"So you mean now that all four of us are gathered, we can leave?"
After finally understanding the situation, Ji Tongzhou was as restless as an ant on a hot pan, unable to stay still. He immediately wanted to fly out on his sword, but Li Fei quickly grabbed him: "This is just speculation. Don't rush. The more critical the moment, the more careful we need to be."
As she spoke, Baili Gelin had already flown up on her sword. Reaching the cave entrance, she cautiously reached out to touch it, her expression changing: "There's still a barrier. We can't get out."
"What the hell!" Ji Tongzhou flared up. "Let's all attack together and break the barrier!"
If they could have broken it earlier, they would have done so long ago. Li Fei watched speechlessly as Ji Tongzhou and Baili Gelin took turns bombarding the barrier with Five Elements Immortal Methods. Aside from depleting their spiritual energy, there was no progress at all.
After much commotion, the barrier remained completely unmoved. Ji Tongzhou was panting from exhaustion and wanted to sit down, but seeing the muddy ground, he feared dirtying his clothes. Remembering there was also a barrier over the pond, he simply sat down on the pond's surface, muttering, "Can't go up, can't go down. Why make things so difficult—"
Before he could finish, he suddenly felt himself sitting on empty air. Unable to stop his momentum, he plunged into the pond with a splash, swallowing several mouthfuls of water before struggling to grab onto the vines at the edge. He was utterly baffled: "Didn't you say there was a barrier over the pond?"
Li Fei, however, was both shocked and delighted. The pond's barrier had disappeared after all four of them gathered—that meant there must be a water passage below leading outside! Without another word, she stepped into the pond. The water was shallow, only reaching her waist given her small stature, but the deeper she went toward the center, the deeper it became. Li Fei cast an Earth Defense around herself, took a deep breath, and dove in.
The pond water was murky green, making it impossible to see the bottom. She groped around in the mud and felt what seemed like a hole at the center—not too wide or narrow, just enough for children like them to squeeze through.
"We can dive down here," she surfaced, gasping for air. "But I don't know how far we'll have to swim. Is there anyone who can't swim?"
Ji Tongzhou hesitated awkwardly before finally admitting, "I... can't."
Their teachers hadn't taught them the water-repelling technique yet, so they could only rely on holding their breath. While circulating spiritual energy would allow them to hold their breath longer than ordinary people, it wasn't indefinite.
Lei Xiuyuan, who had been silent until now, pulled out his stone sword and examined it for a moment before suddenly saying, "Since we can fly on our swords, we should also be able to channel spiritual energy into them underwater. Wouldn't that be much faster than relying on physical strength?"
The three children had a sudden realization—they hadn't thought of this method before! Ji Tongzhou gripped his sword hilt, channeled spiritual energy into it, and the blade moved, lifting him into the air for a steady loop.
"Let's do it this way!" Ji Tongzhou was eager to try. With this method, swimming ability no longer mattered.
"The water is murky, and visibility is poor. We don't know what might be hiding inside, so we need to be careful." Li Fei cast Earth Defense on each of them. "Don't stray too far from each other, and if something happens, don't run off alone."
This last remark was directed at Ji Tongzhou. The young prince always acted as if he were the leader of their group—he probably had no idea what "teamwork" even meant.The four children dove into the pond and indeed found a hole at the bottom. Reaching inside, they felt the water was much colder than in the pond itself. The hole was pitch black, impossible to see anything. Ji Tongzhou focused and formed a hand seal. The next moment, a thin layer of bright flames suddenly enveloped his entire body, making him look like a man of fire.
This was the Fire-type Celestial Spell, Floating Fire, which the other three children without fire-affinity Spirit Roots had yet to learn. Unlike ordinary fire, this flame was impervious to water and burned fiercely even underwater.
With the light, the scene at the bottom of the pond became much clearer. Li Fei gestured and was the first to enter the hole. The passage was narrow and dark, only allowing the small frames of the children to pass through. An adult would likely get stuck.
Fortunately, gripping the sword hilt and channeling Spiritual energy in the water was much faster than swimming. The winding waterway twisted and turned, but after a while, the walls of the passage gradually became less constricting, growing wider the further they went. Soon, they no longer needed Ji Tongzhou’s Floating Fire to see—faint light seeped in from ahead.
The three children behind suddenly stopped. Unable to speak underwater, they could only communicate through expressions and gestures. Li Fei noticed their wide-eyed, panicked looks and grew intensely curious. Lei Xiuyuan swam up beside her and traced something slowly on her palm with his finger.
"Powerful Demon Qi ahead. Be cautious."
Demon Qi again? Li Fei felt conflicted. Why could they all sense it while she remained oblivious?
She slowed the Stone sword’s advance with a controlled flow of Spiritual energy. After a short distance, the passage abruptly opened up, and they emerged from the waterway into a vast, clear expanse of water. Tangled aquatic plants sprawled across the lakebed, making it resemble a proper lake.
Baili Gelin suddenly grabbed Li Fei’s sleeve in terror, pointing ahead. Li Fei squinted but saw nothing except aquatic plants. Just as she grew puzzled, the once-calm lake water churned violently, as if stirred by giant hands. The silt at the bottom surged upward, instantly turning the clear water murky.
Lei Xiuyuan urgently pointed upward. The four children panicked, desperately swimming toward the surface. But the water had formed a massive whirlpool, its irresistible pull tossing them like leaves in a storm, flipping them upside down.
