With a splash.
A slender figure leapt into the river, sending up a spray of water.
The figure seemed to be a young man of thirteen or fourteen, dressed in splendid clothes yet soaked in blood from the waist down. The moment he entered the water, his legs kicked in rapid alternation as he swam downstream toward the riverbed.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...
Arrows whistled in from behind with life-reaping shrieks, plunging diagonally into the water one after another.
Still carrying their momentum, the sharp arrows swiftly pursued the young man, carving wounds across his cheeks, arms, thighs, and other places. Blood instantly dyed the surrounding waters red, though fortunately none struck anything vital.
The young man clenched his teeth, using both hands and feet to squeeze out the very last shred of his strength as he desperately dived toward the riverbed.
The current nearby suddenly turned turbulent. A powerful undercurrent wrapped around his body and, in an instant, swept him several yards away.
Rather than alarmed, the young man was delighted. He rode the undercurrent and swam swiftly onward.
The rain of arrows continued to chase him from behind, but by the time it reached this place, it had spent its force. Scattered by the undercurrent, it could no longer threaten him.
The young man in fine clothes secretly let out a breath of relief, but his limbs did not slacken in the slightest. He soon descended to the riverbed and continued struggling forward.
Only by fleeing farther could he have a better chance of survival.
In the blink of an eye, he had traveled along the riverbed for half an incense stick's time, and there had been no further disturbance behind him.
But after remaining underwater for so long, he was nearing the limit of his breath. It felt as though muffled thunder were churning in his chest, his head swelling as he prepared to risk surfacing for air.
Yet the undercurrents around him suddenly grew several times stronger. Even from the riverbed, he could hear their thunderous roar. The young man could not steady himself at all and was swept away.
The rushing waters ahead roared even louder, like a water dragon coiling through the depths, forming an undercurrent vortex dozens of yards wide.
Countless jagged reefs rose within it like the fangs of enormous beasts, tearing apart and swallowing everything.
The young man in fine clothes was horrified. Though he was a capable swimmer, he was gravely wounded and nearly out of breath, with little strength left. If he were dragged into such a gigantic undercurrent vortex, he would certainly die.
Panicked, he hurriedly thrust both hands into the mud beneath him, trying to grasp something and steady himself. His right hand touched something hard, seemingly a reef.
The young man suddenly exerted all ten fingers, and his body, carried along by the raging current, halted slightly.
However, what he had grabbed was not firmly rooted. Before he could steady himself completely, it tore free from the mud on the riverbed. His entire body was dragged away by the vortex, crashing heavily into a black reef with a bang.
The young man could no longer hold on. A mouthful of blood mixed with great streams of bubbles burst from his mouth, while blood poured from the arrow wounds all over his body.
At that moment, he felt as though every bone in his body had fallen apart. His mind grew ever more muddled, and with his breath already spent, he had no strength left to resist. The enormous vortex was about to swallow him whole.
A mass of azure light suddenly shone from his right hand, illuminating everything within several yards on the riverbed. The once-raging undercurrent vortex abruptly calmed and vanished without a sound.
Everything around him also fell utterly silent at that moment.
The young man in fine clothes vaguely felt a cool sensation flow into his head. His spirit jolted awake, and the suffocating pressure in his chest eased by more than half. Startled, he immediately looked toward his right hand.
Dimly, he saw that the glowing object was the very thing he had just dredged up: an ancient, simple azure incense burner the size of a bowl's mouth.
The blood flowing from the wound on his right hand curled around the incense burner in threadlike wisps, rapidly seeping into it.
Just as the young man was about to examine it more closely, the azure light from the incense burner suddenly erupted.
His mind was struck as though by a heavy blow, far more violent than when he had crashed into the reef. At that instant, strange scenes began tumbling through his mind.
A sky torn asunder, an earth scarred beyond recognition...
Beneath a blood-red blazing sun, the west wind raised wild sands stretching ten thousand miles. A colossal creature, covered in spikes and sharp claws, neither snake nor not snake, writhed its body as it surged up and down, while vast sheets of lightning gathered around it...
A gigantic half-naked figure covered in strange tattoos was bound to a sheer cliff face that soared into the clouds. Its eyes were tightly shut, and two trails of bloody tears had long dried...
The stars across the sky shattered into fragments in an instant, and the moon dimmed with them, as though nothing remained between heaven and earth but endless darkness...
These scenes flashed through the young man's mind, seeming to leave behind not the slightest trace.
Before any thought could arise in his heart, he instantly lost consciousness.
The azure incense burner turned into a streak of azure shadow and merged into his right arm, becoming a faint azure mark...