Chapter 709

Chapter 709: Chapter 709 – Human-faced Marshland

Translator: Irene_ Editor: X, TYZ

The blue electric arcs allowed Ai Hui to regain all the power he had lost . Having previously tempered his body amid the lightning to purge toxins, Ai Hui found these arcs extremely familiar . The moment the arcs entered his body, countless realizations surged within him .

There was an exceptional affinity between this strange world and lightning .

Even more wonderfully, the lightning was very compatible with his spirit swords, perhaps because both weren’t a part of the five elements . Ai Hui had yet to figure the situation out .

His spirit swords were undergoing gradual changes . The contrast between their yin and yang was becoming more distinct . The yang swords were turning a purer white, and there were densely packed lightning bolts swimming around them . It appeared as if the swords wore a silvery silk coat . The yin swords were turning ink black, and the lightning around them seemed to have been dyed black as well . They looked like countless shadows and fog that enveloped the sword bodies .

Black lightning?

Could this be yin lightning? Ai Hui had read about it in the ancient records . It was said that yang lightning could wipe out all kinds of evil, whereas yin lightning contained all kinds of poison that could penetrate the deepest of bones .

When he was going through the ancient records, he had merely treated them as reading material and had not expected to experience it for himself one day . Lightning techniques were profound and wide-ranging, but had unfortunately died out a long time ago .

As the saying goes, it is only when one experiences true knowledge that he finally understands how little he knows .

Influenced by the spirit swords, the lightning had also been divided into yin and ying . It was a phenomenon that greatly surprised Ai Hui .

This meant that between the lightning and spirit swords, the latter was in a dominant position . Ai Hui had always known lightning to be the mightiest force, so it was a shocking realization that the swords he had cultivated could actually gain the upper hand .

The legendary rumor that a swordsman who was able to cultivate spirit swords could proclaim himself a hegemon was not just a rumor after all .

Ai Hui couldn’t help feeling pleased, but what came out of him was a bitter smile .

“Let’s get out of this damned place first,” he thought to himself .

Evil pervaded every corner of this place, so he dared not lose focus . If he hadn’t been careful up to this point, he would’ve died many times over .

Ai Hui stopped in his tracks .

Before him was a vast stretch of marsh, and he couldn’t locate its boundaries .

Within the marshland, there was gray mud with scattered clusters of green, needle-like meadow grasses on it . A faint gray fog rose from the mud, gradually forming balls . As the airflow within the balls started rolling, Ai Hui could vaguely make out distorted and blurry faces . Mournful whimpers drifted from within the balls of fog, intensifying the bleakness of the marshland .

When Ai Hui appeared at the edge of the marshland, all the floating fog faces turned toward him .

Ai Hui wasn’t sure if it was an illusion, but he felt as though these faces were smiling at him .

“Come… come…”

“Ee… ahh…”

“Hehe…”

Screeching sounds floated about like steel wires piercing eardrums . Undoubtedly, it was highly uncomfortable to bear, but they emitted a strange charm that made Ai Hui want to pay more attention .

Despite being an extremely bold person, when facing a situation like this, Ai Hui couldn’t help but shiver .

Yet, standing before the sinister marshland, Ai Hui was inexplicably attracted to it . There seemed to be a voice within that urged him to go in .

Ai Hui composed himself and took a few steps back . His eyes were clear and bright .

This human-faced marshland had the ability to impact one’s mental state .

Human-faced Marshland was a name that Ai Hui had just given to this extremely dangerous place .

Ai Hui decided to change his path and started moving along the edges of the marshland . The moment he moved, the faces in the marshland turned respectively to glare at him .

While he pretended not to notice, he could feel the hair on his back standing on end .

The scene that unfolded next was a grand showcase of the dangers of the marshland .

A ball of aquatic grasses was chasing after some plants, and with no other routes, the latter chose to run right into the marsh . Despite feeling unable to prevail over the aquatic grasses, Ai Hui stopped at the edge of the marsh . The plants that had charged into the marsh were immediately surrounded by the spherical fog faces . The fresh and bright colors of those plants quickly faded into a gloomy gray color . Their sturdy branches started to melt into huge clumps of gray mud and drip down .

The fog faces only started to disperse after the mud and marsh became one .

The eerily tapered laughter shrouded the sky once more .

With a face as pale as a sheet, Ai Hui swallowed his saliva . He had finally figured out the origin of the mud .

The whole marshland was covered with gray mud .

“How many plants have been buried under?” Ai Hui wondered but dared not imagine .

Human-faced marshland? More like deadly marshland .

Ai Hui detected a frail wisp of consciousness being cast down from high above the clouds again . “It” was overseeing everything that was going on down here . Ai Hui did not look up . He had no mood to care about that unknown existence .

