Octopus Nest

Could it be that the Demon Race, who are cooperating with the legion, are searching for that bag of lost crystals?

Li Fan stealthily approached and counted eight. They were probably Demon Race who had formed inner cores and possessed some spiritual energy. He wondered if there was an opportunity to disguise himself as a predatory sea monster, pounce on them, and capture a couple of demons for interrogation.

But when he got closer and, as usual, scanned the surroundings with his Divine Sense to see if there were any ambushes, he found that something seemed amiss.

The fluctuations in the Divine Sense, or rather, the brainwaves, of these monsters seem a bit off.

The primordial spirit technique 'Mind Hearing' of the Moshan lineage, while lacking a direct effect of killing enemies, provides additional special effects to the Gu Guan Method. The Mind Observation technique, which allows one to understand the meaning of what is heard, can identify various Divine Sense signals that have been encountered in the past. The Mind Debate technique, which allows one to see the meaning of what is said, can filter out harmful information.

This situation has now arisen. After careful observation, Li Fan discovered that, according to the judgment of the Mind Observation Technique, the Divine Sense signals of these Spirit Race in the seabed are vastly different from those of the normal Spirit Race he encountered on the island. Instead, they are closer to the signals of the pile of Shatentacle he had just devoured.

Upon closer inspection, Li Fan discovered that this signal was also identified as 'harmful information' by the Mind Identification Technique and was filtered out. The previous few were too weak; Li Fan hadn't even noticed the 'harmful' nature when they were directly devoured by him. But now, these Spirit Race were emitting a much stronger signal.

Judging from the system's description, it only indicates the detection of harmful signals, not yet to the point of "lowering his mood slightly." It seems his mental resistance threshold has been raised by the system's "Mind Observation and Discernment." Hmm, so it's about increasing mental resistance...?

But wait, does this mean these Spirit Race have been parasitized by those Shatentacle?

Li Fan hesitated before approaching, carefully examining the Spirit Race. The Shatentacle that had parasitized the whale's head were enormous, resembling wild dogs, but these Spirit Race members were more like ordinary humans, showing no outward signs of parasitism. Moreover, they were all engrossed in searching for something on the seabed, remaining silent to each other, and it was impossible to discern any mental influence on them.

Something's definitely not right. We should kill one and dissect it to take a look.

Li Fan found a Demon Race from the very edge of the demon race, and taking advantage of its unpreparedness, he used the traditional skills of the Beichen Sword Sect to pounce on it with lightning speed, circle around behind it, and knock it unconscious with a single punch! I hit it! Huh?

Then Li Fan realized that even though he had controlled his strength and punched the Demon Race's head, the demon was not knocked unconscious. In fact, the demon turned its neck 180 degrees and looked over.

At the same time, the other Demon Race wandering around the sea seemed to have a telepathic connection. They suddenly stopped searching, straightened up, and turned their heads. Under the dark seabed, a bunch of bright eyes were staring straight at them!

Were these Spirit Race really controlled by some kind of demonic magic or mental effect? And to some extent, they even sensed and interconnected each other, like a swarm of bees? But fortunately, he was also an experienced old robber. He had switched the Guiche's bird head beforehand to use as false evidence, so no one would recognize what kind of ghost he was now.

At the same time, the system also started to sound an alarm, saying "Harmful signal detected." Unfortunately, all these mental attacks were blocked, falling into the category of "Our attack failed to penetrate the enemy's armor."

Ha, since we've turned against each other, then there's no need to be polite. None of you will leave alive!

So Li Fan opened his claws and used his stealth ability. His body suddenly spun around, as fast as a ghost. He flashed in front of the controlled Demon Race, and in the blink of an eye, before the Demon Race could react, he had already swiftly taken their heads off, leaving only a bird's head afterimage in front of each corpse.

Li Fan scanned the area with his Divine Sense and then verified it with the system. He had killed eight Demon Race without feeling any satisfaction. The eight heads he held in his hands were emitting increasingly strong 'harmful signals'.

So it really is a parasite inside the skull, feeding on brain marrow to survive.

