Mortal: Starting by looting Han Laomo's entire herb garden

The Sacred Altar of the Jiao Clan.

The divine light on the enormous altar was dim.

In the hollow center of the altar, there was originally a fist-sized pearl floating in the air, its whole body shimmering with golden light, containing the pure primordial energy infused by the ancestors of the Jiaolong clan.

Now, that spot is empty, with only a few wisps of residual spiritual light slowly dissipating in the air.

The Golden Dragon King stood before the altar, his tall figure and golden scales gleaming coldly in the dim light.

His face was grim, his gaze fixed on the empty spot, and the golden spear in his hand trembled slightly.

Behind him, several level-eight Jiao clan elders stood with their hands at their sides, not daring to breathe loudly.

"Speak." The Golden Dragon King's voice was deep, yet it carried a suffocating pressure.

An old dragon forced himself to speak: "Your Majesty, a few days ago, a human cultivator infiltrated the sacred altar. His concealment skills were extremely sophisticated; none of the clansmen on guard duty noticed him. He stole the Dragon Transformation Pearl during a shift change."

"Human cultivators?" The Golden Flood Dragon King's voice grew even colder.

The old dragon trembled and continued, "Yes. That person's cultivation was only at the late stage of Core Formation, but his escape techniques and concealment methods were quite strange. After we discovered the theft of the Dragon Transformation Pearl, we immediately sealed off the sea area within a thousand miles, but that person had already escaped the encirclement."

He paused, secretly glancing at the Golden Flood Dragon King's expression, and then said, "Elders Qiu Tianjun and Qiu Wanhai have tracked down that person and are doing their utmost to hunt him down. According to the news that came back, that person fled to the depths of the outer sea, but they should be able to catch up with him soon."

The Golden Dragon King did not reply, but looked down at the golden spear in his hand.

A few days ago, he sensed that his golden spear had appeared somewhere in the outer sea, and he personally took action to find the human cultivator who was holding the golden spear.

An old Taoist priest in the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm, skilled in escape techniques, was ultimately pierced through by his spear under his relentless pursuit, and the golden spear was returned to its rightful owner.

How the spear ended up in that person's hands was unknown to the Golden Dragon King.

All he knew was that the man was dead and the gun had been returned.

I never expected that such a big mistake would happen to the clan after I went out.

"The Dragon Pearl..." the Golden Flood Dragon King muttered to himself, a hint of annoyance flashing in his eyes. He should have sent a fully-formed demon to guard it, but even those at the fully-formed level were unwilling to do such a boring job.

This Dragon Transformation Pearl contains the inheritance of the ancient Jiaolong clan, and its pure primordial energy is a good aid for cultivating the Dragon Transformation Technique.

He should have practiced this secret technique long ago, but the Dragon Transformation Technique has extremely high requirements for physical fitness. He must first use the Bone Tempering Technique to temper his body to a certain degree.

To this end, he spent hundreds of years cultivating the Dragon Scale Fruit Tree and using the Dragon Scale Fruit to assist in the cultivation of the Bone Tempering Technique.

But just a few decades ago, his dragon scale fruit trees were stripped bare.

So many dragon scale fruits, not a single one left.

To this day, he still doesn't know who that person is. They appeared and disappeared without a trace, leaving not even a hint. He can only curse that person a thousand times over in his heart.

Those despicable humans! They stole his Dragon Scale Fruit, causing his Bone Tempering Technique to be delayed indefinitely, and his Dragon Transformation Technique cultivation to be postponed again and again.

Now, even the Dragon Transformation Pearl has been lost.

The Golden Flood Dragon King took a deep breath, suppressing his anger, and coldly said, "Send down the order to intensify the search. We must find them alive or dead. The Dragon Transformation Pearl must be retrieved."

"Yes!" the old dragons replied in unison.

The Golden Dragon King turned to look at the altar, his golden spear slamming heavily, causing several cracks to appear in the ground.

"And that thief who stole my dragon scale fruit, don't let me find you."

------

Outside the Bilin Reef, several streaks of light flew slowly close to the sea surface.

Several Core Formation cultivators from the Four Laws Sect were scattered among the rocks, their eyes fixed on a Level 7 demon beast basking in the sun on a distant rock.

