CHAPTER 547: CHAPTER 545: NINE BENDS

The Wude Guard Captain, standing beside Scholar Zhu and smiling in celebration of the successful demon slaying, heard this. He subconsciously turned his head and casually asked, "Begin what?"

Scholar Zhu didn’t answer, merely shaking his head silently.

The next second, the Fish Demon hanging in midair inexplicably trembled. The dangling iron chains scraped against the scaffold, emitting a shrill, grinding sound.

The lively cheers died abruptly. Everyone on the ships, like geese with their necks wrung, craned towards the water’s surface.

The Fish Demon’s body had already been bombarded beyond recognition by Spells, artillery fire, and flying swords; it was unquestionably devoid of life. But now, the fish corpse convulsed wildly as if it had come back to life. Its tail thrashed, whipping up waves and splashing fetid river water onto the decks of the pavilion ships.

Before the frantic people could instinctively grab their weapons and attack the Fish Demon, innumerable tiny protrusions appeared en masse on its black skin.

Upon closer inspection, one could discern that these small protrusions were not fish scales, but rather a mass of indistinct human faces.

"What is this..." the Wude Guard Captain couldn’t help but gasp.

The faces beneath the fish skin massed together, screaming and desperately pushing outwards. They stretched the tough, thick fish skin into a thin membrane, and the entire elongated fish body swelled into a sphere.

POP!

An enormous gash burst open on the fish corpse. Endless Deformed Monsters spewed out, plummeting into the water like dumplings, causing the spherical fish body to deflate in an instant.

Those "things" that emerged from the fish corpse were entirely pitch-black. Their oval heads bore the imprint of a withered, shrunken human face, its features barely discernible. They had slender necks and spindle-shaped torsos, with one or more arms growing irregularly from them. They had no legs. Their overall shape resembled that of a developing tadpole.

In mere moments, the number of tadpole monsters surging out and falling into the water already exceeded what the fish corpse could have possibly contained. The waters around the three pavilion ships teemed with Human-faced Tadpoles. As far as the eye could see, an impenetrable, inky blackness stained the entire stretch of the river.

The downpour was torrential, and thunder roared. On the water’s surface, the Human-faced Tadpoles opened their mouths wide, emitting WAH-WAH! noises similar to a baby’s cry. Some were swept away by the turbulent undercurrent, dispersing downstream at great speed. Others extended their gnarled arms—varying in number—and dug into the sturdy wooden hulls of the pavilion ships. They swayed, tails thrashing, as they slowly crawled upwards.

"General! They’re climbing aboard!" the soldiers shouted in panic.

The entire river surface had seemingly turned into an extension of the inky blackness. Those aboard the ships felt as if they were on a desolate island in the midst of a boundless ocean.

General Du Tinghuai froze for two seconds before a belated chill ran down his spine. With a wave of his arm, he roared at his subordinates, "Fire the cannons! Attack!"

Even without his command, the terrified soldiers had already turned their cannons. Heedless of the risk of friendly fire on the other pavilion ships, they fired directly at the suspended fish corpse. The assembled Cultivators also unleashed all their techniques, casting a myriad of strange Spells that bombarded the fish corpse.

BOOM!

The already mangled fish corpse, which was mostly ruined and held together only by its bones, split completely in two under the assault. The fish head remained hanging in the air, while its pulpy, ruined body plummeted into the river and vanished.

However, this seemed to have little effect. A seemingly endless stream of Human-faced Tadpoles continued to surge from the water and crawl towards the pavilion ships.

The soldiers dutifully fired Crossbow Arrows, slashed with sabers, and thrust with longspears, desperately attacking the Human-faced Tadpoles clinging to the sides of the ships and climbing upwards.

Among the Cultivators on the ships, one pointed to the sky, calling down lightning from the heavens to strike the river’s surface. Another formed hand seals, summoning howling gales to sweep the creatures from the ships’ sides. Yet another chanted incantations, transforming the torrential rain into razor-sharp ice shards that sliced the water’s surface into dozens of segments. Wude Guard soldiers even retrieved a bizarre, dragon-headed cannon from the cabins. Standing behind the railings, they blasted a pillar of fire, tens of yards long, towards the river. Wherever it passed, all was incinerated.

The monsters were not impervious to blades or spears. Their hides offered little more protection than human skin. Fatal wounds caused them to spurt black blood before they fell into the water and dissolved into pools of dark sludge.

But their numbers were simply too vast. There was no end to them; the more they killed, the more appeared. The entire river surface was covered with Human-faced Tadpoles.

They tilted their faces upwards, their infant-like wails rising and falling in waves, easily drowning out the dull roar of thunder from the heavens.

Under the immense pressure, finally, some Cultivators could bear it no longer. Stomping on the deck, their figures flickered as they leaped into the air, rushing towards the riverbank.

These Cultivators were neither Wude Guard soldiers nor Taoists from Longhu Mountain. Facing this unforeseen terror, retreating quickly was the natural first choice. Even if Du Tinghuai were to hold them accountable later, he would first have to survive this ordeal himself.

"Take care, Fellow Daoists on the ships! I’ll take my leave first and head to Chenzhou to bring back reinforcements for everyone!"

A slightly overweight, middle-aged Cultivator spread his arms. His feet moved with an agility that utterly belied his portly frame, nimbly stepping on the heads of Human-faced Tadpoles leaping from the water. In just a few quick steps, he was before the riverbank, a smile on his face as he prepared to step onto it.

Then, BANG! He slammed into a wall—an invisible yet tangible wall of air that stretched across the river’s edge.

"What’s going on!?" The plump Cultivator, his face now red and swollen, was terrified. He reached out, only to watch his own palm meet an unseen barrier, unable to push further. "This... this is Longhu Mountain’s River Lock Formation!"

Everyone instantly looked towards the few Longhu Mountain Taoists, Luo Siyuan among them, on the flagship pavilion ship.

When? When had the people from Longhu Mountain deployed the River Lock Formation, a Formation reputed to bind even celestial immortals?

The expressions of the several Longhu Mountain Taoists varied. They too had no idea who had set up the River Lock Formation. While the Formation was highly effective, its deployment was extremely demanding and enormously taxing, so it was rarely used. Only a select few elders in the entire sect were proficient enough to master it...

Wait, elders?

The Longhu Mountain Taoists instinctively turned their heads to look at Luo Siyuan, who wore a purple robe and had a serene expression.

"Brother Luo, could it be that you..."

"Indeed, it was I."

Luo Siyuan smiled faintly and casually waved his rain-soaked horsetail whisk. A transparent halo of warm, misty light emanated from his body, sweeping across the three pavilion ships.

The densely packed Human-faced Tadpoles clinging to the hulls, just about to clamber onto the decks, were instantly reduced to black slurry the moment the halo touched them, their remains pouring into the river. The remaining Human-faced Tadpoles, as if sensing fear, released their grip on the ships and dared not approach. This left three circular clearings on the black river surface.

"Congratulations to you all," Luo Siyuan said. His hair was completely disheveled by the rain, but he still smiled gently, his eyes narrowed into crescents, his demeanor peaceful and serene. "You are able to witness the truth of the world alongside this humble Taoist."