Chapter 230 Going Out to Sea
Yuan Ming put away the jade pot and did not leave the city immediately. Instead, he came to a remote alley in the north of the city and walked in. Halfway through, his figure disappeared as if he had merged into the water.
His eyes blurred and a wide street appeared in front of him. The street was quite lively, with people practicing immortality. There were some shops on both sides of the street, selling all kinds of elixirs, talismans and magic tools.
This is a market in Ningcheng. Yuan Ming had just heard about it from Xuanhua Zhenren when he was drinking with him.
Yuan Ming took a quick look and found that the market was not large in scale, and the things sold were not as good as those in the market in Black Rock City.
He had something to do and was not in the mood to stroll around the market. He found a shop selling books and bought a book introducing the sea beasts of the East China Sea on the recommendation of the shopkeeper.
Although he was confident that he could hunt the vortex beast, he still needed to prepare in advance. He still understood the principle of knowing oneself and knowing the enemy.
"Don't worry, sir. This book was written by a master from Tieyun Temple after traveling in the East China Sea for decades. It has been circulated for a long time. The content is detailed and true, and it will never delay your business." The bookstore owner said confidently.
"I hope so." Yuan Ming did not go out, but flipped through the book in the store and soon found the introduction of the vortex beast.
The shopkeeper did not brag. This book detailed the information of the vortex beast, listed its magical powers, what kind of power it was restrained by, and what it liked to eat. The content was very detailed.
Yuan Ming was very satisfied. After putting the book into the storage ring, he left the bookstore.
He also bought some talismans for use in water from other shops nearby, and immediately walked towards the entrance of the market.
As a result, as soon as he walked to the door, he saw two people walking towards him. One of them was Bai Lin, and the other was a short-sleeved boy who looked like Bai Lin's attendant.
The two hurried away and did not notice Yuan Ming, who he did not know.
Yuan Ming listened to the footsteps behind him getting farther and farther away, and he did not intend to explore, and continued to hurry on his way.
A quarter of an hour later, he left Ningcheng and summoned Qingyunhe to fly southwest.
When he was far away from Ningcheng, Yuan Ming changed into the Jade Shuttle magic weapon, turned into a stream of white light and flew forward. Not long after, he flew a hundred miles.
There was endless sea water all around, and no island could be seen.
If other cultivators who came for the first time saw this situation, they might be confused and distressed about how to start, but Yuan Ming was best at exploration.
He released five soul crows to search nearby, and soon found a large coral island, which was more than ten miles in size. The island was full of red corals, shining brightly under the sunlight, very beautiful.
There was a huge whirlpool in the north of the island, with a diameter of dozens of feet. The sea water was rushing and making a deafening roar.
"This should be the place that Xuanhua Zhenren was talking about." Yuan Ming muttered to himself, controlling a soul crow to fly into the whirlpool, and soon dived to a depth of a hundred feet.
The water pressure here is already very alarming. If there is no good water-proof treasure, it is difficult for a foundation-building cultivator to withstand it. Fortunately, the Soul Crow is a spirit body and can still withstand it. It continues to dive down and soon dives another hundred feet, but still has not reached the bottom.
At this place, the soul power of the Soul Crow also began to show signs of overflow.
Yuan Ming frowned slightly and considered a solution.
The nearby sea water suddenly made a loud noise. A strange fish about ten feet long, with eyes as big as copper bells and spikes all over its body pounced over at a very fast speed, biting the Soul Crow with its big mouth full of fangs.
This strange fish carried a strong demonic fluctuation, and it was a sea beast of the first level.
"Thousand Needle Fish." Yuan Ming controlled the Soul Crow to avoid the attack of the strange fish, and quickly recognized the origin of the fish, with a look of surprise on his face.
According to the records in the classics he had read before, the Thousand Needle Fish is one of the favorite prey of the Whirlpool Beast. Since this place is where the Whirlpool Beast is entrenched, it is normal to have its favorite food.
He originally only wanted to use the Soul Crow to investigate the situation of the vortex beast, but now a Thousand Needle Fish has appeared, so the plan has to change.
Yuan Ming controlled the Soul Crow to avoid the attack of the strange fish while flicking his finger.
The black needle magic weapon flew out of his hand, and another Soul Crow was attached to it. It also sank into the vortex and soon reached the position of the first Soul Crow.
The Thousand Needle Fish was still chasing behind. A black needle shadow flashed in front of it. The Thousand Needle Fish subconsciously tried to dodge, but suddenly felt a sharp pain on its forehead, and its consciousness fell into endless darkness.
Yuan Ming did not retract the black needle that pierced the head of the Thousand Needle Fish. His mind moved.
The Soul Crow that was being chased flew over and sank into the body of the Thousand Needle Fish in a flash. The gray eyes of the Thousand Needle Fish suddenly regained their agility.
After hiding in the body of this fish, the Soul Crow no longer had to bear the strong water pressure, and it seemed extremely relaxed, killing two birds with one stone.
Yuan Ming looked much more relaxed. He controlled the body of the Thousand Needle Fish to dive to the bottom of the sea. Soon, he dived another seventy or eighty feet and finally reached the bottom of the sea.
It was also the first time for him to see the underwater environment. He looked around curiously.
The seabed was full of undulating mountains. If the ubiquitous seawater was excluded, it looked not much different from the land. There were mountains, flat land, deep valleys, etc.
