There wasn't a single flying demonic beast over the sea, let alone any cultivators.
The airflow in this space was somewhat chaotic. The demonic qi and spiritual energy intertwined, sometimes strong, sometimes weak, appearing extremely violent and unstable.
Song Rongdao's Divine Sense quickly swept across the sea, but he didn't speak immediately.
"Fellow Daoist Song, the place you mentioned couldn't be here, could it?"
The cultivator surnamed Yan looked at Song Rongdao with some surprise.
Although this place was far from Black Forest Manor, at their speed, it would only take a day or so of non-stop flying. Yet they had deliberately taken a detour of several days to get here.
But Song Rongdao did not answer his question. Instead, he turned to the pale-faced youth beside him.
"Has Brother Bai discovered anything?"
The youth surnamed Bai had also just withdrawn his Divine Sense. He shook his head woodenly.
"After repeated checks over the past few days, I haven't found anything amiss. What about you, Fellow Daoist Song?"
The two of them were the ones with the highest cultivation in this small team. This conversation startled the female cultivator surnamed Yang and the cultivator surnamed Yan.
"So this is why you've been flying in circles. Have you two had some bad feeling?"
As the female cultivator surnamed Yang spoke, she had already cautiously spread her Divine Sense again and secretly gathered her spirit power.
"It's just that I had some bad feeling, so I asked Brother Bai to confirm it repeatedly. However, neither Brother Bai nor I have found anything in the past two days. It seems I was just being overly suspicious, perhaps too tense!"
The expression on Song Rongdao's face had clearly relaxed. He answered the female cultivator's question with a smile, and at the same time, conveyed his meaning to the youth surnamed Bai.
He said this, but his heart was still full of doubt. He always felt as if someone was secretly watching him.
He addressed the youth as "Brother Bai," but his real age was much greater than anyone else here, a fact unknown to others.
Song Rongdao had been stuck at the mid-stage Golden Core for over three hundred years. If he were a human cultivator, his lifespan would probably be nearing its end.
If not for a serious injury in the past, he should have already entered the Pseudo-Nascent Soul Realm.
His experience was far more seasoned than that of the youth surnamed Bai, and his perception of death was even more acute.
Looking at the three people beside him, Song Rongdao no longer hesitated. He directly formed a "Water Evasion Art" seal, pointed at the dark sea below and the waves that occasionally rose dozens of feet high, and said,
"We're going down!"
With that, a faint light of spirit power flashed around his body, and he plunged into the waves like a stubborn rock, disappearing without a trace in an instant.
"It really is here!"
The cultivator surnamed Yan's eyes lit up, and he blurted it out.
Then he heard two light "plops." If not for his high cultivation, this sound would have been hard to distinguish amidst the crashing waves.
The other two beside him had already disappeared without a trace, without saying a word to him.
The cultivator surnamed Yan stared at the sea surface below him and narrowed his eyes slightly.
Although his cultivation here was higher than the female cultivator surnamed Yang's, she was skilled in formations. He, on the other hand, seemed to be dispensable.
In fact, that was the case. It was just that after Song Rongdao encountered a "Dark Spirit Demon Bat," he predicted there might be other "Dark Spirit Demon Bats" inside, or even other kinds of ancient demonic beasts.
So he kept an extra thought in mind and invited a few more cultivators with lower cultivation than himself so they would be easier to control.
They would be excellent shields for him at the crucial moment. His sound wave attack had the effect of confusing the opponent's mind.
If he were to launch a sneak attack on the person beside him, even the youth surnamed Bai would be momentarily dazed.
At a life-or-death moment, even half a breath would allow him to escape with his life.
Compared to the youth surnamed Bai, the cultivator surnamed Yan was undoubtedly easier to handle.
The cultivator surnamed Yan had known Song Rongdao for decades, but he had no idea that Song Rongdao had never revealed a single one of his trump cards to him. He still thought he had grasped the other's divine arts.
'When the time comes to break the restrictions and enter the secret grotto, we'll see who has the ability to get more benefits.'
'Little bitch, I'll give you an extra share of my benefits then, hehehe...'
'Just you wait. After I strip you naked, I'll record your lewd and ugly state in a jade slip. Then I'll let all the cultivators in the world know what you look like when you're in ecstasy...'
The cultivator surnamed Yan thought viciously, and then he too formed a hand seal and plunged into the sea.
The entire sea surface returned to its previous state, with waves roaring and surging, yet appearing exceptionally quiet.
More than four hundred li away from where Song Rongdao and his group had just been standing, under a large canopy, Xing Ming and his group were whispering.
"Luckily, we reacted quickly just now. Otherwise, we would have been discovered. They seemed to have sensed something."
"So the place they're going to is in the 'Black Spirit Sea.' Jiang Baibi is too cautious. He led us on a detour for several days!"
Feng Moru said with a smile. Just now, after Song Rongdao's group stopped, their Divine Sense suddenly swept over.
Fortunately, they had been vigilant all along, knowing that the opponent's actual age was that of an old monster who had lived for nearly two thousand years, and his perception of death was particularly acute.
This was how they avoided the other's detection. Xuan Caijun, on the other hand, rubbed his smooth chin.
"They've now entered the bottom of the 'Black Spirit Sea.' Because the demonic qi and spiritual energy here are too turbulent, Divine Sense is restricted. We don't have to worry too much about being discovered by them anymore!"
A few days ago, after following Song Rongdao's group for a while, they had already discovered that the other party was constantly changing direction during their flight, and Divine Sense was frequently being sent out.
