TFOD Chapter 58

The “stone island” rapidly moved towards the shore.

The approach of this unknown demonic beast brought an invisible sense of oppression. Except for Lan Wangji, Jin Zixuan, Jiang Cheng, Wen Zhuliu, and a few others, everyone else was constantly retreating. Just when everyone thought this thing from under the water would suddenly explode, it stopped.

Because jumping on its back had awakened this sleeping demonic beast, Wei Wuxian could not act rashly now. He maintained his original position and quietly observed the situation.

On the dark surface of the water surrounding the “stone island,” several exceptionally red maple leaves floated, drifting leisurely.

Beneath these few maple leaves, deep within the black pool, were a pair of glowing objects like brass mirrors.

The pair of brass mirrors grew larger and closer. Wei Wuxian felt a sense of foreboding. He dragged Wen Chao back two steps, and the ground under his feet suddenly shook. The “stone island” rose into the air. A huge, dark beast head, pushing aside the maple leaves, emerged from the water!

Amidst a chorus of varied screams, the demonic beast slowly twisted its neck and stared with its huge eyes at the two people standing on its back.

This round beast head was very strange, resembling both a turtle and a snake. Just looking at the beast head, it was more like a giant snake, but looking at its beast body, mostly out of the water, it was more like…

Wei Wuxian said, “…What a huge…turtle…”

This was not an ordinary turtle.

If this turtle landed on the training grounds of Lotus Pier, its shell alone would probably take up the entire practice field. Three strong men together could not embrace its dark, massive turtle head. An ordinary turtle would also not extend from its shell an extraordinarily long, coiled snake head, filled with a mouthful of protruding, interlaced yellow fangs, nor would it have four sharp-clawed, seemingly agile beast legs.

Wei Wuxian stared intently into its golden eyes. Its pupils were vertical slits that changed from thick to thin, as if its vision was sometimes focused and sometimes unfocused, unable to clearly see what was on its back.

It seemed this demonic beast’s eyesight was as bad as a snake’s. As long as they didn’t move, maybe it wouldn’t notice them.

Suddenly, two jets of water vapor shot out from the demonic beast’s two dark nostrils.

The few maple leaves that were originally floating on the water just happened to be near its nose. Perhaps being tickled by these little things, it snorted. Wei Wuxian still did not move, standing like a statue, but this small action terrified Wen Chao.

Wen Chao knew that this demonic beast was bloodthirsty. Seeing it suddenly snort, he thought it was about to attack. Disregarding the sword at his neck, he frantically struggled and screamed towards Wen Zhuliu on the shore, “Aren’t you going to save me! Save me now! What are you waiting for!”

Jiang Cheng gritted his teeth and cursed, “Idiot!”

One of the two strange things nearby suddenly wriggled like a worm and made a piercing noise, immediately stimulating the demonic beast. The snake-like head suddenly recoiled and then sprang forward, its yellow and black fangs wide open, trying to bite its own back!

Wei Wuxian raised his hand and threw Wen Chao’s sword like an arrow towards the beast head’s vitals.

However, the black scales covering the beast head were as hard as iron armor. The blade seemed to hit a steel plate with a clang, sparks flying. The sword fell into the water. The demonic beast seemed to pause for a moment. Its enormous eyes looked down at the long, slender object sinking into the water, still glowing. Taking this opportunity, Wei Wuxian, carrying Wen Chao, pushed off with his feet and leaped into the air, landing on another stone island. He thought, “Please, don’t tell me this is also a big turtle!”

Suddenly, he heard Jiang Cheng shout, “Careful behind you! The Hand of Core Melting is coming!”

Wei Wuxian suddenly turned his head and saw a pair of large hands silently attacking. He subconsciously struck out with his palm, colliding with Wen Zhuliu. He felt an unusually powerful yet gloomy force coming, as if something was being sucked out of his arm. Wei Wuxian instinctively withdrew his hand. Wen Zhuliu took advantage of this opportunity to snatch Wen Chao and landed back on the shore. Wei Wuxian cursed under his breath and also jumped onto the shore. All the Wen sect disciples took down the bows and arrows from their backs, retreated while aiming at the demonic beast. The arrows flew like rain, clanging and hitting the demonic beast’s black scales and shell, sparks flying everywhere. It seemed the battle was very intense, but in reality, it was useless. Not a single arrow hit a vital point, it was just tickling the demonic beast. The huge beast head swayed from side to side. The skin outside the scales was like black stubborn rock, pitted and uneven. The arrows could not penetrate.

Wei Wuxian saw a Wen sect disciple beside him panting, struggling to draw his bow, only managing to half-draw it. He couldn’t bear it any longer. He snatched the bow and kicked the disciple to the side. There were still three feathered arrows left in the quiver. He quickly nocked all of them, drew the bow to its fullest extent, and aimed intently. The bowstring made a creaking sound beside his ear. Just as he was about to release, a scream came from behind.

