Chapter 446 - 230: Abnormal Change, Takeout (Part 5)

Chapter 446: Chapter 230: Abnormal Change, Takeout (Part 5)

And then it vanished.

Xie Yuan’s eyes snapped open. The world around him was dark.

He seemed to be at the bottom of an extremely deep lake, where sunlight could barely penetrate.

Looking up, the daylight was but a tiny speck, yet with a Martial Artist’s eyesight, he could still make out his surroundings.

The water around him felt heavy, and strangely... ’It doesn’t soak my clothes, and I can still breathe? Doesn’t that mean I can speak?’

Xie Yuan opened his mouth, releasing a stream of bubbles, and then spoke:

"Senior Brother Qin..."

He glanced to his side, about to ask how they should explore this place, but he stopped short.

There was no one beside him.

Xie Yuan scanned his surroundings, turning in a full circle. The depths were impenetrably dark; aside from the speck of light high above, there was nothing.

No people, no fish, no waterweeds. There was nothing but him and the water.

Xie Yuan’s eyes narrowed slightly.

’Senior Brother Qin said our positions wouldn’t change on the way down...’

He tried swimming a lap around his position. His movements were unrestricted, but there was still no one else in sight.

"This Profound Water is exerting a great deal of pressure on me, but I can handle it. If I were to cultivate here, my progress would be twice as fast for half the effort."

Xie Yuan mused aloud.

But since he couldn’t make sense of the situation, he certainly wasn’t going to start cultivating rashly.

He looked up again.

The daylight seemed so far away. The distance to the surface felt like it was many times the depth of Jianzhen Lake itself.

Jianzhen Lake wasn’t a particularly deep lake, so the depth of this lake-within-a-lake clearly far surpassed that of its counterpart in the physical world.

Xie Yuan then looked down. Beneath his feet was a pure, lightless black, an unfathomable depth like the deepest abyss.

After staring for only a moment, he felt as if he were about to fall endlessly downward. A shiver ran through him, and he jerked his head up, not daring to look again.

’This place really is unnatural.’

Xie Yuan frowned. ’What should I do now?’

If he hadn’t known about the potential danger, he would have followed the original instructions: don’t overthink, don’t push yourself too hard, just sink to a suitable depth and pressure. He could have cultivated at lightning speed and even had a chance to glimpse his true self.

But now, having been warned by that mysterious person, and with things clearly different from what Senior Brother Qin had described, Xie Yuan couldn’t just bury his head in the sand and start cultivating.

He subconsciously reached into his robes, then froze once more.

The Jade Pendant was gone.

Xie Yuan’s gaze sharpened. He scanned the area around him, but the Jade Pendant was nowhere to be seen.

The hidden pocket was perfectly intact. ’I was especially careful when I entered the water,’ he thought. ’There’s no way I could have lost it.’

’Have I been set up?’

Xie Yuan recalled the moment Yao Qinglai distributed the Jade Pendants, but he couldn’t remember anything being amiss.

’Although, if they were truly targeting me, it’s unlikely I would have easily spotted such a subtle trick.’

’It’s highly likely this anomaly was caused by a hidden mechanism within the Jade Pendant.’

’But why? Has my identity been exposed? Or is it something else?’

’What does the Yao family hope to achieve by this? Trapping me here permanently?’

As Xie Yuan was calmly analyzing the situation, he suddenly felt a disturbance in the water next to him. His head whipped around to look.

The water beside him swirled, and a young man in Daoist robes swam over. Seeing Xie Yuan, he broke into a smile:

"Finally, another person! So you were here all along."

Seeing Zhang Junyi, Xie Yuan felt the same thought echo in his own mind: ’Finally, another person.’

The lake was deathly quiet, with an abyss stretching out below; being unable to find anyone else was genuinely unnerving.

"Daoist Zhang, what a coincidence! This place is strange... I was beginning to think I wouldn’t run into anyone else."

Xie Yuan swam over to greet him, offering a faint smile.

Zhang Junyi laughed brightly.

"Brother Xie, it must be our fate from fighting side by side. Even in a place like this, we were bound to meet."

Xie Yuan stopped abruptly. Staring at the Zhang Junyi before him, his smile slowly vanished.

"Daoist Zhang, what did you just call me?"

"Brother Xie, of course. What’s wrong?"

Zhang Junyi had a completely baffled expression.

Xie Yuan looked gravely at the young Daoist, whose expression was utterly flawless, and said slowly,

"You’re not Zhang Junyi."

The figure of Zhang Junyi froze. It looked at Xie Yuan, a bizarre smile spreading across its face, before it dissolved into a cloud of bubbles and vanished.

Xie Yuan’s vision blurred, and he found himself back where he had been moments before.

His eyes flickered as he murmured,

"An illusion...?"

This was Xie Yuan’s first taste of how powerful the illusions of Jianzhen Lake could be.

The illusion of Zhang Junyi had been perfect—from his aura to his appearance, he was utterly indistinguishable from the real man.

If it hadn’t given itself away the moment it spoke, Xie Yuan would never have guessed it was an illusion.

’But I only just arrived. I haven’t even started cultivating yet, so how could I have encountered an illusion?’

Xie Yuan grew even more cautious. This whole place felt suffused with a strange, unsettling energy.

’I should swim upward and take a look first...’

Just as Xie Yuan was about to move, another ripple spread through the water beside him, and a figure in Daoist robes appeared once more.

The Daoist smiled upon seeing Xie Yuan:

"Finally, another person! So you were here all along."

Xie Yuan’s expression was grim as he silently watched Zhang Junyi approach.

"In this godforsaken place, you don’t see a single soul. I was starting to get a little panicked... You’re Zhang Mountain, right?"

Zhang Junyi said, drawing closer.

Xie Yuan suddenly held up a hand.

"Stop right there!"

Zhang Junyi stopped, looking surprised.

"Brother Zhang, what’s wrong? A moment ago, didn’t you want to explore together?"

Xie Yuan said in a low voice,

"Daoist, what did you call me?"

"Brother Zhang, of course. What’s wrong?"

Zhang Junyi had a completely baffled expression.

Feeling a sense of deja vu, Xie Yuan became even more vigilant. He slowly began to probe:

"Oh... and what about the time we fought side by side...?"