There Was Something Beneath the Earth as Large as a Mountain

"No matter what, Yuan Qi must have a Ni Wan Secret Treasury inside him!"

Divine consciousness swirled in Xu Ying's eyes. He hurried toward Yuan Qi and shouted, "Little Seven, don't heal your wounds yet. Wait for me! What? They're healed? They're not!"

"Pfft!"

Xu Ying pointed from afar. A streak of Sword Qi pierced into Qin Yan Cave, and Yuan Qi's blood flowed freely.

"You're injured again? How careless can you be? Little Seven, circulate your divine consciousness and sense that mysterious energy. Then you'll be able to find your Ni Wan Secret Treasury!"

Yuan Qi finally managed to stop sobbing. Following Xu Ying's instructions, he carefully sensed the mysterious energy surging into his body. Before long, the giant snake cried out in shock, "I have a Ni Wan Secret Treasury inside me too! Could it be..."

He stood there stiff as a wooden statue, muttering, "Could it be that I'm actually human? Did I transform into a Snake Demon?"

Xu Ying thought for a while, but truly couldn't follow his train of thought. He probed, "Yuan Qi, don't you think the Demon Race might have secret treasuries too?"

Yuan Qi understood at once. His expression turned solemn. "You mean this is a conspiracy by those human bastards? During the age of our Demon Race's pioneer civilization, we were the masters of civilization. We taught humanity how to open their secret treasuries and cultivate. Later, those human bastards overthrew our rule through conspiracy and cast our civilization into obscurity. They erased the history of our Demon Race, sealed us away, and even spread the claim that only humans have secret treasuries! A Ying, that must be the blood-and-tears history of our Demon Race you're talking about, right?"

Xu Ying thought about it, then shook his head. "I think there must be another explanation for why the Demon Race doesn't understand secret treasuries, but it definitely isn't the one you mentioned. Little Seven, your family has lived in Qin Yan Cave for over three hundred years. Have you ever wondered where the mysterious energy that heals your wounds comes from?"

Yuan Qi had no idea.

Xu Ying smiled. "I'll take you to meet the senior who lives in the stone chamber. He's the source of that mysterious energy. Even the Zhou Family Ancestor 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 before the stone wall. Then he opened it.

Yuan Qi was utterly astonished. He had lived in Qin Yan Cave for a hundred and twenty years, yet he had never known there was a stone chamber here.

"Finding this place is actually very simple. You just have to follow the mysterious energy in reverse and search for its source."

Xu Ying said, "The senior's skeleton is right here... Huh? Where's the senior's skeleton?"

Xu Ying widened his eyes and searched the stone chamber from top to bottom. The last time he had come here, he had clearly seen the skeleton sitting here after its death. He had never expected it to vanish without a trace this time!

Cold sweat poured down his forehead. He quickly thought of two possibilities. "Either the Zhou Family Ancestor has been here, or the skeleton walked away by itself!"

Yuan Qi laughed. "A Ying, it's simple. That mysterious force in Qin Yan Cave is still here, which proves the skeleton must still be somewhere in the cave. We just don't know where. All we need to do is follow the energy in reverse, and we'll definitely find him."

He glanced at his wounds. They had already healed. Then he looked at Xu Ying's thigh, tempted to give it a bite, but remembering that he definitely couldn't beat Xu Ying, he gritted his teeth and tore open the wounds that had just healed.

Xu Ying had originally planned to give him another strike, but when he saw Yuan Qi tear open his wounds, he was deeply impressed. "Little Seven, why put yourself through this? Just let me help you."

"You never know how to control your strength. I'd rather do it myself."

Yuan Qi immediately circulated his divine consciousness and traced the energy back to its source. The Great Bell floated beside him, stabilizing his divine consciousness with its ringing and lending him a helping hand.

After a while, Yuan Qi said, "Huh? I've come back here again. Strange, strange! I thought I had crossed through boundless spacetime and reached another domain, but after going around in circles, I've returned here!"

