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On the top of that moon-like shape was Meegah Island. The middle two were Joine Island and Emiche Island, and on the bottom was Nethervault Island.

Emiche was the main island, with the other three being subsidiary islands.

Previously, Xu Qing didn’t know much about the Merfolk. But after closely studying the jade slip Huang Yan gave him, he learned a lot.

That slip didn’t just contain information about places and objects of value. It also went into detail about Merfolk history and culture.

The Merfolk believed that when they died, they traveled through the Temple of Meegah to a place called the Field of Clouds, which was a bizarre world that they called a kingdom of gods. Buried there was the original god from their ancient mythologies. That god’s name was Meegah. Meegah Island was named after that god, as was the suit of armor that had been sacrificed to the volcanos there. Although Meegah was considered a saint in the Merfolk mythologies, he eventually died. And the Merfolk faith needed a substitute. There were even experts among them who required that the replacement be able to unleash godly magic.

Therefore, they put their faith in another mysterious entity whose name was Joine. Joine Island was named after her. According to the jade slip from Huang Yan, although Joine was called a god, the truth was that... Joine was actually just a godly entity from the depths of the sea. Strength was strength, and Joine was a far cry from truly being a god.

As for Nethervault Island, it was devoted to relics of the past. The Merfolk thought it was important to bury their dead with funerary objects. The more such objects someone was buried with, the more important they were in life. That was why important Merfolk were buried on Nethervault Island with all of the riches they had accumulated in life. Furthermore, there was no stigma for later generations to dig up those riches. In Merfolk culture, it was a form of destiny for other Merfolk to recover such objects and fight over them, and in fact, was considered a type of rebirth.

Finally, there was Emiche Island. Considered the main island, it bore the surname of the original chieftain of the Merfolk. Because of that, Emiche was considered the surname of the royal house, and Emiche Island was viewed as the cradle of all Merfolk civilization.

As Xu Qing thought back to all that information, he recalled how Huang Yan mentioned the Foundation Establishment holy treasure, which was officially named the Spirit Breath Lamp, as well as the clues it contained regarding that mysterious temple.

According to Merfolk legends, after their original god Meegah died, he took the Temple of Meegah with him. The stories claimed that the Spirit Breath Lamp contained clues as to the location of that temple, although no one had identified any such clues despite all the years which had passed.

Xu Qing didn’t care about that aspect. He just cared about how valuable the lamp was. As he mentally reviewed all of this information, he sped through the jungle without pausing for a moment.

Eventually, he heard the sound of explosions up ahead, and sensed spirit power fluctuations. Clearly, there were Seven Blood Eyes disciples up ahead fighting with Merfolk cultivators.

Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed as he scanned his surroundings, then bent forward and moved ahead at top speed, sticking to the treetops and the shadowy areas. He was very used to traveling in a jungle.

While he moved, he spent some time analyzing what he knew about Third Highness and the sect in general. After considering everything in context, he felt certain that no one was going to come cause problems for him because he killed that young merman back in the capital city. That was quite a relief.

Eventually, he leaped onto one particular treetop, and stopped in place, his pupils constricting.

A sense of profound danger had just risen up within him. He jumped backward, and at that exact moment, a bright red tree branch snapped through the air toward the spot where he’d been standing. It looked almost like a tentacle.

Simultaneously, the tree behind the branch withered rapidly, as did several other trees in the area. Along with the withering came more red branches, whistling through the air directly toward Xu Qing. His facial expression was the same as ever as he nimbly jumped up to avoid them. Then, instead of attacking, he simply went around the area with the trees. Off in the distance, he could see the location where the branches came from.

Within a muddy crater was a huge red tree, slowly rising up, glittering with red light. Despite the glare, Xu Qing could see that inside the trunk of the tree was a mass of severed limbs.

Some were human. Some were nonhuman. All were greenish-black. It was almost as if they had been buried in that spot so their flesh and blood could feed the tree. What was more, all of them had mutation blotches on them.

As the tree slowly grew, Xu Qing noticed that it had a dozen or so huge fruits growing on it. They were semitransparent, and within each one was a Merfolk cultivator, eyes closed.

Large amounts of mutagen was coursing out of those cultivators, into the fruit, and through the tree to the severed limbs.

Clearly this was a special method the Merfolk used to purge mutagen.

There wasn’t just one of these trees present. Xu Qing saw at least seven or eight just within his field of view. And when he thought to how much of Joine Island was covered in jungle, he realized that there must be many, many more such trees.

As he took all of this in, the numerous tentacle-like red branches shot toward him with obvious killing intent.

As they neared, the closest tree branch suddenly withered, its red coloration suddenly being covered with black spots. Those black spots almost seemed alive as they spread across the branch like rot.

