Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, an hour passed.
The Octopus Demon King's spirit, having lost its Physical Body, guided them through the sea at an extremely fast speed, covering ten miles, then a hundred miles, continuously advancing.
Li Mu, possessing the Five Elements Dao Body, could easily keep up by performing water-elemental Escape. Although the Azure-Eyed White Ape was an earth-elemental Yao Beast, its strength had reached the Peak of the fifth-tier, so it didn't fall behind either.
The Octopus Demon King's spirit suddenly changed direction, continuously diving towards the seabed—a hundred feet, a thousand feet… Li Mu followed closely, and soon they were deep in a ten-thousand-foot abyss at the bottom of the sea. Looking up, the sunlight was no longer visible; looking down, it was an even darker underwater world where one couldn't see their hand in front of their face, and the surrounding water pressure was astonishingly greater.
Even with the powerful Physical Body from the max-level Spirit Devouring Body Nourishing Art, suddenly diving into such a deep part of the sea, Li Mu began to feel uncomfortable.
Li Mu thought of something and quickly summoned the Five Elements Spirit Mountain from his Storage Ring. He injected Spiritual Power into it, activating the Five Elements Spirit Domain of the Five Elements Spirit Mountain, and used its Five Elements Spiritual Power to dissipate the terrifying pressure of the deep sea.
The Five Elements Spirit Mountain floated quietly in front of Li Mu. Its ten-mile Five Elements Spirit Domain was compressed to about one mile in the deep sea. A dense Five Elements Spiritual Power formed a Five Elements light shield, protecting Li Mu and the Azure-Eyed White Ape within it.
Li Mu released his Divine Sense, scanning the ten-thousand-foot deep sea. At the very bottom was a dark seabed, a massive trench stretching for tens of thousands of miles, incredibly dark, like an abyssal maw, seemingly without end.
Li Mu's Divine Thought was exhausted, yet he was still far from being able to ascertain the depth of the giant trench.
Li Mu frowned, looking at the Octopus Demon King's spirit leading the way, and a hint of suspicion arose within him.
"Damn it! What kind of ghost place is this? You're not intentionally leading us here to shake us off, are you? Believe it or not, I'll eat you before you even escape ten feet away."
The Azure-Eyed White Ape was good at reading expressions. Seeing Li Mu's displeased look, it immediately bared its fangs, extended its claw, and pinched the Octopus Demon King's spirit leading the way, threatening fiercely.
The Octopus Demon King's spirit was terrified and uneasy, its mouth opening and closing rapidly, speaking at an unknown speed.
The Azure-Eyed White Ape showed a listening expression. After hearing it out, it immediately turned to Li Mu and translated in detail: "Master, this fellow says the Twin-Horned Azure Moon Flood Dragon's hiding place is on the rock wall of that sea trench. This has been the Twin-Horned Azure Moon Flood Dragon Clan's habitat since ancient times, but for some unknown reason, it has become strange here. The deeper one goes, the more terrifying the Evil Qi inside becomes."
"Ordinary Yao Beasts and common fish will not easily approach here. This fellow, who only occupied this Immortal Cave for a short time, also dared not stay here long. Now that it has transformed into a Yin soul, that Evil Qi has a strong attraction to it," the Azure-Eyed White Ape continuously explained to Li Mu.
Upon hearing this, Li Mu's eyes lit up slightly.
The ancestral land where the Double-Horned Azure Moon Flood Dragon Clan resided—doesn't that mean there might be many Dragon bones here?
Currently, the Nine Dragons Immortal Slaughtering Formation has only gathered two sets of Dragon bones, and their amplification effect on the Formation is very limited.
If he could gather seven more sets of Dragon bones to complete the requirements for the Formation, the Nine Dragons Immortal Slaughtering Formation would be able to unleash its true power.
Once nine Dragons were assembled to set up the Nine Dragons Immortal Slaughtering Formation, Li Mu would dare to fight even against a Late Stage Soul Transformation Cultivator, or even a higher-tier Cultivator.
Thinking of the benefits of obtaining Dragon bones, Li Mu's heart stirred, and he wished he could immediately rush into this Dragon's territory to acquire the Dragon remains.
However, Li Mu was always cautious. The Octopus Demon King said that the Evil Qi here was extremely heavy, which surely implied some terrifying existence. Even a fifth-tier Demon King could perish here, so he dared not act recklessly.
To be safe, Li Mu took out a dozen water-elemental Battle Puppets from his nine storage spiritual pearl and sent them to investigate the deep sea trench.
To prepare for this operation, Li Mu had specially refined a batch of water-elemental Battle Puppets. They came in various forms: some were fan-shaped like stingrays, others long and shuttle-shaped like barracudas, and so on.
