Gentlemen, it's time to enter the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls.

Chapter 262: Fear of being close to home

Chen Ye's transformation into a dragon was a brilliant move, allowing him to move freely until he encountered the strange fish before him.

Those seemingly ferocious and violent monsters would mostly choose to run away rather than fight Chen Ye after seeing him.

Chen Ye nimbly moved among the broken walls and ruins, bypassing the shattered restrictions, and followed the path guided by the morning light.

They swam quite far without incident, passing several collapsed palaces, until they finally encountered trouble in what looked like an underwater flower garden.

It was a coral jungle that stretched as far as the eye could see.

Countless giant corals of various shapes and vibrant colors grow freely in this area, like a myriad of exotic flowers blooming on the seabed. These corals emit a faint, ethereal glow, illuminating this seabed area with a bizarre and fantastical light, like a dreamlike space crafted from crystal.

Such a magnificent sight made Chen Ye unable to resist taking a few more glances.

However, although this coral jungle is magnificent, it is obvious that no one has taken care of it for a long time, so a lot of seaweed has grown in it, like colorful jewels growing mold and hair, which is very unsightly.

Moreover, these kelp are thick and long, dividing the coral forest into countless dark and cramped spaces, making it look even more uncomfortable.

However, this was a necessary passage, so Chen Ye had no choice but to risk entering.

Just as he passed through two clumps of slippery seaweed, a sharp, large mouth lunged at Chen Ye.

Fortunately, Chen Ye dodged in time and manipulated the water flow to push himself away.

With a powerful bite, its sharp jaws tore off large pieces of seaweed and also crushed several huge pieces of coral.

Only then did Chen Ye get a clear look at the strange fish.

Its body is long and flat, like a sharp blade magnified countless times. Its fins are not those of ordinary fish. When they are spread out, they resemble bird wings and are covered with fine, feather-like scales.

Each flap of its wings creates a powerful vortex in the water, making it move at incredible speeds.

Its head was ferocious and terrifying, with a huge mouth filled with three rows of sharp teeth that occupied almost half of the entire skull. At this moment, it was wide open, revealing its gleaming fangs.

The Yingyu has the body of a fish and the wings of a bird, and its cry is like that of a mandarin duck.

It was another mythical beast recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, and this Yingyu seemed unconcerned about the dragon's might emanating from Chen Ye, fiercely staring at him, ready to attack at any moment.

This fish was much larger than Chen Ye's dragon body; that one bite was enough to swallow half of Chen Ye's body whole.

Perhaps it is precisely because of the huge difference in size that the Winnowing Fish dares to prey on the Jiaolong.

Faced with this colossal creature in the deep sea, Chen Ye finally understood why the Mirage Sect dared not venture deep into it.

If Chen Ye were still in human form, his size wouldn't even be enough to fill the gap between this Winning Fish's teeth.

Now that Yingyu is blocking Chen Ye's only way out, Chen Ye has no choice but to fight back.

"So what if I'm big?"

Chen Ye snorted coldly, and instead of avoiding it, he swam towards the Yingyu.

When Yingyu saw Chen Ye rushing towards it, it opened its mouth and was about to swallow him whole.

Then, he actually swallowed Chen Ye completely into his mouth.

But before the fish could even take a couple of bites, its belly began to swell.

Countless seawater poured into the body of the Winning Fish from all directions.

Chen Ye hid in the throat of the fish, blocking its mouth and preventing it from closing completely.

Then they poured in seawater, which literally squeezed the fish until it burst.

The swollen belly was torn open with a huge wound, and blood began to gurgle out. Only then did Chen Ye crawl out of Yingyu's body.

Chen Ye saw that the strange fish had hard scales all over its body and estimated that it would be difficult to cause any damage, so he learned the trick of Monkey King, crawling into the enemy's belly and breaking through from the inside.

It was only because he had learned the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts that Chen Ye dared to take the risk and try it, and now it seems to have worked extremely well.

Even the hardest shell has a soft interior.

