Ye Qin knew he couldn't catch up to Shi Hanyang's trail, letting out a self-mocking sigh, his spirits heavy as he returned to the Nine-Bend Stone Cave once more.

Even if the Saint Emperor arrived at the East Sea, it would only be a decade or two from now. There was no need to worry too much for the moment; he should first settle the remaining matters here.

He needed to find a way to remove that black water from the cold pool.

Returning inside the Nine-Bend Stone Cave, he was met with utter devastation.

Jiang Ling, Zheng Chenghui, Shi Hanyang, and the others had reacted swiftly, staying behind him, relying on the Silver Armored Guards to shield them from the bombardment of the light pillars, thus escaping harm.

However, almost all the spirit beasts were annihilated. The Eight-Clawed Cuttlefish, Green Demon Spider, Demon Scorpion, and the Golden Core Skeleton Demon had all stood at the very front and hadn't managed to evade in time; they were swept away directly by the light pillars.

The Eight-Clawed Cuttlefish was left with just a small portion of its body and tentacles, not far from death. Jiang Ling knew its demise was certain and didn't bother trying to save it. Of the Green Demon Spider, only a few fuzzy green limbs remained. But the most tragic was the Demon Scorpion, which was utterly vaporized within the light pillars, leaving behind no scraps or fragments.

It could be said that the assembled cultivators had paid a considerable price to seize the Zi You Lotus.

Ye Qin's divine sense swept over the rock ruins.

"Oh!"

A look of surprise crossed his face.

The Demon Core of the Golden Core Skeleton Demon possessed an extremely faint aura, yet it hadn't disintegrated.

Ye Qin quickly cast a movement spell, pushing aside the massive chunks of rock.

The Golden Core Skeleton Demon’s hollow gaze flickered towards Ye Qin. Though its skeletal frame was largely destroyed, the inky black Demon Core within its skull remained perfectly intact. It simply lacked the vital energy to burrow out from beneath the heavy stones, having expended too much to resist the light beam.

If an ordinary spirit beast suffered such severe injuries, mere bleeding would have been fatal. Even if forcibly revived, it would have completely lost its fighting capacity, making rescue pointless.

But this half-demon, half-ghost Golden Core Skeleton Demon was different; as long as its Demon Core persisted, this entire body of white bone could slowly repair itself. It held no fear of skeletal damage.

Ye Qin was overjoyed and dared not delay. He immediately rushed throughout the Nine-Bend Stone Cave, gathering the corpses of the dozen or so Golden Core-level demonic beasts slain by the Sea Clan Warriors, moving them all over. He positioned the Golden Core Skeleton Demon to lean against these corpses, absorbing their residual essence to restore the Demon Core’s power.

These Golden Core-level corpses would allow the Skeleton Demon’s core to recover its vital energy much faster. However, regaining full combat strength would likely require several years to repair the skeletal structure.

Spending a few years repairing the skeleton of a Rank Seven Golden Core Skeleton Demon was entirely worthwhile. Moreover, Ye Qin hoped that one day it might advance to a Rank Nine, late-stage Golden Core Skeleton Demon—a terrifying force indeed.

After finishing this, Ye Qin moved to the vicinity of the cold pool in the center of the cavern, intending to figure out how to collect the black water within.

The Rank Nine Yin Water Profound Turtle was still sleeping soundly by the edge of the pool.

Ye Qin dared not provoke it. Instead, he took out the Purple Jade Ancient Slip from his storage pouch and submerged his divine sense to study Tianyi You Water, the raw material for refining a Nascent Soul Flying Sword.

"Tianyi You Water, born in places of extreme Yin, possesses an intensely cold attribute. Its color is profoundly dark, capable of causing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to disintegrate and scatter."

A moment later, Ye Qin gazed thoughtfully at the faint black water in the cold pool, his eyes narrowed.

This black water carried a subtle aura of annihilation. Previously, when the magic artifacts of the five Golden Core cultivators from the Heavenly Demon Alliance, including Yan Hao, touched this water, they rapidly lost their spiritual quality and became useless scrap.

