Yet, the undercurrents beneath the water surged fiercely. Teng Qingshan swam as if he were an aquatic creature, his skin pores drawing oxygen directly from the surrounding flow. Having cultivated his body to his current level, controlling his heartbeat, the circulation of his Qi and blood, and even his very bones, was effortless.
Breathing through his pores, while not as swift as using his mouth and nose, was generally sufficient for breathing underwater.
However, should intense combat erupt, accelerating his body's consumption of oxygen, pore-breathing alone would prove inadequate.
Hushhh~~
Schools of fish, of every hue, darted past Teng Qingshan.
“This subterranean lake is truly vast. I’ve followed one direction for about three li, and it’s still nothing but water!” Teng Qingshan inwardly marveled at the sheer scale of this lake, compelled to praise the wonder of nature. “And the water temperature seems to be changing too, quite significantly!”
When he first entered the water, Teng Qingshan sensed the temperature was around four or five degrees Celsius.
But after swimming three li, he felt the temperature had dropped by at least ten degrees, and he even noticed fragments of ice floating as he moved.
“Separated by only three li, and with the currents flowing freely between them, how can the temperature difference be so large?” Teng Qingshan found it unbelievable. Logically, connected currents should transfer heat, keeping the temperatures nearly identical. “Furthermore, it isn't freezing over! Strange!”
Teng Qingshan suddenly recalled—
The Bihan Pool also grew colder the deeper one descended.
“This subterranean lake lies nearly a hundred zhang deep beneath the bottomless pit. And the bottom of the Bihan Pool is over a hundred and twenty zhang deep from the mountainside. Their depths are similar… Could the currents be connected?” Teng Qingshan couldn't help but speculate, given the matching depth and the drastic temperature variations across the subterranean lake.
This reasoning compelled him to consider the connection.
The thought of the Bihan Pool’s terrifying, absolute cold immediately put Teng Qingshan on guard. That Purple Light Flood Dragon—let alone him—even a Golden Core Xiantian expert would fear it considerably.
“Hushhh~~”
A sound of flowing water echoed.
Teng Qingshan turned his gaze in the direction of the sound. About sixty or seventy zhang away, a black monstrosity resembling a fortress was rapidly advancing along the lakebed.
“What is that…”
Teng Qingshan clawed at the lakebed, sinking the majority of his body into the thick mud. He flattened himself against the bottom. His specially chosen black attire made him nearly invisible in the water.
“What kind of beast is that? A giant crab?” Teng Qingshan stared at the mobile fortress, utterly dumbfounded.
Although it differed slightly from a crab, its appearance was eighty percent similar, but its sheer size was incomprehensible.
It was roughly ten zhang long (about 25 meters), six zhang wide (15 meters), and three zhang high (seven or eight meters). Such a monstrous, colossal crab beast truly resembled a mobile fortress underwater, dwarfing even the transformed Red Scale Beast by dozens of times in volume!
“Hushhh~~” Its eight long, sharp claws swept sideways, paddling against the current like oars.
And the size of just one of its front claws was several times larger than the entire Red Scale Beast! Teng Qingshan had no doubt about the crushing power contained within those foreclaws!
Teng Qingshan lay prone on the lakebed, narrowing his eyes: “What are those bastards from Qinghu Island looking for at the bottom of the lake? What kind of miraculous place is this lakebed to nurture such terrifying beasts! This creature has never been recorded in any book! However, in terms of sheer strength, it must be more formidable than that Red Scale Beast!”
The texts primarily documented terrestrial beasts.
For aquatic beasts, only commonly encountered ones like flood dragons or pythons were mentioned; deeper sea creatures or mutated beasts were absent from the records.
…
After swimming for approximately ten li underwater, the temperature continued to plummet!
During this journey of over ten li, Teng Qingshan had only spotted two aquatic beasts. Aside from the colossal fortress-like creature resembling a crab, the second was a toad entirely colored in vivid green. Its size was not immense, only about one zhang long. Yet, as this toad moved through the water, surrounding fish kept a wide berth.
Teng Qingshan did not recognize the first giant crab-like beast.
But he had seen this toad in the texts—the ‘Jade Spirit Toad’! Such beasts existed in the Savage Lands as well.
The Jade Spirit Toad was renowned for its poison! Its sprayed venom could easily kill a Golden Core Xiantian expert. Of course, a Xiantian expert wouldn't be foolish enough to ingest the venom directly. However, the venom also possessed corrosive properties; even divine weapons would suffer a large hole from its touch.
A human body certainly couldn't withstand such corrosion.
Aside from its venom, the Jade Spirit Toad's only other notable feature was its astonishing leaping speed. Its primary threats were toxicity, corrosiveness, and agility. If an expert managed to approach it, a single sword strike could pierce the toad’s skull, killing it! Naturally, just before death, the Jade Spirit Toad had a final trick—
Its densely packed poison pustules would instantly burst, scattering a large volume of venom in all directions.
“What exactly is this lake?” Teng Qingshan felt more and more that this place was extraordinary!
“Boom!”
“Roar~~~”
Faint sounds of rumbling and furious roars drifted from far away.
“Hmm?” Teng Qingshan snapped his gaze toward the distance. “The sound is quite far, but I can still hear it. The battle is intense! It’s likely the people from Qinghu Island!” Without hesitation, Teng Qingshan rapidly and silently swam toward the source of the noise, covering a distance of three li.
This three-li distance caused the water temperature to drop yet another level.
