Desperate Hope

You Su led Bai Ze deeper into the sea in search of the stone tablet that recorded the method of redemption.

The seabed was dark and littered with jagged rocks, and coral reefs swayed in the water like ghostly withered branches. Occasionally, schools of bioluminescent fish would dart by, like ghostly phosphorescent lights, flashing by in an instant, which only served to highlight the deathly stillness of this sea area.

Bai Ze followed behind You Su, curiously observing everything around her. Every now and then, she would reach out and poke the floating seaweed with her finger, then pull it back, like a timid yet curious kitten.

"Brother, look over there, isn't that...?" Bai Ze pointed to a shadowy spot ahead, where something seemed to be wriggling.

You Su followed Bai Ze's gaze, her brows furrowing slightly. The shadow drew closer, gradually revealing its true form—a gigantic anemone-shaped evil spirit, its tentacles covered with dense barbs, swaying slowly in the water like an open, blood-red maw, waiting for its prey to come to it.

They walked for a long time before finally confirming an area teeming with evil spirits, which was the very center of this region. The anemone-shaped evil spirit was the 'lord' who had taken over this place.

"It's an evil spirit." You Su gripped the Ink Pine Sword tightly, and the blade emitted a low hum, as if sensing its master's fighting spirit.

He shielded Bai Ze behind him, saying, "Stay close to me."

Before they could finish speaking, the sea anemone suddenly spread its tentacles and lunged at the two of them. Its sensitivity to danger far exceeded their expectations. The barbs on its tentacles gleamed coldly and whistled through the air.

Fortunately, You Su had already mastered the Ruyi Wind-Controlling Technique. His movements were as light as the wind, flashing past like a ghost. The Ink Pine Sword drew a sharp arc in his hand, like a shooting star in the night sky, severing all the attacking tentacles. The severed tentacles writhed in pain in the water, spitting out dark green venom. The venom spread rapidly, polluting the surrounding air, and a pungent stench filled the air.

"It stinks!" Bai Ze covered his nose, his face showing disgust. Like a frightened little rabbit, he hid behind You Su and clung tightly to his clothes.

You Su covered his nose with one hand, his brows furrowed, and with the other hand he waved his sword to deflect the venom. His eyes were pitch black, which allowed him to see clearly even in the dark, but he looked around and still couldn't find the white jade tablet.

He was slightly disappointed, guessing that, like most of the cases he had encountered before, this was probably just an evil spirit that dominated the area and had not hidden the stone tablet. Hiding the stone tablet like that giant eye was ultimately a rare occurrence.

Before he could even consider whether to continue fighting to find out what was going on, or to retreat in time, the severed tentacles quickly grew back, giving him no chance to catch his breath. This anemone-shaped evil spirit seemed to possess infinite vitality, launching attacks relentlessly.

You Su realized the situation was tricky, so he fought and retreated, maneuvering with Bai Ze around the rocky seabed. He Movement Method agile and his swordsmanship was fierce. Every strike he made precisely severed the tentacles of the sea anemone, preventing it from getting any closer to Bai Ze.

Bai Ze, of course, wouldn't obediently follow You Su's orders and remain silent. While she dodged, she was always waiting for an opportunity to strike. Her agile eyes constantly observed the sea anemone's weaknesses, and she would suddenly use her superb ice control ability to launch a sneak attack on the terrifying sea anemone, aiming for something that wasn't fatal but was as annoying as a fly.

"Brother, it... it seems like it's unkillable!"

Bai Ze hid behind You Su, peeking out to observe the battle.

"How can anything in this world be immortal?" You Su said firmly. As soon as he finished speaking, he once again drew his sword and faced the challenge head-on.

While dodging the sea anemone's attacks, You Su carefully observed its movements.

As more and more tentacles were severed, You Su noticed that each time a tentacle was cut off, the anemone's movements seemed to slow down for a moment. The source of this slowdown seemed to be from the depths of the sea, where a faint ripple could always be heard.

"The true form of this evil spirit is not tentacles, but rather a root system hidden on the seabed. As long as the root system remains, it can regenerate indefinitely."

You Su quickly made a judgment, "Freeze it! Let me see what's hidden underneath!"

With the nourishment of that precious pearl, Bai Ze was no longer so stubborn in preventing You Su from taking action. And this appropriate need did indeed give Bai Ze a great sense of accomplishment, and she was often happy to obey You Su's orders.

In the dark seabed, the Ink Pine Sword like lightning. You Su leaped up, his sword cleaving through the foul-smelling poisonous mist, severed limbs falling like rain. Bai Ze curled up behind him, his ten fingers flying as ice shards suddenly solidified, pinning the tentacles that attacked again to the reef.

"Frozen!" the girl suddenly shouted, her pupils rippling with icy blue light.

Upon hearing this, You Su spun around, his sword grazing the jagged rocks and sparks flying. He seized the opportunity and plunged his sword into the center of the sea anemone's root. As the sword penetrated deep into the ground, it felt a powerful resistance, as if it were fighting against the life force of an evil spirit. You Su shouted loudly, gathering all his strength into this one sword strike.

