Chapter 14: Plundering the Jiao Dragon (First Chapter of Ten Thousand Words Explosion!)

  The sky gradually brightened, and suddenly the first ray of sunlight burst out from below the horizon, shining on the top of Luoxia Mountain.

  He fought all afternoon and through the night, holding on until now, but he really can't keep going.

  His vision had become blurry, his legs felt as if they were tied to two great mountains, and his arms seemed to be carrying tens of thousands of kilograms of giant rocks. Six or seven demonic beasts were surrounding Jiangnan, attempting to devour him, but at this moment, a white-clothed woman with skin as fair as snow appeared, walking lightly towards him with the morning sun behind her back.

  Those six or seven monsters besieging Jiangnan saw Jiang Xue arrive, and suddenly one by one tucked their tails and retreated in a hurry, disappearing into the mountains and forests.

  Jiang Nan stood there stupidly, his whole body covered in blood, and it wasn't until after a while that he came back to himself: "I'm alive? I'm alive!"

  He fell back, lying in the pool of blood, panting heavily, his muscles aching and sore all over, the wounds big and small sending out tearing pain, as if being burned by fire, scorching hot.

  He doesn't even have the strength to lift a finger now!

  "Get up."

  The snowflakes fell silently, and her feet stepped on the blood plasma without getting a single stain. She said calmly, "You've been fighting all night, and now you're at the limit of your physical strength, mental power, and true energy. This is the most critical moment; as long as you can persist in your cultivation, your harvest will definitely be greater than usual."

  "Sister, I didn't sleep all night, let me take a nap first and cultivate tomorrow..." Jiang Nan said weakly.

  Jiang Xue frowned slightly: "A'nan, just a little bit of pain and you've forgotten the purpose of your martial arts training? If so, how can you still hope to avenge yourself against the Heavenly God? You're being lazy now, and in the future, you'll find even more excuses to be lazy. In the end, you'll achieve nothing! Get up now and take the Essence of Spirit Pill, it's worth more than dozens of days of hard training!"

  In the south of the river, a moment of stunned silence, struggling to get up, strongly enduring the tearing pain all over his body, taking out a Spirit-Sealing Pill and swallowing it, then stirring up his true energy, urging the circulation of the Demon Prison Mysterious Fetus Scripture, transforming his eyes, ears, mouth, nose, tongue, body, and mind into gates, sealing off 108,000 pores, absorbing the primordial energy of Taiyang.

  Jiang Xue's eyes showed a hint of appreciation, quietly watching him cultivate. The morning sun rose, casting a warm glow on the two of them.

  At the time of the third watch, the sun's primordial energy was extremely intense. Jiangnan continued to cultivate without stopping until the transition between noon and afternoon, when the sun's primordial energy finally became too intense for him to bear, at which point he stopped cultivating.

  "Jiang Xue sister is indeed right, after the body, mind and true energy reach their limits, persisting in cultivation is indeed easier to make rapid progress and break through bottlenecks!"

  Jiang Nan only felt that after absorbing 40% of the sun's energy from Jiang Xue, he still didn't have a hint of weakness, but instead his body was filled with boundless power. In his heart, he secretly thought: "If it continues like this, perhaps I won't even need nine days, at most four days, and I'll be able to break through and enter the Bone Marrow Realm!"

  A night of fierce battle plus the morning's cultivation was almost equivalent to his dozens of days of hard work in the past, his bones were tempered like being brutally ground by the demon beast in that fierce battle, and his progress was astonishing.

  He was originally practicing the Dragon and Tiger Elephant Power Technique, his physical strength far surpassed that of ordinary people. After taking the Nourishing Body Pill, he eliminated the impurities and hidden diseases in his body, and he could already compare with the young masters of the Qi Wang Fu.

  At this moment, his physical strength has increased again, as if he had the powerful strength of a divine dragon and a giant elephant in his body!

  After a night of fighting, his true energy became even more refined and resilient than before, and his mental state also recovered to its peak state, even more vigorous than before. It was as if he had entered deep sleep, sleeping for four or five hours, looking refreshed and invigorated!

  The medicinal power of Yunshen Dan has been thoroughly absorbed by him, enhancing his essence and spirit!

  If his cultivation is even more profound, his vital energy and spirit are even more abundant, he doesn't need to sleep every day, just needs to enter stillness for a moment, can replace sleep, and the effect is even better than sleep!

  "Huh? This desolate and remote place can actually nurture such a spiritual being, there must be something strange... Zi Chuan, follow me, I have a great opportunity to share with you!"

  Jiang Xue's expression suddenly changed, and a hint of joy appeared on her face. She smiled and said: "This chance encounter is better than any nourishing elixir or spiritual elixir by countless times!"

  "Is it better than Danshen Dan by countless times?"

  Jiang Nan's eyes lit up, his heart racing with excitement, and he smiled: "Sister, have you discovered some kind of sacred herb or spiritual root?"

  "Angelica root?"

  Jiang Xue shook his head and smiled wryly, walking forward: "Indeed, there are sacred herbs and spiritual roots in this world, but not in the poor and remote mountains of Luoxia. The local earth energy and spiritual energy are too thin to nurture such spiritual medicine. What I said about the great creation will be understood once you see it!"

  Jiang Nan was extremely curious in her heart and hurriedly followed her footsteps.

  Jiang Xue's face turned slightly solemn, and he suddenly spoke in a low voice: "Zi Chuan, there is some danger ahead. You must hide your yang energy so that the demon beast doesn't detect it. The Demon Prison Mysterious Fetus Scripture you've been cultivating can easily conceal your yang energy."

