Chapter 293: Chapter 10 The Lake Cave, Sea Bodhi
A severe dizziness overwhelmed him.
Ling Yunpo only felt his consciousness separate from his body, plummeting swiftly downwards, into the endless abyss.
Suddenly, a fair hand as white as jade reached out from above, firmly grasping his arm.
Ling Yunpo looked up in bewilderment and saw a charming girl looking at him anxiously.
She had a distinct oval face, slightly chubby, but not pudgy, which, together with her bright eyes and white teeth, made her extremely adorable.
Ling Yunpo was certain he had never seen her before.
Then, he woke up.
“Are you okay?” Kunlun Mirror said with guilt, “The illusion was a bit troublesome. It took a few more moments to break.”
“I’m fine,” Ling Yunpo shook his head and then turned his attention to his surroundings, “This is…”
He found himself being carried by a group of small demons, bobbing along as they moved forward.
These demons… seemed to be from the Aquatic Clan, some with large shrimp-like bodies, some with huge crab pincers, others with hard turtle shells, and some had fish scales and tendrils, and without exception—they all had incredibly low cultivation, with the highest only at the Qi Refining Rank.
Of course, this was only to be expected.
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Ever since the various superior demon races of the Divine Land Continent had been driven by humans to the Eastern Emperor Realm, the ones left behind were nothing more than dregs that had become demons on their own.
Happily achieving the Refining Mansion cultivation, as soon as they attempted the transformation tribulation, they would immediately alarm the cultivators from the great sects within a hundred miles. First the Golden Core True Persons, then the Nascent Soul Elders. Can’t beat the Nascent Soul Elder? Then immortals will come.
Ling Yunpo’s divine sense swept over them repeatedly, and these fish, shrimp, turtles, and crabs didn’t notice a thing, just cheerily shouting as they trudged on.
Expanding his divine sense further, he noticed An Zhisu up ahead, also being carried forward by a bunch of demons.
As for Lin Duanshan, Duan Fenhai, Guan Shanyue, and the others, they were scattered among the small demon groups to the left, right, and behind, without exception.
Are they planning to tie us up and eat us? Ling Yunpo wondered, frowning.
That’s not right. According to what the predecessors said, any cultivator who enters the Misty Forest should come out unharmed.
He decided to wait and see how things unfolded while secretly preparing his spells.
If he encountered Jiaolong from the Aquatic Clan later, he would use the Polar Thunder to strike them dead; if they were all fish, shrimp, turtles, and crabs, then he’d use the Five Elements Divine Light to sweep them away.
When it comes to dealing with Aquatic Clan demons, I have plenty of trump cards!
About half an hour later, Ling Yunpo saw the trees around him thin out, and the mist became lighter.
In front of him lay a forest lake, which seemed quite large, at least his divine sense couldn’t detect the opposite shore.
On the muddy and rocky shore of the lake, a simple altar had been built with an unattractive combination of wood, mud, and reeds.
A fishman—Ling Yunpo didn’t know how else to describe it; calling it a Naga would be inappropriate—had a human upper body with scales, gills, and fins, and a serpentine lower body, holding an exquisite jade stone scepter, posed as if embracing the sun with open arms.
“Gurgle gurgle gur”- It said loudly.
“Gurgle gurgle!” replied the fish, shrimp, turtles, and crabs.
“Are they having a conversation? Or are they just shouting?” Ling Yunpo asked in confusion.
“That’s the ancient language of the Aquatic Clan,” Kunlun Mirror said strangely, “and it’s the accent from the White Rock Reef area of the Southern Sea… I’ll try to translate it.”
Ah Jing’s translation was terrible, disjointed and incoherent, but thanks to Ling Yunpo’s excellent hearing, he could just about make out the gist.
He heard the fishman priest say:
“Great! Holy! Exalted! Ancestral lands! Bring salt! Salt! Salt!”
What the small demon fish, shrimp, turtles, and crabs said was much simpler:
“Salt! Salt! Salt!”
Ling Yunpo: ???
Is it your translation that’s wrong, or is it my understanding?
“The ancient language of the Aquatic Clan is basically a simplified version of the ancient Dragon Clan language that leaked out!” Kunlun Mirror argued, “These little demons have low intelligence; how could they possibly use any complex vocabulary?”
