Upon entering the hall, Ye Qin, along with Zhou Yao, Liao Xiaozhang, and a few other Foundation Establishment cultivators, gathered around the skeleton of the twelfth-tier Venomous Flood Dragon inside. Each of them wore a troubled expression, agonizing over how to retrieve the Ga Niu Drum.

Although Ye Qin had already decided to bring the Ga Niu Drum back to the Palace Master of the Purple Sword Palace, taking it was by no means simple. The greatest obstacle was the Flood Dragon skeleton itself.

The Venomous Flood Dragon skeleton stretched over one or two hundred zhang, lying coiled in a spiral. A dense and terrifying layer of blue venomous mist shrouded the bones.

And the damaged Ga Niu Drum lay quietly nestled in the very center of the coiled skeleton. The dragon skeleton, wound so tightly, seemed like a guardian deity, fiercely protecting the great divine artifact—the Ga Niu Drum—which had once shaken the entire East Sea and slain countless demon race cultivators.

Anyone attempting to claim the Ga Niu Drum first had to find a way to penetrate the venomous mist barrier surrounding the dragon skeleton before they could even touch the artifact.

This was far from easy.

Several Golden Core cultivator skeletons lay scattered on the ground. They were individuals who had tried to seize the Ga Niu Drum but succumbed to the dragon poison, meeting their end and turning into dry white bones.

The spiritual tools and robes clinging to the skeletal remains all emitted a faint blue glow.

There were also mundane magical artifacts and treasures lying around, devoid of luster, all tainted by the dragon poison, rendered useless scrap metal that was dotted all over with minute, blue corrosive pits.

This alone attested to the sheer dominance of the dragon poison.

“The poison from a twelfth-tier Venomous Flood Dragon can kill even an early Nascent Soul cultivator, let alone a Golden Core cultivator! This poison is too tyrannical; even a tiny speck touching a Golden Core cultivator would instantly cause death by poisoning, turning them into a pile of bones. Even Nascent Soul-level spiritual artifacts cannot pierce this toxic barrier. With our cultivation base plummeted to the Foundation Establishment realm, there’s absolutely no way we can break through the poison mist. Now, it all depends on Brother Ye!”

Jin Zhongshan looked at the cold, lifeless cultivator skeletons on the floor, his reverence for the Flood Dragon skeleton growing deeper. Among these Golden Core casualties, he recognized two, which brought a knot of sorrow to his heart.

“No living thing, no spiritual artifact, can touch these bones, or it will certainly suffer corrosion from the poison mist. Brother Ye, don’t you have that Skeleton Demon Puppet? A Golden Core skeleton, entirely composed of bone, radiating corpse energy—it should be immune to the poison mist. Why not use the skeleton puppet to test it out? It might just work!”

Liao Xiaozhang suddenly thought of a solution and blurted it out immediately.

Ye Qin considered it, thinking inwardly, Using the Golden Core Skeleton Puppet to retrieve the treasure seems like the best approach. If the skeleton puppet fails, the only other option is the ninth-tier Silver Armored Guard. The Silver Armored Guard possesses the ability to repel magical effects, but whether it can repel poison is uncertain. If both fail, then there’s nothing more to do... I’ll try the skeleton puppet first.

He released the Golden Core Skeleton Puppet from his Spirit Beast Pouch.

Under Ye Qin’s divine sense control, the Golden Core Skeleton Puppet landed on the ground and swiftly crawled toward the Venomous Flood Dragon skeleton.

As soon as the silver-white skeleton of the puppet touched the blue venomous mist, the bones sizzled as if burned, emitting a "chii-chii" sound and producing blue smoke. Large, ugly blue pockmarks of corrosion immediately appeared on the framework.

The dragon poison was incredibly potent to a Golden Core cultivator, capable of reducing flesh to bone in an instant.

However, the damage inflicted by the dragon poison on the Golden Core Skeleton Puppet was significantly less severe. The puppet was inherently a silver-white skeleton; even though the bone surface was marred by blue corrosive spots, the Golden Core Skeleton Puppet suffered no harm.

