Chapter Ninety: The Floating Sky Island [Please Subscribe]

At dawn the next day, as the rising sun kindled the sky, Chen Yulou gathered the men of the Mountain-Shearing Brotherhood and the soldiers under Old Crooked Luo. Raising the parting cups in his hand, he called out in a ringing voice.

“My brothers, we have come a thousand miles to stand here and undertake a great enterprise. I hope we can pull together as one and take this great tomb in a single blow. A toast to all of you!”

“A toast to the chief!”

“A toast to Commander Luo!”

“...”

Crackling applause and cheers followed.

“Set out!”

After drinking the farewell wine, Li Yang and Chen Yulou took the lead at the head of the procession. Before long, the mighty column of several hundred men arrived at the entrance to the underground river that Li Yang had found the day before.

Everyone had already prepared tools and materials, building rafts on the spot from what they could gather.

In less than an hour, the fleet was moving with the current into the hidden river below.

“Brothers, be careful. This underground river is home to a vicious kind of saw-toothed viper fish. It is ferocious by nature; once it smells blood, it attacks like mad!”

Not long after entering the dark river, Li Yang saw that some of the Brotherhood were drawing water from it with canteens, and he immediately called out a warning.

“Brother Li, do you mean piranhas?”

Chen Yulou, on the same raft, turned and asked.

“Yes, a kind of piranha. But these saw-toothed viper fish are larger than ordinary piranhas, and far more savage as well.”

“Aah... a snake!”

“...”

Crash... gurgle... splash...

While Li Yang was explaining, cries of alarm suddenly rang out behind them, followed by the sound of a raft breaking apart.

Li Yang turned and looked. A giant python, its body covered in blue-green scales and as thick as a millstone, was coiled around one of the rafts. Several soldiers had fallen into the water, and one of them was already being swallowed whole.

“Brothers, open fire!”

Bang bang bang... pfft pfft pfft...

Hearing the cries for help, Old Crooked Luo immediately shouted for the soldiers behind them to shoot.

The underground river was dim and murky, visibility was poor, and chaos broke out at once. All that could be seen were a few sparks where bullets struck the walls.

“Stop firing, everyone!”

When the blue-scaled python was struck and plunged into the water, a wash of blood spread rapidly through the river. Li Yang’s expression changed at once.

Chen Yulou hurriedly shouted for them to stop. Born with night vision, the little darkness in this subterranean river posed no obstacle to him at all.

Seeing this, Li Yang thought grimly, I was careless. In the film from my previous life, there was no mention of a python in this river. There were only a few scattered records in the text.

“Chief, what is it?”

“Everyone, move faster. Full speed ahead!”

After fusing with the Six-Winged Golden Centipede, Li Yang’s eyesight and perception had long surpassed human limits. In his senses, the saw-toothed viper fish in this underground river were now swarming wildly toward this place.

“Caw...”

He summoned the golden toad from his robes, injected it with a bloodline stimulant, and released it into the river so it could feed on the saw-toothed viper fish on its own.

“Commander Luo, Chief, tell everyone to tie the rafts together with the ropes they have on them!”

Watching the roiling waves in the river, Li Yang threw out the hemp rope in his hand and shouted, “Everyone hold on tight, or you’ll be swept away by the current!”

“Go!”

Turning to look at the row of rafts strung out behind them, Li Yang gripped the hemp rope tightly. His feet seemed nailed to the raft as he gave a roar, a blaze of golden light flashing over his body. Three pairs of transparent wings extended from his back, and with one fierce beat—

Whoosh.

The raft shot forward like an arrow.

“Aah... help!”

Pfft pfft pfft...

As for those soldiers who failed to hold on and fell into the water, Li Yang could do nothing for them. If he hesitated any longer, more lives would only be lost to the saw-toothed viper fish.

“Damn it all, what a cursed start!”

Wiping the spray from his face, Old Crooked Luo’s legs were trembling as he stared at the pitch-black mouth of the underground river ahead, still shaken.

“This place is rich in spiritual energy, and its terrain is bizarre. Its danger is a hundred times greater than that of Bottle Mountain. Everyone stay alert and keep your guard up!”

Patting Old Crooked Luo on the shoulder, Li Yang sat cross-legged on the ground, sensing the location of the golden toad.

“Caw...”

Ten minutes later, the golden toad crawled out of the river with its plump body, its bulbous eyes dull and listless, looking half asleep.

Putting the golden toad away, Li Yang said to Partridge Whistle, “Brother Partridge Whistle, your School of Moving Mountains is skilled at surveying terrain. I’ll trouble you and your fellow disciples to scout ahead, while I take the middle to support everyone.”

“Rest assured, Brother Li. Leave the scouting to us.”

Partridge Whistle clasped his hands to Li Yang, then waved to Old Foreign and Flower Spirit. The three of them immediately vanished into the dense forest.

“Chief, let’s move too!”

After greeting Chen Yulou, Li Yang immediately followed Partridge Whistle into the woods.

“Brother Li, up ahead is the den of a herd of giant lizards. If we want to pass through here, I’m afraid we won’t be able to go around them.”

Half an hour later, Partridge Whistle returned from surveying the route ahead and said to Li Yang with a furrowed brow.

