The taste of the deep sea
Zhang Zitao originally intended to use Lü Liangke to make deals with her clansman. Now, not only has it begun to work, but seeing that Lü Liangke still puts him first in everything, Zhang Zitao feels extremely pleased.
He then said with great arrogance, "Fellow Daoist Ruan, rest assured, the number of spiritual pearls in the sea is now detectable."
After saying that, Zhang Zitao raised his hand and released a disc, on which was embedded a spirit stone. After being activated by Zhang Zitao, the spirit stone flashed and quickly began to flash continuously in the southwest direction.
Seeing this, Zhang Zitao's face lit up with joy: "Gentlemen, let's go."
Ruan Qingyu nodded slightly, then exchanged a glance with Lü Liangke and followed. The three flew without stopping, and because the entire sea area was extremely vast, although there were many cultivators who came to train, they never saw a fourth person.
The disc in Zhang Zitao's hand kept flickering until it finally stopped over a certain sea area half an hour later.
"This should be the place. We can go down now." Zhang Zitao had something on his mind, so he treated Ruan Qingyu exceptionally well, and even Lu Liangke, who was in the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, remained gentle.
No one could have imagined that such a gentle fellow disciple would become an accomplice to evil and harm his fellow disciples for personal gain.
Lü Liangke quickly took out a water-repelling bead from his storage bag: "Qingyu, I can't breathe underwater. If I put the water-repelling bead in my mouth, I won't be able to speak."
Nodding, knowing what Lü Liangke was worried about, Ruan Qingyu said, "Stay close to me, I'll send you a message if anything happens."
Upon hearing this, Lü Liangke couldn't help but beam with joy. He immediately swallowed the water-repelling pearl, pushed Ruan Qingyu away, and then plunged into the sea.
Ruan Qingyu then followed them into the sea, and Zhang Zitao, seeing that the two ignored him completely, gritted his teeth and followed them in as well.
Upon contact with the seawater, Ruan Qingyu immediately erected a thin red membrane around her body. Behind her, Zhang Zitao similarly erected a light brown membrane of spiritual energy around his body; this was the ability of a Golden Core cultivator to freely control their own spiritual energy.
With the water-repelling bead in her mouth, Lü Liangke didn't need to worry about not being able to breathe on the surface of the water.
“That monster has been in the deepest part of the water. We need to go down further.” Zhang Zitao quickened his pace and swam to Ruan Qingyu’s side.
Seeing this, Ruan Qingyu stopped talking and pulled Lü Liangke to continue diving down.
Seeing that Ruan Qingyu was still so cold to him, Zhang Zitao couldn't help but feel annoyed. He would definitely take action himself after he tricked her into coming to him and offering her to his master.
Thinking of the people he had dealt with before, a hint of fanaticism crept onto Zhang Zitao's originally calm face.
When he first started working for Chen Tian, he was somewhat apprehensive. But as time went on, he discovered that Chen Tian had covered things up very well, and no one in the Xuan Tian Sect knew how ruthless this senior elder was behind the scenes.
He also benefited a lot from this. To outsiders, he was Chen Tian's most favored disciple, and internally, Chen Tian was happy to provide him with cultivation resources.
This allowed him to successfully cultivate to the Golden Core stage, and he thought of Ruan Qingyu's talent. This was his first time trying to capture a Golden Core stage fire-attribute cultivator, and if Chen Tian benefited, he would naturally get his share as well.
Thinking of this, Zhang Zitao's expression softened even more. Being ignored by Ruan Qingyu now was no big deal; he always had patience when dealing with the dying.
Ruan Qingyu, who was diving downwards, was unaware of Zhang Zitao's inner thoughts, and even if she did, she wouldn't be afraid. She was no longer the naive and powerless Foundation Establishment cultivator she once was; she had plenty of ways to deal with this man.
Unable to speak, Lü Liangke could only follow Ruan Qingyu as they descended. However, Ruan Qingyu still transmitted her voice, saying, "If anything happens, just tug on my sleeve."
Lü Liangke nodded, once again thankful that he had found Ruan Qingyu's help before the training, otherwise things wouldn't have gone so smoothly.
Although there is no light in the deep sea, cultivators have exceptional eyesight, and at this moment, the seabed looks no different from what they see outside.
However, along the way, they did not see any deep-sea monsters, let alone ordinary monsters.
"Fellow Daoist Ruan, something seems unusual about the deep sea today." Zhang Zitao's excited voice rang in their ears. He had seen one or two demonic beasts when he came here before.
But this time, as they approached the seabed, they still didn't see the deep-sea monster. Something must have happened in the deep sea that they didn't know about, otherwise it wouldn't be so quiet.
This time, Ruan Qingyu finally spoke up: "Although the habits of demonic beasts are different from those of human cultivators, their disappearance means that there is something in the seabed that they feel is dangerous."
Hearing Ruan Qingyu's words, Zhang Zitao's eyes showed a hint of disdain. So what if she has high cultivation? With such a timid nature, won't she be easily frightened by the slightest thing in the future?
"Fellow Daoist Ruan, this coexistence of danger and opportunity is the path for us cultivators to ascend." Zhang Zitao's tone turned somber at the end.
"I wonder what Fellow Daoist Zhang is thinking? I just want to say that we should be careful going forward." Ruan Qingyu's expression was calm, revealing neither joy nor anger.
Because of those words, Ruan Qingyu's attitude towards him remained lukewarm, and Zhang Zitao realized he had spoken out of turn. He turned his head away and said nothing more.
