Luo Shui Lake.
A figure darted through the water like a swimming dragon, the lake parting before him as if in retreat.
This figure was Jiang Ning.
At that moment, his cheeks repeatedly puffed in and out.
"Damn, this is tough!" After a while, Jiang Ning silently complained.
Then, another solid object resembling a blue gemstone appeared in his hand.
This was a rare treasure he had just found a special material formed only where water veins converged, known as Blue Crystal Stone.
According to records, this substance contained potent water-vein essence, though it was of little use to martial artists.
In ancient times, Blue Crystal Stone would have also been rich in spiritual energy and vital substances, making it highly valuable for those treading the path of immortal cultivation.
But in this era, those effects were either lost or extremely faint.
Jiang Ning wasn't too concerned about this, however.
For him, the more energy-rich the rare treasure, the more Source Energy points it could provide.
Naturally, he wasn't about to let those few pieces of Blue Crystal Stone slip away.
With that, he tossed the stone into his mouth.
Crunch
Crunch
Crunch
As his teeth ground up and down, a crisp cracking sound echoed in his mouth.
Suddenly.
His rapid movement came to an abrupt halt, shifting from motion to stillness in an instant. The surrounding water surged with undercurrents as he stopped.
His gaze turned toward the northwest.
Through his aquatic perception, he spotted a pit about three li away, filled with shimmering silver fluid. Within the silver liquid, faint golden threads flickered in and out of view.
"This is... the Emperor's Essence!" Jiang Ning's eyes lit up.
He immediately recalled the water pit where he had first found the Lunar Yin Stone, as well as that extraordinary white dragon fish.
"Venturing deeper into Luo Shui Lake was the right choice!"
A smile spread across Jiang Ning's face.
The next moment.
He adjusted his direction and swiftly headed northwest.
Meanwhile.
A pitch-black, lightning-scarred old turtle crawled into a small mound of piled boulders.
This mound was the nest the old turtle had built over the years.
Hidden within it was a secret only the turtle knew.
As the dominant force in this stretch of water, no aquatic creature that had surpassed its species' limits dared approach within several li of the turtle's nest.
It clambered through the cave beneath the boulders, its body shrinking as the passage narrowed.
Before long.
It arrived at the center of the mound, where a pool of silver fluid lay.
Gazing at the golden threads swirling within the silver liquid, a look of fascination flashed in its eyes.
Having lived for over two hundred years and transcended the limits of its species, the old turtle knew exactly what these golden threads were the legendary Emperor's Essence.
Whether it was creatures of the sky, water, or land, the Emperor's Essence was a supreme treasure to all beasts, capable of defying fate and allowing them to break free from their species' constraints, evolving from mere animals into true spirits.
As an ordinary freshwater turtle, the old turtle owed its current state its longevity and power entirely to the Emperor's Essence it had stumbled upon in its youth.
Back then, swallowing just a single golden thread had awakened its intelligence and reshaped its body, allowing it to become the dominant force in these waters.
Year after year of waiting had allowed the silver pool to accumulate more golden threads first a second, then a third, then a fourth...
At regular intervals, a new thread of Emperor's Essence would condense within the silver fluid.
Now.
Two golden threads still swirled in the pool before the old turtle.
This was its accumulation over the past twenty-odd years.
But today, severely injured, it had no choice but to consume one thread to heal itself.
Without hesitation, the old turtle extended its tongue and sucked one of the golden threads into its mouth.
As the golden essence entered its body, an expression of pure bliss appeared on the turtle's small head. Its charred, torn flesh began to heal at an astonishing rate.
Chunks of scorched skin sloughed off, revealing tender new tissue beneath.
At the same time.
Jiang Ning had arrived atop the mound of boulders.
Through his perception, he could see everything happening beneath it.
"Golden threads?"
"Exactly as the records describe the Emperor's Essence."
"It seems there must be another Lunar Yin Stone beneath this silver pool."
His perception then shifted to the old turtle within the mound.
Watching as the turtle swallowed the golden thread, he saw its injuries heal rapidly, its aura growing stronger by the second.
In just a few breaths, the lightning wounds on the turtle's body had completely vanished, and its presence became even more formidable.
"The Emperor's Essence is something else!"
"This old turtle is quite the generous fellow leaving such a treasure trove for me!"
Jiang Ning chuckled.
With a flash, he appeared at the entrance of the cave within the mound.
Then, he strode deeper inside.
Inside the cave.
The old turtle's eyes snapped open as it sensed movement from the direction of the entrance.
A moment later.
It heard the turbulent flow of water ahead, along with the sound of cracking stone.
Meanwhile.
As Jiang Ning advanced, the rocks before him continuously shattered, breaking into tiny fragments swept away by the currents behind him.
