Almost immediately, Gao Yanqing realized this was a trap. The underwater route was wrong. The hole beneath the ship… the hole below was definitely not a path to survival!

Perhaps… the real danger was hidden there!

After a moment of panic, Gao Yanqing forced himself to calm down. Panic wouldn’t help solve the problem; it would only hasten his death. He needed to think about how to survive. Fortunately, he didn’t have to worry about holding his breath underwater; otherwise, the current situation would be a certain death.

Based on his experience, Gao Yanqing judged that if he swam upstream now, he would likely be discovered by the thing underwater and entangled. Moreover, Tang Qisheng and Zhu Jie behind him weren’t fools. As soon as he swam back, they would quickly realize the real danger was below.

To have survived until now, these two were by no means soft-hearted. If these two blocked his retreat, it would also be a dead end for him.

A myriad of thoughts raced through his mind, but it only took a few seconds in reality. Gao Yanqing frowned, and an idea came to him. He continued downstream but slowed down. As the current swept large objects into the whirlpool, pulling them underwater, he reached out and grabbed a wooden cabinet that drifted past him.

A moment later, Gao Yanqing, as if having made a major discovery, grabbed the cabinet and turned his head with difficulty, gesturing wildly at Tang Qisheng and Zhu Jie, who weren’t far behind.

Seeing this, Tang Qisheng and Zhu Jie didn't hesitate. They immediately swam over quickly, reaching Gao Yanqing’s side and carefully looking where Gao Yanqing pointed.

But the next second, taking advantage of their inattention, Gao Yanqing pressed his hands on the cabinet, suddenly exerting force with his arms. Then, he retreated, now behind Tang Qisheng and Zhu Jie. Next, he stepped heavily on their backs with both feet, using the force to propel himself upwards.

"Sorry, but you can only blame yourselves for being too stupid!"

Gao Yanqing didn't look back, paddling frantically upstream. In his mind, Tang Qisheng and Zhu Jie were practically dead. Even if one of them survived by chance, he wasn't afraid. After all, this wasn't the first time he had done something like this, and he believed… the survivors would understand him.

Gao Yanqing felt relieved, swimming faster and faster. His body seemed lighter until he bumped into something head-on. This thing was about his size, and the texture was somewhat soft.

As Gao Yanqing regained his senses, he saw a terrifying sight through the murky lake water. Above him, not far in front of him, were two figures.

Tang Qisheng, Zhu Jie!

It was actually them!

And the thing he had just bumped into was Tang Qisheng.

But how was this possible? He had kicked these two hard to the bottom. Even if they weren't injured and weren't entangled by those dirty things, even if they swam upwards immediately, they could never have reached above him.

Therefore… Gao Yanqing’s expression changed instantly. These two people in front of him… were ghosts!!

But how could ghosts appear here? They should be at the bottom. If there were ghosts waiting below and ghosts chasing above, then where was the path to survival?

For a moment, Gao Yanqing was at a loss. He stared intently at Tang Qisheng and Zhu Jie, as if trying to see through their disguise, until… Zhu Jie, who had previously looked equally terrified, suddenly revealed a strange smile.

That’s right, Zhu Jie was smiling, her lips curving up, the corners of her eyes rising. Because they were close, Gao Yanqing saw it very clearly. The next second, his soul almost flew away in fright.

Zhu Jie, and Tang Qisheng beside her, were both ghosts!

Everything was wrong, all wrong. Since the way back was blocked, then the path below was the real path to survival. Although not 100% certain, it was the only path left to him.

Gao Yanqing didn't hesitate. He immediately churned the water, diving desperately as fast as a fish. He had never swum so fast, so smoothly.

But at the same time, Tang Qisheng and Zhu Jie, whom he had thought were ghosts, stopped moving, steadied themselves in the murky lake water, and watched Gao Yanqing swim away. Zhu Jie stopped her eerie smile. Her face, pale with cold, was almost bloodless, even revealing a deep weariness. She trembled incessantly, soaked in the icy water.

Tang Qisheng immediately swam over and hugged her, using his body to warm Zhu Jie. When they were on the surface, they had been chased by the corpse ghosts covered in white cloth, and forced to dive into the water.

