"We're here!"

Wei Ye stood at the bow of the ship, his voice filled with excitement, pointing ahead.

Upon hearing this, Shen Mo followed the direction he pointed, only to see a hazy island silhouette emerging through the sea mist, coming into view.

At first glance, there was nothing out of the ordinary; it was just a regular, unremarkable island. During their more than thirty days of sailing, they had seen eight hundred such islands, if not a thousand.

However, Wei Ye, E Xun, Shi Hongyi, Gongsun Yan, and the others had visited this island multiple times, so it was unlikely they had misidentified it.

As the ship approached the shore, Shen Mo didn't immediately go ashore with them. "Fellow Daoists, you may proceed first. I will join you in a moment."

Then, he transformed into a faint golden streak of light and flew back in the direction from which the large ship had come.

All the Demon Soul Generals within the Soul Refining Flag were still in the sea.

Ninety-four of them were the first batch of Class I Heavenly Demons he had refined, which had been continuously promoted. The Soul Generals Shen Mo had meticulously selected and Demon-corrupted within the flag had mostly advanced to the late-stage or peak of Class II. Among them, the Possession Ghost, Horse Groom Lv, was the first to break through to the middle-stage of Class III. Master Hong Jue, the Ghost Bride, the Gold Piercing Ghost, and about ten others with the deepest potential had also successfully advanced to Class III after devouring a large number of deep-sea Sea Beasts.

Another two hundred or so, which he later refined on the Tianshan Mountain battlefield, were still minor Heavenly Demon Soul Generals possessing Demon Dyed Divine Power. Most of them had advanced to the middle-stage of Class II. Shen Mo intended to find Soul Generals with exceptional Skills to Demon-corrupt next.

Not long ago, he had also refined the Serpent-Eel Heavenly Demon and the Fire Spitting Wolf King. After hunting and consuming blood food, the Snake Eel Demon Soul had recovered to the late-stage of Class III, and the Fire Spitting Wolf King had also reached the middle-stage of Class III.

Unfortunately, the Mana and soul strength within my Spirit Sea cannot support them to fight at their full potential. Otherwise, even against a late-stage Spirit Sea Realm cultivator from a major immortal sect… I would dare to fight!

Although Shen Mo could slay the late-stage Class III Serpent-Eel Heavenly Demon, he wasn't confident about battling a human cultivator of the same Realm, especially one from the Five Great Sects.

The strength of a cultivator is multifaceted: Cultivation Realm, vitality and soul, magic and martial arts, Skills and secret arts, magic artifacts and talismans, Elixirs and Formations…

Shen Mo had been cultivating for a relatively short time and still had many shortcomings.

The Serpent-Eel Heavenly Demon was even more limited; it merely possessed a high Cultivation Realm and a somewhat remarkable thunder-discharging Skill. This Class III late-stage demon head was like a wooden bucket: while two of its staves—representing its strengths—were long, the others were much shorter than Shen Mo's equivalents, representing significant weaknesses. That was why Shen Mo had been able to kill and refine it.

After recalling all the Demon Soul Generals, whose auras had surged dramatically from their feasting, Shen Mo flew back to the island.

By this time, Wei Ye and the others had already carried the large ship onto the island, placing it more than ten miles away from the beach to avoid any mishaps. The four of them had pooled a considerable amount of Spirit Stones to construct this large ship. If they lost this ship, the return journey would be incredibly challenging. Relying on the scarce nature's spiritual energy in the deep sea, it would take about an extra month of flying and resting intermittently to return to Sea State.

As for the disciples of the Gold Toad Tower, they had been settled on the ship to await their return.

With a sweep of his sense, Shen Mo instantly found Wei Ye and the others' tracks and followed them.

After passing through dense, canopy-like forests, Shen Mo landed beside a pile of rubble and ruined walls. The others were standing there, waiting for him.

"Fellow Daoist Shen, this is the ancient Formation we discovered."

As Wei Ye struck a specific spot on the ruined wall with a hand seal, transparent ripples suddenly undulated. In the center of the bricks and scattered tiles, as if a curtain had been drawn aside, a stone-paved magic altar with an ancient aura was revealed.

Evidently, to prevent this Formation from being discovered by others, they had placed a Prohibition on it for concealment.

After careful scrutiny, Shen Mo found that this magic altar was indeed seventy to eighty percent similar to the Teleportation Array in front of the Purple Heaven Palace. He then nodded at Wei Ye.

On the way here, Wei Ye had already explained his role. He only needed to wait for the ancient Formation to be activated, then strike the center of the magic altar with a supreme sword Qi.

Wei Ye glanced at E Xun and the others. Seeing they all signaled their readiness, he took out several middle-grade Spirit Stones from his Universe Bag and embedded them into the magic altar.

BUZZ!

Just as when a Teleportation Array operated, countless complex runes lit up. However, no ripples of spatial fluctuation emanated from it!

"Fellow Daoist Shen, it's your turn!" Wei Ye urged sharply.

"Alright!"

Without further delay, Shen Mo, wielding the Demon Slaying Sword, unleashed a Shangqing Sword Qi towards the empty center of the magic altar.

He possessed two Sword Path martial arts: the Shangqing Swordplay and the Universe Sword Guildbook. However, he had only cultivated the Universe Sword Guildbook to the Elite level. Only his Shangqing Swordplay had reached Extremely Perfection and manifested the phenomenon of Godlike Swordplay, thus meeting the requirements to activate this Formation!

As the sword Qi entered the magic altar, the complex runes, initially flickering dimly, suddenly blazed with brilliant light and began to rapidly transform and evolve.

In the next moment, powerful spatial fluctuations swept over everyone.

「...」

This wasn't the first time Shen Mo had used a Teleportation Array, but each experience felt incredibly magical. Traversing thousands of li in an instant was something only great experts who had cultivated related magic could possibly achieve.

When the phantasmagorical lights before him faded, Shen Mo found that their group of six was now in a strange space.

"This is... a Dungeon?"

Having entered the Mountain River Realm, the Death Jaw Dungeon, and the Jade Pool Dungeon before, Shen Mo was the first to react. Only then did Wei Ye, E Xun, and the others show expressions of realization.

This Dungeon wasn't large, only about half the size of the Jade Pool Dungeon.

The sky was a gloomy, dark expanse, as if covered in rust.

Before them stood three barren mountain peaks, seemingly forged from refined iron, their overall dark forms tinged with red. What was even more astonishing was that each mountain was impaled with countless broken treasured swords of various colors, so densely packed they resembled three giant hedgehogs.

And the Teleportation Altar they were on was situated in the valley between these three mountain peaks.

There wasn't a trace of nature's spiritual energy in this Dungeon, yet it was filled with an endless Sword Path aura. As soon as Shen Mo stepped out of the ancient Formation, he felt his 'Carefree' sword intent connect with the aura of this place, stirring restlessly like a fledgling goose returning home.

"I thought this ancient Formation would lead to another world, or at the very least, some cave paradise," E Xun said, quite disappointed. "But I never imagined the other side of the Formation would be so desolate! Apart from a pile of dilapidated Flying Swords, there isn't a single treasure!"

The expressions of Wei Ye, Shi Hongyi, and Gongsun Yan weren't much better. They had invested much to activate the ancient Formation and had held high hopes. The current scene inevitably left them quite disappointed.

"Have you noticed? This place is like a giant Sword Tomb. Since it's a place for burying swords, naturally, there must have been those who buried them." Feeling his sword intent stir, Shen Mo spoke calmly, "There must be another location within this Dungeon that connects to a Foreign Zone. Otherwise, so many Flying Swords wouldn't have appeared here naturally!"

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