Chapter 27

The intense feeling of weightlessness nearly flipped Liuli head over heels. She struggled to stabilize her posture and once again activated the Light Illumination Technique.

This was a space of unknown depth. Beyond the range of the Light Illumination Technique, everything was pitch black. The suction force beneath her feet grew stronger and stronger. She could physically feel her falling speed increasing…

If she crashed down like this, she’d likely suffer severe injuries.

Liuli glanced at the Giant Stone Puppet falling alongside her. After leaving that circular cave, the Stone Puppet had entered a standby state. Since it was in a state of relative stillness, she wouldn’t stand on ceremony…

Liuli reached out, hooked onto the Stone Puppet, and climbed onto it using all four limbs. From her Storage Ring, she pulled out her mattress, mat, and blanket, laying down a thick, soft layer. Then she layered seven or eight protections on herself and tensely prepared for the violent impact.

Unexpectedly, after passing through some invisible thin layer, that powerful suction force suddenly vanished; her whole body even felt light. After a dizzy spell passed, Liuli, lying prone on the Stone Puppet, crashed onto the ground.

The sound of splashing water rang in her ears, and she felt wetness on her body. Liuli opened her eyes to find half her body submerged in pitch-black water!

As for the Stone Puppet, it had landed face-down and was now completely submerged.

Judging by the depth, if Liuli had jumped off the Stone Puppet, the water would have reached her chest.

But the water depth wasn’t the main issue. The real problem was that wherever the water touched, a strange numbness slowly rose, blocking the flow of her True Qi!

This water was poisonous!

Liuli hurriedly tried to cast a Levitation Technique but found the spell completely ineffective. Clearly, a formation forbidding flight was set here.

Would she have to wade through the water?

That strange watery sound echoed again. A bad premonition struck Liuli—could there be many Stone Puppets here too?

Experience told Liuli that running away might not necessarily lead to a breakthrough, but staying in place meant eventually being surrounded!

She had no choice but to test the waters by using her Big Wooden Hammer like a probing cane, stirring it tentatively. Suddenly, a line-shaped ripple appeared on the pitch-black water surface ahead. Quick-eyed and swift-handed, Liuli hooked with her hammer and reached out with her right hand, grabbing a Water Snake.

The Water Snake writhed, trying to coil around Liuli. She slammed it against the Stone Puppet under her feet, smashed it with her hammer, and easily neutralized it.

“So there are snakes in the water.” Liuli muttered, unsure if she was talking to herself or to the perpetually silent Feng Xiwu. “Everything else is manageable; I’m just afraid of poison.”

Her True Qi was circulating slower and slower. In a short while, she’d be as weak as an ordinary person. Taking advantage of the fact the toxins hadn’t fully taken control yet, Liuli quickly retrieved the Water of Supreme Goodness Pot from her Storage Ring and hung it at her waist. She also took out a stack of Talismans and stuffed them into her robes.

First, she used a Protection Talisman and an Illumination Talisman. Then she used the Water of Supreme Goodness Pot to absorb water. This pot was a wondrously magical artifact. Liuli had only figured out a few of its basic uses; one of them was—storing water.

Despite its small size, the pot contained a unique dimension. It was said the higher the cultivation of the artifact’s master, the more water it could store. Even at the Foundation Establishment stage, it could hold ten thousand tons of water.

Holding the pot, Liuli began absorbing water confidently… After a while, she silently put the pot away.

Ahaha, she forgot there was already water in this pot originally…

The toxins gradually spread throughout her body. Unable to mobilize her True Qi, Liuli could only rely on walking, like an ordinary person.

“Don’t be scared! They’re just snakes! I have a Protection Talisman; they can’t bite me!”

Liuli laughed confidently. Relying on the Protection Talisman’s effect, she stepped into the water—then froze.

Not only frozen, but her whole body began to tremble. The trembling grew stronger until she became a shuddering sieve, shivering all over. She abruptly retreated, fleeing back onto the Stone Puppet.

