The monster twisted its huge mouth and spat out a steel arrow, which had already broken into several pieces; it had bitten the steel arrow in half!
In the blink of an eye, the monster opened its mouth again and bit Ito. Ito was shocked and arched his body, leaping upwards with all his might. The monster's big mouth just barely bit his back, and with a "rip," the package containing the gems, as well as the two air tanks and the diving suit on his back, were torn off.
Ito felt the icy water seeping from his back into his entire body, a feeling that was extremely uncomfortable. But what was even more uncomfortable was that the gem had been bitten off by the monster. In his panic, he glanced back and saw the monster open its huge mouth and spit out the gas cylinder and package. The package floated in the water for a moment before being swept away by the undercurrent into the underground river cave to the east!
Ito felt as if his heart was being stabbed!
The immense treasure had been snatched away by the monster. Before he could even process what was happening, the monster opened its massive jaws and lunged at him again. Ito swam upwards in despair. He was only five or six meters from the cave entrance, but to him, that distance felt like the gap between heaven and hell. Even though he could clearly see heaven just a step away, he couldn't take that step. Perhaps the monster would tear him to shreds in the next second!
Fu Ying and Yuriko froze in a panic, almost waiting to see the monster bite Ito into its mouth, when suddenly they saw the monster with its mouth open, unable to go any further. Almost at the same time, the monster sank rapidly into the water.
It turned out that Zhou Xuan was holding the monster's tail from below, transforming one-third of its body into gold. Although it was only one-third, the monster still couldn't support its body and sank to the bottom of the water like a large rock.
As Ito swam desperately upwards, he knew he was struggling to survive, but two seconds later the monster didn't bite him. He looked back but couldn't see the monster. He didn't understand what was going on, but he didn't dare to linger and quickly swam to the surface.
Zhou Xuan nudged Fu Ying's leg again from below, lifting her and Baihezi upwards. Baihezi quickly seized the opportunity to pull Fu Ying up towards the top of the water cave.
Zhou Xuan breathed a sigh of relief. The moment he transformed the monster with all his might the first time, his whole body seemed to be exhausted. The second time, he only transformed one-third of the monster, which made things a little easier, but the icy energy in his left wrist also seemed to be weakening. It seems that the monster's body was too large, and the icy energy was consumed too much.
At this point, although there were no more monsters threatening from above, they were now surrounded from below and all around.
Of the dozen or so monsters, only two were transformed by Zhou Xuan and sunk to the bottom of the water. In the end, the number was still quite large. The monsters that attacked did not seem as fierce as before, after all, they had suffered some losses without knowing why.
Zhou Xuan was actually quite nervous. After exerting so much force, he started to feel a tightness in his chest. This was mainly because the conversion of ice energy into molecules consumed too much energy. He didn't have time to check how long he had been underwater because the monsters were baring their fangs and claws and attacking him.
Ito desperately darted out of the water, clinging to the rock wall, with a loud "splash".
Then they heard Li Junjie shout in surprise, "Grandpa... he's... he's out! Someone's... someone's out!"
Fu Tianlai peered into the water cave and saw that it was indeed a person wearing a diving suit. Although he didn't know who it was, he was overjoyed and said in a trembling voice, "Jun...Junjie...Quick...Quickly release him..."
Even without Fu Tian's intervention, Li Junjie and the black man had already lowered the rope. Ito gripped the rope tightly with both hands, but he no longer had the strength to climb up.
Li Junjie and the black man worked together to quickly pull him up. Once ashore, Ito collapsed on the rocks, panting heavily. Looking at the sunlight above the sinkhole cliff, he no longer wanted to move.
Just as Li Junjie was about to pull off his wetsuit to see who it was, he heard a splash and two more people surfaced. The black man quickly lowered the rope.
This time it was Yuriko and Fu Ying's turn. Neither of them had any strength left. The rope was lowered, and Yuriko wrapped it around their waists several times, then tied a knot and let the rope pull on them.
Since the two of them were heavier, Fu Tianlai hurriedly helped, and the three of them worked together to pull Fu Ying and Baihezi up.
As soon as they reached the shore, Yuriko collapsed to the ground. Only Fu Ying quickly took off her diving suit and leaned over the edge of the water cave, calling out, "Zhou Xuan... Zhou Xuan, come out quickly... don't scare me!"
When Fu Tianlai saw Fu Ying take off her diving suit and reveal her face, his heart was filled with joy. He knelt down to the side and kowtowed to the heavens, trembling as he called out, "Heavenly Father... Heavenly Father..."
