Chapter 277: The Observer Appears Again

Thud!

Shen Dong from the Black Valley Sect had also retracted his protective shield, and just like the others, he collapsed to the ground with a loud thud.

He died without any warning. His expression was serene, but his open eyes were filled with confusion.

"Shen Dong!" Qi Qingsong cried out in shock

He had been on somewhat familiar terms with the man and moved closer to see if there was any way to save him.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Bodies collapsed on the third floor, the second floor, in cabins, and on the deck.

Pang Jian's expression changed. Instinctively moving to Zhou Qingchen's side, he said in a deep voice, "Big Brother Zhou, don't stray too far from me."

Zhou Qingchen asked in alarm, "How did they die?"

Thud! Thud! Thud!

More bodies collapsed.

Over a dozen people had died in an instant.

"Do not retract your protective shields!" Lu Lingchan from the Black Valley Sect calmly shouted. "Invisible entities will infiltrate your bodies once your shields are down."

The bewildered disciples of the Sword Pavilion and the Black Valley Sect frantically reinforced their protective shields, causing each one to glow more brightly than before.

Whoosh!

A vibrant, gracefully dancing Celestial Phoenix unleashed a divine aura from the center of Dong Tianze's brow.

A radiant light burst from the Celestial Phoenix Imprint on Dong Tianze's forehead and wrapped tightly around his body.

Dong Tianze's expression was panicked as he quickly reactivated his protective shield.

He, too, had carelessly retracted his protective shield.

However, the Celestial Phoenix Imprint on his forehead sensed danger and used its power to protect him, allowing him to narrowly avoid death.

Meanwhile, Zhou Qingchen had kept his protective shield up the whole time, aware of his low cultivation and not daring to act rashly,

"I knew the bizarre mist was incredibly dangerous." He glanced down at Zhao Yuanqi on the deck. "Sister Zhao, are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

The silver-haired girl in black clothes and a giant gourd on her back wore a haughty expression.

Four disciples from the Sword Pavilion and the Black Valley Sect had perished near her.

She snorted and disdainfully glanced at the panicked Sword Pavilion and Black Valley Sect disciples beside her. "They must have a death wish to act so carelessly in the bizarre mist."

The surviving disciples shot her cold looks.

"We haven't even entered Absolute Heaven yet..." Shaken, Fang Boxuan moved away from the corpses and approached Lu Lingchan from the Black Valley Sect.

He seemed to think he would be safer if he stayed close to the quiet girl.

A middle-aged woman in her forties or fifties behind Lu Lingchan stared at Fang Boxuan, repeatedly looking him up and down.

"Fang Xuan? Are you Fang Xuan?" she asked. "Fang Xuan, is that you?"

"You've got the wrong person. I'm Fang Boxuan from the Blood Moon Sect. I'm not Fang Xuan." Fang Boxuan frowned.

"No! I've seen you before. You're Fang Xuan!" The elderly woman pointed at Fang Boxuan, her tone firm. "You disappeared right before the Fang Clan was exterminated. It turns out you went to the Third World!

"Yes, it makes sense. The Fang Clan, knowing they had provoked the Demon Sect, probably sent you to the Third World to avoid being found!

"Fang Xuan, I know it's you!"

Lu Lingchan of Black Valley Sect looked at Fang Boxuan in surprise, her thick eyelashes fluttering slightly. "The Fang Clan from the Demon Abyss Continent...Fang Xuan, is that really you?"

"It's not me! You've got the wrong person!" Fang Boxuan's expression darkened and he went to stand by Dong Tianze instead.

Dong Tianze, sitting alone atop the Black Iron Mountain, looked at him strangely and said, "No wonder you're so familiar with the Sacred Soul Continent and even know about the legend of the Four Great Spirit Beasts. You're actually from the Second World."

Fang Boxuan shook his head. "As I said, they have the wrong person."

"Miss, it's him, Fang Xuan!" The elderly woman with a long, narrow face behind Lu Lingchan cried. "To think, you two were even engaged back then. The Demon Sect killed all the direct descendants of the Fang Clan except for Fang Xuan, who was sent to the Third World."

Lu Lingchan, from the Lu Clan of the Second World, said softly, "I was still young back then and never had the opportunity to see him in person."

She gazed at Fang Boxuan from afar, with eyes filled with doubt, curiosity, and sympathy.

He probably didn't expect Aunt Huang to recognize him when he neared me. Did he get so close to...see me?

she wondered.

"Fang Xuan..." Qi Qingsong thoughtfully glanced at Fang Boxuan from the third floor of the Sword Boat.

Pang Jian, on the other hand, paid no attention to Fang Boxuan's identity.

With his protective shield still activated, he squatted down to examine Shen Dong's corpse. After some hesitation, he summoned the Startling Slaughter Spear and poked the body a few times with its tip.

Splat!

