Chapter 413: Chapter 179: Marquis Yongshan’s Backhand

The vast Great Marsh stretches endlessly, the water surface shimmering, with small fish leaping everywhere.

Shen Can’s divine sense dives deep into the water, able to see water beasts hunting.

How to find the Old Turtle, Shen Can doesn’t know, as the wetland is just too large.

He chooses to head to the southern shore of the Great Marsh, starting his search in the waters connected to the Giant Mountain Range.

Where mountains and waters meet, towering cliffs stand, beneath them are valleys filled with surging water.

Within the Water Valley, water beasts dwell, all around Tier Three, and no high bloodline, spiritually wise Wild Beasts have been found.

That’s fairly normal; ninety-nine percent of the Wild Beast bloodlines are incredibly ordinary, those with true Spiritual Wisdom pretend to be ordinary until they grow stronger.

Three months later.

In a Water Valley among the mountains, this little Water Valley is quite inconspicuous. Shen Can’s figure dives underwater, scanning with divine sense.

The underwater vegetation is rich, rocks jagged, not much different from the other Water Valleys he’s seen.

In terms of size and the surrounding majestic mountain walls, it doesn’t rank among the prominent Water Valleys.

The valley water is over two hundred zhang deep, and Shen Can, upon descending, extends his divine sense further down.

His divine sense already exceeds five hundred and fifty zhang. After reaching the valley floor, even with rocks obstructing the path, he can still probe over four hundred zhang deep.

Roar!

A monster fish, entirely black, upon seeing Shen Can underwater, opens its mouth and lunges at him.

With a bloated body and a mouth full of tusks, as soon as it opens its mouth, Shen Can grabs it effortlessly.

Such trivial Tier Three creatures, he doesn’t bother, as the witch pouch with limited space doesn’t store undesirable spoils.

He lets the Tusked Monster Fish go, retracts his divine sense, and prepares to search another Water Valley.

But just now, the monster fish with a death wish lights up with a Witch Pattern, attacking Shen Can.

In an instant, Shen Can presses it down, his eyes glaring, unleashing a terrifying pressure that leaves the monster fish utterly helpless.

With a ’crack’ sound, Shen Can tears off the scale marked with a Witch Pattern from the monster fish’s body.

Seeing this Witch Pattern, Shen Can pauses.

This Witch Pattern looks familiar to him.

A Water Element Wild Beast forming a Water Element Witch Pattern on its body is perfectly normal.

Yet the fluctuation of this Witch Pattern resembles a Lingyu.

Others might consider it a normal Water Element-related Witch Pattern, but Shen Can perceives something different.

He’s all too familiar with Lingyu.

Then, he pulls the Tusked Monster Fish closer, attempting interaction.

Yet, despite his powerful divine sense, faced with a savage Wild Beast obsessed with eating and killing, he ends up with nothing after all his efforts.

Soon, Shen Can finds the monster fish’s nest, in a cave below the valley waters.

The cave isn’t deep, barely ten zhang, filled with vegetation and fish bones.

Wild Beasts grow witch patterns within themselves through ancestral inheritance, and most non-intelligent Wild Beasts also develop witch patterns.

However, the witch patterns grow chaotically, with the beast spending a lifetime in confusion, incapable of forming a coherent system of witch patterns.

There are exceptions, of course, where some low-bloodline Wild Beasts emerge from a confused state with systematic witch patterns, gradually refining their bloodline and unlocking Spiritual Wisdom.

Shen Can examines the Tusked Monster Fish thoroughly, discovering only this witch-patterned area on its body.

And it lacks any Lingyu bloodline within.

It’s possible that it consumed a Lingyu-bloodlined water beast and in haphazard precipitation, this Beast Pattern formed internally.

Lingyu isn’t an unrecognizable Wild Beast. Lingyu exists in Yongyi, and Dai Land also has Lingyu bloodlines, making it not impossible.

After releasing this Wild Beast, Shen Can starts scouting around, making this Water Valley his center, exploring other valleys’ water beasts.

After rounds of searching, capturing dozens of water beasts, no Lingyu Witch Pattern emerges.

This lowers his speculative expectations, as a single Lingyu Witch Pattern isn’t substantial evidence for his hypothesis.

Roar roar roar!

From within the mountain forest, a deep beast roar reverberates.

Traveling through water, Shen Can looks towards the mountain.

Though no spiritually wise Wild Beasts are seen in the water, might there be one in the mountains?

Spiritually wise Wild Beasts rarely cohabitate unless they’re of the same race.

Three days later.

A gray Desolate Bear lays rigidly on the ground, feigning death, its head covered in lumps, holding its breath.

Just as Shen Can suspected, while there are no spiritually wise Wild Beasts in the water, there truly is one nearby on the shore.

An ancient Dragon Bear descendant, with a pair of small dragon horns on its head.

"Are there any water beasts with Lingyu bloodlines nearby?"

Shen Can ignores the feigned death of the gray bear and asks directly.

"Lingyu? Never heard of it."

The Desolate Bear remains down, expressing displeasure at being attacked.

"Wait, let me think."

"I don’t know if there are Lingyu in the water, but there’s a water beast pack nearby with over a hundred members.

Whenever they hunt, they do so in a pack, even able to summon a downpour."

"Where are they?"

"How would I know? They have no fixed abode. I’ve only seen them gather for a hunt from the mountain."

"This area is the Great Marsh’s border, devoid of places of spiritual essence or powerful Wild Beasts. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have migrated here.

Would’ve never thought I’d encounter..."

Saying this, the gray bear shuts its mouth.