I can push my cultivation progress to the end

Beneath the churning and restless Li Lake, Li Hai had unknowingly absorbed a tremendous amount of water.

Perhaps a million tons, or maybe several million tons, or even more.

Li Hai didn't bother to calculate it, nor did he care to.

He only knew that the basin in the East Forest Garden of the Guiyou Grotto-Heaven was almost full.

But from all directions, countless streams of water surged and crashed in, as if without end.

"Such a fishy stench!"

Li Hai sneered as he looked down, "You must be that fish monster."

With that, he closed all the Grotto-Heaven portals, and at the same time, the steel whip in his hand abruptly grew much longer, flashing with a dark red light as it swung with his arm, fiercely lashing out at the approaching dark shadow below.

Screech—

With an ear-piercing, heart-wrenching screech that set one's teeth on edge, Li Hai's powerful whip actually slid off the surface of the dark shadow, striking the murky lake water instead.

Bang!

With a muffled sound, the turbulent lake water was instantly blasted apart by the whip, and in the fleeting flash of sparks, a large spherical air bubble appeared.

Li Hai's sharp gaze pierced through the air bubble, instantly clearly seeing the massive dark shadow clinging to it.

A human-faced fish body, several zhang in length, eyes like red lanterns, six fins and eight arms, entirely black, covered in iron scales.

Sure enough, it was the Li Lake fish monster from the old village chief's stories.

And this fish monster's personal interface was—

Character Name: Unknown

Level Rank: Demon Beast → Intermediate

Skills: 《Demon Form Beast Appearance》 《Poisonous Sticky Demon Body》 《Hard Scale Spinning Blade》 《Foul Gill Turbid Bubble》

Lexicon Characteristics: 【Strength Level 2】 【Iron Body Level 2】 【Self-Healing Level 1】 【Toxicity Level 2】

Strong Shard: None

Just as Li Hai saw the fish monster clearly, the fish monster launched a continuous attack on him.

Swish swish swish—

Dozens or hundreds of cold, gleaming blade-shaped black scales burst out from the fish monster's body, spinning as they all bombarded Li Hai from below.

"Damn it, throwing fish scales at me."

Li Hai's figure flickered rapidly, leaving behind a series of afterimages, managing to dodge all the incoming black scales in an instant, while sneering and extending both whips with a 'shua', he stabbed down fiercely, "Die!"

Chi~ Chi~

After two crisp sounds in succession, the twin whips, abruptly lengthened to nine zhang and nine chi, pierced into the fish monster's head, instantly penetrating its entire body from top to bottom, piercing out from its tail.

Immediately, Li Hai swiftly used the 《Wrathful Flood Dragon Whip》 ultimate move:

"Flood Dragon Treads the Sea, Grind!"

Shua shua shua shua—

The pair of steel whips piercing through the fish monster's entire body instantly whirred and spun tens of thousands of times, like two long, deep-water drills, instantly grinding all the internal organs and tissues of the fish monster into a pile of minced meat.

Then, Li Hai used another ultimate move:

"Flood Dragon Capsizes Water, Vibrate!"

Boom!

As if detonating a deep-water bomb.

A large mass of frenzied, roaring torrents instantly generated, centered on the pair of steel whips, violently swelling and bulging the fish monster's entire body in a circle, and then, in an instant, it suddenly burst open.

Crash!!

Accompanied by round after round of raging currents sweeping in all directions, tens of thousands of scorched fish meat pieces, each only the size of a fingernail, swiftly filled and covered all the lake water within a hundred zhang.

Thus, the fish monster… died!

As for all its skills…

Whether it was the 《Demon Form Beast Appearance》, which all demon beasts possessed, or the 《Poisonous Sticky Demon Body》, which could secrete a large amount of poisonous mucus to greatly increase the slipperiness of the body, or the 《Hard Scale Spinning Blade》, which could burst out a large number of iron-hard blade-shaped fish scales, or the 《Foul Gill Turbid Bubble》, which could produce a highly toxic solution from the gills and spray it out at high speed.

Li Hai didn't learn a single one.

Learn? Learn what? Learn my ass, I'm not learning, not a single one.

Li Hai's most hated thing in this life was fish, so fishy, so stinky, so sticky, so slippery.

If he accidentally turned into a fish after learning these disgusting skills, he would definitely braise himself.

Because for Li Hai, only fish made into a side dish for alcohol are good fish.

"Since this fish monster swam up from below…"

Li Hai looked down at the dark and gloomy depths of Li Lake and chuckled, "Then its master, the Salt God, should also be hiding down there, right?"

With a low chuckle, he turned around and kicked his legs, fiercely kicking at the lake water above.

Bang!

After a violent muffled sound, Li Hai's body shot like a rapid arrow, carrying a long string of gray-white bubbles, rushing towards the bottom of Li Lake, leaving only a vacuum bubble undulating and rolling in place.

… …

After kicking the lake and treading the water all the way down several times, Li Hai finally reached the bottom of Li Lake.

This place was fully a thousand zhang away from the lake's surface; if using metric units, it would be three thousand three hundred and thirty-three meters, twice as deep as Lake Baikal, the deepest lake on Earth.

No light could penetrate such a thick body of water to reach here, so Li Hai's surroundings could now be said to be in absolute darkness, with not a trace of light to be seen.

But with his wild intuition, Li Hai was able to roughly sense the vague situation within a hundred zhang around him.

But from the situation he sensed, there was nothing larger within a hundred zhang besides some shriveled small fish and swaying aquatic plants.

However, Li Hai was not in a hurry.

After waving the steel whip in his hand, he followed the vague feeling in the darkness and swam swiftly in a certain direction.

And after swimming for about three hundred zhang, Li Hai suddenly stopped.

He raised his eyes and scanned all around, but all he saw and felt was boundless darkness.

"It's here… that strange presence that carries a hint of threat."

Li Hai stood on the muddy lake bottom, looking up and around while muttering with a cold expression, "Strange, strange, it's empty here, where could it be hiding?"

He lowered his head to look at his feet, "Could it be… hiding below here?"

Suddenly, a sense of crisis, as if about to be bitten hard by a poisonous snake, suddenly surged into Li Hai's heart.

Without time to think, he immediately kicked against the lake bottom, blasting away a large patch of turbid soil, instantly retreating dozens of zhang away.

And just as Li Hai retreated to a distance, the place where he had originally stood was suddenly completely covered by an invisible force.

Buzz!

This invisible strange power was fleeting, from appearance to disappearance only a very short time, so fast it was as if it had never appeared at all.

Moreover, it did not cause any visible impact on that area of the lake bottom, not even breaking a single aquatic plant.

But wild intuition 'told' Li Hai that if he had not dodged just now, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

"Is it some kind of curse, evil art, or divine power?"

Various thoughts flashed through Li Hai's mind.

Then, just as he tightly gripped the twin whips, wanting to plunge them into the turbid lake bottom below, wanting to stir it up fiercely…

Boom!