It took San Jiuling a full ten minutes before he awoke from the shock of what happened. In hindsight, it had been incredibly stupid of him to do nothing but stare slack-jawed. Luckily for him, whatever squished his comrades and the Ba Serpent to death like bugs hadn't attacked again.
San Jiuling gathered the corpses of his companions. Whoever or whatever killed them had spared him for some reason, something he couldn't understand. 'Was it the defensive formation activating? No, if it did, why would it attack the guardian and us?'
He stored his companions' corpses so that they could be buried once he brought them back to the Leakless Sect. As for the Ba Serpent corpse, San Jiuling stored that. No point in wasting a monarch-level demon's corpse.
Drip
Drip
Drip
San Jiuling looked up at the ceiling, where water had started leaking in. This only reaffirmed his conjecture that the palace's formation did not unleash that attack. Although it was not impossible for an immortal monarch to kill a demon sage, especially one as mindless as the Ba Serpent, the chances were incredibly small if it was a formation that decayed for an unknown amount of years.
Knowing that he didn't have much time, San Jiuling rushed forth. He stepped past the blood from the deceased Ba Serpent and into the circular room at the center. It didn't have any barrier preventing access, but he did notice the density of qi spiking. Within the circular room, the spiritual qi transformed into a mix of immortal and true qi.
In the center of the room and formation lay a single black egg. It reached San Jiuling's chest and had patterned hexagons and snake scales all over it.
San Jiuling's eyes lit up. Even though the beast had yet to hatch, he felt a sense of oppression. He couldn't think of any other reason why he would feel this way as a true immortal unless the egg hatched a beast at the True Demon Realm. Whatever species the egg belonged to, it would make a top-tier spiritual beast.
Walking closer, he felt the qi disappear. The egg sucked in everything within a few meters, but even so, San Jiuling could still feel the egg's weakening and flickering life aura.
San Jiuling speculated that the creator of the immortal grotto, Monarch Stillsea, created it in order to nourish the egg. However, something happened to Monarch Stillsea, leaving his plans unfinished. If he had come any later, whatever life gestating within would have starved to death.
After entering a few meters of the egg, San Jiuling felt the suction force increase, as if it found a target, him.
He didn't resist and allowed the immortal qi to flow out of his body. The verdant green energy flowed out of his pores and traveled to the egg. Like a man dying of thirst that found an oasis, the suction force dramatically increased.
San Jiuling continued to supply his immortal qi, his whole body glowed green from the amount of qi pouring out. He always had confidence in the size of his qi reservoir. Even the short interlude with the Ba Serpent did not diminish it much, but it seemed that he finally met his match.
When his qi reservoir dropped to fifty percent, San Jiuling began to worry. The last time his qi dropped this low was when he was still a mortal cultivator. Just in case, he prepared the Qi Restoration Pills he stockpiled beforehand.
As it dropped to thirty percent, he swallowed a Qi Restoration Pill. San Jiuling's body began to generate immortal qi at an increased rate. Still, the generation rate was barely higher than the amount the egg drained.
After ingesting four, San Jiuling only had two pills left. Only then did he begin to worry. His qi reserves had only returned to about forty percent, and it did not seem like the egg would stop anytime soon. Furthermore...
San Jiuling glanced at the walls. Cracks had started to appear, and he could hear the sound of rushing water outside. Even the floor started to get flooded. The crystal swords must have damaged the palace formations much more than he had anticipated.
"Alright, that's enough for you now," San Jiuling said, suppressing his qi from leaving.
The suction force paused for a moment, as if it had not expected the lapse of nourishment. Then, like a petulant child, the suction force returned at full force, perhaps even greater. Not even San Jiuling could completely lock his qi in his body.
"Enough already!" San Jiuling admonished as he appeared next to the egg and slapped it, hard.
The suction force stopped, and the egg vibrated like it was whining. However, San Jiuling had no mercy. "The situation is dangerous. I'll get you more and better nourishment than my qi once we leave, okay?"
The egg buzzed once as if to say yes and then turned silent. The suction force that had been constant turned passive, allowing San Jiuling to sigh in relief.
Since he didn't have a tamer bag specifically created to store live beasts, San Jiuling had no choice but to physically carry it, lest he wanted to store it in his spatial ring and risk killing it and making all his effort go down the drain.
Carrying it on his shoulders, San Jiuling swallowed the fifth Qi Restoration Pill. Without the black egg constantly draining him, his qi returned to a more respectable level.
After walking out the innermost level, a torrent of water flooded towards them. San Jiuling grimaced, but he rushed forward and into the water. He activated his Gauntlet of Strength, Chestplate of Deflection, Sash of Strength, Greaves of Speed, and Cape of Vitality. Instead of his speed decreasing, it increased.
An aura of green covered him, turning him into a green bullet charging through the water. Upon exiting the palace, San Jiuling paused. The giant swords hadn't just damaged the palace but destroyed the barrier of the immortal grotto. Water leaked from the external depths, crashing into the palace and forming a watery pillar connecting the ground and artificial sky.
The globe covering the palace had shattered, and the sea monsters freely swam in the sky. Some rushed through the crack in the top that leaked torrents of water, rushing and drowning the immortal grotto.
