The Secret of the Ghost Ship
The fog was thick beneath the gathering clouds, and the sea was wild. The night was deep.
After some time, my eyes caught sight of something in the distance.
“That… is a formation?”
It was invisible to ordinary eyes. Just like any ordinary sea, waves crashed endlessly.
But with the perception of the sea race, the flow of yin and yang revealed itself. Far away, the currents of that vast ocean twisted in a bizarre pattern unlike their surroundings.
“Is that a formation?”
“No, it’s just a phantom formation. The black ghost valley’s formation masters did twist the space, so if you enter this area you’ll come out the other side. But that level of trickery has already been dismantled long ago.
There are several layers of formations inside. To get what I want, I’ll have to break through every single one of them.”
Whoosh!
Seran, who had been swimming, suddenly burst with qi and shot into the sky.
“Hold tight!”
Flash!
Jade-colored light poured from Seran’s horn and dyed the surroundings.
Kaboom!
At the same time, I heard a massive sonic boom and protected myself with the protective energy barrier.
Crack!
The strange flow of spiritual energy that had hidden us from sight passed through. I gradually opened my eyes.
“This place… is…”
Fog.
Sea fog blanketed the entire world.
Yet in an instant, a chill ran through my entire body.
“No, this isn’t sea fog.”
Overwhelming yin energy.
Swallow.
“Ghosts…!”
“Do not speak. This is the second formation. If living humans make a sound, they’ll swarm toward you. I am a sea dragon race and can naturally handle yin energy. They won’t come for me. That’s why I’m fine, but you must remain completely silent.”
I nodded.
Seran descended back into the water and began scanning the surroundings.
“The original ghosts released by the black ghost valley. So many of them gathered that the black ghost valley’s formations blanket the area, so this sea is always stormy.”
“The ghosts summon storms?”
It made sense. Ghosts and evil spirits gathering to create thick clouds of the same yin nature was entirely plausible.
While I was distracted, Seran grabbed my neck.
Aaaah—
Kyaaah!
Aaah!
“…?”
The further we advanced, the more an eerie wail echoed from afar, sounding like it came from deep within the valley.
“Don’t worry. The deeper we go, the more the Seopmyeong Ship’s influence brings out strange ghosts. That’s why there are so many like this…”
Then.
[It’s a ghost…!]
[An enormous ghost!]
[An enormous ghost has entered the sea!]
[Find it! Find the enormous ghost!]
Ku gu gu gu!
The fog began to writhe.
“What…?! There were no enemies like this?!”
Seran panicked, silenced his footsteps, and shot forward at breakneck speed.
[Kyaaah!]
[The big ghost has come to devour us all!]
[Kiaaaah! A ghost! Find the enormous ghost! An enormous ghost has come!]
The previously hazy fog began to change.
Swish!
The fog turned pitch black.
At the same time, thousands, millions of red lights began to appear within the darkness.
“What the hell is this?!”
Seran panicked and swam even faster.
Ku gu gu gu!
From within the black fog, the red lights shot toward us.
“Ugh, hold tight. It’s flying again!”
Spiritual energy gushed once more from Seran’s body.
“Serhul was free to fly about, but Seran can’t?”
Come to think of it, Serhul flying freely was actually impressive considering the body he had.
Crack!
He leaped from the water into the air.
I grabbed Seran’s mane and held my breath as much as possible while dodging the ghosts’ eyes.
How long had we been flying in the sky?
“I’ll break through the second formation!”
Whoosh!
I pierced a wall of water that had suddenly appeared ahead. My entire body was soaked as I looked around.
“…!”
A massive water wall.
There was no water for hundreds of li in this area, yet the water defied gravity and created a gigantic single well by forming the wall.
At the center of this “sea well.”
There, a translucent formation large enough to cover dozens of li was visible.
Inside the formation, a warship spewing powerful qi floated.
“Now you can speak. The ghosts cannot enter beyond this formation.”
“Phew… Is that the Seopmyeong Ship?”
“Yes.”
Whoosh!
Seran slid along the water wall and descended beneath the sea well.
“Now let go. Nothing dangerous awaits you ahead.”
I released Seran’s neck, stepped into the air, and approached the formation.
As I drew closer, the warship’s appearance became clear.
