Suddenly, Xu Ying felt an itch on his body and hurriedly scratched.
The flesh-colored tentacles in the sky continued to split, unfurling downward to find new plague victims, inserting themselves into their bodies and sucking their life force.
Xu Ying's blood and qi were abundant; the tentacles could not approach him for the moment.
His itching was merely sympathetic.
He saw wisps of black mist drifting through the air, entering the plague victims with each breath, silently eroding their blood and qi.
These wisps entered his Domain of the Ineffable, where the girl's flame shone upon them and dissipated them, leaving him unaffected.
"What are these blood-colored tentacles?" Xu Ying murmured.
"The Plague God!"
The bell heard his description and spoke with gravity: "What you see is a Heavenly Deity who commands pestilence and natural disasters!"
"Heavenly Deity?"
Xu Ying shuddered. He had encountered many deities—even killed several. But even the most powerful City God Xue was nothing compared to the Plague God that blotted out the sky!
"Heavenly Deities dwell in the Celestial Dao world, commanding the Heavenly Dao, holding the principles of heaven—ageless, deathless, imperishable."
The bell said: "The Celestial Dao world is impossibly remote. Heavenly Deities rarely descend. How could the Plague God come down? Of course—the fox-woman's allies must have performed a blood sacrifice to the Plague God, causing massive death, diverting the Nether River, and triggering the Nether invasion!"
It sneered: "As expected, the fox-woman is up to no good!"
Xu Ying gazed at the sky. The massive tentacles' main body still resided in the other world—was that the Celestial Dao world the bell spoke of?
The tower-ship sailed onward, drawing closer to the girl's half-hour deadline. Xu Ying looked toward the banks. Corpses of plague victims were piled like mountains. Some had stacked firewood beneath the piles and set them ablaze.
The flames rose fifty or sixty feet high, blazing brilliantly against the darkness.
Countless ghost-fires drifted near the corpse mountains. When the Nether wind blew, the ghosts within the fire suffered excruciating tearing pain, their faces twisted in agony, their bodies writhing, emitting anguished moans.
Some ghosts still struggled within the flames—as if burning their corpses caused their souls to feel it too, as though they had not truly died.
Xu Ying also saw figures—human or ghost—hauling corpses by the cartload and stacking them beside the corpse mountains.
Along the Nether River's bank, chanting could be heard. Xu Ying followed the sound and saw several monks seated solemnly before the corpse mountains, tapping wooden fish, softly reciting prayers for the dead.
The monks too bore festering sores, their bodies pierced by the Plague God's tentacles.
Could this truly be the work of the girl's allies?
The bell grew uneasy, urging: "A-Ying, the pestilence energy here is growing thicker. At your level, it will soon corrode your blood and qi defenses, and the Plague God will suck you dry! We should leave immediately!"
Xu Ying shook his head: "No! A gentleman keeps his word. How can I break a promise?"
The bell roared: "The one who summoned the Plague God is the fox-woman's ally! They summoned the Plague God to divert the Nether River, crash into Stone Mountain, and free her! Do you still think the fox-woman is good?"
Its fury rose: "I, Old Bell, am the good one! That night, when you hid in my temple, I saw the Nether River changing course and you souls about to die in its waters—I intervened to protect you. If I hadn't been shielding you, would I have been gravely wounded by the fox-woman? Would she have escaped?"
Xu Ying considered: "Old Bell, you saved my life, and I remember it. That is why I allowed you to steal my blood and qi to heal. I am a village boy—I may not have read many books, but we villagers value loyalty and gratitude. The girl in the coffin said her purpose is to send away the deity. I believe she means no harm."
The bell shouted: "The fox-woman was imprisoned by my master for her countless crimes! Can't you see she is using you? She never even told you her name—she clearly intends to use you and discard you!"
Xu Ying laughed: "I am Xu, a nobody with nothing to offer—what use could I possibly be?"
He channeled his spirit sense into the flame, guiding the Pure Yang Anomalous Fire out of his Domain of the Ineffable and igniting the ship.
The flames grew, burning brighter than the bonfires on the banks.
Xu Ying withdrew the Pure Yang Anomalous Fire and leaped from the ship to the shore, unwinding the whip from his waist.