But after diving into the water, the corpse ghosts stopped chasing. Moreover, Zhu Jie, being particularly sensitive, was the first to realize that there was something wrong with the water here. No matter how long they stayed underwater, they wouldn’t suffocate.

So… even if this ship completely sank, they wouldn't drown. In other words, the truly deadly things inside this ship were the things that had left those terrifying bite marks on the corpses.

Thinking of this, Tang Qisheng and Zhu Jie dove into the water, not very deep, and waited for an opportunity. Unexpectedly, they were bumped into by Gao Yanqing, who suddenly rushed up.

During the brief eye contact with Gao Yanqing, Zhu Jie clearly saw fear in his eyes, which meant he regarded them as ghosts. Although she didn't know what Gao Yanqing had encountered underwater, it clearly wasn’t a pleasant memory. Zhu Jie reacted quickly, using a series of abnormal actions to scare Gao Yanqing away.

This time, Zhu Jie understood that Gao Yanqing's chances of survival were slim because the threat wasn't on the surface, but underwater.

Zhu Jie was very cold, shivering all over. The icy lake water was draining the last bit of warmth from her body. She couldn’t hold on much longer.

Tang Qisheng hugged her tightly from behind, his gaze fixed on the lake water below. Gao Yanqing’s figure had disappeared, leaving only a murky expanse of water.

And in the deepest depths below, something terrifying seemed to be hidden.

As Zhu Jie expected, Gao Yanqing swam frantically downwards, disoriented, hitting large pieces of debris in the whirlpool several times.

But he dared not stop, not for a moment. He now deeply regretted that the two people above were ghosts, so the two behind him must have been humans. And he… he had personally sent those two out of the danger zone!

The danger was on the surface, the path to survival was underwater!

Gao Yanqing understood!

Now he could only hope that the path to survival underwater, the hole that was causing the whirlpool, wouldn’t close. If that happened, he would regret it to the core.

Fortunately, after he dived to a certain depth, that faint light reappeared, right at the deepest point, the center of the whirlpool!

"Finally found it!" Gao Yanqing's spirits lifted.

But as he continued to dive, approaching the depths of the whirlpool, suddenly, two figures rushed out from the side. Gao Yanqing recognized them as Tang Qisheng and Zhu Jie. Because of what had happened earlier, Gao Yanqing felt guilty and didn't know how to face them. But these two seemed to not care at all about what had happened, each grabbing one of Gao Yanqing’s arms, dragging him towards the deepest part of the whirlpool.

After the initial feeling of gratitude, Gao Yanqing immediately realized something was wrong, because these two were diving too fast, twice as fast as he had been going, and their posture was unnatural.

An indescribable fear swept through Gao Yanqing’s entire body. He subconsciously wanted to break free, but their arms were like iron clamps, firmly locking his wrists.

"No, don't!"

Gao Yanqing shouted in his heart, but it was too late. He had already been dragged to the deepest part of the whirlpool. There was indeed a large hole there, a large hole in the bottom of the ship.

And what truly terrified and even despaired Gao Yanqing was that countless arms were densely protruding from the hole, arms of varying lengths and sizes. Countless arms swayed with the current, soft as if boneless. The whole scene was so bizarre that words couldn't describe it.

Gao Yanqing suddenly had a strange feeling, as if… as if this big hole in the bottom of the ship had been dug out bit by bit by these creepy, boneless arms.

Even struggling with all his strength, Gao Yanqing was still pulled to the hole. The moment he made contact, these soft arms seemed to suddenly come alive, grabbing him.

Gao Yanqing reacted quickly and turned around, but although his arms or upper body weren’t grabbed, his legs were entangled with countless arms.

He kicked desperately, trying to break free. The will to survive was unimaginably strong, but as he looked up, the scene before him filled him with utter despair.

Two pale, almost rotten faces appeared about 10 centimeters above his head, floating there, one on the left and one on the right. One had its eyeball gouged out, floating in the water, connected only by a few fragile nerves. The other face was even more horrific, with only half of it left after being gnawed.

Coincidentally, Gao Yanqing had seen both of these faces before, at the Fu'an Inn.

...

"How is it?"

