"Now we get that third plaque," Pan Tian said, "my brother's group had to do a tough group fight. But the tests are often different, so be prepared for anything. There should be light down there, but just in case, I have a waterproof lantern for everyone. Just make sure you only use it if you absolutely have to.
"Remember that there are other things in this lake and just because you can't see them doesn't mean they can't see you. Especially if you're holding a light. The pills I gave you will work with this water, so we can breathe it. But don't drink it. It's salty so it'll only make you thirstier. You can drink when we're out of there. Oh, and stay away from the vents unless you want to get cooked."
"Vents?" Jie asked.
"You'll see," Pan Tian said, "just stay away from them. Now, when we go down there it's possible to talk underwater. It can be a little tricky to pull it off at first, but it's possible. I want us to try and avoid it as best we can though. Remember, we're not going to be alone down there. So, follow my lead. Stay close and I want us to keep any talking to an absolute minimum. The plaque is inside the main temple building and I'll lead us to it. Any questions?"
"Do we fight underwater or try and swim away?" Jie asked.
"It'll be up to you, Jie. You're the strongest of us. If you can't handle something, let us know so we can do everything possible to avoid it or escape. Just keep in mind that any enemies down there are likely to be more skilled at fighting and moving underwater than we are.
"So, I think it's wise if we do our best to go unnoticed and avoid unnecessary fights for the most part. Especially since the light from our attacks will be visible for an incredible distance and we don't know what might be lurking in the darkness. Anything else? No? Okay... let's do this. Oh... and try not to throw up," Pan Tian said.
Before Jie could ask what the older girl meant, Pan Tian's claws of light lit up with her resplendent moonlight qi and long silvery white talons grew out from the glass-like claws. The older girl slashed down at the ice, sending arcs of dazzling qi into the ice. Ice and snow sprayed in every direction as she hacked it apart.
The older girl rapidly carved a hole into the ice, and the instant it breached the water it sent a torrent of the most foul-smelling water Jie had ever encountered spraying into the air.
It reeked with the overpowering stench of rotten eggs. Far stronger than the frozen river and lake had been. So intense that not only could Jie taste it, but it had texture too. Like granules of putrefaction that felt as though she could rub them between her fingers like tiny marbles.
Jie gagged but Pan Tian simply dived hooves first into the stinking water. Jie followed Pan Tian almost immediately, even as she forced down a surge of bile before it could spew from her lips. She didn't know what in that lake had her friend so worried, but there was no way Jie was letting her face it alone.
Jie bit back a yelp as she broke through the surface of the ice-cold water. The shock of the freezing water caused her to inhale sharply, drawing the putrid water into her mouth, through her body and out her gills, further adding to the already uncomfortable sensation as she breathed with the unfamiliar organs. The stinking taste of the freezing water didn't help.
She fought against her sharp, shallow, hyperventilating breaths that drew freezing water through her body as Xue and Ithilix dropped into the water behind and beside her.
Pan Tian waved to them and then swam down as Jie and her friends followed, keeping their formation. It felt strange to swim with a tail and webbed fingers and toes, but quickly became something that felt as though she'd done it all her life.
The same was true of breathing through her gills that now surrounded her ribs and the sides of her body even on her abdomen. The water suit's strange design accommodated that of course. Though, she'd expected smaller gills and they made her feel vulnerable as the gills were often a weak point in sharks. At least that's what the nature documentaries she'd watched said.
Still, they allowed her to breathe the water easily and she added a mental note to be protective of them in a fight. Slowly, she grew used to the frigid water, and while it was still far from comfortable, Jie managed to take in slower, deeper breaths.
***
As they descended deeper into the cold, dark water Jie saw orange and red lights coming from below. Pan Tian's silhouette against them was the only way Jie could see her in the inky blackness. Still, even if the darkness had been total, she could've sensed the older girl using her spirit sense.
That thought gave Jie some comfort. Until she wondered what else lurked in the dark water sensing them all too...
They continued swimming, their tails propelling them with serpentine motions behind them like a group of crocodiles or snakes as they dove ever deeper.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Though the water was gross, and danger surrounded them in the darkness, Jie couldn't keep the smile off her face. Swimming like this without having to worry about coming up for air was thrilling. Every day in this world felt like an incredible adventure and she never wanted it to end.
As they descended, she noticed the water started getting warmer. Soon, the frigid temperature changed to something warm and pleasant... but it quickly grew uncomfortably hot as they neared the lights themselves and discovered what they were.
Transparent tubes were laid out in a kind of grid among buildings and statues. Within the tubes was a slow-moving sludge that glowed with orange and red light. Almost like orange taffy... or magma.
