Immortal Mortal

After browsing through the kitchen, the crowd arrived at the ship’s largest cabin hall. Even though there was no one aboard the ship, every cabin was clean and tidy, but no one suggested entering one alone.

Jiang Xiapeng was the first to speak, ”Friends, we have already searched through this ship, and determined that there aren’t any forms of dangers and there are even many individual rooms. Even though the appearance of this ship is a little peculiar, I still that it is not impossible. Imagine, this ship may have docked on some small island as the passengers alighted to explore the island. Then, this ship got carried away by the waves…”

Jiang Xiapeng, himself, was unable to continue any further. The possibility of what he said was extremely low, so low that it was marginally next to impossible.

”Amitabha,Old Na thinks that this ship has been intentionally sent into the Sky Sea.” The laughing monk said with a stern expression.

”Laughing monk, when you speak, can you consider some logic and probabilities. Just now, even though Brother Jiang’s story seems close to impossible, at least there was a slight possibility. But what you’re saying, is simply too absurd. Do you that person’s brain is damaged? What purpose would he have in sending this huge, empty ship into the Sky Sea?” The black faced burly Pu Qian snorted and said.

The laughing monk stared at Pu Qian in shock, ”Purpose? Naturally, it’s to scare us out of our wits ah. Don’t tell me you aren’t scared? Think about it, if that person who sent this ship into the Sky Sea sees our shocked and cautious appearances, wouldn’t he get a good laugh out of it?”

Mo Wuji suddenly felt that this monk was a troll; he appeared to have an expression of seriousness, and acted as though he was narrating the truth, when it was complete bullsh*t.

Pu Qian stared speechlessly at the monk, before saying, ”That’s right, it gave me a good scare.”

The monk clapped his hands together and said, ”See, I was right. Seems like that rascal who sent this ship has really achieved his motive. What a venomous scheme. If this Old Na sees that rascal, I will be sure to decimate his bones into tens of thousands of pieces. Praise to the Amitabha. I was wrong, I actually violated the Precept of Rage. [1] At the very most, I would decimate his bones to thousands of pieces. One should be kind and compassionate, Old Na shouldn’t go any further.”

Mo Wuji suddenly voiced out to stop this monk from continuing, ”Everyone, why did all of us gather here? And why was it such a coincidence, that all of us faced a calamity at sea?”

The group instantly went silent, no one wanted to answer Mo Wuji’s questions. From the looks of it, everyone had their own motives and they weren’t comfortable with sharing it.

Mo Wuji directly continued, ”I came because of a sea map, this map showed the location of an immortal residence…”

The reason why Mo Wuji directly laid things out on the table was because he had long had his suspicions. The sea is large and vast, much less this boundless, endless Sky Sea? In such an unfathomably big place, everyone was able to come together. This was no simple coincidence.

”Ah…” Zhuang Yan was the first to cry out in shock, before she continued, we also found a sea map which depicted the location of an immortal residence…”

Qi Wenxuan wanted to stop Zhuang Yan, but it was already too late. Thus, he could only go along with Zhuang Yan’s words, ”That’s right. We did indeed came to try our luck in the Sky Sea because of this sea map.”

Everyone’s face instantly revealed a strange expression. That black faced burly man suddenly threw a sea map on the floor, ”Granny’s ass, this old man has been fooled.”

Mo Wuji’s gaze immediately swept across that map; he discovered that it was largely similar to the one which Jing Lengbei drew for him, but a few critical points were different. For example, the position of the immortal residence was different, and it wasn’t a small difference, but a huge one. Mo Wuji believed that even if Jing Lengbei’s memory was bad, she wouldn’t have gotten the position of the sea map wrong.

After the burly man threw his map out, the others started to take out their maps. As expected, all the sea maps were exactly the same.

Jiang Xiapeng said with a solemn expression, ”It looks like someone is trying to use this sea map to lure us here. As to who this someone is, or what his motive is, that is still unclear.”

Mo Wuji did not reveal his own map, nor did the others ask him for it. Things have already become clear; it wasn’t important if Mo Wuji didn’t take the map out.

With that said, Jiang Xiapeng suddenly recalled something as he turned to Mo Wuji and said, ”Brother Mo, how did you know that there was a problem with the sea map? Ai, where’s your map?”

Mo Wuji acted as though he didn’t hear Jiang Xiapeng’s words as he turned to the Cu Tanzi hiding behind Gouzi and asked, ”Sister Cu Tan, when we were at the kitchen, no one else found there to be any problems, but why did you frown?”

No one expected for Mo Wuji to suddenly shoot Cu Tanzi with this question. One could say that among everyone here, Cu Tanzi was the only one that did not seem to have an existence. But because of Mo Wuji’s question, everyone forgot about Jiang Xiapeng’s ones.

”I, I don’t know…” Cu Tanzi stuttered, seemingly at loss.

Gouzi hurried stood up and clasped his fists towards Mo Wuji, ”Dao friend Mo, my granddaughter has always been very timid. Wherever she goes, she would not have any opinions. I believe that you must have seen things wrongly.”

Mo Wuji calmly said, ”I did not see things wrongly. Sister Cu Tan, if you do not wish to speak, I naturally wouldn’t force it out of you. Of course, I wouldn’t stay here any more. If everyone continues to hide matters in their hearts, we wouldn’t be able to cooperate properly even if we stayed together.”

