She paddled her arms and kicked her legs, looking exactly like a fat toad swimming at ease. She certainly lived up to her role as a guardian under Toad Boy.
Cui Jiuyang could not swim. He had plunged into the lake purely out of trust in Mama Liu, expecting to hold his breath and endure it. Instead, he found that he could breathe normally, with no need to hold his breath at all.
Marveling inwardly at Mama Liu's extraordinary Tadpole, he used the momentum of his dive to swim toward the lakebed.
The others followed him, but Spirit Medium Wei remained out of the water.
The Tadpole tasted unbearably bitter in her mouth, as though she had taken a mouthful of Coptis Juice. Unable to keep it there, she spat it out at once.
She understood why. Toad Boy was a recognized deity under the Old Mother of Mount Tai. As an Outer Path practitioner who worshipped the Five Immortals beyond the pass, she could hardly expect to win his favor.
Spirit Medium Wei sighed inwardly and sat in the boat, exchanging blank stares with Meng Da and Meng Er.
Mama Liu led, Cui Jiuyang followed, and Ninth Lady trailed behind like a spirit of the water. The three descended deeper and deeper.
Schools of fish scattered in alarm, and the light grew steadily dimmer. By the time it was too dark to make out the distant fish, they had finally reached the lakebed.
In the darkness, Mama Liu took out a Lotus Pod. It gave off a faint, warm glow that dispelled the gloom.
Only then did Cui Jiuyang realize that Spirit Medium Wei had not followed them down.
Mama Liu gestured to him. She pointed upward, curved her five fingers, and moved her hand back and forth to imitate a mouse scurrying across the ground. Then she pointed at the Tadpole in her mouth, shaking her head and waving her hand.
Cui Jiuyang understood. Spirit Medium Wei and the Tadpole were incompatible, so she could not come down.
It seemed that finding the Iron Rhino on the vast bed of Lake Taibai would take some effort after all.
The Japanese had obscured divination. Otherwise, locating it with a few finger calculations would have been easy.
The three wandered aimlessly over the bed of Lake Taibai. By the time half the Tadpole's water-repelling duration had passed, they had found nothing, though they had frightened the large lakebed fish into darting about.
Cui Jiuyang simply sat down cross-legged.
Even if the great Iron Rhino was enormous, finding it beneath a lake covering eighteen thousand mu was only slightly easier than finding a needle in the ocean...
The Iron Rhino... where on earth was it...?
Several fish swam over from a distance, curious about the Lotus Pod's faint glow. Seeing the three standing motionless, a few small fish began pecking at a strand of Ninth Lady's long hair drifting in the water.
Ninth Lady casually shooed them away, sending them fleeing.
The sight jolted Cui Jiuyang!
There was a Malevolent Flood Dragon inside the Iron Rhino!
A flood dragon was a demonic beast that already possessed the beginnings of a true dragon's nature.
All the creatures of the water kept their distance from a divine dragon!
They could block my attempts to divine the Malevolent Flood Dragon's location, but surely they couldn't stop me from divining where the fish in the lake were?
If I found the part of the lake with no fish or shrimp, the Iron Rhino would almost certainly be there!
He excitedly gave Ninth Lady a thumbs-up. If she had not chased away those little fish, how could he have thought of such a brilliant solution?
Ninth Lady understood that he was praising her, though she had no idea why. She merely gave him a gentle smile and waited to see what he would do.
Cui Jiuyang calculated on his fingers to locate the fish and found a place in the lake's northwest where fish and shrimp took detours.
Right there!
Chapter 28: The Lake God
The three surfaced and climbed into the little boat. Cui Jiuyang pointed northwest. "Row that way, quick!"
The boatman gritted his teeth and worked the sculling oar hard. Meng Da and Meng Er did not even ask what had happened below. Instead, the brothers hid at the stern, both looking backward.
Only when Cui Jiuyang turned his head did he understand why.
Such proper gentlemen.
Ninth Lady's clothes were soaked through and clung to her body, revealing every curve. Was that not a more arresting sight than the scenery of Lake Taibai?
Cui Jiuyang naturally made little effort to avert his eyes and stole a few extra looks... In the era he had come from, girls on the street wore far more revealing outfits. He was so used to looking that he had forgotten he was now a hundred years in the past.
Quick-witted as ever, Spirit Medium Wei took off her short black cloth jacket and draped it over Ninth Lady.
Ninth Lady had naturally noticed Cui Jiuyang's gaze too. Mr. Cui had no shame at all. If I didn't know he was a good man, and we weren't on a boat with so many people around, I'd put on a Nuo Mask and teach him a lesson.
Fortunately, the reed-leaf boat was quite swift. Before long, Cui Jiuyang shouted for it to stop.
Mama Liu handed out the water-repelling Tadpoles, and the three entered the water again.
This time, Cui Jiuyang led with the glowing Lotus Pod, while Mama Liu and Ninth Lady followed side by side.
This stretch of lakebed was unlike the previous one. Dense aquatic plants reached ravenously for sunlight. Their stems, slender as little fingers, rose twenty or thirty feet high, weaving a dark forest beneath the water.