The Golden Core Skeleton Puppet rapidly rushed into the dense blue poison mist, opened its massive jaw wide, suddenly clamped down on one of the dragon's heads on the Ga Niu Drum, lifted it, and swiftly carried the Ga Niu Drum out.

“Success!”

Seeing this, everyone burst into cheers.

Ye Qin remained calm, sending a surge of spiritual power towards the artifact, instantly stowing the great divine ancient artifact Ga Niu Drum into a storage pouch at his waist.

Unexpectedly, without Ye Qin’s direction, the skeleton puppet plunged back into the poison mist.

When it emerged again, its jaw tightly gripped a golden bone spike, over a zhang in length, as it greedily sucked in the white vapor rising from it.

The withered, dim black demonic core within the Golden Core Skeleton Puppet was visibly swelling and gaining fullness. In just a short while, the black demonic core began to emit a deep, translucent luster.

This sight astonished Ye Qin.

The autonomous consciousness of the Golden Core Skeleton Puppet had long been erased by him; only the most basic instincts remained—such as absorbing corpse energy, crawling, and repairing its structure.

Without the guidance of his divine sense, the Golden Core Skeleton Puppet would never act on its own accord.

This meant that the puppet, driven by its intense primal instinct, had extracted this golden bone spike, suggesting the spike must be extraordinary.

“Could this be a Spiritual Root Bone!?”

Liao Xiaozhang stared at the bone spike, stunned for a moment, a look of shock crossing his face as if recalling something.

“What, this is a Spiritual Root Bone?”

“It’s rumored that once a demonic beast cultivates into human form and becomes a demon race cultivator, a Spiritual Root Bone develops within them. The quality of this bone largely determines the cultivation potential of the demon race cultivator. But I’ve never seen a Spiritual Root Bone with my own eyes; I never thought this rumor was true. This spiritual bone is absolutely a massive tonic for the Golden Core Skeleton Puppet. Absorbing the corpse energy from this Spiritual Root Bone is far more effective than absorbing the corpse energy of dozens or even hundreds of Golden Core level demonic beasts. The Golden Core Skeleton Puppet can grow rapidly.”

“A Spiritual Root Bone, this is a treasure that Golden Core Ghost Cultivators dream of! It can be refined into a magical artifact, or used for cultivation. Obtaining one significantly increases a Golden Core Ghost Cultivator’s chance of reaching the Nascent Soul stage by two to three tenths.”

Zhou Yao, Jin Zhongshan, Pan Shuang, and the others exclaimed in awe, even feeling a tinge of envy for the Golden Core Skeleton Puppet for acquiring such a treasure that provided such a substantial boost to cultivation.

Ye Qin remained silent, somewhat surprised.

However, he knew that a late-stage Nascent Soul, twelfth-tier Venomous Flood Dragon, was among the absolute top tier of demon race cultivators. It would be incredibly difficult to find a Spiritual Root Bone of such high quality anywhere in the entire East Sea.

It was the Skeleton Puppet’s great fortune to obtain such a Spiritual Root Bone.

Unfortunately, Ye Qin’s current strength and means were too limited to remove the entirety of the twelfth-tier Venomous Flood Dragon skeleton.

Otherwise, in the future, when he became a Nascent Soul cultivator and his Bone Refining Art reached a high enough level, he could completely refine this dragon skeleton into a late-stage Nascent Soul-level Skeleton Puppet. That would represent terrifying combat power.

This thought flashed through Ye Qin’s mind and then vanished, remaining only a fantasy.

Unless one was a true Nascent Soul Ghost Cultivator, it was impossible to refine this massive twelfth-tier Flood Dragon skeleton; Ye Qin's current strength clearly couldn't achieve it. He couldn't even move the skeleton.

Soon, the Golden Core Skeleton Puppet absorbed a large amount of corpse energy. The numerous blue markings on its silver-white frame began to fade, rapidly repairing and restoring its strength.

