Chapter 64: Mysterious Water Nether Lotus (Seeking Monthly Votes)

Xu Chen slowly retreated, stepping over the collapsed, shattered lotus stone pillars and rubble covering the ground, and after circling around most of the water pool, he arrived at the place where the Spirit Qi was fluctuating.

This was a hidden compartment resembling a small stone niche behind the stone wall, no more than half a foot in size, and inside, apart from a black Jade Slip, there was nothing else.

Xu Chen scanned the Jade Slip carefully with his Divine Sense and, finding no danger, took it out cautiously.

The Jade Slip was very ancient, with a black lotus mark on it, though the Spirit Qi was so faint it was nearly non-existent; if not for Xu Chen's powerful Divine Sense, he would never have been able to discover this trace of fluctuation.

After hesitating repeatedly, Xu Chen pressed the Jade Slip against his brow and let his Divine Sense penetrate slightly; in a trance, he saw the phantom of a white-haired man wearing black Daoist robes and a Daoist bun appear within his Sea of Consciousness.

This phantom's aura was unstable, black mist churned all over his body, and his pair of eyes were terrifying, actually flickering with an eerie red light.

The phantom looked at Xu Chen, his emotions very agitated, and roared: "It's an illusion, everything is an illusion, everyone has been struck by the Nether Illusion Poison, I am the Supreme Elder Wuwang Shenjun, the Mysterious Water Nether Lotus has spiraled out of control, the sect is about to face destruction, I will exhaust my cultivation to seal it temporarily; if anyone sees my message, please flee the sect as quickly as possible, the further you run, the better..."

Before the phantom's words seemed to be finished, the figure began to collapse; in no more than a few breaths, before Xu Chen had fully understood, the Jade Slip in his hand cracked with a 'Crack!' sound, then turned into powder and scattered downward.

Xu Chen stood stunned for a long time.

Although the message preserved in the Jade Slip was only a short sentence, the content was not insignificant.

This Wuwang Shenjun must have been the Supreme Elder of the Taiyuan Sect before its destruction, his cultivation having reached the Shenling Realm of the late stage of Qi Refining and Spirit Transformation, meaning he was already a top-tier great cultivator of the Spirit Transformation stage.

And this black demon lotus before his eyes must be the Mysterious Water Nether Lotus he spoke of.

But what did it mean that everything was an illusion?

And what did the Nether Illusion Poison refer to?

Xu Chen pondered, letting the demon lotus in the water pool roar and rage, its roots and vines churning across the sky and constantly lashing at the Blue Light Treasure Bottle.

After a full several dozen breaths, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he hurriedly checked his own body, instantly seeming to understand.

He had been dragged into the black water of the mine by the python-like demon lotus vines and felt his skin, flesh, and bones being crushed, yet the clothes he was currently wearing were still perfectly fine; apart from being soaked through, there was not a single scratch on his body.

In other words, everything he had just experienced from beginning to end might have been an illusion.

However, this illusion was too realistic, so realistic that he was completely unable to distinguish it.

But in an instant, he smiled bitterly and understood: the Taiyuan Sect, with a Shenling Realm powerhouse like Wuwang Shenjun presiding over it, was so powerful that it could not escape the illusion poison of the Mysterious Water Nether Lotus; as a small piece of trash in the Kaiyuan Realm, he was certainly even less capable of distinguishing truth from falsehood.

Even now, he still could not fully distinguish the real from the fake.

This Mysterious Water Nether Lotus, which resembled a terrifying monster, was still constantly attacking him, and it was possible that it was something he had hallucinated after being poisoned.

But he knew that whether this was a real situation or an illusion, as long as he could not break free and escape, he would sooner or later be attacked to death by the Mysterious Water Nether Lotus, eventually being buried in this dark, sunless grotto, disappearing from the world entirely, with no one even finding his corpse.

And to leave this place, he would ultimately have to break the illusion poison of this demon lotus.

Thinking of this, Xu Chen turned around, his Divine Sense landing on the black demon lotus in the black water pool.

"Boom—"

Seeming to sense Xu Chen's Divine Sense, the black lotus suddenly released an even more terrifying aura; a powerful, irresistible force rushed toward Xu Chen along his Divine Sense like a tidal wave, and a large number of roots and vines also rolled over, attempting to swallow him up.

The Blue Jade Bead suddenly flared with brilliant blue light, and the treasure bottle also emitted a bright radiance to resist this powerful attack.

The moment the two forces made contact, amidst an explosion of starlight, Xu Chen felt his soul shake violently; he immediately felt dizzy and took several steps back, stumbling, and let out a muffled groan as he slammed heavily into the rock wall, simultaneously spitting out a mouthful of blood.

Xu Chen was horrified; this Mysterious Water Demon Lotus's attack was incomparably fierce and did not seem like an illusion at all. Not only did it carry a powerful soul attack, but its physical attack was equally terrifying; he could not resist it in the slightest, and if not for the protection of the Blue Light Treasure Bottle, he would definitely have died without a whole corpse just now.

Because he could clearly feel that at least ninety percent of the demon lotus's attack force had been blocked by the Blue Light Treasure Bottle just now.

The demon lotus roots, churning and dancing across the sky like pythons, lashed crazily at the phantom of the treasure bottle; the blue starlight was as brilliant as fireworks, and with every strike, Xu Chen felt his own soul trembling and shaking along with it.

Once this layer of treasure bottle light was shattered, he would have absolutely no chance of survival.

Xu Chen gritted his teeth and began to think of a countermeasure.

He had already resolved such a terrifying and difficult situation just now, and now that he was face-to-face with this demon creature and had the help of the mysteriously indescribable Blue Jade Bead, it would be something he could never accept if he still ended up dead.

