From Swamp Dog to Crocodile Ancestor

The moonlight, like water, dripped gently, seeping into the pervasive poisonous barrier of the swamp.

As dusk fell and night descended, Li Yi emerged from the cave in the large willow tree, raised his head in the moonlight, and inhaled the moon's radiance.

As a refreshing energy entered his body, Li Yi immediately felt that the faint burning sensation that had been present at all times had faded considerably, almost to nothing, and could no longer affect him at all.

Even after the moonlight faded, Li Yi remained in the shadows, motionless, gazing at his surroundings, seemingly lost in thought.

……

Over the next few days, Li Yi frequently patrolled his territory, keeping a distant watch on the ancient monster's nest and the motionless Demon Tree.

It never found any new red foxes entering its territory again.

They were most likely terrified.

The old fox comes from the main lineage of the Flamebreath Fox Clan and possesses extremely high cultivation and wisdom; he must recognize this ancient and strange insect.

As a member of one of the largest groups near this swamp, it must have understood what the appearance of the ancient monster meant.

Even toads felt fear, let alone this group of foxes who hadn't even reached the Foundation Establishment stage.

After wandering around silently, Li Yi returned to the vicinity of the big willow tree and continued to exhale and exhale yellow mist.

As time went by, Li Yi's understanding of this earth-elemental swampy energy deepened, and the range of yellow mist he could mobilize and gather also increased.

What started as a few meters in size has now become a vast sea of ​​fog.

Its daily cultivation would cause increasingly large and unusual phenomena, and the dense and thick yellow mist would even attract some poisonous insects that lived by it.

Seeing that the commotion he had caused was getting bigger and bigger, Li Yi simply changed his cultivation location and left the vicinity of the big willow tree to prevent his place from being exposed.

Unlike the Demon Tree, the ancient strange insect is not afraid of the protection of the spirit tree. In the mouth of the toad, it has no natural enemies at all.

Even if they did exist, they have probably long since vanished into the dust of history.

The cultivation site that Li Yi chose was near the poisonous flowers and herbs left behind by the toad.

This cluster of poisonous flowers and plants did not wither because the toad left; on the contrary, it continued to grow, with more and more brightly colored and strange species emerging from it.

Some of them were so dangerous that Li Yi dared not eat them rashly, for fear of injuring himself.

Three months have passed in the blink of an eye.

For beasts that have embarked on the path of immortality, three months is a very short time. Some beasts with muddled minds sleep for much longer.

But for Li Yi, these three months felt like an eternity.

At night it inhales moonlight, and during the day it inhales yellow mist. Every now and then it will take the time to swallow some unknown poisonous flower in the hollow of a large willow tree. Then everything goes black and it doesn't know what happened.

The poisonous flowers and plants left behind by toads are mostly different, and the reactions they bring are also completely different.

Some people simply experienced a complete blackout, and by the time they woke up again, two or three days had passed.

The rest will bring different illusions.

Li Yi's method of fighting them was to fall asleep as soon as possible and then wait for these toxins to be digested and transformed into something that belonged to him.

Faced with increasing pressure and the ever-present danger, Li Yi had no choice but to improve himself as quickly as possible.

On this day, Li Yi slowly approached the poisonous flowers and herbs, opened his mouth wide, and yellow mist gathered around him, flowing heavily and slowly, like thick ink dripping into water.

"Perhaps... in another three months, I will be able to fully comprehend the swampy energy, which is dominated by earth element, and grow my seventh black scale."

After this thought crossed his mind, Li Yi focused his mind, dispelled all distracting thoughts, and concentrated on his cultivation.

A thick cloud of yellow mist gradually formed a faintly flowing vortex, obscuring a large area around it. From the outside, a hemispherical outline of yellow mist appeared, but nothing could be seen inside.

After a while, the yellow mist gathered to its limit and suddenly collapsed towards the center. Li Yi opened his mouth and inhaled, and all the yellow mist rushed into a smaller vortex in front of him.

From this smaller, more stagnant vortex, countless dead poisonous insects were thrown out of mid-air, along with many impurities that Li Yi could not use, all of which were eliminated.

This is the result of practice makes perfect. Every time Li Yi exhales and exhales yellow mist, it attracts some poisonous insects that like this environment, causing trouble for Li Yi.

Over time, Li Yi created this method to perform a second purification in front of him, eliminating all impurities and increasing the speed of cultivation.

With many fragments of poisonous insects piled up at his feet and around him, Li Yi swallowed the extremely condensed yellow mist, the size of a human head.

Strands of poisonous vapor spilled from Li Yi's mouth, and Li Yi began to close his eyes to digest everything.

Just then, among the densely packed corpses of poisonous insects surrounding Li Yi's massive black body, a dozen small figures suddenly wriggled, not dead, and buzzed as they flew up and gathered around Li Yi.

The buzzing sound quickly attracted Li Yi's attention, but it needed time to digest the power, so it closed its eyes and waited.

After a long while, Li Yi opened his eyes and discovered a small group of poisonous insects flying around him.

They were extremely small, but Li Yi's powerful vision revealed every detail of their bodies.

This is a black venomous insect with four transparent wings, its body covered in a glossy black carapace, and three round eyes that are red, green, and blue respectively.

These dozen or so poisonous insects seemed very affectionate towards Li Yi, flying around him.

Li Yi thought for a moment and felt that they seemed to have some growth potential, as they had managed to survive his cultivation. So he exhaled a cloud of yellow mist and placed them around the poisonous flowers and plants.

Before long, these dozen or so poisonous insects began to instinctively head towards one of the seven-petaled, bright purple poisonous flowers, gnawing at it and often collapsing to the ground dead within moments.

Another month passed, and Li Yi coldly watched as more and more poisonous insects, attracted by him, came to stay here and watch them build their nests.

Whenever I cultivate, these poisonous insects buzz out of their nest and roam freely in the thick yellow mist.

These poisonous insects would gnaw on the seven-petaled poisonous flower, then fall lifelessly to the ground for a long time before reviving.

As they recovered, their black carapaces turned silver, their bodies grew considerably larger, and they transformed into a kind of spirit insect.

Looking at the silvery, buzzing spirit insects and their ever-growing intelligence, Li Yi had already conceived the idea of ​​nurturing them.

Anyway, it's all about cultivation, who knows what they'll become later?

These spirit insects have been dormant for a very long time. Some of them, Li Yi has not seen awaken yet, while others have already awakened and are following Li Yi around.

Some of these silvery spirit insects would follow Li Yi back to the big willow tree, lying motionless between the gaps in Li Yi's scales, allowing the white python to curiously play with them.