"A UFO, could it be? The bronze gate actually leads inside a UFO, this is..." Nie Chuan muttered to himself in disbelief.

But in my own mind, I was saying, "It seems everything Grandpa said in my dreams was true. If we hadn't come down now, we surely would have been carried off to some unknown place."

While feeling grateful to Grandpa, my thoughts returned to his final words—that this was all he could do to help, that he had tried his utmost.

Had something happened to Grandpa?

The thought sent a jolt of panic through me. I turned to Nie Chuan and asked, "Xiao Chuan, after we return to the country this time, can I come home with you and ask your grandfather about the package?"

Nie Chuan paused, then asked, "Have you figured something out?"

I shook my head, pondered for a moment, and replied, "No, I just... want to be involved in the investigation."

Nie Chuan didn't hesitate, nodding, "Of course. I was just worrying about not having any help."

Daxiong chimed in from the side, "Instead of figuring out what to do when we get back, shouldn't we focus on how to find Yu Ting and the others?"

Nie Chuan then said, "Finding them won't be hard. I just thought of it: since the river in the medicine garden is an artificially constructed ornamental stream, it must pass through other parts of the shrine, or at least lead outside. If we can just get out, we can circle around to the main entrance and try again."

In the end, our objective remained to avoid that stretch of bamboo forest. Although this approach felt overly cautious, no one was willing to take the risk when caution was paramount.

Nie Chuan's idea gained the approval of the other two. Even the thought of the river's icy chill made us shiver, but it was the only viable option.

Having decided, the three of us headed straight for the small river.

After doing some warm-up exercises by the bank, we plunged into the water one by one.

The previous time we fell into the river it was night; now, in broad daylight, we took a good look around.

We found no fences or walls on either side, but the river channel on the right took a sharp bend, suggesting it led toward the central area of the shrine.

So, Nie Chuan and I decided to swim in the direction of the bend.

However, once the decision was made, we looked for Daxiong only to find he had vanished.

At first, I was puzzled, but then I immediately understood where the guy had gone.

When climbing the wire fence earlier, Daxiong had thrown away all his valuables to lighten his load; he must be going shopping now.

After waiting a short while, Daxiong indeed surfaced with a few strings of gold necklaces, grinning widely.

We were speechless and didn't know what to say.

Then we followed the river's current toward the bend.

The scenery along the banks wasn't consistently beautiful like the gravel beach; as we moved forward, weeds grew thicker along the banks, making the area look somewhat messy.

Soon, we neared the almost ninety-degree turn, and at this point, the current began to grow swift.

While turbulence at a bend is naturally expected, I suddenly grew tense, feeling as if a great stone was pressing on my chest, making it hard to breathe.

It wasn't long before I discovered the cause of my breathlessness.

In the sunlight, I saw beneath the water’s surface a reddish creature, roughly two meters wide and five or six meters long, faintly emitting a cool, blue luminescence.

So I shouted, "Quick, watch out! There's a giant glowing fish in the water!"

The roar of the river echoed in our ears. Although I shouted loudly, the other two didn't seem to hear clearly; they looked at me with confused expressions and asked, "Huh? What did you say?"

Seeing that we were rapidly approaching the colossal fish, which had opened its massive jaws as if to swallow us whole, I stopped talking. I shoved Daxiong and Nie Chuan hard to either side and then plunged headfirst into the water.

I dove as deep as possible in the shortest time. In the chaos, I suddenly felt something bump against my back.

Luckily, the object was soft, allowing me to brush past it.

After swimming underwater for another thirty meters or so, I finally dared to surface.

When I broke the surface, I saw Daxiong and Nie Chuan right beside me.

"How did you see that huge thing just now? I didn't see any glowing big fish at all," Daxiong asked, panicked.

I looked at Nie Chuan; he shook his head too, indicating he hadn't seen anything.

It finally dawned on me: perhaps only I could see it. It must be because I absorbed so much Nian remaining in the giant spider's mouth that I could see it.

And that faint glowing substance must be the Nian emanating from the creature's body.

But over the years, I noticed color differences. I wonder what white Nian signifies, and what the blue Nian of that great fish represented.

As I was thinking, a sudden splash erupted behind us. We saw a black dorsal fin rise above the surface, seemingly as large as the sail of a small fishing boat.

"No time to chat, that thing is catching up!" Nie Chuan yelled at us before swimming off ahead.

We quickly followed suit, kicking furiously.

But how could humans outswim a fish? Although we were swept downstream, swimming at full speed, the commotion from the great fish's movement soon caught up to us.

Daxiong grew desperate, cursing, "Damn it, being chased and killed for days on end! I’ve killed an Ashinoko before! Come on, I’ll fight you to the death!"

Though Daxiong was fierce, in the water, he stood absolutely no chance against such a large fish. We couldn't let him act rashly, so without saying much, we flanked him and dragged him along as we continued downstream.

Daxiong struggled, muttering curses, which slowed our speed, allowing the huge fish to close in quickly.

I silently despaired, watching the great fish's mouth full of sharp teeth open, feeling utter hopelessness.

But just then, I suddenly spotted a black, irregular line blocking our path on the riverbed not far ahead.

This line twisted like a large fish, but it was clearly not one, as it possessed a radiance unique to Nian.

The current where we were created an indentation in the riverbed, forming an upward flow. Thus, if we were carried by nature, we would never touch that black line.

Even fish or floating weeds passing over this black line would mostly avoid contact.

This meant the black line was in a highly concealed position.

However, at this moment, a special circumstance occurred in this hidden spot: a large black fish, disturbed by the three of us, quickly dove down past us and collided with that black line.

Because the black fish emitted a very faint yellow Nian, I saw clearly that the moment it touched the black line, it suddenly vanished.

Seeing this, an idea struck me. I grabbed both their collars and steered us down toward the black line.

They didn't know what I was doing but cooperated by diving down.

However, this maneuver brought the large fish right behind our heels.

It opened its massive mouth and snapped down.

This single attack carried the force of a thousand catties, and the legs of all three of us were already inside its mouth; if the teeth clamped shut, we would be cut in half.

But just at that moment, we suddenly felt the world go black.

In less than a tenth of a second, light flooded our vision again, and we found ourselves floating about five or six meters above the ground. Below us was a patch of withered, yellow weeds, amidst which lay the rotting corpses of fish, shrimp, and crabs, emanating a noxious stench.

Before we could even figure out where we were, we plummeted from the sky, landing directly into the heap of foul-smelling corpses.

Before we could even scramble up, I sensed a huge dark shadow appear behind me and immediately rolled to the side.

The other two reacted just as swiftly, tumbling away to dodge the massive dark object.

Then came a deep thud, like a giant boulder hitting the ground, splashing a wave of water.