Ascending from the mortal realm to become an immortal begins with taking charge of a grotto-heaven.

The water in the pool was icy cold, instantly soaking through his clothes. Zhang Li dared not pause for a moment, forcibly suppressing his surging blood and qi, and with a powerful kick, he darted like a fish towards the shallow water at the edge of the deep pool.

However, just as his upper body emerged from the water, a huge black shadow rushed out of the cave and lunged at him with its mouth open.

Too close, and with nowhere to hide in the water, Zhang Li's eyes flashed with a cold light, and a black bead covered with purple lightning patterns fell into Ye's hand. He then forcefully threw it into the open mouth of the python.

next moment.

Boom!

A massive black bolt of lightning exploded in the mouth of the Purple Spirit Python. The ferocious python's head was completely shattered into a cloud of blood mist and bone fragments in the destructive lightning, leaving not even a complete outline.

The violent power of thunder swept over everything around, and even Zhang Li was not spared. Although he activated the Vajra Talisman to protect himself the moment he threw out the Thunder Explosion Pearl, and quickly poured his magic power into his protective armor.

However, he still underestimated the power of the Thunderclap Pearl. It truly lived up to its reputation as a treasure capable of threatening even a Qi Refining Perfection cultivator.

The protective shield formed by the Vajra Talisman quickly cracked under the exploding black lightning, and shattered in an instant. The surging lightning crashed hard against his body, causing the inner armor to tremble and hum, dissipating most of the impact.

Even with such a violent impact that sent him flying several feet backward, he crashed heavily into the pool. Blood mist and fine bone fragments drifted slowly away with the current. The massive python, without the support of its head, sank helplessly to the bottom of the pool.

The raging black lightning gradually dissipated, leaving only the echoing roar of the waterfall.

"Cough cough!"

In the icy pool, Zhang Li felt dizzy and his body ached all over.

Fortunately, Zhang Li had made ample preparations and activated the water-repelling talisman he had prepared in advance. A pale blue spiritual light enveloped his body; otherwise, he would have truly become the first cultivator to drown.

The water-repelling talisman can only last so long. If he doesn't regain his mobility as soon as possible, he will eventually die.

Zhang Li endured the pain and used a sliver of his magic to take out a pre-prepared healing pill from his storage bag and put it in his mouth.

The pill melted instantly upon entering his mouth, and a warm medicinal power seeped into his limbs and bones like a trickle. The excruciating pain that had been tearing him apart was finally suppressed somewhat, and he regained some of his strength.

After the situation improved, Zhang Li exhaled a breath of stale air and fixed his gaze on the headless python corpse below that was slowly sinking.

This purple spirit python is highly skilled, and its demonic body is a treasure trove that must not be wasted.

He swung his limbs and slowly descended to the side of the falling python. There was no time to carefully dissect it, so he could only put the entire python into his storage bag.

Luckily, he used an invincible weapon, which was big enough.

After retracting the python's body, Zhang Li was preparing to surface and leave the detective when he suddenly caught a glimpse of light at the bottom of the pool below.

"Where did the light come from at the bottom of the pool?"

After a moment's hesitation, Zhang Li had an idea and carefully swam towards the bottom of the pool.

After diving down another ten or so feet, he was able to see the source of the light.

It appeared to be a restriction formed by an array, its function seemingly to isolate the pool water.

Behind the transparent magical barrier... there seemed to be a half-open stone door?

"A cave dwelling?"

The thought flashed through Zhang Li's mind instantly, after all, those two Azure Pythons didn't seem like the kind of creatures that would build a stone gate specifically for his cave.

The moment he realized that this was a cave, his first instinct was to run away. If this was indeed the outside of a cave, it meant that the Marrow Cleansing Fruit Tree and the two Azure Spirit Pythons inside the cave already belonged to someone.

The owner of this cave is likely inside. He can command two Azure Spirit Pythons at the ninth level of Qi Refining. Even if the owner of this cave is not the best, he is still a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

The thought of the Foundation Establishment cultivator's methods filled Zhang Li with intense dread; killing him was no different than killing a chick.

But he had only been swimming for a short while when he suddenly stopped.

He looked back at the dim, watertight barrier and felt increasingly uneasy.

If there were truly cultivators in the cave, or if the cave's owner were still alive, how could they not have shown themselves by now?

Putting aside the fact that the Qin family had been keeping watch here for so long, and the cave's owner hadn't shown up yet, the commotion they caused when they killed the first Azure Spirit Python, plus the deaths of the two Azure Spirit Pythons one after another, and the Marrow Cleansing Fruit about to ripen...

Each and every one of these events was a major incident that could easily alarm the cave's owner, yet the cave's owner never showed up.

Thinking about this, a bold idea popped into Zhang Li's mind.

Let's go in and take a look.

He was skeptical as to whether there were other dangers in the cave, since the stone door to the cave was not completely closed.

After hesitating for a while, Zhang Li finally made up his mind to go in and find out what was going on.

Soon, he arrived outside the array's restrictions.

As Zhang Li got closer, he became even more certain that there were no cultivators in the cave, or that the cultivators in the cave were already dead.

Even with his limited knowledge of array formations, he could tell that the array's restrictions were extremely fragile, likely due to a lack of maintenance by cultivators over a long period. Even without external damage, the array's restrictions would naturally deteriorate in a few more years.

With his suspicions growing stronger, Zhang Li took out the Poison Spirit Sword, endured the pain, and channeled some of his magic power to slash at the array's restrictions.

hum-

A faint, trembling hum echoed from underwater. Zhang Li's attack caused the barrier to sway slightly.

Clearly, even such a fragile array of restrictions was not something he, in his severely injured state, could easily break.

"Again!"

If one attack fails, try again; Zhang Li has plenty of patience.

After being slashed more than ten times, the already fragile array barrier finally gave way, emitting a faint cracking sound before shattering with a loud crash.

As the array's restrictions shattered, the pool water rushed in through the cave entrance, and Zhang Li himself was propelled by the rapid current, involuntarily plunging into the cave.

Zhang Li struggled to control his body, trying his best to remain stable in the rapids. The surging water flowed deep into the cave, and the current gradually slowed down.

Taking advantage of the moment when the water flow weakened, Zhang Li used his arms to grab the stone walls on both sides and braced his feet against the cracks in the rocks, finally managing to bring his swaying body to a steady stop.

Then, a point of light condensed at his fingertips. Using this light, Zhang Li looked ahead and saw that the water that had been poured in was flowing down a hidden channel on the side. It was obviously a solution that the cave owner had specially prepared to deal with the situation where the water barrier was damaged and the water was pouring in.

The main road of the passage is elevated, and the ground is dry and clean with bluestone. Only a small area at the entrance has shallow puddles.

Zhang Li calmed down a bit, but the blue light of the water-repelling talisman around him had faded to almost transparent and could dissipate at any moment. After confirming the path ahead, he loosened his grip on the stone wall, stepped across the shallow water, and slowly made his way deeper into the dry bluestone passage.