The black luminous feather was faster and more fleeting than the original Shot of Inception. At such distances, the ma.s.sive body of the aquatic creature had no way to evade. The giant fish cried out in surprise, bringing up the pond water as a s.h.i.+eld around it.

There was no way this water s.h.i.+eld could block the Shot of Inception. The ethereal projectile pierced through the s.h.i.+eld and into the monster’s body.

The giant creature spasmed and twitched amidst mournful wails, and its exuberant vitality weakened sharply. It was as though someone had punched a large hole beneath it.

However, its vitality stopped weakening after a one-third loss and stabilized therein. The giant fish stopped tumbling and glared at Qianye with eyes full of killing intent.

Qianye sighed inwardly. A one-third loss in vitality could only be considered a heavy injury, not a loss in fighting power for this giant fish. In truth, the loss was quite significant. The Wolf King would have collapsed on the spot, unable to chase Qianye while enduring the injuries.

But this fish possessed tremendous vitality. Even the black luminous feather could only injure and enrage it further.

Such a behemoth possessed too much life force to kill in one move.

Several water curtains appeared around Qianye, locking him into a small area as all the spouts on the fish’s back opened up. One could immediately see that several water spears were about to come his way. Qianye, however, was hesitating whether he should fire his last black feather. This blast might deprive the giant fish of its fighting power, but Qianye would be entirely drained as well. Even if he did reach the island, he might not have the energy to retrieve the Marine Lotus and escape.

“It would’ve been great if she had stayed a bit longer.” A thought flashed through Qianye’s heart. Even if it wasn’t Nighteye, either one of Ji Tianqing, Li Kuanglan, or Song Zining would be able to help him distract the creature, and he would’ve gotten his hands on the prize already.

At this moment, Qianye was all alone and was also carrying Zhuji in his arms.

The little fellow seemed to have sensed the life-threatening danger, turning pale as she forced her drowsy eyes open and glanced down.

She opened her mouth and shot a stream of clear liquid toward the giant fish.

For some reason, the ma.s.sive creature below was shocked upon seeing the stream of liquid. It roared loudly and attempted to escape, but the water here was only deep enough to keep its back submerged. How could it be that easy for such an enormous frame to swim away?

The difference between the fish and little Zhuji was immense. It might not even bother eating the girl because she was too small, even for a snack. Despite that, the giant fish was extremely terrified of the liquid she had spat out, so much so that it didn’t even attempt to block the attack and opted to flee instead.

Qianye’s scalp went numb as he glanced at the clear liquid and had long since discarded any notion of touching it.

It was at this moment that he heard a deep sigh and felt a strange consciousness talking to him, “Outsider, do you plan to destroy these waters?”

A formless gale appeared out of nowhere and molded the stream of liquid into a ball, keeping it floating in the air.

Qianye was surprised because he couldn’t figure out at all where this voice was coming from. Just from this capability, he knew that he wasn’t a match for this enemy.

“I have no such intention.”

The Pond of Life itself was priceless, not to mention the fact that the Marine Lotus only grew here. Qianye had no reason to destroy the pond just for one item, and even if he did, he had no power to do so.

The great consciousness said slowly, “That little thing in your arms, her poison can kill all the weaker creatures within ten thousand meters. It’ll also take a great deal of effort to clean these waters afterward.”

Qianye glanced at the glob of clear liquid in the air. It was truly hard to believe that it could cause such serious consequences. He knew little Zhuji was specialized in poison, but he had never imagined her venom would be this powerful.

The consciousness continued, “Every creature here is important to me, I can’t let you destroy them.”

“I apologize, that was not my intention,” said Qianye.

“You were only trying to save yourself, but it also remains a fact that I can’t let you remain in these waters. Do you want that thing? Take it and leave.”

Specks of watery light condensed in front of Qianye, forming a path toward the small island. The island had come into full view at this point—lush gra.s.s, tall, ancient trees, and a small pond at the center filled with lotuses. One of these flowers was shrouded in a hazy glow and on the verge of blooming.

Actually seeing this glow caused Qianye’s spirit to waver.

He jumped onto the island and walked swiftly over to the small pond.

Everything on this atoll was quiet as there were no land beasts on it. There were, however, small, harmless-looking silver fish in the pond water. Qianye scanned the small pond with his perception and found that there was a coiled serpentine creature at the bottom, entirely motionless and seemingly asleep.

Zhuji was drowsy at this point. She seemed dispirited and weak after spitting out the clear liquid, and fell into a deep sleep soon afterward.

The Marine Lotus was just in front of his eyes. Qianye had to suppress his excitement as he waited for the flower to bloom.

Before long, the green glow around the lotus grew stronger and stronger. Finally, the flower burst into bloom and a pillar of light shot into the sky!