Seventeen or eighteen Battle Puppets, like a school of fish, plunged towards the depths of the sea trench, quickly dispersing to explore.
Half an hour later, the water-elemental Battle Puppets returned one after another, confirming that, as the Octopus Demon King had said, they had successively discovered a huge grotto on the rock wall and found no major threats.
Li Mu pondered for a moment, then put the Azure-Eyed White Ape into the Painting World Treasure Mansion. He alone supported the Five Elements Spirit Mountain, seized the Octopus Demon King's spirit, and, taking all the water-elemental Battle Puppets, rushed towards that rock cave passage.
In a flash, another half an hour passed, and Li Mu had delved another five thousand feet into the seabed.
In the deep sea, for every thousand feet advanced, the surrounding pressure doubled. Fortunately, Li Mu possessed the Five Elements Spirit Mountain, a six-tier spirit treasure. Under the protection of the Five Elements Spirit Domain, the high pressure of the deep sea had no effect on him.
Soon, Li Mu arrived at the underground grotto passage mentioned by the Octopus Demon King, a passage nearly twenty feet wide. However, to Li Mu's surprise, the depths of this rock cave passage were no longer completely dark.
Within the grotto passage, colorful lights emanated from all around.
The scenery inside the grotto passage appeared before his eyes: the objects emitting light included various glowing Spiritual Plants growing on the rock walls, such as third-tier Blue Spirit Flowers, fourth-tier Ice Mist Spiritual Plants, fourth-tier Ice Jade Exquisites, and so on.
As far as the eye could see, there were various Spirit Medicine with long medicinal ages, hundreds or even thousands of Years old.
Li Mu blinked his eyes.
Within the rock cave passage, Magical Artifacts were deliberately embedded in the rock walls or hung from the grotto ceiling, emitting faint Spiritual light.
These Spiritual Artifacts varied in grade; some had very strong Spiritual light, while others were on the verge of collapse. There were thousands upon thousands of Spiritual Artifacts of all shapes, colors, and tiers, some piled into small mountains, others scattered around.
In addition, there was a large amount of gold and gems, reflecting colorful Spiritual light, outlining a vibrant and dazzling scene within the rock cave.
As Li Mu navigated the dazzling passage of the rock cave, he recalled some rumors.
Rumors stated that Dragons were lustful, indulged in debauchery, and loved glittering, shiny objects. They were extremely fond of any light emanating from gold, gems, or even Magical Artifacts in the world, and liked to collect them in their caves.
It seems the rumors are true!
Currently, this Twin-Horned Azure Moon Flood Dragon might not be a True Dragon, but it should belong to the Dragon Clan's descendants, possessing a trace of True Dragon Bloodline, and thus inherited the True Dragon's characteristic of loving to accumulate wealth and collect treasures.
Li Mu gradually noticed that the Spiritual Artifacts in the cave had existed for a relatively long time. In the deep sea, their corrosion rate was faster than on land.
Li Mu's Divine Thought swept across, roughly estimating that there were thousands, even tens of thousands, of Spiritual Artifacts in the cave. However, the Spiritual light of most of them was extremely faint, and their spirituality was greatly damaged, making them worthless for repair.
He directly collected over a hundred well-preserved third and fourth-tier Spiritual Artifacts, as well as twelve fifth-tier Spiritual Artifacts, with a sweep of his Divine Thought and a wave of his hand.
More valuable than Spiritual Artifacts were the high-tier Spirit Medicine growing on the surrounding rock walls, emitting blue phosphorescence, and various high-tier Artifact Refining Materials.
Li Mu's Divine Thought covered the area, and his Spiritual Power spread out. High-aged Spiritual Plants, Spirit Medicine, and some inconspicuous high-tier Artifact Refining Materials were all collected into his nine storage spiritual pearl. Like a swarm of locusts, wherever he passed, all sorts of valuable Spiritual items were taken into his possession.
Li Mu walked and collected along the way, with the water-elemental Battle Puppet group swimming ahead, scouting the path for him.
The grotto passage was extremely deep. Under Li Mu's Divine Sense sweep, he discovered that this seemingly chaotic grotto was actually meticulously modified.
Not only were there Cultivation grounds, but also vast residential Immortal Caves, and even areas similar to where sea Spiritual Plants were cultivated.
This discovery greatly surprised Li Mu. It seemed he hadn't come to the wrong place; this underwater Immortal Cave should be the habitat of the Double-Horned Azure Moon Flood Dragon.
Li Mu meticulously surveyed, missing no detail. He discovered many gnawed Human Race skeletons, as well as skeletons of other types of Yao Beasts, and a large number of low-tier Spiritual Artifacts, most of which had already corroded.
