151: Chapter 151 Shen Yuan Establishes a Mansion

The water of the Yunmeng Great Swamp was a thick, ink-green color.

The deeper one dived, the faster the light was swallowed. Within thirty zhang, the surroundings were already plunged into an impenetrable, deathly darkness. The water temperature plummeted, and the bone-chilling cold, mixed with the miasma accumulated over years, seeped inward through his pores.

Gu Shen closed his eyes slightly, letting his body fall into the extreme depths of the Great Swamp.

The AI Crystal between his brows pulsed steadily, splitting the data generated by the descent in real-time:

Thread 1: Seal the surface Meridians, reduce heartbeat to once per stick of incense, and completely cut off the dissipation of living heat.

Thread 2: Adjust the microscopic density of the dark gold iron bones, using pure physical strength to resist the water pressure that increased exponentially with depth.

Thread 3: Synchronize and receive sonar echo data from Crab.

"Master, current depth is five hundred zhang. The water pressure has reached five megapascals. Ordinary special steel would be crushed here." A faint vibration frequency emanated from the iron buckle at his collar; Crab's voice sounded somewhat muffled through bone conduction. "Two li to the lower left, the sonar scanned an undersea rift valley. The rift is shaped like an inverted funnel, and the bottom is distributed with a large amount of high-hardness basalt, which is an ideal stratum for excavating a bunker."

"Go there."

Gu Shen kicked his legs lightly in the water, his shadow shoes breaking through the current without causing a single visible bubble.

He delved deep into the rift valley. The water pressure was already so great that Gu Shen's skin pressed tightly against his bones, emitting a faint straining sound. If it were an ordinary Cultivator at the Perfection of Qi Refining, even if they activated a top-grade defensive Magical Artifact, they would not last even half an hour here.

But supported by the Thunder Bone of the Bone Refining Art, Gu Shen's movements remained relaxed and free.

The rock wall at the bottom of the rift was covered with water plants and slimy silt. Gu Shen's Divine Sense swept across the rock wall and stopped at a depression about ten zhang from the valley floor.

Just as he prepared to draw his gold-severing saber to excavate the rock layer, the fourth thread of the AI Crystal suddenly issued a warning.

The surrounding water current stagnated for an instant.

In the dark silt, two ghost-green lanterns the size of millstones lit up silently. Immediately after, a giant mouth filled with interlocking fangs peeled away from the camouflage of the rock wall, carrying a bite force capable of crushing gold and stone, swallowing half of Gu Shen's body in one go.

A second-rank peak Yao Beast, the Poison-Kissed Crocodile Dragon.

In this eight-hundred-zhang deep water zone, it was the absolute ambush overlord. Borrowing the high pressure and toxic miasma of the deep water, it could even drag careless human Foundation Establishment Cultivators into its belly.

Gu Shen did not dodge. Eight hundred zhang underwater, the high density of the water would delay any exquisite movement technique.

To retreat was to fall into a passive position.

Gu Shen moved his left hand horizontally, and the black turtle shield popped open against the current, like a rooted stone tablet, jamming into the gap between the upper and lower jaws of the Poison-Kissed Crocodile Dragon.

A jarring sound of bone friction exploded dully in the water. The stone armor essence fused into the black turtle shield firmly withstood the crocodile dragon's bite; the Formation patterns on the shield surface flickered, but no cracks appeared.

Taking advantage of this momentary pause, Gu Shen's right hand had already gripped the hilt of his saber.

He did not channel the mana of the Longevity Art, because wood-attribute mana had limited lethality in the water.

What Gu Shen channeled was the Thunder-Magnetic Force branded deep in his bone marrow.

Clang!

The thunder pattern gold-slaying blade left its sheath. Eight hundred zhang underwater, the thunder light was compressed into a blindingly thin line.

Water can conduct electricity. But under high pressure, the eruption of Thunder-Magnetic Force required more precise guidance.

Gu Shen's wrist reversed at an angle that defied logic, and the tip of the blade precisely followed the edge of the black turtle shield, piercing into the soft cartilage of the Poison-Kissed Crocodile Dragon's wide-open throat.

"Explode."

Ghost-blue thunder light bloomed violently inside the crocodile dragon.

The formidable electric current instantly pierced through its entire body along its spinal nerves. The massive Yao Beast body twitched violently in the water, then went stiff like a wooden raft. Its internal organs, under the dual attack of thunder fire and high pressure, turned into a puddle of charred blood.

