Unlike Qiu Chuzi and Shalman, whose Dark Power was drained in an instant, when Yue Jinghua was swept into the Trial House by the black wind, her already nearly-depleted spiritual power surged like a dried-up stream rejuvenated by timely rain.
Her five senses, which had temporarily entered a state of suspended animation due to the depletion of spiritual power, gradually began to recover.
First, there was boundless darkness, and then, a halo of light appeared in front of her. Her body was drawn into that halo and immediately crashed onto solid ground.
Yue Jinghua moved her stiff limbs and got up.
The first sense to recover was smell; her nose picked up a salty, fishy scent, the kind only found by the sea.
Then came sight and hearing.
A vast, endless Furious Sea, with dark muddy waters churning, the sea breeze howling like a horn.
She stood alone on a rock protruding from the ocean’s surface, with the muddy seawater occasionally crashing against the rocks beneath her feet.
Ahead stood a stone pillar shaped like a Great Sword, rising from the Furious Sea and piercing the heavens.
Around the stone pillar, there was no land or ship to be seen, only an endless ocean stretching as far as the eye could see.
At first glance, Yue Jinghua was reminded of the Heavenly Divine Mountain – Buzhou Mountain – from Huaxia Country’s mythical lore.
Legend had it that in the Ancient Gods and Demons era, when heaven and earth were in chaos, mortals could aspire to the Divine Realm.
There was a Demon Mountain beyond the world, reaching the Divine Realm above and descending to Devil Hell below; the upper half of the mountain was eternally spring-like with flowers blooming ceaselessly, while the lower half was perpetually cold with year-long ice. It was not a place ordinary people could reach on foot.
What laid before her, however, was a pillar, bottomless, with nearly half of it submerged in the ocean’s depths, and the remaining half so tall it disappeared into the clouds, easily giving the illusion of a pillar leading straight to heaven and hell.
What surprised Yue Jinghua was, when she looked up at the treacherous bottom of the mountain, there stood a cross-shaped stone scaffold with a person trapped on it.
The person’s presence was faint; their long hair obscured their face, and they could only be vaguely identified as a woman by the slight rise and fall of her chest.
A Dagger was driven through each of the woman’s limbs, from wrist to ankle, and the Dagger was covered in various obscure and difficult-to-understand ancient runes.
The blood on the Dagger had long dried, and she wore a red heavy armor stained with residue of blood, though it was unclear if it was naturally that color or stained by blood.
The sea breeze blew, making a "clang" sound on the armor, revealing the woman’s lower body.
Her lower body was reduced to a few fragments of broken leg bones, with swollen, rotten flesh still hanging from them.
Just as Yue Jinghua was about to ask the woman where they were.
The sea roared, and a white line of tide rushed from afar; a massive Water Beast resembling a dragon or snake rolled out of the sea, its shiny skin glaring in the dark water.
The creature was bizarre, with a large head and a small body, measuring about five meters in length and weighing around five to six hundred kilograms; its body covered with layers of sizzling blue electricity. Its mouth occupied two-thirds of its entire head, a type of giant Water Beast that had never appeared in Huaxia Country or on the Canglong Continent.
The Water Beast leaped up, its huge mouth opening wide, and its tremendous biting force instantly shattered a protruding stone. It grabbed the woman below the knees and with a forceful tug, pulled out her leg bones completely.
Such unimaginable, heart-wrenching pain woke the woman, causing her upper body to shake violently.
Not knowing where they were, if the woman died, there wouldn’t even be anyone left to ask.
Seeing this, Yue Jinghua raised her Great Sword in hand as if throwing a javelin, and, following the sea breeze, hurled it with great force.
Once Lianyun was unleashed, it instantly tore through the sea breeze.
The black Fish Monster evidently did not expect another person to be there and was caught off guard by the stab, thrashing its tail and diving back into the water.
Blood diffused, adding a small patch of red to the black sea.
Yue Jinghua recalled Lianyun and after a few leaps, descended from the high peak of the stone pillar to the vicinity of the stone shackles.
The woman in the red armor’s lower body was not bloody and soaked; the black seawater seemed to have the ability to heal wounds, and as soon as the Water Beast tore off her bones, the seawater immediately healed her wounds.
The woman took several deep breaths, easing the residual pain in her flesh and consciousness, unbearable to any human.
"Ten years, and finally someone has come in again," the woman slowly raised her head.
Yue Jinghua gasped for breath.