Deep in the sea, the temperature gradually decreased. The eerie air pressure also gradually approached the three of them, as if it would crush them into dust if they continued to descend.
Ruan Qingyu's palm surged with spiritual energy, and soon a great deal of spiritual energy overflowed, enveloping Lü Liangke beside her.
Her actions were obvious, with no intention of concealing anything. Zhang Zitao, who was standing to the side, saw this and couldn't help but say, "Fellow Daoist Ruan is very kind to Junior Sister Lü, taking such meticulous care of her."
“Liang Ke is my kinsman, so it’s normal for brothers to take care of each other. If Fellow Daoist Zhang is short of spiritual power, I can also lend you a hand.”
Zhang Zitao's face darkened immediately. If he really asked Ruan Qingyu for help, wouldn't he become a useless person?
Some gritted their teeth and said, "No need, my spiritual power is still sufficient."
As they spoke, seemingly to prove their spiritual power was sufficient, they quickened their pace. Despite the strange pressure, the three continued their descent.
"Fellow Daoist Zhang, we haven't seen a single deep-sea monster all day. Could it be that the compass is faulty?" After all, we came to explore the sea area for resources. If we waste time and gain nothing, it would be a loss.
Hearing Ruan Qingyu's voice, Zhang Zitao, who was holding his breath and channeling his spiritual energy to the fullest, assumed that she was about to give up.
But having swum this far, he wasn't willing to just leave like this.
“Fellow Daoist Ruan, giving up halfway is not the behavior expected of a disciple of the Xuantian Sect.” Zhang Zitao spoke with righteous indignation, and at this moment he did resemble a senior brother when receiving new disciples.
Ruan Qingyu's intuition told her that something was approaching. Feeling the Phoenix Divine Fire burning steadily within her body, Ruan Qingyu's nerves relaxed slightly.
She watched coldly as Zhang Zitao continued to dive deeper, her spiritual energy circulating even faster. At the same time, she didn't forget to send a telepathic message to Lü Liangke: "If anything unexpected happens later, remember to hold on to me."
Although Lü Liangke didn't know why Ruan Qingyu wanted to leave as soon as possible, she trusted Ruan Qingyu far more than Zhang Zitao, and she also felt that this place was very strange.
Feeling confident that he was bolder than Ruan Qingyu this time, Zhang Zitao smugly dove down. A strange feeling stirred within him, but he was quickly overcome by his sense of victory.
In the deep sea, the current becomes increasingly faster.
Ruan Qingyu looked at Zhang Zitao, who was about three zhang away, and saw that a large number of bubbles suddenly appeared around him. As the bubbles spread, a fishy smell wafted over.
Although she had clearly separated herself from the seawater, Ruan Qingyu still had the illusion that a dead fish had suddenly attacked her face, and her face darkened.
The Phoenix Divine Fire within her dantian crackled and popped, and if she hadn't suppressed it, it would have likely escaped from her body and evaporated the smell completely.
Realizing something was wrong, Zhang Zitao immediately frowned and tried to swim upstream.
He had been moving too fast, and it was much slower to change direction. In the blink of an eye, he was entangled by countless thick black tentacles, which bound his limbs and prevented him from breaking free.
Immediately, Zhang Zitao disregarded the need to conserve his spiritual energy and activated his defensive armor. Then, he released his spiritual sword, holding it outside his body to sever the tentacles pulling him down.
"Fellow Daoist Ruan, please help me!" Zhang Zitao held his breath and pleaded for help from Ruan Qingyu behind him. At this moment, he was very glad that although he had dived quickly, he was not far from Ruan Qingyu's position.
Completely forgetting that she had just verbally reprimanded the other party, she only hoped that Ruan Qingyu, who looked formidable, would step in to help.
The black tentacles seemed interested not only in Zhang Zitao, but after sending some tentacles to grab him, a large number of tentacles simultaneously headed towards Ruan Qingyu and Lü Liangke.
The first to be hit was Ruan Qingyu, who was protecting Lü Liangke behind her. What hit her first was an extremely strong stench, followed by the huge suction cup that was emitting a cold light.
The tentacles are covered with a dense array of suckers, and the red flesh between them can be seen as they open and close.
For a moment, no one knew whether this strange thing had just eaten a person or was born like this.
Ruan Qingyu remained calm and quickly moved upwards with Lü Liangke, dodging the tentacles that pounced from behind.
He raised his right hand, and a golden-red wall of fire formed around him. It blocked the rushing tentacles, and any tentacles that were not afraid of death turned into charcoal as soon as they approached the wall of fire.
But these tentacles seemed fearless, and many more came one after another, until the area was gradually filled with a strange fragrance.
As Lü Liangke was protected behind Ruan Qingyu, he felt a little more at ease and then smelled the strange fragrance.
She couldn't help but swallow hard. How could this strange thing smell so good after being roasted to a crisp? It reminded her of the roasted spirit chickens that they often ate in the sect.
Ruan Qingyu, who also smelled the same odor, couldn't help but frown. Could this strange thing be edible?
"Fellow Daoist Ruan!" Zhang Zitao cried out for help.
While Ruan Qingyu and the other two were enjoying their leisure time, Zhang Zitao's situation was far from ideal. Those scorched tentacles, after all, possessed some intelligence, knowing they couldn't touch the other two in the short term.
Gradually, they all gathered around Zhang Zitao.
Even though he had defensive armor and a spirit sword, after repeatedly severing those tentacles, new tentacles would quickly gather around him.
He clearly remembered moving quite a bit towards Ruan Qingyu's location, but now, looking back, he felt like he was still in the same spot, with signs of being trapped and dying.
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