Yuan Ming tucked away the Yu Hu, but instead of leaving the city immediately, he came to a secluded alley in the northern part of the city. Lifting his foot, he stepped in. Halfway through, his figure vanished as if merging into water.

Before his eyes, a bustling, expansive street appeared, with cultivators coming and going. On both sides of the street were shops selling all kinds of elixirs, talismans, and magical artifacts.

This was a workshop Yuan Ming had heard about while drinking with Immortal Xuanhua.

After a brief glance, Yuan Ming noted the workshop was not large and the items it sold were not superior to those found in Black Rock City Market.

He had matters to attend to and was not in the mood to wander around the workshop, so he found a bookshop and, with the shopkeeper's recommendation, bought a classic that introduced the sea beasts of the East Sea.

Although he felt confident about hunting the Vortex Beast, he knew that prior preparation was essential. He understood the principle of knowing the enemy and knowing oneself.

"Rest assured, customer, this classic was written by a master from Tieyun Temple after traveling around the East Sea for decades. It has been circulated for a long time, with detailed and accurate content. It certainly won't lead you astray," the bookseller confidently asserted.

"I hope so," Yuan Ming murmured. Without leaving the shop, he began to peruse the book and quickly found the section about the Vortex Beast.

The shopkeeper hadn't exaggerated. The book contained a detailed account of the Vortex Beast, listing its divine skills, what forces could subdue it, and its preferred prey, with a comprehensive description.

Very satisfied, Yuan Ming stowed the classic in his Storage Ring and left the bookshop.

Then, he added some water-use talismans from nearby shops and made his way to the workshop's entrance.

Just as he reached the entrance, he saw two people approaching. One of them was Bai Lin, and the other looked like a young boy in a short shirt, probably Bai Lin's attendant.

The two hurried past without noticing Yuan Ming, whom they did not recognize.

Yuan Ming, hearing the footsteps behind him fade away, did not bother to investigate further and continued on his way.

A quarter of an hour later, he left Ning City, summoned the Green Cloud Crane, and flew southwest.

Once he was far from Ning City, Yuan Ming switched to the Jade Shuttle Magical Artifact, turning into a streak of white light that shot forward, quickly traveling a hundred li.

All around him was an endless expanse of sea, with no islands in sight.

An ordinary cultivator experiencing this for the first time might feel lost and frustrated, not knowing how to proceed, but exploration was Yuan Ming's forte.

He released five soul crows to scout the vicinity and soon found a rather large coral island, spanning over a dozen li, covered in red corals that glimmered brilliantly under the sunlight, breathtakingly beautiful.

To the north of the island was a vast vortex, dozens of zhang in diameter. The roaring waters flowed, emitting deafening rumblings.

"This must be the place Immortal Xuanhua spoke of," Yuan Ming muttered to himself as he directed a soul crow to dive into the vortex, quickly descending to a depth of a hundred zhang.

The water pressure here was astonishing, challenging even a Foundation Establishment Cultivator with the finest water-shielding treasure. Luckily, the soul crow, being a spiritual body, could endure and kept diving deeper, another hundred zhang down without reaching the bottom.

As it reached this point, the soul crow began to show signs of its Soul Power dissipating.

Yuan Ming frowned, contemplating a solution.

Suddenly, the water nearby burst into noise as a strange fish, over one zhang in length with eyes as large as copper bells and covered in spikes, lunged at him. Its mouth, filled with sharp teeth, aimed for the soul crow at considerable speed.

With a heavy demon energy fluctuation, the bizarre fish was a First-level Upper Stage sea beast.

"Thousand-needle fish." Yuan Ming deftly maneuvered the soul crow to evade the fish's attack, quickly recognizing the creature and revealing a look of pleasant surprise.

According to the classic he had perused earlier, the Thousand-needle fish was one of the Vortex Beast's favorite preys, and it was normal for its preferred food to be here where it resided.

His initial plan had been merely to use the soul crow to probe the situation with the Vortex Beast, but with the appearance of the Thousand-needle fish, his plans needed adjustment.

While controlling the soul crow to dodge the fish's attack, Yuan Ming flicked his finger.

The Black Needle Magical Artifact shot out, and another soul crow possessed it, quickly reaching the first soul crow's location inside the vortex.

The Thousand-needle fish continued to chase behind when a black needle flashed before its eyes. The fish instinctively tried to dodge, only to feel a sharp pain in its forehead before its consciousness plunged into endless darkness.

Yuan Ming did not retrieve the Black Needle that had pierced the fish's head and, with a thought,

the pursued soul crow swooped over, entering the body of the Thousand-needle fish, whose dull eyes suddenly regained vitality.

Once inside the fish's body, the soul crow was no longer subject to the intense water pressure and seemed quite at ease—a case of killing two birds with one stone.

Yuan Ming looked rather relieved, controlling the dead Thousand-needle fish's body to dive toward the seabed, quickly descending another seventy or eighty zhang and finally reaching the bottom of the sea.

This was his first glimpse of the underwater environment, and he observed it with curiosity.

The seafloor was undulating with peaks and valleys, not so different from land if one discounted the omnipresent sea, with mountains, plains, deep valleys, and so on...

In a nearby valley, a massive chasm had opened, cleaving a seafloor mountain in two. The crevice was pitch-black and bottomless, emitting a strong suction that stirred the surrounding waters into a tumultuous flow, forming the great vortex on the surface.

