516: Chapter 26 Nourishing Spirit General, Blood-Dripping Cave

Spirits, like humans, have differences in Aptitude.

Using spirits with good Aptitude to cultivate Spirit Generals not only results in faster growth but also consumes relatively fewer resources.

The Spirit Observation Method within Restraining Spirits and Dispatching Generals has the effect of checking the Aptitude of spirit bodies.

Once this method was activated, Meng Li's eyes were covered by a layer of pure white spiritual light, and the scene in his vision instantly changed.

Then, he released his Divine Thought to cover the surrounding area as much as possible, and the quality of the Aptitude of the Yin Spirits within range was quickly understood.

Before long, Meng Li selected a Yin Spirit with the best Aptitude and directly used the Spirit Binding Technique to seize it. When the Yin Spirit came close, he unexpectedly found that although its Aptitude was good, it was very weak, unable to even manifest a form, being just a mass of mist.

This was somewhat contrary to common sense and piqued Meng Li's interest.

He immediately mobilized his mana to condense a Spirit General Brand and struck it into the Yin Spirit's body, establishing it as a Spirit General Seed. Then, he casually snatched other Yin Spirits, refined them into spirit body Origin, and gave them to the Spirit General Seed to consume.

With the continuous consumption of spirits, the Spirit General Seed grew stronger at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In just one day, it possessed a certain level of independent consciousness. Although it was still some distance from manifesting a physical form, it could already independently use the Spirit Consumption Method taught by Meng Li to devour other Yin Spirits and strengthen itself.

After Meng Li confirmed that there were no other dangers in the Dead Spirit Abyss, he let the fellow grow on its own.

A Spirit General is still a general; a general must naturally go through slaughter to grow.

Moreover, he came here to find the Heavenly Book; cultivating Spirit Generals was just a temporary whim.

After letting the Spirit General Seed roam free, Meng Li turned into a stream of light and followed the route he had scouted during this time to reach the passage to the next level.

After several twists and turns, he arrived at a cave filled with Immortal Qi and many floating bubbles.

Looking at those bubbles, Meng Li instinctively felt it was better not to touch them, so he carefully avoided them. Then, nothing happened, and he successfully reached a cliff.

With no path ahead, he had to use the Flowing Light Escape Technique to fly down the cliff. As a result, the further down he went, the more bubbles there were.

Presumably, the bottom of the cliff was the source of these bubbles.

When he reached the bottom of the cliff, Meng Li found it was indeed so. There was a beach at the bottom, and bubbles were constantly rising from the sea surface.

Looking at the deep sea surface, he matched it with his knowledge and immediately understood; this should be the Ruthless Sea.

It is said that the ancient exotic beast, the Blackwater Xuan Snake, resides here.

However, Meng Li scanned the area and didn't see it; it was likely hidden in the sea.

He came silently and did not disturb it.

This was just as well; he was here to find the Heavenly Book, not to subdue exotic beasts.

To be able to come quietly and leave quietly would be for the best.

Thinking this way, Meng Li used the transformation technique of the Wind-After Odd Gates to turn into a stream of water and escaped into the sea.

He vaguely remembered that the Dripping Blood Cave was beneath the Ruthless Sea. After entering the sea, he followed the current down, only to discover a gargantuan creature halfway.

It was exactly the Blackwater Xuan Snake!

It was currently coiled on a giant rock at the bottom of the sea, resting.

Meng Li used his Divine Thought to roughly observe it and found that its body was black, its belly was white, its body was over four zhang thick, and its length exceeded a hundred zhang.

Just as he finished observing, the Blackwater Xuan Snake seemed to sense something. It opened a pair of giant emerald snake pupils and scanned around. Seeing nothing unusual, it closed its eyes to rest again.

This keen perception surprised Meng Li greatly.

However, thinking that this Blackwater Xuan Snake had lived for tens of thousands of years according to the setting, he felt relieved.

An ancient exotic beast that has lived for tens of thousands of years—it would be strange if it didn't have some divine anomalies.

