Becoming a God from a Water Monkey

Chapter 1138 Breathing

Chapter 1138 Breathing In (6k words, combined into one chapter)

"Bao Jiaxiang! Stop dawdling, I'm asking you, what about last month's orders?"

Kuang Chen gripped the wooden frame tightly with his five fingers, veins bulging on his forehead, his little snake twisting in extreme dissatisfaction.

"Let me look, let me look... Last month, oh, the Little Treasure Vault consumed a total of Grade One Blood Treasures..." Bao Jiaxiang dared not face Kuang Chen's anger directly, and quickly flipped through the book. Seeing that Lao Yingtian hadn't moved for a long time, he turned around and found that he was still standing there in a daze. He hurriedly called out, "Yingtian, come and register. What are you standing there for?"

"coming!"

Lao Yingtian withdrew his gaze and shouted, his hoarse voice echoing in the treasure vault, startling not only Bao Jiaxiang but also himself.

At this moment, Lao Yingtian suddenly realized that his heart was pounding, his muscles were stiff as iron, his lips were cracked and sticky with saliva, and it seemed that he had to control even his breathing and blinking. He forced himself to calm down, multitasking, moving his legs and silently counting his breaths.

A quarter of an hour.

A quarter of an hour is one hundred and fifty breaths.

He could only hold out for 150 breaths at most, but Elder Yu had to come back!

"Why are you so stiff? So nervous?" Kuang Chen suddenly spoke, narrowing his signature phoenix eyes again like a fox. "You didn't steal anything from the treasure vault, did you?"

Lao Yingtian remained calm, took a step, and raised his voice: "The treasure vault contains all the sect's property. How could Lao dare to covet it? It's just that our senior brother rarely cares about his fellow disciples, seldom comes to work at the Department of Revenue, and is unwilling to recruit more disciples, leaving us to work day and night in the department. It's inevitable that we are a little tired."

Kuang Chen's brows furrowed, and he never expected that Lao Yingtian would dare to speak to him like that.

Even though he had just lost a top-grade blood treasure, he at least pretended to be trembling with fear in his words.

He put down the accounts he was registering and slowly walked towards Lao Yingtian.

Brother Lao is awesome!
Bao Jiaxiang screamed inwardly, giving a frantic thumbs-up. He had never realized Lao Yingtian was so brave.

"One hundred and forty-seven breaths..."

Lao Yingtian faced Kuang Chen directly, silently reciting in his heart.

……

Snow Mountain King Lu shook his massive shell, carrying everyone on his back, and swam into the lake, creating ripples.

As the water flowed, Liu Jingxuan and his reflection stared at each other.

"Ling Xuan, are you sure we're here? Is there anything special about this place?" Chi Erlan asked, her fingertips breaking through the water as she looked around in confusion.

Suo Yuqin was equally puzzled: "Master, the hidden agents on Jiese Renqin Gongbu Mountain haven't been dealt with yet, so why not send someone to guard them instead of coming to Blue Lake? Is there a new hidden agent?"

“Because it won’t make a difference if we don’t make any more mistakes today. If there are no problems today, the hidden stakes will be useless, and we won’t need to waste any more time.” Ling Xuan stared intently at the clear blue water.

"What do you mean?" No one understood.

"Could it be that the imperial court has made a decision?" Zhedan asked nervously. "They want to open the gates of hell and seize the throne in one fell swoop?"

“No, none of those are true.” Ling Xuan shook her head. “The Marquis of Xingyi came looking for me yesterday.”

"The Marquis of Xingyi came yesterday? Does that mean Sister Eying is coming?"

“No, he said…” Ling Xuan exhaled, the breath condensing into white mist and dissipating in the wind, “He wants to pick the fruit today.”

"What.!"

……

"call!"

"One hundred and forty-six breaths!"

The yellow bag was bulging.

A total of 182 super-grade blood treasures and 1,100 first-grade blood treasures!
Liang Qu quickly calculated the time, then jumped into the Tongtian River with the yellow bag on his back. He dared not traverse between Yin and Yang under the Heavenly Fire Sect, but unfortunately, the [Water Travel] technique could not carry items that did not come into contact with his own body. Using only [Water Travel] would result in a lot of wasted time.

There is only one way left.

Wow.

He quickly pulled out a thin thread and tied the yellow bag tightly. Liang Qu then used his Ruyi Scepter to expand it into a five-zhang-long blood ape. He opened his mouth wide and stuffed the entire bag into his mouth, swallowing it whole!

Its throat was stretched open, like a python feeding.