  Jiang Nan pondered for a moment, suddenly enlightened, and immediately activated the Xuan Tai Jing, using his physical body as a prison, sealing off his eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind. He locked up all the yang energy in his body, without letting out even a single thread of it. In his heart, he thought: "If I had thought of this method earlier, I wouldn't have become a human-shaped torch for those demon beasts... But thinking about it now, my purpose in joining hands with the demons was to enhance my combat awareness and skills, increase my strength. If I lock up my yang energy, I won't be able to attract the demons to come and temper my martial arts."

  The two of them walked quietly forward, and before long they arrived at the foot of a mountain cliff. There was a waterfall cascading down like a silver river, below which was a large pool of water about ten or more zhang in diameter. The sound of the water was thunderous, the mountains were clear, the water was blue, and the grass and trees were lush and green.

  He looked around Jiangnan with a glance, and felt some astonishment in his heart: "Strange, too strange..."

  All the way, he could see some flying birds and beasts, hear the birds' calls, but here, although the scenery is beautiful, there isn't a single bird or sparrow, nor has he seen any rabbits or deer.

  Moreover, this pool of water is not large, but the waterfall pours into the pool, yet no water overflows, which is very strange.

  "Sister..."

  He was about to ask what had happened, but Jiang Xue raised a finger to her lips, signaling him to be quiet. The two of them hid behind a boulder, and after a moment, they heard a loud splash, followed by a sudden brightening of the sky, as if a small sun had risen from the depths of the pool!

  An inexplicable and ominous aura emanated from the pond, weighing heavily on Jiangnan's chest, making it almost impossible for him to breathe!

  He narrowed his eyes and saw that the small sun rising from the water pool was a bright pearl the size of a chicken egg, shining with golden light, floating in mid-air, rising and falling irregularly!

  This egg-sized pearl contains unimaginable energy, and the light it emits is extremely intense, making it almost impossible to look at directly!

  "What is this thing?"

  He had just thought of this, when the fierce aura suddenly became even more intense. The surface of the water in the pool cracked with a loud "crack", and a huge creature swam out from the depths of the pool.

  This enormous creature's head was almost the size of a hill, like a triangular branding iron. Its body was over 100 feet long and covered in gray scales as big as palms. Behind its head grew bony spines that fanned out like a fan, extending from the back of its head all the way to its tail!

  The south was shocked, and only saw this huge creature with a slender body like a dragon or python, but not quite. It had four claws and a fan-like tail. As it opened its mouth to swallow the bright pearl, its body began to shrink, transforming into a thin man with narrow eyes and eyebrows. In an instant, he flashed out of the water and disappeared into thin air!

  "Dragon? There's actually a dragon living in this pond?" Jiang Nan felt the pressure lift as soon as the thin man left, and he couldn't help but exclaim, his whole body covered in cold sweat.

  "That's not a dragon, but a Grey Python that has just evolved. Its cultivation is at most equivalent to a cultivator who has refined the Six Paths Divine Wheel."

  Jiang Xue walked out from behind the stone, came to the edge of the pool, and smiled: "In such a poor place, it's extremely difficult to refine the Six Paths Divine Wheel. It can be said that in Jianwu Country, it is absolutely an invincible existence! Zicong, there must be a treasure under this pool, otherwise, it would not have been possible to raise a gray jiao. Your good fortune has arrived!"

  Jiang Nan was shocked and exclaimed: "Sister, are you saying that we should take advantage of the situation to plunder the wealth of the Gray Dragon?"

  "It's not us, it's you."

  Jiang Xue burst out laughing and said: "Zi Chuan, aren't you afraid?"

  Jiang Nan gritted his teeth, steeled himself and plunged into the water: "Wealth and honor are to be sought in danger; never mind a grey pike, even if it's an iron rooster, I'll squeeze out three ounces of blood from it!"

  He jumped into the deep pool, only to feel that the water was not only not cool at all, but rather warm. In the depths of winter, the water in this pool was like a hot spring, very strange. Because the water wasn't gushing out from underground, but rather flowing down from the waterfall, it should have been icy and bone-chilling.

  "Is it because a grey turtle lives here that the water is so hot?"

  Jiang Nan turned this idea over in his mind, then took a deep breath and dove into the water, heading downstream. His internal energy was incredibly strong, and with one breath he could hold enough air to last an ordinary person half a day, even underwater, he could go without breathing for a short time!

  This pool of water is only over ten zhang in size, looking not big, but it's deep to the point of being frightening. Jiang Nan dove down several zhang and still couldn't see the bottom, only feeling the pool water getting hotter and hotter, already reaching boiling point, yet not boiling.

  If it were someone else, they would have been cooked by the boiling water here long ago and turned into a pile of cooked meat!

  In the south, he cultivated the Xuantai Jing, using his own body as a prison, refining his skin and flesh, tendons and bones. His physical body was resistant to fire and heat, but not to the point of being boiled alive in the pool water, yet still somewhat unable to withstand it.

  He sank another two or three zhang, the light in front of him gradually disappeared, and his eyes could no longer see the scene in front of him. The water in the pool was even more scorching hot, as if even the blood was boiling, and his true energy seemed to be churning like a rolling boil!

  "Use my body as a gate, and guard myself!"

  He let out a low growl, activated the Mystic Prison Heavenly Womb Scripture, sealed off his eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind, turning himself into an impregnable prison, blocking off the influence of the external environment, using all his might to resist the invasion of external heat. Only then could he endure the surging hot energy's assault.

  And he had to face not only increasingly high temperatures but also increasingly heavy water pressure.

  Jiang Nan gritted his teeth and continued to dive down, he dived down to an unknown depth, suddenly the space of the water pool expanded sharply, with a sense of sudden openness, bright light appeared in front of him, illuminating the underwater world like the legendary Dragon Palace!