Great Demon, Part 2

Great Demon, Part 2

The black shadow broke through the water with incomparable force and shot straight into the sky.

At that instant, lightning tore across the heavens. In the thunderlight, the black shadow writhed like a mad dragon.

Liang Qu stood frozen on the skiff, his mind blank, his heart clenched tight by immense terror.

The black shadow was far away, yet terribly close.

Was that a Flood Dragon?

He recalled the terrifying tales everyone told at the docks. Legend had it that a Flood Dragon lurked in the depths of the Jianghuai Marshlands, sleeping for sixty years at a time, only to stir up wind and waves upon waking.

No, that was not right.

A Flood Dragon had to be long and slender, at the very least, right?

That fleeting glimpse in the lightning made Liang Qu certain that it was something with a spherical body shape.

In the space of a lightning-fast thought, the dense black clouds suddenly split apart, moonlight pouring down. Liang Qu finally saw the black shadow's target—it was a Giant Bird wreathed in blazing flames!

With every beat of its wings, the black clouds spun like a whirlpool. Fierce light nearly shone through the clouds, and it seemed as though fire burned above them.

The sky suddenly brightened. Liang Qu shut his eyes, then opened them again. The two collided like meteors before bouncing apart and falling separately toward the lake.

The Giant Bird plunged into the water and let out a cry.

The lake instantly boiled. Scalding steam surged, erupted, and burst skyward, as if an underwater volcano had been detonated.

Water Mist exploded with a thunderous boom, then rapidly cooled and condensed in the surrounding conditions, forming visible bands of white fog beneath the moonlight. Billowing mist rolled swiftly over the water, spreading and swelling.

The immense temperature difference created airflow over the water. Hot and cold alternated, expanding and contracting as the air rushed about, forming a hurricane.

Liang Qu's dripping hair was whipped wildly by the gale, and he could not stand steady at all.

The spherical black shadow fell into the lake as well, like a boulder cast down by a god.

As the boulder completely submerged, the entire water surface became like a colossal lung, contracting and expanding, contracting and expanding. Every expansion produced a thunderous roar and stirred up endless Water Waves.

The river surface split apart as tens of millions of tons of scalding water rushed and surged in every direction.

It was a scene of natural disaster.

Towering waves rose up. Only several seconds later did Liang Qu hear the roar of the tide, followed by the howling gale. Then the colossal wave came screaming toward him!

The sky-blotting wave was right before him. In an instant, it overturned the boat and threw him down. Cold Sweat covered Liang Qu's entire body, his eyes nearly splitting apart. Strength appeared in his body from nowhere as he leaped fiercely and landed heavily atop the bow.

The skiff instantly reared high into the air, its pointed bow blocking out the Crescent Moon.

Boom! Tens of millions of tons of lake water surged and spread, crashing against the boat's hull with irresistible force.

Roaring, roaring! His ears were filled with the furious howls of rolling water crashing and colliding.

Everything on the boat rolled downward. Under the overwhelming pressure, Liang Qu felt as though his knees were about to snap.

His long hair, which had been flying wildly behind him, swept forward in an instant and danced chaotically in the wind. Liang Qu could not see anything around him. He could only stomp hard on the deck, grip the boat's edge with both hands, use his body to block the falling fish basket, and press it down with all his weight.

His muscles and bones were trembling. He could not tell whether the water surface was shaking or whether his own body had been stretched to its limit.

Crack, crack.

Liang Qu forcibly crushed the wooden edge of the skiff in his grip. Holding a handful of splinters, he reached down and grabbed the boat's edge again.

Fast—too fast.

Liang Qu's muscles were nearly tearing apart. Everything around him blurred into a wash of light and shadow. He could only rely on instinct to react. He could feel himself rising, boat and man lifted high together. One careless moment, and they would be smashed down mercilessly, shattered to pieces.

Breathe, breathe, breathe!

Liang Qu fought with all his strength to breathe, supplying oxygen to muscles stretched to their breaking point. He struggled to control the water flow as his strength drained away at a terrifying speed.

Whenever the wave crest grew too large and the boat was about to capsize, a mass of water would always push the stern back up.

For a time, the two maintained a strange balance, as though engaged in a bitter tug-of-war.

Boom! At last, the enormous wave, now far enough from the center of the battle, collapsed first and turned into tiny streams flowing in every direction.

The high-reared skiff gradually settled and floated steadily on the water once more.

Plop, plop.

Tiny white fish flopped about inside the skiff.

"Cough, cough!"

Liang Qu collapsed in the cabin and vomited. He had no idea how much water he had swallowed while breathing just now, but his stomach was bloated.

"Urgh!"

It was as if some switch had been flipped. His stomach convulsed and contracted. Liang Qu, who had been unable to vomit just moments ago, began spraying water like a faucet. Like the morning after a drunken binge, he vomited for nearly a full minute before finally emptying the water from his stomach.

