As Fang Senyan lunged toward the water, his hand, intended for the fish's gills, was jolted by the bone-chilling lake water, causing him to only grasp the fish's body in a tremor. Though he hauled the creature to the surface, the fish possessed considerable might, its scales unnervingly slick. As its tail thrashed violently, it nearly escaped his grasp.

At that moment, Fang Senyan cast caution aside. His other hand shot out and clamped onto the gills. Despite tumbling completely into the water, no matter how the bizarre fish shuddered or struggled, or how water choked his throat, his grip on the gills remained absolute, unwavering.

Fortunately, Fang Senyan's strength at that juncture was immense. Even with the monstrous fish expending great force in its struggle, it could not match him. Over time, it naturally weakened. With a mighty heave, Fang Senyan flung it onto the shore. He scrambled and crawled ashore himself; the lake water was so bitterly cold that after this brief exposure, his vision was darkening, and his senses nearly failed him. Huddled near the fire, he trembled like a flickering candle in the wind, taking a long while to fully recover his breath.

Hungry and freezing, the two decided they had to gut the fish and eat it immediately. However, upon getting a clear look at the catch, they froze, an icy dread instantly surging up their spines.

The fish pulled from the water bore a hideous face, and even more disturbingly, a malevolent, cursing light shone from its eyes, glaring fixedly at them—it seemed almost human.

Fang Senyan, who had made a living fishing, measured his catches not by the "number" of fish, but by "tons." Yet, such an eerie creature, he had never encountered, nor even heard mention of.

Two green glints suddenly ignited in Fang Senyan's eyes, bringing to mind the image of a starved wolf. With a curse, he snatched up the axe they had scavenged and brought it down in a ferocious swing, cleanly severing the bizarre fish's head, responding to the damnable creature in kind.

After dispatching the fish, the subsequent tasks flowed smoothly for Fang Senyan: scaling, gutting, and so on. He recalled witnessing Mokansa, the master of wilderness survival, in action, and mimicked him by tossing the entrails into the water. He slashed the fish's body seven or eight times, horizontally and vertically, meticulously rinsing the blood from the muscle with water—thus eliminating nine-tenths of any potential toxins—before setting it over the fire to roast.

The fish was quite fatty. Despite the lack of seasoning, it sizzled invitingly as it cooked. Blowing off the surface ash revealed exceptionally white, steaming flesh—it looked perfect. However, after Reef took a bite, he almost immediately vomited, as the fish meat possessed an indescribable, foul, sour odor. Still, once they confirmed the fish was not poisonous, they pinched their noses and consumed the only available sustenance.

One fish certainly could not satisfy two ravenous appetites, but at least it filled the emptiness in their bellies, and their strength began to recover with the rest and the meal. Fang Senyan held his hands over the bonfire to warm them, staring at the pitch-black surface of the lake, and stated gravely, "We need to swim across."

Reef hesitated. "Shouldn't we wait for daylight?"

Fang Senyan slowly shook his head. "This damned place is intensely strange. The sooner we can leave, the better we should leave."

"But..." Though Reef was brave, looking out at the deep, dark lake made his eyes show hesitation. He could swim, and with his abilities as a Contractor, his stamina for crossing water should be fine. But swimming in such utter darkness was a first, not to mention the presence of those incredibly uncanny, human-faced monsters.

Fang Senyan pondered for a moment, then suddenly said with intensity, "We absolutely must reach the opposite shore before dawn."

Reef was startled. Fang Senyan articulated each word: "We entered this pine forest during the day, under the sun, and after a while, we were all poisoned, experiencing intense hallucinations. Even the Beastmen who live around here permanently were not spared. Yet, now that we are awake, we have lingered in the forest for a long time without any sign of poisoning."

"If the curse here is continuously active, then our poisoning should have deepened continuously; there's no way we would have woken up only now. Therefore, this curse is likely released intermittently based on some pattern... The last cycle was active during the day and disappeared at night."

"So, we have to get out of this cursed place before sunrise. Otherwise, we won't be so lucky to be tied down this time; we'll just wait here to die!"

After moving their limbs, the two broke off the trunks of two pine trees, using them as makeshift life preservers, and tossed them into the water before jumping in. The lake water was incredibly cold. Thankfully, they had warmed up their bodies before entering, or they might have immediately started shivering uncontrollably.

