Beginning with the Ubume Bird-Chapter 531 - 27 Wingless Emperor!
Amidst the lush algal forest two to three meters tall, one could vaguely make out remnants of dilapidated walls and a Greek-style palace, mostly buried in the soil, its upper part slanting and half-exposed.
"My lord, there must be treasures down there!"
The Pig Dragon exclaimed excitedly.
However, Li Yan’s face showed no sign of excitement. He gave the Pig Dragon King a strange look and asked, "Have you been down there?"
The Pig Dragon King replied blankly, "No, I haven’t."
Li Yan said with a smirk, "Well then, why don’t you take a closer look and get back to me? If there really are treasures, we’ll split them fifty-fifty."
The Pig Dragon King swam back and forth beside Li Yan, pondering the proposition.
In the past, it and Li Yan had braved quite a few perilous places together, supporting each other. Li Yan had never used it as bait, so there was no reason for him to deliberately harm it now. With this thought in mind, the Pig Dragon King decided to take a gamble, "Please keep an eye on me, my lord."
Having said that, the Pig Dragon King dove headfirst, swimming towards the dreamlike algal forest. But it had only swum halfway when Li Yan drew out his Tiger Head Great Spear and made a heavy swipe at the Pig Dragon King below!
A crescent-shaped Disaster Water, heavy as an anchor, shot past the Pig Dragon King and crashed violently into the multicolored algal forest, stirring up countless murky splashes!
"Hiss!"
Countless vibrantly colored algal leaves began to twist frantically, and the entire forest burst apart, revealing a group of unknown monsters disguised as harmless algae. They had eight vividly colored algal leaf-shaped tentacles with a crisscrossing toothy scarlet orifice in the center.
Seven-Treasure Saber Snout (Serrasalmus)
Category: Exotic Species
A large-schooling fish that usually disguises itself as colorful seaweed to attract prey. It has an extremely strong biting reflex. Its mouth and tentacles are covered in bloodsucking barbs that, once attached, will not fall off even in death. A school of Seven-Treasure Saber Snouts can drain an adult blue whale in three seconds, highly toxic.
Trait: [Parasitic Egg]
The Pig Dragon King was startled and quickly spat out a few barrel-thick red lightnings, but the Seven-Treasure Saber Snouts were overwhelming, packed so densely they were innumerable! The red lightnings couldn’t cleave through, and the Pig Dragon King let out a weird cry, flicking its tail as it ran towards Li Yan, shouting loudly, "My lord, save me!"
"Useless thing."
Li Yan cursed and dived forward, taking the Pig Dragon King into his sleeve. Covered in Dragon Mist, he then spread out a two-meter-wide sphere of water and, like an irate silver blowfish, charged into the swarm of Seven-Treasure Saber Snouts!
The "Dragon Mist" swirled wildly around Li Yan, the intense cold freezing the river, which the Seven-Treasure Saber Snouts would then sweep away with their tentacles. Most of the Saber Snouts collapsed upon breaking through the protective silver sphere surrounding Li Yan, losing their minds to the "Dragon Mist" and rigidly dying. The few that managed to breach the sphere were also impaled by Li Yan with his spear.
From afar, the massive whirl of colorful fish looked like dumplings being dropped into boiling water, with countless corpses plummeting down. Eventually, surrounded by "Dragon Mist" like a puffed-up blowfish, Li Yan took a deep breath, broke through the encirclement of the Seven-Treasure Saber Snouts, and successfully charged into the gap in the ruins.
This gap was very narrow, and the Seven-Treasure Saber Snouts, having suffered heavy casualties, lost interest in pursuing further into the depth.
Li Yan withdrew the protection of the Dragon Mist and furrowed his brow as he glanced at the back of his hand, where there was a blackened tooth mark about half a centimeter deep. The Surgery Element was unusually slow to stop the bleeding.
"..."
Thwack~
A half-meter high jet of black blood sprayed out from the wound, lying in the pool of blood on the ground was a rice grain-sized colorful fish egg.
Only then did the tooth mark on Li Yan’s hand begin to heal.
It was at this point that the Pig Dragon King crawled out of the sleeve, saying with a aggrieved tone, "My lord, I didn’t mean to."
"I know, it’s fine. Next time something like this happens, you’re still taking the lead," Li Yan replied.
The Pig Dragon shrank back upon hearing this.
Li Yan wiped the blood off the back of his hand, a heaviness settling in his heart.
