Chapter 9: Riverbed Remains

  Wishing you a giant leap into the river of blood. As the water rises above your head, an unspeakable sense of loneliness and silence surges up in your heart.

  The river of blood was not as dark and difficult to see as imagined, but instead had a kind of dim, bloody glow that shone through, allowing the direction to be vaguely discerned.

  According to the connection between the Sea of Consciousness and the Heterogeneous Beasts, Zhu Jiu stepped carefully in the Blood River, with the riverbed beneath his feet as hard as ironstone, and the water flow was not as rapid as on the surface.

  All the way down, continuously advancing about a hundred feet away, according to the river width analysis, it should have approached the middle position of the Blood River, and the depth has also reached over a hundred feet.

  The water pressure at the bottom of the river is obviously much greater than in shallow water, and the original space for avoiding water, which was several meters in size, has shrunk by more than half, leaving only a little over one meter.

  In the depths of the river water ahead, a faint emerald green glow appeared, and Jiu Xin's heart was overjoyed, feeling that the ferocious beast that had been terrorizing the sky should be just ahead.

  Just as he was about to take another step, he suddenly felt a surge of dark energy swirling around him, as if something had passed by, and instantly startled Zhu Jiu into a cold sweat.

  At the bottom of this deep river, movement is not agile, and even escaping is impossible. If a fierce creature comes to attack, it will likely die here.

  He swiftly drew out the Corpse Severing Sword, a streak of blood-colored sword light illuminating the small surrounding space, making him feel slightly at ease in his heart. After standing for a while, still not seeing any other movements, Zhu Jiu finally took another step forward, continuing to venture deeper ahead.

  The quiet riverbed had only its own gasps and faint water sounds, the front emerald green light was getting brighter and brighter, Zhu Jiu opened his eyes wide, looking towards the fluorescent place, vaguely seeing the outline of the fluorescence was very wide, about 30 or 40 meters, around 100 meters in size.

  As they drew closer, Jiu's eyes widened in astonishment. The glowing shape was actually a gigantic skull of a wild beast. In this eerie and desolate riverbed, where death filled the air and bones and blood flowed like rivers, there lay the remains of a demonic beast's skull, and it was enormous!

  The fluorescent outline gradually became clear, and it was indeed a huge skull, with an external shape that seemed to be some kind of unknown wild beast. The two eye sockets were empty and had a diameter of over ten meters.

  This giant beast must have been huge when it was alive. Its head alone is nearly 100 meters, and if you add its body, it would be at least 600-700 meters or more.

  Jiu Zai walked around the giant skull at the bottom of the river and found that most of it was deeply buried in the riverbed, and what he saw was only a hundred meters in size, which was just the part above the eye sockets that had been exposed. It's truly astonishing!

  On the back of the skull, a section of neck bone was found exposed on the outside of the riverbed. The neck bone was extremely thick, with a black hole over 10 meters in size in the middle, which should be the location of the giant beast's tendons and blood vessels. After countless years, it rotted away and disappeared, leaving behind an empty hole.

  The fracture location of the cervical vertebrae is uneven, as if it was twisted and broken by some kind of enormous force. What kind of power can achieve this!

  The eerie aura I was searching for came from deep within the bone cave, Zhu Jiu mustered up his courage and stepped into the cervical vertebrae cave. As soon as he entered, he found that the inside of the bone cave was exceptionally dry, and the blood river water couldn't surge in.

  At the same time, an indescribable massive pressure came, causing Zhu Jiu to almost lose his balance, kneeling on the ground. The Shihai symbol floated lightly, and the pressure was slightly alleviated, allowing him to take a step forward with difficulty.

  It was strange that in this bony cave, he actually lost his clear sense of the alien beast, and all his senses became blurred.

  Jiu's heart surged with deep shock, the riverbed relics had been lost for unknown years, yet still maintained a hint of residual intimidation, even the long river of time couldn't wash it clean. The terror was palpable, and what was even more frightening was who could have severed its skull?

  Proceeding forward in the glow emitted by the skeleton in the nape of the neck cave, treading on the giant beast's skeletal remains, it was discovered that the route first went downward before slowly turning upward. Following this direction should lead directly to the center position of the skull.

  After walking for about nine minutes, the front suddenly narrowed and formed a narrow corridor. The corridor was over ten meters long and more than three meters high.

  Jiǔ Cáng was in a gap between the skeletal remains, poking his head towards the back of the corridor where the fluorescent light was more intense. He found that behind the skeletal corridor was a bone space about 30-40 meters wide. Judging by its location, it should be the giant beast's brain area when it was alive.