The warship was devastated, barely maintaining its shape.
Powerful qi and yin energy poured from within.
“The first formation blocks ordinary beasts and criminals. The second formation, the sea fog of ghosts, blocks human cultivators. The last formation is meant to block someone like me, a sea race.”
Seran continued explaining.
“Well, the ghosts we saw earlier were conscious beings, so the strange phenomenon occurred. But this formation isn’t alive, so no such accidents will happen.”
He raised his tail and brought it close to the formation.
And.
Pat pat!
Boing!
Light exploded and Seran recoiled.
Green ghost fire clung to his tail and flickered. Only when Seran concentrated qi did it finally die out.
“I, a sea race, react this way. But you, with human bloodline, will be different. Try touching it yourself.”
I carefully pressed my hand against the formation while restraining the energy in my core to the utmost.
And.
Crackle!
A tingling sensation accompanied my hand sinking into the formation.
“Hmm, it really goes through.”
“Exactly. It’s a formation meant only to block sea races.”
I hesitated for a moment before stepping inside the formation.
Crack!
My core felt a little uncomfortable, but I calmly passed through.
It was too easy, to the point of disbelief.
“Senior Seran, this difficulty seems too low…”
“It is. That’s only natural for someone with human bloodline. Now, I need you to pull out the eight flags surrounding the Seopmyeong Ship that are activating the formation.”
Seran pointed with his claw to something beyond the formation. There, a flag with a ghost face painted on it stood tall.
There were eight such flags floating around the warship.
I moved quickly, circled the warship, and tore all eight flags from their posts.
And the formation surrounding the Seopmyeong Ship lost its light. Seran approached me.
“What kind of difficulty is this?”
“Well, up to this point it was low. It’s only discarded spiritual treasure. Who would set such massive guards for a pile of junk with no value beyond symbolic significance?”
He clicked his tongue and continued.
“Actually, the biggest nuisance until now was that entering the sea fog formation would send a signal to the black ghost valley. They would then send core formation cultivators to hunt people like me.
Even if we somehow reached here, they would have stationed core formation inner disciples to hunt us. But now that the entire black ghost valley has vanished into the upper realm, the difficulty seems oddly high.”
“I see.”
“Yes.”
It seemed they had originally sent people to guard it rather than formations.
Now that all the guards have ascended to the upper realm, it was easy to breach.
“Still, even as discarded spiritual treasure, it’s protected by such a massive formation and had core disciples guarding it. It must have been a great spiritual treasure originally…”
I asked while walking toward the warship with Seran.
The warship was half-destroyed on one side.
Some intact parts remained, but they were few.
“Hah. It was destroyed in a war between humans.”
“Was there a war?”
“Probably not, since you were born after. There was one crazy human core formation cultivator called Goe-gun. I don’t know the full details, but one day he suddenly went mad and demanded to tear out a piece of the Seopmyeong Ship’s internal accessory.
The black ghost valley naturally dismissed it, but two heavenly person elders were killed by Goe-gun’s rampage. The black ghost valley went mad and mobilized all its power to capture him.
Goe-gun fought the black ghost valley alone without fleeing. As a result, all three of their Seopmyeong Ships were destroyed, and one-third of the black ghost valley was annihilated.”
“…”
Finally, Goe-gun shattered one entire Seopmyeong Ship and tore out its core components. No one in the black ghost valley could stop that madman.”
What kind of record was that? It was absurd.
“If it was Goe-gun, could the hunchback old man… have possessed such overwhelming power?”
Of course, a madman like him would have been hunted by other heavenly person cultivators. Even the dignified sea dragon king had trembled in fear. Only a madman with impossible power would inspire such terror.
“Before fighting Goe-gun, the black ghost valley had ridden three Seopmyeong Ships across the seas and flaunted its terrifying might. But after the war, it was trapped in one sea region. When I think about how many sea race cultivators felt good about that incident…”
Seran smiled satisfiedly as he and I stepped onto the deck of the Seopmyeong Ship.
The ship was incredibly sturdy and glossy, no matter what material it was made of.
At the same time, powerful yin energy and ghost qi poured from the deck.
“Let’s go in.”
Seran followed the deck toward the door leading inside.
Whoosh!
“…”
I widened my eyes and looked inside.
