The Underwater Forest

The deep-blue glow of Sea God Valley was left far behind as Lu Changsheng's group continued descending through the dark waters of the ruins.

Along the way, collapsed palace walls and broken stone bridges gradually grew sparse, replaced by a more primitive, more desolate seafloor terrain. As Lu Changsheng passed an underground grotto half-buried in silt, he unexpectedly discovered a spirit mushroom entirely azure blue, its surface naturally covered in dragon-scale patterns—the "Azure Sea Dragon-Patterned Ganoderma."

The ganoderma was the size of a washbasin, rooted in the skeleton of some unknown colossal beast. It gave off a rich fragrance that refreshed the heart and lungs, clearly nurtured from the essence of an ancient sea beast. Shi Jingtian volunteered to dig it out, carefully stored it in a jade box, and happily declared that if they took this thing out and traded it for spirit stones, it could buy a small city.

Aside from that, they also picked up several ancient weapons from a collapsed formation of soldier figurines. There was a broken ancient bronze spear, its tip long since dulled, with ancient inscriptions still faintly visible along the shaft; and a sea-soul saber covered in verdigris, its blade riddled with fine cracks, all spirituality lost, shattering into several pieces with the slightest touch.

Time was the most merciless killer. Even a sharp weapon that had once shaken the world, after lying silent for ten thousand years at the bottom of this ten-thousand-fathom sea, had ultimately turned into scrap iron.

"What a pity." Lu Changsheng gently placed the remains of the ancient bronze spear back into the silt and shook his head.

No one knew how much longer they traveled underwater before the current ahead suddenly became slow and tranquil, and the light also brightened in a strange way.

When everyone