Although Fang Senyan had to bring the Elven girl along, his swimming skills were excellent, and with the tree trunks providing buoyancy, he didn't exert too much effort.

Silence reigned everywhere, broken only by the sound of their limbs cutting through the icy water. Both dared not converse, fearing the sound would attract some monster. The surrounding darkness was so dense it seemed completely impenetrable.

After entering the water, Reef noticed faint green glows emanating from Fang Senyan and the Elven girl. The girl's was likely the overflow of Nature's energy, while Fang Senyan’s was probably the effect of the Dawn Elf's blessing. Under the illumination of these small green lights, though they could clearly sense ribbon-like things darting swiftly and mysteriously beneath the water, the trio encountered no immediate danger.

However, after swimming for quite some time, Fang Senyan suddenly felt something was amiss. He lowered his voice to Reef. "Have you noticed the water getting warmer?"

Before Reef could reply, he suddenly spotted two concentrated points of green light materialize beside him in the water, rapidly approaching. In this eerie, dark environment, his entire body was maintained in a state of heightened combat readiness. Seeing the anomaly, he instinctively activated his lightsaber and slashed out abruptly!

Reef's close-combat attack power was quite respectable. This strike found its mark; a faint cloud of pale green luminescence immediately spread in the water, even casting a subtle emerald sheen on Fang Senyan's face. Clearly, the creature in the water had been severely wounded, its blood containing fluorescent components, thus creating this bizarre sight.

Yet, as the blood dispersed, the surrounding points of green light multiplied, indicating that the lake creatures were drawn by the scent of blood and were converging. Under these circumstances, Fang Senyan began to assist by swimming and fighting simultaneously; clumps of fluorescent green blood began to swirl in the water. By this faint light, one could vaguely see that the surrounding creatures were monstrous, bizarre fish, bearing a strong resemblance to the one they had eaten earlier. The wounded creature continuously bled its glowing green blood, and its brethren pounced upon it to devour the leakage, churning the lake water as if it were boiling.

Though Fang Senyan and Reef took the chance to swim away quickly, they were pursued by several tenacious monstrous fish. Ultimately, their movements were hampered underwater, and they were bitten.

These fish possessed incredibly sharp teeth. Once they bit, they left grotesque wounds; large chunks of flesh were torn away. Fang Senyan and Reef felt the wounds intensely itching and were abnormally cold, as if a chilling essence pierced directly from the injury to the bone, almost causing half their bodies to go completely numb.

Fortunately, Reef’s innate abilities included resistance to abnormal states, and Fang Senyan carried the Dawn Elf's blessing, inherently granting him resistance, so the cold essence within their bodies dissipated after raging briefly, and the bleeding gradually stopped.

While swimming forward and fending off the frenzied attacks of the monstrous fish, they were exhausted and scrambling for their lives when they realized the fish seemed to have lost their desire to attack and were slowly swimming away. Fang Senyan looked up and noticed a pale, fish-belly white tint appearing on the horizon. A chill flooded his heart. He didn't even take time to treat his wounds, frantically paddling forward. "Why would the monstrous fish abandon food and flee? There can only be one reason: dawn is breaking, and a more terrifying threat is about to appear—a threat that even these savage, cannibalistic fish fear to approach!"

Vague, shifting silhouettes of black forms finally appeared on the distant lake surface, but they remained indistinct in the weak morning light. Finally seeing hope of landing, the two mustered their last reserves of strength and paddled desperately, finally reaching the lake's edge. However, despair instantly enveloped them.

Looking as far as they could, the surrounding lake banks were nothing but sheer, smooth precipices. Although the height of the cliffs varied, the lowest points were easily two stories high. Without someone above to assist, climbing them by hand was impossible!

Upon reaching this point, Fang Senyan noticed the lake water growing progressively warmer. Despite facing such a despairing reality, they did not give up. They struggled to swim along the shore, hoping to find a lower spot to successfully land.

Just as they were about to collapse from exhaustion, a dangling black line appeared on the cliff face ahead. The two swiftly swam toward it and discovered it was a rope ladder suitable for climbing!

In that instant, a thousand thoughts raced through Fang Senyan's mind, but he did not hesitate. He hoisted the Misty Song girl onto his back and led the climb up the cliff using the rope ladder.