Chapter 10: Battling a Giant Fish in the Water

Depending on his strong swimming skills, Lao Yang had already waded ahead into the water, swimming toward the steps.

Seeing this, Wu Xiexie let go and jumped in as well. The water instantly surged up to his chest, giving him a start, but fortunately, his feet managed to grope and touch the solid stone bottom.

"Damn it!" Wu Xiexie shivered. "This water is bloody freezing."

The bone-chilling cold bore straight into the marrow of his bones.

"Muyu, come on down," Wu Xiexie called out, looking up at Zhang Muxun, who was dangling near the cave opening. "There should be a flat stone slab underneath here. You can just wade across."

"Alright."

Zhang Muxun acknowledged, pinpointing the direction. With a flex of his waist, he leaped forward, landing about a meter in front of Wu Xiexie.

With a heavy splash, countless droplets flew into the air.

The moment he made contact with the water, Zhang Muxun instinctively wanted to curl up his limbs. It was truly freezing; the icy chill penetrated his military boots, creeping straight up his shins from the soles of his feet.

Resisting the discomfort, he switched on his flashlight and forged ahead a dozen steps.

On the rock wall beside the steps ahead, a low stone door appeared. One had to duck through it, all while guarding against the foul water splashing into one's mouth.

It was utterly wretched.

Lao Yang had already ducked through ahead of him, bent low.

Zhang Muxun swept his flashlight beam into the interior. Inside the stone door lay a corridor, pitch black, with its sides completely lined with crudely chiseled grayish-white rock walls.

He looked back and warned Wu Xiexie, "Be careful. There might be some danger inside."

Knowing full well that a carnivorous taimen conjured by Lao Yang's imagination lurked within, Zhang Muxun gave Wu Xiexie a preemptive heads-up.

Wu Xiexie nodded, drawing the dagger Zhang Muxun had given him earlier from his waist. With the blade in one hand and the flashlight in the other, he followed Zhang Muxun through the low stone door.

After advancing another dozen meters or so, a right-angled turn appeared before them.

Seeing how deep and dark the passage ahead was, Lao Yang felt a sudden twitch of unease in his heart.

"You guys don't suppose there's some huge monster in this water, do you...?" Lao Yang's scalp tingled with tension as he made a nervous, random guess.

"Spit, spit, spit!" Wu Xiexie scolded him. "What kind of nonsense are you babbling? This is just a man-made stone cave, where would there be any monsters? Stop trying to scare yourself."

Just as he was speaking, a few muffled splashes suddenly echoed from the turning stone passage, bouncing off the rock walls and reverberating clearly into the ears of the three men.

A massive triangular dorsal fin broke the water's surface, cruising stealthily in their direction.

"Damn!" Wu Xiexie cursed. "Lao Yang, you jinx!"

Lao Yang cried out in aggrieved grievance, "How was I... h-how was I supposed to know there'd really be something in this water..."

"Shut up!" Zhang Muxun snapped impatiently, cutting off his stuttering.

Lao Yang instantly fell silent, not daring to let out even a squeak.

Because the aura emanating from Zhang Muxun was far too murderous—even though he knew full well that this killing intent was directed solely at the unknown creature in the water—he wisely chose to keep his mouth shut.

Wu Xiexie swallowed hard with tension. "Muyu, what do we do? Are we going to fight it?"

"No need." Zhang Muxun's eyes saw just as clearly in the dark as they did in broad daylight. He could distinctly make out the shape of the unknown aquatic creature and quickly estimated their relative combat strengths. "I'll stall it in a moment. You and Lao Yang find an opportunity to get out first, as far away as possible."

Hearing this, Wu Xiexie grew anxious. Just as he was about to retort, Zhang Muxun cut him off with a curt, "Don't get in my way."

Fine. Having superior combat prowess made one arrogant.

Zhang Muxun took off his backpack and handed it to Wu Xiexie, instructing him to stand far back against the wall. Then, holding his breath, he dove beneath the water and swam straight toward the taimen.

