Chapter 1558: Inside the Grave Mound

Lu Ye watched, wide-eyed and stunned, finally understanding the dangers within the pink nebula. Such an attack, let alone him, even Ya Ya probably couldn't withstand.

Yet, the Azure Bird seemed oblivious, completely ignoring the frenzied assault of numerous pink tentacles. It allowed the tentacles to lash at its body, as azure halos pulsed across its form, fending off the onslaught. Its sharp talons continuously moved.

After an unknown period of activity, the pink nebula suddenly split open. The Azure Bird then pecked downwards with its beak. Lu Ye couldn't clearly see what it had pecked, only vaguely discerning something resembling a giant pink worm being picked up by its beak and swallowed with a tilt of its head.

After the Azure Bird swallowed the worm-like creature, the pink tentacles that had been relentlessly attacking it seemed to lose their momentum. They drooped limply and reabsorbed into the nebula.

The Azure Bird, however, seemed to have become intoxicated. Its body swayed unsteadily, its wings flapped a few times, and after wobbling for a while, it finally settled down on the nebula, motionless.

"Let's go, quickly!" Lu Ye urgently called to Li Shang. They couldn't stay here. Although the Azure Bird seemed not to have noticed them, such a formidable beast was beyond their ability to provoke. What horrified Lu Ye even more was that the tomb-mound nebulae in the Thousand Tombs Graveyard actually appeared to be alive.

Li Shang also knew it was unwise to linger and immediately steered the star-skiff at full speed, circling away.

Just as they feared, it happened. As the star-skiff maneuvered, Lu Ye suddenly saw the Azure Bird on the other side raise its head and glance in their direction. Even from untold thousands of miles away, that single glance sent a chill from Lu Ye's head to his toes.

Then he saw the Azure Bird open its beak, and Li Shang immediately gasped. A strange suction force had suddenly appeared around them, and under its pull, she could no longer control the star-skiff.

The next instant, the star-skiff shot toward the Azure Bird like an arrow released from a bow.

"We're doomed!" Lu Ye's expression turned bitter. He knew this was truly the end. He had witnessed the Azure Bird's power from afar and understood it was something he couldn't resist; even with Ya Ya's intervention, their chances were slim.

In one gulp, the star-skiff and everyone aboard would surely be completely devoured.

"Why are we so unlucky?" Lu Ye was filled with confusion. Their journey had been smooth until they reached this place.

Both he and Li Shang were tense and anxious, but Ya Ya, clapping her hands and cheering, looked utterly delighted, as if completely unaware of the impending misfortune.

In mere moments, just over ten breaths, the star-skiff traversed tens of thousands of miles, drawn directly before the Azure Bird. To Lu Ye's surprise, just as the star-skiff was about to enter the bird's mouth, the force pulling it vanished.

The star-skiff simply hovered there, before the Azure Bird.

Observing it up close, he could feel the Azure Bird's immense scale even more profoundly. At this moment, Lu Ye couldn't see the bird's full form; only a pair of eyes, as vast as two great suns, filled his vision.

The Azure Bird truly seemed intoxicated; a hazy quality blurred its eyes. It tilted its head, examined the star-skiff, then looked at the three small figures inside. After its eyelids fluttered, it lost interest in studying them, resuming its prone position on the nebula and dozing off.

Lu Ye and Li Shang dared not even breathe. Only when the Azure Bird settled down again did Lu Ye slowly let out a sigh of relief. He realized the Azure Bird had no interest in them whatsoever and had likely only pulled them closer out of momentary curiosity upon spotting their star-skiff.

Fortunately, they weren't swallowed whole. It was unclear if the Azure Bird was full, but if not, their demise would have been truly undeserved.

Lu Ye slowly turned his head, looked at Li Shang, and gave her a meaningful glance. Li Shang nodded, understanding immediately.

Just as the two were tiptoeing stealthily, preparing to leave while the Azure Bird dozed, Ya Ya let out a joyful squeal and suddenly leaped from the star-skiff.

Lu Ye was alarmed and reached out to grab her, but Ya Ya was incredibly fast; Lu Ye couldn't catch her at all.

Then he watched Ya Ya fly onto the Azure Bird's beak, ascending steadily, seemingly intending to reach its head!

Lu Ye's blood ran cold again...

But he soon realized he was overthinking things. Ya Ya's movements were not subtle, yet the Azure Bird showed no sign of noticing, simply remaining prone.

Even when Ya Ya stood on the Azure Bird's head and waved at Lu Ye, the bird still didn't react.

A creature as powerful as this formidable bird couldn't possibly be unaware; its lack of reaction indicated complete disinterest.

Lu Ye's feelings were complicated. It seemed that sometimes being too weak wasn't entirely a bad thing; at the very least, powerful beings wouldn't show any interest in the weak.

"Let's go see!" Lu Ye turned and called to Li Shang. At this point, fear was useless.

As he spoke, he flashed out of the star-skiff and flew upwards with Li Shang, soon reaching the top of the Azure Bird's head.