Li Fan tossed the eight heads to the ground, grabbed one, and tore open its skull by pressing its scalp. Whoosh! A Shatentacle, the size of a straw hat, that had been lying on the brain lobe pounced on him! But Li Fan's Guiche beak snatched it up and swallowed it whole.

'Li Fan eats the Shatentacle, increasing his mood cap by 10 points.'

It's smaller than the octopus that parasitized the sea whale before, and it only has one in its head, but the maximum mood cap is the same, so there's no essential difference. This is because controlling a Core Formation Demon Race only requires one, while controlling Nascent Soul Stage demon requires them to be much larger and more numerous.

Li Fan could sense that the Shatentacle hidden inside the skulls were not only frantically attacking him with 'harmful signals,' but they were also communicating with each other. This showed that these Shatentacle were somewhat intelligent. Especially when they realized that the situation was not good and that Li Fan could directly pry open their skulls to prey on them, they immediately abandoned their hiding places. From the seven orifices of the monsters' heads and the bowl-sized scars on their necks, four gray octopus tentacles extended, like hermit crabs, and scrambled across the rock bed, scattering in all directions!

But they couldn't escape. Li Fan caught up with them, pried them out, and ate them all, one by one.

Okay, so it can not only parasitize and control sea monsters, but also ordinary Demon Race. Doesn't that sound a lot like some creatures that can possess and control other cultivators? Considering our previous suspicions that the Spirit Race was helping to smuggle the ore mined by the legion, doesn't this connect the dots again? Could these Shatentacle also be ghostly things summoned by the cult?

After finishing his meal and wiping his mouth, Li Fan realized with a start that he should have deliberately let one go and secretly followed them to find their lair! But it didn't matter; he had already remembered the Divine Sense fluctuations of these octopuses, and he could search again to see if there were any more.

So Li Fan took the Si Nan and wandered around the seabed, trying to find these delicious ingredients. Unfortunately, the Si Nan seemed unable to identify these things. After wandering around the outer sea for a long time, it could only guide Li Fan to find some trash such as coral pearls, spirit jade crystals, gold and silver treasure chests, sunken ships, cultivator remains, and broken magic weapons.

This is a bit troublesome. After taking out the nearby monsters, the interference from various treasures and cultivation materials in the deep sea appeared, and there were just too many of them. Just like when he explored the Lei Marsh last time, just collecting the materials that clearly attracted the Si Nan's direction filled up Li Fan's Storage Jade from the Shenzhen Palace in no time.

So Li Fan had no choice but to throw away some packages, "They're all just junk..."

Moon Soul, "Such a huge iridescent pearl! And crimson coral! Hey, don't go too far! These are all Heavenly Treasure that can be used to Foundation Establishment, how can you call them trash!"

Li Fan shrugged, casually picking up some large pearls and tossing them away. "They're just materials tainted with spiritual energy. At least a sword pellet of your level should be considered a treasure, right? Compared to that, aren't they all just trash?"

Moon Soul, "... Hmph, glib-tongued, how annoying!"

'Moon Soul's mood improved slightly.'

Li Fan was sweating bullets, but these kinds of spiritual materials were really useless to him. He cultivated the Tai Su Dao, and finding Devil Embryo octopus to drink with was more important! Besides, what's with all this arrogance about a sword pellet?

Sigh, the Si Nan, this treasure-hunting tool, is really quite useless in this era of spiritual revival and treasures everywhere. However, this ocean is vast, and if Divine Sense cannot immediately find the target, then for now we can only rely on the Si Nan's guidance for reference.

After a grueling search, it was once again the Divine Sense that proved effective, detecting the signal of the Shatentacle first.

So Li Fan immediately used water magic to travel there and found a deep-sea ice spring with surging currents.

Without a doubt, Li Fan could clearly sense that the spring water gushing from the source of the ice spring contained malevolent energy, and the concentration was not low. There must be Devil Embryo hidden inside!

So Li Fan turned around and transformed into Li Kun, swimming into the spring. He chose the waterway based on the concentration of evil energy, and swam in the spring for a long time before finally finding it.

An octopus's nest, or rather, the nursery of this Shatentacle.

