How to Bring Common Sense to Xianxia World

— Night - Mississippi River —

Two miles south of the military restricted area, aboard a rented leisure boat, Murphy sat patiently waiting for a fish to take the bait. Sarah was doing the same, but the fish they pulled from the water were nothing more than ordinary species commonly found in this part of the river.

"Sarah... if you want to rest, just say so. I don’t mind fishing with you. Why are you disguising it as work?" Murphy asked as he reeled in yet another fish from the river.

Sarah didn’t respond. She was completely frustrated. Even though she had caught quite a few fish, this wasn’t her goal at all.

"Hmm~ With this much fish, I won’t need to buy groceries for a few days. My wife is great at making fish dishes. If you have free time tomorrow, you’re welcome to have a meal at my house," Murphy said with a smile. He had already begun imagining a nice dinner filled with sumptuous dishes made from the fish they had caught.

"Aaaaah! This is not what I had in mind! I wasn’t here for a relaxing fishing trip!" Sarah finally snapped as she threw her fishing rod onto the deck.

Murphy looked at his friend from head to toe, one brow raised.

"But from where I’m sitting, aren’t you just fishing? Why? Do you think the fish are going to give you breaking news? You’re not so stressed out that you’re planning to interview the fish around here, right? Last I checked, you weren’t that far gone," Murphy asked curiously.

"Shut up, Murphy! I have a conjecture that Leviathan might be an extraterrestrial species! And this river is the first place where Leviathan appeared! It even showed up alongside that pillar of light anomaly! People on the internet believe there’s a portal underwater that leads to an alien civilization!" Sarah presented her case enthusiastically.

"Sarah... don’t tell me you actually believe the nonsense that conspiracy theorists post online? Aren’t we investigative journalists? Why are you believing the stuff that unemployed people spend all day making up?" Murphy asked skeptically.

"Murphy! We need something to start with, and this theory is highly plausible! I know some university professors who agreed with me, but now they’ve all gone quiet! They must have been threatened into silence by the government!"

"There has to be a portal underwater! Otherwise, where did Leviathan come from? Why did that pillar of light anomaly suddenly appear!?" Sarah argued passionately.

"Are you sure you haven’t been watching too much Stargate?" Murphy retorted.

Hearing that, Sarah immediately shut up. She let out an annoyed harrumph, then stomped into the cabin to change into a diving suit and prepare her diving equipment.

"Sarah?" Murphy called out to her, but Sarah continued preparing her diving equipment, checking the oxygen tank and adjusting her diving mask.

"What are you going to do, Sarah?" Murphy asked. His voice was no longer relaxed.

"Doing my job!" she replied as she pulled down her scuba mask. "Investigating!" Sarah said, then checked her diving gear and tools one last time.

"Sarah, tell me you’re joking. This is no different from suicide! Do you think those military guys are stupid? They’re surely patrolling the river!"

"I’m not joking!" Sarah shouted before jumping into the river.

Splash!

"Sarah! Sarah!" Murphy tried calling after his friend, but once Sarah disappeared beneath the water, there was nothing he could do.

It was the middle of the night, and he had no idea where the stubborn woman had gone.

He couldn’t swim, and Sarah had already dived deep enough that he could no longer see the underwater flashlight she was using.

"Stupid idiot!" Murphy cursed as he tried to think of a way to help his friend.

...

On Sarah’s side, she was swimming underwater. The flashlight wasn’t powerful enough to illuminate much beneath the river in the middle of the night.

But somehow... she felt as though something was guiding her.

She had the strange feeling that if she kept swimming straight ahead, she would finally find what she was looking for.

On the surface, Sarah miraculously slipped past the patrols as if they had never detected her at all. Despite the air bubbles occasionally rising to the surface and the patrol boats sweeping the river with powerful searchlights, nobody seemed to notice her.

Sarah continued her dive.

Originally, she had planned to search for unusual fish, believing there must be some kind of alien species living beneath the water.

But somehow... her objective had changed.

Instead of searching for fish, she found herself heading straight toward the military restricted area.