After hesitating for a moment, San Jiuling flew up and toward the cracks in the immortal grotto. Rather than delaying and leaving the way he entered, it would be better to rush out through the crack and leave using his immortal boat, the Nautilus.
However, against his expectations, the difficulty drastically increased when San Jiuling sensed one of the sea monsters rushing toward him. Then the second, third, fourth, and soon, all of them within a certain range charged at him, maws opened.
A white spear appeared in his free hand. With a swing, the incoming sea monster flew out of the water spire. However, San Jiuling soon sensed more sea monsters rushing toward him, even the ones that had originally been rushing toward the crack.
Unlike the first time traversing through the globe where the monsters only attacked San Jiuling and his deceased companions when they noticed them, the sea monsters all charged toward him as if attracted toward something. He glanced at the black egg. Did the sea monsters want to devour the egg to evolve?
No matter what, San Jiuling would not let mere beasts take away his prize, especially after all the sacrifices.
A helmet appeared above San Jiuling's head, covering his entire face behind a mask. The new armor's name was the Helmet of Gigantification. A verdant aura covered the helmet and began to spread through the other armor pieces, eventually causing his entire body to radiate an intense light.
San Jiuling's figure started to shift. His height of two meters began to increase and stretch at an astonishing rate. Ten meters, twenty meters, fifty meters, a hundred meters, two hundred meters, five hundred meters, and finally, a thousand meters.
He swung his white lance, which had grown to a thousand and two hundred meters long. That one swing stopped the water from flowing for a brief second, creating a lull with numerous true immortal-level sea monsters crashing out.
However, there were still the two monarch-level sea monsters rushing toward him. San Jiuling roared and charged upward with his spear upright. A vortex formed at the tip, shrouding his gigantic body in a massive reversed whirlpool.
The two monarch-level sea monsters and numerous others crashed into him but were repelled off. Still, San Jiuling felt his body shake from the force and suffered internal trauma, but he held strong. He didn't need to defeat them, only to make it out of the crack before they did.
San Jiuling roared as he poured more energy into his charge, creating a whirlpool of the same verdant glow and transforming it into a drill that pierced the water.
Finally, he made it through the crack and entered the depths. Unlike before, the immortal grotto no longer eliminated the pressure. So, the water pressure came crashing onto him, destroying the whirlpool cloaking him. He could bear the immense pressure for a period of time, but not for long. And certainly not fighting the sea monsters who were born to live in the depths.
San Jiuling could already see them swimming toward him from inside the Stillsea Immortal Grotto. Not wasting any time, he summoned the Nautilus and entered after reverting to his normal size. Immediately after, the Nautilus blended in with the environment and swam away.
He didn't know if the egg would attract other sea monsters or even demons lurking in the depths, but San Jiuling had no intent on testing it, so he activated the cloaking feature of the Nautilus to the maximum.
With safety assured, at least for a time, San Jiuling began to heal himself. When he reverted to his true size, the pressure still damaged his internal organs. He popped in the last Qi Restoration Pill since his last charge had drained him of nearly all his immortal qi.
Next, he began to circulate his qi throughout his body and heal his internal organs. For other immortals, it might have taken them some time, but for San Jiuling, it only took a fraction of the time. After all, he was comprehending the Law of Life.
Seven days later, San Jiuling opened his eyes, all healed. His immortal qi had returned to seventy percent of their maximum capacity too. 'I didn't expect this one trip to deprive me of all my Qi Restoration Pills. Although ingesting too much in a short time would cause sequelae, that's not as big a problem for me as others. Still, it's going to be troublesome to concoct more. I need to return to the sect as soon as possible to gather materials and deliver my companion's corpses.'
San Jiuling sighed. The loss of four true immortals could not be said to be a big loss to the overall situation, but each one had a ten percent chance to become an immortal monarch if given enough time. Still, that was precious time they couldn't afford in the war. Hopefully, the materials they looted would be able to make up for the loss of four true immortals.
"Hmm?" San Jiuling glanced toward the egg next to him. During his week-long recovery, he allowed the egg to siphon some immortal qi of life from him. The amount he released would not impair his recovery.
The black egg started to vibrate at an intense rate, causing the small snake-like scales to fall off, revealing the hexagonal, tortoise-like patterns even more.
"Is it about to hatch?" San Jiuling muttered. He immediately started to inscribe a Spiritual Beast Contract Formation around it. Monarch Stillsea must have had the same idea since San Jiuling easily found the materials from among the looted treasures.
He acted fast and quickly constructed the formation, pouring liters upon liters of his blood into the formation, turning it blood-red. Time passed as the space between the hexagons widened, allowing egg fluid to slosh out. Then, the egg suddenly exploded, launching the hexagon egg pieces like projectiles.
While this happened, a black blur shot out, intent on leaving the formation. "Oh no, you don't!"
Chains of qi erupted from the Spiritual Beast Contract Formation and shackled the newly born beast. San Jiuling didn't consider himself a beast expert, but even he could recognize its species. Excitement flooded his veins.
Trapped and struggling was a meter-long tortoise with what appeared to be a bonsai tree growing atop its shell. It had two heads, one was that of a turtle, but the other came from its back end, a snake's body with a head attached where its tail should have been.
The beast that just hatched was the Black Tortoise Divine Beast!