Coming off the tubes of magma were vents where the water shimmered with incredible heat and plumes of smoke rose upward. Clams covered almost everything. Particularly the transparent tubes. Although it looked like someone or something had been trying to keep them in check. They were huge and Jie had to wonder if they were a delicacy or something here.
The temple was enormous. More like a city really. With courtyards decorated with mosaic tiles of some frightening creature with a beak, great pincers, and tentacles coming out of its mouth. Its face was on almost everything.
There were spires, statues, gates, and walls. But the statues were of creatures that were definitely not human and many of the buildings lay in ruins and covered in barnacles, clams, and coral. There were also strange red tubes, pale creepy-looking fish, crabs, and a peculiar fleshy white substance that seemed to cover almost everything. Particularly near the vents.
And all of it was lit by the eerie orange-red glow. It was mostly quiet apart from the humming crackle of magma sluggishly oozing through the tubes and the bubbling rumble that coincided with the occasional tremor. The force of which shook the lake floor and sent loose bricks tumbling slowly down from buildings as clouds of white smoke erupted into the water from fissures.
Jie followed Pan Tian over a road lined with statues of eldritch-looking creatures with tentacles in place of legs, eyes on stalks, and six arms ending in clawed hands. Jie checked behind her occasionally as they swam, just to make sure Ithilix and Xue were still there. Though, she heard and sensed them swimming behind her... this place set her nerves on edge.
They swam over a pair of rusted, crusty gates and into a courtyard with another of the frightening mosaics of the strange monster on the floor. Seaweed and tube-looking plants grew out from between cracks in the mosaic tiles. Pillars rose up into the water around them, supporting a roof that was no longer there.
They swam onward and Pan Tian led the way into the largest building in the place, through a doorway shaped to look like the mouth of the same creature as the mosaic. It had windows for eyes and more patches of strange white muck marring its surface.
They swam through ornate chambers with tapestries and metal sculptures decorating the walls. But everything was covered in barnacles and filth and Jie was hesitant to touch anything. As were Ithilix and Xue it seemed. Pan Tian scowled at them and stored several items with a wave of her hand. Water rushed in to fill the space the items had been occupying. Though there was no loud clap like Jie expected... just a gentle swirl of water. She marveled at that for a moment, before realizing that storing things in a ring didn't do that with air either. She didn't know how the craftsmen had got around that problem, but was impressed that they had.
Jie and Ithilix gathered what items they could using their own rings after that. Though the place still disturbed Jie.
It didn't help that there were so many auras from fish to barnacles to the fleshy white stuff that covered everything. Even the magma in the tubes was so thick with Essence that it was nearly impossible to sense where a threat may come from among all the noise.
Jie hoped she'd still notice anything too dangerous before it attacked them, but it was something she needed to work on. Between the assassins and the droguth, there was no shortage of enemies that could hide their presence from her spirit sense with apparently little difficulty.
As some of the coral and strange white flesh had a cultivation that reached into the sixth star of the Expert rank, it would be easy for something else to hide among them. Something powerful enough to pose a serious threat to her friends...
There were vents in the temple too, with some rooms so incredibly hot and full of smoke that they were deeply unpleasant to move through and made her cough with her gills. Which was a new and unpleasant sensation. It was weird enough having a body part she didn't have before without inhaling smoke and having it go into spasm. The excitement was rapidly wearing thin and Jie couldn't wait to leave the disgusting, creepy lake.
Those rooms packed full of vents also had a ton of that strange white fleshy substance that made her skin crawl for some reason. She and the others all avoided touching it. And the smell in those places was worse than anywhere else. So bad that the stench seemed to linger in her nose and mouth and never really leave even after they moved on to a less smoky room.
Finally, they came to a large chamber with pools of greenish liquid filled with semi-transparent spheres. Like fish eggs. A translucent, fleshy layer covered the top of the pools and kept it from mixing with the water. There were small vents in those pools as well. Pumping out plumes of toxic smoke and heat that made patches of water shimmer.
In the center of the room was a blood red statue of that same severe woman. It seemed utterly unaffected by the various kinds of barnacles, clams, and white fleshy material that covered much of the other surfaces. At the statue's base, was a gleaming plaque. Pan Tian swam over to it and Jie followed her, with Ithilix and Xue just behind her.
Pan Tian didn't read the plaque aloud this time and they crowded around it.
"Friends come and go, and many wear the word as a mask for their true intentions. Many times have I been betrayed. In this world, the only one you can ever truly count on... is yourself. How long can you survive alone in the dark?" said the writing on the plaque.
Pan Tian frowned and Jie knew without her saying anything that this wasn't the same challenge the plaque had given her brother.
Then, the water in front of them folded in on itself, creating a circular portal that sucked the water toward it. Jie tried to swim away, but the water rushed in too quickly and her friends slipped into it moments before she did.