By his own estimation, his body could withstand water pressure up to around two thousand meters deep. But at such depths, he would lose most of his combat abilities, no different than fish on a chopping board. Who knows what kind of creatures lurked at two thousand meters below the sea.
One thousand meters.
That was the depth Li Yan estimated he could dive to without affecting his combat abilities.
He lifted his head, and in the palace stood a few dozen ivory-white pillars, but most had already rotted and broken parts. Some pillars were like hourglasses, with both ends intact, but with only a tiny, blackened sliver connecting them in the middle. The palace was in utter disarray, but it was all crumbling, decayed stuff of no value upon touch.
"Go take a look around, and if you find anything, let me know."
The Pig Dragon responded and swiftly swam off, Li Yan looked around, and in the dim corners, he discovered a toppled statue with a beard like octopus tentacles, donning a tri-cornered hat, and the right hand was a hook made of iron.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, Davy Jones?"
Li Yan walked over to inspect the statue that resembled a character from "Pirates of the Caribbean", and suddenly realized that the statue was cradling an antiquated rectangular box.
The box was inscribed with strange characters, which Li Yan recognized through A Fleeting Glimpse.
"Subjects from the land, revere the Red-Crowned Emperor."
He directly took it without hesitation, dispelling the surrounding air with "Calamity Wave" and opened the box, inside was a palm-sized dark black scale.
[Sea Cow Scale] (Scale of Terrifying Mermaid)
Category: Oddity
The powder is highly toxic, but it can preserve treasures for ten thousand years.
It can also be used to settle an event from Yan Fu once.
"Finally, this trip wasn’t in vain."
Li Yan consoled himself greatly, but was it time to leave just like that?
The Abyssal Mouth, the old emperor’s tomb, the new emperor’s cradle...
This rift harbored too many secrets.
Although Li Yan had never taken Zhen Lian’s concocted "Blue-Clothed Emperor" to heart, the idea of departing without diving deeper was not something Li Yan could accept.
Moreover, he still didn’t understand, how did the ancestors of Odonk benefit from the perilous Abyssal Mouth?
Suddenly, an incomparably vast suction force emanated from the opening, inverting the sea as it poured out, and veins bulged on Li Yan’s temples. He formed an impeccably white layer of ice beneath his feet to counteract the suction, but it was futile; the ice began to crack before holding out for long, and that black-hole-like terrifying suction force kept growing stronger at an accelerating pace!
"Oren! Oren!" (My lord! My lord!)
The Pig Dragon King, with a golden slab in its mouth, tumbled several times in midair due to the fierce suction, until it reached Li Yan’s side.
Li Yan grabbed the Pig Dragon King’s tail, and the ice could no longer bear the strain. The two smashed through the palace opening and involuntarily plunged into the bottomless darkness of the deep trench!
Li Yan’s eyes were about to split, yet he couldn’t muster any strength around him. The immense pressure burst his blood vessels, turning his complexion bright red, and suddenly, darkness loomed over his head.
Ten seconds, twenty seconds, the darkness above Li Yan’s head persisted for over five minutes, and he finally saw a fish tail; it was an enormous whale that was impossible to see the end of, also sucked into the trench by that inexplicable force!
Dragon Mane Jellyfish, Star-spotted Hammerhead, Ghost Horn Anglerfish, small as phosphorus shrimp, large as the unknown black whale Li Yan had seen en route, whether fearsome leviathans or cruel, cunning colonial creatures, all were being swept away by the torrential river, head down, swallowed into the deep trench...
The pressure of impending death suddenly filled Li Yan’s heart.
He hardly hesitated to take out the Summoning Gold Medallion.
Just as he was about to activate the Summoning Gold Medallion, he saw, from afar deep down in the trench, two dark cavities.
A Fleeting Glimpse.
[Wingless Emperor!]
Category: Mythological Creature
Capable of traveling back and forth across the entire Abyssal Mouth within ten breaths, the Wingless Emperor is an ancient mythological creature.
According to fragmented historical records, the true form of the Wingless Emperor was an indescribably huge fish that, once it leapt out of the water, would grow wings and transform into an equally indescribable massive bird; it was once one of the world emperors birthed from the Abyssal Mouth in the ancient times.
Note: Due to its nature, at some rare times, the Wingless Emperor would traverse the entire Abyssal Mouth back and forth multiple times. Also, because of this wondrous phenomenon, the mysterious veil within the depths of the Abyssal Mouth would occasionally be lifted, revealing a corner to the world...
