Five-Colored Koi

The Imperial Sky Guard's flying vessel flew away. Liang Zhaohuang and his companion exchanged a glance, both frowning tightly, their expressions rather grave.

"I hope we won't be so unlucky as to run into an emergency at the front."

Patriarch Liang Xuelin spoke with some helplessness.

If they truly did run into an emergency at the front and the two minor Qi Refining cultivators were summoned to fight there, they would likely be like two little pellets of mud thrown into the sea, crushed to pieces in the blink of an eye.

Liang Zhaohuang was helpless about this as well. The war at the front, the Demon Country's attacks—none of that was something they could control.

And although he had the trump card of the Five-Colored Buddha Light, his cultivation was too low after all. At the Qi Refining level, he might still be able to struggle a little, but against Foundation Establishment, he would basically have no strength to resist.

Not to mention that in the battles between the human race and the Demon Country, existences above Foundation Establishment—and the slaughter between them—had never been few.

At this moment, Liang Zhaohuang could only pray that he had a bit of a transmigrator's luck on him. He hoped he would not run into a "disaster" like an emergency at the front.

Neither of them could control the changes on the front-line battlefield. All they could do was move faster, obtain the Foundation Establishment Realm Five Elements cultivation method as soon as possible, then leave Yongchang Commandery and leave Ning Province.

When that time came, even if Ning Province's border really was broken through by the Demon Country, it would not affect them for the moment.

In addition, now that they knew of the Imperial Sky Guard's existence and that they could swiftly support battles against demonic beasts, Liang Zhaohuang and his companion felt much more at ease and became considerably bolder. Though they remained cautious, when they encountered places where demonic beasts might be lurking, they no longer took a long detour around them, only carefully avoided them from the side.

As long as those lurking demonic beasts did not attack them, Liang Zhaohuang was also unwilling to stir up trouble and waste time by exterminating them.

After that, their journey went smoothly. Several days later, the two arrived at the foot of a mountain range. Beneath the mountains, a great river flowed along the lay of the range.

Liang Zhaohuang and his companion walked along the river, observing the terrain of the mountains and river. They carefully compared and studied it against the topographical map manifested within the Wood Lotus, and very soon confirmed that this place was precisely where their target lay. There was no mistake.

"According to the map, the senior's cave estate is inside the belly of the mountain, but the entrance is in an underground river beneath the main river."

"Calculating according to the record, the entrance to the underground river should be right here."

Patriarch Liang Xuelin looked at the river before them, but his brows were slightly furrowed. In the next moment, he looked toward Liang Zhaohuang and said, "Zhaohuang, are you certain there are demonic beasts occupying this place?"

Five-Colored Buddha Light flickered in Liang Zhaohuang's eyes as he looked at the river before him. He could clearly see water-element spiritual energy gathering here abnormally, roiling violently and restlessly like boiling water.

Along the way, after observing several places where demonic beasts were hidden, he could determine from this phenomenon that demonic beasts were definitely lurking in this stretch of river.

Liang Zhaohuang nodded and said, "There are definitely demonic beasts hiding in the water, but it's a little strange..."

"What is it?"

Patriarch Liang Xuelin asked.

"In my perception, the water-element spiritual energy here is gathering abnormally, but it's extremely scattered, as if it has split into many streams, tangled in chaos like hemp."

"It's quite different from the few places where I sensed demonic beasts hiding before, where the spiritual energy gathered together into patches."

The Liang family members did not know about his Five Elements Dharma Eye, only thinking that his perception toward Five Elements spiritual power was extremely keen. Liang Zhaohuang was unwilling to expose his secret, so he did not point it out either.

After hearing this, Patriarch Liang Xuelin thought for a moment, then said, "Fall back first. I'll test it."

As he spoke, he took out a storage talisman from his sleeve, removed a handful of spiritual rice from within, and scattered it into the river with a wave of his hand.

This spiritual rice was what they had brought to eat on the road. Eating spiritual rice regularly could nurture the physical body and increase cultivation. Though the increase was not great, little streams made a mighty river; after eating it year after year, the effects were also quite considerable.