Among Xing Ming's group, only the Pseudo-Nascent Soul cultivator Xuan Caijun could trail behind them, while the other three had to increase their distance from the target.
Then, after some time, Xuan Caijun would give a direction, and they would rush over.
Among them, the only one they were somewhat confident could go undetected was Xuan Caijun.
And Li Yan, almost an afterthought, had remained silent.
If it were him, he was even sixty percent confident he could get within a hundred li of Song Rongdao's group without being discovered.
Of course, he wouldn't volunteer to do so. He didn't like to expose too much in front of anyone.
This time, after Xing Ming's group approached the location given by Xuan Caijun again, they found that he had not continued to track them but was waiting for them in place.
The "Black Spirit Sea" was a place where the conflict between demonic qi and spiritual energy was very fierce. Not only could a cultivator's own cultivation not be fully utilized, but their Divine Sense would also be greatly disturbed.
Therefore, the Black and White Demon Clan soldiers did not like to fight here, and the demonic beasts in the sea also became increasingly scarce.
Li Yan only felt the mixed demonic qi in the air being drawn in, crashing around inside his body. The demonic qi and spiritual energy seemed to want to turn his body into a battlefield.
'The negative emotions in the demonic qi here are more direct. If I had come here as a Foundation Establishment cultivator back then, I would have had to leave after a day at most.'
Li Yan calculated in his heart. At his current cultivation level, he estimated that staying here for more than ten days would affect him, so this was not a place to stay for long.
"What could be here that makes them treat it with such caution?"
Xing Ming looked at the others.
"Although the 'Black Spirit Sea' can't be considered a completely barren place, it's not far off. Could it be that some unknown heavenly material or earthly treasure has grown at the bottom of the sea?"
Xuan Caijun's eyes grew brighter.
"Hehe, it's about time. They should have dived very deep by now. We can go and have a look. A place like this is rarely visited by people. It's really possible that some unique species of heaven and earth have appeared here!"
Feng Moru flicked his horsetail whisk lightly.
Xing Ming and Xuan Caijun nodded. Immediately, they released their Divine Sense and, after carefully sensing, flew towards the place where Song Rongdao had plunged...
At the bottom of the "Black Spirit Sea," Song Rongdao's group had been diving all the way down and had already reached a depth of more than sixty thousand feet. The surrounding seawater was pitch black, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.
But for cultivators with spiritual energy, they could still see their immediate surroundings. Moreover, the spirit power shields around them flickered with a faint light.
Besides, they mainly used their Divine Sense to probe the surroundings. It was just that their Divine Sense was also affected here, so they didn't dare to release it too far.
In the dark seawater, only occasional schools of fish as thin as needles would flash past them. As they dived, they did not find any cultivators or demonic beasts.
The seaweed around them became more and more abundant, and they had to carefully avoid it, which slowed down their descent considerably.
Although this seaweed posed no threat to them at all, no one wanted to look for trouble.
The few of them were silent. At their level of cultivation, they all had the ability to maintain their composure.
Although the surroundings were pitch black and oppressive, no one showed any signs of impatience.
Song Rongdao had been here before. If he felt it was necessary to remind them of something, he would naturally say so.
Just like that, in a dead silence, four shields of shimmering spirit power descended rapidly, like four meteors streaking through the night.
After the four of them continued to descend for another sixty to seventy thousand feet, coral reefs appeared before them, becoming more and more numerous and dense.
Everyone could see that this was a steep mountain peak submerged at the bottom of the sea.
Here, Song Rongdao finally stopped descending. He stood on a protruding reef of the mountain, the white light of his spirit power shield flickering faintly, and began to look around.
"Fellow Daoist Song, the secret grotto you mentioned couldn't be nearby, could it?"
A ghostly light flashed in the eyes of the youth surnamed Bai, and he also began to release his Divine Sense to scan the area. Although the other two didn't speak, they were also probing the surroundings.
But they did not detect any aura of formation restrictions.
"It should be nearby. I've only been here once. I'm looking for the mark I left last time!"
Song Rongdao said this, but his Divine Sense quietly shot towards the area above his head.
Just like that, a full cup of tea's time passed. Just as the other three were growing impatient and about to ask again, Song Rongdao's face suddenly lit up with joy.
"I've found the mark I left!"
At the same time, his heart finally relaxed a lot.
He had just spent a large amount of Divine Sense and carefully searched the area a thousand feet above him three times, but found nothing abnormal.
His probing was so subtle that even the youth surnamed Bai did not notice.
'Damn 'Falling Star Valley.' When this old man reaches the Nascent Soul stage, I will definitely be the first to destroy your sect. After so many years, I've become as jumpy as a startled bird.'
He grumbled inwardly.
Then, without waiting for the other three to urge him, Song Rongdao continued to descend along the side of the mountain peak.
This time, he no longer descended in a straight line, but constantly passed through clusters of black, shiny coral, and over bottomless mountain crevices and abysses, continuously moving downwards.
Just like that, after another hour or so, amidst the occasional inquiries from the others, Song Rongdao also pretended to find markers along the way.
Finally, under the suspicious gazes of the other three, he suddenly shouted in a deep voice.
"Alright, we're here!"
As he spoke, he pointed diagonally downwards.
At this time, they were standing on a sharp, giant rock that looked like a huge, upright palm. They were at the very tip of the middle finger.
This rock was located on the steep side of this mountain, like an upright palm blocking part of the mountain.
The back of the palm faced the boundless dark sea, while the palm itself faced the mountain.
The position Song Rongdao pointed to was a certain spot on the stone wall of the mountain that their palm was facing.