Misty Rain of the Old Times

The unfathomable undercurrents surged, and Chen Xuan and his companions, who had jumped in, were swallowed up in the blink of an eye, their whereabouts unknown.

The people guarding the entrance on the shore looked at each other in disbelief, and then stared in disbelief. They had been guarding the entrance for some time and had seen hundreds or even thousands of people go in and occasionally come out. But even if they were experts of the innate level, they would make thorough preparations beforehand and hesitate before entering the water. This was the first time they had seen someone jump in so decisively. What was the difference between this and courting death?
They quickly shook their heads, speechless. What did other people's lives or deaths have to do with them? It was just a pity for those two beautiful girls...

The little girl, pulled by Chen Xuan's arm around her waist, jumped into the water and screamed instinctively. She was completely unprepared. In the dark, sunless underground, with the bottomless, surging current, she was instinctively afraid.

Despite her screams, she didn't feel any suffocation, nor did she feel like she was submerged in water. Her clothes weren't even wet, let alone the helpless struggle of being swept away by the current.

"How's the soft nail? Exciting, right?" Chen Xuan's teasing laughter came from beside the still-shaken little girl.

As Chen Xuan's voice appeared, she found that she could see her surroundings, but only within a radius of about ten feet.

Looking around and feeling Chen Xuan's strong hand around her waist, she felt inexplicably at ease. She subconsciously patted her budding chest and said nervously, "Master, this is too scary. I wasn't prepared at all. I thought we were going to be swept away. That would be terrible. Where are we?"

As she spoke, she noticed that the three of them were inside a white, transparent light shield with a radius of about ten feet. It did not affect their breathing. The transparent light shield was like a bubble, and the thin layer was like a water film, looking as if it would break at any moment.

Chen Xuan stood at the bottom of the light barrier, looking at her with a teasing expression, which made her a little embarrassed. She thought to herself that her master could fly and disappear into the earth, and she was making a fuss over nothing.

The light shield stood firm in the water like a rock, untouched by the raging torrent. Through the thin light shield, one could still vaguely see the torrent outside, mixed with mud, sand and gravel, as if it could easily tear the light shield apart, but it could not.

The little girl couldn't see anything further away; it was all endless darkness. They seemed to be standing in an abyss, unable to hear any sounds from outside.

Chen Xuan certainly wouldn't jump into the water with them directly. Before entering the water, he enveloped them with invisible true essence. Once they were deep in the water, he erected this light shield. The air inside was plentiful, so it didn't affect their breathing at all.

This was effortless for him. Don't be fooled by the thin layer of light that resembled a water film. Even a top-tier innate cultivator couldn't break through its defensive power with all their might. The turbulent currents outside couldn't budge it. As for its stability and preventing it from being washed away in the water, that was also simple. It was just a rudimentary application of mutual force in martial arts techniques.

"Roujia, you still need to work on your courage," Chen Xuan laughed, then turned to Du Juan, who was about a foot away from him, and asked, "Sister Juan, are you alright? Were you scared?"

She surveyed her surroundings and said calmly, "Master, I'm alright, just a little flustered, but I'm fine now."

Even with her innate cultivation level, which allowed her to see in the dark, her vision was greatly limited in the dark current. She couldn't see anything beyond five zhang. At first, she thought that after entering the water, she would have to stay in the water, hold her breath, and grope her way to the entrance. She was worried about whether the little girl could breathe. Little did she know that after entering the water, she would stand in the water in this way.

Honestly, Du Juan felt that with her cultivation level, even if she used the Fetal Absorption Technique after entering the water, she could only last for two or three hours. Moreover, if she didn't grab onto something to stabilize her body beforehand, she would definitely be swept away by the rapids. If she were to bring two other people with her, it would be difficult to even move in this undercurrent, and she really didn't know how she would deal with any unexpected events.

She had witnessed Chen Xuan's abilities quite a bit and had repeatedly overestimated them. Now it seemed that what she knew was just the tip of the iceberg. The Grandmaster realm was truly extraordinary; there were only a handful of such people out of hundreds of millions.

"Don't worry, I'm here, nothing will happen," Chen Xuan nodded, reassuring them. He then pointed in a direction and said, "There's an iron lock fixed to the stone wall over there. You wouldn't notice it if you weren't paying attention. It must be the way to the entrance. Let's go see that bizarre place."

