Shi Hou shot into the sky like a streak of black lightning, then plunged straight down like a meteor, crashing toward the spot in the center of the Lake where the golden light had vanished.
"BOOM!!"
The instant he hit the water, the surface exploded for dozens of yards around him.
White waves overturned the sky, and columns of water shot hundreds of feet high. The shock wave radiated from the impact, cracking nearby rocks and shaking even the veins beneath the earth.
Underwater.
The water was murky, the hidden currents raging.
Blood Qi erupted around Shi Hou. Wrapped in a hundred million jin of Extreme Realm divine strength and savage, ferocious might, he plunged headfirst into the depths of the Lake.
The Lake was profoundly deep, a mass of pitch-black darkness.
The farther down he went, the more bone-chilling the water became, and the more staggering the pressure grew. Any ordinary Fierce Beast that recklessly dived this deep would already have had its bones shattered and sinews torn by the pressure, its organs squeezed out through its mouth.
But how formidable was Shi Hou's flesh?
His Blood Qi still blazed underwater. Having returned to its purest essence, it formed a tangible, pale-gold barrier that forcibly pushed back the surrounding water, opening a pocket of vacuum roughly ten feet across in the pitch-black depths.
Ahead.
The Golden Frog, as large as a small mountain, had already fled into the dark depths of the lake bed.
With a gentle kick of its two thick, sky-pillar-like hind legs, its enormous body sliced through the deep water like a streak of golden light, moving at an inconceivable speed.
Even the currents were effortlessly torn apart, leaving only an elusive golden afterimage in the endless darkness.
This was its home ground.
In these waters,