Chapter 686 - 277: Xiangliu!
Outer regions of the southern slopes of the Giant Mountain Range.
In a place where wetlands and wild forests interweave, the fish, shrimp, crabs, and snails in the water crawl along the bottom. With their limited spiritual wisdom, they only feel a supreme pressure flash by, instinctively making them crawl along the bottom.
Thousands of miles away, a skeletal thin dragon wobbled through the sky, diving into a deep pool.
After escaping from the Earth Cave, Huangmiao dared not pause in the slightest. In its current state, if it encountered the Human Race and Luwu it met in the cave, the outcome would be disastrous.
Even if it doesn’t encounter the Human Race and Luwu, meeting any other Tier Five creatures coming to the Earth Cave would be the same.
Therefore, it did not dare to rest or stop to heal its injuries, fearing that some Tier Five creature would seize the opportunity to extract its dragon tendons.
Along the way, due to its severe injuries, a lot of dragon blood dripped and had not been properly cleaned up.
After diving into the deep pool, Huangmiao opened its mouth and spat out a palace-shaped Witch Artifact, quickly embedding it among the sand and stones at the bottom of the pool.
The Witch Rune on the palace artifact lit up, attracting the Water Element Source Power within the pool to flow into the artifact.
Unfortunately, even though this pool was connected to water veins in all directions, the gathered Water Element Source Power still failed to activate even one-fifth of the Witch Rune on the palace artifact.
With no other choice, Huangmiao could only first dive into the Witch Hall. Given its current injuries, leaving the Giant Mountain Range would be very dangerous.
It could only temporarily recover from its injuries before thinking about leaving the Giant Mountain Range.
Originally, it brought Treasure Pills to heal its injuries, but plans couldn’t keep up with changes. The spirit monster transformed into a dragon and mastered part of the Divine Techniques of the Dragon Race.
The Earth Cave was the territory of spirit monsters, and the Flood Dragon-headed Spirit Monster summoned many Tier Five Spirit Monsters to besiege it.
It continuously used the ’True Dragon Stealth’ Divine Technique. It was manageable at first, but later every use required tapping into the Dragon Race’s source.
As a Tier Five Dragon Race of the Zhangshui Dragon Kingdom, it was almost boiled alive into dried fish.
After entering the Witch Hall, Huangmiao cautiously lay down. Part of its shrunken body scales burst open, making it feel excruciating pain with each movement, spreading from inside to out.
Taking out the only remaining Treasure Pill, Huangmiao swallowed it, then glanced at the Water Source Power absorbed from the outside, letting out a sigh.
This Water Source Power was only at Tier Three level, insufficient even for sustaining its cultivation, let alone healing.
Subsequently, the dragon scales beneath the reverse scale on its lower jaw lit up, releasing several shimmering Source Stones.
Each Source Stone emitted a black glow, seemingly containing a vast lake within, representing the Tier Five Source Stones.
There were two hundred Tier Five Source Stones in total, with over a hundred and thirty pieces being particularly square, each bearing a Pagoda Seal.
The remaining Source Stones were somewhat coarse, with some natural markings.
The differing characteristics of the Source Stones were mainly because the ones with Pagoda Seals were man-made by Tushang Ancient City, while the coarser Source Stones were naturally mined from mines.
In the Mountain Sea Wilderness, the plethora of races and the dangers between the wilderness made mining and consumption of mineral veins substantial.
Coupled with the inherent scarcity of high-tier Source Stones, they are often in short supply.
Tushang Ancient City possesses incomprehensible reserves, capable of storing more source power into sub-Tier Five Source Stones using Secret Techniques, elevating them to Tier Five.
They can also elevate sub-Tier Six Source Stones to Tier Six.
This technique attracted the attention of countless races, yet all who coveted it were drowned in the sands of time, while Tushang Ancient City still stands firm on the Great Wilderness Land.
Through this technique, Tushang Ancient City became a major trading hub, attracting countless races for exchanges.
For a Martial Artist at the early stage of Tier Five, a single Tier Five Source Stone could support cultivation for several months to three years, depending on one’s cultivation circumstances.
Furthermore, Tier Five Source Stones also serve as important energy sources for driving Tier Five Arrays and Witch Artifacts.
Even though Huangmiao is at Tier Five, it was not wealthy within the Zhangshui Dragon Kingdom. To come to the Earth Cave, it purchased three Tier Five Treasure Pills at an Exchange Conference.
Just these three Tier Five Treasure Pills cost nearly two thousand five hundred Tier Five Source Stones.
Of course, items at the Exchange Conference generally have a markup of at least twenty to thirty percent, so it was an expensive purchase.
But it was worth it; without the preparation of three Tier Five Treasure Pills, it would have perished in the Earth Cave this time.
In an instant, more than thirty Tier Five Source Stones flew out, exploding in the Witch Hall immediately, transforming the Water Element Source Power into a fountain-like state, filling the entire hall.
Tier Five Source Stones produced by Tushang Ancient City have a standard internal source power, based on the norm for cultivation at the early stage of Tier Five.
For a mid-stage Tier Five Dragon Race like Huangmiao, it requires several dozen times the amount for cultivation.
This time, it crushed over thirty Tier Five Source Stones because its dragon scales had burst open, urgently needing the nourishment of Water Element Source Power.
...
Splash!
In places Huangmiao passed, the wetlands exploded, as a Tier Four Dragon Horned Crocodile, with scales as thick as upside-down spikes all over its body, roared.
It was more than seventy feet long, its massive body swimming through the water, stirring up colossal waves.
It smelled the scent of dragon blood.
In another direction, a black serrated-tooth patterned monstrous fish the size of a small mountain surfaced, also heading in the direction of the dragon blood scent.