Chapter 974: A Long Overdue Fishing Trip
Meanwhile, during the entire time Zhen Liu was having his merry little jaunt through the Endless Swamplands…
…
The Abyssal Lands.
A massive, underground ocean that has enough dark aether to snuff out the light of even the vainest Bright Dragons, and waters deep enough to drown entire nations and then some. However, to say that these waters are inhospitable is a fallacy of the highest order.
For underneath the he inky depths,was a highly complex ecosystem filled with creatures that seemed to glow in the dark waters like stars on a clear night, while also having teeth sharp enough to not through steel plates and armor like tissue paper.
To most, these kind of conditions were grounds to condemn the region as being “forbidden” and someplace that most people would want to avoid at any cost.
To those with a couple of screws loose, this place was a land of opportunity.
Which is why, in a random corner of the [Abyssal Lands], a small glowing fishing vessel, bearing the emblem of the Zhen Clan, was floating in these dangerous waters like it was a simple dinghy in a pond. From the sides of this ship, several large and imposing looking fishing rods, with lines made of aether beast silk, jutted outwards in multiple directions.
And it was upon this giant glowing target in the middle of a dark cave, a group of old men being led by a deceptively older woman, were…fishing.
As for what they were fishing for exactly, not even the people on board the ship knew what they were looking for.
Regardless, Matriarch Zhen Xun Tian, her son, the main and branch elders of the Zhen Clan and Patriarch Zhen Shi, were spending this time aboard bonding with one another. Well, as much as one could do while sitting on a boat in the middle of a hostile ocean made of darkness and blood. The mundanity of their talks actually helped to keep their mind off the maddening darkness around them, and the chittering noises of creatures that haven’t seen sunlight since their births.
“Matriarch Zhen-”
“Ah, ah, ah. Grandauntie. We’re not exactly in a formal setting now, are we?”
“Right…Grandauntie.”
“Yes, grandnephew Xiao Long?”
“What exactly are we looking for in these waters?”
“Something big, preferably glowy and dangerous as all hell.”
“Of course…”
“Branch Elder Zhen Long, believe me on this,” Hero Elder of the main clan, Zhen Xun Po, interjected while checking the line of his assigned fishing pole. “My mother will be vague as hell, yet somehow be right.”
“That…feels disturbingly familiar…”
“I’m just gonna assume you also have someone like that on Stampeding Bison?”
“Yup.”
“Fucking knew that was a universal constant…wait a minute, MOTHER! Dial back on that aura of yours, it’s making me speak more informally than usual!”
“But it makes all of you loosen up.”
“Bah!”
To clarify what Matriarch Zhen Xun Tian was seeking exactly though, it involved these fun little scrolls that Zhen Liu gave to her after learning about her first venture into the [Abyssal Lands].
The scrolls consisted of instructions on how to either turn the corpse of an aether beast into a submersible vehicle in the [Abyssal Lands], or how to mutate certain species of tamed aether beasts into acting as beasts or burden/transport in the [Abyssal Lands].
Both of these scrolls were sourced from the [Library of Nowhere], which were initially sourced from a pair of sects that the Storm Queen and her knights took out from back when they were alive and had to deal with opportunistic assholes trying to raid the Undertow Kingdom. However, that’s a story for another day.
For now, just keep in mind that the Zhen Clan elders were aiming for…essentially anything in these waters.
Unfortunately, they had been aiming for anything in these waters for a couple days now and had gotten nothing but fish that were big enough for a trophy mount or dinner.
The creatures they needed had to be big enough to eat elephants, at minimum.
Now, normally, waiting a couple days for something to happen was just par for the course for a lot of aether warriors, especially when cultivation was involved.
It’s a known fact that high tiered warriors, especially those at the Aether Lord stage and above, would spend days, weeks and even months on end in some remote corner of the world, meditating and absorbing the energies of the universe. Hell, some aether warriors would hang around certain spots for years on end, just to have the chance to claim some naturally occurring aether treasure.
