I have Immortality In The Cultivation World

Chapter 154 The Underground Temple

Spiritual light sparkled.

A crack opened in the void, and a bull-headed strongman squeezed through.

"This is..."

The ox rose into the air and surveyed the surrounding terrain, an endless forest, with five mountain peaks connected at their bases like a palm in the distance.

Recalling the Black Tortoise Remnant Map and comparing it, he immediately knew his orientation; the route to the core area was to the east.

"After entering the sacred temple, try Earth Escape first, traveling underground is both fast and less dangerous!"

Following Zhou Yi's advice, the ox landed on the forest floor and attempted to use Earth Escape, but was repelled by the flashing spiritual light of the formation's prohibitions.

"First step failed, next is to shrink size and conceal mana. Then transform into a bewitching fox demon, beautiful and delightful things tend to lower guards..."

The ox, without any hesitation, directly used the Art of Transformation, its tall and burly form quickly shrinking, in a blink, it transformed into a coquettish and delicate fox demon.

Walking with a customary large stride, trembling with each step, the fox's tail swung continuously behind her.

"According to the sage, don't explore other Spiritual Objects and head straight for the core area."

"If everything goes smoothly, get the inheritance, then hide, don't fight, and just wait for ten years to end. If the Spiritual Objects have tracking marks, abandon them immediately, only imprinting books and the like. If the inheritance has bloodline restrictions, prioritize Dragon Palace followed by Soup Valley..."

"If blood sacrifice and slaughter are required for the blood sacrifice, publicly disclose the inheritance..."

"If there are guardian beasts, quietly wait for others to challenge them and then sneak attack..."

"If..."

The ox mumbled to himself, carefully remembering Zhou Yi's advice.

He had prepared choices for almost every possible scenario; there was no need to puzzle over decisions.

Roar!

A beast's roar sounded, and a tiger demon sprang out of the woods, its aura stronger than an ordinary great demon, but it fearlessly pounced towards the ox.

With a casual wave of her dainty fists, the ox exploded the tiger demon's head, only to find that it hadn't formed a Demon Core.

"Qi-Refining Demon Beasts all have Demon Cores, this tiger demon is rather mysterious!"

Following Zhou Yi's advice, not to underestimate anything in the sacred temple and to collect anything unusual into his storage bag. The environment inside the temple was vastly different from today's, and perhaps an inconspicuous tree or wild grass contained the secrets of ancient monks.

The ox stuffed the remains of the tiger demon into his storage bag, ignoring the Spiritual Medicine it was guarding, and ran wildly to the east without any hesitation.

"The sage repeatedly warned not to think that having the correct path would ensure getting the sacred temple inheritance. There are always a few special ones in the world, whose luck is even more outrageous than cheating, that is, man cannot contend with fate!"

"Cheating? What does this mean?"

The ox hurried on without stopping, casually slaying any large demons that blocked her path, and when encountering beasts comparable to the Demon King, she used Escape Skills to evade them.

It seemed the demons within the sacred temple had their own territories, as the chasing beasts would return to their lairs after a short pursuit and continue guarding their Spiritual Objects and Spiritual Medicine.

During this time, she heard the sounds of combat, earth-shattering noises that suggested two Demon Kings were fighting.

About half a day later.

The ox quickly found the mark of the correct path, an ancient tree reaching to the sky whose age was hard to determine. She broke a branch and sped towards the depths of the sacred temple along the path.

"Indeed the right path, perfectly avoiding all demon beast territories, some of which have extremely strong auras, surpassing the realm of the Demon King. Charging into one would make even escape difficult!"

The sacred temple appeared from the outside to only span a few mountain peaks, completely visible at a glance, but it actually stretched over thousands of miles.

Because she dared not expose her mana, lest it attract the attention of the beasts, the ox relied on her legs to run. The path was twisted and even led her to backtrack at times until she entered the core area after nearly half a month.

The mountain peak was unremarkable, not more than a hundred zhang tall, and showed no anomalies from the outside.

The ox did her utmost to conceal her mana, not daring any deviation from the path, as the prowling beasts on either side had auras that were deep and immeasurable.