He stirred it vigorously, and a stream of black liquid gushed out. The mud and sand on the seabed exploded, revealing gnarled roots clinging to the dark reefs. The sea anemones that clung to them withered and decayed at a visible speed.

Bai Ze peeked out from behind You Su, looked at the dead sea anemone, and patted his chest. "That scared me to death! These sea monsters are all so troublesome!"

Seeing You Su's silent and furrowed brows, Bai Ze probed again in a low voice, "So there really isn't a stone tablet here?"

You Su didn't really want to pass on this feeling of disappointment to the innocent and carefree Bai Ze, but he couldn't deny the facts. Just as he was about to shake his head, You Su's pupils suddenly widened.

The anemone's decay had finally spread to its roots, and the troublesome evil spirit was completely reduced to a puddle of pus. In the huge pit left behind after the roots disappeared, an irregularly shaped white jade tablet lay quietly, like the only light in this desolate sea.

But what truly astonished You Su was not the hard-won stone tablet, but the grayish-white skeleton placed beside it. Crimson fleshy tendrils were wrapped around the joints, like some kind of vicious Curse.

"This is..." Bai Ze had clearly also noticed the skeleton, her brows furrowing tightly as the most desperate possibility flashed through her mind. "Could this be the corpse of the deity who left the inscription...?"

"This evil spirit is even stronger than us, how could it possibly defeat that senior?"

You Su leaped into the pit and began to examine the skeleton closely.

"This skeleton is so decayed that its shape is unrecognizable; it must have been here at least a hundred years ago." You Su breathed a slight sigh of relief as he said this. If the predecessors who had given them a way out were all dead, wouldn't they be even more doomed?

Bai Ze followed closely behind, asking curiously, "Why?"

You Su released his Mystic Qi from his hand, and somehow managed to turn the skeleton over, revealing the transparent bead buried beneath its spine.

He picked it up and carefully wiped it clean with a cloth. "This is Water Repelling Bead, just like the Divine Radiance Stone, it's a material controlled by the sacred mountain and is extremely precious."

"Water Repelling Bead? What are they used for?"

Bai Ze made a move to take it and play with it, You Su slapped her restless little hand away and said seriously:

"As the name suggests, it allows one to delve deep into the ocean and avoid the currents. The owner of these remains must have been an ancient pioneer cultivator who explored the deep sea, but he remains forever in this dark ocean, becoming the host of that evil spirit. This is a relic, and should be treated with reverence."

You Su had only come into contact with the Water Repelling Bead at the Evil Warding Department. Its rarity was even greater than that of the Universe Bag, since they were both carved from the same extraterrestrial object and were non-renewable.

The materials used to make the Universe Bag are merely the outer layer of that extraterrestrial object, while the Water-Repelling Water Repelling Bead is its core. The working principle of the Water Repelling Bead is the same as that of the Universe Bag, both possessing extremely rare spatial attributes. However, while the Universe Bag cannot contain living beings, the Water Repelling Bead can. It forms an independent space around its host, isolating it from the outside world, thus achieving the purpose of repelling water. Similarly, although named the Water Repelling Bead, it is also proficient in repelling fire and electricity, provided that there is sufficient air inside the Water Repelling Bead.

Therefore, while the Universe Bag can still circulate in the world, the Water Repelling Bead is strictly controlled and prohibited from being traded, and is only used in extreme missions where it is necessary to dive into deep water.

It was because You Su understood this that he deduced the cultivator's identity as a pioneering explorer. He wanted to confirm the identity of this victim more precisely, but he could find no other clues, only withered bones.

"How pitiful..." Bai Ze looked at the gruesome corpse with a heavy heart, his sorrow deep in his eyes.

You Su remained noncommittal, then picked up the stone tablet and said, "Let's go out."

Bai Ze's sadness came and went quickly. He immediately opened his arms and said, "I'm a little tired, carry me out."

You Su sighed and remained silent, unsure whether the girl was truly exhausted or not. Too lazy to investigate further, he wrapped his arms around the girl's slender waist and lightly leaped to the ground.

"Bury him."

You Su held this predecessor who sacrificed himself in the depths of the sea in high esteem, because he knew very well that even in the Evil Warding Department, going out to sea was a task that most people would avoid at all costs, let alone going into the water.

Bai Ze did not object and very sensibly began to condense the surrounding ice-attribute Mystic Qi, actually creating two exquisite ice shovels.

You Su patted her head approvingly and began filling the grave. As he placed the last shovelful of sand on the simple mound, tiny specks of light suddenly lit up in the surrounding seaweed, as if thousands of souls were coming to bid him farewell.

You Su watched him go for a while. His melancholy wasn't entirely out of respect for his senior; it also stemmed from his own anxieties about the future. He worried that he might end up like his senior, harboring lofty ambitions but perishing at sea, becoming a breeding ground for evil spirits.

