The True Form Beneath the Sea

The dark red patterns inside the conch shell pulsated slightly like blood vessels, and through the silk, You Su could clearly feel the rise and fall of the girl's chest gradually synchronizing with this eerie rhythm.

Bai Ze's skirt gathered around his knees, and the warmth emanating from beneath the thin gauze warmed the chill that had condensed on his thighs.

You Su had never understood the meaning of the phrase "sitting on pins and needles" so deeply. He didn't even know whether he should push the girl away and refuse her rather extreme sitting posture, or acquiesce to the little cat's attachment to the only person she was close to.

He suddenly felt a pang of longing, a longing for those twisted sea lice to return and rescue him, this helpless man caught in a struggle.

"My brother's sword is poking me."

Bai Ze suddenly tilted his head back, his beautiful eyebrows furrowing slightly.

Her casual complaint sent You Su's heart leaping into her throat.

You Su nervously swallowed, only then realizing that he had been walking on thin ice the whole time, and what had been pressing against the girl was clearly the Ink Pine Sword had somehow slipped between their legs. The hilt end was pressing against the girl's inner thigh, creating a very elastic indentation on the gossamer-thin gauze skirt.

He hurriedly reached for the sword hilt, but his fingertips touched something warm and soft. Bai Ze suddenly squeezed his knees together, trapping his hand between his legs before he could withdraw it.

"This is your reward for me; you're not allowed to punish me with family rules."

The girl pouted her red lips, looking serious and not allowing You Su to cheat.

You Su's back was taut like a fully drawn bowstring; if he went just half an inch higher, he would touch a forbidden area that he must never touch.

He wanted to scold this tactless girl, but when he looked down, he met her clear, spring-like eyes—filled with genuine innocence and naivety, as if her teasing just now was nothing more than a kitten accidentally showing its belly in play, instantly making his scolding words vanish.

"This place is fraught with danger; only by wielding a sword can I protect you," You Su's voice was terribly hoarse.

"Really not to hit me...?" Bai Ze asked timidly.

"Um."

Bai Ze was skeptical upon hearing this, but he still slowly loosened his grip on You Su changing his mind at the last minute.

Even with his sword in hand You Su couldn't ease the tension in his heart; the girl's warm fragrance disturbed his mind. He lowered his eyes, unable to meet her gaze.

A dark red glow flowed around the girl's collarbone, You Su suddenly realized that the ties of her ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress) had loosened slightly at some point. A sliver of porcelain-white skin peeked out from the collar, appearing and disappearing with each breath.

He hastily looked away, only to find that their shadows on the conch shell had already become intertwined in an ambiguous way.

He seemed to realize that his view of Bai Ze was different from before.

Ultimately, he was a Blood Qi young man, perhaps even more Qi and Blood than most. His ability to endure was due to his extraordinary willpower, and had nothing to do with lofty concepts like morality, emotion, or responsibility.

In fact, these self-disciplined pursuits of integrity are somewhat superfluous for a catgirl who is actually older than herself, but You Su simply cannot allow herself to have desires for a silly little cat.

In truth, You Su knew that the more conflicted he became, the more it revealed his wicked intentions, and the more he knew this, the more conflicted he became. This vicious cycle stemmed from his inability to distinguish whether Bai Ze was intentionally testing him or simply being naively innocent.

The actions were exactly the same, but the object changed from a cat to a human, yet the meaning was completely different for You Su. However, in Bai Ze's newly human form, everything seemed the same. So, his belief that the other party was testing him was simply him finding an excuse to absolve himself. It was as unreasonable as dragging a beautiful woman into an alley and then claiming that she had deliberately seduced him.

He was like a ravenous wolf, but not a vicious wolf without any moral boundaries. When faced with a little white cat offered to him, he would still make sure it was a bad cat before eating it. If the cat was licking its fur to show its affection, how could he bear to eat it?

Gazing at her lips so close to his, You Su finally sighed, flicked her brow with her finger, and resolved to get to the bottom of it.

"Bai Ze." He called her by her full name in a hoarse voice, trying to regain his elder brother's authority, "Do you know what it means when a woman and a man are so close in the mortal realm?"

The girl tilted her head in thought, one of her pigtails falling to You Su's shoulder, giving her answer:

"It means you have a good relationship."

After speaking, the girl's eyes lit up as if she had noticed something new and interesting. She reached out and poked You Su's bobbing Adam's apple, then touched her smooth neck, and asked with great curiosity:

Why don't I have yours here?

You Su's pupils narrowed slightly as he gazed at the girl's deer-antler-like eyelashes.

If the girl had only given him the answer, he might have continued to ask questions. However, her nonchalant behavior seemed to confirm her naivety and innocence, so there was no need to press her further.

"You owe me one lesson in family discipline," You Su suddenly said coldly.

Bai Ze stared in astonishment. "Why? Isn't this the reward we agreed on?"

"The reward was sitting on me, but I didn't let you touch me. As a younger sister, you're being disrespectful to your older brother; you deserve to be punished."

