Archfiend

Chapter 183: Danxia Temple (2)

A single line was like a thunderclap in the darkness. From shock, everyone regained their wits. A cultivator operating a giant tortoise didn’t utter a second word and squeezed in another two spirit stones. The light within the giant tortoise’s eyes became golden, and he turned his head and said: “Fellow Daoist! It’s already at the fastest speed! Five minutes! The fastest we can get to the storage site is five minutes!”

Gurgle gurgle gurgle… A strong bloody smell wafted in the air. Afterwards… there were ten-plus sounds of paddling movement on the water’s surface. In the darkness, below the water, and all around, the creatures swam towards the ten-odd giant tortoises!

“Five Thunders Law… Spiritsevering Storm!” Yang Xueqing softly cried out, and an endless amount of blue qi converged within her two hands. Following this sudden arrival of brightness, everyone saw clearly in an instant.

This place… even now it was mystery as to how high and wide it was. At the minimum, it was 300 meters in radius! The water surface was suffused with an abnormal wretched green. In such a large space, this location was already a small lake. It absolutely wasn’t some entry stream!

Ten-plus meters above them was the cave’s roof, yet in the water… over a dozen fins cut out several-meter-long triangular waves. These fins just happened to be swimming towards them at a flying speed!

As for each fin, they were all over five meters! In other words, these things below the water were at least seven to eight meters! That was a length sufficient to swallow two to three people!

Woosh woosh woosh! An untold amount of thunder gathered in Yang Xueqing’s hand. In the next second, two thunder orbs suddenly flashed. She gently beckoned, and the two thunder orbs immediately flew to the lake center. Roughly two meters apart from the lake water, the endless thunderbolts struck the water in the wake of her command spell!

Boom boom boom! The lake water boiled in a flash! However… the following occurrence caused everyone to be completely stunned! 

Just as the thunder orb was about to devastate the small lake, all of a sudden, an immense silhouette leaped out high from the lake, Beneath bluish-white thunder, everyone clearly saw this monster’s figure.

It… was a full seven to eight meters, a strange fish! However, It was different from other fishes. Its mouth was broad and long, and looking from the profile, It resembled a swordfish! As for the head of this seemingly duck-billed fish, Its mouth occupied ninety percent of it. The inside of this mouth was all frightening, densely packed, and finger-sized teeth! Under Its mouth, there was even a sack-like thing. It had no scales for defense and presented a kind of bizarre color of interweaved blank and pink.

Time seemed to halt at this instant. In the darkness, merely the brightness caused this monstrous fish to appear to recognize that It had leaped an entire two meters out of the water. The giant mouth opened, almost reaching a meter’s distance! The fish exhausted all of Its strength and chomped! 

Swoosh… Light faded away again. In a twinkling, the two thunder orbs had surprisingly been swallowed by this monstrous fish!

Yang Xueqing watched all of this in disbelief. Immediately, she threw out another thunder orb without the slightest hesitation. This time, it cautiously ascended to the cave top.

“Nothing?!” Jun Man gasped coldly and jerked up to his feet. He looked at the water, not daring to believe.

That monstrous fish that had swallowed the thunder orb… not the slightest thing had actually happened. On the contrary, ten-plus fins were revolving around the surroundings of the thunder orb in the air, moreover eager to give it a try.

“W-what frickin’ monster is this?!” Zhao Wuye’s eyes were fairly reddened. Zhao Mingfeng… Old Seven and him were rather familiar with each other, but how could he have expected that in this darkness, Zhao Mingfeng would be carelessly seized of his life by this giant fish in such manner!

“I don’t know.” Xu Yangyi’s face was extremely grave. These fishes… were too strange! The Vajra Formation hadn’t reacted, demonstrating that they didn’t bear any qi! Nonetheless, the fish had eaten Yang Xueqing’s divine ability moments ago! To his surprise, nothing had happened?

How could a body without the support of qi possibly swallow a divine ability? The inside of the fish’s stomach hadn’t been blown to smithereens?

“I-I probably know…” Zhou Tingting’s stupefied voice was heard from behind. When she had heard that Danxia Temple’s secret realm could be entered, she likewise hadn’t been scared but rather followed in company. 

“T-this is an alligator gar…” It went without saying that she loved to read all kinds of news and information. At this moment, she was looking below the water, her eyes wide and mouth foolish: “This creature… has already existed for over a 100 million years… It has n-never been born within China but in America. Moreover, it absolutely doesn’t grow THIS big! Its mouth is also unable to open, and it never attacks people! N-now, how…”

“This isn’t a pure alligator gar.” Xu Yangyi narrowed his eyes and looked at the fins: “I don’t what it is, but there wasn’t any reaction from the Vajra Formation. This indicates that this thing is purely an organism of the natural world.”

“A creature of the natural world?!” Zhao Fenglai said hatefully: A creature of the natural world is capable of swallowing a cultivator’s arcane effort?!”

Xu Yangyi brushed an eye over him: “Don’t forget where this is.” He used his foot to stamp on the tortoise’s back and said lowly: “Here… everything is possible.” He had another word, but he didn’t speak. 

If… the underside truly was the lotus sea… If… that unfathomable creature, simply impossible for it to be on Earth, truly existed… In that case… these fishes were quite possibly Its disciples!

