Stranger Danger

"What is that?" Suddenly, Danxia Zi spoke up in a grave voice.

As if on cue, a dark shadow appeared from somewhere behind the demonic fire. It seemed to be bobbing up and down.

Ye Qing cautiously moved the Ghost Dragon Boat just a little closer to the unusual object. It was only then they discovered that the shadow—or rather, shadows—were many thick, long, flesh-and-blood creatures that resembled snakes or dragons.

The creatures were dark-colored through and through. Some of them were floating independently away, some of them were tangled up like hair, and some were compressed into a ball of sheer mass.

The one thing all the flesh-and-blood creatures shared was their humongous size, their rotten and decayed state, and endless green hair. From a distance, the green hair looked like an endless forest that was spreading everywhere and floating up and down like seaweed.

"Is it just me... or does it look a little like blood vessels?" Old Man Profound Firmament suddenly spoke up.

"Now that you mentioned it..."

The more they looked, the more they agreed with Old Man Profound Firmament's deduction. The creatures did look like the blood vessels of an animal or a human. "But if they really are blood vessels... then how are they so big?"

Each creature was kilometers wide and incalculably long. They also counted tens, even hundreds of these creatures. What kind of human or animal would possess such humongous blood vessels? And how big were they if their blood vessels alone were this big?

It would have to be at the same level as the Sunchasing Dragon Whale at least.

"Should we head over and check it out?" After observing for a moment and perceiving no danger from the "blood vessels", Ye Qing moved the Ghost Dragon Boat toward them.

"Phew... they're seriously huge!" The closer they got to the "blood vessels", the bigger and thicker they seemed. They felt practically miniscule compared to them. This was doubly true as even the green hair growing out of the "blood vessels" were as big as sky-holding trees from their perspective.

"They're really blood vessels!"

Observing the creatures up close, the group finally confirmed that they were definitely blood vessels.

They might be unbelievably thick, long, and massive, but they were still blood vessels.

They were all rotten and decayed though. The stench of filth, rot, and death were unmistakable.

"This means that we're inside a person or an animal's body right now."

Old Man Profound Firmament reached past the dark green flame barrier of the Ghost Dragon Boat and touched the gigantic green hair.

Buzz...

As soon as he made contact, all of the dark green hair shook at the same time and swarmed toward Old Man Profound Firmament from multiple directions. It was as if he had provoked them or something.

"Hmm?" Old Man Profound Firmament hummed with surprise, though he casually pressed his thumb and index finger together and flicked. All of the green hair were annihilated just like that.

Unfortunately, it was a mistake. As if Old Man Profound Firmament had kicked the hornet's nest, the rest of the blood vessels abruptly came to life and flailed about like dragons and snakes. At the same time, the terrible stench of rot and filth washed out like a shockwave.

Rumble rumble rumble!

The flailing blood vessels stirred up the demonic fire, and the aura of filth and decay summoned violent storms into existence. It looked absolutely terrifying.

There were even blood vessels clashing into one another and breaking into pieces. Giant chunks of flesh fell from the sky like meteors. They seemed to contain enough force to shatter the heavens and sunder the earth.

However, the Ghost Dragon Boat easily navigated the storm of demonic fire like it had done so its whole life. It could always avoid the incoming hair, flailing blood vessels, and falling chunks of flesh by the skin of its teeth.

After the group had put a certain distance between themselves and the blood vessels, the latter abruptly stopped pursuing and flailing as if they had lost their target. Eventually, their movements ceased, and they were floating aimlessly in the demonic fire once more.

"Interesting." On the Ghost Dragon boat, everyone was watching the now calm blood vessels with a calm expression. It was clear that the blood vessels had been corrupted by something and mutated into what they were right now.

The group did not provoke the blood vessels any longer. They continued to travel toward the bottom. It wasn't because they were scared of the mutated blood vessels. There was simply no need to fight them.

As the Ghost Dragon Boat dove deeper, the group encountered multiple oddly-shaped, gigantic mountains. However, they soon discovered that they were no mountains at all. They were pieces of bones and flesh.

The meandering ball of flesh was so huge it rivaled mountains, and the stacked bones looked like steep cliffs from a distance.

Just like the blood vessels from before, the balls of flesh and blood were rotten and decayed as well. Sniffing it was enough to make someone dizzy. Looking at the twisted, mutated, scarlet flesh buds could also invite hallucinations. Not all of the flesh and blood were dead though. Some of them were dark green in color and giving off weak signs of life.

Some of the bones were dim, lightless, and covered in cracks. It looked like a light breeze would turn them into powder. Some were surrounded by anomalous auras and giving off vague, formless wails.

The bottom of the mountain of flesh, blood and bones was an expanse of land that stretched on endlessly. Though calling it land was probably a mistake. It was flesh and blood. The expanse of flesh was just and rotten and decayed like everything else and covered in crevices that looked like canyons and valleys from above. But unlike your conventional valley, they were covered in warped and mutated buds and tentacles. They were also burning with demonic fire and giving off horrific, contaminating clouds of fog. It was terrifying.

"Flesh, blood and bones. We really are in the stomach of some sort of creature!" Old Man Profound Firmament joked as he examined all this.

If they were only making an educated guess after confirming that the massive, elongated creatures they encountered before were blood vessels, now they were certain that they were inside the stomach of a giant.

Of course, it was impossible to say if this giant was a Stranger, an Anomaly, or a person.

They only knew that this creature was unbelievably massive, and that it was long dead. Its flesh, blood and bones had mostly decayed or warped into all sorts of indescribable things. The coagulation of all kinds of anomalous, evil, and terrible powers was what created the so-called "demonic fire".

When the demonic fire gushed out of the oval-shaped pits—or rather,pores—they formed what the people came to know as the Sea Burning Demonic Fire.

This was most likely how the Sea Burning Demonic Fire came to be.

"What should we do now?" Danxia Zi asked.

They had more or less figure out the truth of the demonic fire and how it came to be, but they still had no clue as to how they could resolve this.

"Indeed. What should we do?" Old Man Profound Firmament looked worried as well.

The obvious way to take out the demonic fire was to remove this giant creature's corpse. If they purified it or destroyed it, then the demonic fire would be cut off at its source. It would eventually go out on its own.

But how on earth could they do that?

Forget that this body had undergone some sort of mutation and become undying despite being dead—one might say that it had transformed into some sort of mindless but powerful and terrible Stranger—and that it was uncertain if they alone were enough to purify or destroy it, it would be a supremely formidable task even if they could.

After all, just looking at the range of the Sea Burning Demonic Fire and considering everything they knew so far, this corpse had to span tens of thousands of kilometers at least. Disposing of it would certainly take a very long time. Moreover, they now realized that the demonic fire gushing out of the seawater was just a tiny portion. The large majority of the demonic fire was still contained within the corpse. If they made a mistake while they were purifying and destroying the body and accidentally caused the demonic fire to gush out in a rush, it could potentially mean the annihilation of humanity itself.

In summary, this was going to be an absolute pain in the butt to deal with.