"Such terror, much stronger than the ancient ancestors who opened the formation. Yet, the invincible Demon Emperor couldn't even transform, hunting for food like a wild beast!"

"There were rumors that in ancient times, the demon race had beasts that did not transform, known as fierce beasts—perhaps this was one of them!"

Cautiously approaching the base of the mountain, the ox saw nothing unusual after observing for a long time, as if it were the most ordinary Nameless Peak.

Trying to cast the Earth Escape spell, he whooshed into the interior of the mountain, and the scenery before him suddenly changed.

A majestic temple, built of giant stones stacked up, stood with a simple and ancient design, devoid of any carved patterns.

The ox ascended the steps and pushed open the stone door, only to see four divine beast statues enshrined within, arranged according to their directional positions—dragon, tiger, turtle, sparrow.

The statues of the divine beasts towered dozens of feet tall, lowering their heads to look down upon the newcomer, with each one standing over an offering table laden with various sacrificial offerings. In the center of the temple, there were four ponds about a zhang in diameter, filled with thick, concentrated essence blood.

The Blood Pool had existed for untold years but remained as fresh and red as if it had just been drawn from the bodies of the divine beasts.

"This is the Four Spirits inheritance, much simpler than what the immortal master had predicted."

The ox searched the sacred temple for a long time without finding any other spiritual objects, so he began to examine each offering table.

"Spiritual objects offered to the Demon Saint must be extremely precious!"

Beneath the Black Tortoise Statue on its offering table were a few stone beads that turned into rubble upon the ox's touch. The offering table of the Vermilion Bird held a bizarre beast skull, terrifying in appearance, but it crumbled into ash upon being picked up.

The offering table for the White Tiger had an oddly shaped iron sword lying on it, which broke into several pieces the moment the ox grasped its hilt.

"The immortal master often says that under the mighty force of time, all strong beings and spiritual objects will turn to dust!"

The ox moved to the Azure Dragon offering table, which held various kinds of spiritual medicine, indistinguishable from rotten wood and crumbling to sawdust at a touch.

In the end, only a section of tree root remained, half a foot long, with a hint of yellow-green inside when split open.

"Eh?"

Delight appeared on the ox's face as he quickly began to sense it carefully, and indeed the root still contained a faint spiritual energy.

"At least it's not a fruitless endeavor."

The ox sealed the root inside a jade box, sprinkled it with plenty of spirit stone shards, but still not reassured, fearing the root wouldn't live for another decade.

He went over to the Blood Pool corresponding to the Azure Dragon, scooped half a ladle into the jade box to soak the root in.

The ox put away the jade box and circled around the four Blood Pools several times, contemplating how to take them out of the Four Spirits Sacred Temple.

At that moment.

There were footsteps outside, and soon after, Crown Prince Ao Qin, with the head of a dragon and the body of a man, entered the temple.

"Brother Ox?"

Ao Qin's eyebrows knitted slightly as his gaze swept over the four intact Blood Pools, then quickly relaxed as he smiled and said, "Brother Ox, you've arrived first. Have you found any spiritual objects?"

"Nah, they're all just scrap metal and rotten wood."

The ox pointed to the debris on the ground and added, "It's been too long; only these inheritance Blood Pools are still preserved."

Ao Qin carefully examined the remains of the offerings and, without a trace, approached the Azure Dragon Blood Pool and said, "I, a poor Taoist, am a descendant of the Azure Dragon Demon Saint, and the other three spirits are not lacking either. Please be so good as to oblige, Brother Ox!"

The ox nodded slightly and stepped back, "Your Highness, please proceed as you wish."

Ao Qin arranged the Formation and Prohibition around the Blood Pool and jumped in without hesitation. The seemingly shallow pool was deep enough to submerge his head.

Soon after, rich turquoise divine light flickered, and the Blood Pool vanished into nothingness, leaving stone slabs indistinguishable from any other realm.

Your journey continues with m v|l--NovelBin.net

The ox stomped hard, the prohibition's spiritual light flashed, but the stone slabs remained undamaged.

"Is this the temple's protection for its inheritors?"