It fled in haste, just as it had come in haste. Other than a puddle of slime, it left nothing behind.

A gust of lake wind blew past with a whistling sound, chilling everyone to the core.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Uncle Wu beckoned someone over and whispered a few rapid instructions into his ear.

The man nodded, turned, and disappeared into the crowd at a run.

“Uncle Wu?” Cen Boqing finally snapped back to himself and looked around wildly. “Uncle Wu!”

Uncle Wu hurried after him.

“Back to the residence!” Cen Boqing spun and headed away at once. “We’re going back right now. Hurry!”

The commoners were still crying out and backing away. County Magistrate Tian’s legs had gone weak, and he nearly collapsed to the ground, his mind filled with a single thought: It’s over, it’s over.

The great Touring Commissioner from Lingxu City had been swallowed by an aberrant creature in broad daylight?

With Zhongsun Mou meeting disaster on his turf, how was he supposed to answer to his superiors?

The constables even went out onto the sand and dug around for a while, just to show they had done their best, before returning to report, “My lord, that aberrant creature got away!”

* * *

A long axe cleaved into the water and slashed toward He Lingchuan’s waist, intending to cut him cleanly in two.

Even underwater, the force wrapped around the axe remained tightly gathered and did not disperse. He Lingchuan had nothing to brace against in the water and could not dodge easily; if the blow landed solidly, he really would be split into two pieces—an upper half and a lower half.

Clearly, the muddy water he had stirred up had failed to confuse Fan Sheng’s senses.

What he did not know was that before Fan Sheng came after him, Zhongsun Mou had given him a tiny vial of medicinal liquid. A drop in the eyes allowed one to see underwater without being troubled by murkiness, and the effect lasted for about fifteen minutes.

Light and visibility underwater changed constantly, and the aquatic races had plenty of ways to deal with that.

Indeed, He Lingchuan thought he was safe after swimming over seven meters, but Fan Sheng, who was on the surface, had been keeping pace with him like a shadow the entire time, never falling behind.

He had already left the bottom of the boat and was standing directly on the water.

The instant the soles of his feet touched the lake surface, they began to emit a faint blue glow.

After that, he could walk across the water as though on flat ground, with not the slightest fear of sinking, unless he deliberately forced his toes or heels down into the water.

Merfolk and sea-patrolling yakshas[1] both possessed this ability known as “Wave-Treading.”[2]

Zhongsun Mou knew he was coming to hunt down He Xiao, so he had temporarily lent Fan Sheng this ability. It would last for about four hours.

Fan Sheng had originally been holding a short-handled battle axe, but this magical artifact could lengthen at its master’s will. Its haft could extend to nearly three meters, allowing it to be swung immediately or thrust into the water to chop down a submerged enemy.

Fan Sheng’s strike surged with murderous intent. Before the blade even touched the lake, the water’s surface had already caved inward. When the axe finally swept through, six perfectly straight gashes appeared in the water where it fell, covering an area more than seven meters across!

One blow severed the water itself, and at that, over a wide range. It was specifically because he was aware that the other party was slippery and may resort to some kind of deception that he had prepared so thoroughly.

With that being the case, how could He Lingchuan possibly still be unharmed underwater?

The axe edge slashed past his waist. It even killed several of the man-eating fish swarming around him, their blood staining the water red.

The spectacle was tremendous.

Naturally, the image of the “severed water” lasted only an instant before the lake closed again.

Fan Sheng frowned heavily once more.

Why “once more”? Because once again, there had been no sensation of blade biting flesh and blood.

This was the second time already.

During the fight outside Tongfu Inn, he had once sliced across He Lingchuan’s neck, but that had only been an afterimage, while the enemy had somehow appeared behind him.

This kind of combat technique... is a lot like the substitution technique!

Fan Sheng had no time to think further and instantly spun around to guard against a sneak attack from behind.

Sure enough, with a crash of water, the sternless wreck of the broken boat came smashing down at him head-on.

A trick like that naturally did not frighten Fan Sheng. However, he was not three meters tall. He was still within the range of a normal human being, so such a large boat, hurled straight at him, easily blocked his vision.