Unconsciously, she continued swimming toward the portal, as if some mysterious force were guiding her. Even more strangely, her oxygen supply seemed miraculously sufficient for the journey.

The impossible had occurred.

With only two oxygen tanks, she had traveled more than ten miles underwater, eventually arriving at the submerged cave that contained the portal.

There were clear signs of human activity around the site. Measurement devices, cables, and various pieces of expensive-looking equipment had been set up around the portal for testing and observation.

Sarah pulled out her underwater camera and took several pictures of the portal.

Under normal circumstances, she would have immediately retreated after obtaining such valuable evidence.

But...

Unconsciously, she slowly swam toward the portal and reached out to touch the thin energy screen.

Whoosh!

A powerful force suddenly seized her body and pulled her forward.

Alarmed, Sarah tried to retreat, but it happened too quickly for her to react.

The next moment, she appeared in a strange place.

It was a massive underground cave, even larger than the military base on the other side.

The cave was completely dry, allowing her to breathe without relying on her oxygen tanks.

Looking around at the unfamiliar surroundings, Sarah found herself unconsciously wandering deeper into the cavern.

Inside, she could clearly see signs of human activity.

There were wooden structures, strange pieces of equipment, large plates engraved with symbols resembling Chinese trigrams, and numerous inscriptions that looked like Chinese characters.

But since Sarah wasn’t a linguistics expert, she couldn’t tell whether the writing was Chinese, Japanese, or Korean.

To her, they all looked the same.

There were clear traces of human activity, and it seemed that some kind of construction work was taking place near the portal. Yet she hadn’t seen a single person in the vast cave.

But then... her question was answered.

After about five minutes of wandering, she spotted a large camp.

The camp looked like a worker’s camp...

No!

It looked more like the camps she had seen in Chinese historical war dramas.

That’s right!

The camp looked exactly like something from a Three Kingdoms drama.

A military camp!

She cautiously approached the camp with her camera in hand.

Then suddenly, a person jumped out from inside the camp!

No, it wasn’t just one person.

A whole group of them emerged at once!

They wore black ancient Chinese armor and appeared out of nowhere, surrounding her while speaking in a language she couldn’t understand.

"你是谁!? 凡人,为何擅闯此地!此乃禁地!"

(Who are you!? Why are you here, mortal!? This is a restricted area!)

Wait, was it Chinese?

It should be Chinese, right?

Then...

"你好!" "谢谢" "谢谢" "谢谢"

(Hello! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!)

Sarah said while awkwardly cupping her fists together, imitating what she remembered from Chinese wuxia dramas.

And it worked!

These black-armored people, who had looked hostile a moment ago, began talking among themselves.

They must have realized she came in peace!

"Who is this idiot golden-haired mortal? Why is she suddenly thanking us?" one of the black-armored guards asked his companion.

"How would I know? Maybe she’s lost. Look, she suddenly bowed and started saying thank you!" another black-armored guard pointed at Sarah.

"你好!" "谢谢" "谢谢" "谢谢"

(Hello! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!)

"What a pity. She’s quite beautiful, but there’s clearly something wrong with her head. Her parents must have had a hard time raising her," another black-armored guard said sympathetically.

"Yeah, and her clothes are strange too. Why is she carrying two chunks of iron junk on her back? Is she so poor that she has to haul scrap metal around to sell?" another black-armored guard chimed in.

"Other than having a problem with her head, she seems harmless. She doesn’t have an ounce of cultivation," one of the black-armored guards said.

"Whatever. We’ll detain her first, then let Mr. Wei decide what to do with her," the black-armored guard concluded.

The group then dispersed, leaving only two guards behind.

One of the black-armored guards walked up to Sarah and sealed her acupoints, instantly preventing her from moving.

"Hey! What are you doing!? Let me go! Argh!"

Sarah shouted and struggled to resist, but the guard’s response was to seal her mute acupoint as well.

The moment he tapped her, her voice disappeared.

"Mmmph! Mmmph!"

She could only glare at them in panic and frustration.

"Do you know what she’s saying? What a weird woman," the first black-armored guard asked his friend.

"You’re asking me? And who am I supposed to ask next?" the second guard replied.