His stomach churned as though Overturning Rivers and Seas, his head throbbed as if splitting apart, and every muscle and bone in his body wailed. The slightest exertion made him tremble uncontrollably.

Nothing eased the aching swell. It felt as though a python had wrapped around him, squeezing his blood vessels completely shut.

He felt terrible enough to die, but at least he had survived.

Another large wave struck, and the skiff rocked violently. Liang Qu's chin slammed against the deck, yet he could not even feel the pain.

He forced out a trace of strength, braced himself, and rolled over. Lying flat on his back in the boat, he gulped down air like an oxygen-starved fish floating at the surface.

He breathed in and out as much as possible to recover. Only after nearly a quarter of an hour did his sluggish mind regain the ability to think.

That... that was the Great Demon in the depths of the Jianghuai Marshlands?

Liang Qu had always heard that Great Demons existed in this world, but he had Never Before seen one. He had not expected to witness a battle between two demons with his own eyes today. Even the black clouds in the sky had been scattered by their collision, and the rain stopped there and then.

Too terrifying.

They had looked close, but the actual distance between them was extremely great.

Even so, the instant he turned and saw the black shadow, icy terror still gripped his heart like a giant hand, making his body tremble uncontrollably.

It was merely the aftermath of their battle. No! It did not even count as the aftermath of battle—just the massive wave raised when the Great Demon fell into the water had nearly destroyed his boat and killed him.

He could not imagine what kind of apocalyptic scene it would be to face one at close range. No wonder the fishermen at the docks near the Jianghuai Marshlands all warned each other not to go into the Deep Water Area. It was likely a bloody lesson accumulated over generations, a warning carved into their genes.

Could Master Yang deal with that spherical Great Demon?

At this moment, Liang Qu finally understood why underwater resources were so difficult to obtain.

The underwater environment was already unsuitable for human survival. Against a Great Demon like that, even a True Image Realm Martial Artist would likely struggle to gain any advantage, right? As for that flame-like Giant Bird, it would probably find it even harder to escape death.

Though both had fallen into the water together, whether it was flames or birds, every keyword meant the Jianghuai Marshlands countered it completely. That spherical Great Demon, meanwhile, was clearly a Demon Beast of the water.

Judging by its body shape, Liang Qu strongly suspected it was a Toad.

The whole sequence should have been that the Toad Demon noticed the Giant Bird, leaped from the water to hunt it, and knocked it into the lake. Fighting on its home ground, it was naturally like catching a turtle in a jar.

Lying in the cabin, Liang Qu faintly heard a shrill bird cry. Having recovered some strength, he climbed up to look, but all he could see in the distance was a vast bank of dense fog and a flash of fire. He could see nothing more.

He needed to leave. Not every spectacle was something he could watch.

Liang Qu was truly afraid now. Suppressing the soreness in his muscles, he picked up the oar and prepared to flee.

Right, where was A Fei? How was A Fei?

Splash!

Sensing Liang Qu's call, the Fat Catfish abruptly surfaced, its body trembling all over. Even the Water Wave around it quivered, but it was not injured.

After the violent wind, torrential rain, and huge waves had been filtered through dozens of meters of water, only gentle ripples remained. A Fei had simply been frightened out of its wits.

"Quick, take me back to the dock. Let's get back now."

The Fat Catfish could not have wanted anything more. Liang Qu rowed after it, and after a quarter of an hour, he finally saw the riverbank without mishap.

That great wave had washed Liang Qu far away. He had happened to be facing away from it at the time, which had instead shortened his route back.

Liang Qu had the Fat Catfish and Cannot Move guard the lotus roots together, then returned to the dock alone.

The dock was pitch-black. All The lights had gone out, and not a soul could be seen at the Fishing Wharf.

The boats that had once been chaotic yet orderly had all been squeezed into a tangled mass by the Water Waves and gale.

Liang Qu had no choice but to find a Wooden Stake at the outermost edge of the dock and tie his hemp rope around it. Looking through the cabin, he found that only one fish basket and the sunken-ship stone remained. Their size had allowed his body to hold them in place, keeping them from falling out. The dip net, stone knife, and everything else were gone.

The stove in the waterproof compartment had fallen apart into a heap. The new cotton clothes he had bought were soaked through, and even the cover over the waterproof compartment had disappeared somewhere. The entire compartment was filled with filthy water.

Picking up the heavy cotton clothes saturated with water, Liang Qu felt like crying without tears.

Once cotton clothes had been soaked, the stuffing inside would surely clump together. How could they possibly remain comfortable?

Thankfully, the fish basket was still there, and the Red Blood Perch had not been lost. He had not come out at a loss!