After acquiring the Rivers and Mountains Map, Ji Qingzhu was in high spirits. She performed a simple ritual refinement using her Dharma Power, and with Cangyuan's active cooperation, she was able to utilize some of its basic functions.
With a wave of her hand, she used the Rivers and Mountains Map to sweep away the abandoned crystalline spirit vein, along with the most crucial piece of water-attribute spirit crystal.
If that Vicious Flood Dragon were to turn around and run back now, it probably wouldn't even recognize its own home.
Returning the way she came, Ji Qingzhu moved several large boulders to block the subterranean whirlpool, and casually stashed the severed chunks of the tiger-headed carp into the Rivers and Mountains Map as well.
It was still a formidable great spirit beast after all, and with winter fast approaching, taking it back to simmer a pot of fish soup would make for an exceptionally delicious meal.
Upon ascending to the Divine Ability Realm, Ji Qingzhu's affinity for water had reached a whole new level. Swaying her slender waist, she gently stepped out on long, graceful legs. Her plain dress clung to her figure, and her dark hair fluttered as she danced through the water like a white mermaid.
"Splash—"
The bright moon hung high in the sky as the beauty emerged from the water, a scene both ethereal and dreamlike.
The moment she broke the surface, a vast amount of vapor evaporated from her damp clothes and hair, leaving them clean and pristine in mere moments.
Born by the riverbanks, she had been close to water since childhood, and her family's martial arts traditions were largely rooted in water-elemental principles. As the daughter of the family head and its most talented member, she had comprehended her family's hereditary divine ability technique—"Canglang Surge"—well in advance.
At the exact moment of her breakthrough to the Divine Ability Realm, Ji Qingzhu perceived the Great Dao of water from the profound void, and this lesser divine ability was naturally mastered.
"Tonight's moon is not the moon of the old world; when will the bright moon shine upon old friends?"
"Alas, the vast sea is hard to match as water, yet the bright moon is permitted to follow my form."
Ji Qingzhu stood quietly atop the water ripples, lifting her delicate chin slightly to gaze at the small missing chunk of the moon in the sky, a trace of nostalgia rising in her brows.
At that moment, she fully realized what kind of world she had actually come to. The moon looked the same, yet it was ultimately different; the mortal realm had changed.
"Sigh."
With a soft sigh, the surrounding river water whipped up unprompted waves. Surging tides and endless ripples made one feel as if they were standing in the middle of a boundless ocean, while that full round moon happened to rise to its zenith, silently filling in that tiny flaw like a high-hanging mirror illuminating the boundless night sky.
A bright moon rises from the sea!
This was a Divine Ability Phenomenon that could only manifest when a major divine ability had been cultivated to the realm of perfection. In the future, it would even be tied to the cultivation of a certain great realm. If the venerable elders of the cultivation world were to witness this, they would deeply gasp in shock, exclaiming that this youth was truly terrifying beyond compare.
At this moment, Ji Qingzhu's thoughts and consciousness continued to radiate outward along with the lunar tide. With the appearance of the Divine Ability Phenomenon, the embryonic form of a domain was initially born.
Suddenly, her slender brows knitted together as she sensed someone approaching this area!
"Brother Qianlin, are you saying there really is a great demon hidden beneath this Fallen Dragon Mouth Waterfall?" Within the dense forest, two athletic black-clad figures flashed continuously.
The tall, thin shadow walking in front gave a low cough and said in a hoarse voice, "No need to ask too much. This was personally tracked and pinpointed by Lord Lin through demonic Qi, and what is down here is not just some ordinary fierce beast, but a great demon bearing the bloodline of a flood dragon!"
"A flood dragon?!" The slightly shorter and sturdier figure behind him paused in his tracks, speaking with unconcealed shock.
"Hmph, you don't need to ask about the rest. Just tend to the Lord's business with peace of mind. Once it's done, the day of your great success and prosperity will naturally arrive," the black-clad man named Qianlin said indifferently.
