Keyboard Immortal

Chapter 2451: Dig Out His Eyes

The deeper Zu An ventured, the more concentrated the death energy around him became. From time to time, he even heard bizarre sounds, as if someone was gossiping about him from the dark.

However, he had a calm expression. Even disregarding the Primordial Origin Sutra, which curbed death energy, he was the master of the underworld. Even though he wasn't able to exert his authority now, his identity still allowed him to travel freely to and from the underworld. Needless to say, he wasn’t affected by death energy.  Perhaps it would sound ridiculous to others, but this sinister atmosphere felt welcoming to him.

As for the ghosts hiding in the shadows, he had more important matters to attend to right now, so he couldn’t be bothered to deal with them. Even though these ghosts coveted his flesh and blood, they sensed a natural authority from him and dared not make a move on him. 

Some time later, Zu An finally arrived somewhere familiar. It was a bridge in front of an abyss. A fog shrouded the area beneath the bridge, obscuring its support posts. It was a mystery how this bridge remained standing despite the relentless passage of time. 

Zu An crossed the bridge and walked up to the edge of the abyss. Something pitch-black seemed to be swirling inside. It instilled a natural fear that could induce goosebumps and leave one’s limbs feeling cold. Yet, it also contained some kind of magic that would tempt one to jump in. Any weaker cultivator standing here would have unknowingly leaped in by now. 

“This must be what the Ocean races call the Eye of the Ocean. They don’t know that it’s the underworld’s entrance.” Zu An was in no rush to enter. He examined the area above the abyss, the cliff opposite from it. 

He wanted to verify something… but his heart sank at a glance. Unwilling to give up, he flew into the sky and spent a while searching the vicinity. In the end, however, he had to concede that the Necropolis Emperor’s sculpture wasn't here!

Back then, in the Tomb of Ten Thousand Dragons, that majestic sculpture had shaken him to the core. Mojard’s beast form and the Ox Head Horse Face giants were humongous, but they were still nothing compared to the Necropolis Emperor’s sculpture. Of course, its size was secondary. What had shaken him more was the inexplicable pressure it left on him.

Zu An practically started doubting his reality. “How is this possible? How is this possible?!”

He had examined the Necropolis Emperor’s sculpture back then; it felt as if it had been there for eons, not just a few thousand years… and the period he was in should have been only several thousand years in the past! Not only did the timeline not fit, Zu An also didn’t think that the people of this era had the power to sculpt something that incredible. 

“Am I not in the Cultivation World from a few thousand years back?” Zu An suddenly wondered.

Now that he thought about it, there were many subtle details that didn’t align with what he knew. Between the absence of the Tomb of Ten Thousand Dragons, the Shaman races in the underworld, him being deprived of his authority as the underworld’s master, and the absence of the Necropolis Emperor… 

These doubts swirled in his mind, but Zu An quickly remembered the connections between this world and the future Cultivation World. The monsters’ invasion, the Lord of Slaughter, Mojard, the Fiend Emperor, and Yumen Beiqing. These details all aligned. There wasn’t much difference between the Ocean races here and the Ocean races in the future, and the Peacock Princess and the Mermaid Queen resembled his lovers in the future. 

While he was wondering about it, he suddenly heard chatter from the side. 

“What’s with the Shaman races? Why did they suddenly retreat?”

“That’s weird. Be careful. They might be up to something.”

“What can those musclebrains possibly scheme?”

“It’s better to be safe than sorry. They might have encountered something terrifying outside.”

…

The other voices were all hoarse and ferocious; only the last one to speak had a crisp and pleasant-sounding voice, making it stand out amid the awful-sounding voices. 

Zu An looked downward and saw six men and a woman emerging from the abyss and landing next to the cliff. 

It was a stretch to call the former six men, however. They did have humanoid shapes, but they were hideous. All of them had multiple hands sprouting from their backs, and some even had multiple heads too. On top of that, some heads had more than one pair of eyes. It would be more apt to call them monsters.

In contrast, the woman was incredibly beautiful. She was dressed in a light breastplate and a short leather skirt that flaunted her slender frame. Her toned abdomen, wheat-colored skin, and sturdy thighs made it clear that she was no frail damsel waiting to be rescued.

Zu An was stunned to see her.

The group also noticed Zu An and immediately put up their guard. It was wise to assume anyone who appeared here would be anything but ordinary.  But upon confirming that the other party was alone and a seemingly powerless human male, the group of seven breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that he could only be so strong.  

“Don’t you think it’s rude to keep staring at me?” The woman glared at Zu An. Her six companions also stared at Zu An with hostility. 

“Have we ever met before?” Zu An voiced his inner thoughts aloud.

The six monsters were stunned.

The woman burst into laughter. “Your pickup line is surprisingly old-fashioned for someone who looks so prim and proper.” 

Her companions also burst into laughter as they looked at Zu An in sympathy. Of all people, he'd foolishly chosen to flirt with her. 

Zu An finally realized why she looked so familiar. She resembled Murong Qinghe; it was just that she felt much more mature, whereas Murong Qinghe had a youthful disposition.  She also resembled Valkyrie Mo Xi in terms of her outfit, though she was more valiant than seductive. 

It was at this point that Zu An suddenly froze up. Before this, he had never noticed the resemblance between Murong Qinghe and Mo Xi. Their dispositions were so different that he had never thought of comparing them. But the woman before him resembled an amalgamation of Murong Qinghe and Mo Xi, and that had made him draw a connection between the two.

He felt guilt-ridden whenever he thought of that young lady. He'd been drunk that night, and he hadn’t expected Huanzhao to pull a trick on him. He wondered if she knew the truth yet. He'd even gone to the Monster World right after that night. From her perspective, he must have been a jerk who abandoned her right after having his fun. That further fanned his guilt. 

The woman noticed the pity, doting, and guilt in Zu An’s eyes, and her face darkened. “Pi Lu, I don’t like the way that fellow is looking at me. Dig out his eyes for me.”