Chapter 35

Chapter 35

“Junior brother… what wind has brought you here?”

Seeing Li Xiaobai behind him, Liu Jinshui felt very embarrassed; he had finally managed to trick someone, but it seemed he had even tricked his junior brother.

“Hehe, naturally it was the distress signal from senior brother that summoned junior brother here,” Li Xiaobai said with a chuckle.

“When did junior brother arrive, and why didn’t you give senior brother a heads up?” Liu Jinshui asked.

“Senior brother is a busy man; junior brother didn’t want to disturb his important affairs, and deliberately watched from beginning to end. I must say, senior brother’s talent is rare in this world.”

Li Xiaobai expressed his admiration; his sixth senior brother was truly talented, able to come up with such tricks.

“Junior brother flatters me too much; this world is full of wonders and marvels, which are mostly located in forbidden areas and perilous lands, visible but unreachable. Senior brother is simply helping them fulfill a dream of treasure hunting,” Liu Jinshui spoke with conviction.

“Senior brother’s broad-mindedness is admirable; junior brother also wishes to contribute a modest effort to the dreams of mankind.”

Li Xiaobai gazed eagerly at Liu Jinshui.

“How much ‘modest effort’ does junior brother wish to contribute?”

“Fifty-fifty?”

“Twenty-eight?”

“Thirty-seven?”

“Deal!”

Li Xiaobai’s expression darkened. Dammit, he had said too little.

Indeed, senior brother was one step ahead; there was still so much more for him to learn.

Following Liu Jinshui to the river’s edge, the water surface at this moment was covered with thousands of layers of waves, clearly indicating that a fierce battle was unfolding beneath.

“Senior brother, is there really a treasure underwater?”

“Hehe, the only thing placed by senior brother down there is a Soul-Bewitching Array; those so-called flashes of golden light are nothing but illusions,” he said with a sly laugh.

“Brilliant!”

…

At the same time, in the underwater world.

It had already turned into complete chaos here, and after entering the water, everyone failed to spot the alleged Demonic Beast Dragon Turtle but instead saw a golden array at the bottom of the water immediately.

This array, with its brilliant halo and intense golden radiance, was the source of the extraordinary phenomenon piercing through the water surface.

At the center of the array was a Treasure Box, and evidently, this was the treasure.

The cultivator who had talked with the fat man earlier had a flush face and was panting heavily; he was the first to reach the bottom, and the treasure was right before his eyes, within arm’s reach.

Like being bewitched by some magic, his gaze was fixed on the Treasure Box, and his hand involuntarily reached out for it.

The moment his fingers touched the Treasure Box, a ‘Plop’ sound was heard.

The world spun before his eyes, and he saw a headless corpse slowly collapsing to the floor, his own body…

Underwater, the multitude of cultivators confirmed two things: first, the Demonic Beast Dragon Turtle was not at the bottom of the water; second, the array surrounding the Treasure Box was not dangerous and would not attack anyone entering it, meaning anyone could reach for the Treasure Box inside.

They temporarily set aside the matter of the Dragon Turtle.

What the people now needed to do was not compete for the Treasure Box but prevent others from getting to it first.

And so, the underwater battle began.

With the treasure within reach, everyone was seeing red, eager to survive till the end and retrieve the Treasure Box; but as such desires intensified, the number of deaths increased.

The Golden Core Stage cultivators went on a rampage, killing frenziedly, not distinguishing friend from foe, hurling various Cultivation Techniques and moves forward with reckless abandon. Soon, the bottom was littered with corpses, and the blood dyed the entire water area a bright red color.

Several minutes later,

Only a dozen or so high-level Golden Core Stage experts remained alive underwater, all severely injured; this kind of desperate combat was a case of destroying a thousand enemies while losing eight hundred of their own.

But at that moment, an anomaly suddenly emerged; the golden array at the bottom of the water started to tremble violently, emitting layers of pale yellow light that spread outward.

A faint golden illusion hovered over the water.

“What is this?”

The surviving experts felt something strange with the ripples; they did not sense any threat coming from the undulations of this array.

“`

“It must be just an illusion created by the formation, it doesn’t have any offensive power.”

“No, why do I feel a bit dizzy?”

“You have that feeling too?”

“Damn it, I’ve been feeling dizzy since early this morning, thought I was the only one sick!”

“No, it’s this formation that’s screwing with us, it’s a kind of hypnotic formation, damn it, we’ve been tricked!”

“It must have been that damn fatso from earlier, definitely him!”

“No need to ask, this treasure is fake too, hurry to the surface!”

“…”

Everyone grew alert and tried to swim upwards, but alas, the more they swam, the heavier their bodies felt, as if they were filled with lead.

The harder they tried, the faster they sank.

Before long, the remaining dozen or so Golden Core Stage experts had their eyes glassy, lying disoriented under the water.

Through their blurred vision, they saw two figures slowly approaching, one fat and one skinny.

“Senior brother, your trick is just brilliant, I admire you so much, but isn’t this method a bit against the harmony of heaven? So many people have died underwater, won’t people hold us accountable afterwards?”

Li Xiaobai looked at the scene underwater, heart pounding with fear.

He had always heard that people who die underwater don’t sink, but float upside-down with their heads down and their feet up, and now he saw that it was indeed so.

It looked eerily unsettling.

“What’s the worry? These people were killed by their own greed. If they weren’t so obsessed with the treasure, how could they fall for such a simple trap?”

“Don’t worry, junior brother, senior brother is quite experienced in this business, there won’t be any problems.”

Liu Jinshui said cheerfully, beginning to loot the bodies underwater.

The treasure box was entirely empty to start with, and if anyone had bothered to check, this trap would have failed, but these cultivators had to be clever and kill each other first, truly the epitome of stupidity.

Li Xiaobai hurried to follow suit, looting the bodies one by one. It had to be said, the sect disciples who could enter the inner circle had quite a bit of loot on them.

Just in Spirit Stones alone, they looted no less than a few thousand pieces.

Among them were even some medium-grade Spirit Stones.

Spiritual Artifacts and Elixirs were too numerous to count.

It was just a pity they didn’t find any higher-grade Spiritual Treasures. If they could have gotten one like the one in the hands of the senior sister, that would have been really awesome.

The Golden Core Stage cultivators, who had fallen into a deep coma, were like fat meat with all their belongings inside their Space Rings. Liu Jinshui swiftly took away their rings without any intent to kill and silence them.

As he put it, he only swindled treasures, not lives.

Back on shore.

The two put out all they had gathered underwater, ready to divide the spoils.

“Junior brother, you’re not being honest, I clearly saw you loot bodies of eleven people, how come there’s only so little stuff?”

“Senior brother, you’re not really speaking the truth either, you almost snatched all the rings from the Golden Core Stage cultivators, how come the loot you’ve laid out is even less than your junior brother’s?”

“Heh heh, the senior brother was a bit muddled for a moment, junior brother, please forgive me.”

“Junior brother also accidentally missed a few rings, please review them, senior brother.”

After a short tally, both Li Xiaobai and Liu Jinshui’s eyes sparkled with surprise, the haul was much larger than they had anticipated.

One hundred and ten stalks of Spiritual Medicine.

Over three hundred bottles of Elixirs.

More than seventy inner cores of Demonic Beasts.

Twenty-one bundles of lower-grade Spirit Stones, five medium-grade Spiritual Artifacts.

“Junior brother, are we rich now?”

“Senior brother, we are indeed rich!”