In the distance, several conspicuous ‘lanterns’ floated in the current, surrounding and attacking a long, thin snake mottled with black and yellow. This snake was over three zhang long, but its body possessed a strange, flattened shape, making the entire creature look like a blade!
“Qinghu Island’s people!” Teng Qingshan identified them instantly: the thirteen ‘lanterns’ were the Thirteen Experts of Qinghu Island!
Although Xiantian experts possessed powerful Xiantian True Essence, their physical strength alone was likely limited to lifting around two to three thousand catties. Consequently, their internal organ capacities were mediocre. While they could hold their breath for a time, remaining submerged long-term required them to initially use their Xiantian True Essence to create an external air shield for breathing.
Thus…
The thirteen Xiantian experts each sustained a True Essence shield around their bodies—some glowing fiery red, some jade green, some gray, some black… which turned them into thirteen ‘lanterns’ beneath the water! The faint colored halo accompanying the Xiantian True Essence provided just enough illumination to vaguely light the surroundings.
Of course, this was only the True Essence, not actual flame, and being underwater limited the illumination radius.
The halo of fiery red Xiantian True Essence only lit up an area four or five zhang wide.
For the gray and black True Essence shields, illumination was almost nonexistent.
“Sustaining an air shield, the light generated, along with the intense energy fluctuations, easily attracts the attention of beasts! They have no one to blame for their deaths,” Teng Qingshan watched the battle between the thirteen and the beast. “They encountered an ‘Iron Thread Blade Serpent.’ A pity this Blade Serpent is not venomous; otherwise, some of these thirteen would surely have died!”
The Iron Thread Blade Serpent was swift, with a flat body that, at first glance, resembled a giant blade.
Its entire body was as hard and sharp as a divine weapon, making it very difficult to provoke! Its only weakness was its eyes! And at this moment, one of the Iron Thread Blade Serpent’s eyes was blinded, clearly indicating it was at a disadvantage against the thirteen Xiantian experts.
“Roar~~”
Roars echoed from other locations as well.
“Let’s go! Don't get bogged down fighting this Iron Thread Blade Serpent!” Gu Yong, whose body was encased in a jade-green light shield and wore a golden-yellow robe, shouted loudly.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Immediately, the Xiantian experts fled rapidly, while Gu Yong, Zhao Danchen, and a few other Golden Core Xiantian experts covered the rear. The Iron Thread Blade Serpent hissed once, whipped its tail, and also retreated.
“Hmph.” Teng Qingshan immediately shadowed the thirteen experts of Qinghu Island.
No energy fluctuations!
No Xiantian True Essence shields around their bodies!
In the absolute darkness, with a distance of thirty zhang separating them, the Qinghu Island members could not detect the Teng Qingshan following behind.
“Iron Thread Blade Serpent!” The purple-robed young woman sounded frustrated. “A fully mature Iron Thread Blade Serpent—its segmented soft cartilage can be forged into divine weapons, or crafted into soft whips. Its scales are so tough even Golden Core Xiantian attacks cannot penetrate them. We were just one step away from killing it!”
Beasts were dangerous, but equally, they represented opportunity!
“Junior Sister, this subterranean lake is too dangerous. Although the Iron Thread Blade Serpent is a treasure, its roar has clearly attracted the attention of other beasts!”
“We have been investigating this lakebed for a whole night now, and so far, the beasts we’ve found capable of fighting Golden Core Xiantian experts—including this ‘Iron Thread Blade Serpent’—total three! Beyond these three, there are even more terrifying ones…” The handsome youth, ‘Zhao Danchen,’ spoke in a low voice. “In the coldest region, that flood dragon is definitely the ‘Purple Light Flood Dragon’! If we were to fight it, even if we killed it, we would likely lose more than half our numbers!”
…
The thirteen individuals’ conversation was certainly not quiet.
With Teng Qingshan’s hearing, he could catch every word clearly even from thirty zhang away.
“Purple Light Flood Dragon?” Teng Qingshan frowned. “They found the Purple Light Flood Dragon?” He continued to listen.
…
“This subterranean lake, one end is extremely cold, and the other end… should be extremely hot. The extremely cold area harbors the Purple Light Flood Dragon. I estimate there is also a powerful beast in the extremely hot region,” the handsome youth, ‘Zhao Danchen,’ stated. “There are numerous beasts in this subterranean lake; everyone must be cautious and stick together! Elder Wan was previously injured by a sneak attack from a beast that hadn’t even reached the Xiantian realm. Down here… the beasts that live in the water have the advantage over us.”
“However, everyone still needs to be careful not to force the beasts into teaming up. If that happens, it would be disastrous,” Zhao Danchen worried.
The more powerful the beast, the higher its intelligence. Beasts capable of fighting Golden Core Xiantian experts possess intelligence no less than that of humans. If pressed too hard, forming alliances was highly plausible.
The other Xiantian experts all agreed.
Gu Yong spoke: “The western side of this subterranean lake has been searched, and the southern side as well. The large northern sector remains untouched. Everyone, search diligently in that direction to see if the Yu Emperor’s Palace is there.”
Instantly, the thirteen Xiantian experts moved out in formation toward the north.
“Subterranean Lake? Yu Emperor’s Palace?” Teng Qingshan, tailing them from behind, was greatly shocked.
He finally understood what Qinghu Island was seeking!
“No wonder this subterranean lake can nurture so many beasts.” Once the name ‘Yu Emperor’ was involved, nothing seemed impossible. Teng Qingshan immediately began swimming stealthily, trailing the thirteen Xiantian experts. The thirteen ‘lanterns’ were completely unworried about being lost in the pitch-black water.