Meng Qianzi had no idea what was happening behind her, but seeing Shen Gun’s demeanor, she knew something was wrong. Without looking back, she flipped sideways: threats from behind typically moved in straight lines, so escaping in a curved path was generally the right choice.

Sure enough, almost as soon as she moved, there was a splash, and a massive crocodile head like a giant shovel struck exactly where she had been just a second or two earlier, spraying water all over her face and hair. As she tried to stand, another gust of force came—the crocodile head swinging back—and Meng Qianzi couldn’t dodge in time, getting hit directly and falling into the water with a splash.

The giant crocodile had no intention of coming ashore. It swung its head back only to enter the water: almost simultaneously with Meng Qianzi’s fall, it plunged straight down with the force of a mountain.

The entire sequence happened in just two or three seconds. Before Jiang Lian could even understand what had occurred, the vast water surface was empty of both people and crocodiles, leaving only scattered water droplets on the shore, a large wet patch, and the churning, muddied lake water.

Jiang Lian’s mind buzzed as he rushed to the water’s edge in two quick strides. Panic surged within him, his voice caught in his throat, unable to call out. It wasn’t that he was afraid to jump in, but he needed to know where to land. With the murky yellow water before him, where could he possibly find her?

He stared intently at the lake surface, rapidly adjusting the angle of his flashlight, hoping Meng Qianzi’s head would emerge somewhere so he’d have a direction for rescue. But the cave was too dark and the water surface too vast—his single beam of light couldn’t cover it all.

Jiang Lian’s palms were sweating when he heard Shen Gun shout again: “That one! That one is coming over too!”

It was the one-eyed land dragon that had been sleeping at the cave entrance!

With so much commotion, it should have awakened by now. Jiang Lian was too preoccupied to care about its approach, but this one was heading straight for him.

It came with extreme speed. Shen Gun was so terrified his voice cracked. When Jiang Lian turned quickly, he met it head-on: this land dragon, running on all fours, didn’t look like a crocodile at all but rather like a massive, fierce dog.

Seeing Jiang Lian neither running nor dodging, Shen Gun thought he was paralyzed with fear and believed he would die in the crocodile’s jaws in the next second. He turned his head away, unable to bear watching.

Standing at the water’s edge, Jiang Lian’s thoughts raced. His original plan was to leap sideways at the last moment; the land dragon would be unable to stop and would fall into the water, buying them some time to regroup…

But then he realized Meng Qianzi was still down there, her fate unknown. How could he allow another land dragon to enter the water? Especially one that had a grudge against her.

Gritting his teeth, he stood his ground. When the land dragon was close enough that he could see its drooping single eye, he quickly ducked down, sliding beneath its belly. Letting his flashlight roll away, he gripped his dagger firmly with both hands, blade pointing upward, and thrust it toward the dragon’s underbelly.

In his mind, crocodiles were armored with scales, but their bellies should be soft. With the land dragon’s momentum and his upward thrust, if he could gut it open, this threat would be eliminated.

In an instant, the land dragon rushed over him. Jiang Lian quickly pushed himself up from the ground.

Unfortunately, compared to the land dragon’s size, the dagger was far too small. It did pierce flesh, but fell far short of his expectations. The land dragon didn’t even fall into the water; it merely made a quick turn at the water’s edge, with half its body dragging in the water, its head still facing him.

Jiang Lian didn’t care about anything else now. He shouted toward the lake: “Qianzi!”

Then he yelled at Shen Gun: “Hurry and see where Miss Meng is!”

His shout was fierce, but his heart was frantic: it had been so long—why hadn’t Meng Qianzi surfaced yet?

Shen Gun responded quickly. His headlamp had run out of battery after a night of use, so he picked up the flashlight Meng Qianzi had dropped, turned it to maximum brightness, and swept it across the lake surface.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The water nearby was murky yellow, while farther away, where the light was dimmer, it was almost brownish-black. But whether yellow or black, it only rippled gently, shrouded in an eerie stillness.

Shen Gun’s hands shook uncontrollably.

Where was Miss Meng? She’d been underwater for so long. She wasn’t a water ghost—no ordinary person could hold their breath this long. Could she have been… swallowed by that giant crocodile below?

