The Huai River Water Mansion

Zhang Xuezhou originally intended to take a walk along the Huai River to try his luck, but Lei Bei came over and offered him information about the Huai River Water Mansion, which was only available in the first-class rooms of Wenying Pavilion.

This made Zhang Xuezhou feel that the water was indeed his home turf.

Finding a submerged water palace in a vast expanse of water stretching thousands of miles is a matter of pure chance, even with a large search force.

However, with information about the Lei Bei, and even the locations where the Dragon Kings had previously appeared and offered sacrifices, the search was undoubtedly simplified.

Although he would repeatedly search areas that had been searched before, Zhang Xuezhou possessed a more acute sense of perception than the average person.

Of course, the Huai River Water Palace was not Zhang Xuezhou's goal; his aim remained to find a safe haven in a favored place.

Once a favored spot is established, he will have a starting point within a radius of hundreds of miles where he can use the Dragon Riding Technique to return. If he can establish more favored spots, he can achieve his goal of escaping with three burrows.

"Brother Dongfang, you came here so late at night to search. Is it because the imperial court has informed us that the Water Mansion will appear at night?"

You guessed right!

"I knew it! Oh dear, we shouldn't have searched during the day!"

Zhang Xuezhou had Lei Bei, who had studied the Huaihe River Water Palace, lead the way, and the area they explored Lei Bei's.

If we're talking about the differences between them, it's probably just the difference between daytime and nighttime.

For Zhang Xuezhou, who relied on the Dragon Riding Technique to sense favored locations, it made little difference whether he searched during the day or at night, so he let Lei Bei make wild guesses.

Lei Bei extremely enthusiastic about this matter.

After Zhang Xuezhou made a show of searching the area where the Ying River and the Huai River meet, the two then rode off on horseback towards the location mentioned in the Huainan Yizhi (Records of Strange Things in Huainan) where the water god was worshipped.

The Huainan Yizhi mentions eight such sacrificial sites. Zhang Xuezhou felt that by the time he explored these eight areas, it should be dawn. He could then return to Shouchun City to recuperate, gather information, or even chase after Rong Tianding and the others.

Of course, Zhang Xuezhou felt that he would often go for a run by the water in the remaining days to try his luck.

"Brother Dongfang..."

"Don't make a sound!"

With various plans in mind, Zhang Xuezhou went to another sacrificial area and, as usual, released his useless feng shui geomancy technique. When a thought suddenly struck him, Zhang Xuezhou felt as if the river water had gained a touch of spirituality.

The area where he was worshipping the water god was a mudflat. The place where the water god was worshipped in the past had been washed away by the flood, which brought countless silt, gravel and sand, leaving only a shallow area of water flowing slowly on the mudflat.

Zhang Xuezhou looked down at his feet, while Lei Bei used a dimly lit luminous pearl for illumination.

As the light shone down, Zhang Xuezhou saw the water flowing around his legs like ribbons.

The affinity of this water flow even exceeded his ability to actively release water-repelling techniques.

"Is this my perception of the place I favor?"

A thought struck him, and the useless feng shui site-finding technique in his hand faded away. Zhang Xuezhou couldn't help but try to use the Dragon Riding Technique to make a mark.

Compared to his previous attempts at casting spells, which left him feeling nothing, this time, the release of the Dragon Riding Technique made Zhang Xuezhou feel as if everything was just a hair's breadth away from success.

"The drawbacks of places favored by water are significant!"

Bai could return by using the Dragon Riding Technique and stand on the ground, while Zhang Xuezhou felt that using the Dragon Riding Technique would likely result in him being buried deep at the bottom of the river.

If one lacks any skill, attempting to escape and traverse into the favored land using this technique will result in being crushed to death by the force of the earth's compression.

Zhang Xuezhou reached out and rummaged through the riverbank. He eventually gave up on digging manually and instead extracted the feathers of the Peacock Great Wisdom King.

As he exerted force with the soles of his feet, his body slowly sank downwards.

"Brother Dongfang, you really came prepared! You even managed to crawl under the riverbed. I've made the right choice in following you!"

Seeing Zhang Xuezhou come out with a feather and dive into the riverbed, Lei Bei felt a ticklish sensation as he stepped on the thick riverbed.