  The exotic beast that Zhu Jiu was searching for was quietly crouching in the underbrush, but now it seemed that Zhu Jiu's proximity had triggered its alertness. The creature stood up from its crouched position and let out a loud roar, its scarlet soul fire suddenly blazing brightly as it entered combat mode.

  Jiu saw this guy and was overjoyed, quickly walking out of his hiding place with a spring in his step, while simultaneously taking out the last remaining piece of Soul Calming Green Copper and holding it in his hand.

  The strange beast's huge bony head seemed to have some sort of spiritual impression on Zhu Jiu, and then it once again sensed the green copper block that had a fatal attraction to it. Suddenly, its soul fire blazed brightly, burning fiercely.

  With the town's soul green copper in hand, he stepped closer and closer to the strange beast, his heart slowly tightening with anxiety. If he failed this time, it would mean that his assessment was not qualified, and also the end of his life.

  When Zhu Jiu approached the alien beast within ten meters, the green copper in his hand flew out again as before, quickly floating above the alien beast's skull, and was immediately enveloped by the crimson soul fire that had been rolled out, pulling it into the skull. The process of the soul fire and green copper being compatible has begun.

  Jiǔ gazed intently through the empty eye sockets of the alien beast, his eyes fixed on the green copper that had merged with the alien beast's soul fire. This piece of green copper, which had undergone a transformation after being recognized by the Sea of Consciousness symbol, would it really be able to fulfill his wishes? He felt deeply tense.

  In the midst of sensing, the connection between Zhi Hai's symbol and the alien beast gradually became clear and strong. Slowly, Zhu Jiu was able to sense the alien beast's thoughts, which were a naked desire to devour and slaughter, without even a hint of miscellaneous thoughts.

  Just as Zhu Jiu's consciousness had connected with this fierce thought, he was almost swallowed up by this aggressive idea. Fortunately, the Shen Hai Fu Lu symbol fluctuated again, and this thought weakened slightly, but it was not under Zhu Jiu's control at all, and even communication was impossible. Was it still useless?

  Jiu's heart was racing with anxiety, this was a moment of life and death, what should he do?

  Suddenly, the red dan medicine that was previously held in his arms, sealed with the recognition sea symbol and unknown in use, also floated up like the Town Soul Green Copper, quickly entering from the eyes of the alien beast, actively throwing itself into the raging soul fire.

  The soul fire suddenly fluctuated violently, even swelling out and wrapping around the entire head of the alien beast from the outside. From a distance, it seemed as if the alien beast's skull was on fire.

  Jiǔ bù zhī zhè yī biàn huà shì hǎo shì huài, dāi zhàn zài yuán dì.

  Translation:

  Jiu didn't know whether this change was good or bad and stood still on the spot.

  In sight, the burning skull of the alien beast gradually changed. First, the two sharp teeth at the front of the mouth slowly lengthened downwards, eventually growing to be about a foot long, with fine reverse thorns on top that rubbed against each other in an eerie manner. The rest of the teeth also became sharper and more pointed. Afterwards, the entire skull was re-cast by the soul flames, becoming angular and even more indestructible, full of aggression.

  The last scarlet soul fire slowly transformed into a dark red, deep and profound color like molten lava. This guy had actually evolved to a higher level, becoming a high-ranking yao corpse with over 700 years of death energy condensed within the Scarlet Soul Corpse.

  A fierce and evil thought suddenly emerged in Zhu Jiu's sea of consciousness, condensing with the talismans inside. On the yellow base of the talisman, a small, pale green image appeared, which was the shape of a strange beast upon closer inspection.

  Congratulations to Jiufu, who is overjoyed and clearly senses a new wave of self-respect in this guy's fierce and brutal thoughts. As the alien beast sees its burning soul fire gradually weakening and shrinking back into its skull, its transformation is complete.

  Jiǔ tried ordering the strange beast around, and to his surprise, it became extremely obedient, sitting and walking as he pleased. His mission was a great success.

  Looking at the strange beast in front of him, Zhu Jiu was overjoyed and said:

  "When I first met you, your soul fire sparkled like a beautiful sunset. From now on, let's call you Sunset."

  The strange beast stood alone in the sunset, unresponsive. Zhū Jiǔ didn't think much of it and curiously began to examine the memories deep within the Sunset Soulfire.

  The memory of sunset is simple, but there's a secret involving the giant skeleton at the bottom of the river and the origin of sunset hidden within!