Boom!
Under Ye Shaochen's urging, the Spirit-Seeking Ruler transformed into a crystalline giant ruler over thirty feet long. Carrying the force to split mountains and sever rivers, it smashed into the water manor's protective formation.
"This formation is rather interesting. Could the door conceal some treasure-filled secret estate that my senior brothers and sisters once mentioned?"
As Ye Shaochen watched ripples spread across the Netherdark Water Wall before him, not only was there none of the irritation of failing to break through after repeated attacks, but his eyes instead gleamed with the eagerness of a hunter spotting rare prey.
He came from a great sect, so his knowledge was naturally broad, yet even he found the formation before him quite remarkable.
Not only could it use water's yielding strength to disperse most of the Spirit-Seeking Ruler's power, it could also conjure layer upon layer of illusions, making truth and falsehood impossible to distinguish.
Had he not cultivated the ocular technique Golden Eyes That Pierce Delusion, which could see through illusion and reality, he would likely have had to resort to the means hidden at the bottom of his chest to break this formation.
It was precisely because of this that he suspected a treasure-filled secret estate left behind by some predecessor lay concealed beneath the formation.
If I can truly find one or two heavenly treasures, that would save me the trouble. I can just take them back and present them to Master.
With that thought,
Ye Shaochen stopped probing and gave a low shout.
"Open!"
In an instant,
The mana within Ye Shaochen surged into the Spirit-Seeking Ruler like floodwaters bursting through a collapsed dam, and an arcane pattern emerged across the ruler's body.
This was the Divine Ability Embryo he had painstakingly cultivated for many years—[Lawbreaking]!
"Go!"
Ye Shaochen pointed a finger, and the crystalline giant ruler crashed down upon the Netherdark Water Wall.
Rumble...
The water manor's formation shook violently as the crystalline giant ruler smashed through layer upon layer of water walls, revealing the bluestone gate behind them.
Yet before he could make out the patterns on the gate, the shattered water walls began to reform at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Tsk."
"A thing that works one moment and fails the next."
Ye Shaochen frowned. His [Lawbreaking] Divine Ability Embryo had two effects.
The first was to enhance power.
The second was to ignore purely mana-based methods, including spells, secret arts, formations, and the like.
The former was not bad. It could steadily increase a certain amount of power.
Take a Nascent Dharma Treasure, for example.
Generally speaking, a fully refined Nascent Dharma Treasure could unleash roughly twenty percent of the power of a normal Core Formation cultivator's Dharma treasure.
But after receiving [Lawbreaking]'s enhancement, its power could rise further to around thirty percent.
Yet compared with the stable power-enhancing effect, the latter was entirely different. Like a madman's blade, it did not activate every time.
"Again!"
Ye Shaochen activated the Spirit-Seeking Ruler once more and launched three consecutive strikes.
Although the Netherdark Water Wall could reform, beneath the unceasing rapid bombardment, the water walls were still completely smashed through, and the crystalline giant ruler struck the bluestone gate.
Rumble!
With a deafening crash, the bluestone gate instantly shattered into four pieces.
Though he still had not triggered the effect of ignoring mana, relying on the power of the Nascent Dharma Treasure enhanced by his Divine Ability, Ye Shaochen had nevertheless easily broken the Starlight Water Wall Formation seven or eight tenths of the way.
However, Ye Shaochen did not immediately enter the water manor.
He had tracked his way here all the way from Ten Thousand Stars Mountain, already expending quite a bit of mana.
And although the Divine Ability Embryo was powerful, it consumed an enormous amount of mana.
Moreover, activating a Nascent Dharma Treasure already placed no small burden on the mana of a Foundation Establishment Late Stage Cultivator, so less than thirty percent of the mana in his body remained.
Before I came down the mountain, Eldest Senior Sister repeatedly warned me not to act rashly once my mana fell below thirty percent. Otherwise, I might place myself in the perilous situation of mana exhaustion.
