1033 Strange Cave, Strange Creature, Strange... Everything...

"ZU FEI!"

Seeing Zu Fei being knocked flying by the violent wind before tumbling down the spiral staircase and disappearing from sight, Feng Chen and the others started panicking as they rushed over to see if anything had happened to her-

WHOOOSH-!

However, before they had a chance to get anywhere near the spiral staircase that had popped up from the lake on top of the Fifth Star Peak, the violent wind forced them back. Even with Shu Yao and Feng Chen having reached the Domain Lord Realm, there was no way for them to approach the spiral staircase.

This was not only because of the violent wind forcing them back but was also due to the fact that the top of the Fifth Star Peak was essentially outside the chaotic qi formation that covered the Shattered Star Peak. Meaning that approaching the spiral staircase would mean they had to first pass through the chaotic qi on top of the Fifth Star Peak.

Normally, this would have been fine, but faced with the violent wind at the same time, it became impossible for them to take more than a few steps before being forced to retreat. 

In the end, they were forced to wait in front of the lake on top of the Fifth Star Peak until the violent wind calmed down and gave them an opportunity to reach the spiral staircase that Zu Fei had been forced down just a few seconds earlier.

…

At the same time that Feng Chen and Shu Yao were nervously waiting in front of the Fifth Star Peak for the violent wind to calm down and give them a chance to enter the spiral staircase, Zu Fei pushed herself up from the ground before starting to examine her surroundings.

"Hm?"

Having expected to see the spiral staircase that she had been rolling down for what had felt like hours to her, Zu Fei could not help showing a confused expression on her face after seeing no signs of the spiral staircase that she had just rolled down. Instead, upon closer inspection, she realized that she was inside some kind of cave.

The cave itself didn't look much different from some of the caves she had seen before while out adventuring. Outside of one simple detail, water. The cave was covered in small puddles of water that had been formed from water dripping down from the ceiling above and water running down from the sides of the walls.

If she was wondering whether or not she was still inside the underwater structure that the spiral staircase should have led down towards, she was now certain that she was indeed somewhere underwater. Although, it could not be considered something that had been built and should be more of a natural cave that the spiral staircase had somehow been attached to.

"Huh?" Continuing to look around the underwater cave that she now found herself inside of with her divine sense, Zu Fei could not stop a small gasp from escaping her lips as she noticed something deeper inside the underwater cave.

Swish~!

However, before she had a chance to investigate the thing in more detail, a creature appeared inside the range of her divine sense. Not only that, but it was also rushing directly towards her!

"Hmph!" 

Even if there was a chance that the creature was not planning to attack her, Zu Fei didn't dare take a chance on this considering that she was currently in an unknown location without any knowledge on how to leave.

Bang!

Because of this, the creature had no time to react before colliding with her palm attack-

Boom!

Resulting in the creature exploding into a gooey mess that flew everywhere, covering the walls and ground in some kind of weird slimy liquid.

"This… What kind of creature is that…?" Not having expected the creature to just explode, Zu Fei could not help showing a confused expression on her face as she examined the weird liquid on the ground only a few meters away from where she was standing. 

Wait… Is it still alive!?

Other than realizing that the creature should only have been somewhere around the Peak of the Core Formation Realm and the First Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, she also discovered that the strange slimy liquid was still moving and had started to gather together. Not only that, but it seemed like its strength had also started increasing as it was gathering together again.

Although the gathering speed was incredibly slow and would at least take a few days, it should be able to reform its body again- No… It would not only be able to reform its body but would also be stronger than it had been before!

Realizing this, Zu Fei could not help feeling shocked. If given enough time and if it could continue growing stronger in this way, the strange creature might be able to reach the pinnacle of the world in the future! 

Boom-!

This idea only became more ingrained after she tried to destroy the weird slime unsuccessfully again.

"Hm? What is that…?"

However, just as Zu Fei was filled with admiration and fear towards the strange creature that she had failed to kill twice now, she discovered a strange crystal on the ground not too far away. 

The crystal shone gently in the dark cave, but the thing that caught Zu Fei's attention was not this, but instead the fact that the weird slime of the strange creature seemed to be gathering towards the crystal. Even starting to form a thin layer around the crystal. Making it harder to see due to the slime of the creature being a deep blue color that also made it hard for already weak glow of the crystal to pass through it.

Whoosh~

Feeling like curious about the strangeness of this crystal that seemed to attract the remains of the slimy creature, Zu Fei wasn't the slightest bit polite as she went over to pick it up to examine it more closely-

Crack~

Unfortunately, the moment she picked up the strange crystal with no more strength than a normal mortal, it shattered between the two fingers she had used to pick it up.

What in the… How is it so weak!?

Feeling a sense of profound bewilderment over how the crystal had shattered from such a weak touch, Zu Fei could not help wondering if she had accidentally applied more pressure than she had thought she did. After all, she had just started the process of forming her pseudo domain. Maybe this had caused her to misjudge her own strength…

Splat~

As Zu Fei was lost in her own thoughts, thinking about whether or not she had misjudged the strength her two fingers had applied to the strange crystal, the slimy liquid that seemed to be gathering towards the strange crystal suddenly came to a complete stop before collapsing into several small puddle all around her.

"Huh!?"

Not at all having expected this development, Zu Fei could not help looking even more confused as she was trying her best to try and comprehend what had just happened to the weird slime creature.

Wait! Are the two perhaps related? If the crystal is shattered, the slime creature dies…?

Whoosh~

As her brain was working overtime comprehending what had just happened, a small stream of blue energy suddenly seeped out from the shattered remains of the strange crystal on the ground in front of Zu Fei-

"Wha-!?"

And before Zu Fei had any time to react to the strange new energy that had appeared in front of her, the blue energy rushed into her wide-open mouth before entering her dantian.

"W-w-what just happened!?" Feeling herself starting to panic as some kind of strange unfamiliar energy had suddenly rushed into her body before entering her dantian, Zu Fei started to understandably panic at the realization that something unknown had just forced its way inside her dantian.

No… I need to calm down. First of all, I should find out what that strange blue energy is…

Calming herself down over the next few seconds, Zu Fei didn't waste any time before sitting down to investigate the situation inside her dantian and prepared herself for a possible internal battle with the foreign energy now inside her dantian…

Only after a few minutes stand off with the blue energy doing nothing but float around inside her dantian, did Zu Fei decide to take the initiative to investigate the strange blue energy and try to find out what it was by herself-

Whoosh~!

However, the moment that she tried to reach out and start to investigate the blue energy with her own qi, the blue energy suddenly sprung to life as it merged together with her qi before she had a chance to fight back against it. Even when she had her full attention focused on the blue energy for just such a situation, its speed was simply far above anything she could handle…