169: Chapter 174

58

"Ah——"

Uncle Tai's miserable screams echoed back and forth in the tomb, making people's scalps tingle.

Boss Li, who had just crawled out of the river, shuddered in fright at the commotion.

When he came to his senses, he roared directly: "Brothers, get them!"

They were some distance away from Zhang Qiling's side.

No matter how fast Zhang Qiling was, he couldn't be faster than that.

Boss Li's gang had just raised the weapons in their hands and hadn't even had time to pull the triggers when the water surface suddenly exploded.

A half-fish, half-python monster lunged out, opened its huge mouth wide, and swallowed Boss Li whole on the spot.

As soon as this thing appeared, everyone present was scared out of their wits.

Boss Li's underlings froze for several seconds before regaining their senses, turning their heads and running frantically toward the shore.

Could they run away?

Of course they couldn't run away.

Before their feet could step onto the shore, the strange fish swallowed them one by one in a single bite each.

Afterwards, that pair of eyes locked firmly onto Zhang Qiling and the others.

That gaze was chillingly cold, making anyone who saw it feel a chill down their spine.

"Wu Xie, Fatty, take your sister-in-law and leave first. I'll hold it off."

Wu Xie nodded: "Mn, be careful, Little Brother."

But Wu Xie and the others wandered around for a long time and utterly failed to find any other path.

The meaning was very clear—to get past here, they could only take the waterway.

At this moment, Zhang Qiling was already fighting with that strange fish.

With Zhang Qiling's current abilities, this fish wasn't actually his match.

The problem was that fighting on the water meant even the most formidable person's strength would be discounted.

Wu Xie glanced at Fatty Wang: "Fatty, get into the water and help Little Brother."

Before long, Wu Xie and Fatty Wang also rushed into the battle circle.

But no one expected that there was more than one strange fish in the water.

Five!

They swam toward them simultaneously. Not only were they huge, but their movements were also extremely agile.

Later on, even Xiao Chuchu and A-Ning went into the water.

"Little Brother, something's wrong! The fishy smell of these fish can attract companions, and the more we fight, the more there are. If we keep draining like this, we won't be able to hold on!"

When Zhang Qiling and the others fought the strange fish, the fish sustained quite a few injuries on their bodies.

But these fish had extremely tough lives; not only did they not die, but the blood flowing from their wounds attracted even more companions over.

Batch after batch rushed over here.

Zhang Qiling's brows furrowed tightly; to be honest, he was out of options at this moment too.

Just when everyone was about to fail to hold on, a lingering shadow suddenly flashed across the water surface.

Immediately following that, a fierce blade light flashed across.

Two or three minutes later, Lin Fan stood on the water surface, the tip of the black gold ancient saber in his hand pointing downward, liquid dripping down drop by drop.

Looking back at those taimen, the dead were dead, the injured were injured, and the living were all scared into fleeing desperately.

A group of people watched until their eyeballs were almost about to pop out.

What the fuck is this lightness skill of treading on water?

Without going into the water, strength naturally wouldn't be affected.

But isn't something like treading on water lightness skill only found in legends?

"Where is A-Ning?"

Xiao Chuchu suddenly screamed out in alarm, her voice tinged with panic.

Lin Fan frowned, looked over in that direction, and saw a large fish holding a woman in its mouth, frantically darting into the water.

Damn it.

A fire suddenly surged in his heart, and he instantly exerted force under his feet.

Activating the Gale Boots, his entire person transformed into a shadow, stepping on the water surface and chasing after them.

In fact, the reason Lin Fan could stand on this water surface relied entirely on that pair of boots under his feet.

He did know a bit of the water-treading lightness skill, but to say he could stay on the water surface for a long time, he truly couldn't hold on.

With his current cultivation level, he still had to rely on equipment to sustain it.

While chasing, he pondered that he should get a pair of such boots for Zhang Qiling and the others later.

