Immortality and Cultivation: I can extract entries from all things.

Two more months passed.

Autumn has arrived in the blink of an eye, and the sea breeze carries a chill.

The vegetation on Qing'ao Island is beginning to turn yellow, and the rice in the Lingtian fields is ready for harvest.

Fang He set off with the team, heading west along the coastline.

This mission is to continue investigating clues about Sun Er.

Since the last discovery of clues in the hidden cave, Zhou Tieshan has ordered the search area to be expanded.

Zhou Qiang walked ahead, his eyes scanning the surroundings warily.

Han Laosan wrapped his robe tighter around himself and muttered, "Autumn is here, and this sea breeze is making my bones ache."

Lin Qingshan walked forward silently, saying little.

Fang He followed in the middle of the group, keenly sensing his surroundings.

The waves crashed against the rocks, and everything seemed calm.

He felt a sense of unease.

[Crisis Intuition] A slight throbbing.

A vague, intuitive danger.

Fang He slowed her pace, her brows furrowing slightly.

Zhou Qiang sensed something was wrong and asked in a low voice, "What's wrong?"

Fang He shook her head: "Not sure... it's nothing."

He dared not be careless, and felt a sense of foreboding.

Zhou Qiang's expression hardened, and he immediately signaled his team to be on alert.

The four of them spread out and each took up a favorable position.

[Sea Beast Sensing] comes into play.

Fang He tried to sense the aura of the sea beast.

His expression changed slightly.

"To the east, behind the reefs, there are three... no, four sea monsters!"

Zhou Qiang nodded and whispered, "Iron-shelled turtle, same as last time."

"Prepare for battle!"

As soon as he finished speaking, four iron-shelled turtles crawled out from behind the rocks.

Their movements were perfectly synchronized; they all poked their heads out and locked their gazes in the direction of the squad.

The sea creature's aura was somewhat unusual.

The spiritual energy fluctuations seemed to be suppressed, and the movements were stiff, yet it headed straight for the team.

"Something's not right," Fang He whispered. "They seem to be controlled."

Zhou Qiang's eyes narrowed: "Controlled?"

Fang He nodded: "Their movements are coordinated, unlike wild sea mammals."

Zhou Qiang said in a deep voice, "Take care of it first."

The Ironshell Turtle has closed in, and a battle is imminent.

The Iron-Shelled Turtle is not large, about the size of a millstone, but its shell is hard and difficult to penetrate with ordinary spells.

Their crawling speed appears slow, but it is actually quite fast; with the movement of their limbs, they have already closed to within ten zhang (approximately 33 meters).

Zhou Qiang made the first move.

He raised his hand and waved it, and a spirit blade shot out, slashing towards the leading iron-shelled tortoise.

The iron-shelled turtle seemed to possess a kind of intelligence, quickly retracting into its shell.

The spirit blade struck the tortoise shell, sending up a string of sparks and producing a piercing scraping sound.

Only a shallow mark remained on the surface of the tortoise shell, without even a crack.

"It's really hard."

Zhou Qiang frowned slightly.

Han Laosan flanked from the side, his short spear gleaming coldly, and thrust it towards the soft spot of another iron-shelled turtle.

It is the weakest point in the Ironshell Turtle's defense.

But the iron-shelled turtle reacted quickly, suddenly turning around and ramming Han Laosan with its shell.

"So fast!" Han Laosan exclaimed in surprise.

He dodged to the side, but was still grazed on the shoulder by the tortoise shell, and staggered back a few steps.

A sharp pain shot through my shoulder; it felt like my bone was cracking.

"That beast!" he groaned, clutching his shoulder, his face turning pale.

Lin Qingshan attacked from the other side, taking the opportunity to close in.

He precisely pierced the joint gap with the long knife in his hand.

The iron-shelled turtle let out a painful roar, its limbs twitched, and its movements visibly faltered.

Fang He did not rush to attack.

He stood at the rear of the column, calmly observing the battlefield situation.

Han Laosan was injured, weakening the fighting force.

Lin Qingshan stabbed an iron-shelled turtle, but it was still struggling.

Zhou Qiang's spirit blade had little effect on the tortoise shell, and he needed to find other weaknesses.

Fang He quickly made a judgment in his mind.

He circulated his spiritual energy, channeling it into his dantian and then guiding it to his palms.

Vine Technique!

Four vines sprouted from the ground, carrying the scent of earth, and quickly wrapped around the limbs of the two iron-shelled turtles.

The vines, as tough as ropes, became even more secure with the enhancement of [spiritual energy condensation].

The two entangled iron-shelled turtles struggled desperately, paddling their limbs in an attempt to break free.

But the vines tightened their grip, firmly fixing them in place.

"Let's do it!"

Fang He gave a low shout.

Zhou Qiang understood, and with a flash, he closed in.

This time, he aimed for the neck.

That was the iron-shelled turtle's only weakness; it usually hid inside its shell, but now it had nowhere to hide.

The spirit blade slashed across, and blood splattered.

The iron-shelled turtle let out a mournful roar, its limbs twitched, and it collapsed to the ground, unable to get up.

Lin Qingshan seized the opportunity to pierce the vital point of the iron-shelled turtle that was bound by vines.

The remaining two iron-shelled turtles continued their attack, but without their companions to cooperate with, their threat level was greatly reduced.

Despite the excruciating pain in his shoulder, Han Laosan restrained the opponent from the side.

Zhou Qiang and Lin Qingshan worked together to kill the last two iron-shelled turtles one by one.

The battle is over.

Four iron-shelled turtles lay among the rocks.

Fang He loosened the vines and withdrew his spiritual power.

