Chapter 130: with translation of chapter title

This mad flood dragon.

In the swamp, Yunhe fled swiftly.

Behind him, a flood dragon resembling a python but not large, only three or four zhang long, clad in deep dark green scales, was angrily hissing and roaring as it closely followed.

Wherever this flood dragon passed, it left behind a putrid, foul-smelling substance; the faint light green miasma on its body caused considerable damage to the swamp's already sparse vegetation.

Yet it paid no heed to this destruction; its vertical pupils held only the black great turtle not far away.

This poisonous flood dragon was precisely the owner of that miasma earlier.

And the soft jade red gourd that Yunhe had plucked was also something it had carefully tended and guarded for nearly a hundred years.

It is a native demon beast living in this secret realm, having survived for several hundred years, and its cultivation base, relying on the swamp's resources, has reached the early third stage.

It is the tyrant of this corrupt swamp!

Although it does not know that the place it inhabits is a secret realm, having lived here for so long it has also discerned some patterns.

Every so often, ranging from a few decades to over a century, a batch of demon beasts it has never seen before will suddenly appear here.

It does not know why they appear, but for the tyrant poisonous flood dragon of the corrupt swamp, it does not need to figure this out.

It only knows that whenever those second-stage demon beasts enter, it is the time for it to hunt to its heart's content.

These demon beasts are precious rations for it.

Therefore, each time the secret realm opens, it leaves the miasma where it resides and goes out to hunt.

Of the demon beasts it slays, part becomes its food, turning into nutrients for its continual growth and strength, while a smaller part is buried by it as fertilizer beneath that gourd vine.

Relying on the protection of its deadly miasma, it has never encountered any problems.

Who would have known.

This time, having gone out to hunt for only a few days, it suddenly felt that its home had been stolen!

How could it tolerate this? It immediately dropped the prey it had caught and chased after Yunhe.

And this chase lasted a full day.

That is to say, Yunhe's escape ability is not bad, and with the various treasures and spiritual artifacts he carries, he is not about to be caught by the poisonous flood dragon.

But it also made Yunhe silently curse incessantly.

He had also considered turning back to try a strike.

But after a few simple contacts he found.

He could not beat it.

Even though he is among the very powerful in the second-stage demon beasts, the poisonous flood dragon is no ordinary creature; it is a kind of jiao dragon, likewise innately extraordinary, and possesses an absolute advantage in strength stage, so being able to defeat it would be surprising.

Eventually it evolved into the present situation of one fleeing and one pursuing.

Actually Yunhe also knew that the poisonous flood dragon could continuously lock onto his position because of the soft jade red gourd; even if stored in a storage bag, there seems to be some connection between it and the gourd.

Originally he wanted to find an opportunity to "transfer" to the Cultivator Body side, then find a chance to hide, thereby avoiding the poisonous flood dragon's pursuit.

Later he discovered.

While being pursued by the poisonous flood dragon, he got a bit of its "glory"; wherever he went, most demon beasts, cowed by its aura, chose to avoid him, allowing him to swiftly and smoothly snatch many good things, his harvesting speed far surpassing what he could achieve by slowly searching on his own.

Although it looks extremely dangerous, it is still barely within Yunhe's tolerance.

But now.

He decided to end this scavenging trip, uh, no, the escape journey.

Demon Sense detected that the poisonous flood dragon was about to catch up.

Yunhe again employed the heart-worm technique, producing a considerable impact on its beast soul, causing the poisonous flood dragon's movements to become somewhat sluggish.

Subsequently he further used the Earth Escape Technique to avoid line of sight, appearing elsewhere.

Roar!!

The poisonous flood dragon, now utterly enraged, roared without cease, its widened eyes suffused with a layer of scarlet.

Regarding the fleeing black great turtle, originally it was angry only because its soft jade red gourd had been stolen, but now it is not merely about the gourd; it feels as if it is being made a fool of.

It vigorously shook its head, again sensed the aura of the soft jade red gourd, and angrily pursued.

