"Snack my ass! You're the snack! Your whole family is snacks!"
Facing the ghost claw that radiated ominous black light as it grabbed at him head-on, Xuanwei cursed madly inside, but his movements were not slow at all. His round little earthen body suddenly leaned back, performing an utterly graceless yet exceptionally practical "iron bridge"—if a lump of mud could count as an iron bridge.
Screech!
The ghost claw swept past what would have been his nose, carrying a foul wind. Wherever the claw wind passed, even the air gave off faint sounds of corrosion.
"Whoa, big talk—and those claws are pretty poisonous too!" Borrowing the momentum of his backward lean, Xuanwei's chubby little legs nimbly(?) kicked off from the edge of the pool. Like a ball that had been slapped away, he rolled aside, narrowly avoiding the grab.
The black-robed Daoist missed with one strike, and a trace of surprise flashed through his eyes. He had not expected this seemingly clumsy earth spirit to react so swiftly.
"Hmph! You're quite slippery. Let's see how long you can keep dodging!" The Daoist snorted, flicking his sleeve. Three bone nails gleaming with ghostly green light shot out in a triangular formation, accompanied by shrill ghostly wails, sealing off Xuanwei's paths of retreat to the left, right, and above!
"System! Analyze it, now!" Xuanwei screamed inwardly while frantically urging the Nine Tribulations Earth-Guarding Body, making his temporary shell even more solid.
[Analysis: Netherworld Bone-Piercing Nail. Contains corpse baleful energy and resentful poison; specifically pierces protective spiritual light and is highly effective against energy bodies and divine souls. Recommendation: Do not take it head-on! Use the heaviness of the Wutu Source to sink into the ground or... borrow the spiritual energy of the pool!]
Sink into the ground? With his half-baked Earth Evasion, he would probably never come back up! Borrow the pool's spiritual energy?
With the bone nails already before his eyes, Xuanwei gritted his teeth and dove toward the pool... no, he performed a lazy donkey roll!
Gurgle, gurgle... He rolled neatly to the pool's edge, with half his body submerged in the spirit pool. At the same time, he frantically circulated the Innate Immortal Qi Origin Method, drawing upon the pure spiritual energy of the pool beneath him to form a thin, watery-blue spiritual light barrier before him.
Puff! Puff! Puff!
The three Netherworld Bone-Piercing Nails struck the spiritual light barrier with dull thuds. The barrier shook violently, its light rapidly dimming, but it ultimately did not shatter at once! The ghostly green radiance and the pure water spiritual energy eroded one another, producing strange sizzling sounds.
"Hm? You can actually draw upon the innate water spirit here?" The black-robed Daoist was even more astonished, before greed thickened in his eyes. "It seems you little thing have quite a few secrets! Once this ancestor captures you, I'll extract your divine soul and interrogate you at my leisure!"
He formed hand seals, and the black qi around him surged fiercely. Clearly, he was about to use a more powerful spell.
"Interrogate this, you banana-headed club!" Taking advantage of the gap while the other man cast his spell, Xuanwei "climbed" out of the pool, shook his nonexistent hair—sending water droplets flying everywhere—and refused to show weakness. "You old fossil, your glabella is black and your aura is unsteady. Did someone beat you so badly that you couldn't recognize your own mother? Instead of crawling into a rat hole to lick your wounds, you dare come out and steal a kid's snacks? Aren't you afraid the wind will make you bite your tongue?"
His words were vicious, stabbing precisely where it hurt. Sure enough, the black-robed Daoist's face instantly turned livid, and his entire body trembled with rage. He truly had suffered a severe loss while fighting someone over a treasure, leaving him gravely wounded. That was why he urgently needed the Dragon Saliva Fruit to heal himself and preserve his life.
"You brat! You're courting death!" The Daoist flew into a rage and held nothing back. He spat out a mouthful of natal essence qi, merging it into the black qi around him. The black qi immediately transformed into a huge, ferocious ghost head. It opened its pitch-black maw and let out a silent roar as it devoured Xuanwei and the Nine-Leaf Spiritual Root behind him! This strike was vastly stronger than the previous ones!
"Oh shit! I overdid it!" Feeling the terrifying suction and destructive aura contained within the ghost head, Xuanwei's scalp—if he had one—went numb. His little water shield definitely could not withstand this!
Run? Where could he run? The cave entrance was blocked by this Old Demon!
At that critical moment, the Nine-Leaf Spiritual Root behind him seemed to have been enraged by the terrifying attack as well! Its nine leaves simultaneously bloomed with dazzling emerald light, and a vast aura of life and protective will soared into the sky!
Buzz!
The entire cave seemed to come alive. Every spiritual pattern on the surrounding rock walls lit up, and countless tiny yet incomparably sharp emerald vines burst from the void like spirit serpents, wildly lashing and coiling around the enormous ghost head!
Screech, screech, screech...!
The life-filled vines collided violently with the deathly, filthy ghost qi, annihilating one another with ear-piercing sounds. The ghost head's charge was forcibly halted!
"Perfect chance!" Xuanwei's eyes—his mental focal points—lit up!
This was exactly the moment he had been waiting for! The Old Demon was attacking with all his might and was being held back by the spiritual root. This was when his guard would be at its weakest!
"Old fossil! Behold my ultimate technique—Immortal Qi. Wutu. Super Invincible... Brick Throw!"
Xuanwei's chubby earthen arm swung fiercely, and a square, sharply edged... brick, compressed and condensed from pure Wutu Source mixed with immortal qi, gleaming with a heavy yellow radiance, shot forth like a cannonball. Carrying an unstoppable momentum, it traced a graceful arc, aimed straight at—
The back of the black-robed Daoist's head!
