The Flood Dragon and the strange tree.

The path that Liang Chen and Yan Ling used to get down to the bottom of the valley was a road carved into the side of the valley, only wide enough to hold one person at a time. This road was ancient, it had already been here when the sects first entered this Myriad Convergence, not even they knew just who had carved it.

When they reached the bottom of the valley, they gave their surroundings a quick sweep. They could head to the north or they could head to the south, they could also check out the various mountains and caves, there were countless places where they could go to look for treasures, they just had to decide on a general direction first. After surveying their surroundings for a bit, Liang Chen turned to Yan Ling and gave his proposal.

"I don't think the direction we take matters too much, so how about we just head in that direction and see what we find? Your scouting technique is better than mine, so I'll leave that to you. What do you think?"

Liang Chen pointed down the southern side of the valley as he spoke, away from the entrance that Huang Dong had used to enter this place. Yan Ling would of course not have any objections to this arrangement, so she nodded her head and pulled her sword out from her interspatial ring, taking the lead and heading towards the south, for a claw-shaped mountain that was about four kilometers tall.

Liang Chen also drew his spear, keeping it at the ready so that he could react to anything. He walked right next to Yan Ling, staying on her right side, allowing her to focus on her scouting and surveying of the area, her safety assured with Liang Chen by her side. Of course, her scouting technique wasn't perfect, so Liang Chen still used his own as well, scanning their surroundings for any electrical impulses or items that contained lightning or poison.

After the two had walked for a few minutes, Liang Chen's eyebrows ticked up slightly as he stopped in his tracks and took a quick step back. As he took a step back, he gave a slight spin of his body and threw his spear, causing it to turn into a golden blur that nearly vanished from sight. His spear stabbed into a two-meter tall boulder located a few steps away from Yan Ling's left shoulder, a shrill screech ringing out as a bat-like Demonic beast appeared on the surface of the boulder. It had been using a thin layer of stone to cover up its body, lying in ambush and waiting for anything to move past its area. Just as it had been preparing to launch its attack, Liang Chen's spear had come flying and pierced through it.

Liang Chen's aim had been a bit off, so the spear hadn't instantly killed the beast, piercing through the lower part of its abdomen and nailing it to the boulder. Liang Chen walked over to his spear and grabbed it, giving it a slight twist as he flooded the entire spear with emerald lightning. The lightning roasted the Demonic beast, silencing its shrill cries and allowing Liang Chen to pull back his spear and join up with Yan Ling again, the two continuing to head for the mountain.

The two encountered several more of the bat-like Demonic beasts as they continued to get closer to the mountain, but all of them were taken care of with a quick stab of Liang Chen's sword. None of these bats had even reached the middle stage of the Heaven's Gate realm, they were not even close to being a threat to the two of them. Like this, the two of them got closer and closer to the claw-shaped mountain without any troubles.

But when they were only a few kilometers away from the mountain, Yan Ling stopped in her tracks and turned her head to the side. She stretched out her left arm and pointed at a three-meter wide cave that was dug into the side of the wall, her eyes gleaming slightly.

"That cave over there, the density of the water element is quite a bit higher in that cave than it is out here, so there should be some water element treasure growing within it."

Liang Chen turned his gaze onto the cave, giving it a quick examination. It was three-meters wide and about two-meters high, and from what he could see, it was slightly slanted, going downwards at a slight angle. But the cave was too deep for him to see if anything was within it, so it seemed like they had to walk at least a short distance before reaching whatever treasure might be growing within it.

But since they had found what they were looking for, something that might allow them to increase their strength, there was no reason to hesitate too much. Liang Chen nodded his head and the two of them changed their course and entered the cave, Liang Chen walking in front. The cave wasn't so narrow that they couldn't walk side by side, but doing so would somewhat lower their combat effectiveness, so it was better to walk like this.

The air in the cave was slightly damp, the walls covered in fine drops of water that slowly ran down to the ground and then followed the slanted ground deeper into the cave. The cave got darker and darker as they followed it deeper downwards, so Liang Chen created several balls of golden lightning around him, sending them forward to serves as make-shift light sources.

After following the cave for nearly half an hour, the sound of running water faintly reached the ears of Liang Chen and Yan Ling, the air growing damper and damper. The sound of running water grew louder and louder as they continued to descend, the source of the sound finally revealing itself to them after they walked for another two hours.

The somewhat narrow cave they were in opened up into a wide cavern, shining crystals that resembled stars lodged into the walls and ceiling of the cavern. The cavern was at least a few kilometers in length and width, as large as some of the mountains that dotted the bottom of the valley. And running through the center of this cavern was a river that was at least a kilometer wide. There was a hole at each end of the cavern, one where the water came from and one that the water ran into, vanishing from sight.

