Yun Xie sat upon the toad in the lotus position as he threw the fishing rod aside, staring down into the wrought clay pot in deep focus.

 

As he concentrated, his hair and pupils began to take on a lighter green aura, the tips of his bangs rising into the air.

 

Around him, the air seemed to stiffen and pebbles began to levitate as his hands tensed. The creature within the pot did not seem to be very cooperative at the moment.

 

The clay pot seemed to constantly crack and mend as something within gnashed about angrily.

 

It was about the size of a mouse, but it was not cute in the slightest. From a first impression, it was a rough beige shark of sorts, save for its four stumpy legs that seemed to bulge with muscle. A sharp tail fin adorned its backside, along with jagged sharp spikes that ran up its body.

 

Its mouth was much like what would be expected of a shark, but mutated into a grotesque mess. Most disturbing of all, was it's deep black eyes and those angry red pupils that seemed to consume one's soul.

 

This creature was a sized-down version of the monstrous King Land Shark, one of the Gourmet World from Toriko's strongest creatures.

 

It was originally a monstrous creature as big as an aircraft carrier that could probably go toe to toe with a moderate Virtuous Paragon- And it still probably could. After some thought, Yun Xie figured to find some scary-ass creature to carry them to glory in the Southern Drowned Earth. This was the mount he'd found most… Suitable.

 

He just needed to tame it.

 

"Bloody bugger…Shut up! I'll turn you into sashimi! Just need you for like a month and then I can kick you back home! Be grateful! This place is like a vacation! I'm sure cultivators are really tasty!"

 

The other three travelers stared at Yun Xie wide-eyed as the pot violently shook with terrible bloodlust.

 

Nearby, huddled around in small groups, the toads dined away on crunchy crickets loudly, the sound of insect intestines being snacked on high in the air.

 

"Your mother was a blobfish! Diu Lei! Cao! F-"

 

Kicking the pot, which somehow didn't fall over, Yun Xie flipped the shark off, cursing like a sailor in a multitude of different languages. It was a rather comical sight, as some of the toads chuckled at the scene.

 

The Cultivators present didn't move an inch as the killing intent radiated off in waves. Sadly for them, they had been tuned and trained to sense and detect killing intent since they were young, so the mere pressure stopped them in place.

 

With the godspeed of the Toad Caravan, the cultivators had made it to the borderlands of the Drowned Earth probably a whole month ahead of schedule.

 

They had set up camp to analyze and brainstorm strategies for what they knew was probably an ambush.

 

But if they turned tail, the likely objective of the Heartless Gu Cult- Immortal-Holding Cage, would probably be cracked open. It's defenses were far from their prior glory after all. From Yun Xie' guesses, it was one of those cliche "only the main descendant or current young master of whatever can access the super mysterious cool legacy".

 

Still, what He Shuren was worried about was the Gu Cult finding a way to circumvent this somehow and raid the Prison. With the legacy and precious treasures within the Cage, the power that the Heartless Gu Cult could grasp….

 

Of course this was all stated rather vaguely, which Yun Xie understood, given the narrowed side-glance Shuren had given him and "Yu Tian".

 

From what he could glean, He Shuren seemed less about "saving the day" and whatnot… Instead, it was a pure hatred and rage for the thought of the Heartless Gu Cult gaining even another coin from her clan's legacy coffers.

 

Their last course of action was to cross through the border, and camp out at the Southern Drowned Earth's largest city for a while as they waited for the Earth to truly calm.

 

Then again, Yun Xie could have easily just breached through and allowed for them to pass into the Immortal-Holding Cage, but for a while at least, he wanted to play along. That wouldn't mean that he wouldn't become involved in the action of course.

 

Spectating was for edgy losers. What made him different was that he was a brain-dead edgy loser.

 

Yun Xie stared at the pot for a second more before sighing. This would have to wait, everyone was staring at him after all. Smacking the pot one more time, he awkwardly smiled at his companions, before he closed his eyes.

 

Exhaling out a breath, he felt the life around him as he opened his aura nodes. The toads perked up, looking away from their meals as the energy flowed in. Living on Mount Myoboku, they were well tuned to natural energy from birth after all.

 

His neck tingled as he felt himself bath in the energy known as Nen. It was like a viscous invisible liquid. Yun Xie's eyes twitched as he seamlessly manipulated the energy.

 

With an ability such as [Reference] and [Bypass], wouldn't it be stupid not to try out Nen? With this combination, using Nen had been a complete breeze the first time round. It was also rather euphoric.

 

<Conjuration: Fun Fun Cloth>

 

In his right hand, Yun Xie manifested a long grey tarp. Staring at the shaking pot in annoyance, he snapped his wrist, the cloth blanketing it as the shark's roars became even more muffled, before the bulging pot seemingly disappeared.

 

Grabbing the tarp, he carefully wrapped it before stuffing it into his pocket. Almost instaneously, all of the killing intent that had previosly filled the air disappeared without a trace.

 

Bing Yuxia traced her neck, feeling a single bead of sweat....

 

Yun Xie held up his hand in apology as he jogged on over to the rest of the cultivators.

 

"Sorry about that. Sharks are very problematic creatures."