Just as I was about to take the last sip of water, my mouth was suddenly covered by a cold, small mouth, followed by a rush of hot air flooding my throat. This burst of warmth stimulated my atrophied nerves like an electric shock, and the innate survival instinct blossomed fiercely in my heart. I instinctively bit back at that small mouth, greedily drawing in the ever-weakening warmth until a faint sound of muffled protest startled me awake. I opened my eyes and vaguely saw a pale, pretty face—none other than Qin Bing'er!

I quickly released my mouth. Qin Bing'er kicked her legs and shot to the surface of the water like an arrow.

As the word "narrow escape" was still forming in my mind, a wide, dark maw suddenly appeared before my eyes. That mouth was so familiar, so shocking, dredging up a painful memory from the depths of my heart—only Man Niao Niao’s mouth could make me feel that the dark was better than plain water!

That big mouth, ignoring my feelings, moved left and right before my eyes, growing ever more imposing, seemingly searching for where my mouth was.

I desperately leaned my head back, trying to maintain the greatest distance from that large mouth, while the water pouring into my nostrils kept making muffled sounds.

The mouth seemed to hear the sounds and lunged straight toward the source of the noise. I was terrified out of my wits, flailing my hands and feet randomly. In the chaos, I accidentally saw a silver, gleaming sword stuck beneath my foot. I certainly didn't have time to wonder how that sword got there. I managed to bend down, grip the hilt, and pull, but it wouldn't budge. I paused for a fraction of a second, thrust my legs out like vines, pushed off Man Niao Niao’s body violently, and pulled with my arms. With a dull clank, I actually pulled the sword free. Without hesitation, I held the hilt tightly and wildly slashed through the water. Perhaps it wasn't my time to die; the sword was extraordinarily sharp. After just a few swings, the vines surrounding me were cut into several pieces, and I was finally free from their entanglement.

I dared not delay any longer. I kicked my legs like a pair of scissors and managed to surface, barely making it.

The entire process, from falling into the water until I resurfaced, was actually very short, maybe only about two minutes. So many things hadn't had time to happen—for instance, why hadn't Qin Bing'er and Man Niao Niao, who fell in after me, thought of pulling me up by the vines? I later learned they were also panicked at the time; the torch had been extinguished by the water, plunging them into darkness, and they couldn't see my situation at all.

As soon as I broke the surface, I quickly tossed that life-saving treasured sword onto the dam. I propped my hands on the edge of the dam, used the water's buoyancy, and repeatedly pushed my belly up against the edge, squeezing the sewage I had swallowed out. This process was agony; the foul water erupted from my nostrils and mouth, and the torment brought tears welling up in my eyes. However, fortunately, the discomfort in my internal organs was significantly alleviated.

My senses somewhat cleared. I turned my head left and right and saw Qin Bing'er and Man Niao Niao adopting the same posture, gasping for air while draped over the dam's edge.

“Ying... is that you?” Qin Bing’er couldn’t see but asked in a hoarse voice upon hearing the noise I made.

“It’s me... thanks to that breath you gave me, or I would have been finished... Uncle Bird, how are you feeling?” Hearing Qin Bing’er ask, I figured she was mostly fine, so I turned to ask Man Niao Niao, who was hanging onto the dam edge.

“Heh heh! Not dead! It’s just that the taste of this water is truly beyond description! Definitely not up to national standards.” This fellow, always wearing a playful, roguish expression, still had the energy for witty banter even after being tossed around and exhausted. Damn it!

The three of us clung to the dam edge, unwilling to linger. Once we felt slightly better, we quickly climbed onto the top of the dam. As I sat up, I saw that fellow Hua'er was once again wandering around on the back of that giant turtle, exhibiting a look of unresolved greed.

“It was all thanks to this sword!” I picked up the completely black sword from the ground, saying with lingering fear.

“What sword?” Man Niao Niao asked curiously. “Where did you get a sword, you son of a tortoise?”

I froze, then realized Man Niao Niao couldn't see. I gathered the scattered dry twigs on the ground into a small pile and reached out to Man Niao Niao for his lighter. Man Niao Niao fumbled in his pouch for a moment and handed me the lighter. This guy's lighter was a high-end gadget, windproof and waterproof, so even though Man Niao Niao was soaking wet, the lighter hadn't been affected at all. It caught fire immediately, and a patch of snowy white radiance gradually emanated on the dam, bringing the expressions of Qin Bing’er and Man Niao Niao fully into view.

I picked up the sword and swung it through the air, conjuring a chilling cold wind. “This is it!”

