Chapter 144

Chapter 144

“Th-this is…”

Every one of us, including Li Miao, stared in astonishment.

The clear energy Bai Su exhaled had actually formed a transparent bubble around a person.

It was truly miraculous.

I exclaimed, “This spell really is profound. Visually, at least, it’s far more impressive than anything I can perform now.”

My praise embarrassed Bai Su slightly.

She explained softly, “I am a rabbit monster, timid by nature and unskilled in combat. The spells I develop are therefore a rather miscellaneous collection of noncombat techniques. This bubble can briefly separate a person from the outside world, protecting them from poison gas, flames, rain, snow, and water.”

“Can I touch it?”

I was brimming with curiosity.

Bai Su nodded.

“Yes!”

I extended one finger and gently touched the transparent bubble surrounding Li Miao.

It was quite elastic, like some kind of flexible plastic.

I asked curiously, “Can it withstand heavy punches or being cut with a blade?”

Old Cao, Yuan Fei, and Li Miao all looked at her with interest.

Bai Su shook her head.

“Of course not! I’m nowhere near that powerful. The bubble can only isolate relatively insubstantial things, such as water, fire, and poison gas. A few hard punches from an ordinary adult man would shatter it. As for a sharp weapon like a knife or sword, the lightest cut would break it.”

As she spoke, her red eyes glanced at the ground beside us.

I sensed a flicker of demonic energy through the air.

Whoosh!

A small, sharp stone flew from the ground and struck the bubble.

Pop!

The bubble burst exactly as she had said.

Disappointment appeared on Yuan Fei’s face, and he sighed.

“What a shame. If it provided stronger defense, I’d beg you to take me as your disciple so I could learn it!”

I gave him a speechless look.

“Uncle Yuan, even if the spell were that powerful, you couldn’t learn it. It must be formed by circulating demonic energy according to a particular method. How could a human possibly master that?”

“That’s true.”

He scratched his head.

Bai Su continued explaining. Though the bubble could keep out water, she hadn’t perfected it yet.

It lasted only around five minutes. She also didn’t know whether it could withstand the pressure in deeper water.

“That is why I said it may offer Mr. Li a little help, but he must still exercise caution.”

Bai Su was cautious by nature and never overstated her claims.

After recovering from his astonishment, Li Miao gave her a cupped-hand salute and thanked her.

“You’re too modest, Miss Bai. This miraculous spell will be extremely helpful. The breath-holding art of our corpse retriever lineage is formidable, but every minute I don’t need to hold my breath preserves more strength and makes me safer underwater.”

Bai Su opened her mouth again and exhaled clear energy. It formed another enormous transparent bubble around Li Miao.

Then he jumped into the river and dove beneath the surface.

We waited on shore, watching the ripples spread across the water.

Old Cao sighed helplessly.

“There are so many of us, yet Brother Li still has to enter the water alone.”

Yuan Fei shrugged.

“There’s nothing we can do. None of our trades involve water. Forcing ourselves to dive would only cause more trouble. Unless Miss Bai perfects that miraculous spell so the bubble can surround someone for a long time, protecting them from water and cold while allowing them to breathe and move normally.”

Still, having so many companions made us feel slightly more secure than last time.

Once Li Miao entered the water, no one felt like talking. We silently watched the river gradually return to stillness.

One minute passed.

Three minutes passed.

At roughly the five-minute mark, something strange suddenly happened.

The calm, fog-shrouded river began boiling like water in a pot.

Not only did bubbles gurgle constantly to the surface, but the water churned and waves surged outward in every direction. They crashed against the bank, splashing more than a foot and a half into the air.

“What’s happening?”

My heart tightened with sudden worry.

Tension also entered Bai Su’s eyes. Perhaps she remembered the group of mysterious people attacking the River God when she came here alone several years ago.

Surely not.

Li Miao couldn’t have inexplicably lost his mind and attacked the River God, could he?

While we stood helplessly, a human head suddenly broke the surface near the bank.

Li Miao appeared, swam rapidly toward shore, and climbed out.

He was soaked from head to toe. Water dripped from his hair and saturated clothes, leaving him in a sorry state.

Yuan Fei and I hurried to help him up.

“Are you all right, Brother Li? What’s happening in the river?”

He shook his head, waved one hand, and pointed toward the water.

“I’m fine. Move away from the river and watch first.”

We retreated more than thirty feet and stared at the boiling water.

