After Chu Xiaoyao and Nuomi left, a deathly silence settled over Great Stone Lake. The streetlights outside the school cast a faint glow onto its pitch-black surface, as though something horrifying were brewing beneath the water, ready to emerge at any moment. It was unnerving.
Zhou You began taking off his clothes, but almost immediately, he felt something was wrong. There was nothing around to shield him from view. He was practically stripping in public.
"Why does this feel so much like being a pervert?"
He fumbled awkwardly as he undressed, but eventually stripped naked.
Zhou You put on the Swimming Goggles, exhaled slowly, then took a deep breath until his chest swelled. He repeated this three times, trying to empty his lungs as thoroughly as possible, before taking one last, maximally full breath. This was the breath-holding technique he had learned from a video the night before.
Splash.
The summer night was stiflingly hot, yet the lake water was frighteningly cold. Passing beneath the surface felt like entering another world, silent and soundless, with only darkness for company.
Instead, Zhou You relaxed. In the lake, he no longer felt like a pervert.
He switched on his flashlight to illuminate his surroundings.
Aquatic plants and reeds filled the lake. The flashlight could not even fully light the small area in front of him. Visibility was extremely poor, leaving him unable to make out the lakebed. Dark shapes occasionally flashed past his eyes, though he could not tell whether they were frogs or fish.
Standing on the lakebed, Zhou You looked up. The surface was less than a meter above his head, yet he could see nothing but pitch darkness.
Zhou You walked along the bottom, fighting the water's resistance. He felt like a giant in a movie, every movement incredibly slow and heavy.
Every step stirred up mud and sand beneath his feet, obscuring his vision until he could see nothing. He had not anticipated this.
The flashlight flickered twice and went out.
Zhou You had bought a cheap, shoddy flashlight to save money. Water had gotten inside, and now it would not light up.
You get what you pay for. Zhou You sighed and casually tossed the flashlight aside.
Following Nuomi's rough directions, he reached blindly along the lakebed and found a bottled-water bottle.
Another random grab yielded half a brick.
Toys, textbooks, steel bars... the lakebed was like a garbage dump. It had everything.
Zhou You felt as though he were drawing prizes in a game. There was no skill involved; whatever he found depended entirely on luck.
"Phew-"
He had held his breath for a full four and a half minutes before surfacing. An ordinary person could hold their breath for two minutes at most; any longer would damage their brain. Zhou You could last this long without any training solely because of his cultivation.
"How did it go?" Chu Xiaoyao and Nuomi asked with concern, crouching by the shore.
"I found a pile of garbage." Zhou You curled his lip, grateful that the school had fenced off Great Stone Lake out of concern for student safety. Without the fence, students would toss things into it every day, and there would be even more garbage.
"I'll give it another try."
Zhou You repeatedly dived for half an hour, but still found nothing except garbage.
Chu Xiaoyao checked the time. It was getting late, and she had to go home, or she would have trouble explaining herself to her family.
Chu Xiaoyao kindly reached out to help pull Zhou You up. "Forget it. Let's head back and try again tomorrow night."
Zhou You hurriedly dodged her. "Hey, hey, don't pull me! Keep your distance."
His clothes were still on the shore!
"Oh, right."
In the darkness, Zhou You could not make out Chu Xiaoyao's expression. Her cheeks flushed slightly, and she hurried away. Only then did he feel safe enough to climb ashore.
Zhou You had expected not to retrieve the Little Treasury today. He had never counted on finding Nuomi's Little Treasury in a single attempt.
Now that he could dive, it was simply a matter of trying for a few more nights. There was no rush.
Watching Zhou You and the others leave, the Red King on the rooftop was overjoyed and slapped his thigh.
"There's no doubt about it. Humanity's Supreme Treasure is in the lake!"
Originally, the Red King had only suspected that Humanity's Supreme Treasure was in the lake. After all, why else would Calamity keep going to Great Stone Lake every day for no apparent reason?
After watching Zhou You enter the water, the Red King was certain that Humanity's Supreme Treasure was in the lake. His intuition told him so!