“Alright, that explanation will do… you pass,” Ling Yunpo felt it wasn’t lying and was about to smooth things over when he heard the fish-man shaman declare:
“Take these five beasts to the salt retrieval room!” With a grand wave of the fish-man shaman’s hand, the little demons cheered and swarmed forward, binding the five people and rushing them into the deep water of the lake.
Ordinary humans would definitely drown if they were thrown into the lake like this, but as cultivators don’t need to breathe, there wasn’t really a problem.
The fish, shrimp, turtles, and crabs plunged into the lake, dragging the bundled-up five like zongzi deeper down.
The lake water, though clear, was extremely deep; they had probably dived about a hundred zhang and still hadn’t reached the bottom.
As Ling Yunpo continued to sink, he was suddenly pulled aside by the little demons and dragged into a rocky cave.
The cave seemed to be located deep within a volcano or near a geothermal source; the closer they got to the interior, the hotter the surrounding water became.
Ling Yunpo even began to feel irritably aware that his body couldn’t withstand such exaggerated heat, and he instinctively started to sweat.
…Wait, sweating?
A revelation, like a flash of lightning, flickered through his mind.
Water Clan creatures with Southern Sea accents, yet living in this freshwater lake within the Hundred Thousand Mountains inland.
They needed salt, a salt retrieval room, beasts, and most crucially, the sweating.
Ling Yunpo had understood everything.
About a quarter of an hour later, the little demons brought everyone to a corridor.
The corridor was connected to many stone chambers; the little demons threw the five people into separate chambers one by one and then activated the mechanism, dropping the heavy doors.
Ling Yunpo was the last to be thrown into the stone chamber. His divine sense swept around, and he thought it seemed a bit like a combination of a hot spring suite and a sauna room.
The stone chamber door fell shut with a thud, and so he opened his eyes to look around.
The surroundings were all bare stone walls, along with the omnipresent scalding lake water.
He felt the sweat pouring out rapidly from his body, which was soon swept away by the surrounding water flow.
Only a cultivator’s body, post Marrow Cleansing, could withstand such scorching heat and dehydration.
Ling Yunpo carefully inspected the room and saw a small hole in the floor where it seemed all the water was draining into.
Apart from that, there was nothing else.
Several hours passed before Ling Yunpo suddenly heard the voices of little demons outside:
“Beasts! Female! Lots of salt! Feed the secret medicine!”
Ling Yunpo: ???
He pressed his head against the stone door, extending his divine sense outside, and realized that the little demons were gathered in front of a certain stone chamber, pressing the mechanism to open the door.
And that stone chamber, he remembered clearly… was the one where Senior Sister An was kept!
He saw the little demons enter the chamber, and one of the turtles took out a wooden box, opened the lid, and inside there was an orange-yellow fruit, about the size of a cherry, emitting a peculiar spiritual power.
Was that… the Sea Bodhi?
He suddenly recalled that Luo Yan, who used to read miscellaneous books in the Daozang Pavilion at Yuqing View, had known about an ancient fruit called Sea Bodhi from the Southern Sea. It grew from sea grass in the Sea Abyss, a thousand zhang deep, and was extremely rare; consuming it could also increase Refining Mansion Cultivation.
However, this sea grass had poor survivability and needed the care of the Water Clan Demon Race to grow.
Since many Demon Race members were driven to the Eastern Emperor Realm, the Sea Bodhi had completely disappeared from this world.
With this in mind, Ling Yunpo extended his divine sense again.
He saw that after An Zhisu consumed the Sea Bodhi, her originally translucent jade-like skin gradually took on a bright crimson hue.
Massive amounts of scorching Fire System Spiritual Energy flowed from her meridians throughout her limbs and torso, then circulated back to her Qi Sea and flushed against the inner walls of the Jade Mansion.
The little demons, oblivious to her abnormal condition, only slightly opened and closed their gills, sensing that the salt concentration around had risen a level, and then happily left satisfied.
After all the little demons had departed, Ling Yunpo drew his Green Duckweed Sword and carved a hole in the stone door.
Then, he stealthily swam out.