Chapter 4587 — Legacy of Memory

The closer he drew to that lingering obsession, the more Wei Zhao felt killing intent surging toward him from every direction, each wave fiercer and more savage than the last, so oppressive that he could not suppress a shudder of dread.

Gradually Wei Zhao came at last to the spatial source from which the obsession had sprung. The place was washed in a faint glow, bright enough that even without divine sense he could make out the surroundings clearly—and he could not help crying out in shock: "What a terrifying battlefield!"

Before him was unmistakably a battlefield, its signs of slaughter visible everywhere. Yet this was no site of human cultivators' combat—no human cultivator would ever come to fight in such a place. This world-shaking battle had belonged to two supreme beasts of the highest order.

Everywhere Wei Zhao looked there were reefs sheared clean through, dead coral, and—more striking still—the stark white bones of sea beasts. This was a vast graveyard of sea beasts!

Stunned for a moment, Wei Zhao soon located the source of the lingering obsession: an extraordinarily vast carcass. Judging by the surroundings, this epochal battle must have taken place long ages ago, yet the corpse before him showed not the slightest sign of decay. If even a casual obsession could persist on its own, then a body that neither rotted nor dissolved was hardly anything remarkable.

Gazing at that immense—one might even say magnificent—carcass, Wei Zhao felt a sincere reverence rise in him. Toward the supreme beings, whether man or beast, every living creature is born with an instinct to bow in awe.

Wei Zhao had no idea what manner of sea beast lay before him. Its corpse was mountain-like, at first glance resembling a gigantic electric eel—yet a closer look showed it was not quite that either. The savage fangs bared on every side, and the dense, blade-like scales, hideous and ferocious, proclaimed at every moment the terror and cruelty it had possessed in life.

This carcass was a treasure such as the world rarely saw!

That was Wei Zhao's first reaction. A spirit beast, as the saying goes, is treasure from head to tail; the mightier the beast, the greater the value of every part of it—and the same held true, naturally, for sea beasts. The corpse of a single Nascent Soul spirit beast could already fetch an appalling price. This eel-like sea beast before him had strength at least at the Sea-Splitting stage, perhaps even greater—what price would it bring if offered for sale?

Though Wei Zhao no longer had much craving for spirit jade, the mere thought of the frenzy such a thing would provoke made even his heart skip a beat. And even without putting it up for auction, keeping this carcass would be of boundless use. Perhaps it could not be used just yet, but in days to come it would surely prove invaluable—of that there was no doubt at all.

At that thought Wei Zhao could restrain himself no longer. He stepped forward, meaning to take the carcass into his jade-pendant space. Though the thing was enormous, his attitude was to take as much as he could; if it truly would not fit, then at worst he would butcher it on the spot. He could hardly leave a ready-made treasure piled before him and go away empty-handed—that would be the act of a wastrel.

But then Wei Zhao's brows suddenly knitted. He found that no matter how he willed it, the vast carcass before him would not stir in the slightest; there was simply no way to take it into the jade-pendant space.

"Save yourself the trouble, kid," the ghost thing said at last, unable to watch any longer. With a cackling laugh it went on: "This thing may have been dead for who knows how many years, but it still has an obsession clinging to it—you can't take it in at all. Unless you can crush that obsession to nothing, and then maybe."

"Uh..." Wei Zhao felt as though a bucket of cold water had been poured over his head. Only then did it register: since the creature still bore a lingering obsession, it counted as a living thing. Either it submitted to him with whole heart and soul, or—as the ghost thing said—he destroyed the obsession; otherwise there was no possible way to take it into his jade-pendant space.

But the problem was that the creature was at minimum a supreme existence of the Sea-Splitting stage. To put it plainly, Wei Zhao hardly even qualified to prostrate himself in worship before it. Even a mere lingering obsession of it could easily rebound on him and leave him coughing blood. For Wei Zhao, with his paltry present strength, to think of destroying that obsession was nothing but a fool's dream.

To watch a treasure trove so vast slip through his fingers for sheer lack of power—the frustration was galling. Wei Zhao shook his head helplessly, then, still unwilling to give up, reached out and touched the carcass. Even if he could not take the whole of it into the jade-pendant space, he could at least pry off a piece or two—after all, even a single scale from such a creature was a treasure hard to find anywhere in the world.

Yet the instant his hand touched the scale, Wei Zhao gave a violent start and then froze, unable to move. Nothing unusual showed on the surface, but inside his head it felt as though something would burst; countless chaotic fragments of information came pouring in all at once, images flashing past in rapid succession, dazzling his eyes and leaving him dizzy.

His skull splitting with pain, Wei Zhao in alarm made at once to pull his hand back—only to find that the carcass seemed to hold some magic that had clamped his hand fast.

He could not stir so much as half an inch, and now the scenes flooding into his mind finally began to sharpen, resolving into a complete fragment of memory, like another world that truly existed, drawing him in unawares.

It was still this fathomless seabed. The supreme sea beast that looked like a giant electric eel lay silently hidden in the sand and gravel of a deep trench, and several li ahead of it lay a fresh sea-beast corpse—by the look of it, another mighty overlord of the sea. Yet its belly had been split open as if by a blade, the wound ringed with charred black, viscera and blood still flowing ceaselessly out, drawing every sea beast from far and near.

It was a seabed feast such as came only once in an age. The sea beasts drawn to it were savage and hideous one and all, yet none showed any intent to attack the others; instead they flung themselves ravenously upon the vast corpse. There was no need to fight—this corpse alone was enough to glut them. Of course, if it proved insufficient, then a bloody slaughter would be unavoidable.

Yet the gluttonous feast did not last long. Once no fewer than a hundred vicious sea beasts of every kind had gathered densely around the carcass, a deep-purple arc of lightning as thick as a water vat flashed past—and the next instant those hundred-odd beasts, still feasting, were struck down in a flash, with no chance to struggle or resist. Every one of them was seared black, exactly like the sea-beast corpse they had been devouring. (To be continued) R466