CH 23

All the boats in the village are parked in one place. Since the best boats are used for sacrifices, the boats that are left are small boats that can seat 5 or 6 people. As usual, the villager only brought them to the boat and left without saying anything.

The group picked a boat that looked relatively sturdy and went on board together. Originally Wen Lang is going to go into the water, but he was injured badly last night. Although his condition seems to be much better now, no one plans to let him go. Qin Tan thought of going to go alone, but Lou Fan rejected his decision.

"Your swimming skill is just average, I can go down alone." Qin Tan said.

Lou Fan glared at Qin Tan and said, "Who said that my skill is average? Anyway, you can't go alone. Even if you go down by yourselves, I will follow you after that. They can't stop me."

Since Lou Fan refused to give up, Qin Tan couldn't help but let him follow. In his heart, he thought to himself, you(LF) obviously said it yourself that your skill is average but you won’t admit it.

"You must follow behind me and also not be allowed to swim in front of me." Qin Tan reminded Lou Fan.

Lou Fan nodded, "You sounded like an old man."

Although Lou Fan complained, Lou Fan obediently tied the rope around his waist, and the other 5 people will be waiting on the boat. There are ropes tied on both of them so that the people on the boat can help to pull it when they are in danger.

Closing his eyes and swallowing the little pearl, Lou Fan took a deep breath and jumped into the water. The cold lake water surrounded him from all directions, and Lou Fan couldn't help but shiver. Qin Tan put on the swimming goggles and gestured to him before plunging into the water. Lou Fan nodded at the people on the boat and then plunged in.

Lou Fan doesn’t know how the little pearl works but it could really allow him to breathe freely in the water. Lou Fan found it very novel. At first, the cold lake water made Lou Fan very uncomfortable, but after getting used to it, it seemed that even the cold didn't exist anymore. The view in the lake is dim. At first, there is still a little light but it dimmed as they went down. Qin Tan turned on the flashlight strapped to his arm and Lou Fan turned on his as well, 2 beams of light dispersed the surrounding darkness.

The surroundings are silent, and the presence of Qin Tan in front of him makes Lou Fan feel much more at ease. Qin Tan would swim for a while and turned his head back to look at Lou Fan. Lou Fan will wave his hand to let him continue. There is also a rope tied between them so Qin Tan couldn't lose him.

Groups of black shadows appeared in their line of sight, like giant beasts dormant in the water. Lou Fan estimated that they should be more than 10 or 20 meters underwater at this moment. The water pressure is a bit heavy. Although breathing is still smooth, the pressure still follows like the shadow, even the light of the flashlight has become shorter.

Just as Lou Fan is thinking, Qin Tan suddenly grabbed his hand and turned off the flashlight. Lou Fan looked forward, and his scalp turned numb — a row of light bulb-like eyes opened below, emitting a faint green light in the depths of the lake. Lou Fan clutched Qin Tan's hand tightly, not daring to move - he just saw some of the fish monsters coming towards them.

And Lou Fan didn’t see it wrongly. The fish monsters swam close to the two of them. Lou Fan thinks that he can even feel them right in front of them. Unfortunately, he can't see the monsters and can only try to feel them with his eyes open. He subconsciously held his breath. After a few minutes, Lou Fan searched around and found that the fish monsters have closed their eyes again.

They didn’t get discovered!

Lou Fan squeezed Qin Tan's hand, and the other party squeezed him slightly. Not sure why, it made Lou Fan smile.

Qin Tan turned on the torch and blocked the light with his hand. He pointed the torch upwards, and their surroundings are a little brighter, which is better than nothing. Taking a look around them, Lou Fan realized that their 30 minutes time limit is soon reached so he pointed up. Qin Tan shook his head and pointed down. Lou Fan paused and nodded. Taking out a small pearl from his close-fitting bag, he fed one to Qin Tan and ate one by himself. After that, he nodded to Qin Tan to indicate that he is ready.

As they swam lower, the flashlight can't be used anymore. But then, the sunken ship still cannot be seen so they can only continue downwards. Fortunately, when Qin Tan and Lou Fan almost reached the group of fish monsters, everything is normal and the fish monsters did not open their eyes. After Qin Tan stopped and observed for 2 minutes, he grabbed Lou Fan's hand again. Retracting the flashlight into his sleeve, Qin Tan pulled Lou Fan to swim through the group of fish monsters under the faint light. The light of the flashlight did not attract the attention of the fish monsters, and the two carefully passed through the group of fish monsters that seemed to be sleeping. Lou Fan grasped Qin Tan's hand tightly as one would to a life-saving straw. He shivered slightly, and Qin Tan gripped his hand hard. Just like that, Lou Fan suddenly settled down, and his heart stopped panicking. He grasped Qin Tan's hand tightly again, but no longer trembling.

Continuing down, the fish monster group is like a layer of duckweed floating in the water. After passing through them, Qin Tan tentatively slides the flashlight out. Fortunately, there aren’t any fish monsters below, just a vast underwater world. Lou Fan stared hard and found that there seemed to be a huge shadow underneath, and the outline of the shape looked like a ship.

Was it his imagination? Lou Fan looked at Qin Tan questioningly. Qin Tan looked back at him for a while, nodded at him, with a smile on his mouth.

They found it! Lou Fan got excited because they finally found it.

Just when Lou Fan thought Qin Tan will be going down, Qin Tan pulled him around and they started to swim upwards. Since Lou Fan has already come across the fish monsters just now, he could make himself ignore them this time. He just has to be careful to stay away from them.