Fortunately, he possessed miraculous skills; by transforming into water, without Spells like the Fiery Golden Eyes, no problem could be seen.

After moving away from the Blackwater Xuan Snake, Meng Li continued to follow the current down. After a while, he heard a sound similar to a waterfall.

Before long, he saw light again and found there really was a waterfall!

When the water he had transformed into poured down and reached mid-air, Meng Li quickly changed into a breeze, left the range of the waterfall, and then changed back to his human form, standing in mid-air.

Flying in the air was one of the basic abilities he mastered after condensing his Dao Core.

Standing in mid-air, Meng Li looked around and found that where he was was already another world.

This was a vast space surrounded by waterfalls. In the very center floated an island surrounded and guarded by many giant rocks.

This island was overall a steep stone mountain. At the top of the mountain was a red light source like a small sun, and at the foot of the mountain was a square with stone pillars. Further into the square were two tightly closed giant stone doors, on which a Qimen Formation diagram was carved, embedded with several red stones.

After finishing his scan, Meng Li flew to the stone doors on the island and noticed that the red stones on them seemed to be dripping blood. Looking closely, it wasn't actual blood, but water falling on the stones and dripping down, being stained red, looking just like dripping blood.

Such obvious characteristics made Meng Li instantly realize that this place was the Black-Hearted Old Man's headquarters, the Dripping Blood Cave.

He glanced at the closed stone doors and took a step. The Wind-After Qimen Formation expanded; he encountered no resistance, and no danger was sensed behind the stone doors.

In that case...

Eight Gates Space, open!

Enter from the space outside the door, exit from the space inside the door.

Meng Li crossed the stone door as easily as he had passed through the barrier before and entered the Dripping Blood Cave.

Inside the Dripping Blood Cave, what first caught Meng Li's eye were two tall stone statues, one male and one female.

The male had three heads and six arms, was bald, with thick eyebrows and a dense beard, a string of Dharma Beads hanging around his neck, wearing armor and robes, and holding various Magical Artifacts.

The female was a peaceful-looking woman with hair in a cloud bun, wearing a palace dress.

Meng Li recalled briefly and, combining the descriptions in the relevant books from the Qingyun Sect's Library Pavilion, recognized them as the two deities worshiped by the Demonic Sect—the Heavenly Fiend Bright King and the Netherworld Holy Mother!

However, these two deities were just symbolic decorations; in the records, they had never performed any miracles.

Therefore, he gave them a glance and walked further inside, where he saw a scene of ruins and broken walls.

Meng Li scanned with his Divine Thought and was soon attracted by a crystal stone tablet.

On the stone tablet was carved a row of brilliant red characters—"Heaven and earth are heartless, treating all things as straw dogs!"

He remembered this was a line from the Tao Te Ching, but in this world, it was content from the Heavenly Book.

Could it be that the Heavenly Book is hidden inside this crystal stone tablet?

Guessing this, Meng Li raised his hand and struck a burst of mana into the crystal stone tablet from a distance.

The crystal stone tablet lit up for a moment and then went out.

Meng Li considered for a moment and continued to pour mana into it.

The crystal stone tablet lit up again, becoming brighter and brighter as the mana continued to flow in.

When the brightness reached a critical value, it suddenly shot a beam of light onto a nearby stone wall carved with a Coiling Dragon.

Then, the stone wall lit up, and many glowing characters flew out of it one after another, heading straight for Meng Li.

Seeing this, Meng Li raised an eyebrow slightly. Instead of accepting them, he expanded the Wind-After Odd Gates and used Luanjin Dun.

Instantly, those characters stopped as they flew to his side.

When all the characters were frozen, Meng Li dodged to the side and deactivated Luanjin Dun.

Those characters swayed due to this change, and then, as if some mechanism was triggered, they did not continue to rush toward Meng Li but gathered together. With a flash of light, they turned into a scroll-like book, falling powerlessly to the ground, motionless.

Meng Li scanned with his Divine Thought and confirmed there was no problem. Only then did he use telekinesis to bring the book over to examine it.

However, the content on it surprised him greatly.

...