Only then did we see that vast numbers of fish, shrimp, turtles, and crabs were racing in every direction, creating the illusion of boiling.
Large numbers of sunken corpses also surfaced with repeated splashes and floated on the river like logs.

Some drifted rapidly downstream with the current.

Others traveled upstream against it, creating an extremely eerie sight.

Finally…

I glimpsed an enormous black shadow flash beneath the water, followed by a deafening boom.

A huge plume of water exploded from the surface, then fell across the surrounding river like torrential rain.

Even from our distant position, damp air struck our faces.

The wake of some gigantic creature moved upstream and disappeared.

Then the river gradually returned to calm.

Fog gathered again and drifted slowly across the surface, as though everything we had witnessed were merely an illusion or dream.

Haa…

Li Miao exhaled a long breath of turbid qi. Only then did he describe what he had seen beneath the water.

Bai Su’s spell truly had been exceptionally useful.

After entering the river, Li Miao could not only breathe normally, but was isolated from the current and cold. He felt as though he were still on land.

Its only drawback was that it slowed him considerably.

He couldn’t swim normally and instead had to control the transparent bubble as it moved underwater, rather like some peculiar diving apparatus.

Li Miao slowly traveled toward the depths at the river’s center.

Sure enough, vast numbers of sunken dead still surrounded the area.

They were densely packed and piled in layers.

Those farther inside appeared increasingly powerful, and their clothes looked increasingly ancient.

This time, Li Miao wasn’t as nervous, and Bai Su’s spell protected him. He observed carefully from a distance and even saw two upright drowned corpses dressed in clothing from the Qing dynasty within the innermost layer.

The sight was truly horrifying.

The River God’s massive form swam extremely slowly around the sunken dead. A group of small aquatic monsters of every kind prowled nearby.

After watching for a while, Li Miao suddenly saw a mass of brilliant black light radiate from the center of the sunken dead.

The sensation was extraordinarily strange.

It was unquestionably light, yet it was black.

The black radiance flashed for an instant, then rapidly contracted inward.

Finally, it vanished.

The sunken dead immediately lost their calm. Their bodies began trembling violently, and they moved through the water as those outside crowded inward.

The other aquatic monsters also swam toward the center. The enormous River God stopped waiting as well. It thrust its truck-sized head into the mass of corpses.

The impact scattered the sunken corpses and exposed the mud on the riverbed.

But nothing was there.

The space was completely empty.

For some reason, Li Miao could even sense anger from the enormous River God. The more powerful upright drowned corpses also radiated fury.

As a corpse retriever, he possessed an intuition for strange, sinister things beneath the water that surpassed an ordinary person’s.

When he realized the entire group was about to erupt in anger, he knew that remaining underwater would spell disaster, even if their fury wasn’t directed at him.

He immediately turned and swam frantically toward the surface and shore.

At that point, Bai Su’s enormous transparent bubble became a burden. After Li Miao punctured it with his dagger, he raced back through the water.

When he finished his account, Old Cao thoughtfully stroked the beard on his chin.

“Judging by that, the mysterious black plant must have disappeared, just as the Immortal Lady predicted.”

I nodded in agreement.

“That’s right. The River God and the upright drowned corpses probably don’t know much about the plantlike black object either. They rely on instinct to recognize it as an incomparable treasure and can probably sense that it hasn’t matured, so they keep watch over it. When it suddenly vanished, they naturally flew into a rage.”

I was now even more certain that Master knew a great deal about the object.

After merely hearing my retelling of Bai Su’s experience, she had determined both that the object was immature and that it would disappear from time to time.

Unfortunately, she refused to tell me anything.

“Maybe I’m still too weak. The thing won’t mature for another two or three years anyway. I’ll definitely be much stronger by then, and I’ll have to deal with it. Surely she’ll tell me eventually?”

I thought silently.

But my curiosity only intensified.

Based on all the information and evidence we possessed, the object appeared to be some kind of leafy black plant growing in the mud at the bottom of the river.

Yet it could disappear.

Could a plant vanish on its own? Where did it go?

Did it retreat deep into the mud like an eel or loach?

Or could it become invisible?

But under either possibility, how could the River God of this stretch of water fail to find it?

As Li Miao had said, he even saw upright drowned corpses wearing Qing dynasty clothing. They certainly weren’t as terrifying as the River God, but they couldn’t be far behind.

Simply retreating into the mud or becoming invisible shouldn’t have escaped their notice.

Yet clearly, neither the River God nor the powerful upright drowned corpses could sense the object anymore. That was why they vented their fury, then departed in different directions.