Furthermore, there was a vast amount of Artifact Refining Materials. However, most of them had lost their spirituality due to being tainted by Evil Qi, and instead accumulated a lot of Yin Evil Qi, making them suitable for refining into Demonic Artifacts.
Seeing this scene, Li Mu was heartbroken.
So many Artifact Refining Materials, tens of thousands of catties in total, and most of them were wasted. What a pity!
Li Mu continued to swim deeper into the cave passage. During this time, he found that the number of Human Race skeletons and sea Yao Beast skeletons gradually increased.
Li Mu frowned, suddenly feeling something was amiss. Among the large number of remains, he picked up a relatively less corroded, fresh Yao Beast skeleton and carefully observed it in his hand. It was a Qilin.
This Yao Beast skeleton had clearly been eaten not long ago. Li Mu was excited; the appearance of this Yao Beast skeleton confirmed that he was getting closer and closer to the dwelling of the Double-Horned Azure Moon Flood Dragon.
Li Mu abandoned the low-tier Spiritual Artifacts and accelerated his flight, rushing towards the end of the cave passage.
Halfway through, Li Mu discovered that a cave entrance ahead was piled high with a large number of sea Yao Beast and Human remains, so numerous that they almost completely blocked the four to five-zhang wide entrance.
Li Mu's Divine Thought swept across, and he found dozens of Storage Bracelets and Storage Rings of various shapes within the pile of bones.
Li Mu waved his hand, collecting all those Storage Bracelets and Storage Rings one by one.
Collecting loot along the way, Li Mu quickly reached the end of the grotto: a circular Formation platform in the center of the rock cave, piled high with corpses. Beneath the platform, some scale-like objects emitted a faint azure light.
Li Mu picked one up and found it was a scale the size of a human head. The edge of the scale was extremely sharp, cold to the touch, contained traces of Spiritual Qi, and was extremely tough.
Under the Heavenly Talent - Identifying Myriad Spirits, Li Mu learned the scale's information: it was a scale shed from a Twin-Horned Azure Moon Flood Dragon.
With this scale, he could use a tracking Formation to sense the location of that Twin-Horned Azure Moon Flood Dragon.
Many other Dragon scales were scattered around. These were good Artifact Refining Materials, suitable for crafting high-tier defensive Artifacts. Li Mu collected them one by one.
Just as Li Mu was regretting not finding any Dragon bones in the Immortal Cave, a terrifying Evil Qi suddenly erupted from an unknown source. As the Yin Evil Qi spread, the temperature of the entire underwater Immortal Cave plummeted, and the seawater began to frost.
This Evil Qi even dyed the surrounding seawater dark red, mixed with extremely deep resentment.
The Octopus Demon King's spirit, held in Li Mu's hand, was terrified and struggled violently.
Before long, the Octopus Demon King's spirit, immersed in the dark red seawater, became unusually agitated, even attempting to attack Li Mu.
This situation made Li Mu frown. He threw the Yao Beast spirit into a soul gathering bottle, immediately activated the Five Elements Spirit Mountain to resist the surrounding Evil Qi, and steadied his mind to prevent his intelligence from being affected by the resentment carried within the Evil Qi.
"What's going on?"
Li Mu couldn't help but frown deeply. He released his Divine Thought but found no source for the Evil Qi, nor did he know how these terrifying Evil Qi had appeared.
Li Mu was about to flee the Immortal Cave and return to the surface first, but the Evil Qi came and went quickly.
In the blink of an eye, the Evil Qi receded like a tide, vanishing without a trace, and the seawater returned to its original state.
This?
Even having witnessed many strange things, Li Mu was dumbfounded at this moment.
Could it be that some Heaven And Earth Treasure had appeared here? Or perhaps high-tier Devilish Qi?
The Twin-Horned Azure Moon Flood Dragon was no longer in the Immortal Cave. Li Mu had thoroughly searched this underwater rock cave and confirmed that there were no other living beings inside besides himself.
Could it be that there really was some Heaven And Earth Treasure or high-tier Spirit Treasure appearing?
Li Mu hesitated for a moment, then prepared to investigate. He began to meticulously search the areas he hadn't explored yet.
Soon, a dark small cave at the end of the grotto caught Li Mu's attention.
The cave was about two zhang wide, and its interior was completely dark. His Divine Thought swept into it but seemed to be blocked by something; even with his Divine Thought strength, he couldn't penetrate it, which aroused Li Mu's curiosity.
Li Mu conjured five Five Elements Spirit Swords, which circled around him, ready in a sword Formation.
Li Mu released another set of Five Elements Spirit Swords, attached his Divine Sense to a sword, and sent the Flying Sword into the small cave.