A terrifying, unheard-of roar erupted from the depths of the lake. Li Fei’s skin prickled with goosebumps as a sense of foreboding seized her. She struggled to stabilize herself by controlling the Spiritual energy in the Stone sword, but the whirlpool’s force only grew stronger. Alongside the horrifying growls, countless smaller whirlpools erupted, as if intent on shredding everything in the lake.
Li Fei barely remembered how she made it out. She was the first to burst from the water, collapsing onto the lakeshore grass, gasping for air. In her panic, she realized this was indeed a lake—now boiling violently, waves churning endlessly. Soon after, Lei Xiuyuan emerged, supporting Ji Tongzhou. The young prince, unable to swim, had choked on water in his terror and now lay coughing violently, unable to move.
"Where’s Ge Lin?!" Li Fei cried in alarm. Something vicious was hiding in the lake—if she didn’t come out soon, the situation would turn dire!
Lei Xiuyuan wrung the water from his hair, panting as he shook his head. "Didn’t see her."No sooner had she spoken than Baili Gelin surfaced in a flustered panic, having even dropped her stone sword in her haste. Fortunately, she seemed highly skilled in swimming and reached the shore swiftly, trembling as she gasped, "Did you see that?! There's a door at the bottom of the lake! It's blocked by that Great Demon!"
Ji Tongzhou, barely catching his breath, murmured weakly, "D-Don't tell me we have to defeat this demon to pass..."
None of the four children dared approach the lake again. They waited at a distance until the churning waters gradually calmed. Lei Xiuyuan observed, "Since it lives in water, it's probably a fish or turtle-like demon. If it won't come out, and we can't go in, the water puts us at a disadvantage."
Ji Tongzhou fretted, "Then what do we do? We can't just not fight! How do we pass?"
Lei Xiuyuan pondered briefly. "Let's try to force it out."
Noticing Baili Gelin had lost her stone sword, he added, "Li Fei, lend your sword to Bai Li. Ji Tongzhou, the three of us will use sword flying to hover over the lake and test if Immortal Techniques can draw it out."
Li Fei's primary water and secondary earth Spirit Roots were mostly suited for support. Though everyone had learned basic elemental Immortal Techniques, healing and defense were more critical—her spiritual energy needed to be conserved for crucial moments later.
The others quickly grasped his plan and raised no objections. The three of them soared over the now-calm lake on their swords. The once-clear water remained murky from the earlier disturbance. Baili Gelin focused, channeling her spiritual energy, and in an instant, countless emerald-green leaves shot into the lake. Upon contact with the water, the leaves transformed into towering trees rooted deep in the lakebed—this was the Giant Wood Technique, exclusive to wood-aligned Spirit Roots like hers. The move aimed to trap the demon, leaving it no room to hide.
The next moment, a dense Golden Arrow Rain showered the verdant canopy, followed by a roaring inferno that seemed intent on scorching the heavens. Unfazed by ordinary water, the flames blazed fiercely even within the lake. The towering trees were swiftly engulfed, and amid billowing smoke, that terrifying, shrill wail erupted once more.
A colossal wave surged skyward, crashing toward the three children on their swords. They dodged swiftly, but suddenly, an enormous, serpentine tail lashed out from the depths, slamming into the burning trees. The towering flames were flung aside like brittle twigs, scattering a rain of fire across the shore.
Lei Xiuyuan reacted instantly, hurling another volley of golden light at the massive tail. A bone-chilling shriek tore through the air as the lake's surface churned violently. The demon could endure no more—it burst from the water in a furious leap.
Baili Gelin shrieked at the sight of the monstrous creature emerging. The demon was unimaginably massive and grotesquely shaped—a bird's head, a fish's body, and a serpent's tail, with blood-red eyes that seemed to drip malice as it glared at the children.
Suddenly, its long tail stiffened like a pole before the demon let out a piercing screech. A hurricane-force gale, laden with lake water, assaulted the group, forcing them to scatter. In the same instant, the rigid tail became supple as silk, coiling silently toward Lei Xiuyuan—it remembered his Supreme Harmony Art wounding its tail and bore a seething hatred for him.Lei Xiuyuan's stone sword came to an abrupt halt, narrowly avoiding the sweeping tail. However, the fierce gale stirred by the massive tail sent him tumbling like a leaf in the wind. The others didn't dare linger, scattering in all directions. Baili Gelin's legs had gone weak, her words incoherent: "Is this a Snake Demon? Or a fish demon? Are we... supposed to fight this thing? Can we just... not?"
Ji Tongzhou snapped angrily, "How else are we supposed to pass the test?!"
Lei Xiuyuan's face was still pale. His earlier evasion had been incredibly precise—just a fraction slower and the serpentine tail would have caught him. The consequences of being ensnared by that tail didn't bear thinking about; his body would likely be crushed into pulp instantly. He wasn't sure he could dodge it again if it came to that. He murmured, "This thing doesn't seem like an ordinary Monstrous creature."
Aside from the naturally occurring Demon Beasts, divine beasts, and Mystical Beasts, most Monstrous creatures in the world were born from birds, beasts, fish, or insects gaining sentience—their forms easily recognizable at a glance. None of them looked as bizarre as this. Even among Demon Beasts, none were this grotesque and ferocious.
Ji Tongzhou lowered his head in thought before suddenly exclaiming, "I remember now! It looked familiar—I've seen it in the Ferocious Beast Records! A bird's head, fish's body, and serpent's tail... This is the Ferocious beast Tutelary Croc!"
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