Wanfa Daojun, starting from the Little Cloud and Rain Technique

Chapter 404 Blue Lotus

In his mind's eye, lines of text appeared, like ink marks on a calm lake.

[Master: Ji An]

[Tao Yun: Water 3.2]

[Spiritual clue: Kanling 352.6]

It has a Taoist charm!
Ji An's eyes lit up with joy, which showed that it was not necessary to have an extremely violent tectonic movement like a volcanic eruption to generate Daoist charm.

If he wasn't mistaken, there must be a high-quality water-based spiritual vein node at the bottom of this deep pool.

What exactly is a spiritual vein? This question is somewhat difficult to answer. It is not a physical entity, yet it truly exists.

'I need to go down and take a look.'

An idea began to form in Ji An's mind, but he was also somewhat apprehensive. The bottom of the pool was pitch black, which always gave him a sense of fear of facing the unknown.

Unlike the inner sanctum of a sect, the wilderness has a much higher chance of harboring demonic beasts in such spiritual vein nodes.

He was not afraid to fight on land, but it was somewhat inconvenient in the water.

After a moment's thought, Ji An landed at the edge of the pool and saw a dense layer of palm-sized fish floating on the surface.

Some of them had no eyes, were strangely shaped, and had sharp teeth in their mouths; they must have been fish that lived in the deep, sunless waters of the pool.

Many fish have lost their vital signs, and some are in a coma, likely caused by the eruption of the water vein.

He crouched down, raised his hand and hovered it over the now calm water, using his magic to condense countless tiny roots—this was the application method of the Wood element chapter of the Five Elements Revolving Sutra.

Any fellow disciple in the sect who has opened a Wood Element Divine Palace can use it; however, the extent of its effectiveness varies from person to person.

Ji An can use these roots to detect whether there are hidden toxins in the water, and he can also use the roots to absorb the life force of spiritual plants and even flesh and blood creatures to replenish himself.

Of course, he had not suffered any serious injuries, nor had he used any methods to drain life force.

The roots spread rapidly downwards, soon extending to a depth of twenty zhang (approximately 33 meters).

Ji An carefully sensed for a while, then cut off the output of his magic power. He did not detect any toxins.

Based on the characteristics of water flow, the possibility of deep pools containing toxins is very low.

He summoned the Storm Thunder Eagle and ordered the puppet to circle in the air, firstly as a warning, and secondly so that if his senior sister discovered the puppet, she would know that he was in the pool.

Another point is that if any monsters might rush out of the water later, it will provide another source of firepower.

He then summoned the Azure Water Turtle from his spirit beast pouch, patted its icy blue shell, and said:

"Lanbei, your luck has come. Come in the water with me."

The purpose of bringing this water-based beast with me when I left the sect was to deal with this situation.

Lanbei, quite intelligently, shrank its head and used its demonic energy to condense a layer of ice armor.

Then it happily jumped into the water and kept swallowing the small fish floating on the surface. It was picky and wouldn't eat dead fish.

Those small fish, still unconscious, lost their lives in a daze.

"You're quite cautious," Ji An laughed, as he released the Mixed Gold Armor Spell and the Rock Mountain Technique in turn, and then summoned the Wuji Apricot Yellow Banner.

Ten thousand golden lotuses floated out from the magical artifact, then dispersed into grains of earth-elemental spiritual energy the size of fine sand, enveloping his entire body.

Since entering the Water Abyss was not suitable for the use of fire-elemental magical artifacts, Ji An did not summon the Ground-Leaving Flame Banner.

He retrieved the long-unused water-repelling pearl from the void, infused it with magic power to activate it, and then went down into the water.

"Go! Dive!"

As the command was given, Lan Bei led the way, maintaining a distance of ten zhang from his tamed beast at a leisurely pace.

Beast tamers are like scouts; if danger arises, they can come to the rescue from behind.

When it first enters the water, the water-repelling bead can create a space with a radius of seven zhang (approximately 33 meters). As it continues to descend, the size of the space is continuously compressed.

Ji An observed carefully, occasionally seeing fish wagging their tails half-dead. These fish were larger and more resistant to the impact of the water vein bursts.

Some fish foolishly tried to squeeze into the space of the water-repelling bead, but were blocked by the invisible barrier; they were not strong enough to penetrate it.

The Water-Avoiding Pearl is a top-grade first-tier magic artifact, but when activated by a cultivator in the Chaoyuan stage, even demonic fish below the mid-Foundation Establishment stage would find it difficult to break into this space.

Gradually, the light in the water grew weaker and weaker, and the number of fish decreased. When one fish did appear, it was always a terrifying creature.