Chen Ye also had sharp teeth and claws, and easily sliced ​​open the belly of the Yingyu to kill it.

The enormous creature continued to convulse violently, its body bleeding more and more blood, until it finally sank completely into the seaweed forest.

Chen Ye did not dissect the body to extract the pearl. The dragon body was already very useful, and he was not proficient enough in the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts. If it were contaminated by the demon core, he might turn into another kind of synthetic monster.

However, this fish considers this place its territory, but it's not an environment with abundant food.

"This thing is definitely not vegetarian."

Chen Ye thought for a moment, then calmed down and carefully sensed his surroundings.

As if responding to Chen Ye's senses, Guixu directly revealed the unusual aspects of this flower garden to him.

Chen Ye opened his eyes and swam to a spot of colorful coral.

"This is the treasure?"

Before Chen Ye could figure out the purpose of this coral, Chen Guang appeared and said in surprise, "This coral looks very similar to the seven-colored coral cultivated by the Mirage Sect."

Chen Ye thought for a moment and asked, "You mean, the stuff used to cultivate coral fruit?"

When Chen Guang first joined Chen Ye, he mentioned that the Mirage Pearl magic treasures in the Mirage Sect were divided into two levels. One type was made directly from the demon core inside the Mirage Demon's body, which was considered ordinary.

Another method requires the use of specially cultivated seven-colored coral. By watering it with the essence of the mirage demon's flesh and blood, coral fruits are cultivated, and then fused with the corresponding demon core. With the addition of the morning light's personal nurturing, it is possible to create a mirage pearl with a "spirit".

The white moonlight that Chen Ye initially saved was forged in this way, and the spirit of that artifact was called Seventh Sister by Chen Guang. Now, hearing Chen Guang say this, Chen Ye studied it carefully and indeed found that this seven-colored coral was somewhat different. There were many fish carcasses in the place where the seaweed was wrapped around it.

It seems that the eagle fish discovered the special features of this coral, and after hunting the fish, used it as fertilizer to make the coral bear fruit.

However, the coral fruits that formed should have all gone into the belly of this crocodile, so none of them can be seen now.

It was indeed a treasure, but unfortunately, it was too big for Chen Ye to carry. He could only take a small piece of the live coral from it and have Chen Guang keep it safe before the two continued on their way.

However, this time, Chen Ye felt that too much time had been wasted, so he simply borrowed the characteristics of the dragon once again.

Wherever his thoughts went, the Void responded. Chen Ye kept track of all the sea beasts that were hidden along the way.

This scanning range can reach tens of miles, allowing Chen Ye to sense the presence of those sea monsters in advance.

Then, Chen Ye chose to take a detour or lay out bait.

The method is very simple: use the morning light to carry the spices you carry.

These spices had already been rolled into small balls, taken out of Chen Guang's small pouch, and then Chen Ye manipulated the water flow to throw them elsewhere.

The high pressure of the seawater would quickly crush the pill. Most marine animals in the deep sea rely on their sense of smell and hearing to detect their prey.

Such a strong and strange fragrance is something most sea creatures have never smelled before, so they are mostly attracted to these spice balls.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Chen Ye had Chen Guang cast an illusion to conceal himself, and then he quickly passed through.

In this way, the speed of travel is much faster.

Originally, it was thought that it would take half a month to return to the homeland of the Mirage Demon, because there would be many sea beasts blocking the way. But Chen Ye accidentally became a dragon, and he was able to move around in the Ruins of Return like a fish in water, which saved a lot of time.

Moreover, as he traveled further, Chenguang became even more certain that his people were still alive.

After all, the sea beasts that escaped with them have returned, and their people who stayed behind should be able to continue to multiply.

Chen Guang was eager to return home, but the closer he got to his hometown, the more silent he became. Several times when he was working with Chen Ye, he seemed absent-minded and almost caused danger.

Chen Ye had to stop and asked Chen Guang, "Your hometown is so close, yet you're panicking. Are you worried that your people aren't here?"