“What the hell!” Liuli mentally broke down. “Why are there so many bugs?!”

The moment she stepped down, her entire calf sank into a pile of hard-shelled particles. The surface underfoot was uneven, and things were squirming and wriggling wildly by her feet!

Beneath the entire expanse of black water there were layers upon layers, densely packed, countless unknown bugs!

She wasn’t afraid of anything else; she could even grab snakes with her bare hands. But bugs? Liuli was terrified of bugs, deathly afraid!

That strange watery sound persisted, even growing clearer. It wasn’t just Water Snakes; there were bugs, countless bugs!

Liuli’s face was deathly pale. Terrified, she saw beneath the black water illuminated by the Illumination Talisman, countless shadows were climbing up the Stone Puppet’s outline.

Even knowing these bugs probably couldn’t bite her, Liuli still couldn’t make herself move.

At this very moment, she wanted to die.

No, if she died, her corpse would be gnawed clean by bugs. Staying alive was better!

Tears instantly streamed down. They were completely physiological, uncontrollable. Shivering and trembling, Liuli stood frozen in place.

She called out somewhat helplessly, “Shizun, are you there?”

The long-silent voice finally sounded: “I am here.”

Liuli sobbed, “I’m scared.”

“…”

Feng Xiwu didn’t reply. Liuli cried even harder. She must be disgusted with her, she definitely was!

But she really was scared. This kind of deep psychological trauma wasn’t so easy to overcome!

Liuli wailed, crying with gut-wrenching, heart-tearing sorrow. The image of bugs crawling over her body and submerging her was like the apocalypse. And right now, the apocalypse was playing on an infinite loop in her mind.

Suddenly, a Little Paper Figure appearing out of nowhere caught her attention.

It was white, only the size of a palm, crudely cut with scissors into a round head and four simple limbs. At some point, it had come to stand on her arm.

Startled, Liuli instinctively waved her hand to brush it away.

“It’s me.”

“?!”

Liuli wiped her tears and pinched the light, thin paper figure between two fingers. “Shizun?”

“Mm.” The Little Paper Figure moved its hands slightly. Feng Xiwu’s voice sounded in her mind. “This bears a sliver of my divine sense and True Qi.”

Liuli’s tears flowed like a river. “But Shizun, this paper puppet of yours is way too small.”

So small, what use was it?

“It can grow larger.”

No sooner said than done. The Little Paper Figure slipped from Liuli’s fingers, drifting lightly down towards the black water. In the blink of an eye, it transformed to the size of a real person.

The thin, single-layered paper figure stood steadily in the water, swaying gently with the ripples.

The paper figure bent at the waist stiffly.

Liuli wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “?”

“Get on.”

Get on? Get on where? Was it planning to carry her?!

Liuli stammered, “Is Shizun going to carry me away?”

The paper figure slowly straightened its wafer-thin waist. Feng Xiwu said, “Walking by yourself would naturally be better.”

Liuli made a snap decision, scrambled onto the paper figure, and climbed aboard. She clamped her legs tightly around the paper figure’s waist as tears pattered down. “I can’t!”

The paper puppet Feng Xiwu possessed was thin yet firm, slowly wading into the water with a live person on its back.

Liuli pulled her legs up high, looked down, and was horrified. “Shizun, you’re wet!!!”

Feng Xiwu: “…”

Realizing her words could be misinterpreted, Liuli, with a tear-streaked face, hurriedly tried to wipe the tears she’d dripped onto the paper figure with her sleeve. The tears soaked the paper, softening the pulp. Looking down again, the part submerged in the black water had already gone completely limp!

Liuli had no mind to be afraid of bugs anymore; she was even more afraid of Shizun turning into pulp!

She quickly let go and jumped back into the water, simultaneously asking anxiously, “What do we do?”

Feng Xiwu paused, then said, “This water suppresses True Qi. No matter. Just stand steady.”

