Immortality and Cultivation: This old man seeks enlightenment through mere survival.

Jiuyou's eyes narrowed, and after a moment's thought, he chose not to fight back.

"Although this puppet is made of incredibly hard material, it has been worn down over countless years, making the joints relatively fragile, and there is a slight stickiness when it moves..."

This is the opportunity!

Jiuyou's figure flashed like a ghost, dodging the stone sword's attacks one by one!

His fists, fueled by the power of his blood and qi, rained down on the relatively vulnerable joints of the puppet's limbs and head!

Bang bang bang!

The piercing sounds of impact continued incessantly.

At this moment, the protective barrier on the side also continuously emitted obscure spiritual light, attempting to imprison and interfere!

Nine Netherworld's eyes flashed with a sharp light, and he roared.

"open!"

His body exploded with energy, and his powerful and unparalleled aura shattered the ceiling of the treasure vault!

Invisible ripples and cracks, like spider webs, extend along the stone slabs and walls!

The two puppets were also knocked back by the powerful aura.

"Crush it for me!"

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Jiuyou unleashed the [Flying Crane Strike], an extremely fast joint grappling technique that dismantled a puppet into scattered parts, which fell to the ground.

Click!

The remaining one was left to fend for itself, and Jiuyou quickly found an opportunity to punch through the energy core embedded with the spirit stone in its chest, rendering it completely useless.

"That nuisance is finally gone."

Jiuyou shook his numb fist.

He stared at the two ruined late-stage Foundation Establishment puppets on the ground, his eyes filled with astonishment:

"The ancient sects have truly terrifying foundations."

If such a puppet were intact, it would be a prized possession of a Foundation Establishment family, ensuring their prosperity for a hundred years!

Next, Jiuyou turned his gaze to the flickering protective barrier.

Without the puppets to block him, the broken barrier was no match for him.

Jiuyou took a deep breath, gathered all his strength, and stomped down hard on a node of the ground formation!

Boom!

The ground trembled violently, and moments later, the lines of light broke apart inch by inch and faded completely.

The warehouse finally returned to calm.

Without further delay, Jiuyou waved his hand and put all 100,000 spirit stones piled up like a mountain into his storage bag!

Next, there are those rare ores, spiritual materials, and so on.

"Azure Edge Stone, added during the forging of magical artifacts, can enhance their sharpness; Frost Jade Bamboo, a second-tier superior spiritual plant containing ice attributes; Heavenly Spirit Sand, can imbue magical artifacts with spirituality..."

Jiuyou's eyes shone brightly. These were all rare treasures that were hard to find in the outside world, and now they were all his!

"Hahaha, collect! Collect! Collect! Collect them all!"

Even the remains of those two puppets were not spared by Jiuyou.

The fact that the puppet's material could withstand my full-force attack shows that it's extraordinary. And then there's its exquisite swordsmanship and coordination—if I take it back to the original owner for research, I might be able to get a glimpse into the puppet-making techniques of ancient sects.

In the blink of an eye.

The once crowded warehouse instantly became empty.

"Alright, next place!"

Jiuyou clapped his hands, looked around to make sure no treasures were missed, and then vanished from the storeroom like a wisp of smoke...

at the same time.

In other corners of this ancient sect ruin located in the Black Miasma Forest, more and more cultivators are venturing in, stirring up a bloody storm.

For the sake of a spiritual fruit that could enhance one's cultivation, some people suddenly turned against their former fellow disciples, even turning against each other with weapons.

Someone ambushed and killed a rare monster, and was extracting its rare materials.

Some people, like Jiuyou, found the treasure vault, but due to carelessness, they were blasted to their deaths by the ancient restrictions.

In a desperate attempt to survive, someone pushed their long-time partner to the back, just to hold off the pursuers for a moment...

The so-called Zemeng rules, which prohibit mutual slaughter, are as flimsy as paper when faced with real interests.

There's a phrase called "tacit understanding".

Those who benefit from this joint development of the Black Miasma Forest will naturally speak well of Zemeng.

Most of the losers have already died in the process and have nothing to say about it.

Even if a few people see through the true nature of it, they still flock to it—either believing in their own abilities or gambling that they won't be the unlucky ones.

Jiuyou was naturally the former, and because he entered early, he hadn't encountered any other cultivators along the way.

Two hours later.

Jiuyou stumbled into a long-abandoned medicinal garden.

As far as the eye could see, there were only broken walls and ruins, collapsed stone frames and shattered earthenware pots...

Most of the soil was submerged by water, and the drowned vines coiled around it like twisted snakes, while the waist-high aquatic weeds reached above the knees.

"Where is the elixir?"

Jiuyou moved slightly, flashing around the herb garden, while his divine sense swept across it like a net.

However, apart from a few faint traces of medicinal properties that were almost negligible, nothing was found.

The spiritual essence of the soil here has dissipated, and the medicinal herbs have long since become part of the earth over the ages.

Beside him, a low-level water snake demon disguised as a withered vine suddenly sprang up, attempting to bare its fangs at Jiu You, this uninvited guest!

"act recklessly!"

Jiuyou frowned slightly and raised his hand to crush it to death.

The smell of blood seeped into the water, immediately attracting more monsters, including a second-tier low-grade water serpent king!

However, it seemed to sense that the human in front of it was not someone to be trifled with, so it merely wandered among the broken walls and ruins, arching its body and spitting its tongue at Jiuyou, but dared not approach.

"Get lost!" Jiuyou coldly shouted.

The blood essence of a second-tier low-grade demon beast was no longer helpful for his body tempering. He was currently focused on the treasure hunt and didn't have time to deal with it.

"It seems like a wasted trip. Without spiritual veins and spiritual soil to nurture them, even the best spiritual plants cannot withstand the erosion of time."

Jiuyou was slightly disappointed and was about to turn and leave.

Just then, in the space around his kidney, Xiao Yi, who had been sitting quietly, suddenly twisted her cold body.

“Eee-ooh…ee-ooh-ee…”

It was Xiao Yi's voice, clear and urgent, like ice spring water dripping onto a jade plate.

Jiuyou paused in his steps.

(Xiao Yi said...underwater? There's something good there?)

Xiao Yi is a spiritual being born from the essence of ice and water, and is most sensitive to water vapor and the fluctuations of spiritual energy contained in water.

It is telling Jiuyou that most of the ruins of this ancient sect have long since collapsed and sunk into the water, and the true spiritual essence is actually hidden deep at the bottom of the water!

"So that's how it is! It was hidden beneath the water veins. I almost missed it!"

A glint flashed in Jiuyou's eyes. Without any hesitation, he leaped into the deep water beside the herb garden without a sound.

Upon entering the water, the light dimmed rapidly, and pressure surged from all directions.

He kept diving down, ten zhang, fifty zhang, one hundred zhang... until he went hundreds of zhang deep!

The chaotic water veins here surge and churn, with immense and viscous water pressure, enough to crush the protective spiritual light of ordinary Qi Refining cultivators!

Even divine sense was compressed by the layers of water curtain, making it difficult to extend and probe.

"No wonder no one noticed... such depth, such water pressure, and interference with divine sense... only someone as naturally aquatic as Xiao Yi could sense the anomaly."

Jiuyou understood. He slightly circulated his qi and blood to resist the terrifying water pressure and continued to descend.

Finally, after diving several hundred feet, my feet touched the bottom mud.

By the faint light of the water's surface, he looked up and, even with Jiuyou's composure, his breath caught in his throat.

"This! This is!"