Worried that Fu Ying might fall into the water hole, Li Junjie quickly pulled her aside and said, "Cousin, step back a bit. Who else is down there? Step back a bit, Blackie and I will stay here and keep watch!"
Fu Ying ignored Li Junjie and just stared anxiously at the water, biting her lip until it bled!
(I highly recommend "The Way of the Commoner Official," a classic work on officialdom by Nan Hua, to my friend who is also quite lonely. It's a must-read for anyone interested in urban officialdom!)
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Volume One: The Lotus Buds Just Begin to Emerge, Chapter Thirty-Nine: Clear Distinction Between Gratitude and Grudges
After Fu Ying and Baihezi swam to the surface, Zhou Xuan had no more worries. He tried his best to circulate the ice energy and swim towards the surface while staying close to the stone wall to avoid being swept into the Yin River by the undercurrent. If he were swept into that river, he would never be able to be reincarnated!
The monsters, likely aware of the danger of the dark river's currents, initially dispersed, but then moved to the side of the current, avoiding it, and approached Zhou Xuan along the rocky walls. ()
However, this greatly relieved Zhou Xuan of his crisis. No matter how ferocious the monsters were, they could only pass by one at a time on the path they were coming towards him!
The first monster rushed up, but due to the sharpness of the undercurrent, its speed had slowed down considerably. When it reached Zhou Xuan's side, its bite speed was fast enough for Zhou Xuan to handle.
Zhou Xuan braced his hand against the monster's nose, causing it to leap upwards and escape the current, reaching the safe area above the water cave. Zhou Xuan, in turn, was propelled out of the water by the force of the impact. In that instant, Zhou Xuan channeled his icy energy to the monster's tail, transforming a small portion of its body. The monster, with a string of bubbles bubbling from its mouth, sank back down.
The body was tossed around several times by the rapids in the dark current, but because of its weight and its position on the edge of the current, it was not swept into the underground river cave. Instead, it was violently spun around and bumped into several monsters that rushed up, causing chaos for a moment.
Zhou Xuan fell into the water with a "plop" in mid-air, but he managed to grab the rope by the rock as he fell in, panting heavily.
Fu Ying was both surprised and delighted, and shouted, "Quick... quick, pull him up!" As she spoke, she grabbed the rope and pulled hard, and Li Junjie and the black man quickly helped.
Just as the three men pulled Zhou Xuan two meters away from the water, there was another loud splash as a monster leaped out of the water and lunged at Zhou Xuan with its mouth wide open!
Li Junjie and the black man had never seen a monster before. They only knew that there must be something extremely dangerous in the water, but they didn't know that there was such a thing underwater. When they saw the monster's ugly and ferocious appearance, and how huge it was, only a small part of its body was exposed above the water, but it was already two or three meters long, and its open mouth was a meter wide. It could swallow Zhou Xuan whole without any problem.
Li Junjie and the black man both cried out "Ah!" and their hands loosened, causing the rope to slip from their grasp.
Fu Ying had already witnessed the ferocity of the monster, and she desperately tried to hold onto the rope, but she could no longer pull it.
Zhou Xuan reached out and blocked the monster's chin, unleashing his full power of icy energy to completely transform the monster's underwater body. The monster only remained in the air for a second before falling into the water and sinking with a bang.
The moment it fell into the water was like a boulder weighing millions of pounds crashing into the water, splashing water so much that several people on the shore were soaked!
Li Junjie realized what was happening and immediately grabbed the rope again. The black man also helped again, and the three of them pulled Zhou Xuan up.
Zhou Xuan was even more exhausted than Ito and Yuriko. Not only was his strength and energy completely depleted, but the ice energy in his wrist pills was also severely depleted. At this point, let alone a monster, even a seven or eight-year-old child could easily kill him.
Seeing that Zhou Xuan was trembling and his lips were bluish-purple from the cold, Fu Ying quickly took a large coat from the bag next to the tent and wrapped it around him.
Li Junjie asked, "Cousin, where are Elena and the Wolf Brothers?"
Fu Ying shook her head and said, "That's all!" She didn't say anything more, but just wiped the water stains off Zhou Xuan.
Fu Tianlai then realized that Fu Ying was only wearing a thin undershirt after taking off her wetsuit, so he quickly took her clothes and said, "Xiao Ying, put them on quickly!"
Fu Ying took the clothes and silently put them on.
Fu Tianlai simply said, "Thank God, thank God, my Fu family is blessed!"