More than a thousand blood treasures, along with their boxes and bags, were over a meter in diameter. They roughly forced open the throat, blocked the trachea, and drew blood before they could even slide into the stomach.

[Travel a thousand miles on water!]
Figures moved about.

One hundred and forty breaths.

Thousands of miles away!
"Wow!"

With a powerful impact, Liang Qu was transported to the mortal realm. The vast Blue Marshland stretched out before him, the sky and the earth sharing the same azure hue. He felt as if a chunk of flesh had been scraped away from his stomach.

Looking back.

More than three hundred first-grade blood treasures remained in the crevices.

I don't have time to pick it up.

He reached down into his throat, grabbed the opening of the bag, and yanked it out!
"vomit!"

The swollen neck suddenly contracted, and breathing became easy.

Saliva uncontrollably drooled from his mouth, he coughed violently, and he struggled to suppress his gagging. Liang Qujin's eyes blazed with fury.

boom!
The colors of heaven and earth shifted and distorted. The moment the Blood Treasure appeared in the mortal world, the evil energy and calamity of heaven and earth converged and rolled in. In a place invisible to others, a gray vortex with a diameter of ten miles suddenly appeared!

Open the yellow bag.

The vortex water transformed into countless tentacles, entangling the bloodstone and tearing open the treasure box. The little mirage dragon had practiced this countless times in its dream, almost to the point of instinct. All the superior and first-grade blood treasures, centered on Liangqu, quickly spread out and took their positions, forming a profound array.

"Zhou Tian Qi Guiding Array!"

The highest-grade element is at the center of the formation, while the lowest-grade element is secondary, their elements resonating in harmony.

The gray gas vortex, which was ten miles in diameter, suddenly expanded to fifteen miles!

The clear sky suddenly turned dark.

Dark clouds gathered, the blue lake surged, and water vapor rose, with wisps of moisture drifting onto my face.

A burst of blood!
One hundred and thirty-five breaths remain.

……

"The Marquis of Xingyi is going to seize the throne? How is he going to do that?!"

"What method did Marquis Xingyi use?"

Everyone was shocked and speechless, as if they had just learned a shocking secret.

"I don't know." Ling Xuan shook her head.

"What if it takes too long and attracts the attention of the Lotus Sect? Is that all we can do?"

"A quarter of an hour."

"what?"

"Marquis Xingyi said he calculated that it would take 120 to 130 breaths to elicit the fruit." Ling Xuan's eyes sparkled as she spoke rapidly, "I have also calculated it repeatedly. The location to elicit the fruit is within my Great Shun territory, in the center of Blue Lake. If the aura were to erupt from this location, it would take at least 150 breaths to reach the Lotus Sect atop the Snow Mountain."

In other words, the matter is highly likely to be accomplished discreetly. Even if it takes more than 150 breaths, the Lotus Sect will need time to discuss the procedures and then rush to Blue Lake. Even if we assume the worst, there will be at least 200 breaths of safe time before anyone pursues us! A full quarter of an hour—plenty of leeway!

Different fruits have different life forms; before refining, they are all physical entities!

Although he didn't know why Liang Qu said he had a chance to conceal his aura, or what method he used, even if he couldn't conceal it, he had fifty breaths of leeway, so he could run back. He had two escape cards in his hand!
Zhedan stared blankly: "Is this the end of our dealing with the undercover agents?"

For many years, they have been venturing into desolate mountains and boundless lakes, far from their parents and relatives, carefully handling and concealing one hidden agent after another, living in constant fear that they might mishandle the situation and attract the attention of the Lotus Sect...

"Rest assured, the rewards promised by the imperial court are still in effect."

"If the Lotus Sect finds out, will they activate their hidden agents beforehand? We've only dealt with 30%... that's still a problem," Hu Lixin couldn't help but worry.

Everyone turned around in unison and stared silently at Hu Lixin.

"What's wrong……"

"Are you stupid or is the Great Snow Mountain stupid?" Zhedan sneered. "Have you been out of work for too long and your brain has gone dull? Or do you think all these years of our work have been in vain?"

Hu Lixin was puzzled. After a moment's thought, he suddenly realized what was going on. Embarrassed, he scratched the back of his head and said to himself, "I've made a stupid mistake. I've been here for so many years, and I've forgotten why the Lotus Sect has set up hidden agents."

The Lotus Sect's deployment of hidden agents to pollute the Huai River and cause chaos was not only intended to create malevolent energy, attract drought demons, and then leverage these demons to gain a strategic advantage amidst the chaos.

Hidden stakes are the means, while the desired outcome is the goal.

Not to mention their many years of effort, which had already suppressed the hidden agents to a certain extent.

