The Weird

Su Ye looked around, puzzled.

The spiritual energy in the Mist Mountains was incredibly dense, yet the place was utterly silent. The only sound was their footsteps pressing into the soil.

"Strange. With spiritual energy this dense, even if there aren't any Fierce Beasts, how come there aren't any plants or trees?"

Black Emperor was just as puzzled. He looked around at the barren landscape, which seemed utterly devoid of life, as if they had entered a forbidden wasteland—a Calamity Land.

Su Ye bent down and scooped up some soil. As he sensed the power within it, he found no trace of life. Instead, it contained a chaotic force. The force was incredibly faint, yet immensely powerful.

It was faint in the sense that it had almost completely dissipated; it was powerful in the sense that its level was extremely high. It was like finding gold dust in the soil: there might be very little, but that didn't mean it was worthless.

"Ah..."

A harrowing scream suddenly rang out in the distance, then quickly fell silent.

"That was one hell of a scream."

Black Emperor felt a little uneasy. Though he had acted fearless earlier, now that they were really here, he was starting to feel spooked. A Fierce Beast's instincts told him that something was wrong with this place, and they needed to leave as soon as possible.

"Let's go."

Su Ye headed toward where the scream had come from. He wasn't afraid of danger. He had a powerful weapon in his hands now; even if the ancient gods were to rise again, he could still put up a fight.

The two soon reached a nearby area. There was only one corpse, shriveled and apparently long dead. But when Su Ye and Black Emperor saw it, their expressions changed.

It was the young man in fine robes who had given them a few pointers not long ago. He had been quite powerful, yet he had died here in such a bizarre manner.

"All the life essence has been drained from him. There aren't any major signs of fighting around here, so the battle must have ended in an instant."

Black Emperor circled the dried-out corpse. "But something's odd. This guy wasn't attacked from behind. He was struck from the front. Was he really that weak?"

"That weak?"

Su Ye frowned. He felt there had to be more to it. The young man in fine robes had probably been at the Fifth Heavenly Passage, and he'd dared to come here alone, which meant he must have had great confidence in his own strength.

"Awooo..."

A sudden cry rang out. Black Emperor's body erupted with terrifying power as he roared, "Damn it! I knew you were no good! You finally decided to make a move on me!"

Terrifying runes swirled around Black Emperor. The mist dispersed, and the runes formed intricate patterns in the air, revealing the phantom of a Five-Colored Qilin, its ferocious might shaking the heavens.

Boom!

Black Emperor attacked Su Ye directly. One hoof came crashing down, splitting the sky and earth, as if the whole world could not bear its weight.

"You damn dog, what's gotten into you?"

Su Ye's expression turned grave. Ever since he had subdued the dog, Black Emperor had kept his strength hidden. Now he'd suddenly unleashed it without holding back.

Huh?

Su Ye's expression shifted. Runes swirled in his eyes, gleaming with auspicious light, and he saw strange Mental Power surrounding Black Emperor.

"Bang!"

Su Ye took the Ruyi Golden Cudgel from his back and brought it down on the ground. An invisible wave of force rippled outward, and the strange power vanished beneath it.

Black Emperor, whose eyes had been bloodshot as he flew into a frenzy, suddenly felt a coolness wash over his soul. His eyes cleared, and he looked at Su Ye's livid face. He quickly withdrew his power and said sheepishly, "Well, you attacked me just now, so I..."

"Where's the corpse?"

Black Emperor looked at the ground. The corpse that had been lying there was gone. For a moment, his mind felt hazy. Had there been a corpse here just now? Maybe. Probably. Maybe not?

Su Ye was just as bewildered. Even he wasn't sure anymore. "Let's get out of here first."

Their luck had certainly run out. They had barely entered the Mist Mountains when they ran into something so strange. A sense of foreboding rose in Su Ye's heart, especially since this strange power had even deceived his Heavenly Eye.

"Don't leave. This is a good thing."

Suddenly, the Ancient God Emperor's voice rang in Su Ye's mind. "To wield such strange power, it must be the Little Dream God Lotus, if my guess is right."

"The Little Dream God Lotus?"

"A Divine Medicine."

The Ancient God Emperor explained, "In ancient times, though the Eight Lower Realms couldn't compare to the Three Thousand Provinces of the Upper Realm, their laws were complete enough for people to kindle Divine Fire and set foot on the Divine Dao. Naturally, there were Divine Medicines. The Little Dream God Lotus was one of them, and the Great Dream God Sect's most prized treasure."

A Divine Medicine was more than just a plant to be taken as a pill to greatly increase one's cultivation. More importantly, it could offer insight into the Dao contained within it and help one comprehend the Great Dao.

Thus, Divine Medicines were rarely eaten outright. Instead, they were kept as a foundation for people to contemplate, or a leaf was plucked every so often to refine into pills.

"Of course, what's here should only be a remnant root. Otherwise, even I couldn't have so easily broken through the Dream Illusion Space it created."

The Ancient God Emperor finished speaking.

Su Ye raised the Ruyi Golden Cudgel and smashed it into the ground below. Golden patterns appeared on the cudgel as its sealed power burst forth, striking the earth. The ground rumbled and shook violently, but only a modest-sized pit appeared.

"This..."

Su Ye stared, dumbfounded. He had already unsealed the Ruyi Golden Cudgel, bringing its weight to one hundred thousand jin. With its terrifying weight and his own strength, he could have punched straight through a mountain, let alone the ground. Yet all he had made was a pit the size of a millstone.

"What the hell are you doing?"

The sudden turn of events startled Black Emperor. He watched Su Ye warily. That strike had been terrifying, leaving him with a suffocating sense of impending death.

Su Ye ignored Black Emperor and stared into the pit. Runes appeared in his eyes and shone brightly. Though he couldn't see through the illusion, he could still make out some of the Daoist aura before him. The ground contained a powerful Daoist aura that had blocked his attack.

"Is this... treasure liquid?"

Black Emperor looked into the pit. Auspicious Mist poured from it, and a pale golden glow shimmered within the mist. Slowly, crystalline moisture gathered on the rocks.

As the auspicious light continued to rise, the area soon filled with Auspicious Mist, and hazy radiance billowed through the air. The millstone-sized pit held quite a bit of golden liquid—not enough for a bath, but plenty for a face wash.

Su Ye paid no attention to the treasure liquid. Instead, he searched for the Little Dream God Lotus. Even if only a small piece of its root remained here, it would still be astonishingly valuable. The laws of the Lower Realm were incomplete now; forget Divine Medicines, even Demi-God Medicines were almost nonexistent.

Boom!

Boom!

The liquid kept driving the Ruyi Golden Cudgel as it pounded the ground again and again, searching for that piece of root. Su Ye couldn't sense it himself, but the Ancient God Emperor could. The Little Dream God Lotus was somewhere nearby.

Black Emperor watched Su Ye toil away, digging a pit all by himself. Then he looked at the treasure liquid that had already filled half the pit. Without hesitation, he bent down and gulped it down.

Wash his face? Take a bath?

You'd have to be spectacularly wasteful to do that.

Though this treasure liquid wasn't among the most powerful in heaven and earth, it was still extremely precious. A single drop could fetch an astronomical price. Even a god wouldn't be so extravagant as to use it for a bath, let alone him.