Crescent Moon Lake

Su Yuntian didn't dare let his guard down. He watched the lake's surface, wary of anything unexpected.

Only after Su Meng swam up beside him and climbed out of the water did the tension in his face ease a little.

"Who's down there?"

Staring at his daughter, who was clutching her clothes to her chest, her wet black hair plastered to her cheeks, Su Yuntian felt fury well up inside him.

"I couldn't see!"

Su Meng had a round, apple-like face and bright, glittering eyes. Huddled in a patch of grass with her clothes in her arms, she protested, "He didn't do anything to me. I was just startled when he suddenly appeared."

"That man probably meant no harm." He Rong kept urging his old friend to stay calm.

Su Yuntian's expression remained cold as he kept his eyes fixed on the lake.

Beneath the dim sky, the lake's surface shimmered with fragments of light from the Golden Chariot, yet it looked perfectly calm.

Far away,

the many subordinates loyal to Su and He had also stopped what they were doing and were curiously watching the lake.

A moment later, someone really did burst through the surface. He looked around, seemingly bewildered.

He surfaced in the middle of the lake, far away from them. Weeds clung to his tangled hair, and he looked rather disheveled.

He raised a long spear in the water. Fish were skewered along its shaft like candied hawthorn on a stick.

"It must have been a misunderstanding."

He Rong smiled faintly and pressed down on the short blade in Su Yuntian's hand. "He was too far from Su Meng to have been trying to harm her or spy on anything."

Su Yuntian let out a breath of relief, then suddenly called out, "Young friend!"

Hearing him, Pang Jian looked over and saw Su Yuntian and He Rong, along with the shattered Golden Chariot.

"Crescent Moon Lake."

He immediately realized where he was.

This freshwater lake in the Cenji Mountains looked like a crescent moon when viewed from above, which was why his father had called it Crescent Moon Lake.

A tall peak rose at the inner curve of Crescent Moon Lake. Blackwater Pool should be on the other side of that mountain.

Unlike Blackwater Pool, which had been designated a forbidden zone, the area around Crescent Moon Lake was a place where he often made camp.

The freshwater lake teemed with fish and shrimp, and wild beasts often came to drink nearby. It was also where he hunted and rested.

He hadn't expected to find a crack in the stone at the bottom of Crescent Moon Lake, concealing a secret passage that led to Blackwater Pool.

Seeing familiar surroundings, Pang Jian immediately felt much more at ease. His nerves settled.

As the man by the shore repeatedly called out to him, he surveyed Su Yuntian and He Rong from the middle of the broad lake.

He quickly guessed that these people, like Zhou Qingchen and Ning Yao, were also part of one of the Seven Great Families' so-called exploration and search teams.

After a brief hesitation, he swam toward Su Yuntian.

However, he didn't swim all the way to the bank where Su Yuntian stood. Instead, he climbed ashore a little farther away from the two men.

He rummaged through a patch of dense weeds and deadwood by the water, found flint and firewood, and immediately started a fire to roast fish.

He was very familiar with Crescent Moon Lake. Since the lake was so large, he'd stashed supplies at several spots along its banks.

He had similar hidden caches throughout the Cenji Mountains, some of them stocked with dried meat and grain.

As he started the fire and took the fish off the Dragon-Patterned Spear, replacing it with wooden skewers to roast them, Su Yuntian and He Rong exchanged surprised remarks.

"He knows this place well. And it looks like he prepared firewood, oil, and salt in advance." He Rong stroked his chin, pondering. "He must be a local."

"We can just ask him."

After getting dressed, Su Meng emerged from the grass and rolled her eyes at the two men sneaking around. She walked straight up to Pang Jian and asked, eyes wide with curiosity, "Were you catching fish underwater just now?"

"Mm."

Pang Jian glanced up at her. The girl looked about the same age as his younger sister, Pang Lin—around thirteen or fourteen.

She had a round little face and a pair of bright eyes. Her hair was tied into two buns that bobbed like little horns, making her look spirited.

"My name's Su Meng. I was bathing in the lake just now. You didn't see anything, did you?"

Su Meng put her hands on her hips and demanded the answer with a fierce look.

Pang Jian shook his head and replied casually, "Crescent Moon Lake is big. I was fishing deep underwater and didn't notice anyone above me."

"Crescent Moon Lake?"

Su Meng looked at the lake and thought the name suited it well. Since Pang Jian had already explained himself, she let the feigned fierceness fade from her eyes and asked in surprise, "You know this place well?"

"I'm a hunter from Linshan Town. I often come into the mountains to hunt, so of course I know the area."

Pang Jian answered evenly.

By then, Su Yuntian and He Rong had come over too.

They looked Pang Jian over. He Rong, ever cautious, glanced at the Dragon-Patterned Spear lying on the ground and asked, "Do you know how to cultivate?"

Pang Jian kept his expression unchanged and made up a story on the spot. "An old man came to the Cenji Mountains a few years ago looking for spiritual materials to make medicine. He asked me to guide him."

"I helped him find the materials he wanted, so he taught me a cultivation method and gave me this spear."

He Rong still had his doubts, but didn't press further.

"My name is Su Yuntian, this is my daughter, Su Meng, and this is He Rong."

Su Yuntian introduced them plainly and lowered his guard. Then, as if making casual conversation, he said, "Things haven't been peaceful around here lately. The situation's rather complicated. We came from the other side of the Cenji Mountains."

"Young friend, since you're a hunter from the Cenji Mountains and live in nearby Linshan Town, could you tell us if you've noticed anything unusual lately?"

Su Yuntian asked earnestly for his advice.

