109: Go straight against the current into the Demon Mansion

The river water under the moonlight shimmered with a cold, silvery sheen. Li Muchen walked upon the waves, his blue robes fluttering as the tips of his feet lightly touched the water's surface, sending out faint ripples. Yet his figure shot forward like an arrow from a bowstring, traveling upstream against the rushing current, heading deeper into Black Water Ridge.

The further he went, the steeper and more precipitous the mountains on either bank became, like two giant doors slowly closing, squeezing the river channel between them. The river also grew deeper and swifter, its roar deafening, its chill biting. An ordinary person would have long been unable to proceed a single step, but Li Muchen moved as if strolling through a quiet courtyard. Within three feet of his body, the wind was still and the waves calm; not even the hem of his robe was dampened by the mist.

Following the faint yet unique trace of dao rhyme he had left on the demon catfish, the 'Black Water Yuan Lord,' his Divine Sense acted like the most precise compass, firmly locking onto the direction. This mark was like a maggot clinging to the bone; it not only marked the location but also continuously eroded and interfered with the demon catfish's Origin demonic power, preventing it from completely hiding.

After traveling roughly twenty-some li upstream, the river channel suddenly narrowed here, forming a perilous 'Thread of Sky' gorge. The cliffs on both sides soared over a hundred zhang high, almost vertical, jagged with strange rocks, with hardy cold-resistant shrubs and moss stubbornly growing in the crevices. The moonlight was largely blocked by the towering cliffs, leaving the interior dimly lit. The river here also became exceptionally deep and calm, taking on a color nearly as black as ink, appearing bottomless.

And the source of that trace of the mark Li Muchen sensed was precisely beneath the ink-black depths at the river's center.

He stopped on the water's surface, sending his Divine Sense probing downward without reservation. The topography of this riverbed was extremely peculiar—not the usual gentle slope of sand and stone, but a massive, funnel-shaped deep pool leading straight into the depths of the mountain. The pool's mouth was only a few zhang in diameter, but it expanded sharply below, forming a sizable underwater cave System. Powerful undercurrents surged at the cave entrance, creating a natural barrier and camouflage, making it extremely difficult to detect unless one was deliberately searching.

The demon catfish's aura, along with a dense aquatic Demonic Qi and a cold, yin earth Evil Qi, were continuously emanating from deep within this cavern. What caught Li Muchen's attention even more was that he faintly sensed, besides the Demonic Qi deep in the cave, an extremely weak yet exceptionally pure and condensed... pulse of earth vein Spiritual Qi? However, this Spiritual Qi pulse was heavily wrapped and distorted by the dense demonic and Evil Qi, making it obscure and unclear.

"Found quite a nice den," Li Muchen muttered to himself. His figure flickered, merging like a shadow into the water, silently submerging into the ink-black river and diving towards the cave beneath the deep pool.

The water temperature was extremely low, the cold piercing to the bone, making survival impossible for ordinary creatures. But to Li Muchen, it was merely a bit of coolness. His Golden Core cultivation had long rendered him impervious to heat and cold; a barrier of naturally flowing True Qi on his body's surface kept the river water at bay. His figure moved as agilely as a swimming fish, following the strong undercurrent, easily passing through the narrow cave entrance and entering the underwater cavern.

The cave interior was not completely dark. Some moss and Ore embedded in the cave walls emitted faint blue or sickly green phosphorescent light, providing a weak light source that illuminated the outlines of jagged rocks and winding, twisting passages. The water pressure was immense, but for water-controlling demonic creatures and high-level Cultivators, it was instead like being a fish in water.

Li Muchen restrained his aura, his figure blending into the shadows as he advanced stealthily along the direction of the strongest Demonic Qi. The cave passages were complex and intricate, with many forks. In many places, there were fresh traces of aquatic activity—scraped-off scales, mucus, and some scattered fish bone remnants.

After advancing for roughly the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the space ahead suddenly opened up, revealing an incredibly vast underground lake. The water remained deep, but the space was far larger than imagined, with a high, vaulted ceiling from which hung countless stalactites of varying lengths, some with water droplets dripping from their tips.

The lakebed was piled with numerous jagged rocks, forming clusters of 'stone forests.' And in the deepest part of the lake's center, a darker area could vaguely be seen, as if there was a large opening leading to even greater depths.

Li Muchen did not immediately approach the lake's center. His gaze was drawn to several anomalies within the stone forest area on the lakebed.

They were not naturally formed.

Several massive, relatively flat black rocks had been artificially arranged into an incomplete ring roughly ten zhang in diameter. In the center of the ring stood a few crude stone pillars, carved full of twisted runes similar to those on the Grey-robed figures' robes, only more ancient and complex, some even already damaged. The runes were outlined in dark red pigment, which, despite being soaked in water, had not completely faded, emitting a faint, sinister aura.

And at several key node positions of the ring Formation, Li Muchen saw something horrifying—several human skeletons!

These skeletons were not randomly scattered but were placed on the nodes in some bizarre posture. Most of the bones were intact, but the positions of the skulls were empty. The surfaces of the bones showed an abnormal grayish-black color, as if contaminated and drained of all vitality by some force. Even more eerie, the water flow around the skeletons seemed to have become stagnant and cold.

