A Mortal's Start in the Spirit Beast Mountain

Chapter 447 Blood Pool Space

The blue chains, like serpents emerging from their holes, swiftly coiled around the Xuanwu phantom on the surface of the light shield.

The phantom of Xuanwu seemed to sense something, letting out a deep roar that sounded like it came from ancient times. Its body was surrounded by earthy yellow spiritual light and black water light, trying to form a thick shield.

The blue chains, however, were exceptionally flexible, avoiding the front and, like maggots clinging to bones, wrapping around from the sides and back, layer upon layer, tightly binding the Xuanwu phantom's limbs, neck, and even the snake-shaped phantom behind it.

The other Xuan Yuan Pearl transformed into a small, shimmering blue sword, which began to slash relentlessly at the opponent's body.

On the other side, a small, silver mirror with dazzling starlight floated in front of the Ninth Elder. A condensed silver beam shot out from the mirror, constantly bombarding and cutting the white tiger phantom.

Blood Fiend then directly condensed a gigantic blood-red palm, slamming it down on the Vermilion Bird phantom. Blood light and flames collided continuously.

Annihilation.

The cultivator surnamed Yan then manipulated the black ring-shaped magic weapon, splitting it into dozens of black ring shadows that continuously slashed and eroded the life force of the Azure Dragon phantom like sharp blades.

At the start of the attack, the four phantom spirits launched a fierce counterattack, the spiritual light on the surface of the light shield fluctuated violently, and the entire underground space echoed with the roar of colliding spiritual energy.

However, as time passed, under the continuous attrition of the four Nascent Soul cultivators, the light of the four phantom spirits gradually dimmed, and their forms began to become illusory and uncertain. Maintaining high-intensity attacks consumed a great deal of their mana.

Three days later.

All four of them showed obvious signs of exhaustion and pallor. The cultivator surnamed Yan was the first to give in. He groaned, flipped his hand, took out a red pill the size of a longan with a fragrant aroma, and swallowed it.

After swallowing the pill, an abnormal blush quickly appeared on his face, and his breathing became more stable and stronger. Clearly, this pill had the effect of instantly replenishing his mana and even stimulating his potential.

Luo Ming's face was also slightly pale. He continued to manipulate the small blue sword that had become somewhat dim, constantly wearing down the Xuanwu phantom in front of him, which was much more illusory than it had been three days ago and seemed to be on the verge of collapse. At the same time, he paid attention to the situation of the others. When he saw that someone had started to take pills to restore their magic power, he also took out a pill and took it.

He deliberately controlled the pace of his attacks, keeping his progress in line with the other three, neither standing out nor falling behind.

Just then, the cultivator surnamed Yan, who had been intently watching the changing phantoms of the Four Spirits, suddenly glared at them and shouted, "Now! The Four Spirits' essence has weakened to its limit! Fellow Daoists, go all out and annihilate your targets within ten breaths! Then immediately join forces to attack the array eye where spiritual energy gathers at the very center of the light barrier!"

As soon as the shout fell, the cultivator surnamed Yan launched the first attack! The black ring in front of him suddenly expanded several times, buzzing and emitting a chilling and sharp aura. It transformed into a huge black blade wheel, slashing fiercely at the almost transparent azure dragon phantom with a shrill whistle!

The Ninth Elder and Blood Fiend also attacked almost simultaneously. The small silver mirror above the Ninth Elder's head shone brightly, and a silver beam of light as thick as a bucket, condensed to the extreme, shot out and aimed directly at the head of the white tiger phantom!

Blood Fiend let out a fierce roar, his blood energy soaring to the sky. A huge blood hand, several times more solid than before, with sharp nails and clear palm lines, appeared out of thin air. Its five fingers were spread wide, and it grabbed at the Vermilion Bird phantom with a force that could tear the heavens and the earth apart!

Luo Ming's eyes narrowed, and his mind raced. The golden light on the chain formed by the Xuan Yuan Pearl, which had been binding and eroding the Xuanwu phantom, surged! A sharp, incomparably fierce, and seemingly all-encompassing Geng metal aura suddenly erupted!

In an instant, it transformed into a tiny flying sword, only a foot long, yet incredibly condensed and dazzlingly golden, which pierced straight into the blurred tortoise shell core of the Xuanwu phantom with lightning speed!

"roar--!"

The phantom of Xuanwu seemed to sense a fatal threat, letting out a final, unwilling roar, desperately mobilizing the remaining power of the formation to condense a thick, cracked, earth-yellow shield phantom in front of it.

In its prime, this shield was incredibly strong, capable of withstanding most attacks. But now, it was at its last gasp.

"laugh--!"

The golden sword pierced through the shaky yellow shield without any resistance, and then plunged into the core of the Xuanwu phantom. With a mournful cry, the Xuanwu phantom trembled violently, and then, like a bubble, it completely dissipated, turning into specks of four-colored spiritual light that merged into the surrounding light shield.

Almost simultaneously, the three illusory figures of Azure Dragon, White Tiger, and Vermilion Bird also let out a mournful cry and dissipated under the full force of the attack from the cultivator surnamed Yan, the Ninth Elder, and Blood Fiend.

"Buzz—!!!"

The instant the four phantom images of the spirits simultaneously collapsed, the enormous four-colored light shield that enveloped the entire underground space suddenly trembled violently!

The light flickered wildly, sometimes bright and sometimes dim, extremely unstable.

A deep, violent rumble came from the depths of the earth, as if a giant beast was struggling below. The entire rock platform began to tremble slightly, and gravel fell down in a rustling sound.

"Now! Attack its core!" The cultivator surnamed Yan roared hoarsely, his voice echoing through the underground space.

