As soon as he entered the water,
Zhang Ling felt an immense pressure squeezing him from all sides, threatening to tear him apart.
Suddenly, he caught sight of a black shadow flashing amidst the roaring waves.
The enormous body of the Black Water Serpent was thrashing wildly.
He was involuntarily swept into the current, and in an instant, he was soaked to the bone.
Zhang Ling was aghast.
The powerful force of the water was pulling him in all directions, and he quickly lost his balance.
To his dismay, he found that he couldn't muster any spiritual power.
As soon as he tried to gather his spiritual energy, it was instantly dispersed by the surrounding water.
He couldn't use any of his spells.
The violent currents tossed his body around, exerting immense tearing forces on him.
If he didn't employ some defensive measures, his body would be torn apart in the blink of an eye.
In this life-or-death crisis, Zhang Ling made a desperate decision.
The small piece of black vine remaining on his left arm transformed into countless tiny threads under his mental command, spreading from his chest to cover his entire body.
He could control the parasitic vine without using spiritual power, and in an instant, his body was covered in a layer of dark, fine threads.
These threads were incredibly tough.
With this protection, Zhang Ling immediately felt the pressure on him lessen significantly.
He then struggled to twist his body in the water, and soon, one of his hands reached his storage pouch at his waist.
He quickly mobilized the spiritual power within him.
Although he couldn't completely negate the pressure outside his body and gathering spiritual power was slow, it was enough to open the storage pouch.
He grasped seven or eight spirit talismans in his hand.
After injecting some spiritual power into one of the blue talismans, it transformed into a light blue shield, protecting him within.
With the shield, Zhang Ling felt somewhat relieved.
However, he was still trapped in the swirling currents, making escape impossible.
He consumed a talisman every so often.
In the water, the defensive power of talismans of other attributes was greatly reduced, except for water-attribute shields.
After maintaining this for over an hour, he had used up all his defensive talismans.
The pressure outside his body didn't decrease.
Zhang Ling could only maintain the vine's coverage over his body, constantly tumbling in the water.
Gradually, Zhang Ling's consciousness began to fade.
…
He didn't know how long had passed, but Zhang Ling slowly woke up.
Before he even opened his eyes, he felt intense pain all over his body, as if he had been torn apart.
However, the pain meant he was still alive, which wasn't entirely bad.
When he opened his eyes, he was stunned by what he saw.
He was in a damp space that appeared to be a cave.
The cave was narrow, with a ceiling only half a zhang high and only three chi wide.
The walls were cold, hard stone, similar to the rock walls in the waterway.
He was lying in the cave, the dark entrance leading to an unknown place, with the sound of water flowing constantly outside.
It seemed he had been washed up here.
The currents created by the One-Eyed Black Serpent had swept him into the black water, and his body had drifted with the current.
It was a miracle he had survived.
Zhang Ling closed his eyes to examine his injuries.
After a while, he opened his eyes, took out a porcelain bottle from his storage pouch, poured out a White Ling Pill, and swallowed it.
He hadn't suffered any serious injuries, but his body's qi and blood were in disarray, and his spiritual power was depleted.
The vine on his left arm had long since subsided, and no matter how he called out to it, it didn't respond.
However, he could still sense the vine with his mind, indicating that it was simply exhausted.
He had used the vine to defend against the old man's Blood Skull attack, which had greatly damaged it.
He had just used it again to protect his body.
In the past, the vine would have automatically absorbed his qi and blood to replenish itself in such situations.
Fortunately, he had cultivated the Xuan Soul Refinement Demon Art for several years and resolved the strange vine's backlash.
As long as its roots weren't damaged, it would grow back soon.
Zhang Ling meditated in place to recover his injuries.
After his spiritual power had recovered to about seventy percent, he stopped.
He surveyed his surroundings.
This was no longer the waterway from before.
The water flow was only one zhang wide.
This was a very small waterway.
He then released his flying boat and deliberately flew along the waterway for a distance.
Not far away, he saw several intersecting waterways.
He didn't find any trace of the One-Eyed Black Serpent or Dongfang Ya.
This Golden Core stage senior had already been seriously injured, and now she had fought the One-Eyed Black Serpent.
Her fate was uncertain.
Zhang Ling felt worried and frustrated, thinking about the battle between the woman and the serpent.
His Foundation Establishment stage strength was too weak.
He had no power to resist the powerful serpent.
Sighing, Zhang Ling suppressed the distracting thoughts in his mind.
He was barely able to take care of himself, so he should worry about his own situation first.
He then returned to the narrow waterway and explored deeper into the low cave.
He had only one thought in his mind.
He needed to find a way out as soon as possible.
Otherwise, he would die sooner or later in this hellish place.
…
As he went deeper into the cave, the space inside gradually expanded.
He also heard the sound of flowing water.
Soon, he saw the end of the passage ahead.
A curtain of water hung straight down from the top of the cave, with splashing water droplets, which was not without a sense of scenery.
Beyond the waterfall was a space of more than thirty zhang.
In the center was a white-gray building.
It was a circular altar, surrounded by tall stone pillars.
The tops of these pillars were carved with grotesque patterns.
It was exactly the same as what he had seen in the Longevity Hall, obviously related to that Ghost King Sect.
However, the altar in front of him was dilapidated, and some of the pillars were broken.
However, the appearance of an altar in this ghostly place made Zhang Ling perk up.
Zhang Ling's body flashed with yellow light, releasing a protective shield.
Then, he patted his storage pouch, and a white pearl also released a layer of white light.
It was a pity that the black round shield he had recently refined had been lost in the powerful water flow, not knowing where it had fallen.
At the same time, the flying sword in his hand also flashed with light, ready to be used.
After preparing, Zhang Ling began to observe this place.
He first circled the entire space and found a stone door on the left side of the altar.
The stone door was covered with moss, and Zhang Ling almost missed it if not for the protruding patterns.
The patterns carved on it were quite strange.
One half of the stone door was carved with a picture of immortals flying in the sky.
On the other half of the stone door, the lower half depicted countless figures kneeling on the ground around a white bone altar, seemingly holding some kind of sacrifice.
However, there were no shamans or other personnel presiding over the sacrifice on the altar.
Instead, a circular vortex appeared, and this vortex was like an eye, captivating the mind.
Zhang Ling thought for a moment and decided to go in and take a look.
The spiritual power in his hand turned into a gust of wind and attacked the stone door.
With a muffled sound, the stone door was blown open, dropping some dust.
There were no restrictions.
He walked in easily.