Fish large and small chased one another through the forest. Every so often, a turtle or an old softshell turtle drifted slowly past.
The gaps between the plants were just wide enough for one person to swim through. Faced with vegetation of unknown depth, all three felt uncertain.
Based on his divination, Cui Jiuyang was certain that the great Iron Rhino lay somewhere within this dense growth. He signaled for the two women to stay close and plunged straight in.
Slender Ninth Lady slipped through the plants and followed Cui Jiuyang without effort.
Mama Liu, however, was simply too plump. No matter how well she swam, the stems and leaves kept tangling around her legs and feet, and she soon fell behind.
After entering the vegetation, Cui Jiuyang's unease grew stronger and stronger.
He could not tell whether the towering plants blocking the sunlight and forcing him onward through pitch darkness were making him nervous, or whether some real danger had stirred his spiritual senses.
Whatever the reason, he felt unsettled.
What was it?
Something felt wrong!
Farther ahead lay the area without fish or shrimp. He should be only a few hundred paces from the great Iron Rhino.
If something was wrong, think of it now!
Just as the answer was about to come to him, he abruptly stopped among the plants and stuffed the glowing Lotus Pod inside his clothes, hiding its light.
There was no need to think anymore. He had already seen it.
Ninth Lady stopped behind him.
She tapped his shoulder and gave him a questioning look.
"Why did you stop? Did you find it?"
Cui Jiuyang did not answer.
People were often like that. Only once they saw the source of danger did they remember what they had overlooked in their earlier reasoning.
All the creatures of the water kept their distance from dragons... except the water's ferocious beasts!
That Malevolent Flood Dragon possessed only a little dragon aura. It wanted to become a true dragon but had not succeeded.
Fish and shrimp would avoid it, but fierce aquatic beasts would instead feel compelled to defend their territory and come fight the invading Malevolent Flood Dragon!
Less than seven paces ahead of Cui Jiuyang... a giant softshell turtle, at least twenty feet across, swam along, swaying its head and tail.
Only when that enormous body was right in front of him could he truly feel its oppressive presence.
The thing was practically an underwater dump truck. One hit from it, and wouldn't I be sent transmigrating into another world again?!
Ninth Lady followed Cui Jiuyang's gaze and spotted the giant turtle too!
She immediately reached for the Nuo Mask in the treasure pouch behind her waist.
"Deaf to All" couldn't handle such a huge aquatic demonic beast. I might have to use that other mask... Ninth Lady looked delicate and gentle, but her behavior when drunk made one thing clear: she was an extraordinary woman who dared to fight!
Keeping his upper body still, Cui Jiuyang reached out and gripped Ninth Lady's hand tightly.
He slowly turned to face her and gave a tense, slight shake of his head, the veins bulging in his neck.
The old turtle was already furious that a Malevolent Flood Dragon had invaded its territory. If Ninth Lady attacked and provoked its ferocity, they would surely face a life-and-death struggle.
Don't move! Don't move! It hasn't noticed us, or it simply doesn't care about us.
Fortunately, Ninth Lady understood his expression and made no further rash move. She gave a slight tug at the hand he held but failed to pull free. Knowing how urgent the situation was, she gave up.
Sure enough, the giant turtle ignored the movement among the plants. It was intent only on finding the Malevolent Flood Dragon that had invaded its territory.
It swam past, almost brushing Cui Jiuyang and Ninth Lady, then moved away.
Only now did Mama Liu catch up. She found the two motionless in the water, holding hands.
She was puzzled. If the two youngsters had taken a liking to each other, surely they could wait until they were ashore to get affectionate. Why hold hands hundreds of feet underwater?
But Mama Liu knew when to be tactful. She stood to one side and waited to see when the young pair would finish.
Only when Cui Jiuyang felt certain the giant turtle had gone far away did he breathe a sigh of relief.
The lake water was cold, but the cold sweat on his body felt colder still!
Ninth Lady finally pulled her hand free. She too was shaken by the aftermath, chilled inwardly by how close they had just come to death.
Thoughts raced through Cui Jiuyang's mind.
What should we do now?
Keep going?
Farther ahead, we'd be within the Malevolent Flood Dragon's aura. If we met the giant turtle again, there was no telling what would happen.
But if we didn't go on, were we supposed to leave the great Iron Rhino at the bottom of Lake Taibai forever?
What were the Japanese planning?
They'd dropped it straight down from the surface. Did they have no idea there was a giant turtle down here?
Then why had they gone to all that trouble to dig this great lump of iron out of the Si River?
Were they just going to throw it into Lake Taibai and forget about it?
That seemed unlikely...
If the Japanese were after the secret of the Jidu Shrine beside the Ancient Ji River's channel... then either this Iron Rhino or the Malevolent Flood Dragon inside it had to be intended for some particular occasion.
How did they plan to move the Iron Rhino away under this old turtle's nose when the time came?
If the Japanese could do it, then surely we could too!
Before you continue