As he roasted the fish, Pang Jian replied calmly, "Not long ago, huge bones started falling from the sky. After that, there was..."

He looked at the shattered Golden Chariot and said, "Some time later, I saw this chariot, a huge sailing ship, and a White Tower sink down."

"For a while, the mountains shook and the beasts howled all day. I only came back to hunt after everything had calmed down."

At that, Su Yuntian and He Rong exchanged a glance.

A clear eagle's cry suddenly rang out above them. Everyone looked up and saw a dark gray eagle circling overhead.

The dark gray eagle regarded them with an odd look, repeatedly turning its gaze toward Pang Jian.

It flew back and forth overhead, as if observing Pang Jian from different angles, seemingly trying to confirm something.

Pang Jian grew annoyed by its stare. He was about to draw his bow and shoot the strange eagle when he suddenly remembered he'd left his usual bow and arrows outside Blackwater Pool.

After flapping its wings above them for a while, the eagle flew toward the other side of the mountain.

"Young friend, if you don't mind, why not guide us?" Su Yuntian offered once the eagle had left. Smiling, he added, "We're not familiar with the Cenji Mountains. We only came in recently, and I'm willing to pay you."

Pang Jian had finished roasting several fish and was already wolfing them down. His mouth full, he mumbled, "I'll think about it."

On the other side of the mountain.

Blackwater Pool.

Luo Hongyan, possessing Ning Yao, suddenly closed her eyes. She linked her divine sense to the eagle circling overhead and used it to observe the land below from different angles.

A moment later, she gave a soft snort. "Found you."

Behind her floated a gray shadow, clearer than Luo Meng's. It was none other than Hong Tai of the Dark Ghosts.

This Dark Ghost leader, who had reached the Xisui Realm, had still fallen into her clutches. She had drawn out his living soul and refined it into a "Spirit Sha," turning him into a servant she could command.

"That brat never left Blackwater Pool, yet he surfaced in a lake on the other side. That means there's a hidden passage beneath the pool."

"I just don't know whether that Dark Giant Python, with only its beast soul left, went with him."

Gazing at Blackwater Pool, Luo Hongyan wondered if the "Dark Giant Python" from the Fifth Realm might have left with Pang Jian now that he was gone.

Luo Hongyan was tempted to explore Blackwater Pool, but after considering it, she sighed. "That brat absorbed all the Phoenix Marrow into the Bronze Gate. All that's left underwater is the Dark Giant Python's skeleton, and I can't take it with me anyway."

She promptly dismissed the idea.

A little while later, her eyes lit up as she suddenly came up with a brilliant new plan.

Appearing in Ning Yao's sea of consciousness in a red dress, she looked at Ning Yao's hazy silhouette, imprisoned in the darkness.

"Ning, tell me everything about your situation. Don't make me take it by searching your soul. I plan to use your body for a while longer, so I hope you'll cooperate."

"If I search your soul, it won't be whole afterward. I'm sure you don't want that either, do you?"

She threatened Ning Yao with a sweet smile.

Ning Yao's indistinct, illusory soul swayed like a candle in the wind. Her voice trembled as she asked, "What do you want to know?"

"Everything that happened after you met that brat."

Half an hour later, the circling eagle returned.

Luo Hongyan looked at the cloth pouch Pang Jian had once thrown away when he ended his arrangement with Ning Yao. Smiling, she crouched down and picked it back up.

Using Ning Yao's body, she landed on the eagle's back and smiled brightly. "I'll put this pouch of loose silver to use again."

The eagle suddenly took flight.

Several Spirit Sha, like Hong Tai and Luo Meng, turned into drifting clusters of gray mist and followed the eagle as it soared toward the other side of the mountain.

Crescent Moon Lake.

After eating his fill, Pang Jian stepped over the fish bones, put the oil, salt, and flint back where they'd been, then covered them with leaves.

Then he picked up the Dragon-Patterned Spear and stood. "I should get going."

He turned down Su Yuntian's invitation.

He'd learned that He Rong and Su Yuntian really did come from the two weakest of the Seven Great Families, and that they were headed in precisely the direction of Blackwater Pool, on the other side of the mountain.

He had no intention of returning to Blackwater Pool.

There were plenty of spirit stones in his Bamboo Basket to help him cultivate. He could never starve in the Cenji Mountains, and for now he wasn't in desperate need of money.

All he wanted was to get away from people and find somewhere to test the body the Phoenix Marrow had tempered a second time.

With people from the Su and He Families around, everything he did would be inconvenient.

"All right, we won't force you. By the way, since you were fishing underwater, why did you ignore the fragments of that Golden Chariot?" Su Yuntian asked with a regretful look.

Pang Jian replied, "I thought no one else would come, so I figured I'd check the gold after I caught some fish and had a good meal. Now that you're here, I don't have any ideas. It's not as if I could outfight you anyway."

Su Yuntian laughed. "You're not greedy, and you know when to hold back."

He called over an old servant, who handed Pang Jian a small purse. Smiling, Su Yuntian said, "It's just some loose silver. Consider it payment for answering my questions. Once you leave the Cenji Mountains, silver... might still be useful to you."

Pang Jian was a little surprised, but he didn't refuse. He accepted it and said, "Until we meet again."

After he left, the people from the Su and He Families stayed at Crescent Moon Lake.

Taking a leaf from his book, they also went fishing in the lake and used the firewood Pang Jian had left behind to cook.

A group of people were gathered around the fire, roasting fish and happily eating, when a lone woman suddenly appeared in the distance and called out, "Where's Pang Jian?"

"Ning Yao!"