The Five Elements Spirit Sword - Fire Sword suddenly unleashed a massive amount of Fire Element Spiritual Power, emitting a blaze of light that illuminated the entire underground Immortal Cave.
It revealed everything within the cave: the floor was densely covered with skeletons, and eerie green lights flickered among them.
"So many Dragon remains!"
Li Mu's eyes shone brightly. He flew into the small cave, staring intently at the rock walls around the interior, where stone platforms had been carved out.
As far as the eye could see, Dragon remains coiled, each occupying a stone platform, with clusters of eerie green light, like ghost fires, clinging to each Dragon remain. There were over a hundred of them, large and small.
Li Mu was filled with mixed emotions of surprise and joy. He activated his Heavenly Talent - Identifying Myriad Spirits and scanned the Dragon remains on each corpse platform.
A regrettable scene unfolded!
This cave was the resting place for the remains of the Double-Horned Azure Moon Flood Dragon Clan. After a long period of Years and the corrosion of seawater, most of the Dragon remains had lost their spirituality and were beyond repair.
Some well-preserved Dragon bones were mostly third and fourth-tier, small in size, and of mediocre quality, which greatly dampened Li Mu's spirits.
Li Mu, unwilling to give up, continued his search.
Ultimately, he successfully scavenged two relatively well-preserved Azure Moon Flood Dragon remains, one fifth-tier and the other sixth-tier.
【Double-Horned Azure Moon Flood Dragon Bone.】
【Tier: Sixth-tier Yao Beast Skeleton.】
【Characteristics: Dragon bone is hard, extremely cold Qi, missing Dragon soul.】
【Status: Spirituality damaged, missing Dragon soul.】
【According to legend, a Flood Dragon born from the union of an ancient Azure Dragon and an illusionary snake demon, containing a trace of ancient Azure Dragon Bloodline. It is skilled in water techniques, enjoys eating Human Race, and has a combative nature. If one can find Heavenly Dragon Spiritual Plants and consume a large amount of them, there is a chance to awaken the Dragon Clan Bloodline within its body and evolve into a Dragon. To repair the Flood Dragon bone: soak it in ten thousand drops of fifth-tier Mystic Nether True Water, combined with a small amount of Yao Beast essence blood.】
Could cultivating with a large amount of Heavenly Dragon Spiritual Plants potentially awaken the Dragon Bloodline?
Could it evolve and transform into a Dragon?
Upon learning this, Li Mu couldn't help but take a deep breath, his eyes gleaming with surprise and joy.
He hadn't expected that this Twin-Horned Azure Moon Flood Dragon actually had a chance to evolve into a Dragon Clan member. This was truly an unexpected delight.
The intelligence purchased from Tianji Pavilion was well worth it!
Ever since he learned the Nine Dragons Immortal Slaughtering Formation, Li Mu had been constantly thinking about whether he could find True Dragon remains to refine the true Artifacts for the Nine Dragons Immortal Slaughtering Formation.
After all, a Flood Dragon only contained a trace of Dragon Bloodline and could not fully unleash the true power of the Nine Dragons Immortal Slaughtering Formation.
If he could use nine True Dragon remains, with their vast Dragon Qi and fully unleashed True Dragon power, he would be invincible among those of the same tier, and challenging those of higher tiers would be no problem.
However, Li Mu learned many things about True Dragons from the southern spirit annals.
In ancient times, the four Sacred Beast Clans that ruled the Yao Race were the True Phoenix, Sacred Tiger, Qilin, Dragon Clan, and Black Tortoise. These five Sacred Beast Clans ruled the four directions and occupied the Central Plains, possessing terrifying strength, leaving no room for the Human Race!
For some unknown reason, the five great Sacred Clans suddenly vanished overnight, which gave the Human Race an opportunity to rise powerfully, gradually surpassing the Yao Race.
As for the reason for the disappearance of the five great Sacred Clans, the southern spirit annals had no relevant records, but it did mention the Ten Thousand Demon Mountain Range and hinted at signs of True Dragon souls appearing there.
Li Mu, being weak in strength, naturally dared not set foot in the Ten Thousand Demon Mountain Range. With his current strength, he might have a chance to explore it.
Finding two high-tier Flood Dragon remains was an unexpected surprise.
Li Mu was overjoyed. He quickly stored the two Flood Dragon remains in his nine storage spiritual pearl. After continuing to investigate the Flood Dragon's corpse cave and confirming there were no more Flood Dragon remains that met his needs, he planned to leave the area.
Just then, countless eerie green light clusters floating around suddenly began to converge rapidly towards one spot.
Li Mu's expression changed slightly. He controlled the Five Elements Spirit Mountain and Five Elements Spirit Swords, looking around vigilantly.
Suddenly, an unexpected change occurred!