"No wonder no one has discovered the Water Palace. Who would come and dig such a large area of mudflats? I wonder what the Water Palace actually looks like?"

Lei Bei so anxious that he paced back and forth on the mudflats, wishing he had learned the Earth Escape Technique allows one to burrow underground).

"No, if I use Earth Escape Technique to burrow into this riverbed, wouldn't I drown? But I can't even use Water Release: Water Release!"

Riverbeds are an extremely complex type of terrain, possessing characteristics of both soil layers and water bodies.

Even if a cultivator skilled in the Five Elements Escape Techniques came, unless they could release Earth Escape Technique with their left hand and Water Escape Technique with their right hand, and could fuse the power of the two techniques, they would not have a chance to enter this area using their Technique Method power.

Or, like Zhang Xuezhou, you need the right combination of treasures.

Few people can do this, and it's highly unlikely that such people would bother to explore a mysterious underwater palace that's difficult to find.

Lei Bei thinking to himself that the wealth in the Water Palace should not have been taken away by anyone.

He stomped his feet for a while, then began digging a hole.

Once the flowing river washed away the large swaths of silt he had shoveled away, Lei Bei reluctantly gave up the idea of opening a path to the water palace.

"Brother Dongfang, once you find the Water Palace, you must split the profits with me!"

Lei Bei could only shout at Zhang Xuezhou, whose head had already disappeared, and then stand on the muddy beach to wait.

Beneath the riverbed, Zhang Xuezhou kept stomping his feet, his body slowly sinking.

He used the feathers of the Peacock Great Wisdom King to travel very slowly through the earth. One advantage of this was that Zhang Xuezhou did not need to cast spells, nor did he need to study Confucian School or the Earth Path Sect to practice Earth Escape Technique).

Thinking of how Kong Zhong and the others became dwarfs while practicing the Earth Escape Technique, and how Zhou Bugui almost suffocated in the ground Zou Bugui practicing the Earth Escape Technique for more than ten years, Zhang Xuezhou couldn't help but sigh. He felt that relying on his magic Law Treasure was perfectly appropriate, since he used a different method to escape and did not need to rely on Earth Escape Technique to save his life.

At other times, Zhang Xuezhou wasn't in a big rush, and it didn't matter whether he traveled faster or slower.

"But the power of this feather Law Treasure will eventually run out. I wonder if Kong Ning can repair her father's demonic treasure!"

With this thought in mind, Zhang Xuezhou Zhang Xuezhou through the riverbed for a quarter of an hour until his feet finally found empty space, and he couldn't help but feel a surge of joy.

With a combination of pushing and stomping, he forced his body into the underground space.

The space was completely dark, and the air wasn't stuffy, just a little damp.

Zhang Xuezhou swept away the feathers of the Peacock Great Wisdom King and then took the feathers of the Golden Crow Great Emperor.

The addition of firelight in the darkness illuminated the area where Zhang Xuezhou sensed an affinity for the power of water.

The ground beneath our feet was a patch of black mud, but after walking forward about ten steps, we entered a dry and spacious cave.

Two half-person-high stone carp statues stand at the entrance of the cave, each with a white sphere on its mouth, from which water continuously flows.

These water droplets fell into the ditches on both sides of the cave, and eventually disappeared underground.

This is a typical "Two Dragons Emerging from Water" formation, a variant of the Yin-Yang formation.

The power of this formation lies not in its destructive force, but in maintaining the cave's independent form and resisting erosion from silt, water flow, and external violence.

"The Twenty-Eighth Route Huai River Water Palace!"

Zhang Xuezhou spent several seconds discerning the situation before gradually approaching.

His shoes were covered in mud, but as soon as he reached the door, the two carp statues turned around and sprayed water on them, washing them clean.

Zhang Xuezhou also clearly saw a stone tablet standing at the entrance of the cave.

The characters on the stone tablet are extremely ancient, completely different from modern writing, yet they also possess pictographic characteristics.

After reading it by guessing and some deduction, he finally confirmed that he had indeed found the Huai River Water Palace that the Great Sage of the Water Ape had once controlled.