He was eighty or ninety percent certain this was Tianyi You Water.

Collecting the black water from this cold pool was proving quite troublesome.

The most difficult aspect was that he could not think of any vessel to contain the black water for transport.

Ye Qin tried using his storage pouch, gourds, and other magic artifacts to absorb the black water. But upon contact with the Tianyi You Water, the artifacts quickly dissolved into junk, losing their spirituality, making containment impossible.

Ordinary magic tools could not hold this water. This was precisely why Jiang Ling, Zheng Chenghui, and the others, despite knowing this was an extremely special water-attribute material, hadn't taken it.

Ye Qin stood by the cold pool, frowning in deep thought, completely stumped.

This was the final raw material needed to forge the fifth Nascent Soul Flying Sword for his Grand Five Elements Sword Formation; he could not give up.

"Ah!"

Ye Qin’s gaze suddenly fell upon the Silver Armored Guards behind him, and an idea struck him.

"The Silver Armored Guards are puppet constructs made of dispelling materials. They are lifeless objects driven by spirit stones. Furthermore, their interiors possess hollow channels capable of holding large quantities of liquid. This Tianyi You Water likely cannot affect the Silver Armored Guards."

No sooner thought than done, Ye Qin felt a surge of renewed energy.

He swiftly performed hand seals for water manipulation, sending a bolt of magical power toward the shadowy surface of the pool.

As this magical power touched the black water, it hissed—puchi—like a soap bubble hitting rock, rapidly disintegrating and scattering.

Ye Qin watched closely. The magical power was broken down by the black water into extremely tiny, minuscule white points of light, which then vanished into the air.

The black water only stirred slightly under the influence of the power before returning to its still, placid state; the power could not manipulate it at all.

"Huh? The magical power was dissolved by the black water?"

Ye Qin paused, mildly astonished.

"However, the demonic beast, the Yin Water Profound Turtle, can use magical power to control this black water and give it form. This suggests that as long as the water-attribute spell is strong enough, it can still affect this black water. The Yin Water Profound Turtle is a water-attribute sea beast with incredibly tough shell defense, gifted with high-level water-attribute spells, allowing it not only to control the black water freely but even to live within it."

"Perhaps my water manipulation spell power is too weak. I should try using the Seashell Spirit Pearl to boost the spell effect."

Ye Qin cultivated spells across all five elements, usually focusing on advancing his overall cultivation level. His water-attribute spells were not particularly refined, so even at the Golden Core stage, he could only cast a few standard mid-level water spells.

However, by borrowing the Seashell Spirit Pearl, a water-attribute magical treasure, he could forcibly cast a high-level water spell.

Holding the Seashell Spirit Pearl, he launched another bolt of magical power. Amplified several times by the pearl, it shot into the black water.

The magical power was still rapidly dissolved, but this time, it was significantly stronger and didn't instantly collapse. It attempted to lift a large mass of the black water, but after raising it only a few inches, the mass splashed down again with a huala.

"Again, collect!"

Ye Qin commanded in a low voice.

Since he couldn't lift a large volume of black water with one attempt, he would try to lift a small stream.

"Whoosh!"

A thumb-sized mass of black water leaped from the cold pool and was swallowed whole by the Silver Armored Guard, sucked into the hollow channel within its abdomen, like a dragon drinking.

Indeed, this black water had no ill effect on the Silver Armored Guard.

Considering even the potent light pillars from the Xun Lei Ancient Mirror only managed to scorch the exterior shell of the Silver Armored Guard, this black water was far less domineering than the Xun Lei Ancient Mirror.

Ye Qin was quite satisfied and continued casting spells to collect the black water.

It took a full several hours, involving thousands of repeated manipulations, and he completely exhausted his magical power dozens of times, forcing him to drink large amounts of spirit wine to recover. Finally, the black water filled the Silver Armored Guard’s interior cavity. The cold pool’s black water level had dropped by about one-tenth.

