All Gods: Starting with Two Families

Chapter 126 Bait and FishThe next day.

Zhou Zheng followed Pale Feather, walking all the way to the deepest part of the inner circle.

They encountered more and more of the Yao Race along the way.

They stood on both sides of the road, silently watching Zhou Zheng.

Their gazes were different from yesterday—yesterday it was longing, today... it was something Zhou Zheng couldn’t quite put his finger on.

It looked like anticipation, yet also like something else.

Pale Feather walked in front of him, his steps much lighter than yesterday.

The old man’s back was held very straight, and the feather crest on his head actually gave off a faint sheen under the dim daylight.

”Honored guest,” Pale Feather said without turning his head, ”we are almost at the Moon Flow Spring.”

Zhou Zheng did not speak.

He simply looked up and ahead.

In the distance, behind a hill, something was glowing.

It was not the scorching light of the sun, nor the cold, clear light of the moon.

It was a kind of... flowing light.

Like water, like mist, like countless tiny specks of light flowing slowly.

They crossed the hill.

Zhou Zheng saw the Moon Flow Spring.

It was a lake.

Not large, spanning only a few miles.

The lake water was milky white, as calm as a mirror.

Above the lake surface, countless tiny specks of light hovered—they rose from the lake water, drifted slowly toward the gray sky above, and then dissipated in mid-air.

In the center of the lake, there was a small whirlpool.

The whirlpool turned very slowly, so slowly it was almost imperceptible.

But Zhou Zheng could feel that all the specks of light were surging out from that whirlpool.

”This is the Moon Flow Spring,” Pale Feather’s voice came from the side, carrying an indescribable tone, ”The specks of light you see are spirituality. They surge from the spring eye and drift throughout the demon locking pot. We rely on this spirituality to maintain our intelligence.”

Zhou Zheng looked at the lake without speaking.

Pale Feather continued: ”The method to break the Seal is very simple. You only need to walk into that whirlpool and leave a wisp of Divine Thought at the spring eye. That backdoor will be activated, and we will be able to get out.”

He turned his head and looked at Zhou Zheng.

”Honored guest, please.”

Zhou Zheng looked at him.

The old man’s gaze was very calm.

Unnaturally calm.

Zhou Zheng recalled the gazes he had seen over these past few days—longing, desperate, crazy.

But in Pale Feather’s eyes, there was nothing.

Only a kind of... calm of having completed a task.

Zhou Zheng smiled.

”Very well.”

He lifted his foot and walked toward the Moon Flow Spring.

Behind him, Pale Feather stood there, motionless.

...

Zhou Zheng stepped into the lake water.

The milky white liquid was bone-chillingly cold, but there was no resistance.

He walked step by step toward the center of the lake; the water submerged his ankles, his knees, his waist, his chest.

The whirlpool was right in front.

Zhou Zheng walked to the edge of the whirlpool and paused.

He looked back.

Pale Feather was still standing on the shore, motionless.

The figures of the Yao Race in the distance stood densely on the hill, like a silent forest.

Zhou Zheng withdrew his gaze and stepped into the whirlpool.

In an instant, the world spun.

...

When Zhou Zheng opened his eyes again, he was no longer in the lake.

All around was darkness.

Pure, lightless darkness.

Below was nothingness, above was nothingness, and all around was nothingness.

Only an altar was floating alone in front of him.

The altar was black and covered in runes.

Zhou Zheng recognized those runes—they were exactly the same as the ones on the stone tablet at the entrance of the demon locking pot.

Each rune was glowing faintly; the light did not illuminate the surroundings, but rather... was absorbing something.

Zhou Zheng looked down at himself.

His body was still there, but he couldn’t move.

Something was pressing down on him, from all directions, from every pore, from the depths of his Soul.

It was suppression.

Suppression targeting the Kunpeng Bloodline.

He tried to mobilize his Divine Power, but couldn’t.

He tried to contact the Divine Realm, but couldn’t.