Jiang Lian had the same thought. His mind went numb, but rage boiled up. At that moment, looking at the one-eyed land dragon, he wished to tear it apart alive and felt no fear. He wiped his nose with the back of his hand and spat out between clenched teeth: “Why aren’t you getting out of here to call for help?”

Shen Gun was stunned for a moment, then realized Jiang Lian was speaking to him. “What about… what about you?”

Jiang Lian ignored him, but Shen Gun realized: if Jiang Lian wasn’t here keeping the giant crocodile busy, how could he have a chance to get out and seek help? He desperately wanted to stay and help, but with his fighting ability, wouldn’t he just be in the way?

With that thought, he hesitated no longer and ran toward the cave entrance with all his might.

Unexpectedly, the land dragon seemed to sense something and abandoned Jiang Lian, rushing toward Shen Gun instead. How could Jiang Lian stop it? In desperation, not caring about injury, he reached out to grab the land dragon’s tail.

Only after grabbing it did he realize how absurd this was: the strength disparity was too great. Even holding on, what could he do? Could he pull the land dragon back?

The land dragon noticed something on its tail and impatiently swung it, lifting Jiang Lian into the air. As he was about to be thrown off, he suddenly saw the land dragon’s crystal ball-like single eye surrounded by wrinkled eyelids.

Last night, this land dragon had become enraged and thrashed about because it had lost an eye, giving him time to rescue Meng Qianzi into the passageway.

With the dagger still in his hand, it was time to gamble: would the land dragon prefer to catch Shen Gun, or would it hate more the person who had blinded its eye?

As Jiang Lian’s body was thrown away, he used all his strength to aim at the land dragon’s single eye and threw the dagger.

In truth, Jiang Lian’s knife-throwing accuracy was only average—one can’t excel at everything. But fortunately, the land dragon’s eye was so large that even missing the bull’s eye, he would still hit something.

Sure enough, as Jiang Lian was violently slammed against the stone wall, his internal organs rattling and nearly passing out, he saw the dagger firmly lodged in the land dragon’s eye. The creature instantly erupted, rolling chaotically in place, while Shen Gun seized the moment and disappeared through the cave entrance.

Jiang Lian smiled. He grabbed a protruding rock nearby to help himself stand, ignoring the land dragon writhing in agony, and called out loudly again: “Qianzi?”

“Qianzi, are you still there?”

The cave was spacious, and his calls echoed dimly above the water surface, near the bronze cover.

The lake surface was eerily calm, as if it had never produced that giant crocodile, as if it had never swallowed Meng Qianzi.

He recalled the terrifying moment when Meng Qianzi fell into the water and the giant crocodile immediately followed: that speed, that angle, plus that size—it could catch anything, swallow anything, couldn’t it?

The now completely blind land dragon finally recovered from its pain, slowly turning its face toward him, one eye still trembling with the dagger’s handle in it—indeed, even total blindness didn’t prevent this creature, which had lived underground for years, from pursuing its enemies.

Now Jiang Lian didn’t even have the small dagger that Meng Qianzi had despised—truly bare-handed.

He calculated the time, estimating he could keep the land dragon busy for a while, and gestured toward it: “Come on, come on, Master Lian will play with you for a few more rounds.”

The land dragon roared and pounced.

Jiang Lian had no more opportunities to attack; he could only dodge. The first few times, relying on his agility, he managed to hold his ground, but gradually he became more and more overwhelmed—after all, he hadn’t slept all night and had been constantly depleting his energy.

Also, because he simply had no fighting spirit left.

Finally, he was swept by the land dragon’s massive tail, rolling like a top, and unexpectedly took a hit to his back that made his vision go dark and brought a coppery taste to his throat, which he forcibly swallowed back down.

He called out loudly: “Hey, hey.”

While calling, he stood up shakily, extending one hand forward as if wanting to negotiate.

The land dragon, having lived underground for years with deteriorated vision, was particularly sensitive to sound. Hearing the voice, it paused briefly.

Jiang Lian said, “No more games. Master Lian can’t beat you. I’m leaving.”

With that, he smiled, turned, and jumped into the water.

—

As Meng Qianzi had predicted, Qu Qiao arrived with reinforcements and equipment before noon.

