Chapter 346 - 174: Mysterious Man (Part 2)
The old fish continued: "After all, this place is the site of the ancient battle between immortals and demons. It might not be impossible to find this item. Perhaps there’s an immortal who died here carrying it, as for immortals, the Qianming Immortal Aura can be used for cultivation, alchemy, and artifact refining."
"However, this battlefield has existed for countless years, likely over ten thousand, and you two are not the first cultivators to explore it."
"The corpses of immortals and demons have long vanished. Even if they remain, they’ve transformed into formidable evil entities, and their possessions are scattered unknown."
Chu Xuan thought it made sense. During the Celestial Evil Period, he had already come here to scour the place. Ji Mingyu probably came here more than once or twice as well. If there were any treasures, they would have already been taken by them.
Not to mention, even before them, there were other cultivators skilled in Divine Techniques who had visited. What remains here is most likely the discarded scraps they didn’t want. How could something as precious as Qianming Immortal Aura be left for later arrivals?
Needless to say, Ming Yu herself had only a wisp. If she could actually obtain a second wisp from this battlefield, would she still give it to her disciple?
Chu Xuan felt somewhat disappointed and said to his senior sister, "It seems hopeless. Better to focus on your matters instead."
The old fish consoled them: "This place isn’t easy to enter. You two came in effortlessly because we led you. Ordinary cultivators can’t even find it, let alone enter."
"At least during my lifetime, in the past thousand years, besides your master, only one mysterious man has entered and taken away some treasures."
"As for the immortal aura..." It gritted its teeth and said, "It’s not entirely without clues."
The old fish truly feared that Chu Xuan might give up without even trying due to disappointment.
"Previously, I mentioned that the corpses of immortals and demons have transformed into evil entities, and over the years, they have matured and gained intelligence."
"I’ve been here long enough to know the origin of one such evil entity. It’s formed from the remnants of an immortal corpse, holding a prized possession buried deep within its clutch, and its characteristics seem to resemble the immortal aura you just described."
"Perhaps this treasure contains a wisp of immortal aura that can be extracted."
Chu Xuan was somewhat skeptical upon hearing this, "A treasure? Could it be an Immortal Artifact? What does it look like, and what powers does it have?"
Qin Mengyao squinted her eyes and said, "You sly creature, why didn’t you say so earlier?"
Feeling the dangerous aura from this person, the old fish hurriedly explained, "That evil entity is extremely dangerous, and I didn’t want you two to risk your lives."
"These evil entities are at least of the seventh realm in strength, and that treasure is a jade bottle, although it is already broken, its body shattered into seven or eight pieces, with merely pieced together, there are still four or five gaps. But it might truly be an Immortal Artifact."
"As for its powers, I’m not quite sure, I only know it seems to have capturing abilities."
The old fish felt somewhat guilty as it said, "I hope you two won’t take dangerous risks after hearing this. It would be best to search around this area; if you can’t find anything, just give up."
Chu Xuan found this amusing. The old fish was afraid they would get into trouble and also feared that its own elusive ’opportunity’ would disappear, hence the contradictory words.
"No worries, say whatever you want; we’re not fools, won’t seek our own doom."
"By the way," Chu Xuan recalled something, "My master... that woman seems to be looking for this thing too. Doesn’t she know about this?"
The old fish was puzzled, unclear about what had transpired between the two, but still replied:
"Those evil entities yearn to attach themselves to outsiders and escape this ancient battlefield, but the previous entrants were all stronger than them, rendering them powerless."
"Some even rushed recklessly to their own demise, hence in recent times, they’ve become timid."
"Your master has visited three times, the last of which was more than thirty years ago, seemingly in search of something. Now thinking back, it was probably the Qianming Immortal Aura, but she ultimately did not find it."
"During her visits, the evil entities avoided her, including the one holding the jade bottle, so she likely doesn’t know about such a treasure."
Chu Xuan understood finally and began pondering how to obtain the jade bottle.
Qin Mengyao glanced around, asking another question, "In such a dangerous place, how does your clan manage to prosper year after year?"
"Don’t tell me those demons and evil entities don’t eat fish."
"And this palace, it looks like quite a treasure; did none of the earlier entrants covet it?"
"Fairy, you jest," the old fish cautiously said, "This is merely a broken Celestial Tier artifact, not much of a treasure."
"As for the clan’s continuation, it’s not that they don’t eat fish. If we drift off course into their territory, we’re naturally eaten without a second thought."
"Occasionally, when they crave a taste, even on course, a mere breath can swallow us away."
"But for some reason, those intelligent evil entities never actively attack this nest, and occasional minor demons can’t cause harm to this crystal palace. Over time, they stopped coming."
Chu Xuan, previously deep in thought, raised his head, "They want to use you to escape here, don’t they?"
"Speaking of which, since you can freely enter and leave the ancient battlefield, why not migrate to leave?"
The old fish sighed, "Our clan has an instinct to migrate every thirty years, to return to the ’Land Beyond Kun Hill and Lansha’ where our ancestors lived."
"However, once we leave too far from here, we perish in large numbers due to being unable to adapt to the external environment, akin to being bound to this place."
"Thus, the migratory instinct and clan continuation conflict with each other, taking a long time to harmonize, resulting in a brilliant and odd spectacle atop Broken Sword Mountain every so often."
"It was this scenery that attracted the mysterious man to this place, who later brought your master here, and eventually led to you."
Qin Mengyao asked further, "Have those demons attempted to attach themselves to you to escape?"
The old fish nodded and shook its head, "They tried but couldn’t. Presumably still constrained by the laws of this realm, only able to split a tiny fragment of power onto a fish to possibly escape."
"Even then, it’s still difficult to get out unless someone casts a fishing hook inside and they take the bait to exit."
Chu Xuan instantly realized that the demon fish he fished up years ago was transformed this way?
"Wait! Did... that mysterious man fish up a dragon here back then?"
The old fish nodded, "That wasn’t an evil entity; it was a genuine dragon emerging from an ancient egg left by a cultivator ages ago. It got trapped here for too long and went insane daily, devouring the most among our young ones."
"After the mysterious man came, he slaughtered everywhere, and the dragon submitted after losing, simply seeking a way to escape this realm."
"However, the man couldn’t take it out at that time, only promising to find a solution later."
"About ten years later, somehow he managed to cast a fishing hook in and indeed fished out the dragon."
The old fish recounted this with some admiration, still baffled by how the mysterious man accomplished it.
Chu Xuan was silent for a moment. That dragon later became the mount of the Celestial Evil, named Yinglong, and it eventually perished in the final battle.
Even the dragon corpse got divided among the righteous path practitioners, with Shangguan Yu’s Profound Celestial Sect taking the largest share.
Qin Mengyao shook her head, "Still doesn’t explain why those evil entities don’t attack this nest. If what you say isn’t false, there might be secrets unknown even to you, possibly hidden within your clan or the palace itself."
The old fish nodded timidly, while Chu Xuan snapped back and laughed, "Rest assured, my senior sister is not that kind of person; we won’t snatch this palace away."