The Red King felt the exhilarating relief of seeing sunlight break through the clouds.
Every day spent monitoring Calamity's movements had been torment. He had lived in constant fear that Calamity would discover him.
Now, at last, Humanity's Supreme Treasure was right before him. He did not know why Zhou You had left without retrieving anything, but this was no time to worry about that.
"You two, get ready. We're going to the school," the Red King urged the two Mind Masters.
After Calamity and Zhou You left, Nuomi returned to the classroom. With no one on the school grounds, this was the perfect opportunity to sneak in.
The two Mind Masters were filled with regret. The first time they had sneaked into the school, they had plunged straight into Great Stone Lake.
If only they had known Humanity's Supreme Treasure was in Great Stone Lake! They could have taken it away, and none of the later trouble would have happened: getting knocked out by Zhou You, accompanying the Red King to monitor Calamity, gathering information on Zhou You every day to analyze his relationship with Calamity...
But they could only grumble to themselves. If they dared say any of that aloud, even their survival would be in question. The Red King was not so good-tempered.
The three made some quick preparations, went downstairs, and left the residential complex. With the two Mind Masters leading the way, they easily found Great Stone Lake and climbed over the wall.
"Wait on the shore. I'll go down," the Red King ordered.
To enter the water, Zhou You first needed to achieve some success in skin tempering and develop a membrane, then find posts on the forum to earn Spirit Stones and speed up his cultivation. The Red King had no such trouble. He could transform into his flame body and enter Great Stone Lake.
But one preliminary step was the same.
The Red King began taking off his clothes and stripped completely naked.
The Red King was far less self-conscious than Zhou You. He often transformed into his flame body, and when the transformation ended, he was left naked. He had long since grown accustomed to that state.
Yet for some reason, this time the Red King kept feeling uneasy, as though someone had their eyes on him.
He felt his heart pounding, thump, thump, far faster than usual.
He frowned at the two Mind Masters, then shook his head slightly. It was not them.
Was Calamity watching me? No, if Calamity had spotted me, she would have come over already.
"Am I nervous because I'm afraid Calamity will notice?"
The longer he delayed, the more uneasy the Red King became, so he hurried to get it over with.
Pitch-black flames bloomed across his body like a black lotus heralding disaster, darker even than the lake. They consumed every inch of his skin until his internal organs sank into a sea of black fire, leaving only a vaguely human shape.
He stepped into the lake. The surface hissed, and steam rose from beneath his feet.
The Red King sank to the lakebed, his scorching flames automatically burning out a pocket of vacuum around him.
Like Zhou You, he had to feel around, but he could stay underwater far longer. In fact, he had practically no time limit, and he could move freely, treating the water as though it did not exist.
After feeling around for nearly half an hour, he found a box.
"Got it!"
Delighted, the Red King leaped out of the water and returned to his original form. He wiped the mud off the box, eager to see the legendary Humanity's Supreme Treasure.
"Congratulations on your great achievement, sir!" the two Mind Masters said insincerely. They coveted it, but dared not snatch anything from the Red King. They could only stand beside him and offer congratulations.
The box was battered and looked very old. Patterns were carved around its sides, but perhaps because it had spent so long soaking in the water, they were no longer distinguishable.
"Hm?"
The Red King tried to force the box open, only to discover that it would not budge.
"Is it locked?"
He examined the box closely, then suddenly recalled the Ancient Script the two Mind Masters had deciphered. It said that the box bore a Seal, preventing vengeful ghosts from approaching.
"Could there also be a Seal preventing it from being opened easily?"
On reflection, that made sense. How could a box containing Humanity's Supreme Treasure be so easy to open?
"Forget it. I'll take it back to headquarters and have the professor open it." The Red King felt that his mission was complete, but that sense of unease still lingered. He only wanted to leave as quickly as possible.
He hurriedly dressed and led the two Mind Masters over the wall.
In their haste, none of them noticed the goggles left behind.
The Ghost King Zhenyue, who had been watching from the shadows all along, grew doubtful.
"Did I misunderstand them? After all that effort, they weren't looking for Humanity's Supreme Treasure?"
Before you continue