He moved along the marsh while attempting to circumvent it . What he had underestimated was its width . No matter where he went, the fog faces would always turn to stare at him . At the start, he felt as though there were beams boring into his back, but as time passed, he was no longer bothered .

Eh?

He narrowed his eyes . Not far away and in front of him, there seemed to be a mess on the ground .

He remembered clearly that this mess had been left by the fleeing plants when they charged into the marsh .

Was the marsh round in shape?

Ai Hui shook his head, dismissing this idea . He had a keen sense of direction and was sure that he had been moving in a perfectly straight line .

Strange .

A sharp laughter traveled from the marsh as the faces continued keeping an eye on Ai Hui, as if mocking his futile attempts .

After listening to the laughter for a long time, Ai Hui could effortlessly ignore it .

A fantasyland?

What to do?

It was impossible for him to circumvent, and there weren’t many routes for him to take . He could either move forward or backward . Retreat? He shook his head . He had woken up in a desolate location, but here he was, getting involved in more activities and bumping into more things .

He continued advancing toward the center of this world despite the increased dangers .

Opportunities are often hidden amid danger .

Ai Hui had a premonition that if he wished to leave this place, he would have to move toward the most lively and dangerous location instead of the most empty region .

Since he had decided to move forward, he would have to pass through the marshland .

It was a pity that he couldn’t fly . Otherwise he could simply pass this fatal zone . This wasn’t his first time encountering a problem because of his disability . He actually had a rough explanation for it, but had been unable to verify it thus far .

Ai Hui decided to experiment first .

Around him, a spirit sword transformed into a silver light and shot toward the nearest fog face ball .

The silver sword ray penetrated the face effortlessly before returning to Ai Hui’s side in an arc .

The fog face ball twisted and turned before freezing . In its core appeared an additional silver light .

Buzz, buzz, buzz! Countless fine electric arcs exploded from within the light, instantly covering the fog face .

A grieving howl filled the place as the face, enveloped by lightning, turned to ashes before vanishing .

Although Ai Hui wasn’t sure what those faces were, he had a hunch that they were evil objects, so he chose to attack with a yang sword . Indeed, the yang sword had managed to deal a fatal blow to the fog face .

Yet, there was no obvious joy in his face . He extended his palm, and the yang sword landed in it .

It was much dimmer than before .

At this point, his sword count had doubled again to 32, of which 16 were yin and 16 were yang . Looking at the endless marshland, however, Ai Hui knew that 16 yang swords weren’t enough to get him out .

Relying on those 16 swords alone wouldn’t work, so Ai Hui decided to experiment with a yin spirit sword .

The ink black sword whizzed past, as if ripping the sky apart and leaving a crack behind . Similarly, the yin spirit sword easily penetrated the fog face ball, but the result was totally different .

A small wisp of black air surfaced on the face . In the next moment, the face was enveloped by black, web-like threads .

The warped gray face became even more distorted as it released a low ripping howl and turned black .

It pounced on a nearby fog face ball .

The low ripping howl was now accompanied by an eerie screech . There was a frantic fight between the black and gray human faces . The other gray faces turned their attentions to the fight, and the sharp shrieks wavered slightly as a result . They flocked forward to surround the black face . In no time, the black fog face ball was completely devoured .

It was a wild sight that almost caused Ai Hui to vomit .

The outcome wasn’t what he had expected, but he quickly understood that this situation could be taken advantage of .

The yin spirit sword fell back into his hand, and he noticed that the yin lightning around its body had thinned quite a bit .

Since it was impossible for Ai Hui to solely rely on the power of his spirit words, he had to find an alternative solution .

He had observed another disparity between the previous and current situations .

Before, when he was hunting all kinds of plants, they would always leave an essence behind . It was those essences that had strengthened his swords . However, there was nothing left from the destruction of both of the fog face balls .

While that was unfortunate, Ai Hui wasn’t too bothered . What he focused on was the legendary knowledge behind it . Be it the marshland of the fog faces or the odd plants he had seen previously, they were both dissimilar, but they possessed different kinds of existence .

The aquatic grasses were stronger than the average plants, but they all had the same objective .

How was he going to pass through the marshland?

Ai Hui’s gaze fell upon a scattered cluster of meadow, and his heart jumped .

How did these dark-green, needle-like meadow grasses survive in the marshland without turning into lumps of mud?

Could it be that… these seemingly normal meadow grasses had a unique feature?

His heart skipped a beat as a circling spirit sword flew out .

A sword ray flashed past the sky toward a patch of meadow .

As it was about to strike, something startling occurred!