“We seem to be completely isolated from the outside world in here. Can we turn back into our true selves then?” Wang Shu fidgeted restlessly. It was incredibly unbearable to be a zombie, like there was something extra hanging over his body.

“No.” Leng Xian swept a glance over Wang Shu. “Zombies are uncommonly sensitive to the presence of the living. No art to conceal our presence will dupe their senses, much less the mere restriction I’ve put up around us. If you turn back now, we’ll be instantly attacked by them.”

Wang Shu sat down with resignation.

“Strange, why can’t we see any of them? Or have they all run away after we entered the zombie sea?” He looked at a water curtain in the middle of the submarine, one that served as a window to the outside world.

All was gray and murky around them, no signs of any zombies to be found. It was as if they were piloting through a gray sea.

“The gray stuff you see are zombies.” Lu Yun glanced at Wang Shu. “I used two formation talismans to turn this treasure into a zombie the size of a particle of dust. Zombie visual abilities shouldn’t be able to make us out.”

He’d invested the submarine with quite a few failsafes. The stones that repulsed zombies were one, concealing their movement was another. Layering plan over plan was the safest way forward for them.

“The scholarship of the Inception monarch knows no bounds. He is the strongest powerhouse of the six sacred palaces, alright!” Respect bubbled in Leng Xian’s tones.

Ying Luo looked at Lu Yun with great surprise. By now, she was beginning to think that Lu Yun was really a secluded disciple of Inception Palace.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

An indeterminate period of time into their travels, a violent quaking traveled their way. The submarine began to toss and turn wildly through their environment; the water curtain inside displayed the current situation around them.

Seven figures hovered over the zombie sea and flew at great speed, attacking the zombies within the sea as they did so. The powerful shaking was a result of their attacks.

“No! That’s the seven immortal lords of the earth elemental sacred land! They’re here as well!” Dismay crossed Leng Xian’s face when she saw them.

Though she was only one level beneath immortal lords, the difference between them was so great that they couldn’t be put into words. Her refined treasure was a paramount ranked item, but it wouldn’t withstand an attack from an immortal lord.

“We’re going down!” She steered the submarine into a deep dive.

“No, we can’t!” Lu Yun quickly stopped her. “There’s a dreadful existence at the bottom of the zombie sea. If we head down, we’ll expose ourselves to it. The talismans I’ve made won’t deceive it!”

Leng Xian had also once spoken of a terrible thing sleeping in the center of the burial chamber, that none of them would make it out alive if it were awakened. It looked like whatever she’d spoken of was at the bottom of the zombie sea.

“We need to go, that thing’s already been disturbed.” His expression tightening, Lu Yun spoke at a rapid and frantic clip. “Don’t look down, our gazes will attract its attention!”

“How dare a mere seven immortal lords attempt to cross the zombie sea! Those of the nine sacred lands are seriously idiots!” Leng Xian cursed and steered the submarine ahead at full speed.

If it wasn’t for Lu Yun shrinking the submarine to a dust particle, their speed in the zombie sea would be at least a hundred times slower. There was no water in this sea, just boundless zombies. A speck of dust could freely dart between them without running into any impediment whatsoever.

“Aouu aouuu aouu aouu!!” A large roar suddenly exploded in the distance.

An enormous black shadow appeared on the water curtain inside the submarine. It was a giant zombie that looked like a black dragon! The moment it appeared, it charged at the seven immortal lords in the air.

“A chaos dragon!!” Lu Yun gaped at the black dragon.

The zombie was plainly a chaos dragon, but something had eaten two of its heads, leaving it with only three tails and twelve claws.

……

“What is that?!” gasped the seven immortal lords.

A black dragon bore down on them with an open mouth the moment it cleared the zombie sea.

Boooooom.

Yellowish-brown flashed through the air as they flung up an enormous shield through combined efforts. It just barely managed to take the dragon’s blow.

“We need to go! This isn’t something we can go up against!” Scared out of their minds, their joint shield collapsed after that first hit.

Smack!

Three dragon tails whipped from behind them before they could react. One of the immortal lords screamed with anguish before bursting into a cloud of bloody mist. A second black dragon then shot out of the zombie sea and swallowed the other six.

Seven immortal lords, lofty beings superior to creators, were eaten shortly after setting foot into the zombie sea.

Inside the submarine, Lu Yun and the others swallowed hard. Their throats felt as dry as a desert.

“Thank, thank goodness we didn’t try flying across the zombie sea,” Wang Shu mumbled.

“Only idiots would think of crossing it by air.” Sitting by Lu Yun, Ying Luo flicked a sideways glance at Wang Shu. He scratched his head without a word.

“We need to be careful, the seven immortal lords impacted the outermost layer of our formation talismans just now. The treasure will return to its regular size soon,” Lu Yun said.

Of the two formation talismans he’d attached to the submarine, Size Manipulation was on the outside and Shapeshifting was on the inside. Caught in the ripples of the attacks from earlier, Size Manipulation was crumbling away and the submarine was slowly expanding.

“Alright, I see.” Leng Xian nodded.

“Those two black dragon zombies were two chaos dragons… Were they chaos dragons from the outside, or ones born in the mythological realm?” Lu Yun suddenly asked. Since he cultivated the Dragonquake Scripture, he was inordinately interested in chaos dragons.

“Um…” Ying Luo blinked. “Legend says that the chaos dragons flourished before the mythological realm existed. They were the strongest race in the chaos, but something happened that caused them to be cursed with limiting their numbers to nine.

“According to various records available to us, the curse of the chaos dragons might very well have something to do with the mythological realm."