Chapter 709: Chapter 709 - Human-faced Marshland
Chapter 709: Chapter 709 - Human-faced Marshland
Translator: Irene_ Editor: X, TYZ
The blue electric arcs allowed Ai Hui to regain all the power he had lost. Having previously tempered his body amid the lightning to purge toxins, Ai Hui found these arcs extremely familiar. The moment the arcs entered his body, countless realizations surged within him.
There was an exceptional affinity between this strange world and lightning.
Even more wonderfully, the lightning was very compatible with his spirit swords, perhaps because both weren't a part of the five elements. Ai Hui had yet to figure the situation out.
His spirit swords were undergoing gradual changes. The contrast between their yin and yang was becoming more distinct. The yang swords were turning a purer white, and there were densely packed lightning bolts swimming around them. It appeared as if the swords wore a silvery silk coat. The yin swords were turning ink black, and the lightning around them seemed to have been dyed black as well. They looked like countless shadows and fog that enveloped the sword bodies.
Black lightning?
Could this be yin lightning? Ai Hui had read about it in the ancient records. It was said that yang lightning could wipe out all kinds of evil, whereas yin lightning contained all kinds of poison that could penetrate the deepest of bones.
When he was going through the ancient records, he had merely treated them as reading material and had not expected to experience it for himself one day. Lightning techniques were profound and wide-ranging, but had unfortunately died out a long time ago.
As the saying goes, it is only when one experiences true knowledge that he finally understands how little he knows.
Influenced by the spirit swords, the lightning had also been divided into yin and ying. It was a phenomenon that greatly surprised Ai Hui.
This meant that between the lightning and spirit swords, the latter was in a dominant position. Ai Hui had always known lightning to be the mightiest force, so it was a shocking realization that the swords he had cultivated could actually gain the upper hand.
The legendary rumor that a swordsman who was able to cultivate spirit swords could proclaim himself a hegemon was not just a rumor after all.
Ai Hui couldn't help feeling pleased, but what came out of him was a bitter smile.
"Let's get out of this damned place first," he thought to himself.
Evil pervaded every corner of this place, so he dared not lose focus. If he hadn't been careful up to this point, he would've died many times over.
Ai Hui stopped in his tracks.
Before him was a vast stretch of marsh, and he couldn't locate its boundaries.
Within the marshland, there was gray mud with scattered clusters of green, needle-like meadow grasses on it. A faint gray fog rose from the mud, gradually forming balls. As the airflow within the balls started rolling, Ai Hui could vaguely make out distorted and blurry faces. Mournful whimpers drifted from within the balls of fog, intensifying the bleakness of the marshland.
When Ai Hui appeared at the edge of the marshland, all the floating fog faces turned toward him.
Ai Hui wasn't sure if it was an illusion, but he felt as though these faces were smiling at him.
"Come… come…"
"Ee… ahh…"
"Hehe…"
Screeching sounds floated about like steel wires piercing eardrums. Undoubtedly, it was highly uncomfortable to bear, but they emitted a strange charm that made Ai Hui want to pay more attention.
Despite being an extremely bold person, when facing a situation like this, Ai Hui couldn't help but shiver.
Yet, standing before the sinister marshland, Ai Hui was inexplicably attracted to it. There seemed to be a voice within that urged him to go in.
Ai Hui composed himself and took a few steps back. His eyes were clear and bright.
This human-faced marshland had the ability to impact one's mental state.
Human-faced Marshland was a name that Ai Hui had just given to this extremely dangerous place.
Ai Hui decided to change his path and started moving along the edges of the marshland. The moment he moved, the faces in the marshland turned respectively to glare at him.
While he pretended not to notice, he could feel the hair on his back standing on end.
The scene that unfolded next was a grand showcase of the dangers of the marshland.
A ball of aquatic grasses was chasing after some plants, and with no other routes, the latter chose to run right into the marsh. Despite feeling unable to prevail over the aquatic grasses, Ai Hui stopped at the edge of the marsh. The plants that had charged into the marsh were immediately surrounded by the spherical fog faces. The fresh and bright colors of those plants quickly faded into a gloomy gray color. Their sturdy branches started to melt into huge clumps of gray mud and drip down.
The fog faces only started to disperse after the mud and marsh became one.
The eerily tapered laughter shrouded the sky once more.
With a face as pale as a sheet, Ai Hui swallowed his saliva. He had finally figured out the origin of the mud.
The whole marshland was covered with gray mud.
"How many plants have been buried under?" Ai Hui wondered but dared not imagine.
Human-faced marshland? More like deadly marshland.
