Chapter 134: The Celestial Immortal Falls, Acquiring the Precious Pearl

White cranes fluttered their feathers, and colorful butterflies danced in the welcoming wind. The shallow waters were silted up, and small three-headed turtles floated and spun upon the ripples.

The toxic miasma shimmered with iridescent halos of light, competing with the flowers in strange and dazzling beauty.

Here, one could neither gauge the depth of the water nor measure the thickness of the mud; it was a vast and venomous marsh.

Suddenly, a bead the size of a peck, glowing with a pale yellow luster, plummeted right into the middle of it. Its light cast a film of pale yellow, gossamer-like sheen over the entire marsh, making it hazy and ethereal, far from a desolate and deadly miasma-choked realm.

Immediately afterward, the bead reined in that gossamer-like aura. Acting like a fishing net, it snared every single living creature within the marsh, transformed them into a bloody, turbid vapor, and finally drew them all completely into the bead.

Having gathered the turbid vapor, the bead gave a brisk spin and spewed out a wisp of yellow smoke that blended seamlessly into the toxic vapors hanging over the marsh. Then, the bead gradually turned transparent until it vanished without a trace.

Scarcely had the bead disappeared when a figure descended upon the edge of the marsh, taking on the form of Lu Zu.

Lu Zu swept his gaze across the scene. In truth, his divine sense had tracked this place long ago, but that magical bead was so wondrous that it had managed to block his spiritual detection.

Had Lu Zu not possessed his own methods—relying on the residual computational power from the daily tasks of his seventy-two spiritual brain-facets to meticulously deduce the flaws and anomalies—he genuinely might have let it escape. Even so, he had been forced to chase it all the way here.

Presumably, the weasel had managed to tunnel and flee earlier by virtue of this very magical treasure.

"No matter how crafty you are, you can hardly escape my grasp." Lu Zu looked out over the marsh and chuckled softly.

Moreover, Lu Zu didn't care how the weasel had hidden itself; with a backhanded gesture, he simply... excavated the entire marsh.

This marsh was not large, stretching merely a hundred miles from east to west and twenty miles from north to south. Viewed from high above, it looked precisely like an embroidery needle.

Having inspected the marsh just now and seeing that not a single trace of living breath remained within it—transforming the surface, which had once appeared lifeless on the outside yet teemed with vitality within, into utter desolation both inside and out—Lu Zu grew somewhat irritated. Since you show no-courtesy, I owe you no-justice; without a second thought, he dug down three feet, and another three feet, and yet another three feet, going a full sixty feet deep until not a single speck of mud remained in the marsh basin.

Lu Zu's earth-digging craftsmanship was exquisite; he scooped away only the marsh silt and mud, leaving the surrounding earth, stone, and bedrock completely untouched.

Such a marsh, calculated in full, weighed precisely thirty-six million and forty-eight tons.

Disregarding the minor fraction, Lu Zu directly unleashed the dual energies of wind and fire, instantly baking the entire marsh dry and transforming it into a massive, elongated cyan brick.

That weasel proved quite resilient; making not a single sound, it stubbornly endured this barrage of wind-and-fire grilling.

However, if it thought Lu Zu could not catch it just because of this, it was severely underestimating him.

Right after, that cyan brick, measuring a hundred miles in magnitude, shattered inch by inch. It was as if an invisible giant hand had gripped the brick, twisting it like a hemp rope and instantly crushing it to powder.

Not even a single speck of residue was left behind.

Such brutality was extreme, yet Lu Zu reckoned his own ruthlessness fell short of this weasel-demon's by a chasm; after all, this fellow had utterly exterminated the myriad living creatures of this marsh, assuming those microscopic entities could be counted as living beings.

As the marsh was thoroughly ravaged by Lu Zu, the malevolent yellow sand vapors trapped within were simultaneously wrung out and dissolved in mid-air.

*Puchi!*

A yellow sand precious bead suddenly leaped forth, attempting to flee.

Yet Lu Zu had long since laid down his preparations; how could it possibly escape? An invisible web of magical energy bound it tightly, and with a smooth motion, he gathered it into his inner universe.