The spiritual rice entered the water, and in just a moment, the two saw the river begin to churn. One five-colored carp after another emerged from the bottom of the water, fighting over the spiritual rice.

These five-colored carps' scales shimmered with five-colored light beneath the sunlight, appearing rather extraordinary.

Liang Zhaohuang and his companion's eyes could not help but light up.

"They're actually Spirit Fish!"

So-called Spirit Fish were fish that had already awakened and knew how to inhale and exhale spiritual energy, but had not yet entered the first rank to become demonic beasts.

These fish had very low combat strength, but they were delicious and contained spiritual energy, making them suitable for spiritual cuisine.

Patriarch Liang Xuelin had already taken out a talisman and held it in his hand, then directly sent it into the river water.

The talisman dissolved, and cold air erupted from it, spreading in all directions. It swiftly froze the surrounding river water, turning it into ice and sealing those Spirit Fish within.

The Spirit Fish discovered something was wrong and opened their mouths one after another, spitting out water arrows. However, their power was too low, and they found it difficult to stop the freezing ice.

In the blink of an eye, the ice had frozen an area half a zhang around, sealing more than a dozen Spirit Fish inside. Still, some Spirit Fish managed to escape.

This was also unavoidable. They had come out this time to explore the senior's cave estate and had not brought professional fishing tools, so they could only use this method. Some Spirit Fish escaping was inevitable.

After placing the ice-sealed Spirit Fish into a storage talisman, Liang Zhaohuang circulated the Five Elements Dharma Eye and carefully observed the area around the river again, confirming that no other demonic beasts were lurking there.

Thus, the two each activated a water-repelling talisman and dove into the river.

They sank all the way to the riverbed, and sure enough, discovered an underground river that led directly into the mountain's interior.

Five-Colored Buddha Light flickered in Liang Zhaohuang's eyes as he observed the situation within the underground river. Only when he saw nothing abnormal did the two enter it.

Following the underground river in the mountain's belly, they soon discovered something unusual.

"There are Spirit Fish up ahead!"

In the underground river ahead, several Five-Colored Koi were swimming about. After discovering the two of them, they were frightened and turned one after another, swimming toward the depths of the underground river.

Liang Zhaohuang and his companion exchanged a glance, both already reacting. The Five-Colored Koi Spirit Fish they had seen in the river outside just now had likely swum out from this underground river.

"Be careful. There's likely something going on ahead."

As Patriarch Liang Xuelin spoke, he took a step forward and walked in front of Liang Zhaohuang, shielding him behind.

Liang Zhaohuang opened his mouth at the sight, but in the end, he said nothing.

The two of them each took out a Five-Colored Light Shield Talisman and activated it, turning them into Five-Colored Light Shields that protected them both.

As they continued deeper into the underground river, they encountered more and more Five-Colored Koi, and some of the koi began spitting water arrows at them.

However, they were all Spirit Fish that had not reached the first rank. The water arrows were limited in power, and before they could even strike the Five-Colored Light Shields around them, they were shattered by Liang Xuelin's spell, the Wave Drumming Technique.

But there was not the slightest ease on Liang Zhaohuang's and his companion's faces. Instead, their expressions grew increasingly grave.

It was as if they had entered a fish den. The number of Five-Colored Koi they encountered kept increasing. Though all they had met so far were only Spirit Fish below the first rank, who knew whether first-rank, or even second-rank, fish demons might appear farther ahead?

Another point was that this underground river led to the "cave abode" indicated by the Wood Lotus, yet so many Spirit Fish had gathered here now.

This could not help but make them worry whether something had happened to the cave abode up ahead.

If something truly had happened to the cave abode, or if it had even been destroyed and occupied by Spirit Fish, then Liang Zhaohuang and the others might very well come away empty-handed from this trip.

Making a wasted trip was still nothing much. The most important thing was that without a Foundation Establishment Realm five-elements cultivation method, how would the Liang family face the possible disaster of clan extermination three years from now?

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