153: Mysterious underwater palace.

Three dark figures streaked through the air.

Lin Fan, Yang Yi, and Nanny were each held in their hands, like three insignificant pieces of cargo.

Yang Yi, this kid, was truly not flustered at all.

He even very cooperatively began to snore, with drool flowing from the corner of his mouth, as realistic as could be.

Lin Fan and Nanny, meanwhile, communicated secretly using their Divine Sense.

"Senior Brother, it's so boring," Nanny's voice echoed in Lin Fan's mind, carrying a hint of a little girl's childish innocence and dissatisfaction, "Being carried like this, my arms are sore. Nanny wants to stretch."

"Bear with it a little longer," Lin Fan replied, somewhat exasperated, "Once we reach our destination, you'll have plenty of time to stretch your limbs."

"How much longer will that be?"

"Soon."

...

A day and a night passed in a flash.

Even Nanny, with her lively and active nature, had long since fallen into a deep sleep during the monotonous journey.

Lin Fan's Divine Sense, however, remained vigilant.

Just then, he noticed that the flying speed of the three black-clad figures began to gradually slow down.

He swept his Divine Sense and discovered that below was a vast, boundless lake.

The lake surface was as calm as a mirror, reflecting the moonlight with an eerie, phosphorescent blue glow, exuding an indescribable chill.

"We've arrived."

The leading middle-aged man slowly spoke.

Lin Fan also learned from their conversation the name of this place—Youzhou, Northern Region, Mingbo Lake.

The middle-aged man flew down to the surface of the lake, extended his hand, and gently tapped the calm lake surface seven times with an extremely profound rhythm.

"Dong... Dong dong... Dong... Dong dong dong..."

The sound echoed far away.

"Whoosh—!"

The calm lake surface suddenly broke open.

A terrifying Yao Beast, massive like a small mountain, covered in black scales, and resembling a giant crocodile, slowly emerged from the bottom of the lake.

The Yao Beast also had a spiral-shaped horn on its head, and a pair of lantern-sized eyes glowed with a faint green light in the darkness.

This was actually a Heavenly Human Realm Yao Beast.

Lin Fan was filled with curiosity.

As soon as the giant crocodile surfaced, it immediately opened its massive maw, large enough to swallow an elephant.

The three black-clad figures, carrying Ye Fan and the other two, flew directly into the giant crocodile's mouth.

The next moment, the giant crocodile closed its mouth and submerged back into the water, and the lake surface returned to its calm state.

...

The giant crocodile's belly was not as putrid and dark as imagined.

Instead, it formed an independent space.

Ye Fan clicked his tongue in wonder.

"Good heavens, this method of transport is rather unique."

It seemed that the mastermind behind this had quite a background.

The giant crocodile traveled at an extremely fast speed at the bottom of the lake.

Approximately half an hour later.

It plunged headfirst into a massive cave hidden beneath the lakebed's mud.

Following the cave forward.

Ahead.

A magnificent, spectacular underwater palace, constructed entirely from unknown crystals and separated from the lake water by an invisible barrier, appeared before their eyes!

The palace glowed with colorful light under the reflection of the lake water, dreamlike and illusory, like a Dragon Palace from myths.

The giant crocodile swam to the palace entrance, opened its mouth again to spit out Lin Fan and the others, and then submerged back into the darkness, disappearing.

The three black-clad figures exchanged an incomprehensible secret code with the two rows of guards at the palace entrance.

"When do we eat?"

"Today we eat noodles, not rice."

After confirming, they walked directly towards the dungeon deep within the palace.

...

Along the way, Lin Fan's Divine Sense had already spread out.

This underwater palace was strange in every aspect, and he had to proceed with caution.

What if a Martial Venerable or even a Martial Saint-Grade old monster was truly hidden in this den of thieves? That would be a huge problem.

His Divine Sense swept through.

He found that although the palace seemed large, the strength of its guards did not seem as strong as imagined.

Most of them were low-ranking Martial Artists, with very few reaching the Innate Realm.

There were about a dozen Heavenly Human Realm cultivators, but they all had unstable Qi.

As for the Shattered Void Realm...

Besides the three who had just entered, he found three or four more within the palace.

In the deepest part, within the most magnificent grand hall, there was indeed a rather powerful aura.

However, that aura, though strong, was far from reaching the Martial Venerable Realm; at most, it was a Half-Step Martial Venerable, or even less.

This discovery immediately put Lin Fan's somewhat anxious heart at ease.

"It seems I overestimated them."

"This business can be done."

...

The dungeon was dark and damp.

Rows of cages made of profound iron were neatly arranged.

Most of the cages held some pale and emaciated "cargo" with vacant eyes.

Most of them were children.

The three black-clad figures seemed eager to report back and didn't bother with further trouble, directly throwing Lin Fan, Yang Yi, and Nanny together into a single, isolated profound iron cage in the deepest part.

On that cage, there hung a wooden plaque with several large characters written in a flowing, Dragon and Phoenix style—

"Heavenly Grade, Cargo."

"Alright, let's go report to the Palace Lord first, and then later, we'll go to Chunxiang Tower and have a good time!"

"Hehehe, I heard a few Western Region Hujis have arrived recently, that taste..."

The three of them spoke obscenities and laughed loudly as they turned and left.

The dungeon returned to silence.

After the footsteps of the three had completely faded away.

Lin Fan finally sat up from the ground.

He kicked Yang Yi, who was still snoring beside him, and Nanny, who was already drooling in her sleep.

"Wake up."

"Don't sleep anymore."

"We've arrived."

He briefly told the two all the information he had just gathered.

"Big crocodile! Senior Brother, why didn't you wake me up!"

Lin Fan was speechless...