Ye Qin then ceased.

This black water was enough for him to refine a water-attribute Nascent Soul Flying Sword. Once he returned to Fire Cloud Island, he could dedicate himself to forging the fifth Nascent Soul artifact of his collection.

Once the Grand Five Elements Sword Formation, composed of Nascent Soul artifacts, was complete, his offensive and defensive capabilities would soar. Among cultivators in the early and mid-Golden Core stages, he would effectively have no equal. If he were to deploy the Silver Armored Guard and the Xun Lei Ancient Mirror, even late-stage Golden Core cultivators would struggle to contend with him.

Of course, this excluded the descendants of the Five Great Overlords and the Five Great Sect Masters. In the deeply entrenched Immortal Palaces, there were indeed a very small number of monstrously powerful cultivators. The probability of Ye Qin encountering them was slim.

With a wave of his hand, Ye Qin shrank the Silver Armored Guard into a streak of silver light and stored it in the storage pouch at his waist, preparing to leave the Nine-Bend Stone Cave.

He cast a final sweep over the cavern, checking for anything overlooked.

His gaze swept the cavern floor, noticing several weapons previously used by the Sea Clan Warriors lying there—black iron blades, black iron long spears, and so on. Among them was an unassuming, mottled ancient cyan halberd. Since Jiang Ling's Samadhi True Fire couldn't destroy these items, they had been left here.

A thought sparked in Ye Qin's mind.

"Isn't that Jing Hun's weapon? I recall it was quite powerful; it nearly breached Zhou Yao's Grand Five Elements Sword Formation. For the Earth Tribe, this counts as a very fine ancient weapon."

He reached out, picked up the cyan ancient halberd, and tossed it into his storage bag.

This item was not a magic artifact, but an Earth Tribe weapon.

Cultivators could not manipulate such weapons with magical power; the cyan ancient halberd was useless to him.

But Earth Tribe warriors could use it. Leaving this ancient weapon here in the Nine-Bend Cave for five hundred years to gather dust was too great a waste. Who knew if some warrior would retrieve it after five hundred years? It was better to take it back for Bai Xiu'er as a weapon for her.

A short half hour later, a dark cloud swiftly flew through the mid-air of the Langya Secret Realm, heading toward the narrow passage that served as the realm's exit—it was Ye Qin riding the Cloud Barrier.

Ye Qin had only spent one day in the Langya Secret Realm. With more than two days remaining before the realm sealed itself again, he had no desire to linger.

Having obtained a segment of the Zi You Lotus root and successfully transferred it into the Wood Mansion within his Purple Mansion, his trip was already worthwhile. Upon returning, he just needed to gather a massive supply of spirit stones and plant the Zi You Lotus inside his Purple Mansion.

Once he became a Divine Alchemist Master, he could open his furnace to refine the "Spiritual Root Potential Elixir," which would rebalance Bing'er's ice and fire spiritual roots, helping her break through the Nascent Soul bottleneck. This would prevent a catastrophic accidental fall during the Great Heavenly Tribulation due to the violent internal conflict of unbalanced ice and fire spiritual energy.

Ye Qin was entirely satisfied with this expedition to subdue the Earth Tribe tribe.

Furthermore, the unexpected gains of the minor Divine Ability Ancient Artifact, the Xun Lei Ancient Mirror, and the Tianyi You Water were additional pleasant surprises.

Such unexpected fortunes often arrive suddenly.

But then again, without all these unexpected turns of fate, mortals would never pursue the immortal path, and cultivators in the cultivation world would likely never achieve true immortality.

"Huh! The Great Shaman and Saintess of the Wu Tribe, the Young Chieftain of the Bone Bow Tribe, the Great Leader of the Heavenly Cavalry Tribe, and Jing Hun of the Sea Tribe—why are the leaders of these four tribes gathered here?!"

After flying several thousand miles, the rapidly moving Cloud Barrier abruptly halted without warning.