Xu Ying grew tense. Yuan Qi continued, "The source has returned to the water. I'm following it... The water is so deep and cold, and I'm still descending... Still descending. There's no light around me anymore... It's too deep. I'm still going down. Wait, I've reached the bottom! I think I touched something. It's very smooth and very large, with serrated edges. It looks like a giant shell..."

Xu Ying and the Great Bell both froze. What Yuan Qi had touched with his divine consciousness clearly wasn't the skeleton they had seen in the stone chamber.

"Something huge, shaped like a shell. What could it be?"

Just as Xu Ying thought of this, Yuan Qi's voice continued, "This thing is bigger than a table, two or three zhang wide, and its serrations are incredibly sharp... Wait, there's another one underneath, half overlapping with this one. It's also huge and smooth. Huh? There's another one beside it..."

Xu Ying frowned slightly, trying to figure out what it was. Suddenly, his gaze fell on Yuan Qi.

He stared at Yuan Qi's scales. Yuan Qi was over ten zhang long, and each scale was the size of a bowl. Layer upon layer, they covered his entire body. Only his dragon horns were free of scales.

"The things Yuan Qi touched look just like scales... They are scales!"

Xu Ying's hair stood on end. He hurriedly shouted, "Master Zhong, pull Yuan Qi's divine consciousness back immediately! There's a colossal creature hidden at the bottom of Qin Yan Cave!"

The Great Bell didn't hesitate. It rang at once, and the sound spread through the cave like a wave, reaching the bottom in an instant. It caught up with Yuan Qi's divine consciousness and dragged it back.

At the moment its ringing touched Yuan Qi's divine consciousness, it also touched something else. Relying on the echo, the Great Bell immediately "saw" that thing's outline.

It was a set of enormous scales arranged in orderly layers. Their edges were serrated and razor-sharp, and each scale was two zhang and six or seven chi wide. At a certain part, the scales suddenly became smaller.

Where the scales had vanished, a giant eye more than ten times their size gazed ominously at Yuan Qi's divine consciousness, as if observing what this tiny thing intended to do.

"Run!"

The Great Bell pulled Yuan Qi's divine consciousness back and immediately shook with ringing as it shouted, "The big fellow at the bottom of the cave is awake!"

Yuan Qi's divine consciousness returned to his body, and he was still shaken with terror. He hurriedly said, "I still have a lot of books at home..."

The Great Bell rushed into the back of Xu Ying's head ahead of him and shouted, "Your home is about to be gone. Who cares about the books? A Ying, run!"

Xu Ying immediately stepped out and charged from the Ni Wan Palace. Yuan Qi had no time to think and followed him. When they passed the pool before the palace, they saw the water suddenly rise. The water bulged into a round mound, as if some colossal creature were pushing up from beneath it and raising its head!

By the time Xu Ying and Yuan Qi crossed the pool, the water had already risen above the Ni Wan Palace and was about to reach the cave ceiling. The raging waves stirred up by the violently surging water swept toward them from behind. Xu Ying and Yuan Qi felt the howling wind driving them forward.

Behind them, the corridor bridges and winding walkways exploded one after another.

The giant creature was rising from the bottom of the water!

Xu Ying and Yuan Qi charged onto the stone bridge. From beneath the water came a deep, prolonged roar. Its frequency was extremely low, yet it shook their internal organs until they trembled!

They sprinted along the stone bridge. Beneath them, a massive body swam through the water, drawing closer and becoming clearer by the moment.

"Jump!" Xu Ying shouted.

A man and a snake leaped forward together and plunged into the water, swiftly swimming through the huge fissures.

Behind them, the rising waves completely submerged this cave within Qin Yan Cave. Then the enormous fissures behind them burst open. Mount Wu Wang trembled violently as well, as if the colossal creature had accidentally brushed against the mountain while swimming and shaken the entire mountain.

