Facing an Ancient God for a Year

Chapter 1189: Chapter 1187: Rotten Blood Phoenix

As Fu Qian displayed the White Ring, the dense scarlet surrounding him also gradually became clear.

Just like the last time he went to Liliyana’s location, the Clear Dream Ring was activated synchronously, maximally recreating the lake where the Flesh-Blooms blossomed.

Of course, unsurprisingly, this dream was still permeated inside and out with the aura of the Red Moon, controlled by both of them.

“It really is… delicious…”

And the next moment, a familiar sweet voice finally sounded, seemingly commenting on the already formed viscous Blood Lake.

Even with a laugh.

Sure enough, the emotions are quite unstable!

Fu Qian sighed inwardly, but was not surprised by this.

In the last attempt at the Pseudo-God Ritual, the state of the Red Moon was already vividly apparent.

Fortunately, although the emotional fluctuations were dramatic, there was no hostility felt towards himself, the only thing to be mindful of was not to be affected by her uncontrollable reactions.

Of course, at the same time, her state also meant that his previous pessimistic prediction could very likely come true, which is that she would be completely unhelpful in determining which way was the correct path forward.

But no matter, this was enough.

If the Red Moon can’t help, there’s still the Prism of Radiant Transformation!

Optimistically, Fu Qian activated a trace of “Eternity” stored in the White Ring.

That familiar feeling of Transcendence beyond the ages immediately surfaced.

And almost instantaneously, a line of blood wriggled up from underfoot, swirling and enclosing in front of him.

In the blink of an eye, a door seemingly outlined by dark red thorns appeared before him.

Compared to the last one, this door’s design was undoubtedly more bizarre, even resembling a living organism slightly throbbing.

“Thank you.”

Fu Qian, undisturbed, thanked and then reached out to push the door.

However, bizarrely, this seemingly insubstantial strange door, was completely immovable.

“Child…”

The next moment, the sweet call by his ear arose again, tender with a trace of pity.

Feeling something, Fu Qian stopped his motion and pulled up his left sleeve.

He then saw wounds caused by Dimensional Poison, densely populated with red threads climbing up, which were quickly sewn together.

Realizing he had been wounded, did she help handle it before setting off?

This was the second time after all.

Fu Qian silently watched the changes until the wounds were completely sewn up.

Even the decay, which even Divine Beings supposedly struggled to heal, was suppressed in turn; the flesh no longer disintegrated into scattered butterfly pieces.

Meanwhile, as his hand lightened, the previously immovable Thorn Gate slowly opened on its own.

…

Looking through the gate, it was the same sticky scarlet.

Besides that, a stronger sense of “Eternity”.

Quite accurate!

Fu Qian didn’t say much, just took a step forward.

[SAN Points reduced by 10]

And the moment he passed through the Thorn Gate, the Pseudo-Divine Being was also activated synchronously.

The path ahead is treacherous; as a professional, how could he possibly make the mistake of being complacent.

But there’s no need to be pessimistic, compared to last time, he had much more time.

That’s the significance of this arrangement.

…

Lucky it seems, this time there really is no Tide.

Stepping into the thick, decayed plasma, Fu Qian once again confirmed that the weather was clear today.

He had already felt a hint behind the door just now, and standing here now, only the rotting scent that could make bones decay was gently soothing him.

Undoubtedly, for him who had already completed positioning, this was good news.

It was time to get to work.

Fu Qian took one last look back; the Thorn Gate still stood silently atop the pool of blood.

The Red Moon, like last time, preserved the path back for him.

The next moment, without hesitation, his body swiftly dived down into the boundless Blood Lake.

Last time only his legs had enjoyed this gentle soaking; this time, it instantly enveloped his whole body.

His clothes rapidly turned to mud, and his flesh, bones, and skin softened and decayed at a visible rate as if in a pot of boiling oil.

This erosion was comparable to the Godblood Curse, and even though he transformed into Mythical Form and adjusted to dense Bone Armor immediately, he still wasn’t immune.

At this moment, all vital functions like breathing were concealed by Fu Qian; he even closed his eyes and transformed his eyelids into something transparent.

Of course, in such a place, the use of vision was obviously limited.

Only with strongly suppressed perception could he “see” to a certain extent around him.

However, it seemed to be enough, as almost instantaneously, Fu Qian noticed something swaying within the blood plasma.

It was a long feather, half the length of an arm, alternating gold and red in color.

Even in such a place, its brilliance couldn’t be fully concealed; it resembled a feather plucked from the tail of a legendary phoenix.

Amid his admiration, Fu Qian neither touched nor collected it, for a simple reason—there were far more than one of these feathers.

Further ahead, towards the deeper parts of the lakebed, similar long feathers quietly hovered, resembling leaping flames.

It looked much more lively than above.

Without hesitation, Fu Qian’s body swiftly moved forward, agilely sweeping past each feather, heading straight for the core of “Eternity”.

Of course, he was not completely without impact.

The white tape-like worms that he had entertained before were astonishingly dense here, and startled by his actions, they immediately swarmed after him, tailgating.

This clustering quickly led to a new discovery for Fu Qian.

This… was really a phoenix, huh?

Amid the increasingly dense circle of colorful feathers appeared an adult-sized decayed body.

Sharp claws, pointed beak, and a long neck—despite unusually diminutive wings, it definitely resembled a bird.

Along with the scattered gold and red feathers around, it was very reminiscent of the legendary divine creature.

But naturally, the phoenix’s current state was clearly not good.

It seemed that having soaked here for too long, not much flesh remained on the body, and white bone was visible everywhere.

The latter was quite tough, showing little sign of decay.

The worms that had originally chased Fu Qian, some had already diverted their attention and rushed to this skeleton, boring in and out.

The latter still showed no response, complete as if it were thoroughly lifeless.

…

It seems he knew now where those feathers came from.

Stopping in his tracks, he wiped his face with a hand, help the decayed eyelids to readjust, Fu Qian sighed in his heart.

At this moment, worms were similarly feasting on his body.

Fu Qian did not disturb them, just as he said last time, some of these worms were clearly not normal, likely part of some surveillance method.

Killing them outright might quickly attract others.

So, naturally, he did not stop because of this.

At this moment, what lay before Fu Qian was a continuous patch of shadow, which at first glance looked like a giant lakebed monster.

But upon closer inspection, it was layers upon layers of decayed bodies, not too tightly connected with each other, numbering in the dozens, maybe hundreds.

One phoenix certainly didn’t have that many feathers, but this number, it seemed, was about right.