The crystalline petals opened up in quick succession, shrouded in a gentle white light against a backdrop of green halos. It was a dreamy and fantastical sight to behold.

Qianye held his breath until the petals had fully opened up before arriving beside the Marine Lotus with Spatial Flash. Scarlet gold flames erupted in his hand as he engulfed the lotus with Venus Dawn and stowed the flower away in Andruil’s s.p.a.ce.

After doing all that, he flicked the stalk of the lotus and used the force to fly back to land. He checked Andruil’s s.p.a.ce anxiously and heaved a sigh of relief. The blossomed lotus was covered in white mist, but everything was like a painting that had been frozen at the perfect moment.

The Marine Lotus contained spiritual energy, one that wouldn’t tolerate pollution in any form. Its quality would be greatly affected when extracted by hand or by any instrument. Even the congealed jade-form lotuses had to be collected and stored carefully, to speak nothing of this fresh blossom.

The major characters from the Empire had coveted this flower since time immemorial, and naturally, they had studied its characteristics in great depth. The best way to extract it was to use origin power, and the storage would depend on the quality of each family’s secret treasures. But no one had ever seen a live Marine Lotus, let alone know how to stop it from wilting.

Qianye had no other method, so he could only take the risk and try. Fortunately, Andruil’s Realm was no ordinary storage treasure, but there was no telling how long it could maintain the lotus’ energy.

After returning to land, Qianye heaved a sigh of relief. He felt rather tired—that extraction just now seemed easy, but he had gone all out, even using Spatial Flash so as not to miss the moment of bloom.

Fortunately, the Marine Lotus was finally in his hands, and its quality was probably the highest in this world, besides Zhang Boqian’s attempt. The quality of origin power used to collect the Marine Lotus would also affect the quality of the product. Qianye’s Venus Dawn was the purest of them all, and hence, the most suitable for this extraction process. If it were Song Zining in his shoes, the slightly inferior origin power might stain the lotus with some impurities. It would be even worse for other people.

Qianye scanned the small pond and found a dozen or so budding lotuses.

The buds were emitting a faint green glow, while the lotus heads were akin to jade carvings. This field of lotus flowers alone would cause a huge commotion if brought back to the Empire. However, Qianye also knew that he was already fortunate enough to have obtained the new blossom just now, and that he shouldn’t be greedy. That mysterious consciousness had likely allowed him to take one flower after seeing his determination. If it were truly angered, there would be no way to escape.

Qianye retracted his gaze and bowed toward the Pond of Life. “Thank you, this Marine Lotus is very important to me. I will repay this kindness in the future if I can.”

A breeze stirred as a deep, strange voice echoed around him. “I do have something you can help me with.”

This time, the existence did not enter Qianye’s consciousness. It actually formed a voice and communicated in Imperial language.

“Pray tell. I’ll do my best to accomplish it,” Qianye said with great sincerity.

“That feather you shot into the water is an energy I have never seen before. Can you give me one?”

“How do I give it to you?” Qianye was puzzled. The Shot of Inception was intangible and would draw blood once shot. How could he give it to this existence?

Several lotus petals flew out from the pond and broke down into fine particles. Then, several streams of vapor condensed around them to form a sphere of water in front of Qianye. The ball contracted and expanded rhythmically, as though it were full of life and breathing. If it wasn’t for him witnessing the entire process, Qianye would’ve thought it was a living thing.

The vitality inside this ball of water was extremely terrifying, almost reaching half of the six-armed giant Qianye had faced, or equal to the smaller six-armed giants.

“Treat this as a target.”

Nodding, Qianye produced the Twin Flowers and pulled the trigger. A black luminous feather shot out and was duly absorbed by the powerful life force within the water sphere.

In the blink of an eye, the vitality within the sphere started fading away rapidly. The surface of the sphere hardened and turned into crystal. Within it, one could still see the silhouette of a black feather.

A stream of vapor swept the crystal away.

The mysterious existence was fairly satisfied. “Not bad, this is an original form of energy containing traces of its own vitality. Quite unexpected. I feel bad asking this of you, let me know if you have other requests.”

Qianye fished out East Peak and the horn of that giant rhinoceros. “I heard the Pond of Life can refine different materials into weapons. Can you help me smelt this into my sword?” In the fight against the six-armed giant and other recent enemies, Qianye felt that East Peak wasn’t entirely satisfactory anymore. Elder Lu had mentioned about the refinement rather briefly. It was just that his experience with water refinement was quite limited, perhaps even inferior to Qianye fumbling about it himself.

A wisp of vapor surged over to engulf East Peak and the rhinoceros horn.

“This horn is fairly good, likely the essence of a rare bovine creature. This steel blade is really quite ordinary, though, are you sure you want to waste such good material on it?”

Qianye was surprised that the mysterious existence didn’t think too highly of East Peak, but opportunities like this wouldn’t come twice. “I’m certain!”