For example, there is a strange fish that is only about ten feet in size but has two deformed heads, one large and one small. The large head has a mouth that is larger than a millstone when it opens.

The strange fish set its sights on the blue shell and charged at it like a torpedo.

Lanbei was slightly panicked. It was used to the comfort of Crimson Flame Peak and had never experienced bloody battles. It lacked wildness and could only instinctively release the Ice Spike spell.

Ji An shook his head slightly. The beast he was controlling was not moving and lacked combat experience.

He wanted to test how much of the spell's power remained in the water, so he activated the Gengjin Spirit-Slaying Sword.

Three silver flying swords, each as long as an arm, shone brightly and, in the instant they illuminated this dark hell, flew out at a speed far exceeding that of the strange fish.

The spirit sword split into waves and pierced the strange fish's body before the ice spikes could reach it.

Both heads were hit, and the other went through the body.

The power of the Golden Element erupted, and the monstrous fish lost its sharpness in its ferocious eyes, instantly dying.

Its body twitched reflexively, propelling it toward the blue shell by inertia.

The ice spike pierced its body, but lost its kinetic energy after only half a foot of penetration.

Lan Bei was thrown into the water and tumbled several times before regaining her balance.

Ji An's eyes were deep and unfathomable. The Gengjin Spirit-Slaying Sword moved at about 30% of its speed on land in the water.

In this case, encountering a water-type demon beast in the Chaoyuan stage would be very difficult, as the loss of speed in spells would greatly increase the chance of them being dodged.

However, this situation is much better than in the previous life. The resistance of water on Earth is more than 800 times that of air resistance, and the killing range of various firearms in water is less than one meter.

Although the spell's speed has slowed down, the damage it should still deal is still there.

'After returning to the sect, I need to ask someone to refine several water-repelling and fire-repelling beads of spiritual weapon quality.'

He thought to himself that creating more space was necessary to ensure the effectiveness of the spell.

Seeing that the enemy had been dealt with, Lanbei abandoned her previous cowardice and rushed forward, tearing at the monster fish's body and devouring it.

After a while, Ji An ordered Lan Bei to continue diving.

By this time, they had descended to a depth of over 100 zhang, leaving only a 5-zhang radius around the water-repelling pearl.

He kept a distance of three zhang from Lan Bei, cautiously observing everything around him. The light was extremely dim, much like the ground under the hazy moonlight at night. It was as if they had entered a deep-sea world, where fish had bioluminescent organs, and various eerie lights could occasionally be seen in the tranquil water.

A two-zhang-long, large-headed, thin-tailed demonic fish charged forward menacingly.

It has fine, silvery-gray scales, a wide mouth with sharp, inward-curving teeth, and a curved barbel on its head with a yellowish, fleshy growth at the end, somewhat resembling the lanternfish of my past life.

Ji An activated his magic, this time releasing the Foundation Establishment level's Overlapping Waves Technique, to verify whether water-based spells would be affected.

The shimmering water created ripples, moving at a speed no slower than on land.

The undercurrent crashed against the strange fish, causing it to immediately spit out blue blood before floating helplessly to the surface.

The blue water turtle suddenly became extremely excited and pounced on the blood, sucking it into its stomach.

Ji An breathed a sigh of relief. The attack method of the Overlapping Wave Technique is to simulate the impact of water flow on the enemy. This strange fish was hit squarely. Although its body surface was intact, its internal organs should have been shattered by the waves of hidden force from the water flow.

He used his telekinesis technique to pull the strange fish to his side. After testing it, he found no toxicity, so he used his golden light technique.

He held back this time, not adding the meaning of the withering of all things.

The strange fish was chopped into several pieces and put into a storage bag and a virtual space. If he could enter the gourd world on his own, he would throw some of the fish meat into it.

When Lanbei saw the food being taken away, it tried to squeeze into the space created by the water-repelling beads, but due to its insufficient power, it was kept outside.

It lay on the edge of the invisible wall, trying to be cute and friendly, but Ji An shook his head:
"Once you've explored this place and returned to shore, I will give it to you."

This beast grows slowly; feeding it with water-elemental demon beasts should accelerate its growth.

Lanbei felt relieved and continued to dive. As the water temperature dropped, it felt more and more comfortable.

A moment later, Ji An noticed that there had been no sign of fish for quite some time, and the silence was frightening.

The darkness in the water is different from the darkness on the surface at night. The darkness here is much deeper, with visibility of less than thirty feet, while his field of vision on the surface at night is as far as three miles.

Even though his eyes could penetrate the darkness, the scene he saw became blurry.

After diving for another 15 minutes, we still hadn't reached the bottom of the pool. It seemed like there was a passage connecting to the underground.