To deal with this powerful Mysterious Water Nether Lotus and escape, he still had to rely on the power of the Blue Jade Bead.

Thus, Xu Chen took a deep breath, focused his Divine Sense on the blue treasure bottle in his Sea of Consciousness, and then drove his Divine Sense with all his might, reaching in from the bottle's mouth to strike the Jade Bead; this time, however, it was effortless, and his Divine Sense landed on the Jade Bead, but nothing changed.

The Blue Jade Bead remained like a blinding ball of light suspended in the empty, void treasure bottle; no matter how much effort he used to strike it, it was all in vain, and he could not penetrate inside again to see that magnificent and vast blue nebula and starry sky.

Xu Chen was dumbfounded again; having become like this, how was he supposed to trigger the power of the Jade Bead to resist the Mysterious Water Nether Lotus?

To him, the Blue Jade Bead was an unknown, mysterious, and rare treasure.

But precisely because it was unknown, everything had to be explored by himself; there was no experience to speak of.

Moreover, every change in the Blue Jade Bead brought with it completely unfamiliar effects.

Xu Chen stood quietly in the grotto, letting the roots and vines of the Mysterious Water Nether Lotus attack him constantly, while his Divine Sense remained immersed in his Sea of Consciousness, landing on the Jade Bead in the blue treasure bottle, constantly thinking of a countermeasure.

"Jade Bead, treasure bottle..."

Xu Chen muttered continuously, his eyes slightly closed and his face twitching; a full stick of incense passed before he suddenly opened his eyes.

Since this was a bottle, if he could fit the Mysterious Water Nether Lotus inside, he would surely be able to trap it within.

There are as many Magic Treasures in the world as there are hairs on an ox, but most treasure-bottle-type Magic Treasures have the function of storing objects.

Although Xu Chen had few Magic Treasures, he was relatively clear on the classification and functions of various types.

Regardless of what grade of Magic Treasure this treasure bottle phantom that appeared after the Blue Jade Bead leveled up was, since it could withstand the attacks of the Mysterious Water Nether Lotus, if he could take it inside, the difficulty before him would be easily resolved.

As for what would happen after taking such a powerful and terrifying unknown demon creature inside, he could not care about that for the moment; he would have to wait and think of ways to deal with it later, but as long as it was trapped in the treasure bottle and could not get out, he would eventually find a way to slowly grind it to death.

If the Zhenyuan Realm wouldn't work, then the Danyuan Realm; if the Danyuan Realm wouldn't work, then the Spirit Transformation Realm.

Although the chance of Spirit Transformation was slim, it would ultimately resolve the current crisis.

However, Xu Chen began to panic again about how to put the demon creature into the Jade Bottle; he could only lock onto the demon lotus with his Divine Sense, use the method of using Magic Treasures he used on ordinary days, constantly try to trigger the Jade Bead with his consciousness, and simultaneously form hand seals, attempting to drag the demon lotus into the Jade Bottle just like using a Storage Bag.

And upon this attempt, Xu Chen's body suddenly shook; he actually felt a trace of resisting will from the Jade Bead, as if it were unwilling to take the black lotus inside.

But this did not disappoint him; instead, he was both surprised and delighted.

He had never encountered a Magic Treasure that could actively resist being used; even Magic Treasures that had already been branded with the soul of another cultivator would at most be unusable, but they would never have self-awareness to resist the user.

Only in legends, when an Immortal Treasure reaches the level of a True Immortal, does an existence called a Spirit Tool emerge, possessing self-awareness.

Could it be that this Blue Jade Bead is truly an Immortal Treasure?

Xu Chen felt that he was about to touch the biggest secret of the Blue Jade Bead.

However, the Jade Bead's resisting will made him somewhat troubled, but in order to survive and escape this hellish place, he could only continuously strengthen his Divine Sense power again and again, using his consciousness to forcibly communicate with the Jade Bead, while the Jade Bead released feelings of resistance time and time again.

However, after a bout of repeated tug-of-war, the Jade Bead's will to resist suddenly vanished.

Xu Chen only felt a powerful suction force drain all the Origin Qi from his entire body.

"Pfft~"

Xu Chen felt as if he had been suddenly sucked by a terrifying Demon Beast, leaving him with nothing but a layer of skin; he opened his mouth to spray out another mouthful of fresh blood, hurriedly fished out a Great Origin Pill to stuff into his mouth, and frantically circulated his cultivation technique to refine and absorb it.

The Origin Qi that had not yet had time to enter his dantian was instantly drawn away by the Jade Bead while still in his Meridians.

Xu Chen felt his vision go dark, and his Meridians all began to emit cracking sounds of shattering.

At the same time, the Blue Jade Bead also began to emit an even more brilliant radiance; the light and shadow of the Jade Bottle shrouding Xu Chen's body actually left his body and flew to the position above his head, quickly solidifying into a palm-sized, entirely crystal-blue, translucent Jade Bottle.

A powerful suction force appeared out of thin air, quickly forming a starlight vortex about a foot in size above the Black Water pit.

The rolling black mist in the stone cave was sucked into the vortex like thick smoke.

The pit of Black Water also began to transform into a water dragon, churning and rotating, and was sucked into the Jade Bottle along the vortex.

The Mysterious Water Nether Lotus within the Black Water seemed to sense the fear of death, emitting a shrill screech that shook the Soul; its exposed stems and roots danced wildly in the sky, frantically lunging toward the Jade Bottle, but under the terrifying suction of the vortex, a large number of vines and roots were swept into the vortex, and then bit by bit, the remaining roots were pulled out from the residual Black Water sludge.

And upon the dense roots of the black lotus, there were actually large numbers of human skeletons and various things like Flying Sword and Array Disk entangled, all of which were pitch black and had been corroded beyond recognition.