The bell warned nervously: "A-Ying, be careful not to fall for the fox-woman's scheme and unleash catastrophe!"
Xu Ying channeled his vital energy, gripped the whip, and with a mighty crack, lashed it toward the sky!
"Crack!"
As the whip flew, it grew—longer and longer, thicker and thicker!
What had appeared to be an ordinary hemp cord now revealed countless details invisible before.
The fibers that had seemed like braided hemp now showed countless scales—like innumerable headless, tailless dragons coiled together!
In an instant, the whip stretched three or four li. Xu Ying gripped the handle, feeling its living pulse—as if he held the tendons of countless dragons, and at the other end, divine dragons thrashed wildly!
"Crack!"
The lash struck the Plague God in the sky, splitting its flesh!
The sky shattered. Chunks of flesh and blood rained down!
Xu Ying stood frozen.
The bell also clanged once, shuddering, its tone muted.
Xu Ying's heart paused. The girl had told him to lash the sky, and he had assumed it would be a simple ritual—perhaps with some symbolic meaning of sending away a deity. Folk customs were similar: during plagues, people beat gongs and drums and set fire to boats, hoping to scare away the Plague God.
He had never expected the whip to surge with such power, actually striking the boundless Plague God!
Accompanying the crack of the whip was a howling gale. Wind fed the flames, and the tower-ship's fire blazed ever higher, the flames consuming the hull!
Amid the roaring wind, the burning tower-ship lifted from the river!
He had noticed the ship before, but only now did he have a chance to study its details.
The ship had vermillion hulls and golden sides. On its four walls were painted ancient divine scenes.
The scenes on both sides depicted phoenixes carrying wood, building nests and lighting fires, achieving rebirth through nirvana.
The bow bore the image of the Vermilion Bird—a sea of fire.
The stern bore the image of Zhurong—a fierce, ugly deity standing amid an inferno.
The tower-ship rose into the sky against the gale, growing ever larger, its flames blazing higher!
It swelled to enormous proportions, rising ever higher on the wind, fire raging across the heavens.
Suddenly, the phoenixes on the hull took flight, the Vermilion Bird spread its wings, Zhurong commanded the flames, and the ship's fire spread, turning the sky blood-red!
Above, the Plague God's tentacles sizzled and dripped oil as they burned. Those vast, writhing tentacles twisted and trembled in the flames.
Xu Ying's eyes twitched. He was not merely whipping the Plague God—he was roasting it with fire!
"The girl in the coffin told me to strike until I had no strength left. Should I continue?"
Xu Ying steeled himself. The Plague God had condemned him to death. The officials had declared him an outlaw. Between the Nether realm and the mortal world, there was no place for him! Today, lashing a Heavenly Deity was simply one more path sealed—heaven itself would offer him no place! What did Xu Ying have to fear?
The youth reined in the whip, his gallbladder surging with heroic fervor. He cracked the skyward lash again: "If this can end the great plague, then what is lashing the Plague God? Plague God—I send you on your way!"
He pulled the whip back with all his strength. The three-or-four-li lash shrank rapidly, dwindling to thirty or forty feet by the time it reached him. But as he cracked it outward, it grew again—longer and thicker than before, countless dragon tendons leaping and straining, numbing his arm!
"Crack!"
Thunder split the sky. The lash—thicker, longer—struck the Plague God's tentacles again, sending flesh and blood flying!
Chunks of flesh the size of small mountains plummeted from the sky. The deity's blood cascaded like waterfalls, staining heaven and earth crimson!
This land was called Zhudu. Plague had erupted—nine out of ten households were empty, corpses lay everywhere with no one to collect them.
Across the vast nation of Zhudu, Nuo shamans everywhere looked up at the sky, their faces filled with disbelief.
They saw a fire-ship sailing through a gale, flames blazing, with divine apparitions of the Vermilion Bird, Zhurong, and phoenixes manifesting around it, intensifying the blaze!
The sky itself seemed to ignite above the ship, crackling, burning in empty air!
Suddenly, a fire-whip ten li long lashed across the heavens. The whip, like countless dragons and serpents linked head to tail, struck the sky—and the sky cracked, great chunks breaking off and tumbling down!
From the fissures, blood cascaded like waterfalls!