This is a vast underwater cavern. The walls are densely covered with oval-shaped, gelatinous eggs, clustered together like milky-white, sticky grapes, swaying with the waves like seaweed. This nursery is actually very well protected, almost completely hidden within the underwater rock formations. Apart from the constant supply of fresh water from the Spiritual Spring, there is only one entrance, locked by a large door, indicating that it is also sealed and hidden from the outside.

Li Kun swam through the cluster of eggs, examined them closely, and poked them with his fin. He felt that the gelatinous eggs were soft and fluffy, filled with milky white and pale yellow pus. Each egg was about the size of a rugby ball, and there were probably thousands of eggs in a cluster, densely covering the entire cave.

The source of the Spiritual Spring containing malevolent energy came from an altar in the center of the cave. The altar was protected by layers of protective arrays, and on the shrine in the middle, there was an enormous bone horn.

It looks a bit like the antlers of the Spirit Race on Penglai Island, but the outer layer of keratin is cracked and blackened, and a long sword is stuck in the bone antler.

It was clearly a magic sword, about four feet long. You could see that blood essence was being drawn up from the bone horn against the blade, flowing backward along the back of the sword and converging into the skull inlaid on the hilt. It seemed to be inlaid with gold and engraved with many vermilion runes and incantations.

The golden skull was continuously stimulated by the essence blood, emitting two beams of blood-red light from its skull eyes, exuding a terrifying aura that seeped into the surrounding water and radiated towards the octopus eggs.

This looks like a method used by a cult. Moon Soul, take a look.

Unfortunately, Yuepo only learned the fighting routines commonly used by the Divine Sect from the swordsmen of Yuntai Peak, and he didn't recognize this specific secret method used to generate evil energy. But one thing is very obvious.

Moon Soul: "Judging by this, it's evil magic. Let's destroy it."

That's easy for you to say. How am I supposed to ruin it?

Li Kun circled the altar, observing the design of the outer magic array. It resembled the kind of seal he'd seen in the Li Country, the kind that required the blood of Saintess to break. Who knows, it might even be sealing a powerful, Non-Thing boss inside! He could try using his Li Kun ability to jump into the seal, but what if he reverted to human form? Would he be suppressed by the seal? And with giant horns, a greatsword, and a skeleton—which one should he destroy? What if he accidentally ended up fighting a boss again?

Just as Li Fan hesitated, wondering whether he should take a reckless risk, the only entrance to the cave suddenly made a loud noise!

Li Kun immediately hid in the spring. He saw the gate be pushed open and a Spirit Race dressed as a maid walked in. She had only a few scales and looked to be in human form. She had almost reached the Nascent Soul Stage.

However, judging from the fluctuations in his Divine Sense, this was clearly also possessed by the Shatentacle, and it seemed completely oblivious to the octopus eggs in the cave, which were like a hellish place for people with trypophobia.

She carried a jade plate with a small golden hammer on it. After circling the nest once, she picked up the hammer and threw it, selecting two large, plump eggs from the grape-like cluster of fish eggs. The eggs were so full of juice that they were almost bursting, and she knocked them off at the base. She then placed them on the jade plate and carried them away.

Li Kun immediately swam out and followed her out of the nest.

The cave was filled with disgusting and terrifying things, but outside the entrance to this nest was actually an underwater Immortal Palace, a paradise of birdsong and fragrant flowers, not an illusion. It was magnificent Fourth Department, with corals, gems, and pearls reflecting the Heavenly Treasure, and spiritual energy overflowing. It seemed to be a hidden Grotto-Heaven Blessed Land.

The Spirit Race maidservant stepped out of the door, carrying a jade plate in her left hand and a golden hammer hanging from her waist in her right. She then replaced the jade pendant with another, holding it in her palm and beckoning it towards the doorway. The door closed, transforming into a wall painted with a jade-green, golden-eyed, silver-hoofed, jade-horned, emerald-green unicorn.

Li Kun squinted at the Qilin horn, guessing that the horn on the altar was probably the remains of this sacred Qilin beast. He wasn't in a hurry; he memorized the location of the wall and continued to sneak behind the maid to see who the two eggs were for.

But at this point, it's easy to guess.

