Chapter 525: The First Layer of the Roaring Abyss

A black vortex slowly formed above the endless abyssal sea. It expanded at a visibly rapid pace—within just a few breaths, its diameter reached 100 meters. The seawater churned violently, as if boiling.
Ye Feng and his group finally retracted their airship and flew slowly toward the vortex along with the others.
After reaching 100 meters in diameter, the vortex seemed to have reached its limit. The sea surface finally stopped fluctuating, but Ye Feng and his companions saw many powerful beings approaching from the other side of the vortex. There were nearly a hundred of them, and their auras were clearly not human. Many even had humanoid forms yet retained animal traits.
Ye Feng and his group realized these must be the magical beasts from the endless abyssal sea.
That large group of humanoid magical beasts didn’t even pause. They glanced at Ye Feng and the humans briefly before diving straight into the vortex.
Seeing others had entered, they also rushed in one after another.
“That group earlier was extremely powerful!” Even Shi Tuo, who had reached the early stage of the Law Mastery, gave such an assessment. Clearly, none of those magical beasts were weak.
“Let’s go in too!” Ye Feng saw that almost everyone had entered and knew there was no need to wait any longer.
As they stepped into the vortex, before Ye Feng and the others could react, they found themselves on a cliff. From below the cliff not far ahead, eerie howls could be heard, carried by the wind.
Even Ye Feng couldn’t help frowning.
In the sky, a group of black scavenging bird-like magical beasts were circling slowly. Using his soul power to probe, Ye Feng discovered that those beasts all had the cultivation level of saints, which made him frown even more.
The beasts soon noticed Ye Feng and his group, diving down at them while emitting loud noises.
“Let’s hurry down. These corpse-eating vultures are highly poisonous—their poison targets the soul. If our soul cultivation isn’t stronger than theirs, we’ll be poisoned instantly. They’re here to drive us into the abyss,” Long Tian shouted urgently. He certainly didn’t want to attract those creatures’ attention.
Ye Feng also abandoned the idea of killing all the vultures. His soul power detected that there were even more powerful beings lurking nearby, eyeing them warily. If he took action, it wouldn’t just be the vultures involved. Though he wasn’t afraid, he still had to consider Xiao Yu and Xiao Bei.
Ye Feng and his group jumped off the cliff and fell into the abyss.

The depth of this abyss far exceeds everyone’s imagination, and its intricate complexity is quite mind-bending.
“Follow me! It’s a bit more open here.” After using her soul power to explore the area, Bai Yiyi took on the role of guide.
“I can’t detect anything with my mental power,” Shi Tou complained in frustration.
“One must reach the Saint level for their mental power to evolve into soul power before they can detect information here, and even then, it’s heavily restricted,” Ye Feng explained. “This is just the first layer. I already realize it was a mistake to bring those below the Saint level here.”
“The first layer? Are there more layers?” Qing Wen couldn’t help but ask.
“I can detect six layers. There should be more below, but my soul power is blocked by restrictions. The deeper you go, the more powerful those things become…” Ye Feng nodded, looking uneasy.
“There are unknown creatures ahead. Let’s be careful.” Long Tian’s soul power had also reached the Saint level, so he could sense activity in the first layer as well.
After walking for a while, Ye Feng and the others indeed reached the open area Bai Yiyi had mentioned earlier. It resembled a primitive canyon filled with huge mushrooms of various colors.
“So many mushrooms?” Bernard couldn’t help but exclaim. He reached out to grab one, but Long Tian stopped him.
“If you don’t want to become fertilizer for these mushrooms, don’t touch them.”
Bernard reluctantly withdrew his hand but still asked unhappily, “Why?”
“These are Illusion Divine Mushrooms. Just a slight touch will contaminate your soul with toxins, plunging you into an illusion from which you’ll never escape. And within a few years, your body will grow such mushrooms too.” Long Tian’s words made Bernard nervous. He stepped back and hid behind Ye Feng.
“Illusion Divine Mushrooms, though containing large amounts of soul toxins, can only poison those whose soul cultivation is one rank higher than theirs at most. If one’s soul cultivation is two ranks higher, they can easily escape the illusions created by these mushrooms,” Ye Feng said with a smile. “And those toxins, once refined, contain abundant soul power. That’s why many alchemy masters use them to make medicine.”
All this information came from the martial arts scriptures, so Ye Feng naturally knew it was beneficial and harmless to him.
“Boss, can we really use them to make medicine?” Bernard’s gluttonous nature was stirred again.

“Even if it’s refined into medicine, that toxin is hard to counter with other drugs. The hallucinogenic effects that can kill a person still exist, though their intensity is reduced,” Long Tian added.
“That’s true. One must have a high level of spiritual cultivation to take it,” Ye Feng nodded with a smile. “So with this group’s strength, these mushrooms are only beneficial to me and Yi Yi; they offer no real advantage to anyone else.”
“Yes, the spiritual strength of the mushrooms here is at the Saint level or above. With my spiritual strength still at the early Saint stage, it would be a life-or-death risk—better not try. Miss Xiaobai can barely take them, and not in large amounts,” Long Tian said helplessly. “If it could be refined into pills, I might give it a try, but sadly, I don’t have any relevant formulas.”
“After we return, we can look for such formulas,” Ye Feng turned around with a smile. “If nothing else works, we can create our own formula.”
“Hurry up and pick all the mushrooms here. There should be something good underground,” Long Tian said, pointing at the ground with a smile.
Ye Feng was stunned for a moment before realizing, “Are you saying these Illusory Divine Demon Mushrooms are just accompaniments?”
“Won’t we know once you’ve picked them all?” Long Tian said confidently, as if he was 100% sure of what was underground.
Ye Feng strode into the valley. In just a few breaths, all the mushrooms disappeared.
Long Tian slowly descended onto an open area and pointed at the ground. “It should be around here. Those Illusory Divine Demon Mushrooms grew best here.”
“Dig!” Ye Feng took the lead in digging.
After digging about thirty centimeters deep, a layer of black substance appeared before Ye Feng and the others.
“Let me do it. I’m afraid you might accidentally damage this Mysterious Wood Fragrance Droplet. It contains a great deal of life force and should be stored in a warm-jade bottle,” Long Tian said. He took out a piece of jade, shaped it into a stick, and used his finger strength to hollow it out before slowly inserting it into the black substance. The other end was connected to a warm-jade bottle.
“Get ready. Pull out as much as we can—this is something precious!” Ye Feng urged the others.