The thick, sulfuric fog of the Blistering Haze Wetlands swirled gently around the three figures standing in the shallow water.
Vice-Captain Feng's eyes widened in profound disbelief, his gaze darting from the girl's ethereal, frosty-silver hair to the terrifying liquid Dou Shi aura she had just hastily suppressed. He had memorized the academy profiles before embarking on this retrieval mission.
"You... you are Xiao Yu?" Feng asked, his skepticism radiating alongside his Peak Dou Shi aura. "The Outer Academy records stated you were a mid-level Dou Zhe with standard water-attribute Qi. Your appearance, this potent ice, your cultivation... it defies all known cultivation theory. Are you truly her?"
Xiao Yu didn't waste time on lengthy explanations. Her heart was pounding a frantic rhythm against her ribs. She reached into her torn, bloody robes and pulled out her jade academy token, tossing it directly to Captain Lin.
Lin caught it with a swift, fluid motion. She brushed her thumb over the engraved insignia, her Da Dou Shi senses confirming the unique, tamper-proof soul signature embedded within the jade.
"The token is authentic," Lin stated mildly, her strict expression softening by a microscopic fraction. She handed it back. "Whatever fortuitous encounter or awakening you experienced out here, it is a matter for the Elders to dissect. We are here to bring you back safely."
Before Xiao Yu could demand they help her brother, a violent, unnatural tremor shook the swamp.
RUMBLE...
The shallow water around their boots sloshed wildly. A sudden, terrifying current of deep-water energy surged upward. From the center of the dark sinkhole a few dozen yards away, continuous puffs of rapidly boiling mist began to shoot into the humid air, accompanied by a series of localized, miniature earthquakes that threatened to uproot the nearby mangrove trees.
Both Law Enforcers immediately took combat stances, their respective weapons drawing with sharp shing sounds.
"What in the world is that?" Feng muttered, his wind Dou Qi swirling around his boots to anchor him to the slick roots. He analyzed the frequency of the quakes. "This vibration pattern... it's a territorial death-roll. A massive one."
Captain Lin's eyes narrowed, her Da Dou Shi perception penetrating the bubbling surface of the sinkhole. "The thermal vents have been completely disrupted. The water pressure is fluctuating violently. Xiao Yu, you were here. Is someone fighting an underwater beast?"
Feng's head snapped toward Xiao Yu, a horrifying realization dawning on his face. "Wait... where is the other student? Your brother, Xiao Ning? Don't tell me..."
Their eyes widened simultaneously as they looked into the churning, black abyss of the pond.
"Yes!" Xiao Yu yelled, desperation cracking her voice as she pointed at the water. "A massive, deep-water beast ambushed us from the sinkhole! It dragged him under before I could pull him away. He is down there fighting for his life right now. Can you do something?"
The water suddenly went ominously calm, the boiling mist dissipating. The sudden silence was infinitely more terrifying than the tremors.
Captain Lin ran forward, standing at the very edge of the sinkhole. She closed her eyes, projecting her powerful Da Dou Shi senses into the dark depths. A second later, she opened them, her expression grim and pale.
"This is different," Lin told her, her voice tight with professional frustration. "The sinkhole is impossibly deep, dropping over a hundred feet into an underground river system. The beast's domain is absolute down there. We cannot blindly enter, and we cannot attack from here."
"Why not?!" Xiao Yu demanded, her hands curling into fists, her fingernails biting into her palms.
"Physics," Lin replied bluntly, silver sparks of lightning arching across her curved saber. "My primary attribute is Lightning. To begin with, I am not even certain a surface-level lightning strike could fatally penetrate the thick, insulated hide of a terrifying Rank 3 aquatic beast in its own domain. But even if it did work, the conductivity of a concentrated body of water will not discriminate. I would end up electrocuting your brother just as severely as the monster."
"And my Wind attributes are utterly useless under a hundred feet of heavy water resistance," Feng added, cursing under his breath. "The kinetic force of my slashes would be entirely absorbed by the water pressure before they even grazed it. A Rank 3 beast down there is virtually invincible against our elements. If we dive in blind without specialized aquatic Dou Skills, our attacks won't even scratch it, and we just become extra food."
Captain Lin continued to observe the dark water, her tactical mind racing. The faint aura of the student below was flickering, fading rapidly.
"I have no choice," Lin decided, her face hardening. She reached into her uniform and pulled out a crimson, crystal signal vial. "I must summon an Elder with a water or earth affinity for an emergency deep-water extraction."
"If you wait for an Elder, he will die!" Xiao Yu screamed. She took a step forward, preparing to dive into the cold water herself, her concussed Dantian be damned.
Deep below the surface, in the crushing, lightless abyss, Yoriichi's situation was rapidly deteriorating.
He had just executed another form, parrying a devastating bite from the Black-Water Tyrant Salamander, but the cost was astronomical. He felt his Dou Qi reserves scraping the absolute bottom of his Dantian.
'My body is getting rusty,' Yoriichi thought, a strange, numbing paralysis beginning to creep from his fingertips up his forearms.
The extreme oxygen deprivation was finally taking its toll on his mortal brain. His muscles screamed for air. The immense, crushing pressure of the deep water made every swing of his katana feel like he was swinging a mountain. Furthermore, the physics of the water betrayed his instincts. The light from his flaming blade bent deceitfully in the water through refraction. To strike true, he had to constantly calculate the distortion and aim slightly below the Salamander's bioluminescent glow.
His exquisite sword forms, perfected over a lifetime, were drastically weakened. The Salamander wasn't just fighting him; it was weaponizing its domain. It used the deep currents to constantly throw Yoriichi off balance, initiating high-speed "death rolls" in the water to create suffocating whirlpools around him.
BAM!
Through the murky, swirling water, the beast's impossibly elastic tail whipped around in a blind spot. It slammed directly into Yoriichi's ribs.
The impact was devastating. Yoriichi was sent tumbling backward, crashing violently against the jagged, rocky wall of the underwater cavern.
His vision flashed white. The remaining breath in his lungs was forcefully knocked out, escaping as a pathetic trail of silver bubbles rising toward the distant surface. His body went entirely limp, slumping forward. The paralysis overtook him, and his limbs stopped working.
He began to drift slowly, silently lower into the black depths, the faint crimson glow of his katana fading to a dying ember.
Seeing that this incredibly tenacious human was finally yielding, a profound, primitive joy radiated from the Tyrant Salamander. It let out a bubbly hiss of triumph. It lazily began to swim forward, its massive jaws opening to casually consume its hard-earned meal.