After moving through the dark forest for an entire night, their field of vision became wider, and the group’s spirits lifted.
While wearing an airtight protection suit, Professor Ye knelt down on one knee beside the lake to carefully collect a water sample. She wanted to know whether the original strain of the Blood Flower was in here.
Scimitar and Lin Chuan protected her by the sides in case an aquatic superbeast suddenly shot out of the mysterious lake.
The results of the analysis showed that the original strain of the Blood Flower did indeed come from the depths of the lake and not the other way. It did not grow into the lake from the ground.
“My guess is correct!” Lu Siya said excitedly. “The original strains of Blood Flowers might like to grow in dark and humid areas, but they cannot grow for long periods of time in water. There is no river around this lake either, so it’s impossible for it to have grown all of a sudden from the bottom of the lake.
“This means that there must be a subsurface stream under the lake, and at the end of the stream must be a large underground space. It should have fresh oxygen and the Red Radiance Jade mine that is very easy to mine. It’s only when these conditions are met that Blood Grass can evolve into Blood Flowers.
“It’s no wonder why so many mine exploration teams have returned without any results. They’ve been looking for the wrong place. If we want to get the treasure, we must go into the depths of the lake and through the subsurface stream to reach our destination!”
Lin Chuan looked around him warily and said, “If there’s a lake in a forest, it should be the heaven of monsters. The living creatures within a circular area of dozens of kilometers rely on water to survive, but while coming here, we didn’t discover a lot of tracks. It’s either that the lake is very strange, or there are really fierce high-grade superbeasts residing in the lake. We have to be careful.”
“That’s only natural. I’ve long since predicted that the Red Radiance Jade mine would be under a lake, and I brought a full set of equipment. Scimitar!”
Lu Siya swung her arm. The superhumans from Sharp Blade smoothly removed a large amount of ammunition boxes from the machine mules. They took off the lid, which revealed deep water bombs with the logo of skulls spray painted on them.
“These are crystal bombs newly invented by the Red Dragon Army. The impact waves they create are very powerful. Everyone, it’ll be for the best if you circulate your spirit energy to protect your ear drums, teeth, and organs.”
As Scimitar spoke, he picked up a deep water bomb and tossed it into the center of the lake.
Most of the Sharp Blade members were powerful fighters at the peak of Earth Realm. They were built like bears, and their arm strength was greater than that of an average person. When they used their arms to throw the deep water bombs, they were no weaker than launchers specifically built to launch certain missiles. In just a short half a minute, they tossed dozens of deep water bombs at the center of the lake, where they sank while swaying.
Scimitar commanded his team members to toss a few scientific instruments with round heads and exploratory needles stuck in them into the lake as well. They sank in.
Lu Siya said that they were shockwave feedback readers. They could use the shockwaves created by the explosions of the deep water bombs crashing against the bottom of the lake to map out the lake. Then, they could figure out where the crack and the subsurface stream were.
The group retreated into the forest and hid behind a towering tree. They poured their spirit energy to their ear drums, teeth, and organs and held their breaths as they waited.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The deep water bombs invented on Earth treated the endless ocean as their battlefield. After crystals were added to them along with runic symbols, their power increased ten times. Explosions that caused the earth to tremble arose, and they nearly overturned the entire lake.
Dozens of water pillars shot into the air, making it look as if a storm had just started. The “rainwater” was mixed with all sorts of strange-looking aquatic monsters. They landed in the forest with loud splashes, and even though they were powerful, when they were on land, they were just prey. They turned into meals for the pests and etherealized plants.
The team looked again at the lake before them. After exploding for half a minute, the water level had decreased by dozens of centimeters. Blood covered the surface of the lake. Torn flesh of all sorts of colors was mixed in it. Clearly, the large monster at the bottom of the lake was badly battered by the explosions and was now mangled.
Blurp, blurp, blurp, blurp.
The next instant, the lake started to boil, and bubbles appeared on the surface.
“What a strong spirit energy reaction… It’s the presence of a Hell Beast!”
The three fighting-class Heaven Realm superhumans, Lin Chuan, Scimitar, and Lu Siya’s personal bodyguard, Lu Fengying jumped at the same time to the side of the lake.
A bizarre-looking fish with red scales that was as built as a lion appeared in the boiling lake. It was more than ten meters long, and when it opened its mouth, it looked even fiercer than sand tiger sharks.
“Lion Dragon Fish!”
It was a Grade Five aquatic superbeast. It could bite through an iron fishing boat and could control water currents. It often caused trouble in Red Dragon River and used the unique structure of its mouth to release Ripple Blasts, which sent water currents at supersonic speed to tear its prey to pieces.
An adult Lion Dragon Fish was huge, and it loved large rivers or streams with rapid currents. It seldom appeared in lakes and swamp areas. This further proved Lu Siya’s theory. There was definitely a subsurface stream at the bottom of the lake. When the Lion Dragon Fish was very young, it should have accidentally swam through the subsurface stream and entered the lake. As its body grew bigger, it could not swim back, so it got trapped.
Even if Lion Dragon Fishes had developed brains, it had grown up in the lake, and it did not have any communications with its civilization, so it was impossible for it to have high intelligence.
It was caught off guard and attacked by deep water bombs, which left it utterly confused, and it descended into rage.
The three Heaven Realm elites stepped into the air and arrived above it.
Lin Chuan was the first to attack. His body was supported by his burning beast soul. Spirit energy wings grew out of his back, and they looked as beautiful as an Undying Bird’s. His chain spear shot out, and like a red bolt of lightning, it pierced the Lion Dragon Fish’s eyeball. With a loud plop, the Lion Dragon Fish’s eye, which was already bleeding because of the explosion, popped.
