Jiang Siyan watched as You Teng was engulfed by the black mist. In less than a second, a clear, sickening crack of breaking bone rang out, and the box fell to the floor.
Nan Yue stared at the box with a dark expression. She had acted too late. She should have... no, back on the shore when You Teng had provoked her repeatedly, she should have just killed him.
She had intended to open and examine both boxes, but certainly not under circumstances where she lacked control.
Clearly, the people underwater had seen something she couldn't. Danger was pressing in on her.
The black mist surged from the surface of Nan Yue's body, wrapping around her to isolate her from the thing attached to her back.
Suddenly, Nan Yue realized her right hand was no longer under her control. It abruptly reached up and clamped down hard on her own throat. It was then that she saw another hand behind her right one!
That swollen, pale hand was interlaced with her own fingers, forcing her right hand to attack herself.
Was that thing back-to-back with her...
Nan Yue made an instant judgment. This meant she couldn't control her body to dodge, because to some extent, she and that thing were now one.
Her breathing was cut off, and a sharp pain flared in her throat. Her windpipe was on the verge of being crushed by her own grip.
The black mist instantly snapped her right arm. Her hand went limp and dangled uselessly. In the next moment, the black mist swallowed Nan Yue entirely. From Jiang Siyan's perspective, he could no longer see her, only a mass of writhing black mist.
Ever since they had entered the pavilion, they had all seen the entity attached to Nan Yue's back, and naturally, they saw it being enveloped by the black mist along with her.
"What... what's the situation now?"
Gu Xiang Kai shook his head. "I don't know either, but the boss will definitely be fine."
Jiang Siyan almost wanted to curse. Although these two were worried, they mostly possessed an unconditional faith in Nan Yue.
They didn't even know what was happening, and they were just going to wait!
However, what happened next caught not only Jiang Siyan but also Gu Xiang Kai and Zhu Xi Ning off guard.
The black mist suddenly expanded, swallowing the entire pavilion. A fierce wind erupted in the sky, so strong it was nearly impossible to keep one's eyes open. The previously calm water began to churn violently, as if it were boiling.
Then, countless corpses floated to the surface.
Jiang Siyan really wanted to scream. He suddenly understood why Gu Xiang Kai had dragged him away earlier. Nan Yue's awakened ability was terrifyingly powerful and made no distinction between friend and foe.
She had actually managed to turn such a massive lake upside down.
The three of them huddled together, and soon Zhang Qixu, who had been hiding far away, was forced to join them for safety.
The four of them stood back-to-back, keeping a wary eye on the corpses.
However, the corpses didn't seem to be attacking. They were just actual corpses, churned up from the bottom of the lake by Nan Yue's power.
As far as the eye could see, there were bodies everywhere, all of them young women.
Zhu Xi Ning clenched her teeth, her eyes turning red. This was a natural reaction to seeing her own kind die so miserably.
In the next second, a massive explosion rang out. Having sensed it in advance, Zhu Xi Ning pulled the others underwater, shielding them from the blast.
By the time they resurfaced, the wind had stopped, and the corpses were slowly sinking back to the lakebed.
Zhang Qixu stood there with his mouth agape. The once exquisite Lake-center Pavilion was now nothing more than a bare, massive bluestone floor. The pillars, curtains, and roof had all been blown away.
Even the stone table and stools inside had vanished without a trace. Only Nan Yue stood in the center of the stone slab, holding the two boxes.
What kind of destructive power was this? She had reduced the very center of this mission world, the place that held the most secrets, to near ruins.
Except for the base of the pavilion, which remained above the water, everything else was gone.
Zhang Qixu suspected this was intentional on Nan Yue's part. She probably didn't want to fall into the water, and more importantly, if she destroyed the base too, the others wouldn't be able to complete the mission.
It looked like something else was on the ground in the distance, but Zhang Qixu wasn't sure.
He saw Nan Yue holding the box in her left hand, placing the box from her right hand on the ground, and then jumping into the water.
She swam over to them. Zhang Qixu instinctively moved away, but the others didn't share his fear, instead surrounding her to see if she was hurt.
A faint, inconspicuous white mist circled Nan Yue's body once before returning to Jiang Siyan's body, seemingly dejected.
Nan Yue was in perfect health. That earth-shattering clash didn't seem to have caused her any harm at all.
"You can go up now. That thing is gone. Don't worry."
Hearing this, the three didn't hesitate and swam toward the remaining stone slab of the Lake-center Pavilion. The pavilion had been large, so even though only the foundation remained, it was enough to hold five to ten people.
The three of them saw the content written on the human skin. Zhang Qixu, who had finally shivered his way up, poked his head in to look as well.
"So sincere repentance is enough? He killed so many people."
Zhang Qixu muttered quietly, clearly surprised as well.
"If even you think there's something wrong with this, then it's definitely fake,"
Zhu Xi Ning sneered. "The Zhou family really is afraid of death. They didn't even tell the truth here in the Lake-center Pavilion."
The Zhou family's secrets weren't hidden in the ancestral hall or their main hall, but in the most inaccessible Lake-center Pavilion.
Not to mention, both the pavilion and this lake possessed a degree of mental attack power and were guarded by a vengeful spirit. The Zhou family still had tricks up their sleeves.
Just what kind of shameful things had they done to be so afraid of their secrets leaking out?
"But aren't vengeful spirits just the souls of the dead?"
Zhang Qixu asked in a small voice, but Zhu Xi Ning didn't answer him. The three of them entered the water one after another, following Nan Yue back to the shore.
When Nan Yue returned to land, the others didn't say a word. Even though they were far away, they had seen what happened.
If they had any lingering thoughts about Nan Yue's suggestions before, they had none now.
A high-level player with this kind of strength didn't need to consult them.
And although they couldn't see exactly what Nan Yue had encountered in the pavilion from a distance, they knew it must have been an extremely dangerous situation to warrant leveling the pavilion to the ground.
If they hadn't listened to Nan Yue and insisted on following her up, their fate would likely have been the same as the pavilion's.
When one's safety was threatened, everyone looked out for themselves first. So, Nan Yue's suggestion back then really had been for their own good.
Xu Yuan inexplicably straightened his back, looking quite proud.
"Sister is back. We should be able to go over now."
Ma Junyang looked at Xu Yuan and then at the others swimming back. He keenly noticed that one person was missing, but he didn't ask anything.
"Should we wait for her to come up and ask her before we go down?"
Rate on N.U.