With the yellow sand precious bead secured, the marsh that had been baked by the combined forces of wind and fire suddenly dissipated, crumbling into scattered debris across the ground, completely devoid of any remaining eccentric yellow-sand venomous smoke.

Lu Zu inspected the yellow sand precious bead right on the spot, but no matter how deeply he probed with his divine sense, he could not penetrate its interior, which left him somewhat annoyed.

Still, this was not the time to dwell on such matters. After all, this yellow sand precious bead had also plundered the vital essence and spirits of four Wu clansmen. As their ally, Lu Zu naturally could not stand by and watch them die; he had to return first and restore their essence and spirits.

Thus, Lu Zu soared into the void, choosing a random direction and departing.

No sooner had Lu Zu vanished using the Five Elements Escape Technique than wisps of yellow smoke began to erupt from the void, originating from the solid bedrock beneath the mud-excavated marsh basin.

"Arrogant, how utterly arrogant this human is."

"Fortunately I burrowed deep enough, otherwise I truly would have been taken by him."

Facing such a ferocious display of divine might from Lu Zu, this Immortal of the Demon Race felt lingering palpitations of fear, rejoicing in his own cleverness just moments ago.

"No rush, no rush. I shall simply wait here for you for a spell."

Yet, no sooner had he finished rejoicing than a teasing human voice rang out right beside his ear. The speaker even used the demon tongue, though the accent was so thick it sounded rather comical—yet the demon could not find it funny at all.

He had never expected Lu Zu to return after leaving, or more accurately, to pull off such a ruse and deceive him.

"You human, how dare you aid those Wu tribesmen? Truly abominable." The yellow smoke converged, transforming into the head of a weasel, and launched into a torrent of abuse directed at Lu Zu, who stood right behind him.

Lu Zu, however, paid him no heed and could not be bothered to listen to so much idle chatter. He raised his hand and prepared to pull him into the universe within his gourd.

Once inside the gourd's universe, the fellow would obediently spill everything.

This weasel hardly looked like a demon capable of withstanding Lu Zu's severe tortures.

"Only now can this be considered complete." Lu Zu drew a breath of relief after capturing the weasel's demonic aura and soul.

Such a demon was truly a scourge out in the world. Not only did he run around stirring up trouble, but he also wantonly plundered vital energies, harmed innocent lives, and even polluted living beings, turning them into mindless monsters that wreaked havoc everywhere.

Now that Lu Zu had subdued him, he was unquestionably "acting on behalf of heaven" and doing a tremendously good deed.

Pity that there was no such concept of karmic merit in this world, nor would the Heavenly Dao suddenly drop a sheet of mysterious yellow merit upon one; those were merely tales from the storybooks of his past life.

As for that yellow sand precious bead, having now absorbed the weasel's soul, it finally began to accept the invasion of Lu Zu's divine sense, much like a reluctant widow yielding.

Under its half-refusing, half-welcoming state, Lu Zu refined a small portion of the demonic runes within it.

Treasures of the Demon Race possessed no traditional magic seals, nor were they forged from sacrificial Wu inscriptions; rather, they were refined by capturing the natural laws operating among the mountains, rivers, and the heavens and earth.

Having finished his study, Lu Zu first flew back to the previous site of the magical duel to locate the four Wu clansmen who had been stripped of their essence and spirits, leaving behind nothing more than withered, corpse-like physical shells.

Then, he channeled the essence and spirits from the yellow sand precious bead back into their bodies.

Unfortunately, they were not balloons that could simply be reinflated with air or water to recover. In the end, their vital essences dissipated on the spot and merged into the earth, with only their souls returning to their places. Yet, with their souls having been severed from their physical bodies, they would likely face arduous and insurmountable obstacles in their future cultivation.

Having done all this, Lu Zu accepted their expressions of gratitude.

The reason Lu Zu went to such lengths was half due to their alliance, and half because these Wu tribesmen all had powerful backers behind them—he could not simply ignore the matter, which was why he had intervened.

However, he was certainly going to keep the yellow sand precious bead; that item was his spoils of war.

Afterward, amidst pleasantries exchanged with the Wu clan members, he interrogated the weasel.

Having learned its name, he also uncovered a matter that filled him with extreme indignation.