Therefore, the narrow cave expanded, allowing him to pass through.
In just a moment,
Jiang Ning had traversed the cave's passage and arrived at the spacious interior of the small hill.
There, he saw the old turtle lying beside the pool of Emperor's Liquid.
The turtle's beady green eyes stared straight at him, filled with vigilance.
In its over two hundred years of life, the old turtle had seen all kinds of humans coming and going on the lake's surface.
But never had it encountered anyone like Jiang Ning.
Here, he moved as effortlessly as if he were on land.
This place was the true depths of Luoshui Lake, a full thousand fathoms beneath the surface.
It was a true forbidden zone for humans, a true uninhabited territory.
Not only was it far from the surface, but the water pressure here was also immense.
Most aquatic creatures couldn't survive in such deep waters.
Only beings like it, which had broken the limits of their species and transcended into the demonic, could move freely here.
Thus, before now, it had never seen traces of human activity in these thousand-fathom-deep waters of the lakebed.
"Human, leave this place at once!"
Suddenly, the old turtle's expression grew solemn as it spoke.
As its voice echoed, the water rippled with vibrations.
"You can speak?" Jiang Ning's expression showed slight surprise.
"I've lived over two hundred years. Is it so strange that I can speak your tongue?" the old turtle replied unhurriedly.
It slowly moved forward, creeping along the ground until it was right in front of Jiang Ning. It stretched out its neck, pretending to sniff at him.
"Tiny mortal, you smell quite fragrant. How about letting me take a bite?"
"Sure!" Jiang Ning smiled.
"Eh," The old turtle's outstretched neck froze like a statue, its green eyes widening in shock as it stared at Jiang Ning.
The next moment,
it saw Jiang Ning raise a hand and instantly seize its throat, lifting it into the air.
"What are you doing?!" the old turtle shrieked in terror, its four limbs flailing wildly as panic set in.
"Didn't you want to take a bite and taste me?" Jiang Ning grinned.
"No, no, no!" the old turtle hastily denied. "I was just joking!!!"
"I don't want to taste you!"
"I don't want to eat you!!"
The turtle frantically thrashed its limbs, its head desperately retracting into its shell in an attempt to break free from Jiang Ning's grip.
But it soon realized that the five fingers clamped around its throat were unshakable. No matter how hard it struggled, it couldn't break free, filling its heart with dread.
From the sheer strength alone, it knew this mysterious human was far beyond its match.
At that moment,
while his right hand held the turtle's throat, Jiang Ning's left hand plunged straight into its mouth.
"Mmmpfh"
"What are you"
"Stop!!"
The old turtle violently shook its head.
Jiang Ning chuckled. "You wanted a bite, didn't you? Go ahead, taste me."
"I don't dare anymore... I won't eat you..." The turtle's voice was now laced with pleading.
But Jiang Ning paid no heed.
A talking turtle, already demonized, held great value in his eyes.
So his initial thought of killing it had shifted to taming it.
The simplest way to subdue the turtle, aside from brute force, was through the authority of his divine lineage.
Once it consumed his flesh and blood, he would have the means to control it.
Just as he had done with Xiao Emei days before.
Back then, with a mere thought, he could strip away the power he had infused into Xiao Emei's body, subjecting her to unbearable agony.
However, from that experiment, he also made a discovery.
Xiao Emei wasn't entirely incapable of breaking free from his control.
If she could endure the pain of having his power forcibly extracted, she could theoretically regain her freedom.
But Xiao Emei, faced with such an unfathomable method, had been unable to resist and had chosen to submit.
Now,
Jiang Ning employed the same tactic.
His left hand, deep in the turtle's throat, gripped firmly as he willed his inner energy to force droplets of blood from his veins, letting them drip into the turtle's gullet.
As his blood merged with the turtle's body, the creature's eyes widened in astonishment, staring at Jiang Ning in shock.
It could feel its physical form rapidly strengthening and could sense the divine essence and energy contained within each drop of blood.
The turtle ceased its struggles.
After a moment, Jiang Ning withdrew his left hand.
He had forced out ten drops of blood, all now absorbed into the turtle's body.
Then, he released his right hand, and the turtle slumped onto the soft sandy ground.
After glancing at the turtle, Jiang Ning turned his attention to the silvery pool ahead.
Amidst the liquid silver, he spotted the remaining wisp of Emperor's Liquid a golden thread swirling within, refusing to blend with the silver.
At this moment,
the old turtle watched as Jiang Ning stepped toward the Emperor's Liquid, its heart aching with loss.
It knew this pool of treasure was as good as gone.
This mysterious man had come for the Emperor's Liquid.
Suppressing the changes wracking its body, the turtle saw Jiang Ning approach the pool and slowly dip his hand into the silvery liquid.
