Chapter 8: The Ocean of Bones and the River of Blood

  Jiu continued to rush deeper into the plain for nearly two hours according to the connection in his soul, but he still hadn't seen the strange beast he was looking for.

  However, the connection between the golden talismans swaying in the sea of knowledge and the strange beasts became increasingly apparent.

  Rushing over the low hills that lay before his eyes, a pungent and foul smell assailed him, and what he saw behind the hills made Zhu Jiu's heart skip a beat.

  Below is still a vast plain, the line of sight is unobstructed, and there is a winding river on the plain, rushing forward, with a width of over 300 zhang, extending to a more distant place at both ends, without seeing the end.

  It's astonishing that the river water is as dark red and thick as blood, with countless white bones and corpses floating on the surface, and there are more than a hundred of them in sight.

  Dry bones bleeding into a river, what an unbelievable terrifying scene, Zhu Jiu stood on the small hill, a kind of unspeakable horror surged to his head.

  It wasn't until much later that Zhu Jiu discovered that the connection between his soul and the alien beast originated from the Blood River.

  Having encountered strange things all day, Zhu Jiu felt that his nerves had become extremely strong, but when he first saw such a terrifying scene, he still couldn't help feeling fearful. After calming down slightly, he slowly lifted his feet and walked towards the location of the blood river.

  As he drew closer, his sense of terror grew, and when the rushing sound of the river's waters reached his ears, Zhu Jiu was less than a hundred meters away from the riverbank.

  Closer still, Jiu stood on the banks of the Blood River, his brow furrowed in concern. The strange beast's aura was indeed emanating from deep within the river. Could it be that this creature actually lived within the Blood River itself?!

  This is a bit difficult, if it were usual times, I would have been able to wait patiently for the beast to come out, but now time is pressing and there are crises all around, only two choices are left in front of Zhu Jiu.

  One is to give up on this strange beast and find a satisfactory demon corpse within two days.

  Secondly, think of going down the river and finding a strange beast.

  As for waiting and observing before making a decision, it is very likely that precious time will be wasted. The strange beast may not appear in the end, causing one to miss the opportunity to prepare thoroughly and possibly even fail the assessment, which is not a wise approach.

  Jiu stood on the riverbank, gazing at the corpses floating by on the surface of the Blood River, listening to the distant rumble of the water rushing away. Turning his head, he saw that not far from him, many demonic corpses were crouched on the riverbank, greedily sucking up the water of the Blood River. In his heart, he thought:

  "The best solution to the current situation is to successfully communicate with the alien beast and let it appear on its own, but the connection between the talisman and I is one-way, I can sense it, but it doesn't know I'm already here. If I slowly figure out how to use the talisman to make the alien beast appear voluntarily, time may not permit it. Next is to think outside the box, hmm! Here in this desolate wilderness, there's nothing that can be utilized, an ordinary person would be stumped for sure, heh heh! But I, young master, have a plan to try."

  Jiǔ zǎi xì sī liàng, zuì zhōng hái jué dìng mào xiǎn xià hé, yuán yīn shì xiān qián yì shòu de lǐn rán xiōng wēi duì tā chù dòng bù xiǎo, shǐ tā bù rěn fàng qì, zhí biàn de xiǎng yào shōu fú yì shòu wèi zì jǐ dì yī tóu yāo sǐ.

  Next, Jiuzi carefully considered that although the exotic beast had super strength, it was just a corpse after all. Since it could enter the Blood River, even if there were dangers in the river water, he might still be able to cope with them, and this thought gave him the courage to decide to go down into the river.

  I have a feeling that Jiǔ Yǐn's background is not simple, and missing him in the future will be regrettable.

  Another factor that prompted him to eventually go down the river was that others might have no way out in the face of the current situation, where there is no diving equipment, and it's not just a matter of being good at swimming to venture in recklessly.

  However, Zhu Jiu suddenly thought of a talisman from the corpse-driving technique he had learned in his past life that could prevent water from entering the body. He stuck it on the corpse to prevent decay during the long journey over mountains and rivers. In his past life on Earth, where the primordial energy was depleted, this talisman's effect was minimal, but in this world...

  Jiǔ wanted to try, in the sea of knowledge that talisman which could absorb and evolve on its own, whether it could once again absorb the water-avoiding talisman, thereby producing some changes, allowing himself to enter the Blood River, searching for strange beasts.

