In a pitch-black space, Zhang Ling was in trouble.
He had been relieved that the powerful old man hadn't pursued him, but an hour ago, he was besieged by countless ghost-faced fish.
While holding the woman in blue, he controlled his flying sword, constantly slaying the surrounding ghost-faced fish.
Each of these ghost-faced fish was no weaker than a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator. Although these strange fish didn't use spells, they each possessed immense strength, crashing into him with the force of a thousand pounds.
This couldn't continue; he would be exhausted to death. Just as he was feeling anxious, the ceiling suddenly shook, and countless boulders fell. The black water behind him also surged violently, instantly filling the entire space.
Zhang Ling quickly waved his hand and slapped a blue talisman onto himself, forming a light shield that enveloped him and the woman in blue.
Then, he was carried forward rapidly by the powerful current. Fortunately, the sudden surge of black water also dispersed the ghost-faced fish that were attacking him.
After an unknown period, the current gradually subsided. Zhang Ling held a middle-grade earth-attribute spirit stone, constantly absorbing the spiritual energy within to maintain his own.
His spiritual energy was now almost completely depleted.
Zhang Ling released his divine sense, surveying his surroundings. Not far ahead, there was a rock protruding from the water's surface.
The rock was pitch black, and the part protruding from the water was about three or four zhang wide. Without thinking, he landed on it with the woman in blue.
Placing the woman in blue on the ground, Zhang Ling sat down heavily on the rock, gasping for breath.
After calming his mind, he released his divine sense to carefully examine the woman.
The spiritual energy within the woman's body was currently in a scattered state, a sign of severe injury. He approached her and removed the veil from her face, revealing her features.
The woman had delicate features on her fair face, her eyebrows like paintings. However, her brows were now slightly furrowed, and a few strands of soft hair fell across her face. There was a sense of melancholy, but it was clear that she was a great beauty.
His gaze slowly moved downward, and Zhang Ling's brows furrowed slightly. He saw a long wound on her arm.
The wound extended from halfway down her arm all the way to her neck. If it were any deeper, her arm would not be salvageable.
Although a severed arm was nothing to a high-level cultivator, it was not easy to restore.
Then, he examined her breathing, which was weak, suggesting that her injuries were not as simple as they appeared.
Zhang Ling thought for a moment, then took out a white porcelain bottle and poured out two light cyan pills.
He fed one pill into the woman's mouth, and crushed the other into a powder, then took out a white brocade ribbon.
After hesitating slightly, he released a ball of spiritual energy, and the spiritual energy lifted the woman in blue, who sat up without any awareness.
Zhang Ling used his hand to gather spiritual light, applying the powdered pill to the woman's wound. With a wave of his hand, the brocade ribbon transformed into a long streamer, wrapping up the wound on her arm.
However, the wound on her jade neck was a bit troublesome. But he still took out another ribbon, wrapping it around the woman's jade neck and shoulders from under her armpits.
After doing all this, Zhang Ling looked around. It was now a large underground space. The ceiling was more than ten zhang above, and all around was the black water river.
There were unknown dangers in the water.
After thinking for a moment, he released the Corpse Bear again, instructing it to guard the surroundings.
Then, he formed hand seals and cast a spell. Earth-attribute spiritual energy entered the rock from his feet. Under his control, the rock beneath his feet suddenly rose two or three zhang.
A layer of earthy-yellow spiritual energy covered the rock. Zhang Ling maintained his spellcasting state for a full incense stick's worth of time.
The black rock beneath them expanded to nearly ten zhang in size. Even such a large rock only occupied one-tenth or one-twelfth of the width of the black water river.
Zhang Ling stopped, his face pale. The stone was now hard and solid, wasting a lot of his spiritual energy. But now the rock had been transformed by him into a circular stone platform with spiritual energy.
Subsequently, the array plate and flags of the Six Armor Spirit Confusion Array were taken out by him. He began to set up the array on this circular stone platform.
Soon after, a light screen protected the stone platform. Zhang Ling took the hexagonal array plate and fiddled with it a few times, and the spiritual light cover on the stone platform disappeared.
From the outside, there was only a sharp rock three or four zhang in size.
This was the illusionary array effect of the Six Armor Spirit Confusion Array. With the array, Zhang Ling felt more at ease.
The power that can be exerted by setting up an array here is very limited. If a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator used their divine sense to investigate with full power, they would be able to discover this array at once.
But having an array is better than nothing.
Then he began to sit cross-legged, recovering his depleted spiritual energy. In the blink of an eye, three or four hours passed. The woman in blue did not wake up, but her breathing was much more stable.
His spiritual energy had also fully recovered. Then he patted his storage bag and took out a white pearl and a black, round shield.
These two were both top-grade magical artifacts, defensive magical artifacts found in the storage bags of the dead cultivators after arriving here.
Not long ago, his Flying Spirit Shield had shattered, and without a defensive magical artifact on his body, it would not be safe in such a dangerous place.
Holding the two magical artifacts, he began to refine them.
Although water did not need to be refined to be driven, to exert the full power of the magical artifact, it was still necessary to imprint it with his divine sense.
The refined magical artifact could not only exert its full power, but it was also more flexible to use.
With his current strength, refining magical artifacts was fast. An hour later, the two magical artifacts were refined by him.
The white pearl could release a full-body defense similar to a spiritual energy light shield, and the black round shield could turn into a large shield, covering most of his body.
Zhang Ling slightly tested the two magical artifacts and stored them away with satisfaction.
Then he began to sort out the gains from this trip. After arriving here, his greatest gain was still the 'Netherworld King Art' technique obtained from the humanoid stone statue, but now he didn't know when he would have time to study this technique.
And the other gains were all from the storage bags of dead cultivators.
At the moment, he had eleven or twelve storage bags on his body. Of these storage bags, only the one belonging to Kui Gang, who held the blue sword talisman, was truly taken by him. The others were relics of those who died at the hands of demons or other cultivators.
The most valuable of these was the blue light sword talisman, and the rest were more than a dozen top-grade magical artifacts, roughly equivalent to 20,000 spirit stones, not counting the broken ones.
The remaining pills and other items were not of much value. Even fewer were suitable for him. On the contrary, more than a dozen middle-grade spirit stones were quite useful to him, including six earth-attribute spirit stones.
After sorting out these items, a white silk handkerchief appeared in his hand.
Some information was recorded on it in ancient silver script. Zhang Ling began to read it. What was recorded on it was not a technique or secret art, but a miscellaneous record.