It hadn’t rained since midnight, and the water in the circular chamber had receded. Lu Sanming insisted that what he saw last night was a giant crocodile and claimed he had done his homework overnight: a crocodile’s weakness was its eyes, so in case of danger, attack the eyes first; a crocodile’s bite force was strong, but its jaw-opening force was weak—sometimes firmly pressing a stick against it could prevent a crocodile from opening its mouth.

However, he added that these tactics might not apply to the one below, because that one could both crawl and stand, with limbs that extended much further, making it far more formidable than ordinary crocodiles.

Qu Qiao didn’t care about this: she had brought enough tranquilizer guns and animal sedatives. If the creature was too large, they would double the dosage—it was bound to fall.

She had people lower seven or eight life detectors first.

These worked on thermal principles, detecting signs of life activity in the nearby area. The base was a miniature mechanical vehicle-boat; on land, it was a remotely controlled small car, but when encountering water, it switched modes to become a small boat. The base carried night vision cameras that could transmit images from below in real-time.

The circular chamber had seven passages, and a detector was sent into each. According to the returned signals and images, there was a safe distance. Qu Qiao arranged groups of three, with a total of twenty-one people entering the passages in the first batch. All were fully equipped, searching in multiple directions simultaneously. She remained in the circular chamber, first examining Duan Wenxi’s letter.

Although she had little contact with Shangui Zhai, she had heard about important matters and knew that Duan Wenxi’s disappearance years ago might have had hidden circumstances. However, this lengthy piece, mentioning both the Qilin Crystal and the Phoenix Feather, left her confused.

Fortunately, most of her attention and focus were on the play, and she was never intensely curious about other matters.

The water had only recently receded, and the color below the waterline was particularly dark.

Above it was written: A golden-winged phoenix feather, placed at the center of the platform, flowing with golden light, containing seven colors within, warm as jade when held, without cover or case, uncorrupted for a thousand years—truly miraculous.

Qu Qiao looked toward the circular platform in the center of the chamber. This platform appeared to be carved from a single large stone, similar to the two coffins outside: uncarved and unadorned, quite rough.

In the center of the circular platform was a thin, small hole, just right for inserting a bird feather—presumably, Duan Wenxi saw it immediately after entering the coffin.

—At this point, I finally believed Yanluo’s words were true, and thus decided to proceed. The one who obtains the Qilin Crystal becomes divine—what does it mean to be divine? We mortals dare not have wild thoughts; to glimpse a bit of the profound mystery is enough to fulfill our wishes.

The letter ended there.

As Qu Qiao stood in a daze, she suddenly heard voices from above. From the fragments that were carried down, it seemed Xian Qionghua had arrived, and she also heard Lu Sanming repeatedly saying “Assistant Meng,” suggesting that Meng Jinsong was among them.

Just as she was about to go up and greet them, the walkie-talkie suddenly hissed. Qu Qiao knew there was a discovery and quickly put the earpiece in.

Sure enough, she heard someone reporting loudly: “Found one, found one!”

Qu Qiao didn’t need to ask who had been found, because the next second, she heard Shen Gun’s stuttering and frantic voice: “Miss Meng, Miss Meng fell into the water and never came back up. Jiang Lian is still there… There are crocodiles in the water and on shore, two in total, the one in the water is bigger.”

What did he mean by “never came back up”? Qu Qiao’s heart sank, and a chill ran down her back. Before she could speak, she heard Xian Qionghua’s voice over the walkie-talkie: “Which passage? Which passage found Shen Gun?”

The reply came immediately: “Fourth passage, the fourth passage.”

“Everyone into the fourth passage. I repeat, everyone into the fourth passage.”

As soon as the words fell, two people quickly descended through the coffin opening.

The lead one was the Seven Sisters, Xian Qionghua.

Qu Qiao looked up as she came down.

Xian Qionghua was in her early forties. Since childhood, she had a masculine appearance and loved to keep her hair short. People with poor eyesight often mistook her gender. Her clothing was simple: black pants and a white T-shirt in summer, with just a sports jacket added in winter. Far from standing out in a crowd, she was barely noticeable even walking alone, almost the opposite of Qu Qiao.

