Chapter 113: The Secret of Martial Stone (Part Two)

A bag of red powder, along with all manner of precious medicinal ingredients!

At any other time, in any other place, he wouldn't have found it the least bit strange — he wouldn't even have glanced at it.

Because it was utterly useless to him.

But since he had only recently destroyed the great hollow within the mountain, these things now stood out with unmistakable clarity.

That's right — these things were precisely the finished products from that cavern of flesh and blood!

Powder refined from endless blood and all manner of bizarrely shaped fragments and severed limbs, supplemented with precious medicinal ingredients!

That was exactly what lay before his eyes.

Of course, there might also be the mysterious substances from within those poor wretches' bodies.

Baichuan suddenly recalled the final scene — red light points swirling through the air amid the great fire.

Although he didn't know what they were for, since those humans had used them this way, and given that Zhang Dadan had once chosen to massacre a village in order to break through, as well as the abilities displayed on his panel back then —

Then these light points likely represented a power of will and spirit — they should serve some purpose.

Martial Stone, the blood powder before him, the limbs of various creatures, and this entire pool of water.

Baichuan stared blankly at the surface of the water shimmering with white light, and he realized he seemed to be slowly peeling back a staggering great secret — one connected to the entire supernatural power system of the Great Zhou.

But the clues were still insufficient; they lacked truly decisive evidence, and he was no sage to begin with — he couldn't yet sort it all out.

Subconsciously, his gaze drifted to the large wooden ladle beside him, which seemed to be used for scooping water.

He directly extended a claw and lightly grabbed it, scooped a ladleful from the pool, and brought it before his eyes for close examination.

Quite suddenly, Baichuan felt inexplicably that the white light within this water seemed to have been seen somewhere before — it was oddly familiar — but he couldn't recall where for the moment.

Head lowered, brows furrowed in deep thought, he suddenly paused, as though something had occurred to him.

He grabbed the wooden ladle and ran straight out, heading directly for the waterfall, then with a single claw snapped off a large tree and hollowed out a trough to hold water.

Having done this, he directly controlled the Frost Light Points within his body to shift out through his mouth — not too many, just a small portion.

Then he spat them straight into this pool of water, and throughout the entire process he did not let this power emit any biting cold.

In an instant, this Frost power completely sank into the makeshift water trough Baichuan had made.

Immediately, the water too began to emit a pale white glow.

Comparing the two side by side — the pale white and the pure white — apart from the difference in the color of the light, they were virtually identical.

"As I thought, my guess was right."

Seeing this, Baichuan couldn't help muttering to himself — his guess had been correct!

The power of Strange Beasts and the power of Martial Stone, to some degree, share the same origin though of different breeds!

Or rather, the power of Martial Stone is in its most primal state, while the power of Strange Beasts has undergone some kind of mysterious transformation.

At this thought, Baichuan's first idea was — could he obtain this most primal power, and then, according to his own wishes, create the attribute power he truly desired?

Baichuan didn't know whether it would ultimately work, but he felt it was worth a try.

He didn't linger any longer — since he understood now, it was time to head back.

Of course, before leaving he poured that ladleful of white-glowing liquid straight into the waterfall, letting it disappear along the current into the cold pool below.

As for the reason — naturally, he was more than happy for more Strange Beasts to be born, to provide him with power to plunder for his evolution.

He was never the sort of miserly fellow whose first thought upon getting anything good was: even if I can't use it, I'll hide it away so no one else can use it either.

He had only one goal — to grow stronger and become a dragon, to soar through the nine heavens.

As for everything else, so long as it helped him toward that ultimate goal and didn't endanger his own safety, he could toss it out with the greatest of ease.

A few minutes later, Baichuan had returned once more to the poolside, and he gazed at it, lost in thought.

If Martial Stone truly was water, he might not be able to take it with him.

But deep down he always felt this thing shouldn't exist only in the form of water — otherwise those humans wouldn't have called it "Martial Stone"; they would have called it "Martial Water" or Divine Water or Holy Water instead.

So then — should he go down into the pool and take a look?

Go down? He definitely had to go down!

Without hesitating for more than a few seconds, Baichuan made his decision directly.

Even if going down like this might pollute and ruin the entire pool of water.

He still had to go down and see for himself.

Anyway, since he'd understood to some degree what Martial Stone truly was, those great sects must all possess some — if this one was gone, he could simply go to another sect and take some.

As for whether there might be any danger — Baichuan hadn't given that a single thought.

It's just a pool of water — what danger could there possibly be?

So he decisively went down, and then discovered the water below was extremely deep — roughly thirty meters.

For a small pool, that was a startling depth, but that wasn't the point — because his body was huge, he didn't need to fear such depth like a human would.

The point was — the moment he went down, he discovered the power within the water had gone into a frenzy!

That's right — as though it had encountered some kind of trigger, it went berserk, all of it surging toward the center of the pool's bottom.

And during this process, the entire pool floor began growing ever brighter, the light so dazzling that even he felt his eyes sting.

At the very center of the light, he spotted a vessel — and at the vessel's central holding place, a radiant stone was slowly coalescing into being.

But during its formation, the left and right sides of that vessel suddenly began to contract and press inward.

"Not good! The mechanism has been triggered!"

No time to think — seeing that the stone was about to be crushed, Baichuan directly Burst with his tail fin, tearing open a vacuum band and diving rapidly downward, closing in.

Then with a sweep of his sharp claw he blocked, narrowly interposing himself at the center of that contracting vessel.

Only then did he let out a breath of relief.

That was close — that was close!

What a vicious mechanism this was!

Who could have imagined that the moment another creature entered the pool, all the light in it would converge into a stone, and beneath it there was still a device set to destroy it.

Even if one were to replace it with a human, no matter how deeply they could fight their way into Yingu, snatching the Martial Stone would be no easy feat.

But facing water this deep, absolutely no one could possibly retrieve it before the Martial Stone was destroyed.

This mechanism was probably the Flying Heaven Sect's last resort for mutual destruction when facing the crisis of their sect's annihilation.

Even in death, even if the lineage was severed, they would absolutely never let the enemy obtain the treasure within.

After sighing a few words and easing his violently pounding heart, Baichuan finally destroyed the device, drew out the stone from within, and slowly floated up toward the surface.

This trip really has been one twist after another!

Fortunately, he ultimately achieved his goal.

Thinking of this, Baichuan couldn't help feeling a surge of joy.

Although he hadn't yet figured out how to use this treasure, since he already possessed it, wouldn't figuring out how to utilize it be a matter of time?

……

(End of this chapter)