"Wah!?" Letting out a somewhat panicked scream as she felt the blue energy merging together with her qi, Zu Fei tried her best to stop it from doing anything, but by the time she managed to regain control over the situation, it was already too late for her to do anything about the strange blue energy. Not because it had perfectly merged together with her qi, but because removing it at this point would damage her foundation.
Although it wouldn't have been too much of a problem under normal circumstances, considering that she was in the process of forming a pseudo domain at the moment, any damage to her foundation might end up disrupting this process. Meaning that she might be forced to start all over in trying to form a new pseudo domain.
Unless it was absolutely necessary, Zu Fei wanted to avoid something like that happening. Resulting in her just observing her own qi for now instead of outright trying to do anything in her power to remove the blue energy that had merged together with it.
At least for now, the blue energy was completely harmless. The only real change it caused to her qi, was turning it blue. Not really anything that would warrant her damaging part of her foundation to remove.
"Hm? This is…"
However, as she felt the blue energy blending together with her qi, becoming part of her own power, she realized that her comprehension of the Dao of Water seemed to experience a qualitive change all of a sudden. Making it far easier for her to grasp the Dao of Water.
Rustle~
Not wasting the opportunity that had been given to her, Zu Fei sat back down and focused all of her attention on trying to comprehend the Dao of Water. No longer bothering to think about the blue energy that had now fully merged together with her qi.
Whoosh~!
Only a few minutes later, the increased sensitivity towards the Dao of Water disappeared. Only leaving a small and almost negligible permanent increase in sensitivity towards the Dao of Water behind. However, Zu Fei didn't care about this at all-
"I… I successfully created a pseudo domain!?"
Instead, she was far more excited over the gentle yet powerful pseudo domain of water that had formed around her.
Although the increased sensitivity had only lasted for a little over ten minutes, it had still allowed her to grasp a small part of the Dao of Water and use this comprehension to successfully form a pseudo domain of her own. Taking the final step needed before reaching the Domain Lord Realm.
Now, the only thing she needed to do, was grow her pseudo domain enough to transform it into a real domain that she could merge together with her nascent soul to break through to the Domain Lord Realm!
"Wait… If I find more of those slime things with the blue energy that increases my comprehension, won't I be able to grow my pseudo domain at a far quicker speed and reach the Domain Lord Realm faster!?" Muttering this to herself as she suddenly remembered the slime like creature that contained the blue energy, Zu Fei realized that if she found more of the slime creatures, she would be able to grow her pseudo domain far faster than if she just cultivated normally.
This… Is a great opportunity!
Not wanting to let go of such a great opportunity, Zu Fei only thought about the matter for a few seconds before she got up and began searching through the underwater cave for any more of the slime creatures.
…
"The wind finally stopped! Let's go in and find Zu Fei before anything bad happens to her! Elder Song, you stay here and keep an eye on whether or not she comes out while we are inside. If she does come out, try to contact us through the communication talismans. Although… Given that Zu Fei hasn't contacted us, I doubt they work inside…"
At the same time Zu Fei was excitedly searching for more slime creatures inside the underwater cave that she had found herself inside of, Feng Chen was giving out instructions to Elder Song before he and Shu Yao worked together to approach the spiral staircase after the violent wind had subsided.
"Hm? The chaotic qi is gone?" Instantly feeling the change, the moment he stepped on to the first step of the spiral staircase, Feng Chen was surprised to discover that there was no chaotic qi past the point where the spiral staircase started.
Considering that Zu Fei was still only at the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm, this could be considered a good thing, as it was doubtful whether or not she would have been able to survive inside the chaotic qi for more than few seconds…
"Let's get going, we don't know when this structure will submerge below the surface again. Finding Zu Fei as fast as possible should be our priority!" Seeing Feng Chen freeze on the spiral staircase, Shu Yao stepped in and reminded him that they had to get going.
"Yeah…" Feeling a bit embarrassed that he had frozen, Feng Chen didn't say anything else as they both began descending down the spiral staircase. Soon disappearing out of sight from Elder Song who was nervously watching them from afar.
"I hope all three of them return soon or I will have to try and find Xuan Hao for help. The only problem is, I have no idea where Xuan Hao disappeared to. All I know is that he chased after an intruder who broke into the sect…" Letting out a small sigh as he said this to himself while staring nervously towards the spiral staircase just above the surface of the water, Elder Song took out his communication talisman as he silently waited at the boundary where the top of the Fifth Star Peak and the chaotic qi formation met each other.
Given that he was still only in the earlier stages of the Nascent Soul Realm, there was no way for him to help out, outside of waiting around to see if anyone appeared and if there were any changes to the spiral staircase.
For the first time in a long time, Elder Song felt that he was too weak and needed to increase his strength so the gap between himself and the rest of the sect's important elders didn't end up becoming too big.
After all, even if he did have the respect of everyone in the sect, he also understood that it wasn't a good image for the vice sect master to only have reached the earlier stages of the Nascent Soul Realm while there were several people in the Domain Lord Realm present in the sect.
"Haaa… Looks like I will have to take some time off in the future and spent some more time on cultivating…" Muttering this to himself as he thought about this matter, Elder Song ultimately ended up deciding that it would be best for the sect as a whole if he took a few days off from time to time to focus on cultivating.
Although this would undoubtedly end up having a negative effect in the short term, it should pan out well in the long term. Especially considering that he could use these off days to test the new line of elders specialized in the management of the sect.
In a sense, taking a few days off could be considered far more beneficial to the sect compared to him always being around. After all, with him around all the time, there was no way for these new management elders to test their skills and show off what they had learnt.
Rumble-!
As Elder Song was lost in his own thoughts, coming up with new plans on how to properly keep the sect running without him around every single day, a loud rumbling sound suddenly echoed out from the lake in front of him-
"Huh? Ah! The staircase is sinking!"
And upon turning to look at the lake where the sound had come from, it did not take him long to discover that the rumbling sound had come from the spiral staircase slowly starting to sink below the surface.
Even if the speed that it sank down was unimaginably slow, it was only a few centimeters off the surface of the lake and would at most stay above the water for another minute or two.
Rustle~
Knowing that there was no time to waste, Elder Song fumbled nervously with the communication talisman before trying to contact Feng Chen and Shu Yao through to inform them about the sinking spiral staircase.
"Elder Song? What is wrong?"
"Feng Chen! The spiral staircase has started to sink into the water, you have at most two minutes before it sinks below the surface!"
Miraculously, the communication talisman managed to get through and Elder Song didn't waste a single second before informing them about what was happening above them.
Crack~!
However, before Feng Chen had a chance to respond to the sudden terrifying news, the connection between them was disrupted.
"…"
Resulting in Elder Song only being able to helplessly look at the slowly sinking spiral staircase while praying that Feng Chen and Shu Yao would be able to get out with Zu Fei before it was too late.
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