Chapter 178

Chapter 178

Lan Jinshang was torn between laughter and tears but didn't want to explain too much. She could only say, "Don't jump to conclusions. We have an important matter this time. Whether we can save Xuanlun depends on them."

Tiger Yansheng was overjoyed. "We can really save Lord Xuan?"

"Of course. I have no reason to lie to you."

Lan Jinshang knew about Tiger Yansheng's prejudice against human cultivators. In the past, she could ignore it since most of the human cultivators who came to the Endless Sea were indeed not of good character. Moreover, the conflicts between demon cultivators and human cultivators were often just for their own interests, making it hard to determine who was right or wrong.

But Wen Qiao and Ning Yuzhou were different.

Even when she first learned that they had schemed against her child, she wasn't angry and didn't intend to do anything to them. If not for Ning Yuzhou being able to refine longevity pills, she wouldn't have thought of bringing them back. Her usual approach would have been to take her child away and drive the two out of Star Crossing Gorge without harming them.

However, now she was very glad she brought them back.

Lan Jinshang didn't explain further to Tiger Yansheng. After all, if the child misbehaved, a good beating would suffice.

After finishing with Tiger Yansheng, Lan Jinshang immediately wanted to set off. She was more anxious than anyone else and couldn't stay still for a moment.

Wen Qiao and Ning Yuzhou understood her urgency and didn't delay; they were ready to leave as soon as she was.

As soon as the three of them stepped out of the palace, they were surrounded by a group of sea beasts.

Looking at the sea beasts squatting in front of the palace, Lan Jinshang asked in surprise, "What are you all doing here? Don't you have anything better to do? Go practice!"

The sea beasts glanced at her, then their gaze fell on Wen Qiao, and they silently pushed forward water balls hidden behind them.

The water balls contained many things, and as they floated over, the scene was quite spectacular.

Lan Jinshang: "..."

Tiger Yansheng, who had followed them out of the palace, saw this and his face turned dark. He felt these sea beasts were too ungrateful, waiting eagerly for human cultivators and even helping them gather resources from the sea. They truly deserved a beating.

Just as Tiger Yansheng was about to pinch his fingers and teach these sea beasts a lesson, he heard Wen Qiao say, "Senior Lan, I promised to exchange spirit pills with them. How about we finish the exchange before leaving?"

Lan Jinshang looked at the sea beasts crowding the open space in front of the palace and suddenly laughed, saying, "Sure, it won't take long."

With her agreement, Wen Qiao set up a table and chair, letting her husband sit at the table to hand out spirit pills while she opened the water balls floating over to examine the items brought by the sea beasts.

Lan Jinshang stood aside, smiling warmly, and stopped Tiger Yansheng from trying to drive the sea beasts away.

"Tiger Yansheng!" Tiger Yansheng finally couldn't help but ask, "Are you just going to watch?"

"What else should I do?" Lan Jinshang looked at him in confusion.

Tiger Yansheng said irritably, "This behavior should be stopped to prevent them from approaching human cultivators for spirit pills in the future. Not all human cultivators have spirit pills to exchange. What they usually do is capture sea beasts, drain their blood for demon cores, and feast on their flesh."

That was the correct way human cultivators treated sea beasts. Instead, these two human cultivators were luring sea beasts with spirit pills. Was that how humans behaved?

Tiger Yansheng believed these two human cultivators must have ulterior motives. Otherwise, why would they use so many spirit pills—especially high-grade ones—to exchange with sea beasts? It made him want to eat them himself.

The little dolphin beside its mother, upon hearing this, was frightened and hid behind her, spitting a jet of water at Tiger Yansheng.

Tiger Shark Brother was scaring them; it was terrifying!

Tiger Yansheng glared fiercely at it and said, "Come here!"

The little dolphin ignored him, knowing that if it went over, Tiger Yansheng would definitely beat it and scold it for being greedy, falling for the human cultivators' tricks, and bringing them to Star Crossing Gorge. That's exactly what Tiger Yansheng had done earlier.

In the end, Tiger Yansheng couldn't beat the little dolphin, the culprit who brought the two human cultivators here. He stared at the little dolphin hiding behind its mother, planning to wait until Lan Jinshang left to give it a beating to cure its greed.

Did it think having its mother around would protect it? Naive!

An hour later, the sea beasts surrounding the palace left contentedly.

Before leaving, they specifically asked Wen Qiao if she needed any more spirit herbs, promising to find them as long as there were spirit pills.

Wen Qiao pretended not to understand and collected the items exchanged by the sea beasts into her storage bag. Then she said to Lan Jinshang, "Senior Lan, we're done."

Lan Jinshang nodded, watching Ning Yuzhou rise gracefully, feeling that this human cultivator was becoming increasingly inscrutable.

In contrast, Wen Qiao, who could understand demon beast language, seemed perfectly normal.