A one-strike kill.

Gu Shen quickly stored the massive corpse of the crocodile dragon into his Storage Ring. The bloody smell in the deep water zone would attract unnecessary trouble; he had to cut off any future problems.

Having cleared the obstacle, Gu Shen turned around to face the hard basalt wall.

The gold-severing saber turned into an afterimage. Geng Metal Sword Qi, combined with machine-like precision, cut into the rock wall.

In less than half an hour, the prototype of a square Immortal Cave, twenty zhang deep and ten zhang wide, had been hollowed out.

Gu Shen walked into the depths of the Immortal Cave and turned around.

"Crab, release the explosion-proof cabin wreckage and the energy-absorbing gel."

The Storage Ring flickered with a faint light. The fragments of the "titanium-carbon alloy explosion-proof cabin" previously used to withstand physical compression during space-time folding in the Wasteland, along with a large batch of discarded metal plates, piled up in the cave.

Gu Shen pointed his fingers like a sword, forcing out his Origin Thunder Fire, and forcibly melted these Wasteland metals.

Like a patient mason, he mixed the melted titanium-carbon alloy with the high-molecular energy-absorbing gel, evenly coating and pouring it onto the four walls, ceiling, and floor of the Immortal Cave.

It took three days and three nights.

A "physical black box" completely wrapped in Wasteland technological Materials took shape deep in the rock layer.

"Master, the physical isolation layer is deployed. The anti-sonar coating and wave-absorbing gel have solidified. Now, any scan based on physical bands—whether it is seismic waves, sonar, or thermal imaging—cannot penetrate this shell. We are 'invisible' in a physical sense." Crab reported.

"The exploration of Cultivators does not rely on sonar."

Gu Shen's expression was calm. He took out the Xuanming Heavy Water Array Formation Plate and Formation Flags purchased at a high price from the Wanxiang Merchant Alliance from his Storage Ring.

He precisely nailed the main and auxiliary Formation Flags at the eight positions of the Immortal Cave, then placed the Formation Plate at the Spiritual Qi node in the center of the cave.

Thirty-six Low-Grade Spirit Stones were embedded into the grooves of the Formation Plate.

Hum.

A deep blue water-wave light shield rose, clinging to the inner wall of the titanium-carbon alloy.

This Formation borrowed the terrifying water pressure formed by the eight-hundred-zhang depth outside. The greater the water pressure, the richer the water-attribute spiritual energy extracted by the Formation, and the tougher the barrier isolating Divine Sense became.

"It can defend against Divine Sense, but not Karma. I must try to isolate the resonance of spiritual power."

Gu Shen's brain operated on multiple threads. He took out a jade bottle and poured out a few drops of refined, high-purity mutated bone marrow. This radiation-mutated substance from the Wasteland did not belong to the Heavenly Dao Five Elements of the Great Yu Cultivation World.

He used a Formation carving knife to carefully apply the mutated bone marrow onto the operation circuit of the Xuanming Heavy Water Array's Formation eye.

Sizzle.

The Formation spiritual light of the Cultivation World came into contact with the mutated substance of the Wasteland, producing a subtle repulsive fluctuation. But under Gu Shen's precise micro-manipulation, the two reached a delicate balance.

The trace of "spiritual energy" belonging to the Cultivation World emitted by the Formation was locked tightly inside the light shield by the unreasonable, deathly aura of the mutated bone marrow, not leaking even a bit.

The outer layer was physical anti-sonar radar, the inner layer was a Formation to resist Golden Core Divine Sense, and the core was a mutated coating to cut off Heavenly Dao Karma.

Triple protection, interlinked.

After doing all this, Gu Shen sat cross-legged on the dry futon in the center of the Immortal Cave.

He closed his eyes, and the perception tentacles of the AI Crystal extended outward.

Outside the Immortal Cave, the water of the eight-hundred-zhang abyss remained bone-chilling, with undercurrents surging. Occasionally, giant deep-water Yao Beasts swam by, but no matter how they probed, this place was just a solid, deathly silent piece of basalt.

The absolute safe house was completed.

Gu Shen opened his eyes and exhaled a long breath of turbid air.

His gaze fell on the corner of his Storage Ring. There, twelve dilapidated Cyber Iron Corpses were piled up, along with fifteen Sea-Splitting Profound Whale skeletons just exchanged from Grand Deacon Shang Buhuan.

"Next, it is time to let my Puppets be reborn."