Man Niao Niao lunged forward and snatched the sword, then began to blurt out nonsense without restraint. “Damn it, this is a treasured sword! Look how fast this edge is, oh, and the hilt is shaped like a tiger, ha ha, we hit the jackpot, we hit the jackpot!” He acted wildly, holding the tiger-shaped hilt and striking a few grand poses like a swordsman in a TV drama. —You have to admit, it actually had a certain flair!

In my opinion, the sword looked quite ordinary: the blade was about three fingers wide, and the tip was rather blunt, resembling the Yue King Sword somewhat. Apart from the unique tiger-shaped hilt, there were no other markings on the blade, and it was impossible to tell what material it was forged from. Even though this thing had been submerged in water for an unknown length of time, there wasn't a speck of rust, and touching it felt bone-chillingly cold.

“Where did you find it?” Man Niao Niao asked seriously after examining it for a while.

“Under the water. After I fell, I was entangled by vines. After Bing’er gave me air, I saw your big mouth searching for mine. In my panic, I struggled repeatedly and inadvertently saw this sword flashing white light stuck at the bottom of the water. I tugged at it twice before I could pull it out and hack through the vines, saving my life.”

“White light?” Man Niao Niao’s eye sockets widened. “Are you messing with me? This sword is completely pitch-black; how could it emit white light?”

Hmm? Man Niao Niao’s words reminded me. It was dark underwater, and my eyes could only perceive black and white. It was precisely because this sword emitted white light that I discovered it in the darkness. Why had it turned black on shore? Oxidized?

I snatched the sword and half-submerged it in the water. The submerged portion appeared as white as snow to my eyes again, and a halo of white light spread around the blade. This sudden change stunned me speechless, and I inwardly trembled. This sword was indeed extraordinary! —I later learned that this sword, retrieved from underwater, was the legendary Ba King Sword of the Tujia people, said to be the personal weapon of Lord Lin Jun back in the day. Unfortunately, this priceless sacred object didn't stay with me for long; I accidentally lost it during a later incident.

At that moment, seeing the Ba King Sword display two different colors underwater and above water sparked infinite curiosity in me. How could this seemingly ordinary, yet clearly extraordinary, sharp sword be stuck in this pool? My curiosity grew stronger and stronger until I couldn't control it. I said goodbye to Qin Bing’er and Man Niao Niao, grabbed the vines submerged in the water, tied them around my waist, and instructed them to hold tightly to one end while I dove to the bottom to investigate thoroughly.

It was naturally dark underwater, and using a torch was impossible, but my special eyes solved that problem. Coupled with the white light emitted by the Ba King Sword illuminating a certain range, after swimming around a few laps underwater holding my breath, I finally managed to get a basic understanding of the seabed—the bottom was very flat, with scattered small rocks, none of them large. They were clearly not naturally occurring. Other than that, there were no other extraneous objects, not even silt, let alone aquatic plants or decaying leaves. There were also no aquatic animals, as if the seabed had been cleaned by someone recently.

However, what shocked me so much that I almost choked on a mouthful of water was that the platform I had initially speculated about was not a platform at all, but another giant turtle lying on its back in the water. In the snow-white light of the Ba King Sword, I clearly saw the giant turtle’s hemispherical shell and the distinct patterns on it... No wonder when we stepped on the so-called "platform" it shook violently and capsized. Imagine the weight of several people, two or three hundred jin, standing on the edge of a huge, inverted hemisphere—if it didn’t tilt, that would be the real miracle!

Just as I was preparing to surface to report this earth-shattering discovery to Qin Bing’er and Man Niao Niao, my gaze was snagged by something black and thick—it vaguely resembled a heavy iron chain. One end of the chain was exactly where the Ba King Sword had been stuck, and the other end connected to the other end of the giant turtle. Following the chain, I reached the giant turtle’s rear, only to be horrified to find that the thick iron chain was firmly locking the turtle’s rear, while four bright, round, large eyes stared at me.

I held the Ba King Sword in front of my chest and, suppressing my pounding heart, looked closer. I realized that two of the four eyes belonged to this inverted giant turtle, while the other two belonged to the snake-like creature I had seen first—that creature was naturally the head of the green-furred giant turtle that Hua'er was currently standing on.

At that moment, the green-furred giant turtle had something in its mouth, feeding its inverted companion!

These two giant turtles, one inverted and one upright, had a hint of "Yin" and "Yang" about them, or perhaps describing them as "Qian" and "Kun" would be more accurate!