If the drought demon is removed prematurely, and the Lotus Sect detonates its hidden stakes, causing numerous civilian casualties upstream, aside from disgusting Da Shun and triggering fierce internal resistance and infighting, it will not shake the overall situation, nor will it gain any strategic advantage.

Injuring others is not good for oneself.

At that time, chaos reigned everywhere, and he had to bear the wrath of the Great Shun Dynasty, becoming the target of everyone's anger.

Southern Xinjiang, Northern Court, Snow Mountain, and other forces have always remained in a static state, precisely because no one wants to be the first to take the lead.

It's never about who puts in the most effort getting the biggest benefits.

The one who preserves the most strength afterward will reap the greatest benefits!

"got windy."

Ling Xuan looked up.

Suo Yuqin raised her hand: "It's raining too."

Fine raindrops fell, landing on my cheeks, long and narrow, like a razor-sharp knife.

One hundred and twenty breaths!

……

"Obtain the Ba Fruit, lure the Mountain Serpent God of Southern Xinjiang to consume it, and the conflict between water and drought will cause the false dragon technique to fail. Take advantage of its weakness, burn it to death, thus destroying its prestige and gaining the Green Maiden. This is killing two birds with one stone. If you can accomplish this, this mid-level fruit will be yours."

The rain was torrential.

Thunder dragons roamed through the clouds, millions of tons of water fell from the darkness, and the reservoir gates were opened.

Liang Qu's fingers twitched uncontrollably, rapidly tapping the air as he involuntarily recalled the words he spoke with the Holy Emperor when he ascended to the highest realm and climbed the Moon-Viewing Tower.

Memories from several years ago vividly surfaced in my mind, as if I were climbing the tower again and meeting the emperor once more.

The index finger is moving vigorously.

Having reached this level of spiritual cultivation, this situation shouldn't occur, but the intense tension inevitably affects the body.

He looked as if he were sitting on a giant powder keg, with a rudimentary timer attached to it, consisting of two wires, one red and one blue.

Even after countless rehearsals and knowing which hair to cut correctly, I still couldn't help but feel flustered the moment I sat down to start the timer.

The blue lake is covered in white.

Water vapor rises, obscured by a curtain of rain.

A branch-shaped lightning bolt flashed in the darkness, followed by a deafening explosion.

The crimson light of the Blood Treasure was suppressed by the dark clouds.

The only thing clearly visible is a pair of molten gold eyes.

The gray vortex continued to expand, growing from fifteen miles to fifty miles in just five breaths. The vortex dragon stretched to the heavens and the earth, frantically absorbing the moisture, evil energy, and calamities between heaven and earth... like a prisoner who had not drunk or eaten for thousands of years and was extremely thirsty!
Liang Qu noticed that the moisture was disappearing rapidly, flowing into nothingness, but it was replenished from other places. His lips were cracked and peeling, and he felt thirsty. He looked up at the sky, and raindrops hit his lips.

"Crack!"

Branch-shaped lightning bolts fell onto the water's surface, and ancient, white trees branched out, growing from the black wasteland into the clouds.

The rain is getting heavier.

One hundred breaths remaining.

……

In the sixth treasure vault, Kuang Chen gripped Lao Yingtian's clothes tightly, while Bao Jiaxiang tried to break them up.

"Senior Brother Kuang, Senior Brother Lao, we are all fellow disciples of the Heavenly Fire Sect. Let's talk things out and not resort to violence!"

"Kuang Chen, besides having a good father and earning the title of first-class disciple, what other skills do you have!"

Bao Jiaxiang's pupils dilated.

crazy!

This guy is crazy!
"Lao Yingtian! I think you don't know the difference between elders and juniors!" Kuang Chen was furious and slammed Lao Yingtian against the wall of the treasure vault.

"Am I wrong?" Lao Yingtian remained unmoved, continuing to mock him to the best of his ability.

"Stop arguing, stop arguing, Senior Brother Kuang! You always like to make things difficult for Brother Lao, and Brother Lao has lost his mind. Everyone has problems, and the key is that it's already noon. Most of the elders have already returned from the banquet. If we all go out together and come back, Master will definitely cause a misunderstanding when he sees that we haven't returned yet, and everyone will be caught in the crossfire!" Bao Jiaxiang was on the verge of tears, but for a moment he suddenly mustered some courage and "reprimanded" the two of them.

Hearing the melon fall.

The treasure vault was silent, the shimmering patterns on the shelves rising and falling like breaths.

Kuang Chen held back for a long time, then slammed Lao Yingtian heavily against the wall. Finally, he loosened his collar and said coldly, "Come and register!"