Blood oozed out of holes pierced into the corpse.

"Junior Brother Pang, the man is already dead. Is there a need to examine him like this?" Nie You, an inner disciple of the Sword Pavilion, frowned. "If you keep poking his body, he won't even have an intact corpse anymore."

Several other inner disciples of the Sword Pavilion also chimed in, "Junior Brother Pang, what's the point of doing this?"

"To make sure you don't end up dying as mysteriously as he did," Pang Jian replied coldly, not even bothering to look up.

After stabbing around Shen Dong's body with the Startling Slaughter Spear and finding nothing unusual, he used the tip of the spear to flip the body over and continued poking.

When the spear tip pierced the back of Shen Dong's skull into his brain, the twelve strands of golden divine sense in Pang Jian's sea of consciousness suddenly slipped into his eyes.

His eyes instantly turned golden!

Green ants with swollen abdomens were crawling out of Shen Dong's eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth!

Each ant looked quite satiated.

Pang Jian scanned the deck and the third floor, a chill running down his spine.

A swarm of green ants crawled in and out of the seven orifices of every corpse!

The green ants with swollen abdomens were invisible to the naked eye and could not be detected with normal divine sense.

They were only visible through the golden divine sense infused with divine consciousness in Pang Jian's eyes!

These green ants could not break through protective shields and could only infiltrate the brains of cultivators when they let their guard down.

They also seemed to devour brain matter!

Once he grasped the situation, Pang Jian channeled his solar and earthflame energies, causing the tip of the Startling Slaughter Spear to burst into intense flames.

Crackle!

Shen Dong's corpse caught fire. The green ants crawling from his skull sizzled in the blaze.

A faint strand of foreign energy seeped from the dead green ants, visible only to his golden eyes.

It contained a faint divine consciousness...

Pang Jian's eyes brightened as he contemplated how to collect the foreign energy.

Zap!

Golden lightning shot from his eyes.

The golden lightning streaked through the air, absorbing the foreign energy from the dead green ants.

The fine golden lightning slowly grew larger!

It works!

Pang Jian was thrilled.

Leaping down to the deck, he repeated the process with the bodies there.

Blazing flames enveloped the bodies of the Sword Pavilion and Black Valley Sect disciples, burning all the green ants he could see.

More bolts of golden lightning shot out from Pang Jian's eyes, capturing the faint traces of divine consciousness from the dead green ants.

"Pang Jian, what are you doing?"

"They're already dead! Why are you burning them to ashes?"

"Is this really necessary?"

Disciples from the Sword Pavilion and the Black Valley Sect complained loudly.

Lu Lingchan watched coldly as Pang Jian set the body of a cherished senior sister ablaze. "Stop!"

Pang Jian acted as though he had not heard her.

Whoosh!

The bamboo flute in Lu Lingchan's hand released colorful lights from each hole—gold, black, dark green, and azure blue...

Waves of sound, each carrying a force capable of shattering souls, locked onto Pang Jian's sea of consciousness, preparing to strike.

Qi Qingsong landed on the deck, stood before Pang Jian, and glared at Lu Lingchan.

"Lu Lingchan, I'll have the Black Valley Sect get the hell off this Sword Boat right now if you dare make a move!" he shouted. "If you don't understand, then shut up and stop talking nonsense!"

He then roared at the Sword Pavilion disciples, "And the rest of you, are you blind? Can't you see they've been poisoned?"

"Poisoned?"

Everyone shivered with fear and hastily moved away from the burning corpses.

Lu Lingchan frowned at Qi Qingsong's threat to kick all Black Valley Sect disciples off the Sword Boat. "He'd better be right."

Pang Jian paid her no mind, continuing to absorb divine consciousness with the six bolts of golden lightning from his eyes.

He created a series of blazing fireballs with his spear.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The blazing fireballs chased down the green ants trying to escape from the heads of the corpses.

After a while, Pang Jian activated the black turtle scute's Gravity Manipulation and leaped from the Sword Boat to pursue the fleeing green ants.

"Senior Brother Han! Follow Pang Jian with the Sword Boat. Follow him wherever he goes!" Qi Qingsong ordered. Then to Pang Jian, he shouted, "Pang Jian, what's going on?"

The Sword Boat roared forward, chasing Pang Jian deep into the bizarre mist.

A quarter of an hour later, a tattered, dark yellow banner full of holes appeared deep in the thick bizarre mist.

Still flying with Gravity Manipulation and protected by his green protective shield, Pang Jian halted in front of the dark yellow banner with his Startling Slaughter Spear in hand.

Thousands of green ants with swollen abdomens were crawling into the torn holes of the banner.

It looked as though they were crawling into the many eyes of the Outer God known as the Observer.

The Observer had released these brain-eating green ants to devour the brains of cultivators. It appeared to also devour their souls and thoughts.