Ye Qin beckoned, directly collecting the Golden Core Skeleton Puppet and the section of Spiritual Root Bone in its mouth into the Spirit Beast Pouch, allowing it to return there to slowly absorb corpse energy and repair its bones.

“Let’s go!”

Ye Qin led Zhou Yao and the other four out of the main hall, his brow immediately furrowing in confusion.

This ancient hall was too quiet.

The high-ranking Earth Tribe strongmen who had entered the hall had not reappeared since. Had those Earth Tribe warriors left the hall while the Golden Core cultivators were trapped in the Qiankun Grand Array? Ye Qin pondered inwardly.

“A strong scent of blood!”

Suddenly, his eyes sharpened. His figure flashed, disappearing from his spot, only to reappear at the entrance of a passage within the hall a hundred zhang away.

Before Ye Qin stood a high-ranking Earth Tribe warrior clad in leather armor, pierced through the chest by a black iron long spear, jammed firmly against the stone wall of the passage. Crimson blood dripped rhythmically from the spear onto the ground. The warrior’s head hung limply, his eyes wide open, as if unable to believe what had happened.

Zhou Yao, Liao Xiaozhang, and the others soon arrived at the passage entrance and showed surprise upon seeing the sight.

“The Golden Core cultivators were all busy fighting over the Ga Niu Drum; who killed this warrior?”

“Killed by a black iron long spear, and not long ago... It must have been one of their own tribesmen! Otherwise, this warrior wouldn't have died with such unfinished business in his eyes.”

Ye Qin murmured, cautiously heading toward the rear hall of the ancient structure.

Arriving at the Alchemy Hall, Ye Qin stopped short. What shocked them was that the Alchemy Hall was utterly chaotic. Lying on the ground were the corpses of four or five Earth Tribe Shamans and warriors. Judging by the wounds and the weapons on them, they had clearly been killed by black iron blades and bone arrows.

“Those Earth Tribe warriors from the various tribes must have engaged in internal strife after entering the Alchemy Hall. A fierce battle broke out here.” Zhou Yao whispered in shock.

“Indeed. It’s just unclear why they started fighting amongst themselves.” Ye Qin carefully examined the corpses and nodded.

He then looked at the rows of medicine cabinets inside the Alchemy Hall, a thought striking him, and he quickly approached them. The bottles and jars within these cabinets were empty, but the strong aroma of medicinal pills still lingered.

“These jars must have held elixirs—the Earth Tribe people were refining medicine here! This internal conflict must have been related to the pills.” Ye Qin stated calmly.

“But what grade of elixir was it, worth causing the four major Earth Tribe clans to suddenly turn against each other and fight to the death!?” Zhou Yao, Liao Xiaozhang, and the others looked at each other in confusion.

Ye Qin shook his head. As for the specifics, perhaps only the Earth Tribe clans themselves knew the answer. The surviving Earth Tribe warriors had long since left the ancient hall.

The Langya Secret Realm held nothing more Ye Qin desired. He led Zhou Yao, Liao, Jin, and Pan—four cultivators—hurriedly through the narrow rock crevices, the broken stone bridge, the undersea desert, and the coral forest of the Langya Secret Realm. Finally, they squeezed out through a mountain pass in the Blue Mist Archipelago, catching sight of the boundless azure expanse of the East Sea.

Ye Qin immediately felt a sense of having escaped calamity and fled to safety.

“We finally made it out alive!”

Zhou Yao, Jin Zhongshan, and the others were overcome with joy, their spirits instantly lifted.

The coalition forces of the Heavenly Dao Alliance and the Demonic Dao Alliance—eighty Golden Core cultivators and eight hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators—had invaded the Earth Tribe settlements of the Blue Mist Archipelago. They unexpectedly stumbled upon the Earth Tribe’s secret operations and entered the Langya Secret Realm, one of the three great secret realms of the East Sea natives.