In the deep valley not far away, a huge crack appeared, splitting the entire seabed mountain in half. The crack was pitch black and the end could not be seen. A strong suction force was emitted from the inside, stirring the nearby seawater to surge and rotate, forming a huge vortex on the sea surface.
Yuan Ming watched for a while, controlled the Thousand Needle Fish to approach the crack, and slowly drilled in.
Suddenly, a blue electric light shot out from the crack and hit the strange fish.
The body of the Thousand Needle Fish was pierced, and blue arcs of electricity flowed through it, taking away all the fish's ability to move.
The Soul Crow hiding in the body of the Thousand Needle Fish was also affected by the blue arcs. Fortunately, the blue arcs were not real lightning, but a magical power similar to the Sunflower Water Thunder. Although the Soul Crow was blown apart, it had not yet collapsed.
A blood-red shadow shot out from the crack in the ground, wrapped around the body of the strange fish, dragged it in, and soon came to a black sea beast as big as a house.
This sea beast looked like an ape, with all its limbs, a very wide mouth, four eyes, and dark tumors and scales all over its body, which looked very ugly.
Above the sea, Yuan Ming's eyes lit up. This ugly sea beast was exactly the target of his trip, the Whirlpool Beast.
The blood-red shadow was the tongue of the Whirlpool Beast, which wrapped around the spiked strange fish and dragged it into the bloody mouth of the Whirlpool Beast, swallowing it in one gulp regardless of the spikes on its body.
"It's done!" Yuan Ming was overjoyed, and immediately controlled the black needle magic weapon hidden in the head of the spiked fish to attack the vortex sea beast from the inside.
However, after trying it, his face suddenly changed.
The connection between the black needle magic weapon and the two soul crows and him was suddenly cut off, as if they were completely isolated by something.
Yuan Ming quickly regained his composure, thinking that this vortex beast was really extraordinary, no wonder the people of Bailong Island couldn't catch it even if they wanted to.
Since trickery didn't work, he could only fight hard.
Yuan Ming flipped his hand and took out a stack of formation flags and formation plates, which was the set he got from Li Shark.
These days, in addition to practicing, he was also studying the formation book of the Xiao Ying family. Finally, he gained something and figured out the origin of Li Shark's formation and the general method of setting up the formation.
This formation is called "Thousand Knot Water Rope Formation", which is a confinement formation that can condense water ropes with confinement effects to confine and seal enemies.
Yuan Ming checked the terrain of the coral island and soon came to the shallow sea area south of the coral island. The terrain here is relatively flat and conducive to the formation.
He buried the formation flags one by one into the ground and inserted the spirit stones in the corresponding places.
The Thousand Knot Water Rope Formation is a water-attributed formation, which is best activated by water-attributed spirit stones. Unfortunately, Yuan Ming did not have many water-attributed spirit stones, so he could only make do with other spirit stones and quickly set up the formation.
He held the main formation flag and activated it. Bright blue light rose from the bottom of the sea and merged into the sea water. The sea water near the formation quickly condensed to form large and small water ropes.
Yuan Ming was interested in setting up a large formation for the first time, and he pinched his fingers and made a virtual point.
Several water ropes shot out from the formation and sank into the nearby sea.
In the deep sea a hundred feet away, an octopus sea beast was chasing its prey. Suddenly, several blue shadows flashed beside it, and its body was entangled by several water ropes.
The octopus beast was shocked and struggled hard. A force of confinement penetrated from the water rope, and the octopus beast suddenly became weak, and its eight tentacles drooped there.
The water rope suddenly contracted, and the octopus beast's eyes blurred and appeared in a large formation.
Yuan Ming sensed the situation of the octopus beast, nodded with satisfaction, and stopped controlling the magic circle.
The water rope on the octopus beast disappeared, and the power was restored, and it hurriedly fled away.
Yuan Ming ignored the panicking octopus beast, turned around and came to the island, found a hidden place to sit down.
He used the four-sided sealing talisman to open a barrier around him, and then took out a beast-attracting incense, inserted it into the incense burner and lit it.
The curling white smoke rose and spread in all directions.
Yuan Ming took out two black gloves, which were the magic tools he got from Sang Yan when he was in the Snake King Valley.
This boxing glove did not have the effect of blessing the attack, but only had a space inside that could be filled with poison gas, poisonous fog and other things.
Yuan Ming activated the runes in the gloves, and each of the two gloves emitted a suction force, sucking in the white smoke from the beast-attracting incense.
After sucking for half a quarter of an hour, Yuan Ming stopped and pinched out the beast-attracting incense.
At this time, the space inside the two black gloves was filled with white smoke, almost condensed into substance.
The beast-attracting white smoke was sucked away by the gloves, and Yuan Ming opened the barrier again, so no ferocious beasts were attracted.
He put away the incense burner, came to the Thousand Knot Water Rope Formation, and made a gesture.
A wrist-thick water rope rose from the formation and sank into the nearby sea water. After a few breaths, it rolled back a half-meter-long black sea snake.
This snake also had a demonic aura, but it was only a first-level lower-level ferocious beast.
Yuan Ming waved his hand to kill the sea snake, leaving a stream of magic power in it, and then used the soul crow to possess and control it, and took a black glove to sneak towards the vortex beast's nest and soon arrived nearby.
Most of the magic power in the sea snake's body had dissipated, and the soul crow controlled the remaining magic power and poured it into the black glove to stimulate the runes in it.
Large clouds of white fog began to roll out and merge into the nearby sea water.