Arduous Cultivation

The bizarre spectacle before his eyes sent Pang Jian's thoughts spiraling into infinite reverie; he stood frozen, his body struck as motionless as a sculpture.

A Heavenly Phoenix Remains had pierced the giant python's skull, pinning its head against the rocky floor of the pool. The serpent's body still struggled with desperate, rhythmic twitches, like a centipede that refuses to die even after being severed.

He could not fathom how long it had been suffering in this agony, unable to break free from the restraint of the Phoenix Bone, a struggle that had already cost it the flesh and blood of a significant portion of its body.

Even a mysterious, otherworldly creature such as this appeared utterly desperate and powerless when faced with the lethal strike of a single withered bone from a Heavenly Phoenix.

Is this the reason why Father listed the Blackwater Pool as a forbidden zone?

Gazing at the massive, serpentine form for a long time, Pang Jian felt his mind reeling under the repeated impact, as if the door to an entirely new world were slowly creaking open before him.

It was in this moment that he realized the Cenji Mountains, where he had hunted for years, might not be as simple as he had imagined.

He even began to suspect that every place his father had designated as a forbidden zone might harbor some terrifying, monstrous entity similar to this giant python.

Did Father know of these creatures' existence and deliberately keep it hidden, or... is he unaware of them as well?

Doubts surged incessantly within Pang Jian's heart.

A moment later, he continued to examine the anomalies at the bottom of the pool.

With the scaled giant python as the center, he saw that the surrounding rocky floor was littered with countless skeletal remains.

Some of the bones were clearly from beasts of the Cenji Mountains, while others were unmistakably human, just like him.

He could not guess how many beasts and men had been swallowed by the python lurking in the Blackwater Pool, only to have their withered bones spat back out.

Reflecting on the past, he could not help but feel a lingering, secret dread.

In the years since his father disappeared, had he not heeded his father's warnings and instead ventured rashly into the Blackwater Pool, would he too have become one of these withered bones at the bottom?

As he thought this, he spotted even more remains scattered across the pool floor.

He retreated slowly, putting distance between himself, the Phoenix Bone, and the giant python.

He then noticed that this thick, elongated serpent had turned into a stark, white snake-bone for a third of its length, starting from the tail and moving toward the head.

The portion of the body still connected to the skull was covered in flesh and scales, but as he observed closely, the flesh clinging to those bones seemed to be slowly vanishing toward the direction of the head.

It was as if a strange, sinister force was exerting power from the python's head, continuously and secretly devouring its flesh and blood.

This process caused the giant snake's body to gradually disappear, starting from the tail and creeping toward the head.

"It's the Phoenix Bone!"

Looking once more at the bone that had pierced the python's skull and pinned it to the pool floor, Pang Jian suddenly understood.

It was this Phoenix Bone, fallen from the Upper Realm, that had pierced the creature in an instant and was now slowly consuming its flesh and blood.

The survival of the fittest and the law of the jungle were the immutable truths of the world since time immemorial.

The giant python of the Blackwater Pool had feasted on the beasts and hunters of the mountains, and now it had met the same fate, suppressed here by a fragment of the Heavenly Phoenix Remains, which was slowly feeding upon its essence.

Suddenly, Pang Jian could not help but recall the strange phenomenon of the other Phoenix Bone.

Accompanied by the rumbling of the earth, cracks had split the ground around that bone, and a multitude of Bloodthirsty Vines had erupted, slaughtering and consuming the first group of Blood Moon members and the second group from the Shangguan Family.

Afterward, a cluster of liquid, amber-like light had formed within that Phoenix Bone, beginning to drift through the crystalline marrow.

Could it be...

Pang Jian gradually awakened to the truth, realizing that the second Phoenix Bone had pinned and killed this giant python, devouring its flesh and energy, for the sole purpose of condensing a new cluster of amber light!

"BOOM!"

As he pondered, the giant python lashed out at the earth again, triggering another seismic aftershock near the Blackwater Pool.

Yet, compared to the earth-shaking tremors from before, this vibration was significantly weaker.

The momentum of the python's bone-heavy tail striking the ground appeared far more pale and powerless this time.

It isn't dead yet.

