The water curtain had returned to calm.
On the soft sand in the sand cave, two drops of splattered blood had dyed the sand red, forming red sand clusters.
Zanxing leaned against one end of the stone crack, looking at the wound on her hand, which appeared quite disheveled.
What could be more embarrassing than confidently going out to make a big showing, only to get beaten up by a demon beast instead?
Taking a direct slap to the face—her face hurt, in the truest sense of pain.
Wasn’t it supposed to be that having the Xiaoyuan Pearl meant she could dominate heaven and earth? Why didn’t it work when it came to her? If she hadn’t desperately fled into the stone crack at the crucial moment, with “Yu” unable to enter, she would probably be dead by now.
But… this shouldn’t be right!
She had made contact with “Yu’s” body just now. It was hard to describe that texture, like cotton candy that was half-melted, with a sticky, viscous feel. Her fist had indeed smashed “Yu’s” body to pieces. But after those black dots scattered like an ant colony, they quickly regrouped.
This thing couldn’t be killed.
No matter how many times she used her fists to scatter this demon beast, it didn’t affect it at all. This was too frustrating.
Zanxing sat down against the cave wall. The original story didn’t have specific descriptions of this demon beast either—most of the writing was devoted to describing the protagonist’s cultivation process. So much so that even now, she didn’t know this thing’s weakness.
Was there no weakness?
Zanxing lowered her head to look at the ground. On the ground, the wind coming from the water curtain side made her shadow sway slightly.
“Good thing you can’t see my shadow in the water,” Zanxing murmured to herself. While people could dodge the sand shot from the demon beast’s mouth, having one’s shadow also precisely avoid it would be rather difficult.
Wait, shadow?
This demon beast liked to shoot at others’ shadows—did it… have no shadow?
As the thought flashed through her mind, Zanxing turned around, putting her head close to the stone crack’s edge to look outside. Underwater, the demon beast’s blurred body occasionally swept by.
If it were in the past, this would be hard to see clearly, but probably because of the Xiaoyuan Pearl, she could sense even minute details. Therefore, she also saw hanging beneath “Yu,” like a tail, a small black shadow.
This black shadow was different from “Yu’s” body—darker in color and appearing more solid. It wasn’t large, only about palm-sized. At first glance, it was easily overlooked, but looking carefully, one could see the difference.
Was this “Yu’s” shadow?
If so, this demon beast was too cunning. Its main body looked as illusory as a shadow, while its shadow looked particularly solid instead. The demon beast “Yu” liked to hide in water with “innuendo attacks.” If the shadow was this demon beast’s weakness, she wondered if she could deal with it.
But… Zanxing looked at her injured hand. If this shadow was also like the main body just now, dissipating the moment her hand touched it, then regrouping afterward, what should she do? Besides, there was nothing else here that could be used as a weapon.
She couldn’t throw sand, could she?
The demon beast threw sand at her, and she threw sand at the demon beast—what was this, elementary school chicken fights?
However, the sand in the cave was much better than the black sludge “Yu” spat out. At least it didn’t have that vomit-like fishy smell and looked quite clean and dry. Zanxing crouched on the ground, grabbed a handful of sand, and watched it leak through her fingers when she suddenly thought of something.
The stone crack was right in front of it. Though the demon beast was large, it was ultimately a pixelated mass that could freely change length, width, roundness, and flatness. To say it could slip through the stone crack wasn’t impossible. Yet the cave inside the stone crack and the water curtain outside were two distinctly separate worlds. At first, she thought it was because of the Xiaoyuan Pearl, but during the fight with the demon beast just now, the demon beast didn’t show any signs of fear. If it wasn’t because of the Xiaoyuan Pearl, then in this cave, there were only these white sand grains.
Could it be that “Yu” didn’t dare come over because it was wary of these sand particles?
She kept a few sand grains on her fingertip, brought her hand close to the stone crack, and when that demon beast swept by, suddenly flicked them toward that small black shadow.
During the fight with the demon beast just now, Zanxing had discovered that her eyes could now seemingly see a kind of “qi” emanating from her body. As long as she was willing, she could manipulate this “qi.”
Now, this “qi” carried the sand grains toward that black shadow, accurately hitting the center.
A harsh, unpleasant scream rang out, accompanied by the demon beast’s violent thrashing. The splashing water stirred up water winds that nearly knocked over Zanxing, who was crouching by the stone crack, observing.
She felt confident now. Spitting once, she dug up a large clump of white sand from the ground, formed it into a sand ball, squeezed out of the stone crack, charged toward that demon beast that seemed to be having an epileptic fit, and like throwing a snowball, hurled the sand ball into that small patch of shadow that seemed to have come alive.
In an instant, a water column shot skyward, and the underwater area began shaking violently.
…
At the water ravine’s edge, the water surface was calm and waveless. An oriole in the tree called twice, tilting its head to look at the person crouching by the stream.
The little maid crouched by the water’s edge, with large tears falling to the ground.
Behind her, the elderly carriage driver sighed and called out: “Hong Su, come over here—it’s dangerous there.”
“Miss hasn’t come out yet,” Hong Su wiped her eyes with teary, blurred vision: “I can’t leave.”
“Miss won’t come out.” The carriage driver’s expression was sorrowful. “It’s already been six days. Even if she wasn’t killed by the demon beast, she would have already…”
Living people couldn’t stay underwater for six days. The Wang family’s carriage had already left; only the two Yang family servants stubbornly remained here. But everyone knew it was impossible.
Hong Su couldn’t help but cover her face and sob: “Miss… Miss is gone!”
Just as she was crying with hiccups, suddenly a familiar voice rang out.
“Excuse me, um…”
Hong Su froze, lowered her hands, and saw by the stream’s edge a young woman in green robes looking at her curiously. Her dress was stained with large patches of black sludge, emitting a fishy smell. A ray of sunlight fell on her, and those eyes were as bright as before, with the corners of her mouth slightly upturned, seeming somewhat puzzled yet concerned.
She said: “You’re sitting so close to the water’s edge—aren’t you afraid of being taken away by monsters?”