However, appearances can be deceiving. She handled matters extremely efficiently, never dragging things out. Although her words were sometimes harsh, she focused on issues rather than people and acted fairly, generally winning people’s hearts.

Since distancing herself from Shangui Zhai, Qu Qiao had rarely seen this Seven Sister, but their relationship was still good—the kind where they could sit and chat when they met, as long as they didn’t discuss that matter.

She nodded to Xian Qionghua.

People were constantly rushing in and out beside her as those who had received orders withdrew to enter the fourth passage instead.

As soon as Xian Qionghua landed, she hurriedly undid her harness, speaking quickly without pleasantries: “Sixth Sister, you should go up and take command. Your skills are all in theater and have been neglected for so long—I fear your combat abilities won’t keep up. Besides, I’m Mountain Ear, and you’re Mountain Shoulder; my rank is higher than yours… I’m afraid sister Zi isn’t in good shape. I won’t say more.”

Without waiting for Qu Qiao’s response, she brushed past her. Behind her was indeed Meng Jinsong, looking anxious and too preoccupied to exchange greetings. He merely nodded respectfully and hurried after her.

—

Shen Gun had staggered out, stumbling and making wrong turns, and while he had found help, he couldn’t remember the route back to the cave.

Fortunately, the Mountain Ghosts had brought many people and worked efficiently. With various instruments helping to lead the way, the search was much faster.

When Xian Qionghua arrived, she walked into a scene of human-crocodile chaos. Seeing such a large crocodile surprised her greatly, but with over ten tranquilizer guns aimed at it and fifteen or sixteen people surrounding it, plus two or three drug needles already stuck in its eyes, not to mention its belly, she felt the situation was under control. She bypassed the group and entered the cave.

The cave was much quieter than outside, with beams of searchlights crisscrossing.

Strangely, the three or four Mountain Households who had entered stood far from the shore, whispering to each other while holding instruments or display screens, showing fear of what was in the water. Yet a young man, soaking wet from head to toe, sat at the edge with his legs dangling in the water.

Shen Gun stood not far behind him, looking helpless.

Xian Qionghua said: “That’s…”

Meng Jinsong completed her sentence: “Jiang Lian.”

Xian Qionghua acknowledged with a sound. She had heard the name but wasn’t very familiar with him.

As they spoke, a Mountain Household member urgently approached, his face deathly pale, bringing the instrument display screen to her.

Xian Qionghua didn’t bother looking: “Speak.”

The man’s face paled further: “When we arrived, we ran straight into the crocodile, and the brothers began fighting it. A few of us came in and saw that young Jiang repeatedly surfacing and diving. He said Miss Meng had been in the water for a long time, but when we checked the detector…”

Xian Qionghua glanced at the detector.

The detector worked based on thermal energy. Since crocodiles are cold-blooded, their image coloration differed from warm-blooded animals, but the contrast with the surroundings made the outline visible. In the water, there was only the giant crocodile, nothing else.

Xian Qionghua asked: “What about Qianzi? Could she have escaped through some underwater crack?”

The Mountain Household member mumbled in response: “This is an isolated place. Even if there are cracks, they’d only seep water—there’s no way… a person could pass through.”

Xian Qionghua uttered an “oh” and looked at the imaging device again: “So she was eaten? If she were eaten, could the imaging device show what’s inside the crocodile’s stomach? Can it show if there’s a human form inside?”

The man answered even more quietly: “It… it can’t show that.”

Xian Qionghua fell silent for several seconds before murmuring: “Our Sister Zi, gone just like that?”

As she spoke, there was a splash. Looking over, she saw Jiang Lian had gone into the water again.

Xian Qionghua’s expression remained unchanged as she said, “What is he doing? Pull him up. That’s not how you search—does he have a death wish?”

As she said this, something suddenly struck her, and she looked at Jiang Lian again: “Has he been diving in and out this whole time?”

The Mountain Household member nodded.

“With a crocodile in the water, it didn’t attack him?”

The man hesitated: “He said the one on shore won’t enter the water, and the one in the water won’t come ashore. Moreover, the one in the water, even when he swam close or even touched it, never moved. That’s what he said, but we… don’t dare go in to try.”