The water was moving rather fast, white froth visible on the surface of the river. But strangely enough, there was a small maelstrom located at the center of the river, a small tree with gnarled bark growing up from the center of the maelstrom. There were tiny fruits growing from the many branches of the tree, each fruit resembling a drop of crystal-clear water.

Yan Ling didn't have to tell Liang Chen anything, even he could sense the extraordinary amount of water element that these fruits contained. He couldn't even begin to guess at just how valuable these fruits were, much less the entire tree. Liang Chen inspected the entire river for a short moment before turning to Yan Ling, pointing his spear at the river.

"I'm probably not as adept as you are when it comes to moving on or in water. You pluck the tree and I'll deal with the guardian."

Liang Chen could tell that there was something swimming around in the river, circling around the maelstrom. Even if he couldn't sense it, he wouldn't be so naive as to think that a treasured tree like this one wouldn't have a cultivator or a Demonic beast guarding it. Yan Ling nodded her head, her body tensing up as she prepared herself to dash forward once Liang Chen gave her the signal.

Liang Chen continued to point at the river with his spear, small bolts of emerald lightning starting to gather around his spear. He wanted the first attack to be devastating, so he took some time to charge up his attack, stacking multiple powerful lightning bolts on top of each other.

The air around his spear started to slowly distort as more and more bolts were stacked onto each other, a low droning sound resounding throughout the cave. In the end, the one who made the first move was the beast hiding beneath the river surface. It seemed like it didn't dare let Liang Chen continue to gather up power, as it caused the surface fo the lake to explode outwards, the drops of water turning into thin spears that shot at Liang Chen.

Since the beast moved, Liang Chen would of course retaliate. He stabbed out with his spear, the emerald lightning bolts shooting forward with a thunderous roar, their speed so fast that they created shockwaves that pushed away the water spears. His bolts of lightning were aimed directly at the river, aiming to electrify the entire thing and force out the Demonic beast.

If this was allowed to happen, the Demonic beast would not be able to avoid getting injured, so it knew that it had to react. It shot out from the river, jumping out of the water just as the bolts of lightning hit the river and caused it to sizzle and boil, the lightning moving throughout the entire river.

The beast landed on the shore, revealing its form to Liang Chen and Yan Ling. The Demonic beast looked like a large snake, almost 10-meters long, its scales were a brilliant blue, its eyes a cold amber. It looked like a snake, but it had a tiny sharp knob between its eyes and what seemed to be tiny limbs growing out from its body, two on the front end of its body and two on the back end. Looking at this knob and the tiny limbs, Liang Chen knew what sort of Demonic beast he was facing, a Flood Dragon.

A Flood Dragon was a snake that was trying to evolve into a true dragon, the closer it was to becoming a true dragon the stronger it would be. Looking at how small the knob and the limbs were, Liang Chen guessed that this Flood Dragon would still need a long time to evolve into a true dragon, at least a hundred thousand years. Becoming a dragon was not easy, it required the snake to not only be lucky and powerful but also very patient, as each step of the evolution would take thousands of years.

Liang Chen sent Yan Ling a quick glance and then dashed forward, gray scales growing on his body. Liang Chen's bloodline had awoken a bit more in these last six months, the scales now covering both his arms and his legs, his fingers becoming similar to claws.

This Flood Dragon was only at the middle stage of the Heaven's Gate realm, but it had already started its evolution into a true dragon, giving it a faint dragon bloodline and making it far stronger than it looked. Underestimating it was stupid and could lead to his death.

The Flood Dragon trembled slightly when it felt the bloodline that Liang Chen carried. This was the bloodline of a true Origin Beast, one of the greatest dragon-type Demonic beasts to ever exist. But it would not just lay down and allow Liang Chen to kill it, it would fight back with all it got.

It let out a hissing sound, a large portion of the river behind it rising up and gathering together into a large orb that floated above it. javelin after javelin of water started to shoot out from the orb, each of them aiming to impale Liang Chen.

Liang Chen glanced at the javelins, but then completely ignored them as he continued to dash directly at the Flood Dragon. The Flood Dragon didn't leave all the work up to its javelins, slithering forward with an open maw, water shooting up from the river behind it and covering the ground in a wide area, creating a battleground that was perfect for it.

Just as Liang Chen and the Flood Dragon charged at each other, Yan Ling also dashed forward, heading directly for the maelstrom and the small tree. The Flood Dragon saw this but had no choice but to ignore her for now, it would have to quickly kill Liang Chen before it could focus on Yan Ling.

