"Senior Brother Bai, why aren't you with the other Wen Yuan disciples?"
Lu Zhaozhao looked at Bai Yuanshi, who was sitting right next to him, and couldn't help but complain.
"The small boat was full; there was no room for me."
Bai Yuanshi's businesslike tone drew repeated eye rolls from Lu Zhaozhao.
If she hadn't been there, she wouldn't have known that the small boat just now had exactly enough people for Qinghui and Wenyuan.
She knew that Bai Yuanshi harbored suspicions about her, but she really couldn't figure out where things had gone wrong these past two days.
Bai Yuanshi was not present when they fled that night. He had never attended any of the sect's daily activities either, and the only time the two of them crossed paths was their meeting in the Minghai Sea several years ago.
He probably just has doubts about my identity, and he probably... hasn't connected me to the identity of Lu Zhaozhao.
Lu Zhaozhao sighed inwardly, feeling inexplicably weary. She had inexplicably begun to dislike the people at Wenyuan Academy; how could they all be so perceptive and intelligent, able to see through things at a glance? It made her feel incredibly insecure.
The boat swayed gently on the water. It was pitch black all around, and a chill swept over us.
The water cave was a landscape she had never set foot in before.
The cave was dimly lit, and candles were placed around the small boat, but they could only illuminate the path in front of it.
As one ventures deeper, the ruggedness and darkness of the water cave become increasingly apparent. The further one goes, the narrower the path becomes. Millions of years of water erosion have sculpted the cave walls into irregularly shaped peaks and grooves, unnecessarily increasing the danger for those traveling by boat.
The cave walls jut out abruptly or recede deeply, making light a rare and precious luxury. The faint light from the entrance barely illuminates a small area near the entrance; beyond that lies endless darkness. This darkness is so thick it seems tangible, swallowing all light. Even candlelight can only penetrate a few feet, barely carving out a small space in front of it, while the surroundings remain a chaotic blur, inspiring fear.
The oppressive atmosphere of the scene made the people on the boat lose their interest in talking.
"Thump."
A sound came from ahead, like something falling into the water, and then a commotion arose on the boat in front.
"What happened?"
A Tianyin Sect disciple on the same boat as Lu Zhaozhao looked around nervously, but she couldn't see anything ahead at all.
"Someone was hit by a protruding rock from the cave wall and fell into the water!"
Someone shouted from ahead, and the echo reverberated through the cave.
The ship in front was making creaking noises, indicating that rescue operations were still underway.
After a while, the sound of flowing water was heard again, indicating that the person had been pulled up, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"ah--"
A scream pierced the sky and echoed continuously in the cave.
"What happened?!"
Someone on the ship shouted, but there was no response from the ship in front, and an atmosphere of fear spread.
The people on the boat looked at each other in bewilderment. Bai Yuanshi frowned and said, "Row the boat over there and see what's going on."
The group quickly tidied up and sailed towards the front boat.
The candlelight was dim, and within its visible range, the two boats gently came together.
"But what happened?"
Yao Tong asked softly, her gentle voice seemingly possessing a magical power that dispelled a trace of fear.
"He, he, he..."
The person closest to the camera seemed terrified, pointing at something incoherently.
Lu Zhaozhao immediately sensed something was wrong and picked up a candle to shine on the boat in front, while telling the others on the boat to gather the candles together.
As the light converged, the scene in that spot became clear before my eyes.
There was a person lying in the middle, who seemed to have lost consciousness and was unconscious. His lower body was injured. Even Lu Zhaozhao, who had practiced body-refining techniques and crawled through a sea of blood, couldn't help but take a deep breath when she looked closely.
The man's legs had been torn apart by something, the wounds were so deep that the bone was visible, the skin on his legs was unrecognizable, and the remaining flesh hanging from the leg bones had begun to rot, emitting a foul stench.
The other female cultivators from the Tianyin Sect on the ship couldn't help but gag. Lu Zhaozhao and Bai Yuanshi frowned, and Yao Tong immediately switched places with the person on the far side and went aboard to check on the injuries.
"Senior sister, is there any way to save him?"
The female cultivator, who had just vomited, asked after recovering.
Yao Tong looked extremely anxious at this moment. Her slender eyebrows were furrowed, her eyes revealed her hardship, and her hands kept moving.
"We don't have much medicine on us, so we can only do some basic treatment. But the situation is urgent, and we have to get out of here immediately, or he might not survive."
Yao Tong spoke very quickly, as if she were racing against time.
"Get out? But there are no other ships."
"The other person on the boat said in a low voice."
Yao Tong bit her lip, seemingly deep in thought, then said somewhat embarrassedly, "A boat can only hold six people at most. To rescue him, we need a boat to return. Is there anyone willing to come back with me the way we came?"
Everyone fell silent.
They had already reached the door, and asking them to turn back was clearly something no one wanted to do.
"I will go with you."
Bai Yuanshi spoke first, and Lu Zhaozhao glanced at him with some surprise.
“Senior sister, I’ll go with you too,” another Tianyin Sect disciple said.
“Me too.” Another female cultivator raised her hand tremblingly.
“Our junior brother is seriously injured. We have no reason to abandon him and go alone,” a male cultivator and a female cultivator said at the same time.
"Thank you all, but now there are more people going back."
Yao Tong hesitated for a second, then turned to look at Bai Yuanshi and said, "In that case, I'll trouble Senior Brother Bai to continue on. After all, you are Wen Yuan's man, and I won't be able to explain if we're late."
Bai Yuanshi frowned slightly, about to say something, when the female cultivator who was a fellow disciple of the injured disciple spoke first: "Thank you for your kindness, Senior Brother Bai, but such a big mistake has occurred at this point, and the road ahead will definitely be difficult. We cannot continue. Senior Brother Bai's cultivation is high, and it would be too regrettable to turn back. Therefore, please ask Senior Brother Bai to change boats with us."
Since things had come to this point, Bai Yuanshi could only nod.
Yao Tong looked at Lu Zhaozhao with some concern and said, "Junior Sister Fusang, you..."
Lu Zhaozhao looked up and met her eyes.
To be honest, Lu Zhaozhao had initially considered returning with Yaotong, partly due to the urgency of the situation and partly to take the opportunity to distance herself from Bai Yuanshi. However, given the current circumstances, it seemed she would have to continue traveling with Bai Yuanshi without Yaotong present.
"Don't worry, senior sister, I can do it."
Saving lives was the priority, and there was no other way at the moment, so Lu Zhaozhao could only give Yaotong a definite answer.
Yao Tong nodded, and the two boats began to switch crew members.
Fortunately, in order to stay away from the center at the beginning, their boat was at the very back, so after the change, the boat from Yaotong's location could return directly.
"Hopefully, nothing else goes wrong on the road ahead."
One of the people in the group prayed quietly.
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