From Swamp Dog to Crocodile Ancestor

After wandering around the swamp for a while, Li Yi slowly arrived at the site where the Demon Ancient Tree was being built, staring at the silent, motionless tree shadow through the yellow mist.

Another six months passed, and the Demon Tree remained silent. However, many creatures appeared beneath the tree, all of them wild beasts without any cultivation.

If it were before, they would have been completely drained by the Demon Tree, leaving only bones and skin.

But now, there is an unusual tranquility beneath the Devil Tree.

Before long, Li Yi returned to the big willow tree with a heavy heart. Looking at the flat, flowing silt around him, he slowly closed his eyes.

With a crisis looming, it now has only two paths to take.

The first priority is to strengthen oneself and complete the cultivation of the Wood Phase as soon as possible, reaching the ninth level of the Qi Refining stage. This will greatly increase one's strength.

Then we need to consider a way out.

The ancient monster's current form and its ability to manipulate and enslave other living beings made Li Yi deeply feel the crisis.

This crisis will likely erupt long before the Devil Tree.

The words of the toad senior reappeared in its mind.

It had three paths before it: one was towards Green Lake, which was said to be extremely far away; another was the place where the Poisonous Dragon underwent its tribulation; and the third was to explore an unknown direction on its own.

After much deliberation, Li Yi decided to explore the place where the Poisonous Dragon was undergoing its tribulation if he had the chance.

He had almost mastered the water aspect of the swamp, and if he still couldn't delve deeper into it, he could simply abandon that retreat route.

In addition, we must not slack off on cultivating spirit insects; these little guys have potential that Li Yi values ​​highly.

Having finalized his plan, Li Yi slowly made his way towards the hollow of the large willow tree.

Cultivate oneself, and then be prepared to face the outbreak of disaster at any time.

Time flies, and another year has passed.

For beasts that have become sentient, a year is not a long time at all. Most of the time, they pass by in a daze and cannot leave anything in their memories.

A year for a sentient beast is equivalent to a month for a mortal, and it passes by very quickly.

However, for Li Yi, the pressure was immense. He had to cultivate while constantly being on guard against the outbreak of disaster, making each day feel like an eternity.

Almost every month, it would carefully check on the mother crocodile's foundation-building process.

The mother crocodile now looks like a rock covered in moss, with no trace of life in her.

On the contrary, a vigorous spiritual energy emanated from its body, causing the large willow tree to grow visibly, and the eerie aura almost completely dissipated.

On this day, the white python stayed quietly under the big willow tree, its huge eyes staring at the faintly floating purple fragments in front of it, its divine sense trembling invisibly.

Suddenly, it opened its mouth and spat out a ball of blazing solar flame, engulfing the entire purple fragment.

After a period of refining and burning, the purple fragment trembled, its surface swirling with dazzling purple flames that devoured the sun's flames.

The white python stared intently at the scene with its two pupils, one red and one blue, its magical power surging within it, as if waiting for something.

After a long while, a golden pattern suddenly burst forth from the intertwined flames, seemingly containing a talisman compressed to its extreme, or perhaps some kind of script, which shone brightly for a moment.

The white python had been waiting for this moment. It immediately sprang up, pushed the purple fragments aside, and at the same time, just as the golden pattern was about to disappear, it spat out a stream of crystal-clear water that emitted white light.

The stream of water released a chill, and within it seemed to rise a blurry crescent moon, which enveloped the golden pattern after a brief moment of movement.

The golden patterns trembled like snakes a few times, rapidly flowing across the surface of the water sphere before returning to its interior, where they were slowly refined by the moonlight...

During this time, the white python was completely focused, constantly refining the substance with its magical power.

Several hours later, the golden patterns that had been dormant and motionless like a ribbon within the water sphere suddenly burst open.

A dense array of talismans shimmered and flew around in the water sphere, yet none of them escaped its confinement.

Seeing this, the white python's eyes showed joy, but it did not slacken its efforts and continued to guide the python.

Another hour passed, and the talisman spontaneously arranged and combined within the water sphere, forming an unknown secret technique that slowly emerged on the surface of the water sphere.

At the center of each of these talismans, ancient characters belonging to the human race appeared, seemingly some kind of annotation or something else.

The white python looked at it for a while, shook its head in confusion, took out a small piece of yellow crystal, and carefully carved the fragment onto it stroke by stroke.

Soon, the surface of this small citrine was completely covered with engravings.

Although he didn't understand what it said, the white python still carefully kept it and placed it with the other four citrine crystals.

The fragments on the five small citrine crystals seem to resonate with each other in some way.

Then, with a thought, the purple fragment that had been floating nearby for a long time returned to its sight.

The white python carefully examined the unusual purple fragment, its eyes revealing curiosity.

After such a long period of refining, it actually showed some kind of strange phenomenon. All the golden patterns inside began to shine, flickering like breathing.

Inside the dimly lit hollow of the large willow tree.

Li Yi opened his eyes, startled awake by a burning pain in his back, prematurely ending his cultivation state.

Tiny green whirlwinds moved across the surface of the scales before disappearing into the gaps between the black scales covering Li Yi's body.

Feeling the burning pain within his body, which could no longer affect him, Li Yi slowly closed his eyes and used the power within his body to suppress it.

Within the flesh and blood, the surface of the purple fragment also shimmered with golden patterns, scorching the surrounding flesh and fascia.

However, these flesh and blood were incredibly resilient, and surprisingly, they didn't change much.

Soon, wisps of black water seeped out, enveloping the entire purple fragment and quickly extinguishing the light on its surface.

After the pain subsided, Li Yi lost the desire to continue cultivating. Black water overflowed from beneath him, eroding a certain part of the roots of the large willow tree.

The roots of the large willow tree gripped a lot of soil, and it was with these solid clods of earth as its foundation that it was able to stand like an island in the swamp.

The island beneath the silt must be enormous to support such a giant tree.

Right now, Li Yi is trying to corrode a passage in this island, with the motionless mother crocodile at the top of the passage, which extends all the way into the silt.

If it encounters a life-or-death crisis that is truly difficult to deal with, it will immediately let the mother crocodile sink into the mud, and then leave with the white python.

Li Yi has been quietly carrying out this plan, and it is now almost complete.