A thick iron chain, as thick as an average person's arm, was fixed to the rock wall in the raging torrent. It was reinforced with rivets every few feet and extended into the darkness. One can imagine the great price that people paid to build such a chain, and many people may have died. After all, it was difficult to even find a foothold in the water, and one could easily be swept away by the undercurrent if one was not careful.

Seeing the chain, Chen Xuan guessed that when others entered the water to go to that place, they probably had to hold onto the chain to stabilize themselves at the beginning, and then carefully and laboriously move forward. It not only served as a guide, but was also the only safety guarantee underwater.

On the other hand, the innate masters' breath-holding time is beyond what ordinary people can imagine, so they shouldn't have much of a problem going there. But if they were to bring acquired masters with them, how would they help people with their breathing problems? They would also have to prevent others from being swept away by the water.

Chen Xuan didn't dwell on it too much, thinking he would understand once he actually got to that place.

The bubbles enveloping them, propelled by Chen Xuan, headed in the direction indicated by the chains. They appeared to be drifting with the current in the rapids, but in reality, they were incredibly stable. Du Juan and the others felt no turbulence, and their speed was quite fast.

The underwater currents are turbulent, and the space is several times larger than the surface. The environment is also more complex, with tributaries and cracks everywhere. If you are not careful, you will be swept away by the currents and lost in the unknown. Its danger level is ten or a hundred times greater than that of Wanku Mountain.

If it weren't for the chains guiding him, even with Chen Xuan's abilities, he didn't know how long he would have to wander underwater to find the real entrance. And he had limited patience for things that weren't very important, so he probably would have given up after a long time of searching, since it wasn't something he absolutely had to go for.

At this moment, he also admired the imperial court and the people of Dongdao Tower. How did they find the real entrance in this intricate underwater world? Especially since it only took them a day or two, and they even marked the route with a chain.

Following the direction of the chain, Chen Xuan and his group initially headed downwards at an angle towards the depths of the underground river. After a full hundred feet, they moved horizontally, where there were countless branching caves and fissures.

At such a depth, the water pressure alone would crush an ordinary person into a meat patty, yet the air bubbles encasing them remained perfectly round.

Continuing along the chain, about a hundred meters away, the chain entered a hole less than two meters in diameter.

Looking in that direction, that was the real entrance. However, Chen Xuan stopped in his tracks. The bubble froze in the dark current and became transparent, no longer emitting light, as if it had merged into the dark depths of the water.

"Why did we stop? Master, have we arrived?" the little girl asked nervously. If she hadn't been with Chen Xuan and the others, she estimated she would have gone crazy in this environment in no time.

Looking towards the cave entrance, Chen Xuan shook his head and said, "We haven't arrived yet. It's probably still early. Some people have come out from over there. The entrance is too small. Let's wait for them to go out first before we go through to avoid a traffic jam."

"Someone came out?" Du Juan was taken aback. Due to the environmental factors, she couldn't see her surroundings at all, let alone people. However, one thing was certain: the chains those people outside mentioned did indeed point directly to that strange place. Nodding, Chen Xuan said with interest, "Yes, three people at the Innate Realm. I imagine even at that level wouldn't dare to travel alone in this deep, turbulent water. Many hands make light work. It must have been quite difficult for them to move against the current. I understand how they got people across now; they were in a sealed metal container. That thing can actually withstand such deep water pressure—that's impressive. It can barely fit one person. As for whether the person inside was comfortable, they probably didn't care. Getting them across alive was already a feat. The terms didn't guarantee they'd be brought across alive; nobody can guarantee anything about accidents."

Du Juan and the others couldn't see it, so they could only roughly imagine some scenes based on Chen Xuan's description.

As Chen Xuan was explaining, three people at the Innate Realm swam out of the cave one after another along the chains. The water pressure was not enough to kill them. They circulated their true energy and emitted light, which barely illuminated a range of two zhang. They could not speak in the water, so they could only make hand gestures.

Those who emerged dared not stray far from the chains, clinging to them as they floated upwards. Each person had two metal containers secured to their bodies with chains. These metal containers were about two meters long, resembling both jars and coffins, fitting together perfectly.

Seeing that they were secured with those things, Chen Xuan realized that they had used this method to bring people over.

Emerging from the cave, they went upstream against the current, but with the help of chains and the jars they carried providing buoyancy, they ascended one by one.

"No one should be coming out. Let's go in. We'll say there was no queue when we came down, probably because there aren't enough vehicles. Everyone else will have to wait for the next one. I doubt they can carry many people across in a day. Most of them are probably just brave and confident, paying a hundred taels to pass through and holding their breath as they walk across the chains."

