A Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Starting as a Rogue Cultivator

A handful of thunderbolts were thrown out, and they exploded in large numbers along the way.

The old dragon merely glanced at the low-grade magic artifact bead with disdain before withdrawing his contemptuous gaze and focusing all his attention on the real threat: a golden brick four or five zhang in size.

Thunderbolt Pearl?

What kind of garbage is that?

Several blue beads then struck the old dragon's head, greatly angering it. However, a flash of white light appeared, and the Heavenly Thunder Bead mixed in among them emitted a dazzling and blinding brilliance.

"Ow..."

Under the white light, the old dragon screamed and howled in agony.

Wang Li raised an eyebrow: Good meat, it's still alive?

Before the white light completely faded, and without the obstruction of the black water column, the golden bricks fell heavily!

"boom!"

A burst of golden light flashed, and golden arcs of electricity crackled. Only now did Wang Li, who had been holding his breath in the distance, finally relax. He finally exhaled the breath that had been suffocating in his chest.

"Clap."

With only two layers of magic power left in his body, he collapsed to the ground, exhausted.

The high-intensity movement of the sextet, although aided by stamina talismans to quickly restore his strength, still placed too much strain on his fragile human body at a speed of 70-80 meters per second for dozens of breaths. This was after he had undergone marrow cleansing and purification; during his Qi Refining stage, maintaining the sextet's speed of over 40 meters would have been his limit.

Having killed the old dragon, it was time to collect the spoils of war.

Out of caution, this time Wang Li singled out the cowardly mouse and released the rest of the minions. He had the little guys first confirm whether the old dragon was truly dead, and then he had the minions split into several groups and walk around the swamp a few times to eliminate any potential dangers.

He didn't want another leader to suddenly appear out of nowhere.

The result reassured Wang Li considerably.

The old dragon died peacefully, and there was indeed no sign of other life in the swamp. Of course, it couldn't be said that there were no anomalies at all. For example, beneath the swamp where the little dragon had emerged, the seven children sensed an aura that both terrified and filled them with intense longing. This longing was even stronger than the instinctive urge to eat the old dragon's corpse.

However, Wang Li had no intention of causing any trouble before his magic power was fully restored.

Now, the important thing is to collect the old dragon's demonic soul; it will probably dissipate soon.

With a wave of his hand, the golden brick talisman transformed into a golden talisman and landed in his hand. Looking at its much-diminished luster, Wang Li felt a pang of indescribable heartache:

"The lifespan that could originally be used more than thirty times has been reduced by more than half. Even if I only activate it normally afterward, I'm afraid I can only use it ten times at most."

Whether it was a stroke of good fortune or a natural affinity between him and the dragons, the soul-binding technique he used on both the large and small black dragons actually worked without failure, and he successfully obtained a powerful living soul from them.

Giant Tiger Puppet...

No, it should be said that the soul of the giant dragon puppet has found a home.

Instead of envying others' giant tigers, why not create one or two giant dragons yourself? Then, Huang Long and his group from the Thousand Bamboo Sect, as well as the likes of the Yue Emperor, would be no match for him.

"what?"

Just as Wang Li was pondering how to give the old dragon, which had lost half of its head and had flattened most of its head, a dignified appearance, he noticed something was wrong with the big guy.

If I remember correctly, he didn't attack the lower half of the old dragon's body that was protected by its scales, right?

But why is there blood flowing there?

Mr. Wang assured that he absolutely did not cause the harm.

more like...

Cough cough, could it be that a nest of black dragon eggs has just been laid?!

What exactly is buried beneath the swamp?

Chapter 72 Giant Skeleton and Ancient Array Plate

Wang Li returned to the top of the stone hall to recover his magical power. After his magical power was fully restored, he opened his eyes, got up, and then strode straight into the depths of the swamp where the black dragon was.

A water-repelling shield was erected, and various defensive items protected him completely. In addition, seven children with good swimming skills were on his side to protect him.

One zhang, three zhang, ten zhang...

Wherever it went, it left behind only warm, putrid mud.

At a distance of seventy or eighty feet, something different appeared ahead: there was a blue light curtain that blocked the natural settling of the silt.

Wang Li didn't feel any discomfort, but the seven little ones were trembling and cowering, as if something was suppressing them from an unknown level.

"An ancient restriction?"

The jade slip inside the golden treasure chest didn't mention this kind of arrangement.

But it's clear that there's something good hidden here.

Otherwise, why has the Forbidden Land only produced level two or higher-grade demon beasts since ancient times, while other bloodlines have only reached the peak of level one at most? It should be understood that, in terms of accumulated experience, demon beasts that have lived in the Forbidden Land, where spiritual energy is more abundant, for hundreds or thousands of years are generally more robust than wild beasts and demon beasts outside, and their probability of advancement should be far greater than that of "wandering animals" outside.

However, the truth is quite the opposite.

This doesn't make any sense.

In other words, the more than thirty stone halls that appear to be blessed lands, the seemingly harmless forbidden area fog, and the wind-blocking array that seems to provide protection have all been tampered with to some extent by ancient cultivators. They likely have a remarkable effect in suppressing the advancement of the forbidden area's demonic beasts.

The reason why the Mo Jiao family, or rather the former Black Scale Python family, was able to transform from ordinary snake bloodline to dragon bloodline must lie under this barrier light screen.

I first touched the turtle shell with the puppet, but there was no reaction; it was simply blocked outside.

Then he carefully examined the light screen to see if there were any loopholes.

Unfortunately, after exploring several times, they still didn't find anything.