Above the chain spear were four sharp blades that looked like wings. They shot up, and like fish hooks, they stabbed deep into the Lion Dragon Fish’s eye socket.
The Lion Dragon Fish started swaying its head and tail madly.
Lin Chuan did not fight head-on against it. Instead, as if he was fishing, he pulled back the chain spear while sometimes letting go slightly. He patiently engaged in a war of attrition.
Scimitar’s scimitar cut at the Lion Dragon Fish’s fins and tail in a very sinister angle. Even though the superbeast managed to sense it, the blade cut its fins into pieces, which reduced its agility in the water.
“Blurp! Blurp! Blurp!”
The Lion Dragon Fish opened its mouth and released a flurry of Ripple Blasts that were like artillery.
But moments ago, it had been blasted off kilter and blinded by Lin Chuan. It also lost the ability to remain stable after its fins and tail were struck. It could not control its trajectory accurately, and the three water balls grazed past the three Heaven Realm elites.
At that moment, Lu Siya’s personal bodyguard, Lu Fengying, landed on the Lion Dragon Fish’s head. She twisted her limbs into a very strange angle.
Waves of spirit flames surged out, and her spirit energy appeared in the form of very profound and complicated runic symbols. Her spirit energy magnetic field became visible.
Siiiiizzzllllllleeeee!
The moment she finished creating her spirit energy magnetic field, thousands of spirit energy threads that looked like electrical arcs charged at the Lion Dragon Fish as if they had been given life. They were so dense that they looked like snow falling from the sky.
The Lion Dragon Fish instantly froze up.
The next ten seconds, it was cut more than one hundred times by an invisible but sharp blade. Its head, which was as mighty as a lion’s was cut to pieces, and only its lower body remained. It sank slowly to the bottom of the lake.
The three Heaven Realm elites had worked together and smoothly killed a Grade Five Hell Beast!
Meng Chao’s eyes went wide. All he could see in his head was Lu Fengying’s might when she released her killing move.
‘So, Lu Siya’s personal bodyguard is an Overkill Style martial artist.
‘This is the real Overkill Style, which has been reigning supreme in Dragon City for decades. It does indeed live up to its name.
‘Using the chain attacks from the Ultimate Style to search for the moment the Overkill Style user accumulates power, stiffens up, and cools down to cancel their killing move and thereby gain victory is theoretically possible.
‘But it’s just like performing a crouch slide to kill a tiger. No matter how ideal the dream is, I still need to turn it into reality. I will need to continue training and make this a reality!’
Meng Chao thought that he did not come on this trip in vain. He had already learned a lot.
After they killed the Lion Dragon Fish, the lake became calm once more. No other aquatic monster showed up.
But that was normal. No tyrant would tolerate the existence of another that could threaten their position. The lake was not big, so once a Lion Dragon Fish, which was one of the hunters at the top of the food chain, came here, it was basically impossible for there to be another high-grade superbeast in the same area.
At that moment, the shockwave feedback reader, which used the feedback from the shockwaves, finished drawing the terrain of the lake.
Lu Siya’s tablet showed a detailed 3D map.
“Look, there is a subsurface stream here. It’s fifty or so meters deep. The subsurface stream is narrow, long, and dark, but there is a huge space inside!” Lu Siya pointed at the map and grinned. “I brought full-body diving equipment. We made the right gamble!”
Before beginning their operations, they had already done targeted practice to handle the environment that the Red Radiance Jade was most likely to appear in.
With the superhumans’ body constitutions and their precise control over spirit energy, it was not difficult for them to swim while dozens of meters deep.
But Lin Chuan gave them a reminder. “This lake’s depth is more than five hundred meters, and the environment at the bottom of the lake is very complicated. Even the reader isn’t able to draw out the entire thing. We have to be careful about there being other superbeasts.”
“How could that be?” Lu Siya pointed her nose skyward and said confidently, “Lion Dragon Fish are kings of aquatic monsters, and they’re not fond of living together with other high-grade aquatic superbeasts. It’s not a native freshwater aquatic life either. It can only have come here from somewhere else. It was by pure coincidence that it came here. It can’t have possibly brought its family here, right?”
“But—”
“No buts!” Lu Siya had already switched to her diving suit with Lu Fengying’s help. “Even though we discovered this lake, there’s no certainty that there is only one path leading to the Red Radiance Jade mine. While we’re here dilly-dallying, someone might have already beaten us to the draw and started dancing in our Red Radiance Jade mine!
“Even if a second Lion Dragon Fish appears, it’s fine. Didn’t you already kill one? I hired all of you here by promising a lot of money to solve problems like this!”
She cast Lin Chuan a profound glance. Then, without turning her head around, she was the first to jump into the lake.
The mine explorers and crystal experts looked at each other. With the help from the Sharp Blade members, they put on their diving suits.
The Sharp Blade members then removed numerous boxes from the load carried by the machine mules and set up various underwater vehicles.
They could carry from four to six people at once. They could even be connected to military-grade computers. Once the destination they marked on the map they drew was uploaded to the military-grade computer, the vehicle could reach the destination on its own.
Even the superhumans who had never received diving training before could complete the task as long as they fixed themselves to the underwater vehicle.
“Are you alright?”
After seeing most of the team jump into the lake, Lin Chuan felt resigned. He turned his head around.
Meng Chao rubbed the center of his forehead and examined the memory fragments from his previous life. They had jumped out just now. He shook his head and said, “It’s fine. I… quite like playing with water.”