Something Underground is Mountain-Sized

"No matter what, Yuan Qi definitely has the Ni Wan Secret Treasury inside him!"

Xu Ying's divine sense was hazy, and he rushed towards Yuan Qi, shouting, "Little Qi, don't heal your wounds first, wait for me! What, you're already healed? You're not!"

"Pfft!"

Xu Ying pointed from afar, and a sword energy pierced into Qin Yan Cave, causing Yuan Qi to bleed profusely.

"You're injured again, so careless? Little Qi, use your divine sense to sense the mysterious energy, and you'll be able to find your Ni Wan Secret Treasury!"

Yuan Qi finally stopped sobbing and, as Xu Ying instructed, carefully sensed the mysterious energy that had surged into his body. After a while, the giant snake exclaimed, "I actually have the Ni Wan Secret Treasury inside me too! Could it be..."

He stood there stiffly, like a wooden statue, and muttered, "Could it be that I'm actually human? And I transformed into a snake demon?"

Xu Ying thought about it, unable to keep up with his train of thought, and tentatively asked, "Yuan Qi, don't you think that perhaps demons also have secret treasuries?"

Yuan Qi understood immediately and said solemnly, "Are you saying this is a conspiracy by the human race? In the early days of our Demon Race's civilization, we were the dominant force, teaching humans how to open secret treasuries and how to cultivate. Later, the humans overthrew our rule through conspiracy and cast a shadow over our civilization. They erased our history, sealed us away, and propagated the idea that only humans have secret treasuries! A Ying, you must be trying to tell me about this history of tears and blood of our Demon Race, right?"

Xu Ying thought for a moment, then shook his head, "I think there's another hidden reason why the Demon Race doesn't understand secret treasuries, but it's definitely not the one you're talking about. Little Qi, you and your grandfather have lived in Qin Yan Cave for over three hundred years. Have you ever thought about where the mysterious energy that heals your wounds in Qin Yan Cave comes from?"

Yuan Qi didn't know.

Xu Ying smiled, "I'll take you to see the senior who lives in the stone chamber. He is the source of the mysterious energy, and even the ancestor of the Zhou Family learned the secrets of the Ni Wan Secret Treasury from him."

He led Yuan Qi back to the Ni Wan Palace in Qin Yan Cave and arrived at the stone wall, opening it.

Yuan Qi was utterly astonished. He had lived in Qin Yan Cave for 120 years and had never known there was a stone chamber here.

"Finding this place is actually very simple. Just follow the mysterious energy upstream to its source, and you'll find it here."

Xu Ying said, "The senior's remains are here... Huh? Where are the senior's remains?"

Xu Ying's eyes widened. He searched the stone chamber. The last time he was here, he clearly saw the skeleton sitting in meditation, but this time, the remains had vanished!

Cold sweat beaded on his forehead. He quickly thought of two possibilities: "Either the Zhou Family ancestor came here, or the skeleton walked away on its own!"

Yuan Qi chuckled, "A Ying, this is simple. The mysterious energy in Qin Yan Cave is still there, which means the skeleton must still be in the cave, just that we don't know where. We just need to search upstream along the mysterious energy, and we'll definitely find him."

He looked at his wound, which had already healed. Then he looked at Xu Ying's thigh. He wanted to strike it, but remembering that he definitely couldn't beat Xu Ying, he gritted his teeth and reopened his newly healed wound.

Xu Ying, who had intended to strike him again, was filled with admiration when he saw him reopen the wound. "Little Qi, why put yourself through this? Let me help you."

"You don't know your own strength. I'll do it myself; I'll feel more at ease."

Yuan Qi immediately mobilized his divine sense, tracing it backward along the source of the mysterious energy. The Great Bell floated beside him, stabilizing his divine sense with its chimes and lending him a hand.

After a moment, Yuan Qi said, "Huh? I'm back again. Strange, strange! I thought I had traveled through immeasurable time and space to another world, but I never expected to end up back here after all this circling!"

Xu Ying grew nervous. He heard Yuan Qi continue, "The source has returned to the water. I'm following it... The water is so deep, so cold, and I'm still descending... Still descending, there's no light around... It's too deep, still descending. Wait, I've reached the bottom! I seem to have touched something, very smooth, very large, with serrated edges, like a giant seashell..."

Xu Ying and the Great Bell were both stunned. What Yuan Qi's divine sense had touched was clearly not the skeleton they had seen in the stone chamber.

"Something very large, like a seashell, what could it be?"

Just as Xu Ying finished thinking this, he heard Yuan Qi's voice continue, "This thing is bigger than a table, two to three zhang wide, with very sharp serrations... Wait, there's another one below this, stacked together, also very large and smooth. Huh, there's another one next to it..."

Xu Ying frowned slightly, pondering what it could be, when his gaze fell upon Yuan Qi.

He looked at Yuan Qi's scales. Yuan Qi was over ten zhang long, and each scale was as big as a bowl, layered upon each other all over his body, except for the dragon horns on his head.

"What Yuan Qi touched is very similar to the scales... It's scales!"

