Endless heaven and earth vital energy was gathered through the bow and bowstring’s runes, and then all of it turned into darkness, concentrating into a streak of black arrow radiance, landing on the lake surface.

‘Big Black’, this soul weapon’s outer appearance was a three stringed zither. However, its master Principal Zhang said it was a bow, its attack method was like a bow. That was why everyone in this world naturally believed that it was a bow.

There were no tangible arrows.

The heaven and earth vital energy that was rapidly extracted and this cultivator’s soul force were gathered by the unique power of the bow and bowstring. It was unknown just what type of matter was formed, but this black arrow radiance flew through the sky, seemingly unrestricted by wind flow. The speed of this kind of matter was naturally much faster than that of an arrow or a flying sword. Lin Xi’s previous perception was completely accurate.

The attack ‘Big Black’ released completely shattered the air.

It was as if this arrow completely melted into the wind, one was only able to perceive a streak of black radiance.

…

The black radiance landed on the lake surface with a speed equivalent to the limit of Sacred Experts’ perception.

It fell silently, but when it made contact with the lake surface, it instead suddenly turned into a terrifying eruption of thunder, as if the world was immersed in silent darkness. In this instant, it ruthlessly crushed down into the lake.

The entire sparkling and glistening calm lake surface fiercely caved in. Then, a giant wave was ripped open. Giant pillars of water which looked like the supporting pillars of an enormous imperial golden palace rushed out from the water surface.

While the black streak of light descended with astonishing speed, a terrifying blast wave rapidly surged all around the lake.

This Tangcang middle-aged man, in the many years he hid in fear from green Luan Academy, hiding until the point his name had long been forgotten for many years, only had his cultivation and this ‘Big Black’ which he wasn’t willing to give up on because of its power.

He long familiarized himself with Big Black’s power, able to use it to a precise degree. For someone like him, he naturally wouldn’t wait here for several dozen minutes just because he suspected a cultivator might have jumped into this lake.

The way a great figure and a nobody thought were different. Meanwhile, the way every big person thought and dealt with matters were also different.

That was why at this time, he only used the methods he himself believed wasted the least amount of time, feeling that he might as well just be direct, use his own and Big Black’s full strength to deliver the most powerful strike into the lake.

…

Darkness silently descended.

When this Tangcang middle-aged man brought out Big Black and released a strike, Lin Xi and Gao Yanan already both reached the very depths of this lake.

Everything was surrounded by tranquility and haziness.

However, suddenly, when the sound of thunder had just surged from the lake surface, before the sounds completely scattered outwards, the bottom of the lake still completely silent, both Lin Xi and Gao Yanan’s chests were instantly simultaneously suffused by a mysterious and powerful feeling of fear.

In these two people’s perception, in this instant, the ice-cold lake water around them was crushed by a type of great power until it became no longer like water, but rather more like extremely heavy metal.

These two people’s bodies seemed to be solidified in the metal, suffering the crushing of the metal. Many parts of their skeletons released vague light cracking sounds.

In the next instant, transparent bubble-like waves of impact descended.

The entire lake’s water suddenly shook. Countless blasts of water exploded into the water.

Then, there was a tremendous noise that shook this place!

Lin Xi and Gao Yanan’s ears felt like they were instantly pierced through by long needles.

There were several dozen meters of water as a buffer, so the two individuals’ bodies could still endure the water pressure and chaotic streams produced by Big Black’s power. However, this type of blast wave and sound shared different methods but similar effects to Jiang Yanzhi’s[1] powerful sound ripping technique. With a great explosion, it was unknown just how many fish in this lake instantly had their stomachs torn open and died. Lin Xi and Gao Yanan also only felt like there was a loud boom noise in their heads, instantly losing their rationality, going unconscious, even the bow and sword in his hands leaving his hands, his body floating towards the surface uncontrollably.

Only in the instant his body left the water depths, floating under the scorching sunlight, did Lin Xi recover a bit of consciousness. He directly pushed the ‘roulette’ in his head, using his ability again.

…

Time returned to a halt ago.

In the ice-cold and dark lake water, Gao Yanan already couldn’t see Lin Xi’s changes in expression, but Lin Xi was already nervous to the point where his entire body was twitching and nauseous.

Big Black’s sea turning power really was too terrifying.

Judging from that attack just now, as long as he and Gao Yanan floated to the surface, they would definitely fall into the enemy’s hands.

Regardless of whether he was sure they were in the lake or not, regardless of what the other party would do next, the only thing he could do right now was ensure that he didn’t float onto the lake surface because of the enemy’s attack.

Since he had no way of speaking underwater, Lin Xi suppressed his fear and nervousness, doing his best to keep his cool. He forcefully held Gao Yanan’s hand, unquestionably bringing her hands around his own waist, having her hold onto him. Then, with his fastest speed, he undid the cloth strips around the bow on his back, binding himself and Gao Yanan together with the bow. Even after doing this, he still felt like it wasn’t enough, using the cloth strips to bind his and Gao Yanan’s hands tightly together.

Then, he tore off several small clumps of cloth, plugging up both his own and Gao Yanan’s ears.

All of this was done silently. Gao Yanan could sense his nervousness and urgency. While coordinating with his movements, she also immediately moved, tightly holding his waist.

