This thing resembled a giant meatball, with the portion exposed above the water being forty to fifty zhang in size. It was generally flesh-white, with some blood-red filaments coiled around it, like blood-red hair growing out of it.
This thing was truly strange. In Zhang Ling's view, it resembled neither a demon beast nor a desolate beast, but it contained a strong power of blood energy, clearly indicating it was a living thing.
Could this be the ancient beast that the Qinghu King spoke of?
At this moment, the monster was going berserk. The filaments on its body tangled together, transforming into thick fleshy whiskers, and it was fighting a black-robed man.
The black-robed man was not tall, and his body was covered in a layer of bloody light, making it impossible to see his face. With a wave of his hand, large amounts of bloody light transformed into blood-colored ghost claws, each about ten zhang in size.
Zhang Ling glanced at this person and was shocked. The aura emanating from this person was astonishing; he was actually a Nascent Soul cultivator. He immediately stopped and ceased approaching.
He originally thought that the commotion here was caused by the Qinghu King, but he didn't see any trace of the Qinghu King at this moment.
Instantly, a possibility occurred to Zhang Ling: the black fox possessed by the Qinghu King might have been killed by this Nascent Soul monster.
As soon as this thought arose, he began to retreat, intending to leave. If this person discovered him, he might not be able to escape.
"Boy, did you obtain the Rootless Lotus?"
Suddenly, a voice entered his ears. Zhang Ling was stunned, then overjoyed. It was the Qinghu King's voice transmission.
Hearing the Qinghu King's voice transmission, Zhang Ling calmed down slightly. "I have successfully obtained the Rootless Lotus, Senior. Why is there a Nascent Soul cultivator here?"
"That's good. As for this human cultivator, he seems to have entered before us. His target is this Wealth Spirit Beast. Now that you've taken the Rootless Lotus, leave first. Take this Black Fox Jade, and the king will find you after you exit."
Zhang Ling hid nearby, scanning his surroundings, but he didn't find any trace of the Qinghu King. However, the demon king's voice transmission clearly entered his ears.
It seems that the Qinghu King is also hiding nearby.
At the same time as the Qinghu King's voice transmission, he immediately sensed a cold object suddenly appearing on his left hand side. Zhang Ling grabbed the object.
Looking down, it was a black circular jade pendant, the size of a palm, carved with a fox in a head-to-tail posture.
Zhang Ling nodded silently, but still frowned and asked, "What about you, Senior...?" Before he could finish his question, the Qinghu King chuckled coldly and explained via voice transmission.
"The inner core of this Wealth Spirit Beast is also very useful to me. One of the purposes of my coming here is to deal with this earth spirit beast. Originally, I would have asked you to help, but now that this human cultivator has appeared, it saves me some trouble. However, I am only a phantom body right now and don't have complete certainty. This person's strength is not bad. If he weren't being restrained by the ancient beast, he could easily discover your trace with a careful sweep of his divine sense."
Hearing this, Zhang Ling knew it was true. Although he was wearing an Invisibility Cloak, the divine sense of a Nascent Soul cultivator was strong and could easily discover him.
Afterwards, he exchanged a few more words with the Qinghu King via voice transmission and then retreated directly. He retreated all the way back to the place where he had collected the Rootless Lotus, and only then did Zhang Ling feel a little relieved. He immediately returned along the original path.
He sped up and arrived at the Spirit Eye Spring above in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.
Looking at the colorful spirit stones all over this space, Zhang Ling patted his storage bag and released thirty to forty Armored Soldier Puppets to begin collecting the spirit stones in the nearby rocks.
In the blink of an eye, a quarter of an hour passed. Looking at the black storage bag in his hand, Zhang Ling nodded in satisfaction. He had collected a total of more than ten thousand middle-grade spirit stones, as well as many low-grade spirit stones, filling a storage bag to the brim.
If there wasn't a Nascent Soul monster below, he would have collected more spirit stones, but Zhang Ling knew that he couldn't stay here for long. After putting away the spirit stones, he immediately left.
Before long, he left Tianheng Mountain.
Zhang Ling first went to the place where he had set up the formation and collected the formation equipment. Then, without looking back, he flew away in one direction.
From the time he collected the Rootless Lotus to the time he left Tianheng Mountain, the total time used was only a short half an hour.
Not long after he left, two streaks of light also rushed out of Tianheng Mountain. They disappeared without a trace in a chase.
...
An hour later, Zhang Ling was already thousands of miles away from Tianheng Mountain, in a hidden stone cave, looking at the Black Fox Jade given to him by the Qinghu King.
This jade pendant seemed to be a magic weapon as well, but he couldn't activate it with spiritual power. However, he could sense a special spiritual power fluctuation on it.
When his divine sense penetrated it, he could find a vague cyan fox phantom inside. It seemed that this was the mark left by the Qinghu King.
Zhang Ling's expression was strange as he flipped his hand and took out a scarlet feather. Looking at the two objects, he couldn't help but smile wryly.
Unexpectedly, in two days, he had two tokens from Nascent Soul cultivators in his hand.
Now, these two tokens didn't seem to be any trouble, but keeping these Nascent Soul cultivators' things on him always gave Zhang Ling a sense of unease.
However, the harvest in the past few days has also been great. He not only obtained the Earth Spirit Fruit, but also received the Rootless Lotus and a Spirit Eye Stone. This has a lot to do with the Qinghu King and the female cultivator in the ice coffin.
If he were looking for them himself, he might not even be able to find the Earth Spirit Fruit now. These three spiritual objects are not ordinary things. Each one of them placed outside could attract many cultivators.
The Earth Spirit Fruit is the main material for the Nascent Soul Pill. The Rootless Lotus can cleanse the spiritual roots and also increase the chances of forming a Nascent Soul, making it even more precious than the Earth Spirit Fruit. Not to mention the Spirit Eye Stone, which, in some ways, is more valuable than these two items.
This is a Spirit Eye Stone nurtured by a high-grade spiritual vein. Wearing it on the body is definitely comparable to carrying a mobile spiritual vein. This object can gather the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Although the degree of spiritual energy emitted will decrease after leaving the high-grade spiritual vein, it is definitely comparable to the spiritual energy degree of a middle-grade spiritual vein.
These three things are probably things that even Nascent Soul cultivators would covet.
Now that he has achieved his purpose of entering the Abyss, Zhang Ling does not intend to explore other places. The safest thing to do is to find the teleportation array to leave the Abyss Secret Realm.
Although the Abyss is divided into seven layers, most of the Golden Core cultivators who enter this place will stop at the fourth layer. The layers behind are too dangerous for them.
It is said that even Nascent Soul cultivators find it difficult to enter the seventh layer.
Zhang Ling also stayed on the fourth layer for a few days and encountered a lot of dangers. Not to mention the high-level desolate beasts and some ancient barbaric beasts that live here, the female cultivator in the ice coffin he encountered before could have taken his life.
