128: Chapter 128 Bone Fish Hunt, Bloodstained Return (2)

The heavy shield cavalry following behind Leng Feng deployed their shields simultaneously. Two black iron heavy shields crossed diagonally underwater—the Spirit Stone slots embedded in the shield faces lit up for a moment under the water pressure.

One Bone Fish slammed into the shield face and bounced off, while another squeezed through the gap between the two shields—biting into the left shoulder of the third cavalryman.

On the water mirror—the light spot that was bitten sank abruptly. The bite force of a Bone Fish could shatter reefs underwater, and the shoulder armor of the black iron heavy armor was bitten through—the light spot sank about five zhang before being caught by the cavalryman behind him.

Blood could not be seen on the water mirror—but a layer of extremely faint, grayish-black filaments began to seep out from the edge of the light spot. That was the blood from the wound congealing into blood mist after encountering the cold underwater.

The Bone Fish smelled the blood mist—the dozen or so scattered red dots nearby turned simultaneously toward the direction of the injured cavalryman.

Leng Feng's light spot retreated abruptly from the very front. He made a throwing gesture—what it was exactly could not be seen on the water mirror, but Su Qingli's fingers tightened abruptly on the edge of the water mirror.

"He tore open his bag of Bone-Repelling Paste—and threw the whole bag into the water area in front of the injured man."

The moment the paste exploded in the current—the Bone Fish red dots on the water mirror that were closing in recoiled all at once as if they had been scalded.

The concentration of the entire bag of paste was several times higher than what was applied to the skin—the Bone Fish school was completely cleared within a range of about twenty zhang where the concentrated paste spread.

But after this bag of paste dispersed—Leng Feng no longer had any repellent scent on him. He would have to rely entirely on his sword and shield for the rest of the journey.

One thousand six hundred zhang. The scattered Bone Fish school finally thinned out. The red dots on the water mirror became fewer and fewer—the last batch of a dozen or so red dots slid past the left side of the formation near one thousand five hundred zhang.

When the scent of the Bone-Repelling Paste drifted in front of them, it only made them veer less than half a zhang—but it was enough. Leng Feng's squad did not encounter any more attacks during this stretch.

One thousand five hundred zhang. Leng Feng's light spot passed the ice cave marked during the descent. The green light on the surface of the ice layer was still there—the white-blue light spots shining from behind the ice were brighter than when they had descended.

Lu Changyuan stared at that position—Leng Feng's light spot paused for two breaths in front of the ice cave—confirming that the ice layer had not cracked due to changes in water temperature. After confirming, he continued to float upward.

One thousand two hundred zhang. Those snake-like translucent creatures on the reef wall were the same as when they came down—they did not enter the water layer and did not attack proactively. The grayish-white cold light in the honeycomb holes remained—their bodies did not react to changes in Spiritual Qi.

Leng Feng's rubbing Jade Slip only recorded two words for this stretch: 'No change.'

Nine hundred zhang. black turtle egg grotto. The pulsation frequency of the dark green light cluster on the water mirror was still once every ten breaths—it had not changed.

But there was an extra layer of extremely faint grayish-white halo at the edge of the light cluster—the halo expanded outward for a distance and then shrank back, not in the same rhythm as the Spiritual Qi pulsation of the eggshell itself.

"The sludge outside the crack in the eggshell is dissolving." Su Qingli zoomed in on the water mirror image—her finger pointed at the grayish-white halo at the edge of the light cluster, "The sludge is the crushed reef mud scraped from the grotto wall when the eggshell cracked earlier—the crushed reef mud held up for several days under the scouring of Spiritual Qi, but now it is starting to dissolve. After it dissolves, the crack will be larger than when it first cracked—and the speed of Spiritual Qi release will also accelerate."

"At what zhang is the black fish school now?"

"Three hundred fifty zhang. At this speed—they will reach the Abyss Mouth in three days."