He wasn't initially so pessimistic, but after searching two stone tablets without finding any substantial information, he couldn't help but doubt whether a path to survival truly existed. The inscriptions on those stone tablets were either the senior's insights into the underwater world or reminders about the surrounding environment. Apart from the three proverbs on the second stone tablet, they didn't offer much help to You Su's progress.

He knew he shouldn't be impatient. The senior was also a newcomer to the exploration, but he still couldn't help but lose some of his enthusiasm for reading the stone tablet. That's why he only started reading it after he finished his work.

But this time, the solution he had been searching for was actually engraved word by word on the monument!

"I observe that this abyss is not a natural sea, but rather a mysterious Mystic Fiend Barrier, which has created a nest in the water. The dome is as black as ink, neither sky nor sea, but Realm formed by myriad filth. Miasma flows freely, and evil spirits abound. I cannot understand what it is that has given birth to this evil realm and demonic nest."

However, the demon's lair is not a fatal weakness; there are two ways to escape:

Firstly, there was the challenge of breaking through barriers and soaring through the heavens. I once attempted to fly through the sky, but the black barrier was like glue, corroding my bones and consuming my soul. Even if I managed to escape by chance, the immense pressure of the abyss would follow, and those who were not indestructible would be reduced to dust in an instant. I used Water Repelling Bead to float and lose track of time, but the Evil Demon of the sea followed closely behind. My turtle-like breathing could not escape the clutches of these evil spirits, and in the ensuing struggle, I could hardly breathe. Finally, my meridians were exhausted before I was able to escape the sea by sheer luck.

Secondly, there is the path of Seek vortex to return to land. Evil spirits invade the shore, often climbing up from the coastline, yet the Divine Radiance Stone protects against their invasion. During my exploration, I discovered two hidden tunnels, realizing that the Evil Well of the Empty Plains was not an isolated case. I have extensive knowledge of evil spirits and have never heard of such a well recorded in previous generations. It is feared that this hidden passage of the sea eye is a new method used by Evil Demon to invade the inland from the coast. These whirlpools are hidden in deep ravines, turbulent like tornadoes, leading to the mortal world. If one can go upstream, one may be able to return to the human world. However, the whirlpools are infested with lice that bite souls invisibly. Moreover, the opening and closing of the whirlpool's eye is unpredictable, making it difficult to encounter.

As for other ways to survive, I have also searched diligently...

You Su traced the cracks on the monument with his fingertips, the characters etched into his heart like knives. The Ink Pine Sword moved without wind, making the shadow between his brows appear even deeper.

"We might have a chance to fly and break through the barrier..." He stared at the lines on his palm, where scabs from his battle with the sea lice still lingered. "But how can we withstand the pressure of the water from thousands of miles away and the relentless pursuit of the Evil Tide ..."

Just as he was muttering to himself, feeling frustrated, he suddenly felt a tightness in his sleeve.

Bai Ze tiptoed and rested his chin on his shoulder, his eyes shining with a light that mingled with the glow of the inscription. "Brother, look, the character 'whirlwind' is carved especially deeply."

Her fingertips traced the stone's texture, and she managed to pry out half a fish scale from a groove. "It must have been painstakingly carved by our predecessor before his death—he believed in this."

The scales had a bluish hue, clearly the remains of a flying fish they had seen in the coral reef.

You Su shook his head. "We've already gone who knows how far. How could we possibly find that evil well we left behind? Besides, that evil well isn't as active as you described, senior, and it doesn't have any whirlpools. It's probably abandoned. Regardless of whether your guess is correct or not, finding a new one is like finding a needle in a haystack."

You Su sighed. Fighting and struggling in the deep sea, barely surviving while cultivating, the most feasible plan would be to swim directly out of the deep sea using the first method. However, if he did that, he didn't know how much time he would have to waste here.

Bai Ze, who was usually timid and fearful, didn't share You Su's worries. Instead, he hugged You Su's arm and encouraged him. "Let's search! What's there to be afraid of? It's okay if we don't find it. Didn't the senior say he's still looking for other methods? Let's keep looking for the stone tablet; there's bound to be a new method!"

Upon hearing this, You Su suddenly looked up and read the inscription again as if to confirm, "He... it said earlier that he had already left the seabed, could it be that he has returned? Is there really such a person?"

You Su didn't notice it at first, but upon rereading, he found it unbelievable. After going through so much hardship to escape the deep sea, this senior didn't go ashore, but instead returned to the deep sea? It was truly a case of the rich dying of thirst while the poor die of thirst. However, Bai Ze's reminder did give him a renewed sense of purpose. He had already experienced many hardships and knew that only by staying alive could there be a chance for change.

Bai Ze watched You Su's resolute gaze from the side, her eyes crinkling with a smile. She quietly flicked away the fish scales from her fingertips; the swirling character on the inscription was actually no heavier than the other characters.

It seems that the one who was certain this method would work was not the senior who left a way out, but... herself.