As the thought flashed through his mind, Ye Shaochen recalled the Spirit-Seeking Ruler and landed upon a huge stone slab at the bottom of the pool. With a flip of his hand, he took out a jade bottle, poured out several round pills, and stuffed them into his mouth.
"I'll restore my mana first. The treasure-filled secret estate isn't going anywhere, anyway."
Ye Shaochen was truly bold. He simply closed his eyes and focused his mind, beginning to breathe and meditate, utterly unafraid that someone might seize the chance to launch a sneak attack.
And not long after he entered meditation, an attacker truly appeared!
The pool water, which had been relatively clear, quietly turned pitch-black as black water carrying a dense, fishy stench seeped down from above.
Immediately after,
A massive creature came wrapped in surging poisonous water.
Only upon closer inspection did one see that it was a Thousand-Legged Centipede over a hundred feet long.
Every plate of its armor glinted with a chilling dark-green light. Hundreds of pairs of vicious legs churned the water, and wherever it passed, aquatic plants withered and rocks corroded!
The Thousand-Legged Centipede swiftly approached Ye Shaochen's location, clearly intending to ambush him.
But before it could come within three hundred feet of Ye Shaochen, a sword cry suddenly rang throughout Longevity Pool.
A streak of azure sword light shot out from Ye Shaochen's abdomen. Looking closely, one could see a palm-sized flying sword within the light.
The Thousand-Legged Centipede was not overly alarmed at the sight. It let out a piercing hiss, and poison surged around its body, forming a heavy poisonous shield.
This was its innate talent—the Thousand Poison Shield.
The Thousand Poison Shield contained intense poison. Not only could it corrode the spiritual nature of cultivators' artifacts and Dharma treasures, it could also greatly weaken spell attacks.
The Thousand-Legged Centipede was extremely confident in its innate talent, believing it could easily block the streak of sword light.
Yet in the next instant, terror appeared in the centipede's compound eyes!
Whoosh!
The azure sword light did not pause in the slightest, effortlessly piercing through the Thousand-Legged Centipede's prized Thousand Poison Shield.
There was no expected sizzling sound of poison corroding an artifact, nor was there any roar of spiritual power colliding.
The thick poison barrier, enough to withstand the full-force blow of a Foundation Establishment Great Perfection cultivator, seemed not to exist at all before the azure sword light and was directly ignored.
"How is this possible?!"
That was the Thousand-Legged Centipede's final thought.
The next moment, the azure sword light pierced through the sturdy armor atop its head in a single strike.
Hiss...
With a soft sound, accompanied by the crisp crack of shattering armor, the Thousand-Legged Centipede's enormous body instantly stiffened. It watched helplessly as its head was split in two!
Only after being struck by that sword did the Thousand-Legged Centipede realize just how terrifying it was.
Its power had actually reached roughly forty percent of that of an ordinary Dharma treasure, more than twice as powerful as an ordinary Nascent Dharma Treasure.
This was why Ye Shaochen had dared to restore his mana so brazenly, unafraid of any ambushers.
He was a sword cultivator and possessed a spirit flying sword that could protect its master on its own. That flying sword could even independently invoke the [Lawbreaking] Divine Ability Embryo, and the chance of triggering its mana-ignoring effect was even higher than when he invoked it himself.
Hiss!
Under the shroud of death, the Thousand-Legged Centipede's enormous body rolled about madly, and its inky poisonous blood instantly dyed the entire Longevity Pool black.
But its miserable wails soon weakened, for that sword strike was rapidly extinguishing the remnants of its life force.
Meanwhile, the palm-sized spirit flying sword had already wheeled back lightly and reentered Ye Shaochen's dantian.
At the bottom of the pool, only the Thousand-Legged Centipede's enormous corpse slowly sank. Its hundreds of pairs of vicious legs twitched a few times before falling completely silent.
From beginning to end, Ye Shaochen never even opened his eyes. He continued breathing and meditating, rapidly restoring his mana as though nothing had happened.