Gentlemen, it's time to enter the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls.

Chapter 260 Four Dragons Guarding the Gate
Chen Ye opened his eyes and looked down, exclaiming in surprise, "Wow, what a huge conch shell!"

It was a colossal object emitting a faint white light, like a conch shell split open to reveal its spiral patterns to others.

This shape is full of artistry and is mesmerizing to look at.

However, this conch shell is damaged in many places, turning it into a flawed work of art.

Chen Guang pointed to a certain part of the conch shell and said, "It's roughly this spot. Our Mirage Demon clan has thrived and multiplied here."

Chen Ye squinted and counted; there were only three floors left to go to reach the center.

Chen Ye asked in confusion, "If this Ruins of Return is open, then we can just sink to the location we want. Why is there an inside and an outside?"

It's like a city for ordinary people. To cultivators who can fly, the city walls are meaningless, and they can land anywhere in the city at will.

This void is like a split conch shell, with its roof blown off. It's free to come and go, so the so-called center becomes meaningless.

Chen Guang said, "Of course you can see it, but if you want to sink directly into the center of Guixu, that's impossible."

"Is there a restriction?" Chen Ye asked doubtfully.

Chen Guang explained, "That's right. The Mirage Sect once sent people directly to the center of the Ruins of Return, but before they even got close, they were completely reduced to nothingness. It's as if there's an invisible millstone on the Ruins of Return, and whether it's the physical body or the soul, anyone who directly enters it will be completely worn away."

"Then please lead the way."

Chen Ye didn't dare to rely on his Eight-Nine Arcane Skill to act recklessly; it was safer to stick with the locals.

With a few flicks of his fingers, Chen Guang created several glowing lines that pointed in a winding path towards the mirage's homeland.

"If everything goes smoothly along this route, we might be able to arrive within half a month."

"Half a month?"

"Sect Master, the Ruins of Guixu don't seem very big from here, but why aren't we there yet? It will take two more days just to get from here to the gate of the Ruins of Guixu."

Chen Ye still underestimated the size of this Ruins of Return.

"In that case, let's speed things up."

Chen Guang said helplessly, "Sect Master, I have done my best."

Dragging a mass of seawater down, it was no easy task, especially since Chenguang was now only in a phantom form, far inferior to his true self.

Chen Ye smiled and said, "I have my own way."

The clothes that were originally flowing suddenly lost their support and were rolled into a ball by the seawater.

Then a translucent fish emerged from the clothes.

The fish were lighter in color than the deep seawater, and their outlines were only vaguely visible in the reflection of the ruins below.

"Sect Master, what's wrong with you...?"

"The Eight-Nine Arcane Arts can transform into various forms, including seawater and fish. Attach yourself to me, and I'll take you down."

The morning light turned into mist and merged into Chen Ye's body. With a flick of his tail, Chen Ye swam towards the deep sea.

At first, Chen Ye was not used to it and his body was a little uncoordinated when he swam, but he quickly adapted to the new look and swam faster and faster, becoming like a real sea fish.

As he swam, Chen Ye changed his form, constantly adjusting his posture based on his sense of the water flow.

As a result, his body became thinner and thinner, and his tail became longer and longer; with a gentle flick of his tail, he could swim dozens of meters.
Later, Chen Ye didn't even look like a fish anymore; his tail turned into a propeller, propelling the water and causing him to sink at an extremely fast speed.

Chen Guang had never seen such a strange appearance before, and hurriedly asked, "Sect Master, what kind of fish have you transformed into?"

Chen Ye laughed and said, "We don't need to be particular about what kind of fish it is, as long as it's fast enough."

Chen Ye was having a great time. This Eight-Nine Arcane Arts doesn't necessarily need to be confined to the original form of living things. He was originally a mass of seawater, so what shape could he take?

In this way, Chen Ye's speed increased dozens of times, and he watched as the Ruins below grew larger and larger.

The closer Chen Ye got, the more he felt the immense size of the Ruins of Return.

Moreover, the temperature of the seawater is getting higher and higher.

Just as Chen Guang said, it actually got warmer when they arrived at Guixu.

As for the so-called cold poison, Chen Ye has not felt anything yet.

Guided by the morning light, Chen Ye arrived at the gate of Guixu. Only when he got closer did he realize how insignificant he was in the face of Guixu.

The gate to Guixu is not complicated in appearance; it is a tall jade gate covered with various deep-sea algae, emitting a shimmering white light.

What really caught Chen Ye's attention were the four thick, hundred-foot-tall jade pillars in front of the gate, with four lifelike dragons coiled around them.

Chen Ye exclaimed in shock, "These...are they really dragons?" The reason he said this was because these four dragons were not complete; their broken and rotten bodies revealed the stark white bones inside.

Chen Ye felt that the owner of Guixu would not have deliberately carved the white jade into such an ominous, rotting corpse shape. That meant that the four dragons were all living creatures, but were nailed to the gate of Guixu and slowly rotted into their current form.

Chen Guang replied, "It should be. When I left Guixu, these four dragons didn't look like this. Now that I see them again, they're even more rotten."

Chen Ye couldn't help but ask, "Who exactly is the master of this Guixu? How could he have four dragons nailed to his own doorstep?"