The Golden Core cultivators fought fiercely for the many rare treasures within the secret realm, and for the Ga Niu Drum. In the end, only a handful—fewer than twenty individuals—managed to escape alive.

Ye Qin had personally witnessed more than half of the Golden Core cultivators perish within the Langya Secret Realm. As for the rest, Ye Qin didn't even know their whereabouts; they had vanished mysteriously.

Overall, however, Ye Qin was quite satisfied with the harvest from this venture.

Most importantly, he obtained the Zi You Lotus he sought. Although it was only a section of the root, it was sufficient for him to plant within his Purple Mansion.

Furthermore, he gained the Tian Yi You Water, the raw material for the final water-attributed Nascent Soul spiritual artifact needed to refine the Great Five Elements Sword. This was an unexpected bonus; once refined, his offensive and defensive combat strength would increase significantly.

As for the Xun Lei Ancient Mirror and the Crimson Flood Dragon Sword, they were complete surprises on top of the unexpected gains.

After exiting the Langya Secret Realm, Ye Qin dared not use these two minor divine artifacts carelessly.

“Upon returning to the Northern Isles, I must enter seclusion and focus entirely on raising my cultivation. The first layer of the Golden Core stage is still too low; handling danger becomes difficult when facing threats.” Ye Qin mused inwardly.

“Go!”

Ye Qin enveloped Zhou Yao and the four Foundation Establishment cultivators—Liao, Jin, and Pan—with the Dark Cloud Barrier artifact, transforming into a streak of black light, and sped northward.

Since Zhou Yao and the others were currently at the Foundation Establishment cultivation level, their speed flying on artifacts was much slower than Golden Core cultivators. Ye Qin had no choice but to pilot the artifact himself, carrying the four of them. Fortunately, the Dark Cloud Barrier could expand sufficiently to accommodate all four.

The group of five cultivators rapidly journeyed toward the northern islands of the East Sea.

After flying for about half an hour, three streaks of rainbow light suddenly appeared ahead in the sea sky. These three streaks of light spotted the black light overhead, veered mid-flight, and intercepted Ye Qin’s path.

As the rainbow radiance receded, three cultivators riding swords appeared: an elder in yellow robes at the mid-Golden Core stage, and two burly young men at the early Golden Core stage.

Ye Qin was forced to halt as his path was blocked, warily keeping his hand near his storage pouch.

The burly man, seeing that Zhou Yao, Jin Zhongshan, and the others were only at the Foundation Establishment realm, showed surprise and sharply rebuked them, “You cultivators with such low cultivation dare to venture far from the East Sea Islands and approach this area near the Sea of Blood! Any passing demonic beast here could be Golden Core level—aren’t you afraid of death?”

Jin Zhongshan was so incensed he nearly spat blood. Just half a day ago, he too was a dignified Golden Core cultivator, no less capable than that burly man. He couldn't tolerate such contempt and was about to retort, but Ye Qin’s stern gaze stopped him.

“What is the meaning of this, three fellow Daoists? We are strangers. Why block my path?” Ye Qin asked coldly, facing the three Golden Core cultivators. Despite having three Golden Core cultivators against him, Ye Qin showed no fear. With his capabilities, even if he couldn't win, he could escape.

The yellow-robed elder quickly scanned Ye Qin, Zhou Yao, and the others, his gaze finally settling on Ye Qin, the one with the highest visible cultivation.

The elder bowed slightly and smiled indifferently, “There is no need for the young friend to be nervous. The three of us are merely passing through this location and wish to inquire about something. Has the young friend, coming from ahead, noticed any unusual phenomena within a radius of ten thousand li?”

Ye Qin knitted his brows, extremely displeased, and was about to speak when Zhou Yao suddenly transmitted a secret message from behind him, “Brother Ye, these three look like treasure-seeking cultivators from the East Sea. There’s no need to provoke them.”

“Treasure-seeking cultivators? They specialize in searching for treasures everywhere?” Ye Qin asked, transmitting his query.