You Su knew he was just being delusional, and he couldn't help but feel resentful. So he found a reason to take it out on his sister, who was the one who started it all, as a way to warn the girl to keep her distance in the future.

"You! Me, me!"

The girl stammered for a long time, still unable to refute this sudden accusation, much like a poor scholar in a brothel complaining that the beautiful woman was too unkind, asking for payment only after touching him.

Finally, the girl gave in in frustration, saying, "Then you're not allowed to hit me with the sword, it hurts so much."

"You have to experience pain to learn a lesson."

"I was just kidding you, the sword didn't hurt at all." A mischievous glint appeared in Bai Ze's eyes.

You Su smiled wryly, though their sitting posture was still excessively intimate, he now had a reason to keep the beast in his heart under control.

She's just a cat.

It's just a somewhat cute-looking, extremely dependent cat that's also a bit human-like.

You Su tried to hypnotize herself, but it didn't seem to work well.

To divert his attention from the wonderful tactile sensations, he took out the second stone tablet that he had finally obtained.

As the Mystic Qi was slowly infused, the pure Mystic Qi preserved within the stone tablet was activated. On the tablet, characters gradually emerged, but they were even more frenzied than the previous one, with tendrils seemingly writhing within the strokes—

Those who come after must remember these three Principle:

"First, fear will plunge you into eternal darkness. Do not imagine, do not pry, do not fear."

You Su read it and deeply agreed. He had seen many of his colleagues in the Evil Warding Department who also avoided evil spirits like the plague. If cultivators were like this, the fear of evil spirits among ordinary people was even more deeply ingrained. However, many people, including himself, who were seen as invulnerable to all evil spirits by others, were actually just not that afraid of these demons and monsters.

Fear of the unknown is inevitable, but it shouldn't be to the point of being afraid to face it or draw one's sword. The more afraid one is, the more powerful the invasion of evil will become. This is a simple truth that many people understand, but the vast majority of people still cannot control that instinctive physiological fear.

"Second, concealing oneself is essential to survival. In the deepest abyss, a candlelight can illuminate ten feet ahead, yet it can also reveal itself to beings ten thousand feet away. Ignore the whispers in your ear, do not respond, and walk alone."

You Su nodded slightly. He had always instilled in Bai Ze the idea of never easily revealing one's existence. This stemmed from his habit of keeping a low profile and his instinct to preserve his life. He never expected that this would coincide with the experience left by this senior. He had initially ignored the persistent whispers that lingered in his ears, thinking they were some kind of bewitching tactic. Now he realized they were a method used by a more terrifying being to find its prey, and he couldn't help but feel secretly fortunate.

This second Principle can be summarized in twelve words. "Don't expose yourself, don't respond to them," a rule that You Su kept firmly in mind.

As You Su read on, he felt increasingly Divine Abilities of this senior, but his pupils suddenly contracted when he finished reading the third point.

"Thirdly, the more beautiful something is, the more dangerous it is—this is an irrefutable truth. I erect this monument before this coral reef to warn future visitors not to be misled by beauty. The path to success is fraught with peril; please take a detour."

In an instant, a chill ran down You Su's spine. He looked up sharply, and the patterns on the inner wall of the dark red snail shell seemed to writhe as if they were alive, and the originally dark blue fluorescent moss was now oozing scarlet blood streaks.

Bai Ze nestled in his arms, secretly poking at the soft flesh of You Su wasn't paying attention, but was startled by You Su's suddenly tense muscles and withdrew his hand.

"Walk!"

You Su one hand around Bai Ze's waist, the moment the Ink Pine Sword cleaved through the barnacle curtain, a salty sea breeze carrying thick fog rushed towards them. The once tranquil and beautiful coral reefs were now twisting wildly, and the fluorescent light flowing between the branches was like boiling lava, illuminating the seabed as if it were a hellish inferno.

You Su then realized that the troublesome sea lice had left so quickly not because they had given up, but because they knew things would change soon!

The moment Bai Ze's embroidered shoes touched the ground, the entire coral reef suddenly trembled violently. You Su staggered as he shielded the girl tightly against his chest, while Ink Pine Sword was deeply embedded in the ground to stabilize himself.

The swamp-like land arched in continuous arcs, and more and more strangely shaped conch shells sprouted from the ground like bamboo shoots after a rain. This was not a natural refuge, but a colony of countless conch shells parasitizing a giant creature!

"No matter what happens, always stay behind me!"

You Su shouted anxiously at Bai Ze in his arms. The girl was clearly still reeling from the shock of her brother and sister's embrace turning into an impending disaster. Her expression was somewhat stiff, but fortunately, obedience was her nature, and she nodded woodenly in response to You Su.

"Boom!"

A deafening rumble came from underground, mud surged, and the earth seemed to be churning wildly by an invisible giant hand.

Amidst this chaos, a shadow a hundred feet wide burst forth from the earth like a towering mountain, its descent of mud and sand resembling a torrential downpour.

You Su bent over, completely covering Bai Ze beneath her. A nauseating stench swept in like a hurricane, as if it came from the darkest corner of the deep sea, almost blowing You Su away. Only when most of her calves were trapped by the mud and sand did You Su have a chance to lift her head.