Suddenly thinking of something, Lan Jinshang's gaze sharpened, and she couldn't help but look at Ning Yuzhou again. The elegant man raised his eyes and gave her a slight smile.

Lan Jinshang: "..."

Leaving Star Crossing Gorge, Lan Jinshang was nudged by a dolphin, which grabbed her hair with its mouth.

The little dolphin's action of grabbing her hair resembled picking up a strand of seaweed.

Lan Jinshang turned around and said to the little dolphin holding her hair, "Little Dolphin, Mother has some business to attend to with Lord Ning. You and Yansheng should stay in Star Crossing Gorge and don't wander around."

The little dolphin called out to her, indicating it wanted to go with her.

However, Lan Jinshang had no intention of taking the little one along. She gently pulled it off and handed it to Tiger Yansheng, instructing him to keep an eye on it, then left Star Crossing Gorge with Wen Qiao.

The little dolphin watched its mother and Wen Qiao walk away and became angry. It turned and charged at Tiger Yansheng, slapping him with its tail.

Tiger Yansheng's veins bulged on his forehead, and he couldn't bear it anymore. He grabbed its tail and dragged it back to Star Crossing Gorge.

The other sea beasts in Star Crossing Gorge, seeing this, knew Tiger Yansheng was going to discipline the little dolphin and quickly scattered to avoid being next.

***

After leaving Star Crossing Gorge and passing through the coral reefs, Lan Jinshang transformed into a massive dolphin.

The large dolphin said to them, "The place is quite far. Let me take you there."

Thus, it was also to save time. As for high-level beasts not allowing cultivators to ride on them easily, for Lan Jinshang, these were trivial matters. The most pressing thing now was to quickly obtain the Yin and Yang Spring water to save her dao partner.

Wen Qiao and Ning Yuzhou did not act pretentiously and climbed onto the back of the large dolphin.

Wen Guangun and Wen Tutu, as usual, extended their claws and clung tightly to Wen Qiao's shoulders to prevent being flung away by the seawater.

Originally, Wen Qiao wanted to leave them in the palace at Star Crossing Gorge, where the Water Avoiding Pearl would keep them safe from the water.

But these two refused to leave her, preferring to be soaked in seawater rather than stay behind. Apart from Wen Guangun simply not wanting to leave Wen Qiao, Wen Tutu had its own ulterior motives—it needed to keep a close eye on Xiao Miaomiao to prevent any other beast from latching onto them, determined to stop such an occurrence again.

The true form of a king-level beast is incredibly vast, making humans seem like tiny ants in comparison.

After Wen Qiao and Ning Yuzhou settled on the dolphin's back, it moved like a ghost in the deep sea, instantly leaving its original spot.

The nearly still seawater was broken apart, and the sudden movement and terrifying water pressure almost overwhelmed the two cultivators. Fortunately, Lan Jinshang had taken precautions, enveloping them with spiritual energy to secure them on her back.

Occasional glimpses of light passed by in the deep sea.

At this moment, Wen Qiao realized how fast king-level beasts could move in the deep sea. When Lan Jinshang took them to Star Crossing Gorge earlier, she deliberately slowed down due to concern for the unformed sea beasts, but even then, the speed seemed fast to Wen Qiao. Now, they realized that king-level sea beasts were even faster.

Wen Qiao suddenly thought that, given the speed at which sea beasts travel in the deep sea, with their help, they should reach the human cultivator continent very quickly.

Despite the speed of the king-level beast, it still took them over ten days to reach their destination.

During this period, Lan Jinshang did not rest, continuously traversing the depths of the sea.

Finally, Lan Jinshang stopped. After the two jumped off her back, the large dolphin transformed back into the bright and heroic woman in a blue skirt, standing beside them. They had arrived at a series of continuous underwater mountains, many of which contained extinct volcanoes.

Such underwater environments are common in the Endless Sea and do not have anything particularly special about them. However, the peculiar space filled with Yin and Yang Spring essence was hidden within these unremarkable mountain ranges.

Lan Jinshang said, "This is the boundary between Star Crossing Gorge and the Warren Sea... The Warren Sea is where the beast that fought Xuanlun belongs."

Speaking of the emperor-level beast that fought Xuanlun and ultimately fled, Lan Jinshang gritted her teeth, unwilling to mention its name lest she become enraged and rush to the Warren Sea to confront the beasts there.

In fact, the conflict arose because the Warren Sea wanted to annex the territory of Star Crossing Gorge, aiming to absorb it into their domain.

The emperor-level beast from the Warren Sea dared to attack Star Crossing Gorge, thinking that Xuanlun, the emperor-level beast guarding it, was weak and easy to bully.

Ambitiously challenging him, the beast ended up becoming Xuanlun's defeated foe.

Wen Qiao curiously asked, "Senior Lan, what happened to the beast that fought Senior Xuanlun? Was he injured too?"

