Wonders at the Bottom of the Pool

The calm, ripple-free Blackwater Pool drew the gazes of many, with several figures rapidly closing in.

Deep beneath the water, Pang Jian only knew that the moment the Cicada Wing Sword had entered the water, it had lost all its spirituality and supernatural essence.

He did not know that after he had submerged again, Jin Yang, who was probing the wonders of the black water, had had one of his hands corroded by the pool water.

Having caught his breath, Pang Jian continued to observe the Cicada Wing Sword hovering above his head, enduring the agony and waiting for a miracle, hoping to avoid this massacre at the hands of the Dark Ghosts.

Time ticked away, second by second.

Possessing excellent aquatic skills, Pang Jian could hold his breath for a long time; from beneath the surface, he could see the Cicada Wing Sword whistling as it darted about.

Unbeknownst to him, the bleeding from the cracks in his hands had ceased.

The lustrous glow emitted by the Phoenix Bone seemed to be slowly retracting, the area it could illuminate growing smaller and smaller.

I wonder if I can practice the Pot-Heaven Qi Cultivation Art while underwater...

Once this thought arose, he tried to clear the many distracting thoughts from his mind beside the gradually dimming Phoenix Bone.

He stopped swimming around the Phoenix Bone, letting his body slowly sink as he quietly entered a state of meditation and focus.

He visualized the spirit sea in his dantian and immediately sensed the somewhat eerie, cyan-black Spirit Pot reappear, naturally absorbing the energy available in the vicinity.

Gradually, he discovered that hidden within the pitch-black, icy pool water was an extremely strange power, surging toward the Spirit Pot in his dantian.

This power hidden in the black water carried a distinct acidic, poisonous quality, as if it could corrode all flesh and blood.

He was immediately startled.

Just as he intended to stop practicing the Pot-Heaven Qi Cultivation Art, he discovered that the first wisp of acidic, poisonous energy that drifted into the cyan-black Spirit Pot was actually clearing away the "cotton-like" dross and impurities from his spirit sea.

Moreover, the speed and efficiency this time far exceeded that of the Profound Yin Power within the gray-white rock.

The small world within his spirit sea showed no signs of distress from his absorption of that wisp of acidic, poisonous energy.

"This can be absorbed, too? It can cleanse the impurities in my spirit sea?"

Pang Jian felt it was incredible and marveled inwardly at the wonders of the Pot-Heaven Qi Cultivation Art, so he let his body continue to sink, maintaining the operation of the cyan-black Spirit Pot.

He soon made a new discovery.

When he maintained his meditative focus and remained in the state of practicing the Pot-Heaven Qi Cultivation Art, the pores on his arms and chest were actually able to draw... air from the icy black water.

Only then did he realize that there was air in the water; it was simply that ordinary people could not breathe it through their noses and mouths.

Why could he suddenly do it?

Why was his absorption of the air in the water limited to his arms and chest?

He suddenly recalled the moment he was attacked by the Dark Ghost cultivators: the iron-like hardness of his arms, the sudden surge of power, and the images from his dreams of countless phoenixes soaring within his bones.

With these many distracting thoughts flooding his mind, his practice of the Pot-Heaven Qi Cultivation Art was forced to a halt, and he snapped back to reality.

He once again forced himself to calm down, re-entered the state of meditation and focus, and continued his practice of the Pot-Heaven Qi Cultivation Art as his body continued to sink.

"Jin Yang!"

Outside the pool, both Dark Ghost leaders were shouting wildly.

Watching Pang Jian slowly sink to the bottom of the pool as the small patch of pearly white light around the Phoenix Bone gradually retracted, Jin Yang's face—which had been quite handsome—was now filled with malice and mania.

He turned abruptly.

The eerie sight of a lifelike, blood-colored phoenix dancing across Ouyang Duanhai's chest immediately entered his vision.

"Shoo! Shoo, shoo, shoo!"

