Chapter 1227: First Trial

Proofreader: Papatonks

“Senior, are you ignoring us?”

Chu Qingcheng cried at nothing, with silence her only reply. Zhuo Fan shrugged, “He crosses the dead, not the living. He’ll just take us when we breathe our last, ha-ha-ha…”

“What else can I expect from a creep. I don’t need his help anyway.” 

“Why, you’d have a chance to be reborn.”

“That means living another life and forgetting everyone. Master, senior aunts, senior sisters, and…” Chu Qingcheng paused, peeking at Zhuo Fan. 

Zhuo Fan smiled, “Then we better make sure we live through it.”

“Right.”

Chu Qingcheng nodded with conviction. Zhuo Fan took her flying towards the raging sea, vanishing in the distance. 

As this was Nether Sovereign’s seat of enlightenment, testing them was a given, but it didn’t seem to limit their strength either. Except for their earthly vessels, they maintained all their power. 

Chu Qingcheng didn’t know this little tidbit, looking oddly at him flying, “You can actually fly here?”

“Uh, maybe the Nether Sea has something to do with it, making me feel so light. There’s no way I could fly outside, that would make me a ghost, ha-ha-ha…” Chu Qingcheng flew along, no longer minding it.

A roar boomed with relentless force as a flood dragon shot from the sea and sent water everywhere as it went to swallow the two of them in its maw.

All they noticed was how everything went black the next second, already in its belly.

It then went beneath the surface once more and swam without a care. The other sea beasts knew to stay clear.

As it cruised, the flood dragon halted all of a sudden and writhed in pain.

Bam!

The sea exploded as the flood dragon’s black got ripped off from inside and black flames shot out from the wound after turning its insides to charcoal.

Zhuo Fan took Chu Qingcheng outside, his eyes flaring in a dark black flame.

Chu Qingcheng cried, “Zhuo Fan, you’re amazing! That was a 10th level spiritual beast yet you just came out of it like nothing. How did you do that? And what was that black fire?” 

“Maybe turning into a soul made me stronger.” Zhuo Fan gave a sheepish smile, “I certainly have no clue.”

Chu Qingcheng gave him a long look, but let it go in the end. Just that this Bone Tempering cultivator got stronger and could even fly after coming to the Nether Sea. 

[Turning into a ghost makes you stronger? Why not me as well?]

Roar~!

Roars came after noticing the commotion here and the Nether Sea boiled. A flood of spiritual beasts scrambled over, each a thousand meters long, all surrounding the two tiny human souls.

Chu Qingcheng watched the beasts she only witnessed in the sect’s paintings and paled with fright, “Z-Zhuo Fan, they’re all 12th level spiritual beasts, peak of the Sacred Domain. W-we’re doomed!”

“Come now, even with these high level beasts, they’re nothing but ghosts now. They lack the power they had when they were alive.” 

Zhuo Fan calculated, confident that the apocalyptic thunderflame and his sacred beast powers could take them.

Zhuo Fan’s left eye flared blue and the black thunderflame emerged. Before it even reached them, the beasts howled in agony, lowering their heads before Zhuo Fan.

“Lord Sea Ao’s envoy, we didn’t think to meet you here. I hope sir can overlook the flood dragon’s transgression.”

“Please forgive us!”

The rest lowered their heads as well.

Chu Qingcheng started dumbstruck. 

[Sea Ao? What’s that?]

Zhuo Fan felt his left eye, coming up with an idea why. The thunderflame could deal with them but not command them into submission. They were only bowing their heads towards Sea Ao’s eye.  

[Why didn’t it ever occur to me that Heaven Sealing Sea Ao was a lord of the seas? It’s obvious now the sea beasts would listen to him, but…]

“You’re all dead and have come to Nether Sea, yet still listen to Lord Sea Ao?”

“We are sea beasts. Lord Sea Ao is our primogenitor. Where might Lord Sea Ao be right now? Is he alive…”

The beast did not finish, fearing for their lord’s fate.

Zhuo Fan coughed, “Lord Sea Ao is alive and well. It happened that when I trained in a deadly fire and got out of control, Lord Sea Ao offered his wounded eye to save my life. Lord Sea Ao is my savior.”

“Oh, that means his malice towards humans has subsided, good. We’ve been by ourselves in worry lord would be forever taken in by hatred. For lord to give his eye to save sir’s life proves lord’s approval of sir. A pity you are in the Nether Sea now and must have met with disaster. Could we be of any help?”

“We seek the Nether Sovereign’s seat of enlightenment. Could you take us to it?” Zhuo Fan asked.

The beasts were put on the spot, “You need to pass the trials to reach it first. We’ve been charged with blocking you but since lord cares so much of sir, we will no longer stop you. As for reaching the Nether Sovereign’s place so easily, it’s impossible. We can’t pass the three gates.”

“Then guide us there and I’ll do the rest.”

“Sir, forgive our presumptuous words but the guardians are incredibly strong. Going there is dangerous…”

“I’m a soul now, so how much worse can it get? I either go or die.” 

The beasts shared a look and nodded, “Then please jump on my back, sir, I’ll take you.”

“Much obliged!”

Zhuo Fan smirked and took Chu Qingcheng on the back of the 12th level sea beast. It waded forth like an emperor, with the other beasts acting as its imperial guards. The average beasts had no idea what caused such a group to go out with such ferocity. They made the wise decision to turn tail and scram for their lives. 

Chu Qingcheng and Zhuo Fan stood on the back of the beast, side by side. It was astonishing to see all the beasts around them showing nothing but respect to those two humans. She was so startled that she gave Zhuo Fan a long look.

Outside, he looked like a Bone Tempering cultivator with some status that offered some incredible assistance. Now, however, he looked like the king of the world. 

[Which is the real him?]

[Is he more suited as a ghost than a human? An all-powerful King of Hell maybe?]

Chu Qingcheng was in constant confusion.

The clamoring procession of beasts went on. Behind them, an aged figure floated, “Heh, everyone has a hard time coming out of the first trial bruised and weary from those sea beasts’ harassment, but this kid had them show the way. Humph, might it be… him?” 

An hour later, the couple arrived before a large gate, the two pillars a deep red and hundreds of meters tall. They towered inside the sea, yet they still shone in a terrifying glow. 

The huge sea beast slowed down, turning to them, “Sir, we’ve arrived at the first pass, Tyrant Gate.”

“Oh?”

Zhuo Fan casually jumped off with Chu Qingcheng, looking at the huge gate, “Does the test expect us to push it?”

The sea beast nodded, “Yes, Tyrant Gate requires boundless strength to open. Only by opening can you meet the guardian and it’s the minimum requirement to face him. Many others got stuck before this gate, even Saints.”

Sss~

Chu Qingcheng gasped in worry.

“Don’t worry, those Saints had to deal with the sea beasts while opening the gate so of course they couldn’t manage. We’re safe now and can go all out.”

Zhuo Fan consoled her and walked up to the gate to give it a push.

It creaked but didn’t budge.

Zhuo Fan nodded.

[It sure is heavy. I’ll need to use everything I have or I can’t even push it a crack.]

Zhuo Fan closed his eyes and reached out his hands, with his right shining red.

To open the gate, using Qilin power was a must.

Despite a soul, his connection to his body was still there and he could borrow Qilin’s strength, just as he borrowed the Apocalyptic Thunderflame Eye’s fire…