Ai Hui detected a frail wisp of consciousness being cast down from high above the clouds again. "It" was overseeing everything that was going on down here. Ai Hui did not look up. He had no mood to care about that unknown existence.
He moved along the marsh while attempting to circumvent it. What he had underestimated was its width. No matter where he went, the fog faces would always turn to stare at him. At the start, he felt as though there were beams boring into his back, but as time passed, he was no longer bothered.
Eh?
He narrowed his eyes. Not far away and in front of him, there seemed to be a mess on the ground.
He remembered clearly that this mess had been left by the fleeing plants when they charged into the marsh.
Was the marsh round in shape?
Ai Hui shook his head, dismissing this idea. He had a keen sense of direction and was sure that he had been moving in a perfectly straight line.
Strange.
A sharp laughter traveled from the marsh as the faces continued keeping an eye on Ai Hui, as if mocking his futile attempts.
After listening to the laughter for a long time, Ai Hui could effortlessly ignore it.
A fantasyland?
What to do?
It was impossible for him to circumvent, and there weren't many routes for him to take. He could either move forward or backward. Retreat? He shook his head. He had woken up in a desolate location, but here he was, getting involved in more activities and bumping into more things.
He continued advancing toward the center of this world despite the increased dangers.
Opportunities are often hidden amid danger.
Ai Hui had a premonition that if he wished to leave this place, he would have to move toward the most lively and dangerous location instead of the most empty region.
Since he had decided to move forward, he would have to pass through the marshland.
It was a pity that he couldn't fly. Otherwise he could simply pass this fatal zone. This wasn't his first time encountering a problem because of his disability. He actually had a rough explanation for it, but had been unable to verify it thus far.
Ai Hui decided to experiment first.
Around him, a spirit sword transformed into a silver light and shot toward the nearest fog face ball.
The silver sword ray penetrated the face effortlessly before returning to Ai Hui's side in an arc.
The fog face ball twisted and turned before freezing. In its core appeared an additional silver light.
Buzz, buzz, buzz! Countless fine electric arcs exploded from within the light, instantly covering the fog face.
A grieving howl filled the place as the face, enveloped by lightning, turned to ashes before vanishing.
Although Ai Hui wasn't sure what those faces were, he had a hunch that they were evil objects, so he chose to attack with a yang sword. Indeed, the yang sword had managed to deal a fatal blow to the fog face.
Yet, there was no obvious joy in his face. He extended his palm, and the yang sword landed in it.
It was much dimmer than before.
At this point, his sword count had doubled again to 32, of which 16 were yin and 16 were yang. Looking at the endless marshland, however, Ai Hui knew that 16 yang swords weren't enough to get him out.
Relying on those 16 swords alone wouldn't work, so Ai Hui decided to experiment with a yin spirit sword.
The ink black sword whizzed past, as if ripping the sky apart and leaving a crack behind. Similarly, the yin spirit sword easily penetrated the fog face ball, but the result was totally different.
A small wisp of black air surfaced on the face. In the next moment, the face was enveloped by black, web-like threads.
The warped gray face became even more distorted as it released a low ripping howl and turned black.
It pounced on a nearby fog face ball.
The low ripping howl was now accompanied by an eerie screech. There was a frantic fight between the black and gray human faces. The other gray faces turned their attentions to the fight, and the sharp shrieks wavered slightly as a result. They flocked forward to surround the black face. In no time, the black fog face ball was completely devoured.
It was a wild sight that almost caused Ai Hui to vomit.
The outcome wasn't what he had expected, but he quickly understood that this situation could be taken advantage of.
The yin spirit sword fell back into his hand, and he noticed that the yin lightning around its body had thinned quite a bit.
Since it was impossible for Ai Hui to solely rely on the power of his spirit words, he had to find an alternative solution.
He had observed another disparity between the previous and current situations.
Before, when he was hunting all kinds of plants, they would always leave an essence behind. It was those essences that had strengthened his swords. However, there was nothing left from the destruction of both of the fog face balls.
While that was unfortunate, Ai Hui wasn't too bothered. What he focused on was the legendary knowledge behind it. Be it the marshland of the fog faces or the odd plants he had seen previously, they were both dissimilar, but they possessed different kinds of existence.
The aquatic grasses were stronger than the average plants, but they all had the same objective.
How was he going to pass through the marshland?
Ai Hui's gaze fell upon a scattered cluster of meadow, and his heart jumped.
How did these dark-green, needle-like meadow grasses survive in the marshland without turning into lumps of mud?
Could it be that… these seemingly normal meadow grasses had a unique feature?
His heart skipped a beat as a circling spirit sword flew out.
A sword ray flashed past the sky toward a patch of meadow.
As it was about to strike, something startling occurred!