This scream was full of panic. Wei Wuxian turned to look and saw Wang Lingjiao directing three servants. Two of them were roughly holding down Mianmian, forcing her face up, while the other raised the red-hot iron, aiming it directly at her face!

The front of the iron was glowing red, sizzling. Wei Wuxian was some distance away, but seeing this, he immediately changed the direction of his arrows and released the string.

Three arrows shot out together, hitting the three servants. They didn’t even grunt before falling backward onto the ground. Who would have thought that the bowstring was still vibrating, yet Wang Lingjiao suddenly grabbed the fallen iron, seized Mianmian’s hair, and pressed it to her face again!

Wang Lingjiao’s cultivation was extremely poor, but this move was fast and vicious. If she succeeded, even if Mianmian’s one eye wasn’t blinded, she would be disfigured for life. Even at this critical moment when she might need to run for her life at any moment, this woman still persistently held on to harming others!

The other disciples were picking up arrows and drawing their bows, focused on dealing with the demonic beast. There was no one near her and Mianmian. Wei Wuxian had run out of arrows, and it was too late to grab someone else’s. In desperation, he rushed over, striking Wang Lingjiao’s hand holding Mianmian’s hair, and landing a heavy blow on her chest.

Wang Lingjiao took his palm strike head-on, spitting out a mouthful of blood, and flying backward.

However, the front of that iron had already pressed into Wei Wuxian’s chest.

Wei Wuxian smelled the burning odor of clothes and skin, as well as the terrible smell of overcooked flesh. Under his collarbone near his heart, a crushing pain came over him.

He bit down hard, but he still couldn’t suppress a roar of extreme pain from escaping his throat.

The force of his palm strike was not light, sending Wang Lingjiao flying, spraying blood, before she crashed onto the ground and started crying. Jiang Cheng raised his hand and slashed toward Wang Lingjiao’s head. Wen Chao screamed, “Jiaojiao! Jiaojiao! Quickly save Jiaojiao!”

Wen Zhuliu frowned slightly, not saying much. As expected, he flew forward, repelled Jiang Cheng, picked Wang Lingjiao up, and threw her at Wen Chao’s feet. Wang Lingjiao threw herself into his arms, crying and vomiting blood. Jiang Cheng chased after him to fight with Wen Zhuliu. Wen Chao saw his eyes were bloodshot, his expression was terrifying. Coupled with the other disciples also being in an uproar, and a huge demonic beast in the pool, its left claw already on the shore, he finally got scared and shouted, “Retreat! Retreat immediately!”

His underlings who were struggling to hold on, had long been waiting for him to order a retreat, and upon hearing this, they immediately flew away on their swords. Wen Chao’s sword had been thrown into the water by Wei Wuxian, so he snatched someone else’s sword, picked Wang Lingjiao up and leaped onto the sword. Swoosh, he disappeared from sight, and a group of servants hastily followed him. Jin Zixuan shouted, “Stop fighting! Let’s go!”

The disciples also had no intention of continuing to fight. To continue facing this demonic beast that was like a stone mountain, they ran, returning to the cave they had climbed down from, only to see the tree vines they used to climb down were coiled on the ground like dead snakes.

Jin Zixuan angrily yelled, “Shameless dogs! They cut the tree vines!”

Without this tree vine, they couldn’t climb up the steep earth wall. The cave opening was thirty or more feet above, the white light was blinding. Before long, this white light was half-eclipsed, like a celestial dog eating the moon.

Someone else screamed, “They’re blocking the cave entrance!”

As soon as the words left his mouth, the remaining half of the white light was also blocked.

Deep underground, only a few burning torches illuminated several confused and helpless young faces, speechless.

After a long while, Jin Zixuan’s curse broke the silence: “That pair of dogs can really do it!”

A teenager murmured, “It doesn’t matter if we can’t get up… My father and mother will come looking for me. They’ll definitely find this place when they hear about it.”

A few people echoed him, but then someone else said in a trembling voice, “They still think we’re in Qishan being educated, how would they come looking for us… Besides, after the Wen family escapes, they definitely won’t tell the truth. They’ll definitely make up some excuse… We’ll just have to stay down here…”

“We’ll just have to stay in this cave… without food… and with a demonic beast…”

At this moment, Jiang Cheng slowly walked over, supporting Wei Wuxian. Just in time to hear the words “without food,” Wei Wuxian said, “Jiang Cheng, there’s some cooked meat here, do you want to eat it?”

Jiang Cheng said, “Get lost! That iron wasn’t enough to burn you to death. What kind of time is this, I really want to sew your mouth shut.”