Xu Ying felt a chill run down his spine. He hurriedly shouted, "Master Bell, quickly pull Yuan Qi's divine sense back! A colossal creature is hidden at the bottom of Qin Yan Cave!"

The Great Bell didn't hesitate. It immediately chimed, its sound waves instantly reaching the bottom of the cave, catching up to Yuan Qi's divine sense and bringing it back.

The moment its chimes touched Yuan Qi's divine sense, they also touched something else. The Great Bell immediately "saw" the outline of that thing through the echo.

It was a stack of orderly, giant scales, with serrated, extremely sharp edges. The scales were two zhang six or seven chi wide. In a certain area, the scales suddenly became smaller.

Where the scales disappeared, a giant eyeball, more than ten times larger than the scales, was dimly staring at Yuan Qi's divine sense, as if observing what this little thing intended to do!

"Let's go!"

The Great Bell brought back Yuan Qi's divine sense and immediately vibrated its chimes, shouting, "The big guy at the bottom of the cave is awake!"

Yuan Qi's divine sense returned to his body, and he was still in shock. He quickly said, "I have many books at home..."

The Great Bell rushed into Xu Ying's mind first, shouting, "Your home is about to be gone, and you still care about books? A Ying, run!"

Xu Ying immediately took a step forward, rushing out of the Ni Wan Palace. Yuan Qi didn't care about anything else and followed Xu Ying, charging forward. They passed the pool in front of the palace, and saw that the pool had suddenly risen. The water was round and bulging, as if some colossal creature was pushing the water upwards as it emerged!

As Xu Ying and Yuan Qi rushed past the pool, the water level had already surpassed the Ni Wan Palace and was about to reach the cave ceiling. The violent waves stirred up by the surging water rushed towards them from behind. Xu Ying and Yuan Qi felt the strong wind pushing them forward.

And behind them, the corridor bridges and pathways were all exploding.

The giant creature was rising from the water!

Xu Ying and Yuan Qi rushed onto the stone bridge, only to hear a deep, long roar from beneath the water. The frequency was very low, yet it made their internal organs tremble!

They ran wildly along the stone bridge, seeing a massive body swimming beneath the bridge, getting closer and clearer.

"Jump!" Xu Ying shouted loudly.

The man and the snake leaped forward, plunging into the water and swimming rapidly through the great fissures.

Behind them, the surging water waves completely submerged the cave-within-a-cave of Qin Yan Cave. Then the great fissures behind them exploded, and Mount Wu Wang trembled violently, as if the colossal creature's movement had accidentally brushed against the mountain, shaking it.

Xu Ying and Yuan Qi's minds went blank. They only knew to swim forward desperately. Yuan Qi, being a giant snake, was extremely fast in the water. However, Xu Ying, using the newly learned True Cultivation of the Flood Dragon, manipulated the water with his divine abilities, making his speed no slower than Yuan Qi's!

However, behind them, the water surface of Qin Yan Cave was rising violently. A colossal creature smashed through the stone walls and swam rapidly towards them from underwater!

Since the invasion from the Underworld, drastic changes had occurred everywhere. Mount Wu Wang grew taller, and Qin Yan Cave also became more spacious. But that behemoth was even larger than Qin Yan Cave, squeezing it, causing the cave to constantly explode and expand. The stalactites on the cave ceiling also shattered!

In Xu Ying's mind, the Great Bell shouted, "The one underwater is likely the true master of the Ni Wan Palace. That skeleton was just a distraction! He's a much, much bigger guy than the one I've suppressed in the well! Run faster, they're catching up!"

At the foot of Mount Wu Wang, a sorrowful old man sighed and looked up at the mountain.

"This time, even if I have to pinch my nose and force it down, I'll make them drink these ten bowls of tea," he whispered.

Suddenly, the sorrowful old man's expression turned surprised as he looked towards the other side of the mountain. There, Zhou Heng, the Prefect of Yongzhou, was leading a group of people with extraordinary auras.

Zhou Heng held a noble status, being a military governor who guarded a region. Yet, at this moment, he could only walk.

He was fat and large, as wide as three men. His belly was huge, and he panted as he walked. However, at this moment, he didn't dare to breathe heavily, maintaining a smile as he cautiously led the way.

He possessed vast divine abilities, capable of escaping the pursuit of the White-robed Nuo Immortal. With a mere display of his powers, he could fly through the heavens and burrow through the earth. But now, he didn't dare to use any of his divine abilities.

All of this was because that person was not traveling by carriage, nor was he using divine abilities to fly.

Even the current Emperor couldn't make him this cautious. There was only one person who could elicit such behavior from him: the Old Ancestor of the Zhou Family.

The Old Ancestor of the Zhou Family was a young man with black hair and white eyebrows. His brows still held a heroic spirit, showing no signs of his three to four hundred years of age.

The sorrowful old man saw him from afar and was immediately detected. Their gazes met, and the sorrowful old man's expression became even more troubled. He did not proceed towards Qin Yan Cave.

A moment later, the Zhou Family members arrived. From a distance, they saw a sorrowful old man sitting upright at the foot of Mount Wu Wang's cliff. Before him was a table, two chairs, a teapot, and two teacups.