The taimen quickly spotted its prey, flicking its caudal fin to accelerate as it charged forward.

Wu Xiexie and the other watched anxiously from the sidelines, their hearts in their throats.

With his eyes closed, Zhang Muxun sensed the taimen's direction solely through the flow of the water. Suddenly, his movements paused. Planting both feet firmly on the bottom, he crouched low and narrowly dodged out of the way.

The taimen snapped its gaping maw shut with a loud clack, gliding right over the top of its target. Failing to connect on its first strike, it whipped its tail, executed a nimble turn, and came back biting again.

Zhang Muxun ducked down once more to evade it. The instant the fish's belly grazed across the top of his head, a three-edged military dagger equipped with a blood groove materialized in his hand out of thin air. He thrust it upward with all his might, puncturing straight through the taimen's belly with a sickening squelch.

A thick, pungent stench of blood instantly diffused through the water.

Seizing the chance, Lao Yang had already dragged Wu Xiexie away to a stone platform on the other side of the corridor.

Holding his flashlight from afar, Wu Xiexie watched as the patch of water churned like a boiling pot, followed by plumes of blood. Overwhelmed with anxiety, he leaped off the platform to go help, only to be yanked back firmly by Lao Yang.

Lao Yang stammered, "You... y-you already know what M-Muyu-brother is capable of. Even if you g-go over there, you'll just be in the way."

Wu Xiexie knew that Zhang Muxun possessed formidable combat skills, but this was underwater, not on land. Water was the unknown creature's turf; Zhang Muxun would inevitably be restricted in his movements. What if he accidentally got hurt? The water was this foul, meaning it was bound to harbor countless bacteria, carrying a high risk of infection.

As for losing the fight? That was out of the question.

Deep down, Wu Xiexie harbored a blind, unshakeable faith in the combat prowess of both Zhang Muxun and Brother Poker-Face.

Underwater, having successfully landed his first strike, Zhang Muxun gripped the handle of the three-edged dagger with both hands and slashed outward with all his strength along the fish's belly toward its tail.

The taimen's belly ripped open even wider, spilling a portion of its internal organs into the water.

Paralyzed by agony, the taimen let out a muffled, hoarse roar, thrashing its tail and lunging forward with a violent headbutt.

Zhang Muxun was sent sliding a full two meters away by the sheer force of the impact, losing his grip on the weapon, which remained embedded in the taimen's belly. His back slammed hard against the stone wall with a dull thud. Wincing in pain and caught completely off guard, he accidentally swallowed a massive mouthful of foul water, choking him and throwing off his breathing rhythm. He hurriedly thrashed his way to the surface for fresh air, clutching his chest and coughing uncontrollably.

Bent on dragging someone down with it before it died, the enraged taimen lunged recklessly toward the surface with its jaws agape the moment Zhang Muxun broke through the water.

Having been winded by the earlier choking, Zhang Muxun was somewhat drained of strength and could only tuck his head in, dodging desperately to the side.

At the critical, hair-trigger moment, the taimen's head was knocked askew by a flying backpack, brushing past Zhang Muxun's cheek by a hair's breadth.

Swinging the backpack for a follow-up blow, Wu Xiexie relentlessly hammered the taimen until it couldn't surface again. Only then did he catch his breath, staring vigilantly at the water as he wheezed, "Muyu, are you alright? Are you hurt?"

Coughing so hard he couldn't form a complete sentence, Zhang Muxun wheezed, "Cough, cough... I'm... cough... fine."

Supporting Zhang Muxun by the arm, Wu Xiexie swiftly dragged him away from the spot and helped him climb up onto the stone platform.

A massive splash erupted behind them, showering both of them in foul water. The taimen pursued them relentlessly, unwilling to quit, but the more it thrashed, the more blood it lost. Ultimately, it beached itself on the shore, its massive fish body twitching a few times before its dead eyes rolled upward into a blank white stare, falling utterly still.