Lan Wangji’s pale eyes fell on them, and then on Mianmian who was helplessly following behind them. Her face was covered in tears, sobbing, twisting her skirt with both hands, constantly saying, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Wei Wuxian plugged his ears and said, “Aiyah, can you stop crying? I’m the one who got burned, not you. Are you trying to make me comfort you? Can you comfort me instead? Okay Jiang Cheng, stop holding me up, it’s not like my legs are broken.”

Several girls gathered around Mianmian and started sobbing together.

Lan Wangji withdrew his gaze and turned back.

Jiang Cheng said, “Lan Second Young Master, where are you going? That demonic beast is still guarding the black pool.”

Lan Wangji said, “Back to the pool. There is a way to leave.”

Hearing that there was a way to leave, even the crying stopped abruptly. Wei Wuxian said, “What way?”

Lan Wangji said, “The pool has maple leaves.”

These words were puzzling, but Wei Wuxian understood immediately.

Indeed, a few maple leaves were floating in the black pool where the demonic beast was entrenched. But there were no maple trees in the cave, nor were there any signs of human activity, and there were only banyan trees near the cave entrance. Yet these maple leaves were as red as fire and very fresh. When they were climbing up the mountain, they also saw the scene of maple leaves floating in a small stream.

Jiang Cheng also understood, saying, “The bottom of the black pool probably has a cave that connects to the outside water source, which brought the maple leaves from the mountain forest into here.”

One person said timidly, “But… how do we know if this cave is big enough, if people can squeeze through? What if it’s very small, what if it’s just a crack?”

Jin Zixuan frowned and said, “And that demonic beast is still guarding the black pool, refusing to leave.”

Wei Wuxian pulled up his clothes, using one hand to fan the wound underneath, saying, “If there’s a little hope, then let’s move. It’s better than just sitting here and waiting for our parents to come save us. So what if it’s guarding the black pool? Just lure it out.”

After some discussion, half an hour later, a group of disciples from the noble families returned the way they came.

They hid in the cave, quietly observing the demonic beast.

Most of its body was still submerged in the black pool. The long snake body extended from the shell, reaching the shore, its fangs opening and closing. It gently bit down on a corpse, and then retracted its neck, dragging it into its fortress-like dark turtle shell, as if it was going to savor it carefully.

Wei Wuxian threw out a torch, smashing it in a corner of the cave.

The movement was unusually loud in the dead silence of the underground. The demonic beast’s head immediately emerged from the turtle shell again. Its pupils narrowed, reflecting the leaping, burning torch. Instinctively attracted to the light and heat, it slowly extended its neck toward it.

Behind it, Jiang Cheng quietly slipped into the water.

Yunmeng Jiang Sect lived by the water, and the disciples of the family were all exceptionally good swimmers. Jiang Cheng entered the water without a ripple, not even seeing many ripples. The crowd stared intently at the surface of the water, occasionally glancing at the demonic beast. The huge, black snake head was seen hesitatingly circling the torch, seeming like it wanted to go closer but not quite, making their heartstrings even tighter.

Suddenly, as if it had made up its mind to see what this object was, it brought its nose close, only to be slightly burned by the heat of the flame.

The demonic beast’s neck recoiled immediately, and two angry jets of water vapor shot out from its nostrils, putting out the torch.

At this moment, Jiang Cheng surfaced, taking a deep breath. The demonic beast, sensing that its territory had been invaded, swung its head and turned toward Jiang Cheng.

Seeing that things were not good, Wei Wuxian bit his finger, quickly drawing a few strokes on his palm. Then, he suddenly rushed out of the cave and slammed his palm on the ground. His palm left the ground and a towering column of flame suddenly shot up!

The demonic beast was startled and turned its head to look at the flame. Jiang Cheng took the chance to come ashore, shouting, “There’s a cave at the bottom of the pool, it’s not small!”

Wei Wuxian said, “How not small?”

Jiang Cheng said, “Five or six can pass at once!”

Wei Wuxian shouted, “Everyone listen up, follow Jiang Cheng closely, go into the water and out of the cave. Those who aren’t injured, help the injured, and those who can swim, take the non-swimmers. Five or six can pass at a time, so no one fights! Go into the water now!”

After saying that, the towering flame gradually died out. He retreated ten steps in the other direction, and struck the ground again, sending up another earth flame. The demonic beast’s golden eyes were red in the flames. Driven mad by the fire, it moved its four claws, dragging its heavy mountain-like body, climbing toward the fire.

Jiang Cheng angrily shouted, “What are you doing?!”

Wei Wuxian said, “What are you doing?! Lead the people into the water!”