Xu Ying and Yuan Qi's minds went blank. They only knew to swim forward with all their might. Yuan Qi was a giant snake and moved extremely quickly through the water, but Xu Ying also used the newly learned True Cultivation of the Flood Dragon, manipulating the water's force with divine abilities. His speed was no slower than Yuan Qi's!

Yet behind them, the water in Qin Yan Cave was rising violently. A giant creature smashed through the stone walls and swam rapidly toward them beneath the water!

Since the Underworld Invasion, drastic changes had taken place everywhere. Mount Wu Wang had grown taller, and Qin Yan Cave had become much more spacious. But the colossal creature was even larger than Qin Yan Cave. It forced the cave to explode continuously as it widened the passage, while the stalactites on the ceiling shattered one after another!

Inside Xu Ying's mind, the Great Bell shouted, "The thing beneath the water is most likely the true Master of Ni Wan Palace! That skeleton was only used to mislead others! He's an even larger monster than the one I suppressed in the well! Run faster—it's catching up!"

Beneath Mount Wu Wang, the Worried Old Man sighed and looked up at the mountain.

"This time, even if I have to pinch my nose and force it down, I must make them drink all ten bowls of tea," he murmured.

Suddenly, the Worried Old Man revealed a look of surprise and gazed toward the other side of the mountain. There, Zhou Heng, the Governor of Yongzhou, was leading a group of extraordinary figures toward him.

Zhou Heng's status was noble. He was a military governor charged with guarding an entire region, yet at this moment he could only walk.

He was fat and massive, three people wide by himself. With his enormous belly, he wheezed as he walked. Yet now he didn't even dare breathe loudly. With a smile on his face, he carefully led the way ahead.

His divine abilities were formidable. He had escaped the pursuit of the White-robed Nuo Immortal, and with his abilities, he could fly through the heavens and burrow through the earth. But now he didn't dare use any divine ability.

All of this was because that person had neither taken a carriage nor flown with divine abilities.

Even the current emperor couldn't make him act so cautiously. There was only one person who could make him behave this way—the Zhou Family Ancestor.

The Zhou Family Ancestor was a young man with black hair and white eyebrows. His brows still held a heroic air, and he showed not the slightest sign of being three or four hundred years old.

The Worried Old Man spotted him from afar, and the young man immediately noticed him as well. Their gazes met. The Worried Old Man's expression grew even more sorrowful, and he did not proceed toward Qin Yan Cave.

After a while, the Zhou family members approached. From afar, they saw a Worried Old Man sitting upright beneath the cliff of Mount Wu Wang. Before him stood a table and two chairs, with a pot of tea and two teacups.

Governor Zhou Heng was about to step forward and ask a question when a gentle voice came from behind him. "Heng'er, step back. He's an old friend of mine."

Governor Zhou Heng's heart trembled. The Ancestor's old friend?

The white-browed youth said, "Go to Qin Yan Cave and invite Young Master Xu out of seclusion. I'll meet with my old friend."

Everyone acknowledged the order and continued toward Qin Yan Cave without stopping.

The white-browed youth walked forward and sat down before the Worried Old Man. He picked up the teapot, opened the lid, and peered inside. Then he poured a cup for the Worried Old Man, but did not pour one for himself.

"The tea in this pot is Meng Po's Soup. Everyone knows that I suffered a great calamity back then and nearly hid in the Hometown Gazing Platform to avoid it. Later, through my intelligence and ingenuity, I thought of a way to break through the calamity, which was why I never went to the Hometown Gazing Platform. What they never realized was that, back then, forced by circumstances, I truly did go there."

The white-browed youth smiled faintly. "Back then, I comprehended the mysteries of life and death within the Hometown Gazing Platform, but I couldn't leave it. Later, I met you, followed in your footsteps, and finally walked out of the Hometown Gazing Platform instead of dying there."