Zhou Qiang inspected the results and nodded, saying, "Good teamwork."

Han Laosan wiped the sweat from his forehead and laughed, "Thanks to Xiao Fang's vine technique, otherwise these iron-shelled turtles would have been difficult to deal with."

He rubbed his shoulder where he had been bumped and said, "I'll need to rest for a few days now."

Lin Qingshan silently put away his short spear and began to deal with the sea monster's carcass.

Fang He walked over to an iron-shelled turtle and carefully sensed it.

The previously detected abnormal fluctuations have reappeared.

He crouched down and pried open the metal casing.

A tiny object was found among the flesh and blood.

It was a fragment of a magical artifact, about the size of a fingernail.

The surface of the fragment was engraved with fine spiritual patterns and had lost its luster.

It looks like a fragment of some kind of magical artifact.

Fang He presented the fragments to Zhou Qiang.

"Team leader, look at this."

Zhou Qiang took the fragment, his expression changing slightly.

"This is... a control artifact?"

He examined several other iron-shelled turtles and found similar fragments inside their skulls.

"Someone is controlling these sea monsters."

Zhou Qiang carefully collected the fragments, his expression solemn.

"These fragments must be delivered to Commander-in-Chief Zhou Tieshan. Someone is controlling the sea monsters behind the scenes; this is no small matter."

He glanced at the group and said, "Lin Qingshan, you take care of the materials. Fang He, lend a hand."

Fang He nodded and stepped forward to help dispose of the sea monster's carcass.

During the process, he secretly slipped a fragment of a magical artifact into his sleeve.

Zhou Qiang was talking to Han Laosan and didn't notice.

After processing the materials, the group packed up their spoils and returned along the coastline.

Han Laosan clicked his tongue in amazement: "No wonder these sea monsters were behaving strangely; it turns out they were being controlled. Who did this? And what's their purpose?"

Lin Qingshan rarely spoke up: "Could the sea monsters' attack on their settlement be related to this?"

Zhou Qiang nodded: "Very likely."

Fang He listened silently, pondering to himself.

Sun Er made contact with external forces.

The sea monsters are being controlled by humans.

Is there any connection between these two things?

Back at the camp, Zhou Qiang documented the operation.

The marine mammal materials were distributed as usual, and Fang He received a portion of the iron-shelled turtle shell and flesh.

It can be sold for about six or seven spirit stones at market price. Although it is not as much as the harvest when killing the sea beast for the first time, it is still a considerable income.

Han Laosan patted Fang He on the shoulder.

"Xiao Fang, you're getting more and more skilled at using your vine technique. In future battles, you'll be in charge of crowd control, and we'll handle the damage output. If we work well together..."

Fang He smiled and said, "Brother Han, you flatter me."

Zhou Qiang gave a few instructions and then took the control artifact fragments to report to Zhou Tieshan.

Fang He bid farewell to Han Laosan and Lin Qingshan and returned to Lingtian alone.

……

When we returned to the thatched hut in Lingtian, it was already dark.

The light of the spirit array in the distance flickered in the night, enveloping the entire spirit field.

The lights in Zhao Haisheng's house were already off; he must have gone to bed early.

Fang He lit an oil lamp and sat down at the table.

The dim light of the oil lamp illuminated the small thatched hut.

He took out the fragment of the control artifact that he had secretly left behind during the day from his sleeve and placed it on the table to examine it carefully.

The fragments were only the size of a fingernail, with jagged edges, clearly broken off from a complete magical artifact.

Even so, the surface of the fragment is still engraved with fine spiritual patterns, which are intricate and precise.

Under the illumination of the spirit lamp, the spirit patterns faintly glowed.

This is clearly part of a high-level magical artifact.

With a thought, the history rewind panel appeared.

Lines of text unfolded before my eyes.

Historical traces detected

The fragment was once a complete magical artifact.

The function of magical artifacts is to control the behavior of low-level demonic beasts.

By implanting spiritual energy into the body of a demon beast, the spirit power is used to stimulate the demon beast's nerves, causing it to act according to preset instructions.

The creator was a Foundation Establishment cultivator, and the spirit patterns contained the unique spiritual power characteristics of the Foundation Establishment stage.

However, more detailed information is unavailable due to the fragmented nature of the pieces.

Fang He stared at the panel, lost in thought.

Foundation Establishment cultivators...controlling demonic beasts...

What forces are behind this?

What is the purpose?

He couldn't figure it out for the time being, so he stopped dwelling on it.

Regardless, let's extract the entries first.

[Extracted term: Spiritual Energy Condensation (White)]

Fang He immediately confirmed.

A gentle force surged into his body and condensed in his dantian.

[Spiritual Power Condensation (White): Spell power +10%, Spiritual energy consumption -5%.]

This is an entry that directly increases combat power.

This is of extraordinary significance to Fang He.

His attack methods were limited to a single spell: vine manipulation.

Now with [Spiritual Energy Condensation], the power of the Vine Technique has increased by 10%, while the consumption of spiritual energy has decreased by 50%.

With this shift in power, their combat capabilities have been greatly enhanced.

Fang He closed his eyes and sensed the changes in spiritual energy.

It was as if each time he channeled his spiritual energy, it became more concentrated and powerful.

The spiritual energy within the body flows freely and unimpeded.

He put away the remaining materials with satisfaction, lay down on the bed, and closed his eyes.

Fang He sensed the fluctuations of spiritual energy in his dantian and gradually formed a plan in his mind.

We still need to improve our strength as soon as possible.

He could sense that his cultivation had reached a bottleneck.

Refining to the fourth level is probably not far off.