In the end, Lin Xi even used several cloth strips to bind his and Gao Yanan’s waist. Then, he tried to recline, even trapping one of his feet into the gap between two rocks at the bottom of the lake, doing this to completely hold him in place.

After completing all of this, after waiting a dozen or so suffocating breaths of time, darkness descended upon the lake surface once again.

Waiting for death was much more terrifying than suddenly facing death.

The instant the surrounding lake water suddenly condensed, Lin Xi only felt as if his heart fiercely contracted. A lot of substances that cultivators’ inner organs normally wouldn’t secrete were released in large amounts. The instant the impact and soul force wave erupted at the bottom of the waters, his heart seemed to have stopped beating, all of his body’s functions also in a type of strange activated but also suddenly dead state.

Since he didn’t have confidence in controlling himself and didn’t know what the final result would be, right now, Lin Xi was more scared than in any instance of cultivation ever before.

The entire lake trembled greatly. Lin Xi instantly lost consciousness.

…

On the lake surface, pillars of water surged, crashing down on the reeds ashore wave upon wave.

Countless water birds and small bugs flew out from the distant reed clusters and brushes, escaping in alarm.

The Tangcang middle-aged man who released an arrow caressed the bow body, slowly returning Big Black to the black chest on his back.

The dead shrimp and fish floated up layer by layer.

Soon afterwards, the dead fish and shrimp that filled the entire lake surface became a layer of silvery-white color.

The Tangcang middle-aged man’s eyes swept over the shrimp and fish corpses covering the lake surface. After fastening the two metal locks on the black chest, he suddenly couldn’t help but recall how back then, on the battlefield, for the sake of finding and wearing down that Windstalker, the countless and densely packed Great Mang corpses were ultimately strewn everywhere. In reality, his seclusion and hiding weren’t only out of fear towards Green Luan Academy’s revenge, but also because he was the highest commander of that army, so he had to take responsibility for the military orders he gave. In the eyes of most Great Mang people, using an entire army, the deaths of countless people to ultimately kill a single Yunqin powerful cultivator, especially a Green Luan Academy Windstalker, establishing this type of grudge with Green Luan Academy was completely unnecessary, completely unreasonable.

The families of the Great Mang soldiers who died because of his order would also speak endless curses about his name. That was why for a long time, his name represented humiliation, to the extent where he even forced himself to forget his own name, forcing himself to feel completely indifferent when he heard his own name, as if it was just the name of a bystander.

That was why many times, he really couldn’t even remember his own name, just considering himself a worn-out man.

𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

After his eyes swept over the lake surface, this Tangcang middle-aged man didn’t stop here for a long time. He shook his head and then followed some traces Lin Xi left when they came, continuing to use soul force to separate the brush, rushing outwards.

After thirty or so halts of time, this Tangcang middle-aged man’s figure reappeared by this lakeside. Then, he gave this place that was filled with a fishy smell of death a look, the scene as if frozen in place, and then withdrew, leaving.

After searching during this period of time, he was already sure that he couldn’t any more traces from the cultivators who passed through this place.

In that case, he wouldn’t senselessly waste more time here, searching for a cultivator that might have absolutely no connection to himself.

For the sake of his own safety, he had to leave this place as quickly as possible.

As for this Horse Rest Lake, in his opinion, unless it was a Sacred Expert, it would be hard to hide underwater for this long. If it was a Sacred Expert, there was no need for them to hide themselves like this in this kind of situation where they didn’t know what he was yet.

…

A dozen or so halts of time after the Tangcang middle-aged uncle left, an expanse of deathly stillness began to stir about the lake surface. A splash rushed out. Lin Xi and Gao Yanan surfaced. When they swam across to the lake surface, the two exceptionally snow-white faced individuals didn’t stop in the slightest. Only after they made their way through the reeds, passing through the brush, did they start to suppress their heavy breathing, starting to cough quietly.

With each cough, Lin Xi and Gao Yanan would cough out some bloody suds.

The blast of that Tangcang man didn’t deal too much damage to their bodies, but being instantly knocked unconscious, both of them choking on some water, and then holding their breath for too long, only able to barely exchange a few breaths, made it so that their lungs couldn’t help but suffer a bit of damage.

However, even while continuously coughing out bloody suds, Lin Xi and Gao Yanan still didn’t stop their escape, waiting until they saw Wuren City’s outline, and only then did the two of them finally sit down on the ground, gasping for breath.

“So dangerous, what a terrifying Big Black…” Gao Yanan patted Lin Xi’s back a few times, saying this in happiness, instead revealing a smile.

Lin Xi coughed out a bit more bloody suds, the bloody suds pink colored, a bit horrifying. However, he also smiled. “It really was dangerous… but we still managed to survive in the end. This time, it can also make our soul force cultivation increase quite a bit.”

For the two of them, they were already extremely familiar with constantly being in a sorry state, used to it. That was why Gao Yanan didn’t even realize at all that for her and Lin Xi to smile at this type of time, laugh this happily, it was something that would seem extremely freakish in the eyes of others.

She heard that Lin Xi’s breathing finally became even, her smile becoming a bit more dazzling. “This can be considered profiting from disaster right?”

“That’s not all.” Lin Xi also smiled a bit happier. “We might have a chance to seize Wenren Cangyue’s batch of military equipment.”

1. Jiang Family elder behind the curtains who specialized in sound techniques B12C42