Pang Jian's brows twitched, but he suddenly realized that even though he was no longer in the meditative state of the "Pot-Heaven Qi Cultivation Art," the skin on his arms and chest was still absorbing the air within the water.

It seemed to have evolved into an instinctive habit.

He felt a sudden sense of relief, knowing that with this ability, he could remain at the bottom of the pool for a long time and would not need to worry about the people from the Dark Ghost for the moment.

"I should go see it from the front."

Driven by curiosity, Pang Jian began to move across the pool floor and soon discovered the Dragon-Patterned Spear he had thrown earlier.

He swam over quickly, snatched the Dragon-Patterned Spear, and used its weight to steady his footing on the ground.

With the spear in his grip, his courage bolstered, he moved swiftly to the front of the python's head.

The head, larger than the stone hut he lived in, was covered in olive-green scales that overlapped like folds of skin.

The python's mouth was slightly agape, and he could see the lethal Phoenix Bone wedged deep in its throat, behind its sharp fangs.

Thin, ink-like black threads, appearing to be secretions from its mouth, trailed straight upward toward the surface of the water.

The moment he saw the black threads, Pang Jian understood the mystery of the Blackwater Pool; the deep, ink-black color of the water came from these very secretions.

Pang Jian then noticed that the living python's eyes were tightly shut, as if it were enduring immense agony.

The suffering creature seemed not to notice his arrival, leaving him free to look around and observe his surroundings.

Pang Jian watched for a long while, knowing that once the Phoenix Bone had devoured the python's body, it would eventually consume the serpent's head, and that would be the moment of its demise.

Perhaps it would also be at that moment that a new cluster of amber light would suddenly reappear within the Phoenix Bone.

Having guessed what was to come, Pang Jian decided to thoroughly explore the bottom of the pool and headed toward a more distant area.

Before long, two clusters of deep red blood-light suddenly caught his eye!

Attracted by the crimson glow, he gripped his Dragon-Patterned Spear and approached the target, wondering if there were other living things at the bottom of the pool besides the giant python.

If there were indeed new living creatures capable of surviving in such an environment, they would surely be ferocious beasts on par with the giant python!

He worried secretly, thinking that with the Dark Ghosts lurking above the water, if another horror were to emerge from the depths, he would truly be beyond salvation.

As he drew closer to the blood-light, he noticed that the further he moved away from the python and the Phoenix Bone, the dimmer and gloomier the light at the bottom of the pool became.

Finally!

He saw those two clusters of blood-light and discovered that they were actually the radiance emitted by a pair of deep red pupils.

At the bottom of the pool, a gaunt, corpse-like freak with blood-red light radiating from his eyes was staring unblinkingly at the Phoenix Bone, as if waiting in anticipation for something.

On the freak's chest was a vivid Phoenix Bird Tattoo, its feathers a blood-red hue, appearing as if it were about to spread its wings and take flight.

The Phoenix Bird, though clearly just a tattoo totem, gave off a sensation of being alive and spirited.

Pang Jian stared at the freak for a long time, but the creature seemed unaware of his existence; the freak and the Phoenix Bird Tattoo on his chest were fixated solely on the Phoenix Bone embedded in the giant python's skull.

It was as if a person named Pang Jian did not exist at the bottom of the pool at all.

Having hidden beneath the water early on, Pang Jian did not know that the freak before him was Ouyang Duanhai, nor did he know that Ouyang Duanhai had jumped into the Blackwater Pool after him.

Encountering a humanoid monster like Ouyang Duanhai at the bottom of a pool where no living thing should be, Pang Jian felt his scalp tingle.

If he were not underwater, he would likely have broken out in a cold sweat from the tension; he gripped the Dragon-Patterned Spear with both hands and waited in agony for a while.

He finally confirmed that the humanoid monster before him did not care about him at all and was only staring at the Phoenix Bone.

Deep within the monster's crimson pupils, Pang Jian could not discern a single trace of human emotion; he even suspected that this thing was not human at all.

Is he waiting for that cluster of mysterious light that will condense within the Phoenix Bone?

After observing for a long time, Pang Jian had a realization.