The Cicada Wing Swords that had been patrolling the surface of the pool to keep an eye on Pang Jian were summoned back by Jin Yang like silver lightning, ready to deal with the anomaly before him.

But he soon discovered that Ouyang Duanhai, whose eyes were dull and vacant, had lost all consciousness and was not charging at him.

Before the remaining Cicada Wing Swords could reach Jin Yang, Ouyang Duanhai—who had slaughtered many Dark Ghost cultivators and absorbed the essence of their flesh and blood with blood-colored feathers—suddenly leaped high into the air and then plunged into the Blackwater Pool with a "splash."

Jin Yang, who had been on high alert, his left hand reduced to nothing but bone, had been planning to form a seal to activate a talisman treasure, only to find that Ouyang Duanhai had ignored him entirely.

Jin Yang stood frozen in shock.

Meanwhile, Ouyang Duanhai, having entered the water, saw his skeletal body suddenly enveloped in viscous blood-red light.

He was visible in the black water for only a moment before being completely swallowed by it, never to be seen again.

"He wasn't corroded and dissolved! He actually didn't dissolve!"

Holding up his fleshless left hand, Jin Yang felt an immense sense of frustration and misery. Staring at the spot where Ouyang Duanhai had disappeared, he shrieked hysterically, "A boy named Pang Jian, and this insane freak—they weren't dissolved by the black water!"

At this moment, the two Pulse-Opening Realm Dark Ghost leaders, who had been rushing to save him, finally arrived one after the other.

"Jin Yang, your hand?"

The one wearing the golden mask saw the skeletal left hand he was holding up and screamed in horror, "I told you long ago that you shouldn't have shown yourself to participate in this! What are we to do now? How will we answer to the leader when we return?"

He feared the leader's blame; thinking of the leader's cruel methods, he already felt a chill run down his spine before they had even returned.

"We have ways to regrow flesh from bone."

Jin Yang took a breath, forcing himself to calm down. He stopped wasting his breath on the matter and said in a deep voice, "The black pool water is strange; it possesses an eerie power that corrodes flesh and blood. I was careless and fell victim to it."

"We checked the pool water not long ago, and there was nothing unusual about it, was there?" another Pulse-Opening Realm leader asked, puzzled.

"The past is the past, and now is now."

Jin Yang took a glove from the masked leader and pulled it on, baring his teeth as he barked, "Perhaps we overlooked some detail last time."

The two Dark Ghost leaders of the Pulse-Opening Realm stared at the pitch-black pool, unsure if that was truly the case.

"After the earth cracked open, nothing terrifying emerged. Those fellows deceived us."

The leader who had discarded the Silver Silk Giant Net watched his subordinates drag the net, pulling Ning Yao along the ground, and said coldly, "It seems I need to interrogate her myself."

"They didn't lie."

Jin Yang's face turned cold. He snorted before saying, "There are some things Zhang Heng didn't tell you, but he made them clear to Hong Tai. The first Phoenix Bone they encountered earlier did indeed have terrifying vines erupting from the ground fissures, ambushing and devouring the Shangguan Family members."

"And the reason I took such an interest in that hunter is because Zhang Heng told me that the Eye of Imprint of the Blood Moon had chosen him!"

He knew the inside information that the two leaders were unaware of, though he had not intended to explain it to them previously.

"What do we do now?"

Hearing that this was indeed the truth, the two men looked at the fissures in the earth and suddenly began to worry.

"Only practitioners in the Xisui Realm, having shed their mortal shells, can breathe underwater through their pores. That brat named Pang Jian has been underwater for a long time now. Who knows if he sank to the bottom after dying, or if..."

Jin Yang's brows were locked tight. He stared at the murky water with a gloomy face and said, "Wait a little longer!"

The two had no choice but to wait obediently.

However, neither Pang Jian nor the insane Ouyang Duanhai emerged from the water.

"Han Duping has escaped!"