Yun City was merely a remote and insignificant speck of a place. If it weren't for the star chart's surveying happening to fall right here, he probably never would have come to such a mundane little city in all his life.
"Yes, yes, yes," the short, stout man repeatedly agreed.
That Lord Lin was an almighty expert whose realm surpassed the Divine Ability Realm. If not for the wholehearted assistance of that lord, he could never have broken through to the Divine Ability Realm and stood on equal footing with the Ji and Jiang clans in Yun City.
Yet human greed was bottomless; once he attained divine abilities, he wanted even more!
Thus, when Lord Lin sought him out once again to pull off a heaven-shaking stunt in Yun City, he agreed without the slightest hesitation, even though failure would plunge him into eternal damnation.
Qianlin cast a cold glance at this head of the Wang family and let out a sneer in his heart. Truth be told, hunting the flood dragon tonight was his individual assignment, but since there was a free Divine Ability Realm thug available, why not make use of him?
After all, a flood dragon was nothing more than a little snake to Lord Lin, but for him, placing a curse to control it was no simple task. It was better to play it safe.
Both men harbored their own sinister intentions as their figures dragged two afterimages through the dense forest.
As they neared the riverbank, they suddenly heard the sound of rolling waves crashing like thunderous surf churning up boundless fury, startling Qianlin into a sudden halt.
"Weren't we told the waterfall is only a hundred feet high? Why is there such a sound of waves?"
"Could the flood dragon have come out to frolic in the water?"
"Maybe... No, wait, something is wrong here! Let's get out of here!"
Qianlin was no country bumpkin lacking experience in the ways of divine abilities. He quickly sensed that something was amiss. What flood dragon frolicing in the water? That was clearly an almighty expert cultivating water-arts!
"Since you two have come, you might as well stay. Why the rush to leave?" At that moment, a voice as ethereal as drifting smoke rang out.
"We were unaware Your Excellency was cultivating here, and we have intruded. Please forgive us, farewell!" Qianlin's mind was strained to the highest degree, constantly sensing his surroundings. He cast a sideways glance at the short, stout man, spun around, and prepared to leave.
"Hoh, sneaking around in the middle of the night—could it be you're up to some nefarious deeds?"
Following that, within the pair's field of vision, a woman in white quietly appeared beneath the moonlight. Her slender feet lightly brushed the tips of the branches, making her look like a celestial fairy descending from the Lunar Palace, or perhaps a Dragon Princess from the Qinglan River!
The night sky and gloomy forest both grew bright and sacred with her arrival.
Ji Qingzhu held her left hand before her chest and kept her right hand behind her back, looking down upon them from her superior vantage point in silence.
Both of them were experts in the Divine Ability Realm!
Moreover, that short, stout man seemed to recognize her; the horror in his eyes flashed by, but she caught it keenly.
"To think she is an immortal fairy—we two have offended you. Prepare to die!"
Qianlin was stunned for a split second, then unleashed the pitch-black spiritual sword on his back with lightning speed, transforming it into a streak of dark light that charged straight at Ji Qingzhu.
Ji Qingzhu raised her eyes slightly, unmoved. Beside her, a sharp golden sword tore through the air, intercepting the incoming attack of the enemy's sword and entangling with it.
Meanwhile, the short, stout man also unleashed a gray streak of light. It was a palm-length gray fiend awl—small and exquisite, highly proficient at sneak attacks and taking lives when least expected.
However, this was useless against Ji Qingzhu.
The gray fiend awl struck within three feet of her body and abruptly came to a dead halt. A thin, translucent film of water flickered in and out of view, incomparably tough yet carrying a strange vortex that thoroughly ground down and dissolved the sharpness of the gray fiend awl, shielding Ji Qingzhu from any harm whatsoever.
"Rumble..."
Ji Qingzhu raised a fair hand, and the Qinglan River instantly churned with waves. Towering breakers swept away the woods along the riverbank with irresistible force, crashing down overwhelmingly toward the two men in black!