The jellyfish hid in the water, its body shapeless like the current. Its drifting tentacles seemed almost insubstantial, like pale water gently swaying.
Zhang Qiling tentatively severed a few tentacles. They scattered gracefully, but how could water be severed? Soon, these tentacles merged back together as if the water had reformed, making it appear as if they had never been cut.
This mysterious sight could easily make one doubt if they were in a beautiful illusion, yet the sense of restraint they imposed was undeniably real.
He swung his saber, cutting through several tentacles that had tightly wrapped around his calves. The dense, needle-like pain informed Zhang Qiling that the creature was highly venomous.
However, this pain soon dissipated like melting ice and snow, so quickly it felt as if it had never existed.
...Although Qilin blood was immune to all poisons, due to its fiercely fiery nature, its detoxification process often felt like being baked and scorched by fire.
No matter what, it was never as gentle as this.
What's more...
Just now, Wu Tianzhen had been completely enveloped by the jellyfish's body and must have been poisoned.
Based on Zhang Qiling's personal experience, given the venom's malevolent potency, Wu Tianzhen would not have lasted until he arrived to rescue him.
This implied that the moment they were poisoned, something had simultaneously detoxified them.
It couldn't be the jellyfish, so then—
Was it the water?
The warm water flowed slowly upwards. This was clearly the water source they had been searching for, but now, realizing the water's hidden secrets, Zhang Qiling suddenly recalled a legend.
The "Taiping Yulan" contained many records of Yingzhou, but consistently emphasized one point—
"Yingzhou, where the jade paste is like wine in taste, named Jade Wine. Drinking several liters induces intoxication and grants longevity."
Submerged in the water, he couldn't discern if the warm water carried a scent of wine, but regardless, the truth must lie at the bottom of this pool.
With this thought, Zhang Qiling ignored the slow-moving jellyfish around him. Under the gleam of his Black Gold Ancient Saber, he instantly carved a path downwards. His legs tensed, and in a blink, he broke through the encirclement of tentacles, charging straight down!
But mere seconds after he began to dive, an intense sense of danger suddenly emanated from behind him!
Following his intuition, Zhang Qiling flipped over. The moment he dodged, a sharp tentacle grazed his skull as it struck down!
A faint tearing sound reached his ears, and a thin slit appeared in his hood.
The hood, which had bravely held its ground, slowly fell under this immense force, revealing his medium-length black hair drifting disheveled in the clear water like aquatic plants, slightly obscuring Zhang Qiling's eyes.
Zhang Qiling looked upwards expressionlessly. His current posture was as if he were lying on his back in the water, and it was this position that allowed him to see everything above clearly.
The flashlight beam shone upwards, and under this white light, the jellyfish, which had been gentle and slow, inexplicably became extremely agitated!
Its thin tentacles twisted together, forming countless sharp, pale, menacing weapons that struck downwards! Against the backdrop of the dark water above, they resembled countless punitive blades descending from the night sky!
Violent currents were stirred up, sweeping towards him. Zhang Qiling sidestepped, and his back suddenly leaned against something hard.
...He had reached the side wall of the pool.
His hand felt some inexplicable protrusions, but Zhang Qiling did not investigate them immediately.
The tentacles in front of him were already in hot pursuit, their fury as if Zhang Qiling's downward exploration had touched the jellyfish's most sensitive nerve.
Silently observing the enraged jellyfish, Zhang Qiling suddenly thought of his innocent, murdered hood.
Zhang Qiling: ...
He pursed his lips slightly, and the Black Gold Ancient Saber instantly passed through his hand. The thin stream of blood, as it dispersed, vibrated into raging flames under the humming of the saber!
What did fire look like in water?
Sizzling sounds of evaporation erupted. Amidst the rolling white mist, the fire spontaneously intertwined. In the fusion of water and fire, a fiery dragon broke through the mist, roaring, unwilling to be subjugated by this mysterious water source!
This water, worthy of being called the legendary water of longevity, even showed a hint of defiance against the might of the Qilin fire. Using its immense volume, it poured down, attempting to cleop the Qilin fire dragon in half!
Water entwined like silk threads, fire pierced like ten thousand swords. Water and fire swirled, advancing and retreating, entangling. Zhang Qiling's vision was instantly filled with a vast expanse of white bubbles.
The unfortunate jellyfish, unable to control its movement, plunged into this battlefield of gods and demons. It was instantly twisted into fragments by the current, and then burned to ashes by the Qilin fire.
Witnessing this, Zhang Qiling silently put on his precious hood again.
Although the hood now had a large tear, it was still usable. Little Zhang would not despise it.
He slightly raised his left hand. His palm was now smooth. The water here had healed his wound within seconds of him cutting his palm and drawing blood, magnanimously treating his injury and the arrogant fire dragon separately.
To be honest, in terms of actual feeling, Zhang Qiling didn't feel like the water and fire behind him were truly in a life-or-death struggle.
They were more like rebellious children, long accustomed to solitude, who had suddenly encountered peers. Now, rather than fighting, they seemed to be playing.
The jellyfish, sacrificed in their play: ...Yes, that's right. I have something to say.
No one (nor water or fire) cared about the jellyfish's last words. Zhang Qiling let the two rowdy children play, and turned to examine the protrusions on the side wall.
These protrusions looked unremarkable, as if they were mere flaws from the construction process. But what kind of flaw would result in such evenly distributed protrusions?
Zhang Qiling gently scraped two of the protrusions with the back of his saber. A layer of black, viscous shell adhered to them, appearing to be sludge from the dark water above that had settled and covered whatever was on the side wall.
With the effort of the Black Gold Ancient Saber's back, this shell was quickly peeled away—
And beneath it, a tail was revealed?!
To be precise, it was the tail of a sea firefly.
This sea firefly was dead. For some unknown reason, it had been embedded here, now petrified.
A few water bubbles gently floated over, striking the sea firefly's tail and silently bursting.
And with this impact, something unexpected happened—
The tail in front of him, after absorbing something from the water bubbles, was instantly ignited like a lamp! The moment this soft white light flashed, the other protrusions on the side wall cracked open one by one, revealing the sea fireflies that had been waiting there for years!
Countless fluorescent lights flickered in succession in the deep water, spreading like a virus. In a short while, Zhang Qiling felt as if he had fallen into a mysterious world of starlight!
At this moment, the Qilin fire, deprived of blood support, had quietly disappeared, and the water had returned to its calm state.
And beneath this calm water surface, a starry sky was slowly emerging. If not for the warmth of the water still transmitting through his clothes to his skin, one might have doubted if they had left Earth and arrived in the depths of the universe.
Zhang Qiling turned off his flashlight.
The scenery was beautiful, but he did not believe that these sea fireflies were placed in this mysterious water source to serve as an attraction.
In fact, Zhang Qiling already vaguely sensed an unusual agitation in the surrounding water flow.
And looking downwards—
The beams of light from the sea fireflies intertwined, slowly extending, floating in the water, and converging at a single point in the center of the pool's bottom!
No...
Zhang Qiling suddenly thought of a question:
...If this were truly the legendary water of longevity, then it could indeed be called a blessed land. But if that were the case, why didn't the mushroom people, who only lived in places with abundant spiritual energy, grow here, but instead chose to grow in the upper layer, far from the water source?
Mushroom people were not ordinary plants and would not be harmed by the excess water here, unless—
Unless the previous upper layer was also a place rich in spiritual energy and filled with water!
Zhang Qiling suddenly realized something and stopped lingering. He instantly turned and swam back up, but the moment he turned, the water source below erupted!