Nascent Soul Rebirth: Starting as a Wizard

It not only pierced through, but also shredded the neck bones and major muscles and meridians from the inside! Finally, it forcefully pierced through the snake's body and severed its head!

The serpent's massive body stiffened abruptly, and the fierce light in the dark red pupils of its severed head instantly dimmed, replaced by an incredulous despair.

It struggled and writhed in vain for a few moments before finally collapsing to the ground with a thud. Blood gushed out like a spring, staining a large area of ​​the pool and the ground red. After convulsing for a moment, it fell silent.

Solo landed gracefully, his longsword resting on the ground, slightly panting.

He glanced at the runic longsword in his hand; the blade remained ancient, only now stained with eerie blue snake blood.

The runes glowed faintly for a moment just now; whether it was an illusion or the remnant of the ancient weapon's spirituality being activated, I don't know.

"It has thick skin and flesh, considerable strength, and also carries a cold poison. If an ordinary senior knight or a second-rate upper-class martial artist were to encounter it alone, they would probably really perish at its hands."

Solo calmed the churning blood and energy within him and assessed his opponent.

"Unfortunately, she ran into me."

He stepped forward and skillfully began to process the spoils.

First, he used his internal force to expel the slight cold poison that had seeped into his body. Then, he took out a dagger, broke open the head of the demon snake, and sure enough, he found an irregular crystal the size of a pigeon egg, glowing with a faint blue light and cold air—a non-ranked water attribute demon core (demon core).

They also carefully collected some high-quality snake blood, snake gall, and the toughest few dark blue scales from the neck.

As for snake meat, it contains considerable spiritual energy and blood essence, so it should not be wasted; it just needs to be processed.

After doing all this, he turned his gaze back to the deep, calm pool, as if nothing had happened.

His real target tonight was the core area below, where the spiritual energy was even more concentrated.

The death of this guardian serpent also means that the obstacles ahead have been temporarily cleared.

After quickly cleaning up the most valuable parts of the serpent, Solo did not immediately venture into the bottom of the pool.

He picked up the collected materials, and with a swift movement, quickly left the ravaged cave in the center of the pool, silently retreating towards the outer perimeter along the path he had come from.

About an hour later, a blurry figure that blended almost seamlessly into the environment reappeared like a ghost on the canopy of a massive banyan tree dozens of meters above the cave in the center of the pool.

It was Solo who had gone and returned.

Solo's spiritual awareness spread out like the finest veil, covering the entire heart of the pool in a far more concealed and gentler manner than before.

This time, he focused on sensing signs of life, traces of energy, and any potential lurking entities.

"As expected..." Solo sneered inwardly. His "departure" just now was a test. Having dealt with many demonic beasts in the Xuanhuang Realm, he was well aware of the habits of these creatures.

Generally speaking, unless they are gregarious or special species, demonic beasts at low levels (equivalent to Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment stages) have little or no intelligence and a very strong sense of territory, especially snakes, which are mostly solitary.

They rely mainly on their powerful physical bodies, innate supernatural abilities, or potent poisons, and are generally weak in cultivating their primordial spirit (spiritual power), which is limited by their bloodline and talent.

Today, this demonic serpent bled from all seven orifices after being roughly scanned by my own imposing spiritual sense, which shows that the demonic beasts of this realm are no different from the demonic beasts of the Xuanhuang realm in this respect.

"Two tigers cannot share one mountain, nor can two dragons be hidden in one pool." Solo's gaze was sharp.

"I just confirmed that the serpent was male. If it had a mate, it should have shown itself to retaliate or check on things long ago, after I fought it so fiercely and even pretended to leave. But there has been no movement at all..."

He once again used his spiritual sense to meticulously scan every inch of the pool, especially the underwater near-shore area, confirming the absence of any hidden, hostile, or powerful life fluctuations.

"There should be no other magical beasts of the same level occupying this place."

Of course, to be on the safe side, we cannot rule out the possibility of weaker aquatic creatures or those that are completely dependent on the serpent for survival, but those are no longer a concern.

Having made up his mind, Solo no longer hesitated.

He gently moved his neck and wrist joints. The slight fatigue from the long battle and the high intensity of spiritual energy consumption quickly dissipated as his powerful internal energy circulated within him.

At present, his internal energy has not been consumed much, at least 70% remains. His spiritual power has been consumed quite a bit, with only about 60% remaining. As for the life seed, there is hardly any consumption.

He had only used a small portion of the life seed's energy just now, and he did not intend to use too much of the life seed's energy before he could replenish it.

Gazing at the deep, inky pool below, reflecting the fragmented moonlight, a smile, almost playful, suddenly appeared on his lips.

"Swimming? It's been a long time since I've tried it." In his previous life, as a Nascent Soul cultivator, flying, escaping, and using water-avoiding spells were all commonplace for him.

Simply swimming is a distant memory.

However, he had no intention of actually swimming down the river using his body.

Taking a deep breath, Solo's eyes narrowed, and he leaped from the canopy of the banyan tree, but instead of rushing towards the shore, he plunged headfirst into the bottomless pool like a nimble flying fish!

Just as the body was about to touch the water's surface—

"Buzz!"

A layer of solid, thick, pale golden protective energy instantly burst forth from the pores of his body, rather than clinging to his skin.

Instead, it expanded outward by about half a foot, forming a stable, ellipsoidal, invisible force field!

"Thump!"

The sound of water hitting the surface was heard, but strangely, the splash was not large.

The pale golden aura acted like a sturdy diving bell, forcibly pushing away the water around Solo and creating a temporary, waterless cavity!

Using the momentum of his descent, he was enveloped in this "water-repelling energy sphere" and, like a meteor falling into the sea, sank rapidly toward the dark bottom of the pool!

Choosing to use physical energy rather than spiritual power to open the underwater passage was a result of Solo's careful consideration.

Gangqi originates from the combination of internal force and life energy. Its essence is a stable and continuous energy field emanating from the inside out. It resists external pressure by its own "strength" and "elasticity". Underwater, it withstands the static water pressure from all directions.

It gives the impression of a submarine on Earth.

Given the current level of refinement of Solo's protective aura, a rough estimate suggests that each part of the protective aura ball can withstand several thousand kilograms of continuous pressure without much problem. The only consumption is the internal force used to maintain the stability of the aura field, which is relatively stable.

As long as the protective aura remains intact, the consumption of internal energy is negligible.

But spiritual consciousness is different.

Spiritual consciousness is an extension of spiritual power, formless and intangible. It is impossible to force open a pool of water with substance and quantity to form a channel.

That requires continuously outputting mental energy to "counter" the weight of the entire pool of water, which is a continuous and high-intensity "work".

The rate of consumption will be terrifying. It's manageable at shallow depths of a hundred meters, but at deeper depths, it will be an onslaught of pressure from thousands of tons.

That's something a peak-level Qi Refining cultivator like him couldn't contend with, and it's far less efficient and less strenuous than罡气 (罡气 is a type of internal energy cultivation technique).

However, the depth of the pool was extraordinary.