127: Chapter 127 Bone Fish Hunt, Bloodstained Return (1)

Two thousand zhang. The light dots passed the entrance to the Dragon Burial Trench.

The trench mouth was a rift valley that cut diagonally down into the seabed rock. Large patches of glowing fungal layers hung on the rock walls on both sides of the rift—the fungal layers emitted a pale blue, cold light in the darkness, illuminating the trench mouth into a world of faint light. The light patterns on the water-viewing mirror widened as the rift deepened—the further down the trench mouth went, the wider it became, spanning nearly a hundred zhang between the rock walls on either side.

Two thousand five hundred zhang. The light dots descended to the deepest limit that the water-viewing mirror array could clearly capture.

Any further down—the image on the water-viewing mirror began to blur. Luo Qingcheng tapped her finger lightly on the sword hilt—her Divine Sense rushed along the earth veins to the three-thousand-zhang-deep water layer, injecting a thread of extremely fine Geng Metal Sword Intent into the very bottom of the water-viewing mirror array. The Sword Intent spread out at the bottom of the water—the blurry image on the last water-viewing mirror became a little clearer again.

But just as the image cleared—Leng Feng's eleven light dots suddenly all stopped in place, all facing the same direction.

In the water-viewing mirror image, in that darkest stretch of water at the bottom of the rift, something lit up. A massive, extremely steady mass of light—a whole expanse of deep blue, cold light seeped out from deep within the rock wall. The light spread across the bottom of the rift, extending who knows how far. At the very center of the light—an irregular megalithic structure was half-buried in the rock wall. Huge patterns were carved onto the stone surface, and the flow of these patterns did not match the array veins of any Formation on Blue Moon Island.

A Haiyuan Clan altar.

Leng Feng's light dots hovered directly above that mass of blue light for about ten breaths. Then he made a downward pressing gesture—the eleven light dots simultaneously shifted into a contracting ring Formation with Leng Feng as the axis.

Contracting into a defensive Formation—he was observing the perimeter.

Su Qingli traced the image from the water-viewing mirror onto paper. Her hand was steady—but the traced lines occasionally wavered on the paper. What was drawn on the tracing paper was the ring Formation that Leng Feng's team had set up at the dark bottom of the water.

"He is observing the patrolling Haiyuan Clan—counting the number of people and the intervals between shift changes." Su Qingli flipped the tracing paper over and wrote three lines on the back—

'The Bone Fish school is currently located at a depth of two thousand one hundred zhang—with a distribution width of about five hundred zhang; heading upward leads to the direction of the northeastern rift.'

'The Bone Fish school does not rise because the high water temperature in the abyss layer forces them to stay in the cold zone. But the Spiritual Qi from the black turtle egg is diffusing toward the shallow layers—the shallow water temperature is rising, the cold zone is moving upward—and the Bone Fish school will move upward along with the cold zone.'

'There are living things at the bottom of the Dragon Burial Trench—they are extremely sensitive to cold light and Spiritual Qi. Leng Feng's team has not been discovered yet.'

Lu Changyuan folded the tracing paper and tucked it into his sleeve. His eyes did not leave the water-viewing mirror—Leng Feng's eleven light dots were still suspended directly above that mass of blue light, motionless.

"He is waiting."

Luo Qingcheng's voice drifted down from Qixia Peak—very soft, but every word was distinct.

"He is waiting for the patrolling Haiyuan Clan to change shifts for the second time—after confirming the spacing of the sentries and the rhythm of the shift changes—he will withdraw."

On the water-viewing mirror, Leng Feng's light dot at the very front moved—raising upward by half an inch.

They began to withdraw.

Leng Feng waited for the second shift change at the bottom of the water.

On the water-viewing mirror, the eleven light dots hovered directly above the blue light for nearly the time it takes to burn two incense sticks. The Haiyuan Clan patrol team circled from the east side of the altar to the west, passing the same position once every sixty breaths or so—there was an interval of about a quarter of an hour between the two shift changes. When changing shifts, the old guards exited the perimeter of the altar, and the new guards filled in—there was a gap of about twenty breaths in between. Leng Feng's tracing Jade Slip recorded the number of patrols, the shift change times, and the length of the gap during this period. After finishing the recording, his light dot raised upward by half an inch. They began to withdraw.

The withdrawal route did not follow the original path. When coming down, Leng Feng had marked seven recesses in the reef walls that could serve as cover in the Jade Slip—on the return trip, the team moved laterally to the west from directly above the altar by about eighty zhang, floating upward along a narrow fissure that cut diagonally into the rock wall. At the top of the narrow fissure was a large reef protruding outward, and the bottom of the reef was covered with glowing blue fungal layers—the same kind as those on the rock walls on both sides of the trench mouth. The light from the fungal layers enveloped the eleven humanoid light dots, and from the direction of the altar, it looked like nothing more than a blur of blue light.