By the time Fan Sheng split the wreck in two with an axe strike, the sound of something cutting through the air came from behind his head. It was subtle as it was mixed into the rushing whoosh made by the broken boat flying past.

Fan Sheng spread out his spiritual sense as though he had eyes in the back of his head and swept his other axe backward, knocking the hidden projectiles away.

There were four or five red needles, each shorter than a little finger and made of some unknown material. They attacked his upper, middle, and lower body simultaneously from exceptionally vicious angles.

He had only just batted them away when a vaguely spherical object flew out from the lotus wall and came whizzing toward his face. This sphere was about 1.3 meters in diameter and resembled a stubborn stone.

Getting hit by it would certainly end badly, and to make matters worse, the sphere suddenly expanded and stuck out eight legs, looking as though it meant to latch onto Fan Sheng’s face!

A few breaths earlier, he had first launched a hidden attack through the water at He Lingchuan, then closed in personally.

Now the scene was repeating itself, only with the sides reversed.

No matter how skilled and fearless Fan Sheng was, he did not dare let that thing hug his face. He could only retreat in great strides.

The creature landed on the water and likewise ran across the surface as though on solid ground. Its eight legs skittered furiously as it lunged at him.

Only then did Fan Sheng see clearly that the thing was actually a giant spider, standing over 1.3 meters tall when fully raised!

Its specialized mouthparts included two pairs of outward-folding, saw-toothed fangs. In repose, they could fold back beneath its abdomen, but when attacking, they snapped out violently like the forelimbs of a praying mantis.

Its slashing strikes were as fast as lightning. Even when Fan Sheng blocked them, he still felt the blows were heavy and packed with force. He had only just deflected two attacks when both rows of saw-teeth on the fangs suddenly sprayed out more than a dozen streams of pale green liquid at the same time, hissing as they splashed toward his face.

That truly caught him off guard.

However, venom smeared onto fangs was an innate ability of many monsters and beasts.

Fortunately, he had vigorous qi and origin energy protecting his body. Still, even though only a few drops splashed onto his face, he still jerked in pain.

This stuff was frighteningly corrosive. If he had taken the full spray, his face would have rotted.

Grinding his teeth, Fan Sheng forced the spider back with two axe blows. The creature even understood how to advance and retreat rather than mindlessly charging, but Fan Sheng’s offensive power was too fierce. One of its legs was still hacked off.

Yet even while fighting, he had not forgotten that the real target was He Lingchuan. His spiritual sense swept around the area, but he could not detect the man anywhere.

Then four or five more red needles shot at him from the side, followed immediately by a wad of something white and sticky dropping over his head like a net.

Only then did Fan Sheng realize that two more spiders were hidden inside the lotus wall!

One of them was round and solidly built, with even its pincer-like legs thicker than a watermelon. All it had to do was twitch its leg, and needle-like spikes would shoot at him.

But it was probably too heavy and not agile enough, so it could only leap forward by stepping on floating fragments of broken wood on the water’s surface.

The one throwing webs was another, smaller spider, less than a third of the size of its two companions. This web-thrower peeked out furtively from the lotus leaves and refused to show itself.

Where did these three monsters come from?

All the local monsters should have been driven out of the Lotus Palace by the water spirit long ago.

Is this He Xiao’s doing?

Hm, this should be his trap, after all.

Fan Sheng’s heart tightened.

The slashes of his axe came with a slowing spell born of ice crystals. After only two exchanges with him, the joints of the two large spiders had begun freezing stiff, and they were no longer as nimble as before.

Origin energy had a clear advantage against wild monsters.

With a few crisp chops, he hacked off several more spider legs, and the two creatures hissed in pain.

Who would have thought that those severed legs would immediately turn into finger-length little spiders, creeping over in silence to latch onto his calves?

Is this ever going to end?

Fan Sheng crushed two of them whenever he had a spare moment, but by now he was growing genuinely irritated.

Where exactly is that He Xiao hiding?!

Just then, the spider in the lotus leaves spat webbing a second time.

And it spat twice in quick succession.

This webbing was extremely sticky, but it carried no direct damaging power at all, so origin energy had no effect on it. The thing clung like industrial glue, and tearing it away was maddeningly troublesome. Fan Sheng still had not fully removed the webbing that had stuck to him the last time, so the instant he caught the new strands out of the corner of his eye, he immediately leaped sideways.