"I don't know either. I was born in Guixu, but as far back as I can remember, Guixu has been a wasteland."

Chen Ye swam to the side of the dragon skeleton and found that he was not even as big as the dragon's fangs. He wondered how powerful these four dragons were when they were alive, and how powerful the Lord of Guixu was who could nail them to the gate for public display.

After circling around a few times, Chen Ye saw many bite marks on the dragon's corpse, indicating that it had been eaten by a giant beast from the deep sea, leaving only some rotten flesh and bones.

The bones also showed signs of chiseling and damage, suggesting they had been mined.

Chen Ye then asked, "Did the Mirage Sect attempt to move the corpses of these four dragons?"

Chen Guang nodded and said, "We did try, but in this hundred-mile-deep sea, just moving around consumes a great deal of spiritual energy. And this dragon's corpse is extremely tough, plus there's the influence of the surrounding cold poison. The Mirage Sect members can't exert any strength here, so they haven't succeeded. Speaking of which, Sect Master, haven't you felt the cold poison afflicting you?"

Chen Ye carefully sensed it for a moment, then said, "I don't feel anything. Perhaps this cold poison only affects living things. I am now just a mass of seawater."

Chen Guang seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and said to Chen Ye, "If that's the case, Sect Master, perhaps you could try to extract the dragon pearls from these four dragons."

"Dragon Pearl?"

Chen Guang explained, "Most of the demons in this Guixu condense similar beads, which is actually to adapt to the Guixu, which is full of cold poison. Perhaps this is the demon core mentioned in ancient books. These four dragons should also have similar beads in their bodies, which may be considered treasures."

"Why don't you demons of Guixu take them? These four dragons have been here for many years, and they haven't waited for me to come and take them."

"Demon cores are formed from concentrated cold poison. We demons can only use our own demon cores. If I hadn't learned weapon crafting techniques at the Mirage Sect, I wouldn't have known that demon cores could be refined into magical treasures. Although there are many demons in the Ruins of Return, most of them lack intelligence and don't know how to use them. So even when they hunt each other, they will spit out their demon cores after eating their prey to avoid excessive cold poison in their bodies and to prevent the two demon cores from affecting each other."

Chen Ye understood. For demons, a demon core is a detoxification organ. Those that are born with it can provide power to their main body, but if it is someone else's demon core, it will be harmful and useless.

Just like a rejection reaction, forcibly inserting someone else's heart into your body is harmful and does no good.

Only by refining the demon core into a magical artifact, like a cultivator, can one harness its power.

"Then I got a good deal."

Chen Ye tried to crawl into the dragon's skeleton, and after wandering through the massive skeleton for a while, he finally saw a bead on the dragon's lower jawbone.

The dragon's skeleton is white, but this bead is bluish-black and emits a faint bluish glow.

Clearly, this was the Flood Dragon Pearl, but it was deeply embedded in the bone. Chen Ye tried for a long time but couldn't leave any wounds on the skeleton. In the end, he transformed himself into a thin stream and squeezed into the gap between the bones.

Then, a portion of its body was transformed into "gas," creating a pressure difference that forced the dragon pearl out due to the high pressure of the deep sea.

This also dealt Chen Ye a severe blow, as the part of his body that had turned into gas was compressed, causing him to consume a significant amount of spiritual energy.

However, it's all worth it. This dragon pearl is a valuable item. When we establish our sect, it will be a great honor to show it off.

The dragon pearl was extremely large, so Chen Ye had to use the Eight-Nine Arcane Technique to enlarge the seawater so that it could envelop the dragon pearl.

Chen Ye didn't even bring the Ten Thousand Soul Banner or storage bag with him when he came to the deep sea this time.

Because this hundred-mile-deep sea will destroy these magical treasures; the water pressure alone can crush the storage bags.

The pills and spices that had been prepared beforehand were all hidden by Chen Guang in a small pouch. This was not a magic weapon, but rather Chen Guang's "supernatural power".

Although he was a mirage demon, Chenguang had also cultivated human techniques during his years in the Mirage Sect, reaching the true Profound Realm. Perhaps because he had been enslaved by the Mirage Sect for so long, the supernatural power Chenguang comprehended was to create a small pocket that could hold his most cherished possessions, unaffected by external influences.

However, this pocket is really too small, much smaller than a storage bag, so it's not very useful normally.

However, it's still acceptable to store some elixirs and spices.

Chen Ye used the Eight-Nine Arcane Technique to swallow the dragon pearl. Just as he was about to dig out the second dragon pearl, he suddenly felt his body stiffen.

Its body, which had originally turned completely into seawater, began to change uncontrollably, growing flesh and bones.

Shocked, Chen Ye immediately tried to manipulate his body back into seawater.

This is no joke. Water is difficult to compress, so Chen Ye can maintain his shape. If he were to become flesh and blood, wouldn't he be crushed into a lump of rotten flesh?
Chen Ye hasn't fully mastered the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts yet, so this pressure might not leave him unscathed.

It would be ridiculous to be crushed to death before even entering the Ruins.

However, Chen Ye discovered that his body was out of control, and the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts seemed to be affected by something, constantly manifesting flesh and blood.

And all this flesh and blood was wrapped around the dragon pearl.

(End of this chapter)