If they encountered this kind of lousy water again in the future, they wouldn't end up being bullied like this by a few lousy fish.

Not long after chasing out, Lin Fan locked onto that taimen holding A-Ning in its mouth.

He finally figured it out—this thing had spiritual intelligence.

He had just killed a bunch of its kind, and this beast snatched A-Ning away, which clearly showed it wanted revenge.

Otherwise, given this fish's ferocious nature, A-Ning would have long been torn to pieces and swallowed, how could she have lasted until now.

Fine, it just happened to give him an excuse to make a move.

Lin Fan's gaze turned cold, and his voice was suppressed very low, as if squeezed out from between his teeth.

"I didn't originally intend to wipe you all out, but now you are courting death yourselves."

With a flip of his fingers, the Phantom Flying Knives were summoned.

A single flying knife instantly transformed into ten cold lights, shooting uniformly toward that group of taimen.

Ten minutes later, Lin Fan carried A-Ning ashore.

A-Ning was soaked all over and unconscious.

Lin Fan looked at her wretched state and couldn't help cursing.

"I really owe you. Had I known earlier, I wouldn't have saved you in the first place."

He squatted down and gave A-Ning first aid treatment.

After finishing, he looked up and glanced around.

Earlier, he had been so focused on chasing the fish that he didn't even know where he had run to.

This place... if he guessed correctly, it should be the "Yellow Springs"

side.

To be precise, it was a huge maze.

Lin Fan walked over to take a look, and a rack stood in the corner.

Hanging on the rack were pieces of soldier tokens, with names and serial numbers engraved on them.

They were probably left behind by those soldiers of the Silent Cavalry.

He turned his head again to look at the patch of water nearby; the color was yellowish and carried a bit of temperature.

The village had always rumored that there was a Yellow Springs in the Ancient Tomb of the She State, but now it seemed completely untrue.

That was nothing more than yellow spring water.

As for the so-called underworld soldiers, they weren't any ghosts; they were actually those mute soldiers who built the tomb back then.

After about half an hour, A-Ning finally woke up.

She opened her eyes, looked down, and discovered that she wasn't even wearing any clothes.

"Ah——"

She screamed out loud, instinctively using her arms to block her chest.

Lin Fan gave her a blank look, his tone full of impatience.

"What are you screaming for, are you mourning the dead."

Lin Fan was sitting by the campfire, roasting A-Ning's soaked clothes.

To be honest, the more he thought about it, the more furious he got. If it hadn't been for fishing this girl up, how would he have gotten separated from Wu Xie and the others? This Ancient Tomb was outrageously huge, and heaven knows where to find people.

The firelight flickered, and in the dimness, A-Ning suddenly stared fixedly in one direction.

She sprang up, ran a few steps, and upon seeing the figure across the firelight, her eyes lit up instantly.

"Husband?"

The pleasant surprise on A-Ning's face couldn't be suppressed at all: "Why are you here? Did you save me?"

She got into character quite fast; clearly a modern girl, she had been led astray by that damned girl Xiao Chuchu. "Husband"

Those two words came right out of her mouth, without the slightest hesitation.

Whenever Lin Fan thought of this matter, his teeth would itch with anger. Xiao Chuchu and A-Ning teamed up to trick him, and he remembered this matter.

He raised his eyes and swept a glance at A-Ning.

A-Ning only then came to her senses, fiercely hugging her chest, her face red enough to drip blood.

"Husband, can you stop looking..."

That voice was delicate and soft, completely different from usual A-Ning, as if she had changed into a different person.

Lin Fan's mouth twitched, feeling both speechless and mentally exhausted.

On the other side, at the entrance.

Wu Xie squatted on the shore, waiting left and right, anxiously scratching his head.

"Why haven't Expert Brother and the others returned yet?"

Zhang Qiling stood aside without speaking, his gaze fixedly staring at the dark water surface.