”I, I…” Cu Tanzi’s voice became even more subdued.

Gouzi also seemed to feel as though Cu Tanzi had something to say, so he said in a very straightforward manner, ”Cu Tanzi, if you have something to say, just say it. We all wish to work well together here.”

Perhaps it was because of Gouzi’s reassurance, Cu Tanzi finally decided to speak up, ”Back in the kitchen, the big jar was filled with fresh blood. But everyone seemed to think that things were normal, so I didn’t dare say anything…”

Everyone in the group started glancing at one another. There was only one jar in the kitchen, and everyone had opened it up and saw what was inside; it was rice.

”Nonsense, that jar was clearly filled with rice, where would there be….” Gouzi snapped for half a sentence before stopping. Cu Tanzi had always followed beside him, and she had always been very honest. She wouldn’t lie about such things.

Mo Wuji’s spiritual will went back to scan the rice jar in the kitchen. The rice jar was truly filled with rice. He then began to concentrate his spiritual will into that rice jar.

The smell of blood was instantly caught by his spiritual will. The rice suddenly turned into fresh blood. Cu Tanzi was right.

Mo Wuji’s face immediately changed, his spiritual will then turned towards dry wood in the kitchen. As his divine sense fully permeated in, the dry wood also transformed; they all transformed into pieces of white bones. He then extended his spiritual wills to the rest of the cabins, and found that the cabins were no longer had their clean appearance, but were littered with cobwebs. Rags and clothes were thrown all over the place, and there were even skeletons below the beds.

Back to this big cabin, the interior was also filled with dust. Behind him, was a skeleton leaning on a wooden bench. The room looked horrifying.

After being scolded by Gouzi, Cu Tanzi became even more timid.

”Let’s go back to take a look,” Jiang Xiapeng stood up and said, completely unaware that he had just stepped on a decapitated palm.

Mo Wuji could help the trembling in his voice. Ostensibly, he was truly quite worried.

”There’s no need to go back. Sister Cu Tan’s words should be true. This ship is really weird, I’ll go up first.” With that, Mo Wuji stood up and started walking towards the main deck.

”Eh, treating a little girl’s story as a fact? Wait till I go back to that kitchen and grab some rice over. With such small balls, why did you bother coming to search for treasures?” Meng Zhi, who had always remained silent, suddenly stood up and rushed down to the kitchen which was at the lowest floor.

”Brother Meng, let’s wait for everyone and go together,” Jiang Xiapeng called out from the back, but Meng Zhi had already left.

The Qi Wenxuan and Zhuang Yan couple hesitated briefly, before following Mo Wuji to the deck. Gouzi did not have any doubts towards Cu Tanzi’s words, and also followed Mo Wuji up to the main deck.

In the center floors of the ship, remained Jiang Xiapeng, Qi Susu, the monk and the black faced man.

”Do the few of you want to follow me down to take a look?” Jiang Xiapeng saw that Meng Zhi had already disappeared, and even his footsteps could no longer be heard, and he started to get a little afraid.

”Amitabha, Old Na shall help… Old Na suspects that the master of this ship might be hiding in that rice jar.” The laughing monk stood up with a serious expression. It was as though he was 100% sure that his guess was right.

The black faced Pu Qian also stood up and said, ”I also feel that might not be impossible. Since Brother Jiang extended this invitation, I would naturally follow.”

With that agreement, the four rapidly delved deeper into the ship, heading towards the kitchen.

…

”Brother Mo, are Sister Cu Tan’s words true?” Even though Cu Tanzi was standing by the side, Zhuang Yan still asked this question with an pale, white face.

Mo Wuji nodded, ”That’s right, they should be true.”

”Then why can’t the rest of us see it?” Hearing Mo Wuji’s definite answer, Zhuang Yan became even more afraid.

After a brief contemplation, Mo Wuji said, ”If I didn’t guess wrongly, besides this ship which is real, almost everything else in this ship is fake. This might be an illusion array, and this illusion array has caused us to lose our usual thinking and vision.”

It wasn’t a mere ‘might be’, Mo Wuji was sure that this ship concealed an illusion array. He did not merely spend one or two days studying on Chu Xingzi’s knowledge on the array dao. Even though he had not touched upon illusion arrays, he had learnt a majority of the arrays.

”Brother Mo’s words should be true. Cu Tanzi definitely wouldn’t lie about such matters,” Gouzi added with a solemn expression.

Mo Wuji turned and looked towards the tumultuous winds and waves; he was seriously considering whether he should leave the ship. Since someone had lured them over with this immortal residence map, would they simply let him leave?

”Brother Mo, what do you intend to do now?” Qi Wenxuan had already noticed things; Mo Wuji’s strength was unknown, but his vision definitely wasn’t lacking.

Mo Wuji was just about to answer when his expression suddenly changed. Among the five people below, one had gone missing. The first to go down, Meng Zhi, had disappeared. Even after using his spiritual will to scan the entire ship, he was not able to find Meng Zhi.

[1] There are three precepts in Buddhism: the precepts of Rage, Greed and Ignorance. However, there are also accounts of eight precepts, which gave Zhu Bajie his name in the Journey of the West.