Sure enough, following the maid to the front hall, they saw a group of Spirit Race feasting. Ling Bingyu and Ling Liuying were among them, seated in the main seats for honored guests. A kind-faced old woman with red horns on her head was also serving them; she was probably the head of this Spirit Race settlement.

You know what, these two idiots did cultivate to human form and became disciples of the Zhenzhen Palace, so they're at least Nascent Soul cultivators. They're definitely a level above these monsters who lack talent and have even become hosts for Devil Embryo.

Indeed, Li Fan glanced around and saw that dozens of Demon Race in this Spirit Race palace had been parasitized by the Shatentacle. It seemed this family was secretly colluding with the Divine Cult, not only helping with mining and business but also raising octopuses. Now, they probably wanted to parasitize these two fools who had come to their doorstep as well?

Ling Bingyu, "Thank you so much for your hospitality, Grandma. If it weren't for your help this time, we would have been in real trouble. I'd like to propose a toast to you."

Hey, you're still thanking me.

Ling Liuying: "Yeah, yeah, what bad luck! I never thought I'd get sea snake venom. Luckily, that redhead didn't find out, or I'd almost lost face. Hahaha!"

Li Kun huddled under the table, glancing sideways at them.

The old woman chuckled and said, "We are all descendants of Marquis Ren, one family, why should we distinguish between each other? It is a blessing for Jade Unicorn Manor to be able to entertain the talents of my Spirit Race. I just don't know why the two immortals from Penglai have graced this sea with their presence?"

Ling Liuying quickly added, "Oh, we heard that there are demons causing trouble here. We were sent by the Sixin Godly Monarch to drive away the sea monsters."

Upon hearing this, the old woman narrowed her eyes. "So it's the Daoist Prince of Penglai, Sixin Godly Monarch. As expected of my son, his cultivation is indeed profound and extraordinary."

Upon hearing the praise, Ling Liuying chuckled foolishly, "Hehe, that's for sure. With our strength, a few sea monsters are nothing to worry about. It's just that my lord is too cautious, always worrying about this and that, insisting on having his retainers accompany him for protection. Those people are so timid and uninteresting. Luckily, an interesting savage came up the mountain, so we used the excuse of competing with him in demon-slaying to come out and have some fun..."

Li Kun couldn't help but roll his eyes.

Seeing that this guy was practically slurring his words and blurting out everything, even Ling Bingyu thought it was going too far. She nudged her sister to stop her from talking and said with a smile, "Grandma, please don't be so formal. We were just lucky to have this opportunity to become immortals. We came here to slay demons because we know that our sect is short-handed and we wanted to repay the God Lord for his kindness."

By the way, Grandma has lived by this sea for a long time, so she must know the terrain around here, right? Are there any Devil Embryo creatures or monsters causing trouble?

The old woman from Jade Unicorn Manor smiled, her expression unchanged. "Devil Embryo? I haven't heard much about Devil Embryo, but there is indeed a large fish nearby that has been very ferocious lately, and it's probably about to give birth. Perhaps it's the Devil Embryo you two are looking for."

"No rush. That monster hides in the deep sea and rarely shows itself. It's indeed a rare sight and very difficult to find. After we've finished our meal, I'll personally take you to find it."

Ling Liuying was delighted to hear this, "Great! With Grandma's help, we're sure to win this competition before that red-haired guy!"

"By the way, you two have been searching underwater for so long, have you encountered any fortuitous events? I'm quite old, perhaps I can help you discern some of them..."

As the old woman poured them drinks, she glanced at the maids, who then began serving the dishes, hiding fish roe inside the sashimi slices before presenting them to the two women.

"... Oh, by the way, try these fish roe. It's a local specialty, freshly picked, and incredibly delicious."

"Oh, fresh fish roe..." Ling Liuying and Ling Bingyu picked up their chopsticks and looked at the plate.

Meanwhile, Li Kun secretly swam behind the coral screen, preparing to jump out and transform into the red-haired table-flipping monster...

Then he heard Ling Liuying shout in a loud voice.

"Huh? Grandma, where did you get these fish eggs? How come they're covered in such evil energy?"