Lao Yingtian patted his clothes and straightened the corners.

Ninety breaths remaining.

……

Blue Lake surged and rippled amidst the wind and rain.

"The water level of Blue Lake is dropping!" King Lu of Snow Mountain suddenly spoke.

"Water level?" Ling Xuan looked down.

"Just now, when I touched the bottom and walked, the top of the shell was still more than ten feet above the water surface. Now, half a foot has been cut off, and they are all rushing to one place!"

"Dropped that fast?"

"Are they already drawing out the demon fruit?"

Everyone concentrated.

Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed deep within the dark clouds. Ling Xuan rose and gazed into the distance, her clothes fluttering in the wind.

A gentle breeze swept across the river, causing the leaden-gray lake surface to ripple, as if a water beast were about to leap out of the water.

Eighty breaths.

"Kakakaka."

The surging waves instantly froze into ice crystals, which then shattered.

Strange celestial phenomenon: a sea of ice crystals!

Seventy breaths.

The sound of the tide echoed, spacious and leisurely, not like it came from water, but more like a stone forest in the Gobi Desert.

Another unusual phenomenon: the sound of the tide in the stone forest!

Sixty breaths.

A corner of the dark cloud broke off and collapsed, allowing the bright moonlight to flow down like a long river of mercury into the blue lake.

Another strange phenomenon, no, two!
Clear sky and bright moon!

The Milky Way pours down to the earth!

Four extraordinary celestial phenomena, which ordinary people long for but cannot obtain, appeared at once within a few minutes, and the number is still increasing!
A school of fish appeared in the sky, swimming and dancing everywhere. Icebergs floated abruptly, then quickly cracked and dissolved. Moonlight and dark clouds intertwined, spreading out like dark sunlight.

The world was in chaos, and all sorts of strange phenomena appeared as if a shopping mall was having a sale, with everything being dumped off at once.

The fish died in large numbers, floating belly up, their bodies shriveled and their eyes bulging.

thirsty.

An unusual thirst.

So thirsty that one would drink blood.

Liang Qu was glad he hadn't brought his physical body with him, otherwise some unknown changes would have occurred.

Numerous extraordinary celestial phenomena appeared one after another, stirring up a surge of inspiration.

Liang Qu, who had previously found it useless to observe the strange phenomena, found his internal energy sea also becoming active, boiling and surging from a base of 6,821 times its original size!
Not only Liang Qu, but also Ling Xuan, Chi Erlan and others a hundred miles away all felt the boiling of their internal energy sea, experienced the benefits, and quickly sat down to refine it.

Ling Xuan's internal energy sea, which was nineteen times larger than usual, rapidly expanded to twenty times its original size!

In one corner of the world, heaven and earth turned upside down, but because it was too far from the capital city, no one knew about this amazing scene except for those in the center.

The Blue Lake monster was terrified and panicked, unaware of the strange changes in the world, and tried its best to escape.

Fifty breaths remaining.

At the center of the vortex.

Liang Qu dared not concentrate on his cultivation, his golden eyes fixed on the vortex of gray energy.

Until a ray of red light emerged from the darkness!
boom!
Face the red light.

Liangqu saw the sun, which hung in the sky, baking the earth, causing cracks to spread and barrenness to grow!
Piles of bones lay scattered along the roadside, with finger bones sticking out to block strips of cloth. The wind blew through them, and they cracked and became as brittle as withered leaves.

Giant trees turned to dust, and soil turned into yellow sand.

魃！
旱！
Even in his spirit form, Liang Qu, facing the red light, was still unable to stop dehydrating. His cloth burned, he opened his mouth and let out a wisp of smoke, his skin shrank tightly and clung to his bones, turning him into a dried corpse!

He wanted to endure it, but it was simply beyond human resistance.

"what!"

The unbearable heat caused his skin to crack like a red lotus. Liang Qu swayed and screamed before falling into the Blue Lake.

Bubbles floated in the field of vision.

The vast Blue Lake, once plugged, unleashes a torrent of water that is no longer an invisible vortex of gray mist; a stunning vortex appears in reality.

boom!
Tens of millions of tons of floodwater evaporated and disappeared.

Crimson Gold Radiance surged to unprecedented heights!

Thirty breaths remaining.

……

"Move everything out!"

With the number of Blood Treasures replenished correctly, Kuang Chen closed the book and placed all the items that needed to be transferred onto the cart. There were tens of thousands of them, ranging from mid-grade to high-grade, piled up like a mountain.

Lao Yingtian remained unmoved.

Kuang Chen frowned.

"Hey, let me do it."