When the two resurfaced, Lou Fan looked at the time. This trip took almost an hour, not to mention that they only saw the outline of the ship, and don't know how far it would be. It seems that they need to prepare more of the little pearls in case of an emergency. Else, it would be too late to cry over the spilled milk.

Seeing the two popping up, the people on the boat quickly pulled them aboard.

"How about it, did you see it?" Everyone is eager to know.

Lou Fan nodded as he panted.

The five cheered, and even Zhang Xue revealed a happy expression.

After Lou Fan breathed enough, he slowly said, "However, we have to pass through a group of fish monsters and only saw the outline of Shenzhou. It should be at the bottom of the lake."

Chen Shuyang opened his mouth and asked in a daze, "Pass through a group of fish monsters? Brother Lou, you didn't say it clearly or I heard it wrong?"

"You heard that right." Qin Tan replied while squeezing the water from his clothes. "Below the lake is a group of fish monsters. After passing through them, some distance down is the shipwreck. So, we will have to collect more pearls after we go back. Also, we need to prepare lighting tools. The bottom is very dark. When we got to the sunken ship, we can collect items from there, but there is no way to proceed without lighting."

Lou Fan walked out from behind the curtain pulled up by Chen Shuyang and Wen Lang, he had changed into dry clothes. "If you don't want to take anything from the sunken ship, you don't have to go. But Qin Tan and I will definitely go."

Wen Lang knows that these three people are rich (point-wise), and of course, he also knows from the grapevine that the things brought back from the mission world can be exchanged for a lot of things. This time, he finally met good partners who are willing to take him along to find treasures. Naturally, he couldn't ask for more, and immediately said he wanted to go. Zhang Xue as well, although she is independent, she is indeed poor. Even the food she has is the cheapest compressed biscuits. Hence, she did not hesitate to follow along.

The team of 5 people reached an agreement and rowed the boat back to shore. After their boating session, the time is now approaching dusk. They returned to the hut to fill up their stomach, take a short rest and then they will start fighting again. Lin Man Man and Gong Yi took the initiative to guard the first half of the night and let the 5 rest until 12.00 am

The battle that night is still a bitter battle, and the number of fish monsters is also increasing; their numbers are very dense. All 5 of them inevitably got injured. They retreated to the entrance of the village so that whenever they could not beat the monsters, they will go into the village. Fortunately, in the beginning, Qin Tan and Lou Fan cooperated very well and killed some of them fast. After that, they are just racing against time and switching shifts, even Qin Tan felt extremely tired.

The sound of the bell from a distance is like the sound of heaven. Lou Fan panted and watched as the fish monsters returned to the lake. They looked a little reluctant to go back. At this moment, he is very grateful that his arrows are endless. Otherwise, just relying on Qin Tan to get the little pearls, it would already be fortunate that they managed to get 3 pearls for each of them. However, right now, Lou Fan looked at the corpses of fish monsters piled up on the shore of the lake, and smiled like a kind aunt - they are all small pearls in his eyes!

Lin Man Man and Gong Yi got persuaded by the team to sleep while the five of them started digging small pearls non-stop. Finally, their spoils are around 30 pearls. Lou Fan felt that something seemed wrong, like does every fish monster have one now? He clearly remembered that the possibility to find a pearl is 1 out of 2 fish monsters. It's a pity that his tight nerves have relaxed so Lou Fan is reluctant to bother thinking too much about it. After tidying up, the five of them went back to the hut and fell asleep.

…

"Brother Lou, Brother Lou!"

Lin Man Man's voice came from outside and it woke Lou Fan up. The rest of the team are still sleeping, even Qin Tan hadn't woken up yet. Lin Man Man came in and called for Lou Fan, "Brother Lou, quickly come out."

Lou Fan got up and walked out, holding toiletries in his hand. No matter how sloppy he is, he still has to wash.

"What's the matter? You sounded so anxious." Lou Fan asked as he went out.

Lin Man Man glanced around, and whispered, "Shang Hu and the others are discussing an escape plan, and I followed them."

Lou Fan immediately gave a thumbs up, "Not bad, amazing!"

Lin Man Man smiled and continued, "They planned to escape on the day of the sacrifice. They have it all planned."

Lou Fan suddenly thought of the little boy and asked, "Just the 4 of them? What about Sun Hai? Will they take him along?"

Lin Man Man nodded, "Yes, they said they will go to Lao Ye Temple to find Sun Hai first, and then stayed at Lao Ye Temple temporarily. The villagers are afraid to go to Lao Ye Temple and would not go there to find them."

Lou Fan puzzledly asked, "Why don't they dare to go to Lao Ye Temple?"

Lin Man Man shook her head, "They didn't say much about that. I just went there to listen, or more correctly, I was eavesdropping on the side."

Lou Fan thought for a few seconds, "Is it because of the monster outside Lao Ye Temple?"

Although they didn't see the monster with their own eyes, but from the pitiful screams from the Black Scorpion members, they could imagine how terrible the monsters are.

Lin Man Man: "Brother Lou, don't care why they don’t dare to go. The point is the group will take Sun Hai with them anyway. They are safe at Lao Ye Temple."

That’s right! Lou Fan felt that he is a little too worried about Sun Hai. If they hid in the Lao Ye Temple’s Buddha statue, even if the whole village went there, they might not be able to find the children.

Since the children are going to escape on the day of the sacrifice, how can the people of the Black Scorpion team complete their mission? And where are they now? Lou Fan thought to himself if he has the task of saving the 5 people, how likely would he be able to complete this task?