After the three people went up, Chen Xuan led Du Juan and the others to the entrance, changed the shape of the bubble, and entered at an angle. With the help of the rapids, they could easily move forward as long as they adjusted their direction along the chains.

The road ahead is winding and twisting, sometimes going up and sometimes down, with many side tunnels. Following the chains will prevent you from getting lost. In many places, the road is only a meter or so wide, and the widest part is no more than ten feet.

If it weren't almost certain that following the chains would lead to such a place, Chen Xuan would have suspected that someone was playing a prank.

After advancing for four or five hundred feet, just when Chen Xuan began to doubt whether there was any end, they finally left the narrow passage. The outside world opened up, and there were no more undercurrents. The water became calm, and the surroundings were pitch black, like an abyss. The silence was unsettling.

The deformed bubble became round again, still full of air. Chen Xuan controlled his ascent along the chains, saying, "We're out now. It's strange that we didn't see any creatures in this water. I wonder if it's unsuitable for such deep, dark places or if there's another reason. We should reach our destination when we get to the surface, about a thousand feet away. I checked it out, and it's an inverted triangular pool. We didn't come out from the deepest point; there are still seven or eight hundred feet below. There are no side caves around. We've probably come out from the only water source here, so it's not exactly a stagnant pool."

"I really admire the people who found such a place. I can't imagine how they did it," the little girl said sincerely. Perhaps because she was about to leave the underwater area, she began to relax.

Du Juan's cultivation was limited, so she naturally couldn't perceive her surroundings. At this moment, she pointed upwards and said, "Master, there's light up there, not too high up."

As she spoke, Chen Xuan had already led them to the source of the light, which was also the end of the chain that had guided them there.

Located about twenty or thirty feet away from where they came out, at the end of the chain was a metal sphere with a diameter of two feet, suspended in the water. Its surface was inlaid with fluorite jewels and was emitting light. This was the light source that the cuckoo was pointing to.

Seeing this, Chen Xuan was speechless and said, "It must have been left by the pathfinders. A master of the Innate Realm can even melt rocks, so it wouldn't be difficult for them to make something like this. Consider it a coordinate to guide the way out. There are no more side caves around, so there's no need to extend the chain all the way to the surface. We'll see it once we get down here. Let's go, let's go up. Staying underwater for too long is getting rather boring."

After a brief look around, Chen Xuan led them to continue rising rapidly, like a giant bubble heading towards the surface.

At this moment, he secretly thought with a wicked sense of humor: if the glowing sphere were destroyed, the chains were broken, and the entrance was sealed, would the people who had already come be trapped here forever?

That's what I thought, but I wouldn't do something so immoral; I was just doing it for fun.

Then Chen Xuan wondered how to transport good things out of the small entrance, which was also upstream and far away. Currently, there shouldn't be a second entrance or exit.

Historically, Wanku Mountain was used as a mine, and a strange place was discovered. Things from there even escaped and almost caused a major disaster. So the entrance back then was definitely not the place where Chen Xuan and his group entered. This entrance must have formed naturally over a long period of time.

The entrances and exits that were once dug out have been sealed off, as can be seen from the extensive collapse of the underground space.

It can only be said that things that exist will eventually see the light of day again by some twist of fate.

As they continued to rise, the little girl exclaimed excitedly, "Master, look! There's light up there! It's firelight! We're almost there!"

However, Du Juan's expression changed slightly as she said, "Master, there seem to be corpses floating up there. It's true, something might have happened up there!"

They were already rising quickly, and by the time Dujuan spoke, they were already close to the surface. They could clearly see a mangled corpse floating in the water more than ten feet away from them, as if it had been torn apart by some creature, with half of its body gone.

“We’ll know once we go up and take a look,” Chen Xuan nodded.

Without making a fuss, they emerged from the water almost silently, disappearing into the darkness and quickly surveying their surroundings.

It was night outside, and judging by the time, it was also late at night in the Jing Kingdom. The stars could still be seen in the sky, but their positions were different.

The place where they emerged was at the foot of a large mountain. Most of the pool was located inside the mountain, as if a mountain was pressing down on the pool. The part that was exposed outside the mountain was about the size of a football field.

A chaotic battle was raging around the pool, the flashing blades illuminating the night sky. Beneath the swordplay, a terrifyingly large creature could be vaguely seen in the darkness… (End of Chapter)