As the rot continued to cover the incoming branch, it began to drip with black fluid. The black fluid contained poisons that infected anything it touched, even the soil below, which started hissing when the poisoned liquid landed on it. It wasn’t just one branch that was affected. All of the incoming branches started rotting. What was more, the black spots of rot continued to spread toward the main trunk of the tree.

There were soon dozens of branches that were completely rotten, with the effect coming right up to the trunk. As the rot spread onto the tree, the huge fruits shivered, as the Merfolk cultivators inside sensed the sudden danger. A few opened their eyes and broke out of the fruits. Not all of them could react so quickly. Only four managed to break free. As for the rest... the rot quickly spread to them.

Seeing this, the four who had broken free glared at Xu Qing with killing intent, then rushed toward him, bursting with the energy of the great circle of Qi Condensation. From their perspective, Xu Qing was in the great circle, the same as them. And since it was difficult for humans to unlock the latent talents of their species, it was common for nonhumans to be superior when fighting someone in the same cultivation level as them.

Although the dao of poison was dangerous, their body structures were different from humans, and therefore, they looked down on human poisons.

Four Merfolk cultivators bore down on Xu Qing from four different directions. However, as they got close, Xu Qing’s eyes glittered and he suddenly accelerated dramatically.

It was a level of speed that completely surpassed anything the four Merfolk cultivators could have anticipated. There wasn’t even a chance for them to look surprised before Xu Qing appeared in front of the first of them, his dagger flashing. The cultivator’s head flew off his shoulders, and then Xu Qing bashed into the second cultivator.

Cracking sounds rang out. This specific Merfolk cultivator had an innate species skill making his fleshly body incredibly powerful. It also gave him a power of dispellation. Despite all that, he couldn’t sustain the force of the blow, and screamed as his body collapsed into a mash of blood and bone fragments.

As the gore splattered to the ground, Xu Qing’s dagger stabbed through the forehead of the third cultivator. The fourth cultivator of the group looked terrified, and immediately turned and fled.

However, he wasn’t fast enough.

Before getting thirty meters away, he started shaking from head to toe as black spots appeared all over him. He shrieked in agony as his body began to rot, then melt. Merfolk did have different body structures that made certain poisons useless against them. But Xu Qing had accounted for that, making his poison powder even more effective against them.

After killing the four of them, Xu Qing calmly went through all of their possessions. As he did, he suddenly looked up as another Seven Blood Eyes disciple appeared.

Xu Qing didn’t know him, but based on his spirit power fluctuations, he could tell that he was in the great circle of the Seaforming Scripture. At the same time that Xu Qing looked up, the disciple stopped in place.

Their gazes met, and the other disciple stopped breathing for a moment. To him, it was like he had just run into some powerful sea beast out on the Forbidden Sea. He felt himself going stiff, and it took a great deal of force not to simply freeze in place. Looking incredibly vigilant, he quickly said, “I bear no ill will, Elder Brother. I’m just passing through.”

Then he took out a handful of medicinal pills and stuffed them into his mouth. Putting both hands above his head to indicate he wasn’t a threat, he slowly backed away.

Xu Qing watched coldly as he left, then organized his battle trophies before moving on.

After making sure Xu Qing was gone, the disciple who had just encountered him exhaled sharply. He was feeling profoundly shaken.

If I’d gotten any closer, or if I’d shown any malicious intentions, I’d be dead already!

His heart still pounded with lingering fear. Xu Qing’s aura had weighed down on him with such pressure that, for a moment, he’d wondered if Xu Qing wasn’t a Qi Condensation disciple, but rather, a Foundation Establishment honor guard.

When did the Offpeak disciples get such a fierce new member...?

This disciple had been out at sea for half a year, and had no way to know who Xu Qing was. He started moving, but only got a few steps before coughing up a huge mouthful of black blood. Terrified, he consumed some more medicinal pills, whereupon the symptoms faded a bit.

Lucky for him, Xu Qing’s poison had been created to target Merfolk. If it had been the original version, the disciple would have died beyond the shadow of a doubt.

He has a strong cultivation base, kills decisively, and has a terrifying dao of poison....

Not wanting to risk crossing paths with Xu Qing again, he picked a different direction to travel.

And thus, time passed. Fighting raged throughout the Merfolk Isles, with casualties on both sides. At the same time, Xu Qing slowly slaughtered his way through the jungle.

Eventually, he spotted a Merfolk city up ahead. It was a very unique place. Instead of being built of brick and tile, the entire city was formed from a massive fish skeleton, large enough to rival one of the districts in the Seven Blood Eyes capital city.

Xu Qing compared what he was seeing with the information in Huang Yan’s jade slip about Joine Island. Then he continued toward the city.