The Nuo shamans of Zhudu stared in shock. A bleeding sky—such things were recorded in ancient texts and oral tales, but to witness it firsthand was another matter entirely!
They could not see the Plague God in the sky. They could only see the fire-ship and fire-whip—and the impossible spectacle of the sky igniting, breaking, and bleeding.
But Zhudu was a mighty nation, and among its people were recluses and masters who could perceive the true phenomenon in the sky. And the more they saw, the more horrified they became.
The whip—strike after strike—lashed the Plague God, filling the sky with erratically flashing lightning, making the Plague God convulse!
The Pure Yang Anomalous Fire that filled the sky burned the Plauge God until it oiled and twisted. Combined with the relentless lashing, the Plague God's tentacles contracted, squeezing back into the Celestial Dao world.
The Plague God's boundless body was slowly shrinking.
This once-invincible Heavenly Deity was being driven back into the Celestial Dao world by the fire-ship and fire-whip!
The girl in the coffin stood quietly on a hilltop not far from the Nether River. Her dress fluttered gently in the breeze, as if she were a celestial maiden about to take flight.
The girl was gentle and serene, though her inner thoughts were not so calm as she occasionally glanced at the sky.
At last, the fire-ship blazed into the sky, igniting a great conflagration. Then the fire-whip rose from the earth like a soaring dragon, cracking against the Plague God!
A faint smile appeared on the girl's face.
But after that first lash, nothing followed. The second was slow in coming.
The light in the girl's eyes dimmed: "I cannot blame him. Anyone who witnessed such a sight would find it difficult to continue..."
Just as she thought this, a second lash shot into the sky. The fire-whip, wreathed in Pure Yang flames, struck the Plague God again, tearing its tentacles apart, flesh and blood spraying everywhere!
The whip stirred up a gale that whipped the tower-ship's flames into a blazing inferno, setting the Plague God's countless tentails sizzling and writhing!
The girl smiled softly: "To defy heaven's will in an age when Qi-refinement has fallen into obsolescence—to still dare become a Qi-refiner—such a person is, like me, utterly audacious!"
Her eyes sparkled as she watched the sky: "Summoning the Plague God must have cost them dearly. I would never have let someone drive it back. I would have struck down the person performing the rite. Let me see who you are!"
Her eyes flickered. These people had allowed the Plague God to kill, diverted the Nether River, besieged Stone Mountain, and freed her from the well—then vanished without a trace.
She knew there was a deeper scheme!
"We Qi-refiners defy heaven itself to cultivate. If we dare defy heaven, how could we be used by the likes of you?"
She watched the sky, and her eyes lit up. Below the fire, a figure streaked through the air, heading straight toward the origin of the fire-whip!
That was exactly where Xu Ying stood, cracking the whip!
"Found you!"
Behind the girl, the black coffin rocketed skyward, chains dancing, pursuing the figure!
"I order you to stay!"
Below the fire, a radiance brighter than the sun erupted!
Xu Ying was still wielding the whip. It grew ever longer, ever more powerful. Blood rained from the sky as the tower-ship became a raging inferno, igniting the Plague God's limbs!
The Plague God's tentacles were retreating into the Celestial Dao world—nearly gone. Just then, the sky split. A single tentacle, impossibly vast, descended from above, bearing down on the place where the whip rose—where Xu Ying stood!
That tentacle was like a colossal finger—the Plague God, enraged, meant to crush the mortal who dared whip and burn it!
Xu Ying's fire-whip had nearly burned to the handle. His heart pounding, he saw the tentacle descending through his Celestial Eye and, without hesitation, dropped the burning whip and fled, shouting: "Old Bell, run!"
The bell was still recovering from its injuries and could not move swiftly. Xu Ying doubled back, seized the bell by its nose, and sprinted with all his might!
Above them, space shattered repeatedly. The Plague God's tentacle crushed the surrounding void into a maelstrom of rolling thunder and fire.
"BOOM!"
A terrifying shockwave struck, unleashing a hurricane that tore everything from the ground—trees, houses, rocks—and hurled them skyward!
In the hurricane, a great bronze bell tumbled and bounced, striking trees and boulders alike, careening in unknown directions.
Inside the bell, a youth braced himself against the walls to keep from being thrown about.