Then it saw the black great turtle dash through a large thicket.

Coming into view were two second-stage late-phase demon beasts fighting fiercely over something, their eyes red with rage.

The black great turtle flashed by and even made off with the object those two demon beasts were contesting.

This caused the two demon beasts to stare blankly, then become completely berserk.

But the poisonous flood dragon had no time to care about their mood, and without hesitation charged straight after them.

It passed over the two second-stage late-phase demon beasts; they barely regained a hint of clarity, and, cowed by the poisonous flood dragon's aura, halted their actions, preparing to watch it pass through.

However.

Boom!!

Suddenly a booming explosion erupted from underground.

The exploding warm water mass splashed onto the three demon beasts, inflicting considerable harm while also corroding them to a degree.

The corroded wounds, combined with the deadly miasma carried by the poisonous flood dragon, resulted in unbearable pain.

This led the two second-stage late-phase demon beasts to think that the poisonous flood dragon was provoking them!

Thus, the already red-eyed beasts, heedless, attacked the poisonous flood dragon, while the equally furious poisonous flood dragon actually did not want to entangle itself with them, merely repelling them as quickly as possible, preparing to sense the gourd's location again and continue pursuing the black great turtle.

But if it didn't sense, it would be fine; yet once it sensed, it discovered—missing!

The aura of the soft jade red gourd, unexpectedly, had vanished!

The soft jade red gourd that it had painstakingly nurtured for nearly a hundred years, with which it had already formed a certain connection, it could no longer sense!

Astonished, it froze on the spot.

At this moment, those two second-stage late-phase demon beasts attacked again.

Roar!!

Terrifying roar silenced the demon beasts of the entire swamp like cicadas in winter.

But for some reason, from that roar, the demon beasts felt not only uncontrollable anger but also a hint of sorrow.

This left the demon beasts sighing incessantly.

And as the culprit, Yunhe.

At this moment he completely restrained his aura, hid a hundred meters deep in the swamp, stuffed himself with a few elixirs, and was now meditating with closed eyes to recover his demonic power.

If his demonic power weren't nearly exhausted, and repeatedly using the Heart Worm Technique hadn't also greatly drained his demon sense and mind, the fatigue wouldn't have risen so much; he might not have stopped so soon.

At such depth, even moving via Earth Escape Technique is not easy, but hiding there is clearly no problem.

After simply setting up some defenses, Yunhe fell asleep.

Immortal cultivation world.

Indeed, it's a third-stage spiritual plant, the Soft Jade Red Gourd.

After being plucked, the Soft Jade Red Gourd changed from its original sauce-red to a vivid, dripping crystal red, its surface becoming smooth and delicate like soft jade ice.

The 'Nine-Turned Gourd' is a demonic artifact of the demon race; it's not hard to craft, the difficulty lies in finding suitable materials.

He placed the gourd aside.

After the Demon Beast Body leaves the secret realm, we can have it personally craft it.

Although it's a third-stage spiritual plant, given his current ability to barely craft low-grade spiritual artifacts, he can still manage to refine it.

Afterward, he sorted and stored the materials gathered by the Demon Beast Body by category.

To be frank.

Just considering his current wealth, even some Golden Core cultivators might not match him.

He took out a furnace cauldron from his storage ring.

While the Demon Beast Body rested, he prepared to brew a batch of elixirs.

Using a thousand-year-old 'Azure Blue Aconite' as the main ingredient, plus some other auxiliary materials, he could refine a top-grade Second-Stage 'Fostering Elixir'.

I wonder if using thousand-year-old materials will let the resulting elixir's quality rise by a notch.

This cauldron ought to be replaced when the chance arises.

He carefully cut a small piece with a jade tool, then used the innate true fire of Foundation Establishment to burn away impurities, turned it into powder, placed it in a prepared container, and processed the other materials one by one.

Yunhe knew the refinement process of the Fostering Elixir inside out; although the materials had been substituted, the basic procedure remained largely unchanged.

After placing the processed ingredients into the elixir furnace, he began the elixir's refinement.