Even after just opening the door, overwhelming yin energy and ghost qi poured out.
At the same time, the interior was completely shrouded in darkness, so nothing was visible.
Seran also tensed up slightly and stood stiffly in front of the door, the body rigid.
“Still, Senior Seran, this inside seems a bit narrow for you to enter…”
“Don’t worry. Let’s go in first.”
Swish.
Seran walked in without hesitation, disappearing into the darkness inside.
I tensed up and followed.
Whoosh!
And I saw a surprising sight.
“The inside is even wider than outside…!”
An enormous space!
A corridor wider than thousands of times stretched before me, far exceeding what I had seen from outside.
Seran turned to me from the corridor.
“The black ghost valley ruled the entire sea by riding three Seopmyeong Ships. That was possible because the Seopmyeong Ship itself was a divine treasure that compressed space at an absurd scale.
The Seopmyeong Ship is the flagship of the black ghost valley, almost their main base. Actually, their main base, the ghost valley, was just a port to dock the Seopmyeong Ship. In effect, the Seopmyeong Ship is the black ghost valley itself.”
“Hah…”
I was overwhelmed by the scale and lost my words for a moment.
“I heard it was a law tool made by one of the ancient masters with tremendous talent, modeled after the celestial treasures of true immortals. I don’t know if it’s true.”
We moved our feet.
We passed through the vast corridor and reached a massive cave.
Ghost statues lay scattered everywhere, and several large wooden buildings stood in various spots.
“Check every room and building inside the warship. Look for anything emitting this energy.”
Uwoong!
As Seran extended his front paw, a bead-sized object rose above it, emitting dense sea dragon race qi.
“Remember the energy, not the shape. Tell me immediately if you find something emitting this energy.”
“Understood. Then shall we go in and search?”
I looked at the pagoda five to six floors high, recalling the energy Seran had emitted.
“Still, this space is so vast that even after entering everything, it remains immense… This size compressed into just one warship. Is this enough to be called a divine treasure of a great sea sect?”
Just as I was looking around, a footstep echoed.
Ping!
When I stepped forward, something flew at me at extreme speed.
“…!”
Kang!
I quickly sprayed protective energy and repelled it.
“This is…!”
It was a small piston.
Upon closer inspection, a hole had opened in the wall and an internal mechanism had been launched from within.
“An internal mechanism?”
Then.
Clack, clack clack.
Sounds of something aligning echoed from inside the wooden building. Something emerged from within.
Clack, clack.
It was wooden puppets.
The puppets twitched in awkward movements for a moment before charging straight at me.
“Hmph!”
Kwarr! Kwarang!
I didn’t hesitate, spraying strong energy from my palm and completely dismantling the puppets.
“Senior Seran, what are these…?”
“I heard they’re internal mechanisms left by Goe-gun after he entered the Seopmyeong Ship. I don’t know what they do, but I’ve heard Goe-gun could fill an entire region with his mechanisms in just one night from his seat…”
Then.
Clack, clack clack.
More puppets were approaching from far away.
Seran frowned and moved the body.
“Yeah… Shall we break through together?”
“Yes.”
Seran and I charged toward the puppets rushing at us.
***
We broke through the puppets and dodged countless internal mechanisms while searching inside the warship.
The interior of the warship was unimaginably vast. Its scale rivaled the Golden Divine Thunder Gate seen from the Daesan Mountains.
Even the black ghost valley had two more of these warships currently.
It was easy to guess its former glory.
From the outside, the half-destroyed parts made space distorted and impossible to enter, so we smashed mechanisms in areas with intact space and descended to the lower levels of the ship.
Swish swish.
The lower levels of the warship were filled with ghost qi.
There were no ghosts or original souls, but the qi was so powerful it made consciousness tremble.
“Senior Seran, my consciousness feels a bit fuzzy.”
The ghost qi here seemed to affect consciousness.
Seran opened his mouth at my words.
A small golden droplet flew from his mouth and shook once.
Ting!
With a clear sound, the surrounding darkness receded slightly.
And only then did the pain on my consciousness ease a little.
“It expelled some ghost qi with a law treasure that contains the power of exorcism. I struggled to infuse this law treasure with energy for the past three years. But to completely remove the pain, you should compress your consciousness and give it form.”
