The sound of 'plop plop' continued as the spring gurgled, sending up a few splashes, and three dark objects shot out, resembling three enormous spheres.
Amidst the flashing azure light, dozens of sword beams materialized in the air, instantly cleaving these three spheres into fragments.
Only then did Zhang Ling glance at the three dark spheres, which were three balls covered in black barbs, about ten feet in size. They didn't seem like living creatures, but they all exuded vitality, clearly being some kind of wild beast.
Upon closer inspection, they resembled black urchin beasts from the sea, their appearance being more akin to sea urchins.
No sooner had he slain the three black urchin beasts than the 'plop plop' sounds resumed, and the spring once again spewed out five or six identical black urchin beasts.
Zhang Ling, expressionless, commanded his flying swords to continuously strike, killing all of these black spheres.
Subsequently, it was as if he had stirred up the beasts' nest, as a large horde of black urchin beasts surged towards him. Fortunately, they were only at the second or third tier, posing no real threat to him.
After a fierce battle lasting the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the ground was littered with the corpses of these black urchin beasts. He had slain over a hundred of them.
Suddenly, a wave of water over ten feet high erupted from the spring, and within it, black light flashed as two black urchin beasts, each five or six feet in size, transformed into two streaks of black light and hurtled towards him with the sound of tearing wind.
Zhang Ling's face darkened, and he moved to the side, dodging the attack. At the same time, he scanned with his divine sense and discovered that these two black urchin beasts were actually both sixth-tier wild beasts.
Their attack missing, the black urchin beasts reacted extremely quickly, instantly stopping in mid-air. Their spherical bodies emitted strange hissing sounds, and at the same time, they spewed out a large amount of water, covering themselves in a thick layer of water.
As they rapidly rotated their bodies, the water shot out like a rain of swords with a '嗖嗖嗖' sound. It seemed that these two sixth-tier wild beasts already possessed the water manipulation divine power.
Zhang Ling coldly snorted, and the two flying swords in front of him danced like whirlwinds, blocking the attacks of numerous water swords. At the same time, he clapped his hands, shooting out several bright yellow balls of light, which transformed into a yellow light that enveloped the two black urchin beasts.
The rotation speed of these two wild beasts immediately decreased by more than half.
Zhang Ling then flicked his hand, and a large mass of Heavenly Star Sand transformed into quicksand, directly enveloping the two black urchin beasts within it.
Following this, he rapidly flicked his fingers, sending out streams of spiritual light that landed on the sand. The Heavenly Star Sand glowed with a deep yellow spiritual light and gradually petrified, transforming into two giant rocks, directly trapping the two black urchin beasts.
Subsequently, under his command, the flying swords directly chopped the two sixth-tier wild beasts into several pieces.
As he dealt with these black urchin beasts, the stone beads in the hands of the several humanoid statues also dimmed, and before long, they lost all their light. This space once again plunged into darkness, leaving only the spring on the ground, gurgling and bubbling.
Zhang Ling came to the spring and pondered for a moment, then released all of his divine sense to probe into the water. However, his divine sense only penetrated a few hundred feet before being shattered by the endless turbulence, failing to detect anything further down.
The space below seemed to be very large.
Retracting his divine sense and pondering for a moment, he dealt with the corpses of the black urchin beasts. After patting two light blue water shields on his body, he jumped into the spring and swam downwards.
There was turbulence below, and the space was very large. So many black urchin beasts had rushed out earlier, so there might be a way out to the outside.
...
In a dim, dark body of water, Zhang Ling was enveloped in a layer of transparent bubbles. This was a third-tier Water Spirit Talisman, a water-attribute defensive talisman. Although its defensive power was not outstanding, this kind of talisman was most suitable for traveling in water.
The sound of rushing water was constant outside his body, and one could see constantly churning currents, forming whirlpools.
The further down he went, the more turbulent the water became, and there was also an inexplicable suction force coming from all directions. This was the pulling force formed by several different undercurrents.
Zhang Ling's body was also covered with a thin layer of yellow light, stabilizing his body and preventing him from being swept away by the undercurrents.
The further down he went, the wider the range that his divine sense could see. There were many waterways below, as well as large patches of dark black rock.
However, he did not encounter any other wild beasts along the way, not even small fish or shrimp, making it seem somewhat desolate.
After diving several hundred feet, Zhang Ling made a discovery and increased his speed. Before long, his divine sense saw the bottom of the water.
With a wave of his hand, he released a moonstone that flickered with a clear, cold light, illuminating the bottom of the water.
Below was a layer of silt, and right in front of him, he could see a huge grayish-white rock.
Scanning with his divine sense, Zhang Ling discovered that this was not a rock, but a beast bone with a single horn on its head. Only half of its head was exposed, and it looked like the head of a giant bull. The exposed part alone was more than ten feet in size. Such a large beast bone might be the remains of an ancient beast.
The sound of '咕嘟咕嘟' suddenly rang out, and black light flashed in the eye sockets of the beast bone, as two dark black urchin beasts crawled out.
As soon as the black urchin beasts crawled out, they seemed to have discovered him, but they did not attack. Instead, they swayed and crawled back into the beast bone.
Zhang Ling couldn't help but smile. These two black urchin beasts were only the size of his palm, and their strength was only equivalent to the Qi Refining stage. No wonder they reacted like this.
Then, he released his divine sense to explore the silt below and discovered that only a small section of the beast bone was buried within it, not even a complete skull.
However, he did discover that there were many black urchin beasts hidden beneath the silt, but their strength mostly belonged to the first tier.
These low-level black urchin beasts posed no threat to him, and Zhang Ling naturally wouldn't be idle enough to provoke these wild beasts. He directly swam forward.
Undercurrents were rampant at the bottom of the water, but after exploring for not too long, he discovered that he seemed to be in an underwater passage. The surroundings were black rocks, and the bottom of the water was covered in thick silt.
It seemed that this was the nest of the black urchin beasts. Many were hidden in the silt, but he did not see any more high-level black urchin beasts. Clearly, the two sixth-tier black urchin beasts that had attacked him earlier might have been the beast kings of this group of black urchin beasts.
This type of gregarious wild beast generally had a beast king-like existence. Once it died, it would take a long time to give birth to a new beast king.
A quarter of an hour later, Zhang Ling passed through several narrow waterways and arrived at a space of five or six sizes. This was a small water cave, half of the area submerged in water, and the upper half exposed above the water.
But now that he was hundreds of feet underwater, this space seemed a little strange.
Zhang Ling flashed and directly leaped out of the water, standing on a black rock. He looked around the water cave and found that the rock walls were covered with some dark brown things that looked like tangled branches.
Strangely, these things flickered with some faint red spiritual light, which was a bit strange. These things seemed to be coral, but he had never seen black-brown coral.
