Chapter 436 - 405: The Vast Aquatic Race and the Mudskipper Shrimp

Chapter 436: Chapter 405: The Vast Aquatic Race and the Mudskipper Shrimp

At his words, everyone’s expression changed.

The thought of a Great Demon that could shatter the Grand Array in an instant and render a Black Dragon Flood Dragon powerless to resist sent a chill down everyone’s spine. This meant the hidden entity was strong enough to hunt down and kill any one of them.

"What kind of Demon Beast could it be?"

Even the usually arrogant Yu Yunfei couldn’t help but ask, clearly afraid of the Great Demon that had yet to reveal itself.

"I don’t know."

Chen Che circled the remains of the Grand Array before returning to the group and sharing his speculation.

"There are no other tracks. The attacker was likely just passing by when it discovered the Black Dragon Flood Dragon trapped inside the Grand Array. It attacked from the sky, and because of its immense power, it shattered the Grand Array in an instant."

"The Black Dragon Flood Dragon was caught completely off guard. It didn’t even have a chance to react before it was snatched away... Perhaps it was swallowed on the spot, to be digested later. Or perhaps it was carried back to a Cave Mansion to be savored slowly..."

"But it makes little difference. The attacker’s power is anything but ordinary."

Meng Changtu and Chen Xi both nodded grimly.

The members of the Yu Race also looked worried. The evidence all around them perfectly matched Chen Che’s words.

"What kind of creature could render a Golden Core Eighth Layer Black Dragon Flood Dragon completely defenseless?"

Chen Che looked at Yu Yunko.

She shook her head bitterly, clearly having no idea either.

An old man in the group scanned the ground, hoping to find some clues. But unfortunately, all that remained was a pool of blood and a few broken scales, evidently left behind as the Black Dragon Flood Dragon struggled...

The group passed the scales around for a long time but still couldn’t figure out what kind of Demon Beast the attacker was.

There were too few clues, far too few.

Besides, the Black Tortoise Calm Sea was already a forbidden zone for human Cultivators. It was home not only to a vast number of the Aquatic Race but also to many terrestrial Great Demons that had fled here, and even a few Ancient Fierce Beasts. The range of possibilities was simply too wide.

Gazing into the distance, Chen Che frowned.

The Spiritual Qi here was too chaotic, hampering his Divine Sense and making tracking impossible. Pushing it forward felt like wading through a swamp, to say nothing of trying to cover the entire Undersea Ruins.

"Valley Master Chen, the situation has changed."

Yu Yunko pondered for a moment before speaking. "I suggest we search the Undersea Ruins as quickly as possible and then leave to avoid a direct confrontation with that Demon Beast... By the way, what about your Spiritual Boat?"

"Our Spiritual Boat is damaged and currently under repair."

Chen Che glanced at Lu Qinglian and her husband. After she gave him a hand signal, he continued:

"Even working day and night, it will take half a month. However, we’ve already replaced the Array Foundation on the Spiritual Boat. If we can get it repaired, we’ll have a way to defend ourselves even if we run into that thing. Besides, the return journey would be far too risky without a Spiritual Boat."

"I have people in my clan who can repair Spiritual Boats. With their help, we can cut the time by at least half," Yu Yunko suggested.

"Alright!"

Chen Che agreed, then said gravely, "In that case, we’ll leave this place in seven days when the Spiritual Boat is repaired, regardless of whether we’ve finished searching the entire ruins."

...

...

Originally, both parties had planned to take their time exploring the Undersea Ruins, but the sudden appearance of the Demon Beast threw everyone’s plans into disarray.

At once, the group split in two. One team stayed behind to repair the Spiritual Boat, while the other began exploring the ruins. After all, they had come all this way; they couldn’t just leave empty-handed. Everyone wanted to see if there were any treasures they had missed.

However, searching was always a tedious task. Due to the in-rushing seawater and the Spiritual Tides, many of the palaces were buried beneath sand and debris.

On top of that, the chaotic Spiritual Qi obstructed their Divine Sense, severely slowing their progress.

Even so, the party of six Golden Core Cultivators—Chen Che, Meng Qianxun, Chen Xi, along with Yu Yunko, Yu Yunfei, and another Talisman Cultivator named Yu Fansong—managed to scavenge quite a few artifacts from the ruins.

