Over the following period, Long Long behaved quite normally.
He would regularly attend the clan school as usual, not only studying various theoretical knowledge but also practicing the innate divine abilities unique to the Dragon Clan.
In private, however, he regularly inquired about Long Hu’s situation from the Qin siblings, Qin Zhou and Qin Ye.
Long Hu had been conferred the title "Princess of the Dragon Clan" by the Azure Dragon Clan, though this was only an internal designation and had not spread beyond the clan—otherwise, it would have been difficult to explain why the Dragon Clan’s princess was a fox when inquiring from outsiders.
Due to the sealing of her Dragon bloodline, Long Hu was having a slow time learning the various bloodline supernatural powers of the Dragon Clan, and their potency could hardly be called impressive. However, her innate talent as a member of the Fox Clan was exceptionally outstanding, and she was currently learning illusion techniques from an elder of the Celestial Fox Clan.
Furthermore, she frequently used her newly learned illusion techniques to confuse the guards in an attempt to quietly slip out of the secret realm, only to be caught in the act each time by the guards.
Long Long naturally knew why she was doing this and, after careful consideration, finally decided to have the Qin siblings take him to find Long Hu.
Some things needed to be made clear to the little fox.
Otherwise, with her constantly trying to escape , it would be tantamount to frequently exposing her trump cards to the clan, which would be troublesome when the time came to truly flee.
According to what the Qin siblings revealed, Long Hu’s place for secluded cultivation was said to be within a certain palace deep in the East Sea.
Strictly speaking, that place wasn’t a secret realm, but with numerous arrays set up around it to isolate the interior from the exterior, it was almost comparable to a secret realm and could be considered highly guarded.
The three of them revealed their true Water Viper forms and fell into the sea, quickly swimming towards the ocean floor.
Along the way, they encountered quite a few sea-dwelling demonic beasts. However, as soon as these creatures approached, either Qin Zhou or Qin Ye would display a trace of Dragon’s Might, scaring them off in a flash.
Long Long watched clearly from the side, guessing that these aquatic demonic beasts had the fear of the Dragon Clan etched into their very bones.
As for those unruly and ferocious beasts that even dared to attack members of the Dragon Clan, they had long been exterminated countless times by the Azure Dragon Clan.
After crossing the vast and flat seabed, then a "forest" dense with seaweed, about three to four hours had passed before they reached a huge rift valley.
"It’s down there, and we have to dive quite deep," Qin Ye said with a flick of her snake tongue, she and her brother both had white scales in their true Water Viper forms.
"Alright," answered Long Long, whose own true form was that of a brown-scaled Water Viper.
The three Water Vipers cautiously swam downward along the edge of the rift valley since the center of the valley often contained violent and unpredictable currents that could easily sweep them away.
As the depth increased, the water pressure gradually began to mount.
A cultivator at the Foundation Establishment Refining Mansion stage would not be able to withstand the pressure in these conditions and would have to quickly swim upwards.
But as Water Vipers, a kind of draconic demonic beast, they had much greater bodily strength than ordinary demonic beasts and thus could endure the pressure.
Gradually, the faint environmental light that had been present began to disappear completely.
Although Water Vipers could see in the dark, they were helpless in the face of complete darkness, so Qin Zhou spat out a pearl, a naturally luminescent clam pearl, and manipulated it to keep sinking downwards.
After an unknown amount of time, specks of starlight suddenly appeared below.
"Be careful, those light sources are the range of the array," Qin Zhou warned, "Once you get trapped in it, you won’t be able to get out. Follow me."
He turned and swam away from the direction of the starlight, with Qin Ye and Long Long coiling their bodies and closely following behind him.
Unbeknownst to them, the light sources were left far behind, becoming fainter and fainter until they were just barely discernible specks of brightness.
"Should be here, right?" Qin Ye said.
"More or less," Qin Zhou turned back, estimated the distance from the light sources, and replied.
Long Long carefully observed his surroundings, only to see the dark and deep seawater everywhere, with no rock walls or strata in sight.
Could it be a Formation?
As he was thinking this, he saw Qin Ye also open his mouth and spit out a small Array flag.
The moment the Array flag appeared, bright lines suddenly emerged in the surrounding seawater.
These lines twisted rapidly, soon forming various intricate Runic Scripts and structures, and they were also rapidly rotating, about to form a three-dimensional and complicated Array.
Qin Ye proudly cracked a smile, then turned his head to see the surprise on Long Long’s face.
However, he only saw Long Long’s eyes widen, his golden vertical pupils almost stretching into straight lines... How should I put it? Although it was within expectations, his reaction was slightly exaggerated.
"This is an ancient Formation," Qin Zhou explained. "My sister and I discovered some clues by chance when going through the family archives, and only by coincidence did we find it."
"I see," Long Long said in a complex tone, his heart nevertheless tumultuous like raging waves.
Because the Runic Scripts and structures of this Formation were all too familiar to him.
Originally, when Luo Yan and Shi Liuli accidentally fell into the water in the Treasure Ship Secret Realm, they ended up trapped in the Gui Xu Palace. The Array in the palace courtyard, its Runic Scripts, and the structures here were clearly from the same source!
Long Long closely examined these Runic Scripts and structures and confirmed that the Formation here was a sub-array of the Gui Xu Palace Formation he had encountered before.
The Gui Xu Grand Formation was an extremely mysterious high-dimensional Array, which not only sealed off the space of the Gui Xu Palace tightly but also compressed time, making the flow of time inside slower relative to the outside world.
As for this Formation, it was merely an Array that compressed space, and its purpose should be...
While Long Long was calculating in his mind, he suddenly saw a black hole unfolding in the center of the Array, swallowing all the surrounding seawater along with Qin Zhou, Qin Ye, and himself with tremendous suction.
Oh, I see, its purpose is to open a Wormhole.
The seawater rushed out violently, followed by three Water Vipers landing on the floor tiles, rolling on the spot, and quickly transforming back into human forms.
Long Long turned his head to observe his surroundings and found that the Wormhole behind them had already closed.
They were now inside a stone chamber with a built-in bath at the center of the room, where the seawater was quickly draining away through small holes in the corners of the pool’s wall.
The holes were arranged in a plum blossom pattern, which suddenly reminded Long Long of when Ling Yunpo was in the Misty Forest of the Hundred Thousand Mountains, and the fish people had designed a "sauna salt extraction room," with the seawater flowing through similarly arranged small holes, even the plum blossom distribution pattern was exactly the same.
It’s just to say, "I’ve seen plenty of your tricks."
"This is one of the bathing pools of the Dragon Palace," Qin Ye introduced. "We secretly told Long Hu to set this place as her own private bathing pool so that the other guards wouldn’t rashly come here."
"And since the Formation is set outside and only opens inward during transport, even if clan members inspect this place, as long as the outside Formation is closed, it’s impossible to detect anything," Qin Zhou also said with a smile.
"Qin Zhou, Qin Ye, I owe you a great deal for this time..." Long Long then feigned an emotional expression and said tearfully, "A thousand words could not express my gratitude."
"No need to be polite, aren’t we friends?" said Qin Ye with a grin.
Indeed, Long Long also sighed inwardly.
As a spy serving multiple parties, he had been walking on the edge of calculation and malice for years, becoming indifferent.
Yet seeing these two siblings so sincere, wholeheartedly considering him and Long Hu, he too felt grateful.
If one day I run away with Long Hu, I shall not implicate you two!
I, Long Long, am consistent with my persona, and I do what I say!