To get to the snake, Liang Chen had to step into the water it had brought forth to cover the ground, something he did without much thought or hesitation. The moment he stepped into the water, the Flood Dragon caused the water to turn thick and viscous in an attempt to trap his feet and slow his movement. It also caused several thick spikes of water to grow up and pierce towards Liang Chen's abdomen, working in tandem with the javelins and itself.

Just as all three attacks were about to hit him, Liang Chen tapped the ground with the tip of his spear. As the soft sound of his speartip touching the ground rang out, everything around Liang Chen stopped moving. The javelins were frozen in mid-air, the Flood Dragon was frozen right in front of him, and the spikes of water were frozen just before they could touch his robes. For a short second, Liang Chen had completely frozen the time in a small area around him.

To freeze the time of an entire area like this, especially one that contained not just another living being but also several attacks containing quite a bit of Qi, was extremely draining, this short second draining nearly half of Liang Chen's Qi. But that was fine, because he only needed a short second to accomplish his goal.

He stomped the ground, emerald lightning thundering forth from his body and evaporating the water around him. He then used the force of the stomp to shoot forward, dashing past the open maw of the Flood Dragon and delivering a sideways smash against the side of its head, emerald lightning and brown poison sinking into its body.

His Emerald lightning was strengthened using his Fiendgod Essence, the body cultivation equal of Qi. Fiendgod Essence wasn't as versatile as Qi, nor as insidious as Anima Essence, but what it lacked in those fields it made up for with sheer strength. If one wanted to use Qi to replicate the power of Fiendgod Essence, one would have to use five times the amount of Qi to produce the same strength.

Because of this, when his Fiendgod Essence reinforced lightning struck the Flood Dragon, it was like getting hit with a massive boulder made from pure lightning, its scales shattering as blood poured forth and its skull caved in slightly. Liang Chen had also used poison in this attack, mixing his Anima Essence with the poison from the Fragile Heart Mushroom. It would not be enough to turn the Flood Dragon into a puppet, but it would be enough to daze it for another few seconds, which was plenty of time for Liang Chen and Yan Ling.

After putting all his strength into that attack, unleashing his full might within a short second, he continued his dash, the frozen time starting up again. The Flood Dragon was smashed aside, its mind in a daze from a mixture of the pain and the poison, forcing it to spend a few seconds shaking its head and using its Qi to force out the poison and regain its focus.

But by the time it fully regained its focus, it was already too late. It turned around and saw that Yan Ling had already plucked the tree it had been guarding for five hundred years, storing it into her interspatial ring alongside a large amount of water from the river. It wanted to charge at her, but just as it wished to do so, Liang Chen arrived at her side, Yan Ling hardening some air so that he had a place where he could stand.

The eyes of the Flood Dragon narrowed dangerously as it looked at the two, its blood starting to boil due to its rage. The hit from Liang Chen showed the Flood Dragon just how strong he was, but the Flood Dragon was no fool, it was confident that he couldn't unleash strength like that too often, it would be too draining on him.

The Flood Dragon raised its head high, unleashing an ear-piercing hiss that echoed throughout the cavern, the river all around Liang Chen and Yan Ling rising up. After rising up, the river bore down upon them in the form of several massive waves, seeking to crush or drown them. Liang Chen glanced at Yan Ling, who gave a nod of her head and then stretched out both her arms.

Wind gathered in front of both her palms, forming two orbs that started to rapidly spin in opposite directions. After a short second, the orbs of wind had gathered enough power, so she smashed them together, causing them to explode and unleash a heavy blast of wind that blew the waves apart.

But just as the waves were blown apart, a loud cracking and rumbling sound echoed throughout the cave. The two quickly turned towards the source of the sound and saw that the Flood Dragon had used the tidal wave attack as nothing but a distraction, its real plan was to collapse the entrance that they had used to enter the cavern.

It had shattered the walls of the cave, causing them to collapse and flood a large portion of the cave with thick stones, meaning that leaving through the cave they had come from was no longer an option. The Flood Dragon then turned to Liang Chen and Yan Ling, a vicious smile flashing past its eyes. It would trap them here with it, that way they would end up starving to death even if they managed to kill it.

But faced with this vicious smile, Yan Ling simply returned a bright and cheerful smile of her own. She then grabbed onto Liang Chen's hand and let out a laugh, pulling him into the water.

"Staying here is no good, so let's go for a little ride! I always did want to try a fun waterslide!"

The cave they had used to enter this cavern was no longer traversable, and starving to death here after killing the Flood Dragon was certainly not an option either. Since that was the case, they might as well just follow this river and see where it led them, sooner or later it would end up somewhere.

She pulled Liang Chen into the water, using her laws of wind and water to create a bubble of air around their heads so that they would be able to breathe even underwater. And then, then she let the current take them away, both of them following the river through the hole in the wall, taking this waterslide to an unknown location.