Unfortunately, most of these items had lost their spiritual essence in the Spiritual Tides and were now little more than scrap. Many of the Spiritual Medicines had also lost their potency, rendering them useless even as supplementary ingredients.

In fact, on the second day, by following a trail of scattered Weapons, they even found what might have once been a vault where a Nascent Soul True Monarch stored Magical Artifacts.

They found it, but since the palace was at the epicenter of the original explosion, it had borne the full force of the Spiritual Tide. Most of the Magical Artifacts within had been destroyed...leaving everyone full of regret.

Of course, their search did yield some unexpected discoveries, the most common of which were members of the Aquatic Race.

CRACK!

Chen Che clenched his hand.

A giant hand of True Essence grabbed a headless, eyeless ’monster’ that resembled a loach. The creature was seventy or eighty feet long, and its face opened up to reveal layers of petal-like teeth.

It thrashed about, trying to break free from the massive hand.

"What the hell is this thing? To think it’s at the Foundation Establishment Great Perfection Realm."

The True Essence crushed its body, and Chen Che tossed the remains aside with a look of disgust.

In addition to these, they encountered some frog-like members of the Aquatic Race that resembled shadows. Their ugly, ferocious appearance was unlike any Aquatic Race Chen Che knew of; they looked more like Ghost Cultivators who had managed to form physical bodies.

There were also numerous skeletons, picked clean of flesh. The bones were so bizarrely shaped that it was impossible to identify what kind of creatures they had once been.

Yu Yunko spoke after a single glance. "The cracks on the skeletons are still fresh, making it easy to determine what happened. These members of the Aquatic Race must have survived the vortex’s formation, only to be trapped here and preyed upon by others."

"The ocean is vast, many times larger than the land... so its creatures are naturally diverse. Even our clan has no records of these things."

’Forget your records,’ Chen Che thought. ’If I took just one of these skeletons back to the Earth Element Star, those self-proclaimed "all-knowing" Nascent Soul scholars would study it until their heads exploded and still not figure out its origin.’

With that thought, Chen Che abandoned the idea of studying the skeletons and pointed to some deep pits nearby.

"These must have been left by the Mudskipper Shrimp, right?"

"Yes."

Yu Yunko nodded.

The Mudskipper Shrimp that had been swept into the ruins was about forty percent larger than the one Meng Changtu had tamed. They had caught a fleeting glimpse of it when they first breached the water to enter this place.

A single stomp of its pincer-leg could create a deep pit, so its tracks were easy to identify.

The pits were old, clearly made some time ago.

Looking around, he saw the area was covered in densely packed pits. There were also collapsed boulders, trampled and shattered into pieces. Many of the fractures in the rock, however, were still fresh.

"So many tracks. This must be where the Mudskipper Shrimp is most active."

Chen Che frowned. "It never goes to the edge of the ruins, but it’s very active here. Could there be something special about this place?"

A look of pleasant surprise appeared on Yu Yunko’s face as well.

They had been exploring the ruins for five days. The Spiritual Boat, under constant repair, was nearly operational. Unfortunately, the search party had yet to find anything of value.

"Che’er!"

"Sis."

Just then, the voices of Meng Qianxun and Yu Yunfei called out simultaneously.

The two exchanged a glance and immediately rushed toward the voices.

The pair stopped on a high, crimson peak among the ruins. Chen Che felt the mountain under his feet was strange—it was fiery red and had gaps like rift valleys at regular intervals.

Before he could get a better look at the strange peak, he looked up and saw a vast Spirit Medicine Field before him. The once-neatly planted plots were now filled with nothing but broken roots and stems, a clear sign of having been ravaged.

In the air above the field, countless specks of light drifted about like fireflies, and mysterious, profound Talismans floated in the air.

"A Spirit Medicine Field?"

Upon seeing this field of Spiritual Medicine, everyone’s faces lit up with joy.

After all this time, they had finally found something. Yu Yunko turned to Chen Che, her face beaming with joy. Chen Che gave a slight nod, but before he could speak, the ground began to quake violently. The red peak beneath their feet was moving.

"This is..."

Chen Che looked down and finally saw the ’peak’ beneath his feet for what it was: a Mudskipper Shrimp at the Golden Core Great Perfection Realm.