Leng Feng's light spot did not stop at this layer. The black turtle egg grotto was not within his mission scope—do not take spiritual plants, do not touch the altar, do not interfere with the egg. His mission was to figure out the waterway and the movement of the fish school, and retreat once it was figured out.

Six hundred zhang. The depth where the black fish school was densest. When they came down, the black fish school was between four hundred and six hundred zhang—now most of them had risen to above three hundred fifty zhang.

At the depth of six hundred zhang, only a scattered few dozen were still floating upward. Leng Feng's squad's shuttle-shaped formation passed through the middle of the scattered black fish—the fish school did not react at all. Black fish were sensitive to Spiritual Qi concentration—they did not react to the smell of blood.

Two hundred zhang. Abyss Mouth.

The first mirror of the water-viewing mirror on the Pier captured Leng Feng's light spot—he could already see the sunlight on the water surface.

The light spots re-gathered from the shuttle-shaped formation into a tight ring—during the final ascent, everyone was checking each other's wounds. Eleven people. Three injured—one with a bitten-through left shoulder, one with a scratched right arm, and one with a contusion on the left calf from hitting the reef wall while evading the Bone Fish school. The injured were all floating upward with the support of their own people.

Leng Feng was the last person to surface.

Everyone on the Pier saw him—they saw him with their own eyes, not through the water mirror. He floated up from the center of the Abyss Mouth, seawater streaming out from the gaps in his black iron heavy armor.

A layer of dark green algae was stuck to the visor of his helmet—it was planktonic algae attracted by the light of the fungal layer at the two-thousand-zhang trench opening. He took off his helmet—there were two bloody marks on his face.

When he tore open the bag of Bone-Repelling Paste at one thousand eight hundred zhang, the coarse hemp rope on the outside of the bag cut into his wrist—blood streamed down his fingers, which could not be seen underwater, but became visible only after he reached the shore.

The ten cavalrymen following behind came out of the water one by one. The cavalryman whose left shoulder was bitten through was supported from both sides and dragged onto the Pier by two people—his left arm hung by his side, and the shoulder armor of his black iron heavy armor had a fist-sized hole bitten through it, the metal at the edge of the hole rolled outward, and half a broken Bone Fish tooth was embedded in the curled edge.

The Bone Fish's tooth was grayish-white, with a slanted cross-section—after biting through the iron armor, it got stuck in the iron sheet, and when the fish broke free, the tooth snapped off inside.

Gu He was already waiting on the Pier. He placed the black iron medicine gourd on the stone platform of the jetty and took out a cloth bag from his bosom—the cloth bag was untied, and inside, a row of silver needles and three thumb-sized small porcelain bottles were neatly arranged.

He squatted in front of the most severely injured cavalryman, pinched the broken Bone Fish tooth with two fingers, and pulled it out—the technique was so fast that the cavalryman whose tooth was being pulled hadn't even reacted, and the tooth had already made a crisp sound as it hit the Pier.

"Bone Fish teeth have barbs. When pulling, you must rotate it outward in the direction of the bite—you cannot pull straight out. Pulling straight out will tear the barbs—and tearing the barbs will rip the wound from the size of a finger to the size of a fist."

Gu He poured a pinch of deep yellow medicinal powder from the small porcelain bottle and sprinkled it on the wound—the moment the powder touched the blood, a layer of extremely fine white foam formed. The white foam bubbled out a few times, and the bleeding stopped, "Physical debridement—there are barb residues in the Bone Fish tooth socket, clean it thoroughly before suturing. Suturing will be done back in the shed—the light here is not enough."

The cavalryman with the scratched right arm had a light injury—Gu He wrapped the wound with a piece of fine linen soaked in medicinal juice. The cavalryman with the calf contusion did not need treatment—Gu He took one look and said the bone was not broken, and he would be fine after resting for two days.

He poured out three dark brown small pills from the medicine gourd—each was only the size of a soybean, with a rough surface, and smelled like burnt seashells. He distributed the pills to the three injured men.

"These are for replenishing blood and dispelling stasis—do not chew, keep them under the root of your tongue. Do not drink water within an hour."