The shock of looking up was no less than when I glimpsed that magnificent mist beast from the tower of Chuyun City!

A massive white sphere hung from the small hill, its translucent material giving it a restrained yet elegant beauty, like a full moon overlapping the hill's shadow. But this was no ordinary landscape painting; at the center of this gigantic sphere, countless disgusting fleshy buds of all sizes writhed and licked it, as if they themselves had created this unparalleled, enormous pearl. Accompanying this were constant, gurgling sounds, as if countless teeth were chewing away unseen by the two, a chilling spectacle.

Bai Ze's scream caught in her throat. She trembled as she clutched You Su's clothes, her feet, covered in mud and sand, unable to move.

What terrified and stunned her was that she had discovered an astonishing phenomenon... at the very end of these undulating conch shells lay that enormous pearl!

You Su also noticed this. He quickly realized that this was a gigantic evil spirit that resembled the legendary Tridacna, much larger than the cloud-swallowing beast he had seen before!

And he and Bai Ze were standing on its tongue!

Run!

Only this one thought remained in You Su's mind!

You Su quickly shook off the surrounding mud and sand, then carried Bai Ze on his back and leaped onto the newly formed 'ground'.

Without the slightest hesitation, he fled from this truly abyssal maw.

More and more buds burst forth from the ground, like countless greedy hands trying to drag the two fugitives back to hell.

The imminent threat of death left neither of them with the strength to speak. Their survival instincts drove them to do anything that would keep them alive. He tacitly agreed that Bai Ze no longer needed to restrain his power. Because not restraining it might result in injury, but restraining it would certainly lead to death!

You Su shouted, his sword blade sweeping across with black energy. The Lotus Birth Sword Intent and Don't Cower Sword Intent merged into a storm of ink and color, like an ink dragon shredding the sludge tentacles that were rushing towards him.

Bai Ze's twin ponytails fluttered wildly in the gale. She formed hand seals with her ten fingers, and her Mystic Qi surged like an icy river, freezing the conch shells falling from the sky into ice sculptures that hovered in mid-air.

The mud and sand were too difficult to walk on, so he grabbed Bai Ze and leaped onto the icicles, speeding across the constantly cracking ice. Behind them came the sickening sound of chewing; frozen conch shells were snapped off by fleshy sprouts, and ice shards mixed with mucus poured down like a torrential rain.

Bai Ze suddenly groaned, You Su turned her head to see a fleshy tendril piercing through her left shoulder, its crimson color soaking into her pink dress.

You Su's eyes widened in fury, the instant he swung his sword to sever the fleshy tendril, an ice lotus bloomed in Bai Ze's palm. Extreme cold flowed upwards along the wound, freezing the evil spirit's severed tendril into an ice pillar.

"Run quickly..." Bai Ze urged in a low voice.

You Su gritted his teeth, his eyes turning completely black again. Thick black smoke seemed to billow from the Ink Pine Sword, slicing all the fleshy sprouts blocking his way into pieces.

But what's truly troublesome isn't just these granulation tissues, but also these parasitic snails!

They exploded one after another along the path the two were on, the fragments of fluorescent moss swirling like a galaxy in reverse.

This severely hampered You Su's escape. The energy ripples from the explosion caused You Su to stagger and lose his balance, while he also had to focus on resisting the rampant fleshy growths.

You Su was caught off guard and found her ankles bound by fleshy buds. Suddenly, she felt a tremendous force coming from her ankles, and then she felt dizzy and was thrown into the air.

He was terrified that Bai Ze on his back would be thrown off, so he held the girl's thigh tightly, but in doing so, he couldn't free his hands to cut off the fleshy buds. And in that moment of hesitation, more and more fleshy buds wrapped around him, as if trying to wrap the two of them up like dumplings.

You Su secretly regretted his decision; he shouldn't have taken the chance to venture into this camouflage coral world. This place was far more terrifying than he had imagined. But now, trapped in this desperate situation, how could he find a way to survive?

Just when he was at his wit's end, he was shocked to find that the fleshy growths wrapped around his legs loosened all at once, throwing him mercilessly high into the air.

You Su hurriedly used the Ruyi Wind-Controlling Technique in the air to take several steps to stabilize himself, only to see the ground below moving rapidly.

This giant Tridacna is retracting its tongue!

You Su landed lightly with Bai Ze in his arms, wondering why the fleshy buds had suddenly retreated as if fleeing, while rushing against the direction the tongue was retreating. Finally, after landing on a few corals, he jumped out of the Tridacna's tongue.

But the fear of death in his heart did not dissipate; instead, an even heavier sense of oppression came down from top to bottom.

You Su's pupils contracted to the size of beans; he strongly sensed that something was coming from above.

An overwhelming shadow enveloped this dark world, with only the distant light and shadow outlining the shape of the thing overhead.

Xiao Yu, and even bigger fish eat big fish. This is the true nature of the underwater world.

Tridacna, the world's largest bivalve mollusk.