Bao Jiaxiang was terrified and quickly acted as a mediator, taking the work upon himself. When he passed by Lao Yingtian, he noticed that Lao Yingtian looked very peaceful.

His expression was strange and indescribable, like that of a believer worshipping the Great God in the Temple of Prayer for Heaven.

call.

suck.

Lao Yingtian's chest rose and fell calmly, without any sign of emotion.

One hundred and fifty breaths.

For the first fifty breaths, he was trembling with fear, sweating profusely, and every step he took was like walking on thin ice, for fear of being discovered.

After fifty breaths, he was almost going mad, like a lamb leg roasting on charcoal, being turned over by the cook, who slowly roasted the lamb fat over a low flame, which dripped onto the red-hot coals, dehydrated, and turned into charcoal.

The next fifty breaths.

Snapped!
The charred lamb leg fell and shattered into countless black fragments.

He found inner peace.

When I was a child, my body never seemed to wait for mealtimes.

There are few snacks at home. When you are extremely hungry and no food comes, your stomach feels like it's on fire. Once you get through the burning sensation, you no longer feel hungry, and then you feel that picking the spider lilies out of your mouth is a hassle.

The wheels rolled, crushing the paving stones.

Bao Jiaxiang dared not say anything more, and pushed the cart forward until he arrived at the entrance of the treasure vault.

The cart came to a sudden stop.

The peak of Blood Treasure Mountain collapsed under the force, and the water flowed out like a tide.

Repeated opposition, repeated delays, repeated mistakes...

A bunch of losers!
Kuang Chen's veins bulged, and his inner ferocity was almost impossible to conceal. He rushed forward until he reached the gate, where he trembled and froze in his tracks.

The Blood Treasure Mountain was still collapsing, its grades mixed together, the boxes clattering against each other. Occasionally, one would be knocked open, and a Blood Treasure would roll out, tumbling and bumping into the toe of a shoe.

A whole row of elevated structures, a whole row of wooden planks.

All the marks were dull and lifeless, and above the marks, all the superior-grade blood treasures and all the boxes that held them were empty.

Blood Treasure spun in place, the sound gradually increasing in volume.

empty?

How can it be empty?

Not only is the blood treasure empty.

My fingers cramped and trembled, then clenched up like chicken claws.

The bizarreness from beginning to end, the coincidences from beginning to end, the arrangement from beginning to end...

Disaster!

An overwhelming sense of fear exploded in the minds of Kuang Chen and Bao Jiaxiang.

call.

suck.

Five breaths.

Twenty-five breaths.

Lao Yingtian silently counted.

"Dengdengdeng."

The screeching sound of his heels scraping against the bricks sent Kuang Chen staggering backward in terror, slumping against the wall. His mouth gaped open, his pupils trembling, just like a fish out of water.

Bao Jiaxiang knelt on the ground, curled up like a quail, trembling.

Dead silence.

Kuang Chen turned his head sharply, his eyes quickly becoming bloodshot.

He pounced on Lao Yingtian like a tiger and grabbed him by the neck.

"Lao Yingtian!! You! Quick, hand over the things! Stop playing with me, hand over the things! Where did you hide them?"

Lao Yingtian was calmer than ever before, and spread his arms wide.

"Search!"

The shouting stopped abruptly, and sweat seeped from Kuang Chen's forehead. He groped around, trying to pry open Lao Yingtian's pocket, hoping to pull out more than a hundred blood treasures and boxes from that palm-sized pocket.

call.

suck.

Five breaths later.

Twenty breaths.

"Have you found it?" Lao Yingtian asked.

"Ha, ha, ah!"

The bag was torn into shreds, and sweat dripped from Kuang Chen's nose onto Lao Yingtian's face. He gasped for breath but couldn't breathe, and slapped Lao Yingtian's mouth hard.

Even as blood trickled from the corner of his mouth and his teeth turned bright red, Lao Yingtian did not resist. Even when he was being beaten, his breathing remained steady and regular.

call.

suck.

Five breaths later.

Fifteen breaths.

"what!"

Kuang Chen stumbled to his feet, falling twice. He jumped up and down, his index finger taut, his lungs pumping forcefully to push through his stiff muscles, and three sharp words burst from his congested throat.

"You're done!"

Finished scolding.

He cried and screamed.

"I'm finished too!"

Kuang Chen clutched his head and slammed his fist against the wall three times. Then, he yelled and whirled around.

"No, tell Master, you will die! I won't! You will die! I won't!"

call.

suck.

Five breaths later.

Ten breaths.

Witnessing Kuang Chen stumble and run out, Lao Yingtian lowered his head, stared at the ceiling, and then closed his eyes.

Chest heaving.