A full hour had passed. Given Lin Fan's capabilities, he should have turned back a long time ago for this distance.

Xiao Chuchu stood up, patted the dust off her pants, "Don't wait anymore, let's go."

Wu Xie was stunned for a moment, "Not waiting? Why?"

"I believe in Husband's abilities; he'll definitely be fine."

Xiao Chuchu's tone was very calm, "Let's continue walking forward, maybe we'll run into him halfway."

Since she said so, the others didn't insist anymore. The group went back into the water, their nerves taut to the extreme, fearing that taimen would suddenly dart out from the darkness.

Fortunately, the water was quiet and peaceful, and nothing popped its head out again.

Everyone swam forward in one breath.

Swimming along, Fatty Wang smacked his lips, "Naive, something's wrong, why is this water like soaking in a hot spring?"

"Hurry up and move, this is underground spring water, the temperature will get higher and higher."

Zhang Qiling's expression changed, and before his words fell, he started swimming back.

But just at this moment, the originally quiet water surface suddenly became turbulent.

The current accelerated sharply, faster than the speed of them desperately paddling.

Corpses floated up to the water surface, their faces and bodies covered in dense blisters, obviously scalded to death alive by the suddenly gushing hot water.

"Wu Xie, I can't make it..."

Lao Yang's voice trembled, and a patch of red blisters had already popped up on his skin.

"Hold on! Lao Yang, you can make it!"

Wu Xie roared to build up his own courage.

Zhang Qiling looked around, his gaze falling on a horizontal iron chain above. He turned his head to look at Fatty Wang, "Fatty, lend a hand."

"Little Brother, can you do it?"

Fatty Wang guessed what he wanted to do and grinned.

Zhang Qiling spoke indifferently: "How would you know it won't work without trying."

Fatty immediately spread his hands open, and Zhang Qiling stepped on them with one foot.

He abruptly exerted force and pushed upward, sending Zhang Qiling's entire body soaring into the air.

That iron chain below was at least tens of meters away from the water surface.

With Zhang Qiling's current abilities, he couldn't fly that high at all, but he gritted his teeth and persisted, relying on that conviction, and finally managed to reach it.

He first hooked the iron chain with one hand, and then flipped his entire body up.

Immediately following that, a rope dropped down.

"Sister-in-law, you go up first."

Wu Xie shouted.

Xiao Chuchu nodded, grabbed the rope, tapped the ground with her toes, and her entire person directly darted up.

Fatty watched in a daze, "Holy shit, you really leave just like that? You don't even bother to be polite?"

"Fatty, what nonsense are you talking about? Chuchu is Little Brother's person. If something happens to her, how are we going to account to Little Brother?"

"I was just running my mouth off. Even if she weren't Little Brother's woman, I still know that ladies must go first."

As soon as Fatty's words fell, his waist was suddenly wrapped by a piece of white cloth, and then his body felt light, and his whole person was yanked up.

That white cloth was naturally lowered by Xiao Chuchu.

The temperature of this river water was frighteningly high. If they wanted everyone to survive, the first person to go up had to be her. Because once she went up, she could conveniently bring another person along.

Once they went up, they could drop the rope down again to pick people up.

In this way, both Wu Xie and Lao Yang could be rescued.

The reason Xiao Chuchu pulled Fatty Wang first was because he had great strength.

When pulling Wu Xie and the others up later, he could come in handy.

In less than a minute, Xiao Chuchu brought Fatty Wang up onto the iron cable.

Although her martial skills couldn't compare to Zhang Qiling's, they weren't far off either, so she climbed extremely fast.

"Th-Thank you, Sister-in-law, for saving my life."

Fatty lay on the iron cable, not daring to move at all.

Only then did he realize that he had thought wrong earlier.

"Stop talking nonsense, take out the mountaineering rope and pull Wu Xie and the others up."

According to Xiao Chuchu's past temperament, she wouldn't even bother caring about other people's lives.