After feeling around the bottom of the pool for a while, Jiang Ning retrieved what he had been searching for the Lunar Yin Stone.
Or rather, a fragment of the Lunar Yin Stone.
This was the third piece he had found in Luoshui Lake.
The fragments had been scattered across the lake.
Over the long years, he had now recovered three.
The black stone in his hand, slightly larger than the previous two, was the third fragment of the Lunar Yin Stone.
On the other side.
When the old turtle saw the black stone Jiang Ning pulled out from the water pit, its eyes widened, and a few guesses arose in its mind.
Over the years, ever since it discovered this pool of Lunar Essence, it had explored it a few times.
But it had never found anything unusual, nor did it dare to act recklessly.
Because it feared that any excessive actions might disrupt the structure of this place, causing the Lunar Essence to stop forming.
Since then, every ten or so years, it had harvested a strand of Lunar Essence resembling a golden thread from the silvery liquid.
Its ability to break free from the constraints of its species, shed its mortal form, and become a demon was largely due to the Lunar Essence.
"Master!" the old turtle suddenly spoke.
Hearing this, Jiang Ning gave the old turtle a surprised look.
"What did you call me?"
"Master!" the old turtle said, suppressing the intense changes occurring within its body.
Jiang Ning couldn't help but chuckle.
Such a pragmatic old turtle was a first for him.
Seeing Jiang Ning smile, the old turtle felt slightly less tense.
"Master, does the Lunar Essence come from this stone?" the old turtle asked.
"Yes," Jiang Ning nodded.
He pocketed the Lunar Yin Stone in his hand. The reason he didn't store it in his gourd was that the opening wasn't large enough. This Lunar Yin Stone fragment was the largest of the three he had found so far.
As the Lunar Yin Stone disappeared from Jiang Ning's hand, the old turtle reluctantly averted its gaze.
At that moment, Jiang Ning raised his hand and beckoned.
The golden thread-like strand of Lunar Essence swirling in the silvery liquid separated and flew into his palm.
The old turtle's eyes were once again drawn to the golden thread of Lunar Essence.
"If I'd known earlier, I wouldn't have been so frugal before!" The old turtle felt a pang of regret and silently cursed itself.
It forced itself to look away.
"How long does it take to produce one strand of Lunar Essence?" Jiang Ning suddenly asked.
"Master, it takes ten to fifteen years, with no fixed pattern," the old turtle replied.
Jiang Ning nodded in understanding.
From the old turtle's answer, he had obtained the information he wanted.
The silvery threads continuously released by the Lunar Yin Stone gathered into a liquid, and once they reached a certain concentration, they gradually transformed, condensing into the golden thread-like Lunar Essence.
This golden form was the true Lunar Essence.
Looking at the golden thread in his hand, Jiang Ning slightly parted his lips and inhaled.
The golden thread of Lunar Essence instantly flew into his mouth.
In that instant, he saw a bright moon.
Above a vast, boundless ocean, as night fell, an enormous moon slowly rose from the horizon.
When the moon reached the middle of the sky, it cast down countless moonbeams, showering his entire body.
Crackle, pop
Jiang Ning heard a series of popping sounds from within his body, like beans frying in a pan.
His bones and tendons resonated.
His flesh underwent a baptism of some mysterious force, and his innate constitution began to transform an evolution of his very life essence.
He even felt as though the cells in his body were rapidly dividing, dying, dividing, and dying again.
Normally, the metabolic cycle of human cells is about twenty-eight days.
But now, they were metabolizing at an insane rate.
He sensed a thin layer of grime forming on his skin.
This grime came from nowhere else but the metabolic waste of his cells.
In less than half the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the changes within his body came to an end.
He opened his eyes again.
The old turtle was watching him cautiously from the side.
At this moment, the old turtle sensed an innate pressure and dominance emanating from Jiang Ning, like that of a superior being.
On one hand, it felt heartache that the strand of Lunar Essence it had painstakingly accumulated over more than a decade had been absorbed by Jiang Ning.
On the other hand, it gritted its teeth in secret.
No!
Since my treasure has been taken, the Thunder Serpent shouldn't get off easy either.
The Thunder Serpent's treasure is the Thunderclap Fruit. For human martial artists, it can temper the organs and increase cultivation something the master will surely like.
This way, I'll have made a significant contribution.
As for submitting to Jiang Ning as its master, the old turtle harbored little resistance in its heart.
In their worldview, the law of the jungle was the natural order.
Not to mention, it had just experienced Jiang Ning's uniqueness.
Just a drop of his blood, once absorbed into its body, had significantly enhanced its demonic physique surpassing years of its efforts.
-support me on Patreon for more chapters, 410+ chapters in there
patreon.com/LordoftheReader