“After successfully accepting the mission, the two of us went to the Cloud Pavilion on Governing Peak and recorded the auras of you five from the Disciple Jade Register.
“Once recorded, we could monitor your life status and the activation of your disciple jade token shields through the jade tokens in our hands.
“If your life aura grew dim or your shields were activated, it meant you were in a moment of life and death.”
After Shen Banxi finished, Shu Ziming winked at them. “Since your life auras remained stable, we intentionally waited until half the time had passed before intervening to give you the opportunity to train. It's not every day someone gets the chance to explore the inside of a rank three middle stage Red-Spotted Sea Iguana.”
Gu Ningyun came to a sudden realization and felt a bit amused.
This day trip inside the Red-Spotted Sea Iguana was indeed thrilling and intense.
If she hadn't been pushed to the limit, she truly wouldn't have thought of the idea of traveling through blood vessels to reach the liver for blood.
“Due to various technical limitations that haven't been overcome yet, the protective shield in the disciple jade token can only be used once. After you return to the sect, remember to make a trip to Spirit-Attuning Peak to recharge the shield. Once recharged, it can be used again.”
Shen Banxi coughed lightly, his tone sounding exceptionally natural. “Spirit-Attuning Peak very much welcomes little ones like you.”
The five of them nodded in agreement. “We understand. Thank you for the reminder, Perfected Person.”
The seawater was clear, with no scent of blood spreading through it.
Gu Ningyun extended her divine sense and discovered that the rank three Red-Spotted Sea Iguana had been tied up like a bundle by a golden rope. Unable to move, it could only let out raspy hisses.
The three-meter hole in its stomach was plugged by a mass of gold spirit energy, preventing even a drop of blood from leaking out.
Shen Banxi raised his hand to form a seal.
Before Gu Ningyun could clearly see what kind of seal he was making, a familiar tornado appeared, traveling rapidly through the seawater.
After boring two holes into the head and chest-abdomen area, it easily extracted a dark green demon core and a still-beating heart.
Deprived of its demon core and heart, the Red-Spotted Sea Iguana breathed its last.
After placing both in jade boxes, the tornado bored into the iguana's lower abdomen once more, dragging out a large worm with a diameter of one meter.
“A rank three middle stage Spiny-Jawed Nematode!” Wen Xuan couldn't help but cry out in surprise.
This was a type of sea beast parasite that often lived in the stomachs and intestines of sea beasts.
The surface of a Spiny-Jawed Nematode secretes a mucus that can paralyze the host, preventing the sea beast from noticing the worm's presence or feeling the pain of being eaten.
Once the Spiny-Jawed Nematode grows to a cultivation level equal to its host, it eats through the host's stomach and intestines to enter the flesh and reproduce.
When the eggs hatch, the host sea beast is eaten alive by countless larvae.
If a human cultivator encountered one, although they wouldn't be parasitized, they would be bitten to death as food.
Aside from the disgust human cultivators felt for them, even sea beasts hated these parasites with a passion.
As soon as the Spiny-Jawed Nematode was pulled out, it was ground to dust by the whirlwind.
Shu Ziming added a Cleaning Technique, leaving not even a scrap of the worm in the seawater.
Although this worm had a rank three cultivation, it possessed no demon core, and its physical body was useless. Any leftover scraps of meat might still contain residual eggs.
Whenever cultivators encountered them, they would immediately resort to the standard operation of crushing followed by annihilation.
Shen Banxi inspected the area to ensure no eggs remained inside the Red-Spotted Sea Iguana before waving his hand to dissipate the spell.
Gu Ningyun watched with her mouth agape as the tornado bored through the rank three Red-Spotted Sea Iguana as if it were tofu.
She was even more impressed by how he used the clear breeze from the tornado to effortlessly calm the churned seawater.
It turned out wind spirit energy had such powerful and useful spells.
Catching Gu Ningyun's reaction out of the corner of his eye, Shen Banxi couldn't help but curl his lips. Just like that, little junior sister, come join our peak.