The little web was avoided, but an absurdly huge web came dropping from above on the other side, catching both him and the two large spiders in one cast!

Fan Sheng was shocked. Twisting his head desperately, he discovered that at some unknown moment a golden-armored copper man had risen up diagonally behind him. It was holding something in its hands and flinging it out with gusto!

The copper man was about five meters tall, and the water did not even come up to its knees. It could stand firmly on the lakebed, casting a great net toward Fan Sheng.

Yes, it had thrown out a completely intact net.

The mesh was fine, but the overall area was enormous, nearly covering this entire narrow stretch of water.

Fan Sheng had no chance to jump away in time. The fishing net descended like the sky collapsing and enveloped him in one go.

The golden-armored copper man then jerked, hauled, and twisted, and it then bundled up the dignified deputy commander of the Tongxin Guards inside the net!

Fan Sheng wrenched backward with all his might.

His true energy was tremendous. On dry ground, the copper man might not necessarily have been able to overpower him. Unfortunately, this was Chao Lake. However ferocious Fan Sheng was, he still lacked experience fighting on water, and his heel instinctively kicked backward for leverage—

Splash!

He fell into the lake, sending up a huge spray.

The Wave-Treading buff was ruined on the spot by that one misstep.

This was why the golden-armored copper man’s next motions of hauling in the net went especially smoothly.

Fan Sheng flew into a rage and hacked at the net with his axe.

However, the net was exceptionally supple and resilient. The axe blade landed on it with a loose, sinking feeling that gave no purchase, and after several chops, he had managed to cut only a single strand.

This was the very same net that He Lingchuan had once used on the Three-Heart Plain to catch the Imperial Nectar. It had been woven from cloud brocade personally made by Zhu Erniang. Not only was it astonishingly strong and tightly meshed, but the weave itself was extremely intricate, allowing it to disperse force to the greatest possible degree.

Even with origin energy added to Fan Sheng’s attacks, if he wanted to tear apart Zhu Erniang’s painstaking handiwork by brute strength alone, he would have to try harder, much harder.

And how could the golden-armored copper man possibly give him that chance? With a fierce twist, it wrung him tight inside the net like someone wringing out a wet cloth, then wrapped two extra layers around him inside and out.

The movement was highly practiced. It was apparent that it had rehearsed this very move many times before.

Fan Sheng no longer even had room to stretch out his arms and brace against the net, so how was he supposed to swing his axe?

That was not to even mention that the webbing still contained the two spiders, both of them busily stabbing at his eyes, spraying venom at him, and striking at his vital points.

At such close range, with the net pinning Fan Sheng so tightly that his elbows could barely lift, how could he still swing an axe? But those two spiders together still had several usable legs left, not to mention two sets of venomous fangs they could attack with!

In a cramped place like this, where it was hard to maneuver, the spiders had a clear advantage.

Simply resisting the dirty attacks of those two underhanded creatures had already left Fan Sheng scrambling on all sides. Where would he find the spare strength to cut through the net?

After the net cinched around him another two times, Fan Sheng was practically wrapped up into a cocoon.

Only then did a man leap onto the golden-armored copper man’s forearm, and this man was obviously none other than He Lingchuan.

He had wanted to strike a handsome pose, but there was still a man-eating fish clamped onto his hair, whipping its tail with little snapping sounds.

He Lingchuan yanked it off with one hand and flung it onto Fan Sheng. Then, with a flick of his saber, he pressed the tip of his blade against the deputy commander’s throat.

“Lord Fan, do you want to die now, or do you want to live?” He could not even be bothered to keep up polite formalities with the other party anymore.

The victor is king. That was an eternal truth that stood unshakable through all ages.

1. Yakshas are a diverse class of nature spirits, custodians of hidden earthly treasures, and guardian deities in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions. They represent sacred nature, fertility, and forests, acting as benevolent custodians, though they can sometimes be capricious or mischievous. ☜

2. Honestly, this is probably exactly the same as water walking. I just decided to go by the way the author coined it. ☜