Outside the valley, a shout from a Dark Ghost practitioner suddenly rang out.

When the masked leader rushed toward the Blackwater Pool out of concern for Jin Yang, the defenses there naturally slackened, allowing Han Duping to seize the opportunity to slip away.

"Forget about him. He's just a fellow who knows how to survey arrays; he isn't that important."

Jin Yang stopped the two from giving chase.

While they were speaking, a hazy blood-red shadow slowly manifested among the leaves of the ancient tree where Jin Yang had previously hidden. She remained concealed within the dense foliage, gazing from afar at the Blackwater Pool and the group led by Jin Yang.

No one noticed her presence.

"The bottom of the pool holds more than just Phoenix Bone. As far as I know, the refining and formation of every drop of Phoenix Marrow requires the accumulation of vast amounts of flesh and blood," she murmured softly.

Having arrived at the brutal battlefield long ago, she was in no hurry to venture deep into the Blackwater Pool, as there was no suitable cover around the water, making it inconvenient to hide her figure.

"This drop of Phoenix Marrow is extraordinary. I wonder what strange object was used to gather such surging essence of flesh and blood."

Deep within the Blackwater Pool.

Immersed in his cultivation, Pang Jian allowed his body to sink slowly, focusing on absorbing the acidic, poisonous energy within the icy pool water.

An indescribable sense of satisfaction gradually sprouted from his heart; he felt a power that could only be described as vast!

The surging energy was swallowed by the dark green "Spirit Pot" like a giant whale drinking water, rapidly cleansing the filth and dregs from his spirit sea.

He had been absorbing the "Profound Yin Power" in mere wisps, but here in the pool water, he felt as if he were drifting in a vast ocean of energy!

He did not know that as he practiced the "Pot-Heaven Qi Cultivation Art" in the pool, the water around him was gradually becoming transparent.

As he absorbed the acidic, poisonous energy with the "Spirit Pot," he became like a glowing light source, purifying the darkness within the water.

After a long time, he felt his feet touch something solid, so he opened his eyes underwater.

He was astonished to find that the deep bottom of the pool where he stood was actually clear and bright, no longer black as ink.

Looking down, he first looked at what he was stepping on and saw an olive-green scale.

His gaze shifted, and he soon saw some oval black spots. As he continued to look... he discovered the thick, wide body of a python!

Pang Jian was struck with horror.

Having hunted in the Cenji Mountains for many years, he had seen countless pythons, but he had never seen one that could grow to such an extent!

The python with black and white patterns ridden by the Dark Ghost leader Hong Tai was like a tiny earthworm compared to the giant python at the bottom of the pool.

This giant python was currently coiled around the Phoenix Bone that had pierced the bottom of the pool, seemingly trying to snap or topple it.

The flesh on its tail had long since vanished, leaving only a massive, spine-like skeleton that beat helplessly against the ground of the pool floor.

When the snake bone struck the floor, it seemed powerless, yet it still caused an earthquake at the bottom of the pool.

It was the lashing of its winding tail against the ground that had triggered the massive earthquake around the Blackwater Pool, and it was its frantic struggling that had left the earth outside riddled with fissures.

From Pang Jian's angle looking straight down, he could only see the snake body coiled around the Phoenix Bone, striking the stone floor with its fleshless skeleton.

Stunned by the sight, a dazed Pang Jian moved away from the Phoenix Bone to observe from the side.

Immediately, Pang Jian saw a massive python head with its lower jaw pressed against the pool floor.

A huge, sharp Phoenix Bone, like a spear piercing the heavens, had driven down through the python's head, pinning it to the bottom of the pool.

Its massive head could not move; no matter how it twisted its tail or body, it could not escape the lethal strike of the Phoenix Bone.

In a trance, Pang Jian seemed to see a giant Phoenix Bone falling from the sky, piercing the giant python coiled at the bottom of the pool through its head the moment it struck the Blackwater Pool.