Hearing this, Li Yang also frowned. As for the dangers within the Emperor’s Tomb, perhaps only the great serpent left behind by the Queen of the Lost Kingdom could pose any real threat to him; the rest were hardly worth mentioning.

If not for the need to have others gather the jewels and funerary treasures inside the tomb, why would he bother bringing along those burdensome men under Old Crooked Luo and Chen Yulou at all?

“Boy, though this place is rich in spiritual energy and the poisonous insects and beasts here are all fiercely savage, they do not fear the faint aura of ancient beasts around you. But if you take on the form of the Six-Winged Golden Centipede and use it to intimidate them, those insects and beasts will naturally keep their distance by instinct and dare not come near you or the others.”

Seeing Li Yang looking troubled, the old Daoist Zixiao in his mind could not help but shake his head and offer a reminder.

“Tell the brothers to assemble. We’ll go to the Emperor’s Tomb together!”

At the old Daoist’s reminder, Li Yang instantly brightened, and said to Chen Yulou and Old Crooked Luo behind him.

“But... what about the giant lizards up ahead?”

Partridge Whistle looked at Li Yang and asked hesitantly.

“I have my own way.”

With that, golden light burst from Li Yang’s body and soared upward. He transformed into a Six-Winged Golden Centipede more than thirty feet long, plunging down from the sky.

“What... what is that!”

“A monster!”

“...”

Seeing the Six-Winged Golden Centipede dive from the heavens, everyone was instantly filled with dread, and a few of the more timid men collapsed right to the ground.

“You... you are Brother Li?”

Chen Yulou was still the bravest of them, and he asked tentatively.

“Of course it’s me. Who else would it be?”

The Six-Winged Golden Centipede opened its ferocious jaws, and its voice rolled out like thunder, making everyone’s ears buzz.

“Lord have mercy! You nearly scared me to death. I said that centipede looked familiar. It’s only changed color—this isn’t the same great centipede from Bottle Mountain?”

“Brother Li, this... this is truly divine mastery. Unbelievable. To be able to harness the power of an ancient beast for your own use—I’ve never even heard of such a thing, let alone seen it!”

Unlike Old Crooked Luo, who was trembling all over, Partridge Whistle was frightened too, but even more than fear, what he felt was shock.

“So Brother Li is not a monster?”

Only then did Chen Yulou stare in disbelief at the Six-Winged Golden Centipede rearing up before him.

It was not that he lacked knowledge, but in his eyes, the transformation of a man into an ancient beast was more absurd than even the old myths themselves.

“If I were a monster, would any of you still be alive?”

Li Yang rolled his eyes at Chen Yulou, and with a slithering sweep of his many legs, he bore into the woods, leaving a deep track in the earth.

Hiss...

Whoosh...

Squeak squeak... howl howl...

...

Once inside the forest, Li Yang raised his head and hissed several times. An aura of primeval wilderness burst from his body, instantly stirring the poisonous insects and beasts in the woods into panic. One after another, they gave off frenzied cries, and even Chen Yulou and the others behind him were deeply shaken by the force of that aura.

As he passed through the territory of the giant lizards, most of them wisely chose to avoid him. But one lizard, no smaller than Li Yang himself and apparently their leader, puffed hot breath and advanced toward the Six-Winged Golden Centipede.

“Hmph. Seeking death.”

Faced with the lizard’s challenge, Li Yang snorted coldly and spat out a blaze of golden breath. In an instant the giant lizard was vaporized. Even the soil beneath it was stripped away by the centipede’s venomous miasma, leaving behind a blackened hole.

“This... and that’s it? I thought there would be a fierce battle of dragons and tigers!”

Old Crooked Luo in the rear stared at the scene, his eyes nearly popping out of his head.

“You’ve seen Brother Li’s abilities before. If we weren’t dragging him down, let alone a mere giant lizard, even if all the dangers of the Emperor’s Tomb rose up together, how could they stop him?”

Chen Yulou glared at Old Crooked Luo and spoke irritably, though his meaning was plain enough.

“Brother Li’s ancient-beast form is indeed formidable. I fear it is no less powerful than the true ancient beast, the Six-Winged Golden Centipede.”

Partridge Whistle, standing nearby, was likewise solemn as he spoke.

Li Yang gave no explanation. It was not that he was merely comparable to the Six-Winged Golden Centipede—when he became the Six-Winged Golden Centipede, he was the genuine ancient beast himself. Only, since this touched on the secret workings of his cultivation method, he naturally would not reveal it.

“This... is this the floating island you mentioned, Brother Li?”

Looking at the fairytale beauty before him, Chen Yulou said in amazement.

“That’s right. This is the floating island. The magnetic field in this gorge is unusual; the entire island is made of magnetite. Its climate is also different from the world outside. Within a single day it passes through the four seasons, which is why such a marvelous sight can exist.”

Standing upon the floating island, Li Yang felt the blazing sunlight and the breeze brushing over his face, and could only feel an immense clarity throughout his body.

“My goodness, I’ve never in my life seen anything like this! If I could retire here, that would be the best thing in the world.”

It took quite a while before Old Crooked Luo and the others recovered from the beauty of the scene, all of them overwhelmed with awe and emotion.