Lu Ye had assumed Ya Ya called him up because she had made some extraordinary discovery, but that wasn't the case. Ya Ya was lying on one of the Azure Bird's feathers, looking utterly comfortable and content. When Lu Ye and Li Shang joined her, she patted the space beside her, gesturing for Lu Ye to lie down as well.

Lu Ye lay down beside her, and Li Shang lay on the other side. Ya Ya became even happier, hugging both their arms and giggling incessantly.

After lying there for a while and finding nothing profound, Lu Ye stood up again. He looked around and was soon drawn to the nebula where the Azure Bird lay prone.

This nebula had originally been a single mass, but after being torn by the Azure Bird's sharp talons, it hadn't regenerated. Looking down from this position, the scene was like a tomb mound split open, revealing a pink interior.

After a moment's thought, Lu Ye told Li Shang to stay put with Ya Ya, and he flew down himself.

He was still very curious about the mysteries within this tomb-mound nebula. If there had been no opportunity to investigate, he would have let it go, but now that there was, he naturally wanted to take a look.

The tomb-mound nebula had already been torn open, and the large, worm-like creature inside had been devoured by the Azure Bird, so there should be no danger.

Following the enormous fissure, he entered the tomb mound. Inside, everything was pink. From within, it resembled a fleshy chamber, like the internal organs of some creature. Lu Ye could sense a strange aura lingering there, an aura that felt somewhat familiar but he couldn't quite place.

After a brief further investigation, Lu Ye's gaze was soon drawn to something in a corner of the nebula.

The object was dozens of feet long and showed signs of breakage. After a moment of thought, Lu Ye understood what it was: it was clearly a severed portion of the large worm that the Azure Bird had swallowed, seemingly its tail.

It seemed that although the Azure Bird had devoured the large worm, some remnants remained. However, these remnants were too small to interest the bird.

Lu Ye, however, was very interested. Dozens of feet might be small for the Azure Bird, but it was quite large for him.

He walked forward to the worm's tail, where the familiar aura grew even stronger.

Lu Ye raised his hand and touched it, finding the texture to be very similar to flesh. What surprised him, however, was that the worm's tail seemed to contain an extremely powerful and concentrated energy.

With a thought, he activated the power of his Talent Tree. Invisible roots extended and burrowed into the worm's tail.

The next moment, Lu Ye's expression showed astonishment because the energy within this severed worm's tail was indeed immense, surpassing even his imagination.

Up until now, the resources he had used for cultivation were primarily spirit jades. He had also tried refining a few spirit crystals, but comparatively, while the energy contained within spirit crystals was purer and more potent than spirit jades, it was far inferior to what was stored inside this worm's tail.

Lu Ye's eyes lit up. "This is a treasure!"

This worm's tail could easily be used as spirit jade or even spirit crystals. Given its length of dozens of feet, if converted to spirit crystals, it would likely amount to several million pieces.

And this was only a small, insignificant remnant; the main portion had been devoured by the Azure Bird.

This was just from one tomb-mound nebula. The number of tomb-mound nebulae within the Thousand Tombs Graveyard was incalculable. If every tomb mound contained such a treasure, then this place was truly a treasure trove!

Lu Ye was somewhat puzzled. Were the powerful cultivators in the starry sky simply unaware of this place's situation, or did they not know such a place existed at all, or even if they did, were they unable to acquire these resources?

Regardless of the reason, this dozens-of-feet-long worm's tail was now his!

Lu Ye felt delighted. He had never imagined that being drawn here by the Azure Bird would lead to such an astonishing discovery.

He tried to store the worm's tail in his storage ring, but it was impossible; it was simply too large. Upon inspection, he also discovered that the end of the tail was still connected within the nebula. This was likely why the tail had broken off when the Azure Bird devoured the strange, large worm.

Lu Ye had no choice but to take out his Panshan Blade and chop the worm's tail into segments.

This was physically demanding work. The worm's tail was extremely tough; even the Panshan Blade, enhanced with Divine Edge, could inflict only very limited damage. Lu Ye had to activate the "Myriad Waves of Tide Sea" technique, transforming the blade's edge into a serrated saw-blade, slowly sawing the worm's tail open.

By the time he had sawed the dozens-of-feet-long worm's tail into more than a dozen segments and stored them all in his storage ring, several days had passed.

During this time, Li Shang came down once to check on him but didn't disturb him, seeing that he was busy.

It was only several days later that Lu Ye finished collecting all the worm's tail segments. After a thorough search to ensure nothing else was left behind, he flickered out.

Reuniting with Li Shang and Ya Ya, Lu Ye looked down at the Azure Bird beneath them. His fear had largely dissipated, replaced by profound gratitude towards the bird.

If he weren't in a hurry to return to Kyushu, he would have even considered staying here longer, perhaps to gain more benefits from the Azure Bird.

The Azure Bird was still in a deep sleep. It seemed that after consuming the large, worm-like creature, it also needed some time to digest.

Lu Ye, with Li Shang and Ya Ya, returned to the star-skiff and resumed their journey home.