Reborn as a Hatrack in the Mystical Land-Chapter 690 - 147: Comprehending the Divine Rune

The death of Long Jiuzun was sudden but by no means a fluke.

Yue Jinghua painstakingly orchestrated his demise, yet in hindsight, it felt surreal and almost dreamlike.

This battle has honed her mentality like never before.

She understood more than ever the gulf between her own strength and that of the true powerhouses of the continent. Using Long Jiuzun as an example, even if she managed to gravely injure him, she still had to be wary of Spirit Pills and unique Dark Skills.

Yue Jinghua decided that upon returning to the Imperial City after this Southern Expedition, she would immediately go into seclusion and elevate her Nine Revolutions Creation Technique by one level. Additionally, she would have to re-integrate the strength of her Dark Beasts.

The sea breeze blew, gradually cooling down Yue Jinghua’s overheated mind.

A sense of emptiness and fatigue hit her following the battle, along with the chaotic and blood-stained seascape.

She took out a drop of Green Liquid from her Desire Gourd and drank it, feeling her Dark Power slowly restored.

On the sea surface, the skeleton of the humpback whale lay bare, breaking through the water.

Yue Jinghua lightly touched the water with the tips of her toes and swiftly darted across, piecing together the severed beak and dorsal fin of the humpback whale.

Despite the whale’s carcass being damaged, the Holy Rune was infused into its flesh and bones, revealing a clear mark.

The 1008th Holy Rune on the humpback whale was clearer and more intact than any Holy Rune she had found on other sea beasts in the Fan Di Sea.

It seems that this "Holy Mark Plague" exhibited its effectiveness more fully in High-level Dark Beasts than in other Dark Beasts.

When Yue Jinghua saw that Holy Rune, she couldn’t help but harbor doubts. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

If the Holy Runes on the Moon Goddess Tower were indeed left by the Dragon Clan sages of old, why would they suddenly mutate into a calamitous "Holy Mark Plague" without cause?

Or was it a deliberate act by the Dragon Clan’s ancient sages, aiming to create chaos on Canglong Continent after a millennium?

Yue Jinghua couldn’t help but be astounded by her own bold speculation. After musing for a moment without arriving at any cause or consequence, she simply decided not to think about it anymore.

With this Holy Rune, Yue Jinghua had now learned all 1008 Holy Runes from the Moon Goddess Tower, and accordingly, she acquired a brand new Divine Rune, which she named "Divine Favour."

This Divine Rune is particularly suitable for group-based Dark Beasts, such as the Giant Winged Mosquito King or the Lightning Flying Fish. By engraving the corresponding Divine Rune onto one member of the group, the same rune would appear on the rest.

After the new Divine Rune was engraved, the Dark Beasts’ Dark Power would increase by at least twenty percent, with higher-ranked Dark Beasts receiving even greater enhancements.

This was also the first Divine Rune Yue Jinghua had grasped thus far.

After initially applying the Divine Rune on the Lightning Flying Fish, Yue Jinghua was very pleased with its effects.

With the death of the humpback whale, the nearby seas also became calm, and the chaos in Fandi Port caused by sea beasts was essentially subsiding.

While sorting out the spoils of war, Yue Jinghua discovered that Long Jiuzun’s storage ring, which he wore on his hand, had also fallen into the sea.

This made Yue Jinghua quite frustrated; after all, the wealth of the exalted Dragon Battle God was bound to be astounding, and a trove of treasures was now wasted.

But she found some consolation that the violently slain humpback whale—from whale bone to whale oil—was all exquisite treasure.

Yue Jinghua was not courteous, as she skinned and deboned the humpback whale directly. The whale meat could be air-dried to make uniquely flavored smoked fish, the Dark Pill was good for refining new Dark Beast Vein Crystals, and the whale bones could be fashioned into bone arrows with astonishing lethality.

Only when the Desire Gourd was filled to the brim did Yue Jinghua stop.

In the sky, the roaring of flying dragons could already be heard.

Yue Jinghua swept the area with her Divine Sense, only to see Captain Ya Lei and her elder brother Yue Minzhi each piloting the last Sea and Air Ship and flying dragon, rushing over.

After Yue Minzhi handed over Long Rui and the others to Cheng Ying, he heard Captain Ya Lei reporting that the nine Sea and Air Ships that had ventured out to the high seas had simultaneously lost their signals.

Fearing that Long Jiuzun had been gone for too long and might have encountered an accident, Captain Ya Lei persuaded Yue Minzhi to bring a team of Dragon Riders to check.

Yue Jinghua withdrew her Divine Sense and immediately dove into the sea.

Above the water, only broken ships and the remains of Sea Beasts were left.

It looked as if a fierce battle of life and death had occurred, ending with both sides perishing together.

After Yue Minzhi and Captain Ya Lei arrived and saw the extensive damage, both drew a sharp breath.

They could not have imagined that within just one day, over a hundred members of the Southern Expedition Army and all nine Sea and Air Ships were lost without a trace, and there was no sign of Long Jiuzun anywhere.

They searched around, for a full day and night, until they were certain there were no survivors. Strangely, the previously restless sea had returned to its calmness after that day.

They could only speculate that Long Jiuzun and the King of Sea Beasts that had been terrorizing the offshore areas must have fought fiercely and perished together.

The Southern Expedition Army set out to suppress a rebellion, but it ended with Long Jiuzun falling to his death in the outer sea.

Such an outcome was hard to believe, not just for Yue Minzhi, but even for Princess Long Xue in the Imperial City when she received the news.

But the fact was right in front of them, as after that day Long Jiuzun vanished like a mirage on the sea, never to be seen again.

Everyone thought he was dead.

After hearing the news, Long Rui wept bitterly. Despite her disbelief that her brother Long Jiuzun could have fallen in such a way, and after searching the high seas to no avail, she was forced to accept the truth.

After Yue Jinghua and others were confined in the Water Dungeon for ten days, they emerged "weak and feeble." Upon learning of Long Jiuzun’s demise, she too showed a face full of regret, as though she had lost her own father.

Upon hearing the news, Ji Yun and others looked at Yue Jinghua with a strange expression, but the overly heartbroken Long Rui failed to detect the discrepency.

Yue Minzhi then led the Dragon Riders on another patrol in the outer sea, ensuring that there were no more troubles from Sea Beasts.

With the combined efforts of Yue Jinghua and Qian Luo, the 1008th Holy Rune of the Moon Goddess Tower was finally repaired.

The Moon Goddess Tower once again shone as it did in the past, its gentle glow providing light and defensive power to the passing merchant and warships at night.

Although the Southern Expedition Army faced a rocky road in quelling the rebellion, the outcome was ultimately a good one.

In mid-June, the remaining thirty-something members of the battered Southern Expedition Army, carrying the old armors of over a hundred of its fallen, including Long Jiuzun, made a grand return to the Imperial City.

Yue Jinghua did not know that when Long Jiuzun fell, a storage ring cut from a Memory Square Stone had quietly sunk into the sandy bottom of the sea.