The inside… has long since been reformed into another world by the other! An abnormal ecosphere completely different from regions familiar to humanity! Not to mention alligator gars, it wouldn’t even be odd if gar demons appeared!

He laughed wrly. It it was truly like this, for him to be capable of returning alive from that year was practically a titanic miracle! 

“Jun Man, you bring up the rear.” He finished speaking, and his whole body’s spiritual force revolved to the peak. His voice low, he said: “Everyone, advance at full speed! Regardless of who’s left behind, it doesn’t matter!”

A battle in such a place with these kinds of monsters didn’t hold a chance at victory whatsoever!

“Alright!” Jun Man didn’t hesitate in the slightest and lightly jumped, arriving on the last giant tortoise. Soon afterwards, his body began to swell up like a balloon!

In the next instant, countless plant roots burst forth from his veins. He appeared to immediately transform into a plant man! As for these plants, each root was growing with ten-plus-centimeter barbs! Beneath the lightning, one could even see the aqua-blue edge of these tips that obviously carried a severe poison!

More importantly… these plants carried a vile stench that caused one a desire to vomit upon smelling them. An endless amount of plants frantically swung out behind the group and transformed into a giant net! It was distantly opposed to the alligator gars at the rear!

Crash… All of a sudden, two alligator gars leapt out from the water surface and fiercely battered Jun Man’s large net! Two enormous maws, sufficient to swallow an adult male, spread open to their utmost limit! Inside, rows of horrific teeth produced a cold glimmering light!

“Close!” A roar that exhausted his strength came from Jun Man’s mouth. In this twinkling moment, the plant roots changed more again! All of them suddenly contracted! They formed an immense plant net, wrapping up the two alligators gars high in up air!

Legions of aqua-blue barbs immediately entered the alligator gars’ bodies. At the same time, Jun Man gritted his teeth and severed the plants all over him. Countless blood arrows violently jetted forth from his body! Nonetheless, his expression was unconcerned.

“I can maintain this for twenty minutes. He wiped the bloodstain at the side of his mouth and asked gruffly: “Can we get there?!”

“We definitely can!” Zhao Wuye eyed the water fixedly, but without any pause, he deeply gritted his teeth. He forced himself to turn his head back and commanded the giant tortoise ahead with maximum power.

Before they came, they had all written wills. Now… there wasn’t anything to easy to say, merely life and death were ruled by fate, riches and honor in heaven’s ear. Furthermore… the present situation still hadn’t surpassed the cultivators’ imaginations. Not a single person knew… what secrets were hiding below.

In several decades, Zhao Wuye would advance to Foundation Establishment and become China’s most famous explorer, scouting countless secret realms throughout his life. However, only when someone asked him about his first secret realm did he turn tight-lipped, not answering a single word.

Giant tortoises cut traces across the water’s surface. Each minute dragged past like a year. No one knew whether or not there were even more mutant gars underneath!

Behind, the crashing sound of leaping water and the information of a heavy object falling into the water constantly beat each person’s mental state. No one looked back. All of them unwaveringly stared ahead.

Ten minutes passed. The front of everyone was already becoming brighter and brighter. There was a dimly visible giant cave that was over a thousand meters in size. Rays of sunlight directly shot down from above it.

In the darkness, light reappeared. Everyone took a collective sigh and suddenly discovered that the alligator gars that could oddly leap out of the water, bite, and sink into the water and circle had disappeared.

Zhao Wuye wiped the cold sweat on his head. He knew that in this tremendous space, there existed a path… A path that lead directly to the honeycomb wall! And there, the Zhao Clan had placed an ancestor’s magik treasure! It was enough to ensure their security!

“Fellow Daoists! These are the final three minutes! Keep holding on!” His voice was somewhat hoarse. He waved powerfully, and the giant tortoise charged over like lightning.

Xu Yangyi didn’t speak and his expression was like a lake. It was unknown what he was thinking of. He merely looked at the jade slip in his hand, pensive in his thoughts.

The cave was getting close and closer. Everyone could see it clear and even the cultivators brought by the Zhao Clan had already fell to sit down on their giant tortoises’ backs. They clutched at their chests and exhaled heavily.

Not a single one of those alligator gars came chasing. It was as if it was merely this much, and they had lost their interest towards them. Or perhaps they really couldn’t give chase. To be short, behind them was a quiet expanse. There was only Jun Man’s deathly pale face as he took pill elixir to stabilize his breathing.

Three minutes later, Zhao Wuye beared the brunt and charged to the cave. Shortly afterwards, everyone’s giant tortoise sailed in. This was a tremendous cavern no less than 1100 to 1200 meters.

Above, unknown as to where they lead and at the cave top of unknown height, there were countless holes spilling rays of sunshine. Beneath the sunlight, the dim-green water seemed to transform into pieces of jade. Yet in this tremendous cave, at the deepest part, there was a vacant isle-like space. It was connected to a clearly man-made excavated tunnel.

“This is the place… This is the place!” At last, Zhao Fenglai fully set his heart at ease and soundlessly sighed. He looked at the last giant tortoise.

There, besides Jun Man, was a corpse.

Zhao Mingfeng, by the alligator gar’s bite just now, had a full half of his body chomped off. At this moment, no one moved. The mangled corpse was reclining there as before.