Free Web NovelChapter 385: Chapter 377: [Holy Hall 002: The Seventy-two Kings]
Shi Ming waved his right hand.
His powerful Spiritual Power extended like threads. Three nautical miles away, a metal bottle rose from the waves. Manipulated by his Spiritual Power, it traced a gentle arc through the air and flew into his hand.
It was an ancient-looking bottle.
The wax smeared on its body was undamaged.
The tin seal at its mouth was also perfectly intact.
The proverb written in ancient Hebrew looked extremely old. It didn’t seem like a recent creation, nor a relic from some bygone dynasty. To Shi Ming’s eye, it looked to be at least a thousand years old, perhaps even older.
’It’s not bait?’
’It’s really sealed?’
’Is it like in *One Thousand and One Nights*? Will pulling the stopper release a demon that will loom over me and say, "Insignificant human, you have saved my life. As your reward, I shall grant you death"?’
Shi Ming was no fisherman.
And there were no demons in this world.
There were only sea beasts with various abilities—though comparing them to demons wasn’t entirely inaccurate.
He could sense a powerful sea beast hidden inside the ancient bottle. The bottle itself also seemed to be special. Only an exceptionally powerful Spiritual Power probe could perceive it. In the eyes of his crew or the Three-Eyed Golden Crow, their captain was holding nothing at all!
Shi Ming was considering whether to tear off the seal and pull out the stopper when,
a notification automatically popped up before his eyes:
[This S-rank sea beast, which teeters on the edge of life and death, has quite the background!]
[S-Rank Sea Beast: Phoenix]
[The monstrous beast ’Seventy-Two Column Kings,’ which controls the ’Death’ Holy Hall Origin, possesses 72 clones. The Phoenix is one of them. It originally had no skill origin of its own, with all its power stemming from its main body. However, it was sealed long ago in this peculiar, imperceptible bottle. By constantly wavering on the brink of life and death, it has honed two diametrically opposed skills.]
[This is truly a miracle!]
[Skill: Rebirth in Blood (Life)]
[Rank: 64]
[Skill: Requiem of the Undead (Death)]
[Rank: 51]
[...]
[When the Wandering Era began, the bottle was washed out of a mausoleum and began to drift on the sea. The Phoenix has been using treasure as bait, tempting other creatures to help it break the seal. Unfortunately, the bottle itself blocks most forms of detection, rendering all its efforts futile.]
[Without a doubt.]
[If you wished, you could easily kill the "Phoenix."]
[However, the Eye of Destiny, which is extremely sensitive to the tributaries of fate, does not recommend you do so.]
[Once the seal is broken, the ’Seventy-Two Column Kings’ will instantly sense the fall of its long-lost clone. It will undoubtedly be enraged and go on a rampage. If it splits into sixty or seventy different Kings and they spread like a plague across the Endless Ocean, it would take a great deal of time to hunt them all down, even with the Map of the Endless Sea.]
[You don’t want another "dirty job," do you?]
...
’Seventy-Two Column Kings...’
Shi Ming rubbed the tin seal and the patterns on the ancient bronze bottle.
’So this bird really is sealed. I’ve been the one baiting the hook so often, I mistakenly thought it was doing the same.’
’But in reality, it was just doing time.’
The Phoenix.
’I thought it was just an ordinary S-rank sea beast. I was going to kill it to enhance my crew’s strength and the *Dayun’s* overall power. Who would have thought it’s actually a clone of Holy Hall 002—the [Seventy-Two Column Kings] that controls the Death Holy Hall Origin.’
And it had even developed two of its own skills.
One of life, and one of death.
Rebirth in Blood,
When on the verge of death, the Phoenix can burn its own blood to enter a ’Blazing’ state, regaining its full combat power plus a 200% Attack Power bonus (up to a maximum of 300 points) to fight to the death. In this Blazing state, its blood is continuously burned. If it burns out completely, it will enter a death state.
Requiem of the Undead,
After burning all its blood, the Phoenix’s attribute changes from fire to death, and it becomes one of the Undead Creatures. It can no longer use the ’Rebirth in Blood’ skill. Instead, it gains a brand-new, death-attribute skill: ’Requiem of the Undead.’ This skill allows it to drain energy from other beings (or from the blood energy dissipating inside the bottle) to regenerate its flesh and blood. Once its body is fully restored, the Phoenix returns to its normal state.
Conservation of energy. A cycle of death and life.
Starting all over again.
’You’ve basically invented a perpetual motion machine...’
He didn’t care whether the Phoenix lived or died.
Immortality was an empty promise. Shi Ming now knew countless ways to ensure the Phoenix’s demise. But the target of his journey, the Holy Hall Sea Beast in the abyss, was apparently named [Seventy-Two Column Kings] and could split into 72 clones.
If so, it had to be a one-hit kill.
’It’s just that my crew member, Stone Pillar, won’t be able to obtain an S-rank skill to advance to an S-rank Awakened for now. But it’s not a big deal. A few days sooner or later... I’ll just let the "Phoenix" stay in the bottle for now. Once its main body, the "Seventy-Two Column Kings," has fallen, I can release it and kill it then.’
...
...
...
There were no other S-rank sea beasts on their route. After passing the Golden Islands and sailing 1,000 nautical miles to the northwest, they would reach their destination: the Fichaz Sea Abyss in the Mariana Trench.
The deepest point of the Land Era.
The dead, silent depths of the Wandering Era.
Back in the Twelve Stars, Shi Ming had unearthed a travelogue. Its author, a fearless explorer, had visited all sorts of dangerous locations, including the Fichaz Sea Abyss. He hadn’t written much about it, only that it was "deeper than before, and pitch-black."
It seemed he hadn’t met his end there.
Death...
The one thing life fears most.
It was noon. Sunlight streamed through the captain’s cabin’s holographic walls, illuminating the chair that faced the sea. Bathed in the natural light, Shi Ming took out the Golden Mask he had obtained from the *Pharaoh*.
It, too, had countless ties to "death."
Putting it on would allow him to "walk through the kingdom of death as a living person."
Shi Ming still remembered one of the Eye of Destiny’s revelations.
[In the future, the Tutankhamun’s Golden Mask may be of great help to you. Or it may not.]
’A great help?’
’Could the "great help" be for hunting this sea beast? With my current power, killing a Holy Hall Sea Beast should be a matter of brute force. I shouldn’t need this Golden Mask’s help.’
But fate worked in mysterious ways.
He put the mask away. Under the sun’s glare, he transformed into a Kun, leaping into the ocean. He swam through the Endless Ocean, with the *Dayun* following close behind.
He had grown tired of being on the ship.
Experiencing life as a sea beast for a while was a welcome change.
The waters of the Yinping Sea Region were truly peaceful in the clear weather. The journey was uneventful. Before evening, the *Dayun* reached the waters near their destination.
Under the setting sun, the shimmering light on the water gleamed like gold.
The giant Kun leaped from the sea and transformed back into a man, pulling up a curtain of water that seemed to touch the sky. In the twilight, it refracted the light into a brilliant rainbow.