  He took out the last piece of Soul-Calm Green Copper, and with a resolute heart, he grasped the Evil Spirit Brush in his right hand. With steady strokes, he inscribed the Water-Avoiding Symbol from memory onto the copper plate. As soon as the final stroke was completed, the mysterious symbol array in the Sea of Recognition indeed underwent another transformation.

  With the experience from last time, Zhu Jiu was excited but managed to remain calm and focused. He slightly sensed that the Shihai Fu had absorbed new strokes of the Avoid Water symbol, generating a more intricate new talisman.

  In the sea of knowledge, with the change of the new talisman, many strange phenomena suddenly appeared, and many evil spirits' images appeared around the golden talisman, worshiping and bowing to the talisman, sometimes kneeling on the ground. A mysterious voice also floated from the sky, repeating the two words "life and death" over and over again.

  The strokes on the talisman entwined silently, filling each other in, changing for a long time before taking shape amidst the kneeling and worship of many demons and monsters, becoming a complex and gorgeous crimson talisman.

  At the same time, in the demon corpse realm where Jiuli stood, the demonic corpses within a thousand meters or so all had their soul fires tremble slightly, faintly sensing a sudden descent of heavenly might that flashed and disappeared.

  When the talisman was finally formed, Zhuo Jiu seemed to hear the cheers of many demons and monsters in the sea of consciousness. Slowly, these demonic images disappeared one by one, and the sea of consciousness returned to calmness.

  The newly generated sea of recognition symbol is still yellow with red characters, the overall shape is rectangular, and it floats in the sea of recognition like a wave.

  Every stroke is bright red like fresh blood, the yellow base emits a brilliant golden light, sacred and majestic, the bloody talisman strokes are sinister and fierce, surging ominous power that shakes heaven and earth.

  The newly generated talisman, for some reason, was composed of thousands of strokes, forming an integral whole. The overall shape was somewhat irregular and could not be determined as anything specific, but it could be clearly felt that the new talisman had become increasingly powerful and full of spirituality.

  Jiǔ Zhèng was about to withdraw from the sea of consciousness when he suddenly saw a bright red line emerge from the center of the talisman, as if a drop of full-bodied blood had suddenly appeared on it.

  This drop of blood slowly rolled, pushed by the joint efforts of many strokes, and finally opened a delicate red small flower at the bottom of the yellow talisman, about the size of a thumb. The small flower slowly bloomed, delicate as if real, and when it was fully open, it withered quickly, eventually turning into a bright red elixir.

  A round, red pellet of medicine rolled back and forth on the talisman, suddenly falling from the yellow surface that held it, and vanished into the endless blackness of the sea of consciousness.

  The pill dropped and disappeared, startling Jiuxin in her heart, and she could no longer maintain her focus, as thoughts surged out of the sea of consciousness like a tide.

  Jiu Zhang opened his eyes and suddenly felt something was off. He lowered his head to take a look, only to find that his right hand was still clutching the red elixir that had been formed by the final seal of the Shi Hai Fu Luo! This was indeed strange!

  This outer meaning is what, blessing nine stupidly staring at the medicine in his hand, the medicine is as red as blood, and even has a unique bloody sweetness, the surface of the medicine body is printed with many strokes of the sea symbol, looking quite good, unfortunately do not know the effect, can only carefully put it away.

  Raise your left hand and take a look at the palm, where the soul-calming green bronze is engraved with the water-avoiding talisman. The green bronze emits a faint glow, deep and mysterious, on which the blood-colored water-avoiding talisman characters and the sea of knowledge talisman have merged, transforming into a new sea of knowledge talisman pattern without any difference.

  Also unknown whether this new talisman can avoid water, Zhu Jiu squatted down, holding back the pungent bloody smell that rushed to his nose, and gently probed forward with the green bronze in his hand.

  A miraculous scene unfolded before Zhu Jiu's eyes, the Blood River water "whooshed" out of a large space of about ten feet, then quickly returned to its original state, continuing to flow.

  Cheers to the bottom of my heart, the effect is even better than I imagined. In my previous life, the water-repelling talisman could only barely keep out moisture, but here it actually works! Is it because of the materials or because it's combined with the Shen Hai symbol? Or is it due to the abundant primal energy in this world? Maybe it's all three!

  Silently rising, he gazed at the blood-colored river in front of him. Zhū Jiǔ summoned his courage and tightly grasped the green copper water-avoiding tool in his hand, attempting to take a step forward into the Blood River. The river water indeed retreated, always maintaining a distance of about ten feet from Zhū Jiǔ.

  Turning back to look behind, suddenly turning around, taking big strides into the river of blood, the small figure gradually being covered and disappearing in the water of the river of blood.