The rank three middle stage Red-Spotted Sea Iguana could not block the divine sense of a middle Golden Core stage cultivator.
Shen Banxi was fully aware of everything the five of them had done inside the Red-Spotted Sea Iguana and had shared the details with Shu Ziming.
“You didn't overreach by trying to challenge the four rows of teeth, nor did you recklessly risk running into the Spiny-Jawed Nematode. Instead, you adapted to the circumstances, finding an unconventional path through the blood vessels to the liver.”
Recalling the moment he saw Gu Ningyun come up with that idea, Shen Banxi could still feel the surprise and delight in his heart.
“I wouldn't have thought of that myself,” Shen Banxi remarked with deep feeling.
He handed the jade box containing the demon core to Gu Ningyun and the one containing the heart to Wen Xuan. “You did very well.”
Shu Ziming beckoned with his hand, and the massive body of the Red-Spotted Sea Iguana floated over.
He raised his hand to retrieve the golden rope. “You five can divide this among yourselves.”
To the Golden Core cultivators of Xiaoyao, a rank three sea beast was nothing.
A gift from an elder should not be refused.
Gu Ningyun and Wen Xuan didn't stand on ceremony, accepting the jade boxes with both hands and stowing them in their storage spaces.
Jiang Yao took charge of storing the Red-Spotted Sea Iguana's body for the time being.
A gentle breeze wrapped around everyone, carrying them back to the surface, where the golden sunlight felt warm against their skin.
The sky was as blue as a painting, dotted with clusters of clouds that looked like soft cotton candy.
Shu Ziming suddenly remarked loudly, “The morning sun is so beautiful. If only there were some grilled meat to accompany it, how happy would I be?”
Gu Ningyun was startled. She exchanged a glance with Wen Xuan, and both burst into smiles.
Wen Xuan pulled four food boxes from her storage bag, stuffing two into the hands of Shu Ziming and Shen Banxi each.
They had grilled many sea spider legs earlier; some were eaten on the spot, while others were packed into food boxes for future convenience.
These four boxes Wen Xuan brought out were all they had packed, clean and untouched.
The Xiaoyao Patriarch once said that neither fine food nor spirit stones should be wasted.
Knowing they could grill more whenever they wanted, Shu Ziming and Shen Banxi didn't hesitate and accepted the gift.
After a moment's thought, Gu Ningyun gave each of them two jars of Spirit-Heart Peach Blossom Wine.
They had been on the Tianxia Tower's flying boat when they drank it, and since the cabin was isolated by arrays, the two Golden Core cultivators hadn't seen it.
Seeing Gu Ningyun hand over two palm-sized green jade jars, Shu Ziming immediately opened one and took a sip.
His eyes lit up, and he took another sip.
“Though it has no scent of alcohol, it is exceptionally delicious. Good wine, good wine.”
A Golden Core Perfected Person truly had extraordinary insight, recognizing it as wine even without the scent of alcohol.
“The wine is called Green Ant. I'm glad you like it, Perfected Person.”
“Green ant newly brewed wine, a small stove of red clay. As evening nears and snow begins to fall, would you care for a cup?”
Shu Ziming gripped the jar and clinked it against the one in Shen Banxi's hand. “Good wine, and a good name.”
Shen Banxi's expression softened. He removed the seal, raised the jar, and tilted his head back to drink.
...
The two Golden Core Perfected Persons returned to the shadows once more.
This part of the sea was a certain distance from the blue sea coral area.
Gu Ningyun released her spirit boat, letting it hover over the surface.
The five sat cross-legged on the boat, changing out of their tattered outer robes.
Having caught nearly three thousand Blue Lake Scallops this time, Gu Ningyun planned to use half for the group to eat during the first half of the year and keep the other half to raise for the second half.
Jiang Yao calculated the spirit stones needed to maintain the scallops in the portable herb garden and was the first to hand over a storage bag.
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