"That's not right. If there was no opening, how did those two big loaches obtain such great benefits and complete their bloodline transformation?"

After pondering for a while without success, he took out the Vermilion Bird Ring and smashed it a few times with all his might, but the light screen only rippled slightly and did not break at all.

After thinking about it again, he had the youngest of the seven little ones twitch its tail and touch it...

Just then, something unexpected happened: Xiao Qi's tail could easily extend and retract completely without any obstruction. The other six, after receiving instructions, also tried it, and their snake bodies slithered in without being hindered by the light barrier.

Upon seeing this, Wang Li was overjoyed and felt even more relieved: since the Seven Little Ones were all safe and sound, there was no reason why his side should be worse off than the Seven Little Ones, right?

So he swiftly put away the magical artifact and puppet, and with a burst of light, he was about to disappear inside when: "Bang, hiss..."

My forehead throbbed painfully from the impact, and immediately became red and swollen.

Damn light curtain.

Recognizing blood ties?

He, a grown man, couldn't get in, but a few small mudskippers were completely unaffected.

What were those ancient cultivators thinking?

"Xiao Qi, come here, put this in your mouth and take it in."

Wang Li stuffed a puppet beast shrunk to the size of a palm, along with its internal storage bag, into Xiao Qi's mouth.

A classic case of "you have your clever plans, I have my own solutions."

Xiao Qi did as instructed and was not affected at all. It seemed that the barrier light screen tacitly agreed that the puppet beast and the storage bag belonged to Xiao Qi.

Once the puppet entered the light screen, it immediately gave Wang Li a completely new perspective.

Below, a gigantic skeleton, at least two hundred feet long, had its upper body coiled around a massive bronze pillar; it was a demonic dragon.

The demonic dragon was now nothing but a skeleton, its flesh and blood long gone; yet even so, its mere aura made the seven children tremble like leaves, looking utterly listless. But in their eyes, greed and desire clearly flickered.

At first glance, Wang Li strongly suspected that this skeleton was the remains left behind by a transformed demon beast after its death.

"what?"

My attention was completely drawn to the dragon skeleton on the bronze pillar, and I hadn't noticed that inside the skeleton's skull were three pure white snake eggs, each teeming with faint signs of life. Furthermore, on the ground below the bronze pillar and at the tail section of the skeleton, there was a pool of golden liquid and shattered eggshells.

It looks like... a broken egg?!

So, those were all snake eggs laid by the old dragon?

"What are you standing there for? Hurry up and lick it! The bloodline of the Black Dragon is much more precious than your worthless bloodline."

The bloodline of the Golden Python is utterly worthless.

Now the question is, how do we collect the remains in front of us that still contain a large amount of the essence of the transformed demon dragon?

……

Don't ask how Wang Li finally entered the light curtain; he just got in. The method was a bit disgusting, so let's not go into it. But let's just say that afterwards, when he looked at Xiao Qi, he was full of disdain.

However, the little guy, who was over two zhang long, became even closer to Wang Li.

That said, he hadn't felt anything while he was outside the light screen. But when he got up close and saw the six- or seven-hundred-meter-long dragon skeleton, and then looked up at the nearly one-hundred-foot-tall bronze pillar from the bottom... he realized how big the snake egg was.

One washbasin isn't enough to hold it.

No wonder there was only a pitiful amount of "brain space" that would have been "squeezed out" of the giant dragon's remains.

The demonic dragon was too large. Wang Li was certain that even if he used several medium-sized storage bags, each "hundred times" larger, he wouldn't be able to take away much material. Therefore, he could only selectively take a few things: for example, the two hind leg bones that had separated from the body; a few large claws that had spontaneously fallen off the front claws; a few sharp teeth that could be easily broken off; and finally, a large piece of dragon skin that had lost its flesh but was still stuck to the skeleton.

Besides these, Wang Li also found more than a dozen low-level storage bags and four skeletons of a black dragon whose size was comparable to that of an old black dragon in a corner.

Unfortunately, all the flesh and blood of these four skeletons had been completely removed. The skeletons were covered with pitted teeth marks and scratches, and many parts had been devastated, as if they had been ripped out of their bones and had their marrow sucked out.

As for demon cores and such, forget about them.

Aside from the claws, fangs, and a few fins that can be used to craft magical artifacts, the rest of the bone fragments are practically useless.

Having arrived here, most normal people would be content and leave: after all, they've taken everything within sight, so there's no point in staying any longer.

However, Wang Li was no ordinary person.

Although he didn't have much knowledge of formations, he had studied them for several years.

Take, for example, that ancient sealing formation on the edge of the forbidden area, which even a Nascent Soul cultivator wouldn't dare to enter easily. The formation can be maintained for thousands or even tens of thousands of years. A few mid-grade or low-grade spirit stones certainly couldn't achieve that. Even high-grade spirit stones wouldn't be able to sustain it for such a long time.

Therefore, there must be a special spiritual vein, or a spirit stone vein, within the Crimson Forbidden Land!

If this spiritual (mineral) vein can maintain the wind-attribute forbidden array for thousands of years and prevent any cultivator above the Qi Refining stage and below the late Nascent Soul stage from entering, it must be quite large.

This can be considered a consensus among the seven major factions of the Yue Kingdom.

It is likely that ancient cultivators used their great supernatural powers to move spiritual veins or spiritual mineral veins to provide energy for the great formation.

Similarly, the fact that the light barrier on the dragon's skeleton has remained intact for so many years suggests that this place was likely the result of some arrangements by ancient cultivators.