It was a crimson python, its entire body fiery red, several meters long, coiled on a protruding reef, its scales gleaming red in the sunlight.

"Senior Brother Wang, when will Master be back?" a younger Core Formation cultivator asked in a low voice, his eyes fixed on the crimson-scaled python.

The one addressed as Senior Brother Wang was a middle-aged cultivator in the late Core Formation stage. He frowned, his tone somewhat uncertain: "Master said we need to go to Qiyuan Island to ask Elder Jinxia for help. It will take at least two or three days for them to come and go. We just need to keep an eye on them and make sure they don't get away."

Another cultivator said with a wry smile, "Keep an eye on it? That's easy for you to say. This Crimson Scale Python may be a level seven, but it has a very bad temper. If it suddenly attacks, the few of us won't be enough to fill its teeth."

Senior Brother Wang glared at him: "Stop talking such discouraging things. We're so far away, it won't be able to find us. Master said that the Crimson Scale Python's demon core is crucial for his breakthrough. If we mess this up, we'll be in deep trouble when we get back."

The young cultivator who spoke first sighed, "Master is being too cautious. If he had taken action himself, wouldn't this Crimson Scale Python have been captured easily? Why did he have to ask for help?"

Senior Brother Wang shook his head: "You don't understand. The outer seas have been quite turbulent lately, and there are rumors of powerful demons appearing in the Bilin Reef area. Master doesn't dare to be careless alone, so asking for help is just to be on the safe side."

As the group was speaking in hushed tones, a sudden, eerie wind swept across the sea.

In the distance, a dark cloud mass rapidly approached at an abnormally fast speed.

"What's that?" the young monk asked, pointing to the horizon, his voice strained.

Senior Brother Wang squinted at it, and his expression suddenly changed drastically.

It's not a cloud, it's a monster.

More than a dozen level-seven demonic beasts swooped down from the clouds, each with a different shape. There was an Iron-Winged Roc with a wingspan of several feet, a Black-Scaled Sea Python with a jet-black body, a Crescent Moon Dragon with a silver-white body, and several other ferocious beasts whose names were unknown.

Their target wasn't the Red Scale Python, but rather these few individuals.

Even more terrifying, behind the herd of beasts, two enormous baby carp beasts rose from the sea, their bodies bluish-black, their mouths gleaming with a ghostly blue light.

"Water-based Divine Thunder!" Senior Brother Wang's voice changed drastically: "Run!"

Before the words were even finished, the two infant carp beasts simultaneously opened their enormous mouths, spewing out dozens of fist-sized blue lightning balls that trailed long arcs of electricity as they hurtled toward the group's location.

boom!

The lightning ball struck the sea, exploding into a water column tens of meters high.

Blue arcs of electricity spread across the sea surface, causing the seawater to boil and steam to billow.

Several Core Formation cultivators scattered and fled, but the beast horde had already blocked all escape routes.

Iron-winged Roc swooped down, its sharp claws like hooks, and grabbed at a cultivator.

The black-scaled sea serpent leaped out of the sea, opening its blood-red maw to block the path of another cultivator.

"It's over..." The young cultivator's face turned deathly pale, and he could barely hold onto his magical artifact.

Senior Brother Wang gritted his teeth, urging his magical artifacts to defend himself while shouting hoarsely, "Hold on! Master will be back soon!"

"It's too late even if Master comes back!" another cultivator roared in despair. "More than a dozen level seven beasts, and two infant carp beasts too! We're doomed!"

The young cultivator's eyes reddened, and his voice trembled: "I knew we shouldn't have come to this wretched place... Master told us to keep an eye on things while he went to find help, but the help never came, and we ended up feeding the demonic beasts first..."

Senior Brother Wang remained silent, desperately activating his protective aura to fend off the attack of an Iron-Winged Roc. However, his magical power was rapidly depleting, and his protective aura was growing thinner and thinner. The Iron-Winged Roc's sharp claws slammed into it repeatedly, each strike causing the aura to tremble violently.

"Senior Brother Wang, we can't hold them off any longer!" someone shouted.

Senior Brother Wang gritted his teeth, his heart turning ice-cold.

Just then, two streaks of light flew rapidly from the distant horizon.

A streak of cyan, a streak of silver, their speed astonishing.

It was Lu Yan and Master Sifa who arrived.