Chapter 4546 — An Unexpected Boon

"Legend has it that once any force of nature grows powerful enough, it can birth a spirit of its own and become a unique living being. So you're not wrong to call them spirit beasts—only they are merely like spirit beasts, and have not yet transformed into true ones," the Ghost Thing explained. His deliberately calm tone carried the same barely concealed shock, along with an indefinable pang of wistfulness.

For all that he was the former Azure Dragon Elder of the spirit beast clan, this was his first time inside the Five Venoms Swamp—and especially this deep into it. Naturally, it was also his first time witnessing such formidable five-element killing qi.

"Astonishing!" Wei Zhao was struck dumb. He had not thought much of it before, but now, having seen these five-element killing qi that resembled flood dragons, he felt at once that this was truly no place one could visit casually—not even human cultivators and spirit beasts, no matter how powerful.

Any single wisp of the five-element killing qi here was at least a match for a spirit beast guardian, perhaps even stronger. Even a being of heaven-defying strength might withstand one or two wisps, but what of hundreds upon thousands? The materialized five-element killing qi here numbered far beyond thousands upon tens of thousands—what could one possibly use to fight them?

The only reason Wei Zhao went unmolested here was his innate five-element attribute, which fooled these flood dragons formed of five-element killing qi into taking him for one of their own. Only thus did he scrape through catastrophe.

Yet looking across the whole world, how many people were born with the five-element attribute? Apart from Wei Zhao himself, one could probably not find a second.

"No need to be so shocked, lad. At the rate you're growing, I believe it won't be many years before you reach their level. No—rather, any single wisp of your true qi could reach their level. Five elements, seven attributes—your aptitude was destined for boundless prospects from birth," the Ghost Thing said, a thread of irrepressible excitement in his voice.

With the perspective of a former Azure Dragon, there was basically nothing left in this world that could make him lose composure—yet Wei Zhao's talent was truly unprecedented. Especially his consistent, astonishing performance of growing stronger against stronger foes; even recalling it, the Ghost Thing could not help but gape and his heart surge.

Given time, he had no doubt Wei Zhao would grow to an unprecedented height. Turning clouds with one hand and rain with the other—by then, no being whatsoever would be able to bar Wei Zhao's path.

The King of Spirit Beasts had once been, in the Ghost Thing's mind, an unsurpassable summit. But after so long in Wei Zhao's company, that conviction had quietly crumbled. With Wei Zhao's heaven-defying talent and fortune, he believed that one day the lad would stand shoulder to shoulder with the invincible King of Spirit Beasts of this age—and perhaps rise even higher.

"What? Any single wisp of true qi could reach their level?" Wei Zhao had not thought as far as the Ghost Thing, but those words still shook him to the core. Merely picturing it set his blood racing beyond all restraint.

"They are five-element killing qi; yours is five-element true qi. In essence, they are the same. So long as you are strong enough, nothing is impossible," the Ghost Thing paused, then curled his lip with a laugh. "Of course, you're still far too weak now—all your true qi together wouldn't match a single hair of theirs. So don't go dreaming too big."

At that, Wei Zhao glanced at these "flood dragons," half illusory and half solid, and could not help but mutter inwardly in exasperation: do these things even have hair?

How long this went on, he could not say. He only knew they kept sinking downward—until suddenly the space around him opened up. It felt nothing like falling through a layer of swamp mud; rather, it was like dropping through midair, the speed of descent abruptly multiplying. Then came a muffled boom, and his feet struck solid ground!

Fortunately, Wei Zhao had kept his true qi wrapped around himself and the spirit bird the whole way; otherwise, taken off guard like that, he would surely have been injured.

"Good, it seems the ancient records concerning the Five Venoms Swamp are accurate. You can withdraw your true qi now, lad," the Ghost Thing said.

"That's it? We're safe?" Wei Zhao was rather taken aback. He raised his head and surveyed his surroundings. This was an utterly vast underground space, and some ten zhang overhead hung a mottled expanse of every color—beyond the omnipresent swamp mud, he could clearly make out those materialized five-element killing qi, ceaselessly circling and gliding above.

What puzzled Wei Zhao, however, was that both the swamp mud and the five-element killing qi seemed to be held back by an invisible barrier, isolated there in midair a full ten-odd zhang up. The sight involuntarily reminded him of the great aquariums of the mortal world—it had a rather unreal, dreamlike quality.

"We're fine. According to the ancient texts I looked into before, this should be the source space of the Five Venoms Swamp. Not only is it absolutely safe, it also holds an unexpected boon," the Ghost Thing explained, even as he tried to sweep the surroundings with his divine sense.

"An unexpected boon?" Wei Zhao was briefly startled, and before the Ghost Thing could prompt him, he understood on his own: the spiritual energy in this place was dense beyond anything he had ever seen!

In fact, on his last pass through the Five Venoms Swamp, Wei Zhao had already known the place was rich in spiritual energy, though he had not paid it much mind at the time. After all, the energy he had sensed then was merely far denser than elsewhere on Cloud Terrace Island—still considerably short of the jade pendant space he had always relied upon.

But this time was different. The spiritual energy density in this underground space was a hundred, a thousand times richer than above. Wei Zhao even found that the energy here could overshadow his own jade pendant space. That such a favored treasure land could exist under heaven was simply inconceivable!

Had he not experienced it himself, Wei Zhao would never have believed it: beneath the savage, ferocious Five Venoms Swamp lay a space like this—a holy land that every cultivator and spirit beast could only dream of.

The spirit bird beside him, feeling such dense spiritual energy for the first time, let out a shrill cry of delight and began wheeling and frolicking joyfully around Wei Zhao, not a trace of its earlier panting exhaustion remaining.

Seeing this, Wei Zhao meant to stop it. Wondrous as this place was, it was still an unknown realm whose true nature no one knew. Who could say whether something strange lurked within? After all, flood dragons formed of five-element killing qi already prowled overhead, and if this was, as the Ghost Thing said, the source space of the Five Venoms Swamp, some terrifying being might well stand guard here. (To be continued...)