From Swamp Dog to Crocodile Ancestor

The fruit split open little by little, and the dark, cold swamp water-phase spiritual liquid surged into Li Yi's body. In an instant, a powerful poison entered Li Yi's body.

The two water-based poisons rapidly merged within Li Yi's body, simultaneously destroying and rebuilding his physical form.

Li Yi closed his eyes and quietly sank vertically into the depths of the swamp. His breath began to drop, disappear, until it was barely a trace.

Of the two fruits, the black one is obviously the most deadly, as it is purely poisonous. If one's swamp water cultivation is not up to par, one will die immediately.

Even Li Yi, who had grasped the rudimentary form of the swamp's water phase, was unable to break free for a time and fell into a state of apparent death.

The deep swamp mud is almost bottomless; no one knows how deep it is. The deeper you go, the darker it becomes, and the greater the pressure.

Li Yi's black scales creaked as he sank, and after a long while, he remained motionless, suspended in a certain area.

Strands of black water came from all directions, slowly seeping into Li Yi's body through the gaps in his scales. It was a deadly poison hidden in the ancient swamp, pure swamp water.

It is also one of the deadly dangers one can encounter when diving into the deep swamp, causing many creatures that want to explore to die without even realizing it.

But now, these deadly poisons have become an asset to Li Yi, transforming into streams of pure vital energy that have caused Li Yi's body to shrink even further.

The transformation between purity and turbidity is extremely mysterious. As Li Yi explored it and his strength increased, its size sometimes increased and sometimes decreased.

This seems to be completely random, but in reality it is just a temporary imbalance of the pure and impure energies in the body. However, Li Yi is not yet qualified to comprehend this power.

A pure, pitch-black darkness enveloped Li Yi.

At noon, the surface of the swamp was scorching hot under the sun. The white python spat out the purple fragment, and its surface quickly ignited with flames as intense as the sun.

This time, the red glow of midday quickly flowed around the edge of the flames, gathered for a while, and was then swallowed whole by the white python.

Now that it has reached the ninth level of the Qi Refining stage, and with the incomplete understanding of the Solar Flame, it no longer needs Li Yi's assistance and can cultivate by absorbing the three kinds of radiant light on its own.

It doesn't even need the sap of the willow tree to capture that fleeting glimpse of the morning light.

The green-scaled crocodiles roam around the Great Willow Tree, surviving, hunting, and occasionally glancing into the deep caves of the Great Willow Tree.

They were led away from their original territory by their mother crocodile, but none of them had any cultivation. The mother crocodile herself was also in a daze, and it was only because of her pure bloodline that she accidentally stepped into the path of cultivation.

However, this area is peaceful enough for them to live in.

As the most intense midday glow faded, the white python finished its cultivation, swallowed the purple fragment whole, and shook its head, seemingly trying to comprehend something.

Since the old fox died, this fragment of the magic artifact has been ownerless. Without the spiritual imprint, it can already glimpse a trace of its secrets.

However, it is not a member of the Flamebreath Fox Clan and has no natural blood kinship, so it can only comprehend it little by little.

After finishing its cultivation, the white python swam on the surface of the swamp and soon came to check where Li Yi had sunk. It found that the area was pitch black and seemed no different from the surroundings.

But this darkness is a concentrated poison, not the black of swamp mud. It looks exactly the same, but it is extremely dangerous.

So the white python quickly guarded the spot, preventing the other green-scaled crocodiles from getting close.

A small crocodile, about a foot long, was leaping around and almost jumped into the area, but was caught by the white python's tail and suspended in mid-air.

The white python breathed a sigh of relief, as if it were human, and put it aside.

The little crocodile opened its mouth, gave a silly smile, and ran away.

As dusk approached, the swamp was shrouded in a golden veil, while this area remained deep black, swallowing the golden light, which was quite obvious.

Glug~

A bubble rose from here, burst, and immediately attracted the white python's attention.

The next moment, wisps of black water appeared in this dark area, swirling and swimming like fish, before quickly diving into the silt.

The glow of dusk finally fell here, draping this small hole in a golden veil.

The white python sensed something rapidly approaching and quickly retreated.

Soon after, the mud swelled up slightly, then flattened out, gradually revealing a thick spine and a pair of brownish-yellow eyes.

Li Yi emerged from the mud, his aura already at the eighth level of the Qi Refining stage. With the blessing of a rare and precious material, he completed his cultivation of the Swamp Water Phase in just one day.

Now that the Earth and Water phases have been completed, the next step, besides continuing to strengthen the lunar essence within the body, is the Wood phase.

With the mother crocodile as a pioneer in this regard, Li Yi has already glimpsed the path ahead.

With his short, stubby limbs, Li Yi arrived under the big willow tree and felt a long-lost hunger in his stomach.

It knew that the turbid energy in its body was stronger and the pure energy was weaker, so the predatory instinct belonging to beasts reappeared.

However, it can simply ignore it.

Slowly arriving at the entrance of the large willow tree hole, Li Yi crawled halfway inside and peered inside.

A misty, ethereal aura emerged from the hollow of the large willow tree, within which a soft, faint green halo shone.

Feeling the ever-increasing power, Li Yi arrived deep inside the tree hollow, where the mother crocodile was right in front of him.

However, it is no longer as energetic as before. Instead, it lies motionless deep in the tree hole, its fine green scales emitting a faint glow, and its aura is extremely unstable, fluctuating up and down.

Li Yi approached it, carefully sensing the signs of this crocodile-like creature's foundation-building process, accumulating some experience.

It is foreseeable that its foundation building will be much more complex than that of the mother crocodile, with the three phases of turbid energy and the moonlight of pure energy merging together, even surpassing the water and fire bloodline of the white python.

The white python was born with a powerful bloodline, while this creature had an ordinary bloodline. If it weren't for human intelligence that allowed it to come into contact with the moonlight and comprehend the nature of the swamp, it might still be lingering at the low level of Qi Refining.

Within this misty aura, Li Yi gradually sensed the swampy wood element that resembled the wind, but he didn't understand why the wood element looked like a gust of wind.

It's as strange as the misty, earthy landscape.

After a while, Li Yi left the tree hole and waited outside.

It was calculating in its mind that, with the help of the brown crystal, it would definitely be able to grasp that sliver of the swampy wood element within a month at most.

The moonlight rose into the night sky, pure and untouched by any poisonous venom. The white python's slender, tight body coiled around Li Yi, and the two looked up at the moon, inhaling and exhaling its pure light...