The Worried Old Man's brows remained tightly knit. "Young Friend Zhou, your fortune runs deep, your resolve is astonishing, and your Dao heart is lofty. You're one of the few who weren't bewitched by Meng Po's Soup. You left the River of Oblivion Bridge without drinking it."

The white-browed youth smiled. "The last time I met you, you were borrowing tea on the River of Oblivion Bridge. Now that I've met you again, your teapot still contains Meng Po's Soup. What exactly is it that makes you borrow tea again and again?"

"A small matter," the Worried Old Man replied. "Young Friend Zhou, why have you come to the New Land with such a grand display?"

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

The Worried Old Man sighed. "It can't be that small, can it? Your lifespan is nearly exhausted. How could your arrival be a small matter?"

The two looked at each other.

Inside Qin Yan Cave, the Zhou family Nu Master leading the way shouted, "My lord, the criminal Xu Ying and a giant snake are charging straight toward us!"

Zhou Heng laughed. "A mere young brat. Won't he be captured with ease? Stand aside. I'll take him down myself!"

Behind him, the Zhou family experts scattered in all directions.

Zhou Heng held his breath and focused. Sure enough, he saw Xu Ying and Yuan Qi charging wildly toward him. His spirits soared, and he was just about to attack when he suddenly saw the roaring flood behind Xu Ying, filling all of Qin Yan Cave. Something colossal seemed to be crashing through the water, causing Qin Yan Cave to collapse without pause!

Even Zhou Heng, already a Grand Nuo, couldn't help feeling his blood run cold at such a sight.

The creature in the water was far thicker than Qin Yan Cave itself. It shook the mountain until it swayed and cracked. The aura it released instantly crushed Zhou Heng's momentum, giving him the terrifying sensation of Mount Tai Pressing Down and destroying his Dao heart!

Without a moment's hesitation, Zhou Heng turned and fled. No one could have imagined that the obese governor, usually full to the brim with fat, could run so swiftly now.

The next moment, the Zhou family members also followed Zhou Heng and fled for their lives!

The white-browed youth was still looking at the Worried Old Man when suddenly, a heaven-shaking boom erupted. Qin Yan Cave exploded, and Mount Wu Wang trembled violently. Figures shot out from the shattered Qin Yan Cave, hurled into the air by the rolling shock waves.

Then the mountain split open. Floodwaters burst from within the mountain, followed by a resounding roar that pierced the heavens. Before Qin Yan Cave, a mountain peak suddenly rose from the ground.

Xu Ying, Zhou Heng, and the others landed and fled in panic. When they looked back, they saw a mountain peak rolling toward them. It was the underground creature moving through the earth—the peak was probably its dorsal fin!

The white-browed youth's eyelid twitched. He suddenly rose into the air and landed behind everyone, before the dorsal fin. In a clear voice, he said, "Rain Granny, protect Young Master Xu and get him out of here. I'll face this creature!"

Among the people fleeing for their lives was an old woman. Her back was hunched, and she looked ancient and decrepit. Hearing this, she chuckled, rose into the air, and chased after Xu Ying. "Young Master Xu, my Zhou family bears no ill will!"

She took a silk handkerchief from her sleeve and flicked it into the air. The handkerchief flew straight toward Xu Ying, growing larger and larger until its coverage expanded enough to envelop a hundred mu of mountain forest!

Xu Ying sprinted beneath the handkerchief. As he ran, he saw the trees, rocks, and mountains around him rapidly grow larger.

He immediately realized that it wasn't the trees and rocks growing larger. He was shrinking rapidly!

"The Zhou family's Nu Art, Sprinkling Beans to Create Soldiers, but used in reverse! This old Zhou family woman is incredibly strong!"

Xu Ying's body quickly shrank to the size of a soybean. Rocks he could originally cross in one step became towering mountains reaching ten thousand ren, while bushes he could easily step over transformed into gigantic trees from mythology!

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

—Thanks to Young Master Li Xi for the alliance leader's reward!!!

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