Prefect Zhou Heng was about to step forward to inquire when a gentle voice came from behind, "Heng'er, step aside. He is an old friend of mine."

Prefect Zhou Heng was startled and thought, An old friend of the Old Ancestor?

The white-browed youth said, "You all go to Qin Yan Cave and invite Young Master Xu to come down. I will meet with my old friend."

Everyone agreed and continued their steps, heading towards Qin Yan Cave.

The white-browed youth then walked forward, sat down before the sorrowful old man, picked up the teapot, opened the lid, and looked inside. He then poured a cup for the sorrowful old man but did not pour one for himself.

"The teapot contains Meng Po's Soup. The world knows that I narrowly escaped a great calamity in the past, almost hiding in the Wangxiang Terrace to avoid it. Later, I devised a method to break free with my intelligence, thus avoiding the Wangxiang Terrace. What they don't know is that I was indeed forced to go to the Wangxiang Terrace."

The white-browed youth smiled slightly. "Back then, I comprehended the mysteries of life and death in the Wangxiang Terrace but couldn't leave. Later, I met you and followed your footsteps out of the Wangxiang Terrace, not dying there."

The sorrowful old man frowned. "Young Friend Zhou, your fortune is deep, your resolve is astonishing, and your Dao heart is lofty. You are one of the few who were not mesmerized by Meng Po's Soup. You left the River of Oblivion bridge without drinking the Meng Po's Soup."

The white-browed youth chuckled. "The last time I met you, you were borrowing tea on the River of Oblivion bridge. So this time, when I meet you, your teapot still contains Meng Po's Soup. What is it that makes you borrow tea again and again?"

The sorrowful old man said, "A small matter. Young Friend Zhou, why have you come to this new land with such fanfare?"

The white-browed youth smiled. "A small matter."

The sorrowful old man sighed. "It can't be that small, can it? Your lifespan is almost exhausted. How can your visit be a small matter?"

The two looked at each other.

Inside Qin Yan Cave, a Zhou Family Nu Master scouting ahead shouted, "Sir, the suspect Xu Ying and a large snake are charging towards us!"

Zhou Heng chuckled. "Just a young brat, won't he be easy to capture? You all step aside, I'll take him down!"

Behind him, a group of Zhou Family experts dispersed.

Zhou Heng held his breath, and indeed, he saw Xu Ying and Yuan Qi charging madly towards them. Zhou Heng's spirit surged, and just as he was about to act, he suddenly saw a vast torrent of water behind Xu Ying filling the entire Qin Yan Cave. Something colossal seemed to be in the water, smashing the Qin Yan Cave, causing it to collapse!

Such a scene, even for Zhou Heng, a Great Nu Master, instilled fear.

The underwater behemoth was much thicker than Qin Yan Cave, shaking and cracking the mountain body. The aura emanating from it instantly crushed Zhou Heng's imposing presence, giving him a terrifying sensation like Mount Tai pressing down and destroying his Dao heart!

Without hesitation, Zhou Heng turned and fled. No one expected the plump and well-fed prefect to be able to run so fast.

However, in the next moment, the Zhou Family members also fled outwards with Zhou Heng in a desperate escape!

The white-browed youth was looking at the sorrowful old man when suddenly, a world-shattering roar echoed. Qin Yan Cave exploded, the body of Mount Wu Wang shook violently, and figures were blasted out of the exploding cave, carried into the air by the rolling shockwaves.

Then the mountain cracked open, floodwaters erupted from within, and a clear roar that pierced the heavens resounded. A mountain peak grew out from in front of Qin Yan Cave.

Xu Ying, Zhou Heng, and the others landed, fleeing in panic. They looked back and saw a mountain peak crushing towards them. It was the colossal creature from underground moving through the earth, and the peak was likely its dorsal fin!

The white-browed youth's eyes twitched. He suddenly stood up, moved behind everyone, in front of the dorsal fin, and declared loudly, "Rain Granny, protect Young Master Xu and get him out of here. I will deal with this behemoth!"

Among the fleeing crowd, there was an old woman, hunched over and frail with age. Hearing this, she chuckled, leaped into the air, and chased towards Xu Ying's escape route, saying with a laugh, "Young Master Xu, my Zhou Family means no harm!"

She took out a silk handkerchief from her sleeve and flicked it out. The handkerchief flew directly towards Xu Ying, growing larger and larger, its coverage expanding, enveloping a hundred acres of forest!

Xu Ying ran wildly under the silk handkerchief. As he ran, he saw the surrounding trees and rocks rapidly growing larger.

He then realized that it wasn't the trees and rocks that were growing, but he himself that was rapidly shrinking!

"The Zhou Family's Nu Art, 'Sprinkling Beans into Soldiers,' is just a reverse application of this technique! This old woman from the Zhou Family is very strong!"

Xu Ying's body quickly shrank to the size of a soybean. Rocks that he could have crossed in one step now resembled mountains thousands of feet high, and the bushes he could have passed became mythical giant trees!

The white-browed youth looked at the approaching mountain peak and smiled. "I should call you teacher, shouldn't I? When I entered the stone chamber back then, I even kowtowed to your withered bones."