He guessed that the humanoid monster, which stood motionless and stared fixedly at the Phoenix Bone, was waiting for the bone to completely consume the python, waiting for that cluster of amber light to suddenly appear.

Before that happened, as long as he did not actively provoke him, it seemed he would not attract the monster's attention.

After a brief standoff, Pang Jian, clutching his Dragon-Patterned Spear with trepidation, tiptoed back to where the Phoenix Bone and the giant python lay.

After a moment of hesitation, he deliberately chose an area where he would not be seen by the humanoid monster.

With cultivators from the Dark Ghosts above and an unfathomable humanoid monster at the bottom of the pool, plus the Phoenix Bone devouring the original master of the Blackwater Pool, Pang Jian, not knowing where to turn, could only wait passively.

"Forget it, I will continue my cultivation."

Unable to think of a way out no matter how hard he racked his brain, Pang Jian simply stopped worrying and swam toward the middle section of the Phoenix Bone, holding his Dragon-Patterned Spear.

He returned to his previous spot.

The Phoenix Bone he leaned his back against faced the area where the humanoid monster was, and the monster could not see him through the bone.

He used the Dragon-Patterned Spear in his hand to press against the python's flesh and scales, then gripped the spear with both hands to steady himself and continued his cultivation.

"Hoo! Hoo-hoo!"

A continuous stream of acidic, poisonous energy was drawn down from the black water above, gathering into his dark-green "Spirit Pot."

Within his Spirit Sea, the "cotton-like" dross and impurities he could perceive were being rapidly dissolved by the potent toxins secreted from the giant python's mouth.

He did not know how much time had passed when a startled Pang Jian looked down and found that the Dragon-Patterned Spear he was using to press against the python skin had suddenly sunk downward.

It turned out that this part of the python's flesh had already been eaten by the Phoenix Bone.

After a moment of contemplation, Pang Jian descended to the position of the python's head, once again pressing the spear against the snake's head, and continued his cultivation while staying close to the Phoenix Bone.

Once he entered his state this time, he felt as if all the filth and dross in his Dantian Spirit Sea had been washed away!

He focused his mind and sensed carefully, feeling like a blind man moving freely in a spacious room, until his perception touched a "membrane-like" existence, and he realized he had reached the limits of his Spirit Sea.

At this moment, he had completely cleared the obstacles in his Spirit Sea and truly become a practitioner of the Qi Refining Realm.

"The Qi Refining Realm is divided into nine levels, requiring one to guide the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into the Spirit Sea and repeatedly refine it."

"The first level requires filling the Spirit Sea with spiritual energy before kneading and washing it into spiritual power. The second level requires taking in spiritual energy again, refining it once it is full, and transforming the gas into power."

Silently reciting the essentials of the nine minor levels of the Qi Refining Realm, he began his first wave of drawing spiritual energy into his body.

As soon as his thought stirred, he realized that in addition to the spiritual energy of heaven and earth in the water, he was absorbing even more of the acidic, poisonous energy within the black water!

He was startled, fearing that once the "cotton-like" impurities in his Spirit Sea were dissolved, those acidic, poisonous energies would erode his Spirit Sea, causing it to collapse and making him lose the possibility of cultivation forever.

However, after the spiritual energy and acidic, poisonous energy from the bottom of the pool merged into his Spirit Sea, he felt no discomfort at all.

The complex energy in the pool water was filling his Spirit Sea, undergoing the "fullness" process of the first level.

Seeing that his Spirit Sea was unharmed, he decided to ignore the internal and external hidden dangers for the time being, staying at the bottom of the pool to cultivate using the dark-green "Spirit Pot" he had visualized and the strange properties of the water.

He also took the cracked grayish-white rock from the bamboo basket he had been carrying on his back, along with the few spirit stones Ning Yao had shared with him.

Regardless of whether a conflict might erupt, he held one in each hand, leaned his back against the Phoenix Bone Wall, and focused his mind on cultivation.

Above his head lurked a powerful Dark Ghost, at the bottom of the pool lay a humanoid monster, and there remained the not-quite-dead giant python, as well as that mysterious phoenix bone.

All Pang Jian could do was strive with all his might to increase his strength; he was even willing to take certain risks to achieve it.

He hoped to gain more power to ensure his own survival.

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