As Jiang Cheng and Yao Shunyu surfaced, Fatty asked immediately.

Jiang Cheng wiped his face and nodded to everyone. "It's just as we thought. The lake water here may seem strange, but you can't drown in it. Yao Shunyu and I have both tried it."

Yao Shunyu also nodded. The water below was cold and gloomy, making him shiver. "Brother Jiang is right, but we found that the depths of the lake seem to be very strange. There’s a weird suction, like it wants to pull us to a certain place. Brother Jiang and I swam a distance following the current, but we didn't dare to go any further. Brother Jiang believes there's a huge whirlpool there."

Li Bai pondered for a moment after hearing this and asked, "Could the whirlpool be the path to survival? The ship we’re on is about to sink. Staying here might not be a solution."

"What you said makes sense, but we should remain calm and observe for now." Zhang Qizheng said, his hoarse voice giving people a sense of reliability. "Since it's confirmed that you can't drown in this water, we don't have to worry about being submerged. The dangerous thing is what lurks beneath the water."

Fatty seemed to have thought of something and couldn’t help but shiver. He warned, "Right, do you remember the white cloths in the adobe house in the courtyard? They were used to cover corpses. The six corpses from the Fu'an Inn... but when we went to look recently, the corpses were gone. Could it be..."

Fatty didn't finish his sentence, but the meaning was clear. Judging from everyone's expressions, they all remembered this and had the same worry.

"What do we do next?" Yao Shunyu tried his best to stand on tiptoes because the accumulated water was getting deeper and deeper, even reaching their chins. It wouldn't be long before it submerged them all.

Without hesitation, Jiang Cheng made the final arrangement. "Now, take a deep breath and dive. Don't go too deep, and don't get close to the whirlpool. Stay about 1 meter below the surface. Remember, no matter what happens, don't separate. The water below is definitely not safe."

"Okay." Zhang Qisheng agreed first.

After taking a deep breath, the group dived into the water at the same time. After entering the water, Fatty felt like he had been bumped by two people in front and behind. Opening his eyes, through the murky lake water, Fatty found that the person in front of him was Doctor, and Jiang Cheng signaled for him to follow closely. The person behind him was Yao Shunyu, who also signaled for him to follow closely through gestures. Fatty’s uneasy heart suddenly calmed down. Many people cared about him, and no one wanted anything to happen to him.

In a daze, as if a switch had been flipped, the whole world suddenly turned upside down. The downward suction was suddenly reversed, and everyone floated upwards uncontrollably.

"The… the ship… capsized…"

It wasn’t clear who shouted this last vaguely in the murky, chaotic lake water.

...

"Huff—, Huff—"

On a carved wooden bed, Jiang Cheng suddenly woke up. Others in the room woke up with him: Li Bai, Yao Shunyu, and Fatty.

The group looked at each other, their eyes filled with fear and tension, especially Fatty, whose whole body was soaked in cold sweat. Also, looking out through the cracks in the window, it seemed that dawn had broken outside.

Before the group could calm down and communicate, suddenly, a cry of surprise rang out not far away. Judging from the location, it should be the room next door on the right, or the one after that.

Pushing open the door, Jiang Cheng and the other three rushed out. Sure enough, the room where the cry came from was next door, or more precisely, Mr. Zhang Qizheng's room.

At this moment, the others also rushed over after hearing the news. After entering the room, they saw Zhang Qizheng standing in front of a bed. Gao Yanqing, who lived with him, was lying quietly on the bed, his eyes closed, his expression and sleeping posture very peaceful.

At this moment, Gao Yanqing’s bed was completely soaked with water, and there was a lot of water on the floor, still dripping from the edge of the bed.

And what truly sent a chill down Jiang Cheng and the others’ spines was that the lower half of the blanket was empty. It felt like Gao Yanqing’s lower body, covered by the blanket, had disappeared.

Tang Qisheng was the first to walk over, grab the edge of the blanket, and yank it open. A terrifying scene appeared. Gao Yanqing’s body was severed at the waist by a huge wound, and half of his body, along with his legs, had disappeared. Several aquatic plants covered the area under the blanket.

The unique beauty fragrance of Chun Shen Lake.