"That guy..." Lan Jinshang sneered, "He perished decades ago."

"Was his situation similar to Senior Xuan's?" Ning Yuzhou asked.

"Of course, since both were injured when they fell into that space together and inhaled the essence of the Yin and Yang Spring. If Xuanlun turned out like this, there's no reason that guy would still be alive."

Lan Jinshang scoffed disdainfully.

Although Xuanlun appeared weak and vulnerable, that was just his natural appearance. As an emperor-level beast, his strength was considerable. Although Xuanlun was injured, the other beast suffered more severe injuries, leading to its earlier demise.

Xuanlun managed to survive until now partly due to Lan Jinshang's relentless efforts to find a cure, even depleting the spirit veins beneath Star Crossing Gorge to suppress his injuries with water essence.

Thinking of this, Lan Jinshang took a deep breath and said solemnly, "Let's go."

She led the way, spreading the overwhelming aura of a king-level beast, driving away nearby beasts.

The sea beasts residing near the mountains sensed the king-level beast's aura and hurriedly fled, leaving the area completely empty, without a single fish in sight.

Lan Jinshang was very satisfied. Despite her usually amiable demeanor, the dominance of a high-level sea beast did not tolerate lower-level beasts challenging her authority.

Lan Jinshang led them to the crater of an inconspicuous underwater extinct volcano in the mountains.

Standing there, she formed hand seals and cast spells toward the crater one after another.

Wen Qiao and Ning Yuzhou understood that Lan Jinshang had set up restrictions to hide the place.

Spiritual light rippled outward and soon vanished. When Lan Jinshang finished, the crater remained unchanged.

Turning to them, Lan Jinshang said, "Follow me closely and don't struggle."

Wen Qiao and Ning Yuzhou nodded.

After instructing them, Lan Jinshang descended into the crater. Soon, her figure flashed and disappeared.

Seeing this, Wen Qiao and Ning Yuzhou realized there must be a teleportation array at the bottom of the crater.

They followed and soon felt a suction force pulling them away from their original location.

As if in a flash, the surroundings changed. The seawater surrounding them vanished, and they felt their bodies lighten, dropping from mid-air.

Wen Qiao summoned her flying sword, pulling Ning Yuzhou onto it, and the sword slowly descended.

When they were a few feet from the ground, they leaped off the sword and landed safely.

After landing, they surveyed the space around them. Pink gas filled the entire area, omnipresent and pervasive.

Lan Jinshang, who had entered before them, walked over and said, "Here is that peculiar space."

Wen Qiao and Ning Yuzhou examined the space. They had been teleported from above, and the distance from the ground to the dome was far, though insignificant for cultivators.

The space was vast, with no visible edges, and the pink gas provided some obscuring effect.

Then Lan Jinshang added, "Xuanlun and I explored here before; it's flat and empty."

This space seemed like a mundane underwater area, except for the pink gas filling it, hardly drawing attention from cultivators. Had it not been for Xuanlun's lifespan being drained by the Yin and Yang Spring essence, even if other beasts stumbled upon it, they likely wouldn't have paid much attention.

With this, Lan Jinshang looked at Ning Yuzhou, harboring some hope.

She didn't know how Ning Yuzhou knew about the Yin and Yang Spring, but from their behavior, Lan Jinshang felt that these two must be disciples from an old-established major force on the human cultivation continent, which explained their profound background.

This also made sense of why, at such a young age, Ning Yuzhou could refine Earth-grade pills, and even top-quality ones at that.

It was said that geniuses who remained secluded were not uncommon among human cultivators, and their excellence was beyond what demon cultivators could imagine.

As Lan Jinshang's thoughts raced, Ning Yuzhou finally spoke: "These pink gases are indeed the essence of the Yin and Yang Spring."

A hint of surprise appeared on Ning Yuzhou's face as he spoke.

Although the essence of the Yin and Yang Spring could devour a cultivator's vitality and lifespan, the spring water itself was a valuable treasure. It nurtured life and all things through the harmony of yin and yang, far surpassing the pseudo-life water they had seen in the underground space beneath the abandoned Yellow Sand City in the moving desert. This was genuine heavenly material, how could it compare to something artificially and maliciously created?

Ning Yuzhou had agreed so readily to come here precisely for the spring water of the Yin and Yang Spring.

Seeing the joy on his face, Lan Jinshang knew he had agreed because of the spring water. She did not mind, as long as they could find the Yin and Yang Spring and she could obtain the water to save her partner.

"Lord Ning, do you think there really is the Yin and Yang Spring here?"

"Of course there is," Ning Yuzhou affirmed. With such a dense essence of the Yin and Yang Spring, how could there not be the spring itself?

"Then..." Lan Jinshang looked at him expectantly.

Ning Yuzhou gazed at the pink gases in the air and casually said, "I need to examine the situation here first."