Seran advised me while looking at me.
I used the incantation of Hofung Eungryongbyeon to transform my consciousness into the shape of a sea dragon.
Seran’s consciousness, completely in the same shape, enveloped me, so I felt less burden from the start.
“Indeed, once my consciousness is shaped, I can resist attacks on my mind much better.”
I reinforced my consciousness and asked Seran.
“Senior Seran, what exactly is a law treasure? Is it different from a law tool?”
“Asking about everything. Law tools are toys used by Qi Condensation to Core Formation cultivators.
Law treasures refer to true weapons used by Core Formation cultivators. They consume the power inside a Core Formation cultivator’s golden core and grow with the cultivator, meaning law artifacts.”
He continued explaining about law treasures.
“If someone below Core Formation wants to use them, they have to accumulate power over several years, but the effect is uncertain.”
“Hmm. So if Senior Seran later reaches the realm corresponding to Core Formation, you’ll be able to use the law treasure properly?”
Seran hesitated briefly at my question.
“Unfortunately, sea races don’t use law treasures well originally. That’s because our horns, claws, and scales are essentially our law treasures. This law treasure is only used occasionally in special situations and won’t become my main weapon.”
“I see…”
We expelled the ghost qi from the Seopmyeong Ship and smashed more puppets and mechanisms while descending further.
“Still, can the Seopmyeong Ship really cross the underworld?”
“It’s a symbolic name. I heard this warship was made by an ancient master. They said it was modeled after celestial treasures of true immortals, so perhaps those treasures could reach the underworld…
But I know this warship can cross space, but cannot take one completely into the world of the dead.”
“Crossing space is possible, but still…”
Just as I smashed another puppet charging at us, we descended to the next floor.
“Hmm? No puppets this time.”
Quiet.
And dark.
On the previous floor, some outline had been visible, but this floor was completely pitch black with nothing to see.
Yet it was quiet.
And the ghost qi surged.
“…”
“…”
Seran and I exchanged no words, but we both fell silent and guarded our surroundings at the same time.
The perception of the sea race was sensitive.
The cycle of tai chi around us had changed.
Yin and yang were not circulating properly, and yang energy was suppressed by yin.
There was something dangerous on this floor.
Then.
[A ghost has boldly entered the Seopmyeong Ship…? A sea race and a human? Of course it’s the sea race one, but what kind of ghost is this, layering death over death on a living human? How weird, how weird…]
Shiver!
“Kuhk…!”
“Kwaaah!”
It was hard to breathe.
A chill ran through my body involuntarily.
[Ghosts layering death is natural, but why did this one layer multiple deaths? It’s strange, so strange…]
I had felt this energy before.
From the Malise Clan, the Jin Clan, the Cheongmun Clan, and others.
An overwhelming calamity I could never oppose.
The scent of Core Formation.
[An enormous ghost. A ghost wearing the skin of a living human… What business did you have coming here?]
“Kuhk…! L-let’s run!”
Flash!
Light burst from Seran’s droplet.
At the same time, the pressure pressing on us vanished instantly.
[This guy, that law treasure…]
“Upstairs quickly…!”
Seran shouted urgently and Seran and I fled upward madly.
[Ahaha, I see. So you’re the bastard of the sea dragon royal family. A royal descendant of Serhul. Even when all the royals ascended to the upper realm, you’re still here. Serhul must have abandoned you. An enormous ghost and a stain on the valley. It’s almost like a happy day for an old dead man!]
Ku gu gu gu!
From the bottom, pitch black ghost qi began chasing us.
[You bugs think you can escape the grasp of a heavenly person cultivator?!]
The voice of that existence echoed throughout the warship.
The word “heavenly person” made my head spin and I nearly lost balance and fell.
“Stay focused! If it were a heavenly person, you wouldn’t have lost this time. It must be the soul remnant of a heavenly person cultivator killed by Goe-gun! It can only have Core Formation level power, and even that only inside this warship. Just think about escaping!”
I snapped back to my senses at Seran’s words, wrapped my body in wind using the Hofung Eungryongbyeon, and fled upward even faster.
[Where do you think you’re running, you insects?!]
Ku gu gu!
From behind, waves of yin energy surged.