Ji An hesitated whether to continue diving, as the environment evoked a strong sense of loneliness.

He roughly estimated that it had already descended more than 300 zhang, and the space of the water-repelling pearl had been compressed to one zhang, with a layer of ice crystals condensing on the inner wall.

The Azure Water Turtle has found it difficult to adapt to the environment here and is using a blood pact to communicate with others.

'Master, I can't take it anymore.'

Ji An put the beast into his spirit beast bag and decided to continue diving, not wanting to give up halfway.

After diving about twenty feet, the passage suddenly opened up, revealing that this place was originally a huge underwater cave.

The chilling aura intensified, and Ji An wavered once more.

A voice in his mind said, "There's nothing here. Let's go back quickly."

He understood that this was because he hadn't tempered his mindset much over the years, and subconsciously he was having second thoughts.

Because the potential gains from diving downwards are uncertain, the sense of insecurity brought about by the darkness and silence accumulates rapidly.

Ji An took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, repeating this several times before making his decision: to continue descending.

However, he wouldn't risk his life. When the space created by the water-repelling pearl was compressed to less than half a zhang, he would leave.

Once the decision was made, all hesitation vanished.

Before he could descend any further, he saw two blue lights appear below and rapidly approach.

Then he saw a blurry shadow rush out of the darkness, which turned out to be a crab the size of a car.

It charged forward, brandishing its enormous, multicolored pincers, as thick as a water bucket; the two orbs of blue light were clearly its eyes.

The unexpected attack did not catch Ji An off guard. His magic had been honed through countless trials, and casting spells was already an instinct.

The moment the thought arose in his mind, magical power surged from his dantian, and his kidneys instantly turned as black as ink.

At Zhaohai Cave, the Ren Water Path contains 'Surging Waves' that shimmer with a dim, eerie light.

The apricot-yellow flag of Wuji changed layers of spiritual light according to his will, as if endless yellow sand was swirling around his body.

Ji An had no intention of moving. Judging from the demonic power emanating from the crab-like beast, it couldn't possibly be a Golden Core demonic beast.

Why would he be afraid of demonic beasts below the Golden Core level? So instead of retreating, he advanced and charged towards the demonic beasts.

However, his small size made him look somewhat tragic.

The Overlapping Waves Technique is like a torrent bursting forth, or a waterfall cascading down from the sky.

The spell that had killed the lanternfish-like monster with a single blow had met its match. The monster swung one of its pincers, and the torrent of spiritual water was split apart.

A mocking glint flashed in the crab-like demon beast's cold, dark eyes. It was a water-based demon beast that was about to reach the level of a demon king, so how could it be injured by such an attack!
The two collided, and I felt as if I had entered an endless swamp, which slowed down my swinging pincers considerably.

It originally intended to cut this creature that dared to trespass into two pieces and then enjoy it slowly!

In its nearly thousand-year-long life, no prey could escape this fate.

A cold glint flashed in Ji An's eyes. At the moment of impact, the three-foot-long silver flying sword, carrying the blessing of a superior-grade Gengjin Dao Seed, shot out.

At such close range, before the space of the water-repelling pearl was broken, the flying sword, dazzlingly bright, pierced through the space between the crab's eyes as the giant crab rushed in.

Possessing a sturdy suit of armor, it has never been injured in its life, yet it has tasted the passing of life.

However, its vitality was extremely tenacious. At the moment of its death, it actually unleashed even greater power, and its razor-sharp pincers broke through the defense of the Wuji Apricot Yellow Banner.

Ji An smiled, his figure vanished in an instant, and he activated his Water Escape Technique to dodge the impending attack.

When his figure reappeared, the pool water immediately surged in, and he instantly felt his skin and bones howling in agony as the bone-chilling cold assaulted his body.

Ji An poured his magic into the water-repelling bead, creating a space. He calmly watched the giant crab's final roll before death, and saw the monster gradually stop struggling and fall into the deep water.

The victory in the battle boosted his confidence once again, and Ji An followed the monster's corpse as he descended.

Ten zhang, twenty zhang, fifty zhang, the monster stopped falling; it hit the bottom.

Not far from its corpse, a blue light swayed; it was not a demonic beast, but a spiritual plant.

Ji An extended his divine sense, carefully observing his surroundings, and then searched deep into the mud.

Once he confirmed there was no hidden danger, he used a water escape technique to reach the spiritual plant.

With its black stem, blue petals, and pale yellow stamens, it resembles a lotus flower.

Ji An suddenly smelled a delicate fragrance, and his spirits lifted instantly.

Blue lotus, then this must be the aquatic treasure plant, the Pure Water Lotus!
(End of this chapter)