"A Life-Devouring Soul-Seizing Formation..." A sharp chill rose in Li Muchen's eyes. This was an extremely malicious evil Formation that used living beings with specific destinies as a guide, set up at earth vein nodes or spiritual nexus intersections, to slowly and continuously extract the life force and soul Origin of the beings, nourishing the Formation, or... sustaining certain specific existences.

The Formation before him was not large in scale and seemed already abandoned and incomplete. However, judging from the decay of the skeletons and the residual Evil Qi of the Formation, it had been set up no more than twenty or thirty years ago. In other words, within the last few decades, this 'Five Immortals Alliance' or related forces had been conducting such inhuman 'experiments' or 'small-scale sacrifices' here!

No wonder the 'Black Water Yuan Lord' was willing to cooperate with the 'Five Immortals Alliance' and lair here. This underwater cave was not only its den but also likely its 'treasure land' for slowly absorbing human life force to aid its Cultivation through this evil Formation! Apart from sustaining the Formation and possibly being transmitted remotely to certain existences, a significant portion of the extracted life force and souls must have ended up in this demon yuan's stomach!

Li Muchen forcefully suppressed the anger in his heart, carefully sweeping his Divine Sense over the entire incomplete Formation, committing every rune and structural detail firmly to memory. Although this Formation was evil, its core principles and its method of connecting with the earth vein spiritual mechanisms might provide clues about the 'Five Immortals Alliance's' secret arts System and how they sought and utilized similar locations.

After memorizing the Formation, he lingered no longer. His figure transformed into an almost invisible faint shadow, diving towards the darkest opening at the deepest part of the lake's center.

Passing through a long, narrow underwater passageway, light appeared ahead once more. This time, the light source did not come from phosphorescent moss but from a soft, pale blue glow, as if emanating from within the cave walls.

Li Muchen surfaced—this place was actually a massive, half-water, half-land underground cavern! Roughly a small half of the space was occupied by the deep pool water, while the larger half was damp rocky ground. Countless glowing stalactites hung from the cavern ceiling, emitting a soft pale blue light that illuminated the entire space. The air was damp and cold, thick with the smell of water and... a faint scent of blood.

And the scene within this space made Li Muchen frown even more deeply.

Near the shore by the pool, a large pile of debris was accumulated—shattered pottery jars and urns, rusted fragments of swords and knives, decayed wooden components, and even some incomplete ancient coins and ornaments.

These items varied in age, the oldest possibly several hundred years, the newest only a few decades old. Clearly, they were all objects that had sunk into the river over the years or been swept here by undercurrents. Some of these items still retained extremely faint Spiritual Qi fluctuations, likely remnants of some low-grade Magical Artifacts.

On the side closer to the rock wall, there was an obviously artificially carved stone niche, about one person's height. Inside the niche, a strangely shaped 'idol' was enshrined.

The idol resembled a fish but was not quite a fish, resembled a yuan but was not quite a yuan. It had a ferocious head, a coiled body, and several bone spikes growing from its back, overall exuding a dense Demonic Qi and aquatic creature's oppressive aura. In front of the idol was placed a crude stone incense burner, filled with incense ash—precisely the ashes of that 'Tongyou Spirit-Guiding Incense'! Scattered beside the burner were some dried, unknown aquatic or animal limbs as offerings.

This place was clearly a carefully arranged sacrificial site belonging to the 'Black Water Yuan Lord'! And judging by its scale and accumulation, it was definitely not a short-term endeavor.

Li Muchen's gaze finally fell beneath the base of the Demonic Qi idol. There, half-embedded in the rock, was a black egg-shaped stone about the size of a washbasin. At first glance, it seemed ordinary, but in his Divine Sense perception, this stone was continuously emitting a stream of pure yet obscure earth vein Spiritual Qi from within!

This Spiritual Qi was faintly connected to the earth vein of the entire cavern, yet it also seemed that a portion had been 'intercepted' and 'tamed' in some way, gathering here.

"An Earth Vein Spiritual Eye?" Li Muchen approached for a closer look. This black stone was precisely a small outlet, or 'spiritual eye,' of the earth vein spiritual mechanisms of this underwater cave. Ordinary Earth Vein Spiritual Eyes naturally emitted Spiritual Qi, nourishing the surrounding land and water.

But this one before him had clearly been tampered with. The stone was carved full of runes, sharing the same Origin as the evil Formation outside in the lake but even more intricate and complex, forming a miniature composite Formation for 'Spirit Gathering' and 'Evil Transformation.'

It gathered and purified the originally gentle and pure earth vein Spiritual Qi while cleverly separating and guiding the naturally occurring cold, yin aquatic Evil Qi in the underwater cave, mixing it with part of the Spiritual Qi to form a kind of 'demonic Spiritual Qi' more suitable for absorption by aquatic demonic creatures or for use in certain evil ritual arts.

No wonder the 'Black Water Yuan Lord's' Dao attainment had grown quite swiftly, and it valued this place so highly. For it, this was practically a tailor-made Cultivation treasure land!

And achieving this was certainly not the demon yuan's own doing. It must have been accomplished by a 'human' proficient in earth vein Formations and with deep research into Ancient Shamanic Arts or evil Formations. The Five Immortals Alliance, or certain existences behind them, had indeed been operating here for a long time.

"Roar...!"

Just as Li Muchen was investigating the spiritual eye stone, a low, pained, and furious roar came from the depths of the pool!