Chen Guang shook his head and said, "Since the other sea beasts have returned, my people should be here too. However, I was the one who abandoned them and fled from the Ruins. How can I face my people now?"

Chen Ye never expected that Chen Guang was thinking about this.

He hadn't spent much time with Chenguang, nor had he interacted with her much. This girl usually didn't seem very human; she was like a real mirage, capable of lying still for one or two months without needing to move at all.

She was indifferent and emotionless during their daily interactions. Chen Ye sometimes felt that she was not a living being, but more like a ghost than those wandering spirits.

I never imagined that Chenguang could have such complicated thoughts.

But Chen Ye didn't know how to comfort him.

As Chen Guang said, the Mirage Demon clan was living a good life at the time, but was frightened by the sudden change of the Ruins and fled in an entire group, leaving behind a bunch of cubs and unhatched eggs. This can indeed be considered as abandoning their clan and fleeing.

However, most of the mirage demons at that time only had the instinct to survive and no intelligence, so they could not be considered to have committed any crime.

Only Chenguang was there; he had already developed sentience at that time.

Therefore, she alone needs to bear this guilt.

Chen Ye could only comfort you, saying, "No matter what, you have to face it eventually. If you feel sorry for your people, try to make amends. You'll only have a chance to ask for forgiveness once you see them."

Actually, Chen Ye was thinking about something else entirely. Not many of the Mirage Demons had developed intelligence. Perhaps when Chen Guang returned to his clan, he would find that the Mirage Demons didn't remember what had happened back then and only knew to instinctively hide in this Ruins and blow bubbles.

If that's the case, I wonder if Chenguang will feel happy or even more ashamed.

An ugly woman must eventually meet her father-in-law; there's no escaping it, she can only face it bravely.

After calming Chen Guang down, Chen Ye continued onward and finally arrived at the place where the mirage demon lived, a palace called the Hall of Illusionary Light.

The Hall of Illusions was enormous. According to Chenguang, tens of thousands of mirage demons once lived here. The mirage energy they exhaled enveloped the entire palace, and any creature that entered it would fall into an endless illusion and be trapped inside to die.

Only when the mirage demon is nearing its end will it risk leaving the Hall of Illusions, which is also the Void of Return.

According to Chen Guang, these mirage demons are all looking for a way to prolong their lives. They will sense when their lifespan is about to end and believe that there are treasures outside the Ruins that can extend their lifespan.

Using illusion magic to conceal themselves, most of these old mirage demons were able to easily leave the Ruins of Return.

However, none of them were able to obtain the method to prolong their lives; they either died of old age abroad or were captured by the Mirage Sect and turned into magical artifacts.

It is because of this characteristic of the mirage spirits that the Mirage Sect has been able to continuously harvest mirage spirits for thousands of years.

The two had now arrived at the entrance of the Illusionary Light Palace. Even before they got close, Chen Ye could sense something strange about the water flow ahead.

Chen Guang exclaimed excitedly, "It's an illusion! Sect Master, it's the mirage energy of the Mirage Demon! The illusion still shrouds the Illusionary Light Hall, which means my people are still alive!"

Chen Ye was also happy for Chen Guang, at least this time he didn't leave empty-handed.

Just as the morning light was about to rush in, Chen Ye suddenly frowned and loudly reminded him, "Wait, come back first!"

Chen Guang, puzzled, asked anxiously, "Sect Master, is something wrong?"

After carefully sensing the surroundings, Chen Ye said, "It seems that there are more than just mirage demons in this Illusionary Light Hall."

"Are there other sea beasts?" Chen Guang asked even more anxiously. "Sect Master, we mirage demons don't coexist with other sea beasts. If there are other sea beasts inside, they must be here to hunt. We must hurry..."

Before Chen Guang could finish speaking, Chen Ye shook his head and said, "What I sensed was not a sea beast. Inside this Illusionary Light Hall, there seem to be many... people."

(End of this chapter)