475: Chapter 475 A toad was lying in front of the Immortal Pool. Wang Baobao said its legs looked very fat.

The light of the teleportation array flickered violently in the starry sky for a moment, then suddenly extinguished like a shattered glazed lamp.

Su Chen's first sensation upon opening his eyes was not light, nor wind.

It was the coldness coming from the soles of his feet.

A heavy, cold, and dull touch characteristic of ancient metal seeped up through the soles of his boots.

He lowered his head and took a look.

Beneath his feet was a seamless slab of Black Iron ground, covered in Ancient Runes so blurred they were almost invisible, worn down by time until only shallow grooves remained.

He raised his head.

His vision was suddenly torn open.

In all directions was the boundless Universe.

In the bottomless darkness, countless stars were like crushed diamonds scattered on velvet, breathing in and out at an extremely slow frequency.

Beneath their feet was a giant floating island suspended in the very center of this sea of stars.

The island wasn't large, spanning no more than a hundred miles.

But the concentration could no longer be described by the word "rich."

Visible milky-white Immortal Mist overflowed from the edges of the floating island, flowing slowly along the Black Iron ground like someone had poured a layer of thick milk on the floor.

Every breath felt like drinking soup.

Su Chen took only one breath and felt the Spiritual Power within his body begin to stir restlessly, scrambling to Breakthrough the Bottleneck.

He frowned.

Then his gaze moved past that layer of milky-white Immortal Mist and landed in the very center of the floating island.

A pool.

No, it couldn't be called a pool.

It was a giant Spiritual Pool forcibly carved out of Heaven And Earth Treasures, a full hundred zhang in diameter, with the pool walls covered in dense golden Law runes.

The pool water was a translucent milky white.

To be precise, it no longer looked like water.

It was more like liquefied starlight, each drop containing longevity dao rhyme sufficient to allow a Mortal to undergo a complete transformation.

The golden Law runes floating on the surface of the pool rotated slowly, like lotuses blooming on the water.

A breath of longevity rushed toward him.

Heavy, warm, and vast.

This was the Immortal Passing Pool.

The only springboard for shedding one's Mortal coil, forming an immortal body, and making the leap between life and death.

Su Chen's salted fish radar hadn't even had time to make a precise "how much is it worth" valuation of this pool.

Before it began to alarm frantically.

Because directly in front of the Immortal Passing Pool.

Something was crouching there.

Su Chen narrowed his eyes.

His first reaction was—his eyes were playing tricks on him.

His second reaction was—they weren't.

It was a toad.

A toad that was ridiculously large.

Its entire body was dark gold, with three frog legs as thick as divine mountains propped on the Black Iron ground, the area of each paw large enough to build a city on.

Its back towered high, poking directly into the Immortal Mist layer above the floating island, leaving only a massive, golden, bumpy silhouette visible.

Right.

Bumps.

Its golden skin was covered in dense bumps.

Each bump was wriggling slightly, emitting a terrifying pressure that made one's scalp tingle.

That wasn't ordinary pressure.

It was Great Emperor-level, and not just any ordinary Great Emperor-level.

This was the guardian of the Immortal Passing Pool—the Three-legged Golden Toad.

It crouched there, motionless.

Like a golden sculpture that had existed since ancient times, forgotten by time.

But no one dared to treat it as a sculpture.

Because at the edge of the Immortal Passing Pool where it was perched, hundreds of bleached white skeletons were piled up densely.

These skeletons were translucent and sparkling, emitting faint fluctuations of dao rhyme.

When alive, they were at least experts at the Pseudo-Emperor level.

And now they were scattered haphazardly at the Golden Toad's feet, like chicken bones left over by a child.

On a few of the thicker bones, there were even clearly visible giant teeth marks.

Su Chen stared at that pile of skeletons for two seconds.

Then his gaze slowly moved to the open space in front of the Golden Toad.

On the open space was a small mountain.

It wasn't a mountain made of skeletons.

It was Magic Treasures.

Magic Treasures and Spiritual Artifacts of various grades, and even a few broken Emperor Weapons emitting Imperial Might, were tightly surrounded by the Golden Toad's three thick legs, circled firmly beneath its body like a hen protecting its chicks.

Su Chen's pupils constricted slightly.

[Good grief.]

[This toad not only guards the door but also collects protection fees?]

[That pile of things under its body... aren't they the relics of the Prodigies it's eaten over the years?]

[Tsk. It's got something.]

His gaze lingered on that "mountain of Magic Treasures" for an extra half-second.

Then he naturally withdrew it.

Several hundred people had already gathered around.

All of them were top-tier Prodigies who had fought their way through the Ascension Ancient Road.

If these people were placed in their respective worlds, any one of them would be a peerless figure who could summon wind and rain, commanding everyone's attention.

But at this moment.

They were all huddled over a hundred zhang away from the perimeter of the Immortal Passing Pool, like a flock of quails being eyed by an eagle.

Not a single person dared to take another step forward.

A few bold ones had tried to force their way through before.

The result—

Su Chen's gaze swept over that pile of skeletons.

Well then, the results were all lying right there.

His mood became even more irritable.

Not because of fear.

But because of disgust.

He looked at that Immortal Passing Pool, then at the swarming crowd of Prodigies around it.

An image that made him extremely uncomfortable surfaced in his mind.

[This is the Immortal Passing Pool?]

[The pool is indeed not bad. The dao rhyme is so thick it could be pulled into threads; it's definitely the real deal.]

[But the problem is...]

Su Chen glanced at the surrounding Prodigies who were watching like hawks, their faces full of eagerness.

Male.

All of them were male.

Ninety-nine percent of them were rough men covered in muscles.

[If this bunch of people jumps in all at once later...]

[That image...]

[Five hundred grown men squeezed into a hundred-zhang-wide bathhouse to soak?]

[You wouldn't even be able to tell whose foot was rubbing against whose thigh?]

Su Chen's face turned green on the spot.

[No.]

[Absolutely not.]

[I, the dignified Divine Son of the Su Family of the Heaven South Realm Domain, am handsome and elegant.]

[Why should I share bathwater with this group of rough men who haven't bathed in eight hundred years?]

[In my previous life, even if I went to a public bath, I would book a private room!]

[In this life, I've become an immortal cultivator, and yet my hygiene standards have downgraded instead?]

[What is the Immortal Realm's public health management department even doing?]

He stood at the very back of the line, showing no intention of moving forward at all.

He even took two steps back.

Right now, his mind was filled with only one thought—was there any way he could soak alone?

Just as he was seriously considering this major issue concerning his personal dignity.

A small figure approached.

Wang Baobao tugged at the corner of Su Chen's clothes, standing on her tiptoes, trying hard to peer in the direction of the Golden Toad.

That little head with its sky-pointing pigtail appeared and disappeared in the Immortal Mist, looking just like a peeking white radish.

She stared at that Golden Toad for quite a while.

Her big, dark, round eyes looked from the Golden Toad's left leg to its right leg, then from its right leg to its belly, finally locking onto the Golden Toad's two round hind legs.

She swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

"Boss."

"Hmm?"

"That big toad."

"..."

"Its legs look very fat."

"The texture should be better than that Dragon horn."

"Can I eat it?"