"Stop right there!"
The Dragon Crocodile roared furiously, transforming into a streak of black light as it gave chase. A closer look revealed a massive bloody hole in its neck.
However, only a few drops of blood trickled out before the wound healed in the blink of an eye, seemingly causing no significant harm.
In reality, it had been a close call. Had it not twisted its body at the last moment, preventing the attack from hitting its head,
even its protective spiritual light would have struggled to withstand the blow, and it would have undoubtedly suffered a considerable injury.
With a wolf's howl, Old Man Wind also transformed into a streak of azure light and gave chase.
The attacks from both sides seemed chaotic, with Golden Feather initially suppressed before counterattacking and escaping. However, all of this transpired within mere moments.
Suddenly, another wolf's howl echoed as Old Man Wind, who had just given chase, abruptly returned. The demon came back, not pursuing any further, and immediately scanned the black gourd.
In this brief back-and-forth, the situation inside the cave had undergone another transformation.
Unbeknownst to them, a cloud of purple mist had risen around the black gourd and was rapidly spreading.
"Courting death!"
Old Man Wind had just entered when he witnessed this scene. A figure stood beside the gourd, seemingly casting a spell. The black gourd, originally over ten zhang tall, was rapidly shrinking and was collected by that person in the blink of an eye.
The dark figure then conjured over a dozen identical afterimages that scattered and concealed themselves within the mist.
As divine sense probed, it became impossible to discern which figure was the true body.
Madam Yan and Liu Qing, who had not left, were the first to witness this scene.
Seeing Dragon Crocodile and Golden Feather leave, the Xuan Tortoise no longer hesitated. It flashed to the black gourd's side and began to activate a secret technique to collect the gourd.
While evading Golden Feather earlier, it had intentionally moved closer to this location. All of this happened in the blink of an eye.
Simultaneously, it released a large cloud of purple smoke. Liu Qing and Madam Yan immediately sensed their divine sense being affected within the smoke. Unaware of what was happening, they did not rashly charge forward.
This delay gave the Xuan Tortoise an opportunity.
"This is the Purple Light Orb from the Blazing Demon Mountain's space."
However, at this moment, Liu Qing recognized the origin of the purple smoke and lunged at the Xuan Tortoise to stop it from seizing the treasure.
But the Xuan Tortoise had already completed its spell, immediately collected the black gourd, and transformed its body into illusions, scattering and fleeing.
Liu Qing was a step too late and only managed to shatter a few afterimages. But they were empty, and the Xuan Tortoise's true body had already disappeared.
Old Man Wind naturally took action as well, swiftly destroying the other afterimages. His sudden return was to prevent this treasure from falling into the hands of others.
He had an agreement with the Dragon Crocodile to help seize the treasure. His earlier sneak attack on Golden Feather was for this reason. The other two treasures promised by the Dragon Crocodile had not yet been given to him, so the Heavy Water Gourd could not fall into anyone else's hands.
But he never expected that in just a short moment, the Heavy Water Gourd, which was originally difficult to collect, would be snatched away by this inconspicuous tortoise demon.
Old Man Wind's expression was unsightly. After shattering all the afterimages, he quickly searched around. At the same time, he released a large gust of clear wind, blowing away the purple mist.
Suddenly, his gaze caught sight of a dark figure flashing and disappearing inside a stone house across from him.
Although the purple mist affected divine sense, making it impossible to discern the true body of the dark figure, the five senses of a transformed demon cultivator were much sharper than those of human cultivators. The purple mist did not affect his eyesight.
Old Man Wind instantly arrived outside that stone house and immediately saw the spatial rift in the air.
"Impossible, that brat wouldn't have entered it, would he?" Liu Qing followed closely behind, his face twitching as he asked.
Old Man Wind did not answer. For a moment, the two demons looked at each other, unsure whether to enter or stay put.
They could naturally see that this was a stable spatial rift, but even so, they dared not enter it rashly.
Regardless of whether it was a stable spatial rift, where the other side led was an unknown. Although they were transformed demon cultivators and their physical bodies were stronger than those of human Nascent Soul cultivators, they found it difficult to make a decision when faced with this unknown situation.
After a few breaths, the purple mist in the space dissipated. Old Man Wind and Liu Qing were still outside the stone house.
As for Madam Yan, after seeing this scene, she hesitated for a moment and quietly transformed into a streak of spiritual light, passing through the half-open jade door and leaving.
She had not helped Golden Feather, nor had she helped the Dragon Crocodile and the three demons. Inevitably, those two demons would come to their senses and attack her, so it was best to leave.
Outside the jade door, loud rumbling sounds continued. The massive jade stone they were in was shaking violently, cracking with fissures, and looked like it was about to collapse.
The vast illusions before their eyes began to distort, making them look even more bizarre.
In the distance, a giant golden roc, several zhang in size, was fighting a crocodile-headed flood dragon of the same size in the air.
Compared to being inside the jade door, the two demons' true bodies were even more enormous outside, with countless golden lightning and black water raging.
At the same time, the Xuan Tortoise had not left far.
Using the secret technique left by the Xuanming Tortoise, after collecting the black Yin-Yang Gourd, he passed through that spatial rift and was now emerging from another spatial rift.
The spatial rift he emerged from was also a stable spatial rift, even smaller than the one in the stone house, only half a zhang in size. Fortunately, it was quite wide, and after shrinking his true body, passing through it was not a problem.
At this moment, the place where he appeared was a muddy, rocky area at the bottom of the water. The spatial rift he emerged from was hidden among a pile of rocks.
The reason why the Xuan Tortoise dared to pass through the spatial rift was naturally because he knew there was no danger.
He had found the spatial rift in the stone house strange from the beginning. The information he obtained from the Xuanming Tortoise statue happened to clear his doubts.
The other end of this stable spatial rift led to the spatial rift he just emerged from. The location was not far; the jade stone in the Xuanming Tortoise's water mansion was only thirty to forty miles away from here.
He could faintly hear the loud rumbling sounds coming from over there.
These two spatial rifts had been thoroughly explored by the Xuanming Tortoise thousands of years ago. They happened to be interconnected and both were stable spatial rifts, like a teleportation array, allowing direct passage.
The Xuan Tortoise glanced at the black gourd in his hand. At this moment, the black gourd had shrunk to one chi in size and was held in his hand, with several golden chains wrapped around it.
He tried to probe the interior with his divine sense, but it was blocked by a layer of black spiritual light. It seemed that there were other restrictions on this treasure.
With joy in his heart, he put the gourd into his sleeve. With a sway of his body, he immediately swam towards the surface of the water.
He dared not linger in place. If Old Man Wind and the others also passed through the spatial rift without hesitation, they would be able to catch up immediately.
He was not out of danger yet and needed to leave quickly.
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