Rise of the Demon God

Long Chen reacted fast and jumped after Little Snow in the pond without thinking anything else

The water was cold to the touch as if it was the freeing water near a glacier in the Arctic.

If an average human had jumped into the water, they would instantly die because of the cold temperature, but the freezing temperature of the water didn't have much effect on Long Chen. 

He had covered his body with a thin layer of Qi to protect himself from the cold.

As Long Chen jumped down, he saw that the water was actually crystal clear. It was only the top surface that had turned red; the rest of the water inside the pond was still looking like regular water.

Chu Miao also jumped into the pond, but before she could swim much deeper, she had to swim outside. She wasn't able to bear the temperature of the water. It was affecting her much more than it was affecting Long Chen. No matter how determined she wanted, she couldn't go after Long Chen. 

She got out of the water, but she was still shivering. Her hands had stopped working efficiently, but she was still more worried about Long Chen than about her condition.

Long Chen was still swimming downwards, chasing after Little Snow.

He swam down for over half an hour, but they didn't seem to be getting close to the true depth of the ponds.

The pond was much deeper than he had expected.

After ten more minutes, he finally reached the depths of the pond and saw Little Snow standing on the ground.

He saw a little fish lying in front of Little Snow.

The fish had a snow-white color, but a red tail.

It was lying on the ground, lifeless, without any movement. Long Chen tried using his divine sense once more, and it worked. The only difference was that this time his divine sense was working inside the pond, but it didn't spread outside the pond.

'So it's that red layer that is stopping my Divine Sense. When I was outside, I couldn't see inside, and when I'm inside, I can't see outside,' he thought.

He focused on the fish in front of him.

'I can't see any life force from it, but there's still some Qi that can be felt inside its body,'

'It's most certainly dead. I can see it, but it's really strange to see a Divine Prosperity Fish in the Mortal World,' Xun told him as she appeared beside him.

'The Divine Prosperity Fish?' Long Chen inquired in surprise. He hadn't heard about that beast before Xun mentioned it.

'Yeah, it's a rare fish that's mostly found in Higher Realms. Only the Kings and their ministers have the right to capture these fishes and keep them in their ponds,' Xun replied.

'Is there anything special about this fish?' Long Chen asked, curiously.

'Yeah, as the name suggests, it's a fish that is said to bring prosperity to a person. It was said that if a king had a Divine Prosperity Fish, the chances of him losing any wars were almost negligible,'  Xun explained to him.

'Could it be that the fish had died before the calamity struck on the Divine Heaven Sect?' Long Chen asked in confusion.

'From its size, it's clear that it's not even 20 thousand years old. It didn't die for natural reasons. The average life expectancy of a Divine Prosperity Fish is 100 thousand years,' Xun told him.

'So someone killed it? Could it be the ones that caused all this destruction?' Long Chen asked her.

Before he could get an answer, his mind was diverted by something else. 

He saw Little Snow moving closer to the fish.

Long Chen was standing at such an angle that he couldn't see Little Snow's eyes, but if he could, he would be able to see that her eyes were shining at the moment as she closed the distance between her and the fish.

Little Snow moved her paw forward and touched the Divine Prosperity Fish.

The Divine Prosperity Fish that seemed to be dead abruptly opened its eyes. It watched Little Snow with its innocent eyes that still looked weak. The Fish only watched Little Snow but didn't move its body. It was unclear if it didn't move intentionally, or if it couldn't.

A small spark of happiness could be seen in the Divine Prosperity Fish's eyes as it started shining.

It was shining so brightly that even Long Chen was having a hard time watching it.

The fish turned into a small speck of light that started floating towards Little Snow.

Little Snow opened its mouth and let the speck of light enter her body, which got absorbed by her.

"Impossible!" Xun exclaimed as if she saw something she couldn't believe.

'Did little snow eat that fish? Well, I know she's an Ethereal Moon Cat and cats like fish, but that wasn't what I expected," Long Chen exclaimed with a weird look on his face. 

"Why are you so shocked about it?" Long Chen asked Xun, who still seemed stunned.

"That's not eating. It's life absorption! Something only King God Beasts can do! She shouldn't be able to do it if she wasn't a King God Beast herself!" Xun exclaimed.

"A King God Beast?" Long Chen asked her.

"There are 9 God Beast Clans, and each of these clans has a King or a Queen. Those are the King God Beasts. Life Absorption is something only they can do," Xun said.

"I still don't understand what this Life Absorption is," Long Chen let out in confusion.

"When there's a beast that is so devoted to someone that it wants to give its life to a King God Beast, it can do that. The King God Beast that gets the sacrifice gets the memories of that beast, its life, and its skills," Xun exclaimed.

"So if an Ice Phoenix gives its life to the Flame Phoenix King, the Flame Phoenix King will get the powers of Ice Phoenixes? This thing can be problematic between the relations of the nine clans you talked about," Long Chen said.

"There's a limitation to that. If the powers aren't compatible with the powers of the King God Beast, they won't get the powers, but they will still get the memories and the life force. The ice isn't compatible with fire, so the example you gave won't work. It's mostly similar to other God Beast Clans as well," Xun said.

Long Chen looked back at Little Snow, who seemed to be standing still. He was about to walk towards her before he got a flash of memory in his mind.

He saw the Divine Prosperity Fish swimming in the water. It saw a shadow above the water, but the fish couldn't see who that shadow belonged to. Soon, the water turned poisonous, and the Fish started having difficulty breathing. 

Its body stopped moving as it dropped down at the bottom of the pond. Not long after that, it lost its life.

The memory stopped.

"I received some memories. You were right. The fish was killed. The pond was poisoned by someone," Long Chen told Xun.

"I thought so. You probably got some memories as well because you're linked to her. It was clear, though. There's no way it could die at such a young age; otherwise," Xun replied.

Little Snow returned back to normal as it ignorantly looked towards Long Chen.

It swam towards Long Chen and jumped into his embrace.

'You little evil, go back to the ring for now,'

Long Chen sent Little Snow back in the Beast Region of his storage ring and started swimming upwards.

Soon, he was out of the water. His clothes were dripping wet.

"You're back. Are you fine?" Chu Miao stood up as she saw Long Chen.