After observing for a while, Yuan Ming controlled the Thousand-needle fish to approach the chasm and slowly entered.

Suddenly, a blue lightning bolt shot out from the crevice, striking the fish.

The thousand-needle fish's body was pierced through, with streaks of blue electric arcs coursing over it, robbing the fish of all its ability to move.

The soul crow hiding inside the thousand-needle fish was also affected by the blue electric arcs. Fortunately, these arcs were not actual thunder but divine skills similar to the Kui Water Divine Thunder, so although the soul crow was considerably dispersed, it hadn't completely dissipated.

A blood-red shadow shot out from a crevice in the ground, wrapped around the corpse of the strange fish, and dragged it down. It soon arrived in front of a black sea beast as large as a house.

This sea beast resembled an ape, with all four limbs and an extremely wide mouth, equipped with four eyes. Its body was covered in pitch-black tumors and scales, making it look exceedingly ugly.

Above the sea, Yuan Ming's eyes lit up with delight. This hideous sea beast was the target of his journey—the Vortex Beast.

The blood-red shadow was the Vortex Beast's tongue, which had wrapped around the spiky fish and dragged it into its gaping maw, swallowing it whole without care for the spines on its body.

"Done!" Yuan Ming's face lit up with joy, and he immediately took control of the Black Needle Magical Artifact hidden within the spiky fish's head, attacking the Vortex Beast from the inside.

However, after one attempt, his expression abrupt changed.

The connection between the Black Needle Magical Artifact, the two soul crows, and himself was suddenly cut off, as if isolated completely by something.

Yuan Ming quickly regained his composure, thinking to himself that this Vortex Beast was truly no ordinary creature, no wonder the people from White Dragon Island couldn't capture it.

Since the clever approach had failed, he had no choice but to engage in direct combat.

Yuan Ming took out a stack of Array Flags and Array Plates, the very set he had obtained from Li Sha.

In the days that followed his practice, he also devoted himself to studying the Xiao Ying Family's Array Formation Manual and had finally made some progress, understanding the origin of Li Sha's formation, as well as the basic principles of setting it up.

The name of this formation was the "Thousand Knot Water Rope Array," a confinement type of formation capable of condensing water ropes imbued with the effect of confinement, used for binding and sealing the enemy.

Yuan Ming surveyed the terrain of Coral Island, quickly arriving at the shallow sea area on the southern side of the island with relatively flat terrain favorable for setting up the array.

He buried the Array Flags into the ground and inserted Spirit Stones at the corresponding locations.

The Thousand Knot Water Rope Array was a Water attribute formation, best activated with Water attribute Spirit Stones. Unfortunately, Yuan Ming didn't have many of them, so he had to make do with other types of Spirit Stones to quickly set up the formation.

He held the Main Array Flag and activated it, bright blue light rising from the seabed and merging into the sea. The water near the formation quickly condensed, forming water ropes of various sizes.

This was Yuan Ming's first time setting up a Great Array, and he was full of interest, making hand gestures as if in preparation.

Several water ropes shot out from within the array, disappearing into the nearby sea.

A hundred yards away in the deep sea, an octopus sea beast was chasing after its prey when several blue shadows flashed by, its body bound by several of the water ropes.

The octopus sea beast was shocked and struggled fiercely. A power of confinement permeated from the water ropes, rendering its entire body powerless, and its eight tentacles drooped down limply.

The water ropes suddenly contracted, and the octopus sea beast's vision blurred as it appeared within a large array.

Yuan Ming sensed the octopus sea beast's condition through his Divine Sense, nodded in satisfaction, and stopped controlling the formation.

The water ropes disappeared from the octopus sea beast, and its strength returned. It hurried away toward the distance in panic.

Yuan Ming didn't mind the frantic octopus sea beast, instead he turned and went ashore, finding a concealed place to sit down.

He set up a Barrier around himself with the Four Directions Sealing Spirit Talismans, then took out a stick of Beast Attraction Incense and lit it in the incense burner.

Wisps of white smoke rose, spreading out in all directions.

Yuan Ming took out two black gloves, which were magical artifacts he had obtained from Sang Yan back in Snake King Valley.

These gloves didn't have any enchancements for attack but instead contained an inner space for storing poison gases and mists.

Yuan Ming activated the runes within the gloves, and each glove emitted a suction force, pulling in the white smoke billowing from the Beast Attraction Incense.

After absorbing for a good half moment, Yuan Ming stopped and extinguished the incense.

Both black gloves were now filled with white smoke, which had nearly solidified inside.

Since the white smoke from the Beast Attraction Incense had been absorbed by the gloves, and Yuan Ming had set up a Barrier, no fierce beasts were lured over.

He put away the incense burner and went into the Thousand Knot Water Rope Array, gesturing with his hands.

A water rope as thick as a wrist rose from within the array, disappearing into the nearby water, and after a few breaths, it brought back a half-yard long black sea snake.

This snake also had a hint of demon energy but was merely a Level 1 Lower Stage fierce beast.

Yuan Ming waved his hand to kill the sea snake, leaving a surge of Mana within it, then used the soul crow to take possession and control it, taking one of the black gloves and diving towards the lair of the Vortex Beast, arriving nearby shortly after.

The Mana within the sea snake's body had mostly dissipated, and the soul crow controlled the remaining Mana, pouring it into the black glove, stimulating the runes within.

Bouts of white mist began to roll and gush out, merging into the nearby seawater.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.