One thousand eight hundred zhang. Leng Feng's light dots suddenly slowed down.

On the water-viewing mirror, the red dots of the Bone Fish school, which should have been at a depth of two thousand one hundred zhang, had now scattered into a large area of irregular points, spread between one thousand eight hundred and two thousand two hundred zhang. The scattered points were not densely packed together as they were when coming down, but had dispersed along several hidden underwater channels. Each red dot was moving slowly, with inconsistent directions—some drifting toward shallower water, some moving horizontally.

"The Bone Fish school has scattered." Su Qingli pressed her fingers against the edge of the water-viewing mirror. Her voice was kept very low, low enough that only Lu Changyuan could hear, "They weren't scattered by force—it's because the speed at which the cold water layer is moving upward is uneven. The temperature in some channels has already exceeded the upper limit that the Bone Fish can withstand, so they are forced to disperse from the main channel and travel along the tributaries that are still cold."

The upward movement of the cold water layer—it was the Spiritual Qi from the black turtle egg continuously diffusing toward the shallow water layer. Every time a wave of dark green Spiritual Qi was pushed out from the cracks in the eggshell, the water temperature above the Abyss Mouth rose a little. The cold water zone that the Bone Fish school relied on to survive was being squeezed upward by the Spiritual Qi from below—squeezing until it reached the vicinity of one thousand eight hundred zhang, where it began to split into several disconnected cold tributaries. The school of fish followed the cold tributaries—and scattered.

Leng Feng's team's light dots made three consecutive sharp turns in this section—avoiding a small group of Bone Fish drifting laterally. The small group of Bone Fish, numbering about twenty or thirty, slid past less than ten zhang to the right of the team along an extremely narrow cold water belt. The scent of the Bone-Repelling Paste dispersed in the water current, and the red dots of the Bone Fish school veered outward—but the magnitude of the deviation was not as large as it had been when they came down.

"The efficacy of the Bone-Repelling Paste is diminishing." Gu He squatted beside the water-viewing mirror array. He placed the black iron medicine gourd on his knees and tapped his finger on the dark bronze Array Pattern ring on the gourd lid, "After the water temperature rises, the paste dissolves in the water faster than expected—the original one-hour effectiveness time is now less than half an hour. The Bone Fish will still dodge when they smell the scent—but the magnitude of their dodging has decreased. This indicates that when the water temperature is on the higher side, the diffusion speed of the oxalic acid is faster than the decomposition speed of the beetle digestive fluid—the ratio of the two components is off. For every level the water temperature rises, the oxalic acid spreads further outward—but the concentration of the beetle digestive fluid remaining in place becomes thinner. The fish will still detour when they smell the oxalic acid—but when the concentration is insufficient, the circle they make becomes smaller."

"How much longer until they are out of the range of the Bone Fish school?"

"Based on the current depth—they still need to go up another two hundred to three hundred zhang. Within two hundred zhang are the stragglers, and it's only two or three hundred zhang up that is the edge zone before the main school disperses—the number of Bone Fish there is small. But within these two hundred zhang—if they run into more than three groups of stragglers, the Bone-Repelling Paste won't be enough." Gu He hugged the medicine gourd a little tighter, "Next time I prepare it—I'll halve the oxalic acid and add thirty percent more beetle digestive fluid. But the paste this time is already in the water—it can't be changed."

On the water-viewing mirror, the light dots of Leng Feng's team changed Formation in this section. The eleven light dots shifted from a contracting ring into a narrower shuttle shape—Leng Feng was at the very front, two cavalrymen holding heavy shields followed closely behind, four in the middle, and the last three were swimming backward—backs facing the direction of advance, facing the rear to keep watch. The length of the shuttle Formation was twice as long as when they had come down—each person was separated by about three zhang.

Lu Changyuan watched the water-viewing mirror. Leng Feng was preparing to break through the line—stretching out the Formation was to reduce the probability of being surrounded by a group of Bone Fish all at once. If only two or three Bone Fish charged over from the side, the person at the very front could take a hit, and the people behind could fill the gap.

The first wave of Bone Fish charged over after ten breaths.

Three of them. They shot out diagonally from the hidden underwater channel on the right—their speed was much faster than the stragglers. The red dots on the water-viewing mirror suddenly accelerated, and three red lights simultaneously slammed into the very front of the shuttle Formation. Leng Feng's light dot sidestepped—making a horizontal slashing motion underwater. A very faint grayish-white sword light flashed on the water-viewing mirror—the underwater refraction of the standard Tier 2 Water-Pattern Sword used by the Sword Ray Cavalry was completely different from the sharp, golden light of the Geng Metal Sword Intent. One of the three Bone Fish was grazed by the sword light—the red dot veered off to the left, while the other two continued to charge forward.