Clatter!
Chu Qing let the chains coil around his arms.
The next second, he grabbed the chains with his backhand.
Immediately afterward, even more chains wound toward him, and Chu Qing seized them all in his hands.
Clatter!
The chains contracted.
Chu Qing pulled with all his strength.
The two sides wrestled against each other. The chains were pulled taut, on the verge of snapping at any moment.
One minute...
Three minutes...
Five minutes...
The light shining down from the lake surface grew brighter.
Chu Qing knew Madam Jin and the others were worried about him, so they had increased the Fire Pit's power.
"Forget it. Since I can't pull these chains loose, I won't pull anymore."
"I'll continue with another lake!"
He was about to let go.
Yet before he could release them, the chains gave up first.
Clatter!
A heap of chains rushed up along the force of his pull.
Chu Qing's heart stirred, and he swam toward the surface.
The water exploded as Chu Qing leaped onto the shore.
One end of the chains was gripped in his hand.
The other end curled and tangled together, forming a ball.
Madam Jin and the others finally breathed a complete sigh of relief.
Chu Qing was out. It seemed he was no longer in danger.
But there was clearly something wrong with this stretch of chain.
Madam Shi stared at it. "This is the thing that wanted to trap me beneath the lake!"
"Burn it!"
"Set fire to this damned thing!"
Madam Jin muttered an incantation.
The next second, scorching firelight shone down.
By their reckoning, the Fire Pit's radiance should have reduced the eerie chains to ashes.
However—
Under the firelight, the chains did not move in the slightest.
"This thing isn't like evil creatures or monsters."
Chu