Chapter 15

Chapter 15

I hated how strong my nerves were.

If only I could have passed out right then. At least then I wouldn’t have been so terrified.

But not only did I not faint, I became more and more awake. My surroundings were still pitch-black, yet I could gradually make things out.

The giant had bitten down on my chest, but he didn’t keep going.

In fact, he wasn’t really biting me with his teeth. He was holding me in his mouth like a snake.

I wasn’t wearing shoes. With the tops of my bare feet, I could feel the sticky saliva inside his mouth.

The giant had been lying on the ground. After taking me into his mouth, he stood up.

My body rose with him.

I saw myself leave the surface of the lake. My line of sight was almost level with the lakeshore.

I vaguely remembered that the deepest part of this lake was sixty or seventy meters, and even the shallower parts were twenty or thirty.

This giant had to be at least twenty meters tall.

He seemed extremely happy. Circling the lakeshore, he ran at high speed in an incredibly strange posture.

A cold, fishy wind brushed across my cheeks.

The giant suddenly opened his mouth wide and let out a cheer.

“Roar-”

My body shot into the air, then dropped straight down. Halfway through the fall, a soft, sticky tongue wrapped around me and pushed me back out of the giant’s mouth.

Cold sweat broke out all over me. I quickly braced my hands against his cheeks.

The next second, an enormous biting force came crashing down.

With a crack, I felt my waist snap in two.

“Ah-”

I let out a piercing scream, flailing my arms and legs as I struggled with all my might.

“Shh-”

A hand clamped tightly over my mouth.

“Keep it down. Don’t let them find us.”

I opened my eyes and saw those two familiar faces. At last, I came fully awake.

“Qiao Moyu?

“Where am I?”

Lu Lingzhu looked thrilled.

“Whoa, your method really worked. But man, that was a lot of noise. Forget alerting the Blood Bait Clan-by tomorrow, even the TV stations will be here.”

The two of them each took one side and pulled me to my feet.

“Look-”

Under the hazy moonlight, a huge circular pit had suddenly appeared in the middle of the lake.

At the bottom of the pit was a long staircase. The farther down it went, the more the light was swallowed up, until only heavy darkness remained. No one knew where it led.

Qiao Moyu said that after she finished setting up the formation, I had passed out.

I was unconscious for about half an hour. Then I suddenly stood up, jumped out of the pit, and started running around the lakebed, yelling like a madman.

After running for a while, I stood still and started hopping up and down in place like a frog. Then this deep pit suddenly appeared right in front of me.

Qiao Moyu was beaming.

“I knew it would work. With the Three Yang Formation protecting you, the Hidden Dragon didn’t eat you, its Blood Bait. Kid, how are you going to repay me for saving your life?”

I swallowed, still in a daze, and told them what I had just experienced.

Qiao Moyu burst out laughing.

“What giant? What transparent giant snake? How could there be things like that in this world? Have some scientific sense, okay?

“All of that was just a projection of your deepest subconscious fears after you were affected by the baleful energy. You must have watched a lot of cartoons, huh? Attack on Titan?”

“Scientific sense…”

I smiled bitterly and pointed at the staircase in front of us.

“You’re talking science with me? Then what is this?”

“Metaphysics. One of the endpoints of science.”

Qiao Moyu gave me a push, signaling for me to go down the stairs with them. She said the quake at the bottom of the lake had been loud, and the Blood Bait must have noticed.

We had to enter the tomb before they did.

I stopped and shook my head hesitantly.

“I have to find my dad.”

I didn’t believe he would lie to me.

The facts were already right in front of me. There really was an ancient tomb at the bottom of this lake.

Qiao Moyu’s method had worked, which also proved that I really was the Blood Bait she had talked about.

But I refused to believe my dad would use me like that.

He had to have been deceived too.

My dad had been in this line of work for sixteen years. After my mom died from difficult labor giving birth to me, he had to raise a child and work at the same time. With nowhere else to turn, a relative recommended him a money-making job and asked if he wanted in.

He only had to work two or three times a month, three days each time, and the money was enough to cover our family’s expenses.

When he went to work, he could hire a nanny to look after me. Normally, he also had plenty of time to spend with me.

My dad actually wasn’t that brave, but to make money, he gritted his teeth and agreed.

Who would have thought that everything the Yin Guest practitioners said, and even the books, were all lies? My dad had been tricked too.

Yes. That was right. That had to be it.

This Master Wu was the real Blood Bait. That relative must have been sent by him. My dad and I were both kept in the dark by him.

Now that the tomb had opened, we had lost our value. Who knew what he would do to my dad? If he was feeling generous, he might just toss him aside and leave him. If he was crueler, he might even kill him to silence him.

I had to save my dad!

I had to find him right away.