However, none of these warriors ever hung around someone who regularly emitted [Chaos].
Now that sounds weird, due to the main clan warriors having Matriarch Zhen Xun Tian and the branch clan having Zhen Liu, but there was a very important caveat to this: physical distance.
Both Zhen Clan compounds were large enough that most people could pass by one another, or not see and interact with each other for extended periods of time. This meant that Zhen Xun Tian’s and Zhen Liu’s naturally occurring auras of [Chaos] couldn’t affect anybody for long periods of time.
That wasn’t the case anymore.
For several days now, the elders of both the main and branch Zhen Clans had been exposed to Matriarch Zhen Xun Tian’s [Chaos], causing them to use surprisingly crass language and casual mannerisms that would normally be frowned upon in their societal circles. The only one who seemed mildly less affected was Patriarch Zhen Shi, due to his middling familiarity with the stuff, but even that had its limits.
Which is why, on the “dawn” of the third day of doing this fishing trip shit, Patriarch Zhen Shi decided to do something a little…drastic.
“Alright, I’m fucking sick and tired of sitting around like this,” Zhen Shi suddenly declared as he stood in the center of the fishing ship’s deck. “I’m going to do something stupid.”
“Stupid…how?,” Zhen Lao asked his father with genuine concern in his voice.
It hadn’t been that long since the Parasitic Wyrmwood tree had to be extracted from his father and Hermit Zhong Wei, after the whole [Monkey Temple] expedition, and it’s been even a shorter time since the former had fully recovered.
Regardless of these past injuries though, Patriarch Zhen Shi was remarkably energetic.
Which is why, instead of answering his third eldest son, he did the following actions.
First, he activated his [Regalia].
Second, he went into the vessel’s storage space and extracted the harpoon he received from Zhen Liu’s mysterious master from back when that Marlancer guy almost killed them all with his army of weird coral zombies.
Third, Zhen Shi summoned his [Astra] in such a way that only one of his arms had chains coming out of it and tied it to a solid holding in the ship.
And finally, after all this preparation was done, he dove headfirst into the ocean of shadow water that was directly below their feet.
Splashing sounds of zero regrets
“Oh what the fuck?!”
“Father!”
What Zhen Shi had done was possibly the dumbest thing any mortal could’ve done when visiting the [Abyssal Lands].
The shadow water that composed this ocean was known to sap the strength and life out of basically everything that entered it, except for those of a particular constitution, like the native creatures or people with specific formulas.
Like the [Abyssal King’s Grace].
Zhen Xun Tian and the others had initially assumed Zhen Shi had gone stir crazy and were all set to go and try to rescue his ass from his own dumb decisions.
“Hold on father! We’re…wait a minute, what the fuck?”
“Oh wow, this water feels fucking amazing. I feel like I just downed a high tier aether medicine! Why didn’t I think of doing this from the get-go?!”
Which is why they were all gobsmacked as they saw Patriarch Zhen Shi take to the shadow water like a…fish in water.
It took a few minutes after seeing this obvious defiance against known knowledge until one of Zhen Shi’s sons managed to put two and two together.
“Wait a minute…isn’t father’s formula known as [Abyssal King’s Grace]? Is…is it possible that the [Abyss] referenced in that name refers to…here?”
“That…makes too much sense.”
“Fuck it, it’s the best explaination we got so far.”
“Huh…well then.”
Compelled by the sight of her nephew doing something she would normally doing by now, Zhen Xun Tian activated her own precautionary measures before diving headfirst into the waters below as well.
She had done so with such expediency and suddness that her son and subordinates elders didn’t even have time to react and tell her to not do so.
Splash of zero regrets again.
“Oh what the drowning fuck, mother?!”
They only thing they could do was to curse and stare in disbelief as Zhen Xun Tian said the following.
“Don’t worry about us, we’ll be back there you know it. Ready?”
“Yes.”
At that word, both leaders of the Zhen Clan went diving into dark waters.
