At the bottom of the river, Chen Mo was covered in mud, all ten fingers dug fiercely into the rotten flesh on Water Baleful Intent's chest, his fingertips sunk half an inch deep.
Eight bone spears pierced its body from different angles, pinning it firmly in place.
Water Baleful Intent's mouth gaped wide, invisible soundwaves rippling through the water and making Chen Mo's eardrums ache.
The undercurrents swirling around them erupted at once, and the entire riverbed instantly boiled over.
The river water, once fairly clear, had become so muddy that one could not see one's hand before one's face.
Chen Mo squeezed his eyes shut and clung desperately to the rotten flesh on its body by feel.
At the same time, his right hand pushed through those soft, rotten tissues, reaching deeper in through its chest and groping amid the sticky mess.
Finally, near its kidney, he felt a cold, hard object.
It was a little larger than a fist, smooth on the surface, like stone, yet also like bone.
This was it.
Water Baleful Intent's core.
Every evil spirit that had transformed into a Baleful Intent basically possessed such a core.
It was not necessarily located in the same place, but once it was found, the rest became easy.
Water Baleful Intent sensed the lethal threat, and its struggling, which had already weakened, suddenly grew ten times more violent.
It no longer rolled and rammed about. Instead, it gathered all the strength in its body into a single instant and contracted sharply.
The raging water closed in like a flower snapping shut, wrapping Chen Mo's entire body within it.
It felt as though a mountain were crushing down on him.
His vision went completely black. All he could hear was the thunderous roar of water compressing around him,