Without his reminder, the four people who were already prepared attacked again almost the instant the four spirits collapsed, targeting the very center of the light barrier, a relatively dim but abnormally chaotic core node that was now visible due to the collapse of the four spirits!

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Sizzle!"

Four terrifying attacks, each containing the full force of a Nascent Soul cultivator, struck the core node of the light shield almost simultaneously!

A blinding light erupted instantly, and a violent surge of spiritual energy swept through the entire underground space like a storm, causing the four people's robes to flutter wildly and making them almost unable to stand. The four-colored light shield, which was already flickering and trembling violently, finally reached its limit after withstanding this final blow.

"Click—click-click—"

First, a crisp cracking sound came from the core node. Then, the cracks spread rapidly in all directions from the node like a spider web, instantly covering the entire light shield!

"Bang--!!!"

With a deafening roar, the hemispherical four-colored light shield shattered! It turned into countless four-colored light spots that slowly dissipated into the air.

An aura more than ten times stronger than before, mixed with pure spiritual energy, strange blood energy, and ancient medicinal fragrance, surged out from the broken part of the light barrier and rushed towards us!

The smoke and dust slowly fell, revealing the true face that had been protected by the light shield for countless years.

It was a vast underground cavern, much larger than the platform above, seemingly formed naturally. In the center of the cavern was a pool, roughly ten feet square, with an irregular circular shape.

The water in the pool was not ordinary clear water, but a viscous, blood-like, yet crystal-clear liquid, as if melted rubies. It was slowly rippling, emanating a rich and powerful energy of blood and spirit that stirred the blood and soul.

The area around the blood pool was not empty. In the four directions of east, west, south, and north, there stood a giant beast statue, each three zhang tall, carved with lifelike detail and made entirely of some strange dark blue stone.

The Azure Dragon of the East coils around the stone pillar, its head bowed, gazing at the blood pool; the White Tiger of the West is poised to pounce, its eyes wide open, exuding a menacing aura; the Vermilion Bird of the South spreads its wings and raises its head, seemingly about to soar into the sky, its flame patterns clearly visible; the Black Tortoise of the North, with its tortoise and snake intertwined, is as steady as a mountain, its gaze deep and unfathomable.

The four statues, identical in form to the four phantom images of the four spirits on the previous light shield, are more concrete and majestic. They all face the central blood pool, each with a different posture, yet they seem to be jointly guarding it, or perhaps watching over the things in the pool.

The four figures flashed and gracefully descended from mid-air, standing at a distance of several dozen feet from the Myriad Spirits Blood Pool, which emanated a rich aura of blood and qi.

Their positions, however, carried a tacit meaning. The four stood apart, at least several dozen feet apart, forming a loose quadrilateral, subtly conveying a sense of mutual wariness and a sense of each other being special.

Clearly, with such a rare treasure right before their eyes, the atmosphere became delicate, even though there had been a prior agreement.

The cultivator surnamed Yan glanced at Luo Ming, the Ninth Elder, and Xue Sha, his expression calm, and spoke in a low voice: "According to the previous agreement, this Myriad Spirit Blood Water will be divided equally among the four of us. I presume—none of you have any objections?"

Upon hearing this, Xue Sha licked his dry lips with his scarlet tongue, grinned, and said in a hoarse voice, "Hehe, since there was an agreement beforehand, we'll naturally stick to it. I have no objections."

The Ninth Elder stroked his beard, his gaze sweeping between the blood pool and the cultivator surnamed Yan, and slowly nodded: "That's how it should be."

Luo Ming's expression remained unchanged; he simply nodded slightly in agreement.

Seeing that none of the three objected, the cultivator surnamed Yan revealed a barely perceptible smile. He flicked his right sleeve, and four streams of blood-red light flew out, hovering in front of him, transforming into four jade gourds about the size of a palm, entirely blood-red, crystal clear, and faintly glowing with blood-red light.

"In that case," the cultivator surnamed Yan said with a smile, "to ensure fairness, I will use these four specially made Blood Jade Gourds—magical artifacts—to simultaneously collect the blood under the divine sense monitoring of the three of you. These gourds contain secrets; their capacities are identical, and their absorption power is the same, ensuring that the four portions are exactly the same. You three can rest assured."

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Having said that, he made a hand seal with one hand and pointed forward.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

The four blood jade gourds transformed into four streaks of crimson light, instantly flying to the top of the blood pool and hovering in a square formation. The gourd mouths faced downwards, aimed at the viscous, blood-jade-like pool water below.

"rise!"

The cultivator surnamed Yan let out a low shout and changed the hand seals in his hands.

The stoppers of the four blood jade gourds popped open simultaneously, and a thin, highly concentrated beam of blood-red light, about the thickness of a chopstick, shot out from each gourd's mouth, precisely plunging into the blood pool. Immediately afterward, a powerful suction force emanated from the gourd mouths, causing the viscous "blood" in the pool to be drawn by an invisible hand, transforming into four evenly distributed blood-red lines that gushed upward and flowed into the four gourds respectively.

The four Nascent Soul cultivators' powerful divine senses were firmly locked onto the four gourds and the blood pool below. Under such strict divine sense monitoring, the thickness and flow rate of the four water lines were almost identical, just as the cultivator surnamed Yan had said, making it difficult to tamper with their weight.

Time passed silently, with only the faint sound of blood being drawn into the gourd. As the blood was continuously absorbed, the level of the pool slowly dropped, and the intense, almost overwhelming, energy of blood and the fragrance of medicine gradually faded away.

However, as the blood decreased, the situation at the bottom of the pool began to emerge. Beneath the viscous blood was not a smooth bottom; something seemed to be there. As the water level continued to drop to about one-third of its maximum, a pale white object with a faint golden sheen slowly surfaced from the depths of the blood.