea’s surface.

In the blink of an eye, a majestic and imposing giant gatehouse suddenly squeezed out from the void.

Nine bays wide on the east and west sides and five bays deep on the north and south, adopting the "nine-five" configuration, the golden roof had "eight eaves and nine ridges," adorned with auspicious clouds, colorful paintings, golden dragons...

Seeming both real and unreal, not of ordinary matter, it was the third Dragon Gate — the Living Dragon Gate!

Mere sight of it made the blood of countless Water Clan begin to boil, almost wishing they could immediately soar through the skies and cross over.

Staring out to sea, one could dimly see that further upstream on the Turbid River, two more majestic and solemn Dragon Gates were continuously emerging in the distant sky.

Auspicious light subtly shone, fortune pervaded the air.

Indeed: "Above the nine heavens of the Turbid River, both humans and Ghosts behold the heavy gate!"

Only the Water Clan and cultivators located on the Turbid River could witness such a magnificent sight; ordinary mortals could not see the real faces of the three Dragon Gates.

Crack —!

With another brilliant lightning bolt striking the Dragon Gate,

the rain poured down...

The sea instantly boiled over, all the Water Clan madly rushed towards the Living Dragon Gate.