Then, the large paper figure floated down powerlessly onto the water as if it had lost all control.

The white paper figure was rapidly dyed black, a miserable sight too tragic to look at directly.

Liuli shrieked: “Shizun—”

Feng Xiwu: “…” She wanted her to quiet down; she could hear her perfectly fine, but… oh well.

Just as Liuli was grieving the premature demise of her paper puppet, the Giant Stone Puppet beneath her feet suddenly started shuddering and slowly rose up.

Her footing wasn’t stable. Liuli nearly slipped off. She quickly hugged the Stone Puppet’s head and scrambled to its back, already raising her Big Wooden Hammer, ready to give it a whack at any moment.

At that moment, Feng Xiwu’s voice rang out again: “It’s me. The water can’t seep into the Stone Puppet.” The Stone Puppet had Spirit Ore and formations inside to drive it. Feng Xiwu had simply attached her divine sense to the Stone Puppet instead.

This Stone Puppet was a Giant Stone Puppet. Standing up, it was as tall as two people combined, thick and towering. As soon as it stood up, its body was still dripping black water. Liuli squeezed her eyes shut and used her Big Wooden Hammer to swat the Black Beetles crawling on the Stone Puppet off.

Once finished, Liuli looked down at the water surface, a full two meters away, and finally breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that life had hope again.

Liuli sat astride the Stone Puppet’s neck, sniffled, wiped her red, swollen eyes, and asked, “Shizun, which way do we go?”

Feng Xiwu paused for a moment before giving an answer that nearly made Liuli cry out loud again: “Go towards where the bugs are going.”

…

After an unknown amount of time, Liuli had completely lost her sense of time in the darkness. Without her True Qi, she was just like an ordinary person—cold, tired, and hungry.

To make matters worse, she couldn’t use her Storage Ring either. Rubbing her rumbling stomach, Liuli lay sprawled on the Stone Puppet’s back in despair. “If we don’t get out soon, I’ll eat bugs!”

Of course, she actually had no desire to try that at all.

Slowly, the water beneath the Stone Puppet’s feet grew shallower and shallower, until only a thin layer covering the top of its feet remained. Even this thin layer, Liuli didn’t want to go down into, because the shallower the water, the more visible the bugs became…

Without the water layer blocking the sound, the strange noise of countless bug claws crawling and carapaces scraping together became even more grating. Looking down, there was just a mass of black, wriggling things.

Some bugs boldly even tried to climb onto the Stone Puppet! Fortunately, the Water of Supreme Goodness Pot Liuli held could activate some functions without True Qi control. Liuli used it like a showerhead, washing the bugs back into the water.

“Hmm?” Liuli suddenly discovered something and patted the Stone Puppet’s head. Only after patting did she remember she was committing lese-majesty, so she quietly stuck out the tip of her tongue and pretended not to have noticed. “Shizun, what’s that over there?”

The Stone Puppet turned and walked in the direction Liuli pointed.

Getting closer, she saw clearly. They were semi-transparent black aquatic flowers with slender stems, no leaves, and flower shapes that looked very similar to the legendary red spider lilies (Higanbana).

Feng Xiwu said, “These are Nether River Flowers. The poison seeps out from the flowers.”

“Then let’s get away from them quickly!”

“Alright.”

Just then, not far ahead, the distinct sound of something heavy crashing to the ground echoed, accompanied by a few pained grunts from different people. One person urgently shouted:

“Are you crazy?! Now no one can get out! Satisfied now?!”

A weak girl’s voice, accompanied by a soft cough, answered: “The Nether River Flower was found by me. Though my cultivation is low, I don’t want to hand over the treasure I worked so hard to find just like that.”

“Hmph. Share the spoils, share the sight. Stop refusing a toast only to drink a forfeit!”

Huh?

Liuli rubbed her chin, realizing she’d stumbled upon a scene of bullying the weak to steal treasure and commit murder.