Even his Divine Thought was compressed inside his body, unable to extend outward.

Zhou Zheng lifted his head and looked at the altar.

On the altar lay a skeleton.

The skeleton was huge and strange in shape—half like a bird, half like a fish.

It lay there quietly, having laid there for who knows how many tens of thousands of years.

A Kunpeng skeleton.

Zhou Zheng suddenly smiled.

”What are you laughing at?”

A voice came from the darkness.

It was Pale Feather.

Zhou Zheng did not turn back.

He just looked at the skeleton.

”Nothing,” he said, ”I just think your acting is quite convincing.”

A burst of laughter came from the darkness.

The laughter was completely different from the previous Pale Feather—no longer humble, no longer respectful, but carrying a kind of... relief after liberation.

Pale Feather’s figure emerged from the darkness.

He walked in front of Zhou Zheng and looked down at this suppressed ”honored guest.”

”You figured it out?”

Zhou Zheng nodded.

”When?”

”From the beginning,” Zhou Zheng said, ”You were too enthusiastic. A race that has been imprisoned for countless years, when seeing hope, should be crazy, should be out of control, should be... like them.”

He looked into the depths of the darkness.

There, countless figures of the Yao Race were emerging.

The Feather Clan, the Scale Clan, old and young.

Their eyes were no longer humble, but nakedly... hungry.

Pale Feather laughed.

”You are very smart. Unfortunately, being smart is useless.”

He squatted down to look Zhou Zheng in the eye.

”Do you know what place this is?”

Zhou Zheng did not speak.

”This is the spring eye of the Moon Flow Spring. It is also the core of this demon locking pot. All the suppression against our Scale Clan and Feather Clan originates from here. Especially against the Kunpeng Bloodline—that was a contingency left specifically by the person who designed this pot.”

”The Kunpeng Bloodline inside you will be suppressed to the point of being worse than an ant here.”

Pale Feather stood up and spread his arms.

”And you will die here. Your spirituality will be absorbed by this altar, then turn into the spring water of the Moon Flow Spring, and be distributed to us Yao who are eking out an existence.”

He looked down at Zhou Zheng, his eyes filled with a trace of pity.

”Do you know why we are still able to maintain our spirituality? It’s not because the Moon Flow Spring produces spirituality on its own. It’s because we have been fishing for ’fish’.”

”Every few tens of thousands of years, we send out a wisp of Kunpeng essence blood. That crack, for living beings, can only be entered and not exited, but sending out a negligible amount of essence blood is still possible.”

”The person who obtains the essence blood will gain the Kunpeng Bloodline, and following the guidance, walk into this pot.”

”Then, just like we treated you, we invite them in and let them walk into this spring eye.”

”Their spirituality becomes our spirituality.”

Pale Feather sighed.

”It’s a pity, fewer and fewer people inherit the Kunpeng Bloodline. The last one to come was over a hundred thousand years ago. We almost thought we would never wait for the next one.”

He looked at Zhou Zheng and laughed.

”Then you came. Carrying such a rich Kunpeng Bloodline. Your spirituality is enough for us to hold on for another hundred thousand years.”

The surrounding Yao Race began to laugh.

In that laughter, there was hunger, madness, and relief.

Zhou Zheng also laughed.

”Your acting is terrible,” he said, ”really.”

Pale Feather’s expression changed.

Zhou Zheng closed his eyes.

Pale Feather instinctively took a step back.

The surrounding Yao Race also stopped laughing and stared fixedly at Zhou Zheng.

The aura of the Kunpeng Bloodline inside his body disappeared instantly.

Not hidden, not suppressed, but—completely vanished.

[deception of the death god].

This wonder item can change his identity and conceal his aura.

Naturally, it can also temporarily erase a certain Bloodline within his body, making him an existence ”without a Kunpeng Bloodline.”

The suppression targeting the Kunpeng Bloodline instantly became ineffective.