He had successfully lured the demonic beast out of the water and onto the shore. If they didn’t leave now, when would they?! Jiang Cheng gritted his teeth and said, “Everyone over here, those who can swim on their own, stand on the left, and those who can’t, stand on the right!”

Wei Wuxian was observing the terrain and retreating while creating more flames. Suddenly, his arm suddenly ached. He looked down and saw that he had been hit by an arrow. It turned out, one of the Lan family disciples who had been glared at by Lan Wangji earlier had picked up a discarded bow and arrow and aimed at the demonic beast. But perhaps it was because it looked ferocious and moved nimbly, so he lost his nerve and his aim. The arrow went off course and hit Wei Wuxian instead. Wei Wuxian didn’t have time to pull it out, and with another palm strike, he created more flame and cursed, “Get back!! Don’t cause me trouble!”

That disciple had originally wanted to hit the demonic beast’s vitals with one arrow and regain some of the face he had lost earlier, but he hadn’t expected it to turn out this way. His face grew even more pale and he fled into the water. Jiang Cheng urged, “Hurry up and come here!”

Wei Wuxian said, “Coming soon!”

Jiang Cheng still had three non-swimmers with him. They were almost the last group, and they couldn’t delay. They could only enter the water first. Wei Wuxian pulled out the arrow. After pulling it out, it suddenly occurred to him, “This isn’t good!”

The smell of blood greatly stimulated the demonic beast. Its neck suddenly grew rapidly, revealing wide open fangs!

Wei Wuxian had not yet thought of a countermeasure when his body shifted and he was pushed out by a palm.

Lan Wangji had pushed him away.

The demonic beast’s upper and lower jaws closed, biting down on his right leg.

Just looking at it, Wei Wuxian’s right leg ached. Lan Wangji, however, was still expressionless, only slightly frowning. Then, he was immediately dragged back!

Given the size and bite force of this demonic beast, biting a person in half wouldn’t take much effort. Fortunately, it didn’t seem to like eating broken pieces. After biting a person, whether they were dead or alive, it would retreat into its shell, dragging them inside to slowly enjoy. Otherwise, it only had to exert a little bit of strength with its teeth, and Lan Wangji’s leg would have been directly severed. The turtle shell was extremely hard, impervious to blades. If it dragged Lan Wangji inside, it was likely he would never be able to come out again!

Wei Wuxian frantically sprinted. Before the beast’s head could retreat, he leapt forward and grabbed one of the upper fangs.

Normally, his strength could not compete with this monster, but with their lives on the line, he unleashed an inhuman and terrifying burst of strength. He braced his feet against the demonic beast’s shell, and with both hands, he tightly grasped the fang like a thorn, refusing to let it retract, refusing to allow it the chance to enjoy its meal.

Lan Wangji did not expect that he could catch up in this situation. He was extremely shocked.

Wei Wuxian was afraid that the demonic beast would go berserk and either eat them alive or bite off Lan Wangji’s leg. With his right hand, he continued to grip the upper row of fangs, and with his left hand he gripped the lower row of fangs. His face was blood red and veins were bulging from his forehead. He used all his strength to pull in opposite directions, desperately pushing himself.

The sharp teeth had already penetrated Lan Wangji’s flesh and bones, but the opposing forces did actually force the jaws to slowly open!

The jaws lost their grip on their prey and Lan Wangji fell into the pool. Seeing that he was safe, Wei Wuxian lost that divine power that had possessed him, and he could no longer hold back the demonic beast’s upper and lower jaws. He abruptly let go, and the two rows of protruding fangs slammed shut, making a loud sound like metal and stone splitting.

Wei Wuxian also fell into the water, landing next to Lan Wangji. He quickly adjusted his posture, grabbed Lan Wangji, and, with one hand, swam out a few feet in a moment. He drew a long, beautiful wave in the water and rolled onto the shore. He threw Lan Wangji on his back and started to run.

Lan Wangji blurted out, “You?!”

Wei Wuxian said, “It’s me! Surprised?”

Lan Wangji lay on his back, his tone with a rare and clear fluctuation, “Surprised about what?! Put me down!”

Wei Wuxian, while running for his life, still couldn’t help but talk, “If I put you down just because you told me to, wouldn’t I lose face?”

The demonic beast’s roar shook their eardrums and chests, both feeling a surge of blood up their throats and noses. Wei Wuxian quickly shut his mouth and focused on escaping. To prevent the demonic beast from chasing after them, he specifically chose narrow cave passages that the turtle shell wouldn’t be able to squeeze through. Without stopping to take a breath, he ran for a long time, until there was no sound. Then, he slowed down.

As his heart relaxed and his speed decreased, Wei Wuxian smelled blood. He reached back and touched his right hand. It was wet and red.

Wei Wuxian thought, “This is bad. Lan Zhan’s injury has become even worse.”