That was right! Not a frontal clash, but a sneak attack! And such a plain, unadorned sneak attack, filled with streetwise wisdom at that!
The black-robed Daoist was fully focused on controlling the ghost head against the spiritual root's vines. How could he have expected this silly-looking little earth man to pull such a dirty trick? By the time he sensed the ominous wind behind his head, it was already too late!
Bang!!
A dull impact sounded, accompanied by the crisp noise of bone striking something hard—perhaps it was only an illusion.
The Wutu brick, condensed from nearly a third of Xuanwei's current origin, smacked solidly into the back of the black-robed Daoist's head!
"Urgh!"
The black-robed Daoist let out a pained grunt. His vision went dark, and he staggered, nearly falling from midair. It felt as if his divine soul had been struck by a massive hammer, leaving him dizzy! Though the brick's physical damage was nothing to his True Immortal-level physique, the pure soul-suppressing power of Wutu within it and the impact of Innate Immortal Qi made his already injured divine soul even worse!
The ghost head under his control also trembled violently, its power greatly diminished. The spiritual root's vines seized the chance to shred more than half of it!
"You brat!!! I will kill you!!!" The black-robed Daoist steadied himself, clutching the back of his head as he turned around. His eyes were bloodshot, and he stared at Xuanwei like a madman, looking as though he wanted to devour him alive!
Yet Xuanwei planted his hands on his hips and smugly swayed his round body. "Hehe, you missed! Bet that makes you mad! Come on, try again if you've got the guts!"
He acted arrogant on the surface, but inwardly he was calculating frantically. "System! What state is this Old Demon in now?"
[Target's divine soul injury has worsened. His circulation of mana has become sluggish, and his strength has fallen by roughly twenty percent. However, his rage level has exceeded the limit, and his desire to attack is extremely strong.] [Warning: The target is preparing some secret technique with an enormous cost but terrifying power! Immediate evasion is recommended!]
So he really was going all out!
Xuanwei did not dare provoke him further. His gaze rapidly swept around, searching for one last route of survival. His eyes fell on the bottomless spirit pool once more.
"I'll gamble on it! Fellow Daoist, help me!" Xuanwei sent a resolute thought to the Nine-Leaf Spiritual Root, then, without waiting for a response, his chubby earthen body suddenly leaped backward—
Splash!
He plunged into the spirit pool again. But this time, instead of remaining near the surface, he circulated the Qi-Guiding Chapter of the Chaos Heaven-Opening Art, which he had only just begun to comprehend. He simulated his aura into its most primordial chaotic state, while drawing upon the power of the Wutu Source Core. Like a heavy plumb weight, he plunged madly toward the deepest, darkest part of the pool!
"Trying to run?! Come out for this ancestor!" Seeing this, the black-robed Daoist roared. Enduring the agonizing pain in his divine soul, he activated a secret technique, and a massive ghost claw reached into the pool after Xuanwei!
Yet although the pool water appeared clear, it contained boundless mysteries. After the ghost claw penetrated only several zhang, it encountered immense resistance and purifying power. Its black qi rapidly dissipated, leaving it unable to touch Xuanwei, who was diving swiftly downward.
What made the black-robed Daoist want to vomit blood even more was that the Nine-Leaf Spiritual Root seemed to understand Xuanwei's intent. It recalled all its vines and focused all its strength on reinforcing the seal over the pool's mouth. Emerald radiance formed a barrier, firmly blocking him outside!
"Argh! This is infuriating!" The black-robed Daoist raged at the edge of the pool, bombarding the barrier with all kinds of spells. Yet he could only stir ripples across it and could not break through in a short time.
At this moment, Xuanwei was experiencing unprecedented pressure.
The farther down he went, the denser the pool's spiritual energy became, and the greater the pressure grew. It was as if invisible walls on every side were crushing his hastily assembled temporary shell. The light had long vanished, and absolute darkness and cold surrounded him. Only the faint spiritual light emitted by his body and the system's constant data on depth and pressure remained.
[Diving depth: three hundred zhang. External pressure has reached the critical point! Temporary shell is about to collapse!] [Diving depth: five hundred zhang! Abnormal spatial fluctuations detected!] [Warning! A high-intensity energy barrier has appeared ahead! Properties unknown!]
Just as Xuanwei felt he was about to be crushed into an immortal qi pancake, a tiny glimmer suddenly appeared in the endless darkness ahead.
That light was not the spiritual radiance of the pool itself, but something older, deeper, as though it came from another dimension.
As he descended, the point of light rapidly expanded, finally revealing a... rotating portal of light composed of countless profound runes, radiating an aura of chaos!
A spatial passage was actually hidden at the bottom of this spirit pool?!
Xuanwei had no time to think. His fragile earthen body emitted cracking groans beneath the immense water pressure and was on the verge of completely collapsing.
"To hell with it! I'm going in!"
Using his last bit of strength, he rammed headfirst into the chaotic halo like a moth flying into a flame!
Whoosh!
The imagined collision did not occur. Instead, he felt as though he were passing through space in weightlessness. The scenery around him instantly blurred and twisted. Powerful spatial force tore at his immortal qi origin, and his temporary shell finally could not bear the burden any longer. With a bang, it completely dissipated, returning him to his most fundamental state of immortal qi.
He did not know how much time passed—perhaps an instant, perhaps an eternity.
He felt himself "fall" onto a patch of hard yet warm ground.
The light faded, and space stabilized.
He "raised his head" and "looked" around blankly.
This was no longer the dark bottom of the pool, but a... more mysterious, more incredible place.
Before you continue