Having the Fostering Elixir as a special breakthrough also is a major reason why Yunhe's alchemy skill can improve rapidly.

Soon enough.

A pure, refreshing medicinal fragrance soon filled the cave dwelling.

Yao Shou Shijie

Mm.

Yunhe, buried deep underground, slowly woke up and lazily stretched.

A long sleep left him feeling refreshed throughout, his spirits full, his condition restored to peak.

He pinched out a milky-white, crystal-clear elixir with his claw; the round little pill exuded a rich medicinal scent, and merely inhaling it made his whole body feel refreshed.

This quality is only a hair's breadth away from third-stage elixir level, right?

As expected of the Fostering Elixir refined from thousand-year-old Azure Blue Aconite.

He swallowed it without hesitation.

Instantly he felt his demonic power surge, his limbs and bones seeming to groan.

He then silently cultivated for a while using the medicine's power.

With an elixir of this quality, my speed to break through mid-Second Stage will increase considerably.

After finishing his cultivation, Yunhe smacked his lips.

That mad flood dragon should have left by now, right?

He returned to the swamp once more.

Indeed, aside from the mess all over the ground, the poisonous flood dragon's traces had long vanished.

The delay has been a bit too long.

For now he still doesn't know what the secret realm's central 'Demon-Washing Pool' is like; even if other demon beasts lack his rough understanding of the realm's divisions, they might still find it by searching.

However, he did not act rashly, but instead proceeded more cautiously.

After all, the existence of the poison flood demon confirms that third-stage demon beasts exist in this secret realm.

And as the secret realm's central Demon-Washing Pool, there's no reason it wouldn't have demon beasts guarding it.

Leaving the rotting swamp region, he entered a vast, pallid expanse.

His whole field of vision seemed to be stained white.

But if he looked closely, he'd see it wasn't truly white; rather, pale-blue lightning constantly fell from the sky, its flashing light interweaving, rendering the area white.

And this is also a place one must pass through to reach the secret realm's center.

Bing Lei Liao Yuan!

Lightning.

It is something all demon beasts instinctively revere; the difference is merely that stronger demon beasts can better overcome this innate fear.

However, Yunhe didn't really care about it.

Although lightning is dangerous, given the strike intensity here, even if he were hit it would be unpleasant, but the speed of lightning isn't actually fast; as long as a demon beast is strong enough and reacts quickly, it can still dodge.

Moreover, due to the lightning's coverage, the Bing Lei Liao Yuan almost has no active demon beasts, so there's no need to worry about sudden attacks.

Yunhe was instead more concerned with what was described on the stone tablet on the island: in this place, thunder magma surges and thunder baptism rolls, amidst the rolling thunderclaps, a thing called Meteor Thunder Essence will be born.

For demonic beasts that can command thunder and lightning, this thing is absolutely a great tonic.

However, Yunhe also knew that Meteor Thunder Essence is something in the cultivation world that would make even Golden Core cultivators and even Yuan Ying Cultivators feel moved.

Because if a certain amount of Meteor Thunder Essence is incorporated when refining a thunder-type magic treasure, the treasure may have a greater chance of awakening an artifact spirit!

And magic treasures that possess an artifact spirit are collectively called Spirit Treasure.

It is something stronger and rarer than ordinary magic treasures!

Even if it cannot awaken an artifact spirit, it can still enhance the power of thunder-type magic treasures to some extent, making it a rare find.

However, although this place may produce Meteor Thunder Essence, it also depends on luck.

In any case, Yunhe stayed there for a while, and even after passing through, he never saw the so-called Meteor Thunder Essence.

And after passing through the Bright Thunder Vast Plain, what appeared before his eyes before him was an ancient and magnificent huge hall!

At the same time.

He also saw a familiar figure.

The Poisonous Flood Dragon of the Rotten Swamp!

It actually knew that Yunhe would surely come here, and had been waiting for him in advance!

This left Yunhe rather speechless.

"Mad Flood Dragon."

(End of Chapter)