Chapter 1 .，!

As he plunged into the water, Fang Senyan aimed for the fish's gills, but the frigid lake numbed his hand. Shaking, he only managed to grab the fish's body. Though he pulled it from the water, the fish was incredibly strong and its scales were slick. It thrashed its tail violently, on the verge of escaping.

Without hesitation, Fang Senyan reached out with his other hand and clamped down on the fish's gills. Despite falling into the water, despite the fish's violent tremors, despite its struggles, despite the water choking him, Fang Senyan's hand remained locked onto the fish's gills, refusing to budge!

Fortunately, Fang Senyan possessed immense strength. Though the strange fish unleashed tremendous power in its struggles, it couldn't compete. Eventually, its strength waned. Fang Senyan flung it onto the shore with force, then scrambled out of the water himself. The lake water was so cold that he felt faint and nearly lost consciousness. He huddled around the fire, shivering like a candle in the wind, and it took a long while to recover.

Hungry and freezing, the two decided to gut the fish and eat it. However, upon closer inspection, they froze, a chilling dread rising from their spines.

The fish pulled from the water had a grotesque face. Even stranger, its eyes glowed with a malicious, cursed light, staring intently at the two of them! It was as if it possessed human nature.

Fang Senyan had made his living on fishing boats, where the fish caught were measured in "tons," not "numbers." He had never encountered, or even heard of, such a bizarre fish!

Two green glints suddenly appeared in Fang Senyan's eyes, bringing to mind an emaciated wolf. He cursed, grabbed the salvaged axe, and swung it down with all his might, severing the strange fish's head in a direct act of retaliation!

After killing the fish, Fang Senyan naturally proceeded with a practiced efficiency: gutting it and scaling it. Fortunately, Fang Senyan had observed Mogansha, a survival expert, and imitated his actions. He tossed the entrails into the water, made seven or eight cuts across the fish's body, and carefully washed away the blood from the muscles with water. This would remove most of the poison, even if there was any. Then, he placed it over the fire to roast.

The fish was fatty, and even without seasoning, it sizzled and dripped oil. After blowing away the surface ash, the fish meat was exceptionally white, steaming hot, and looked quite appetizing. But after Reef took a bite, he almost threw up immediately. The fish meat had an indescribable sour, fishy taste. However, after determining that the fish was not poisonous, they pinched their noses and ate their only meal.

One fish was not enough to satisfy two ravenous gluttons, but at least it put something in their empty stomachs. Their strength also recovered somewhat with rest and food. Fang Senyan warmed his hands over the campfire and suddenly said in a deep voice, looking at the dark lake, "We're going to swim across."

Reef hesitated. "Let's wait until dawn."

Fang Senyan slowly shook his head. "This damn place is strange. The sooner we leave, the better."

"But…" Reef was brave, but he looked at the dark, deep lake with hesitation.

He could swim, and with his abilities as a Contractor, his stamina for swimming should be no problem. But swimming in such darkness was a first for him. Besides, there was that incredibly strange fish with a human face in the lake? Fang Senyan pondered for a moment, then said seriously, "We must reach the other side of the lake before dawn."

Reef was stunned. Fang Senyan said, word by word, "We entered this pine forest during the day when there was sunlight. As a result, after a while, we were all poisoned! We experienced extremely strong hallucinations. Even the strong orcs who lived nearby for a long time couldn't escape. But now that we've woken up, we've been in the pine forest for a long time, but there's no sign of poisoning."

"If the cursed power here is continuously released, then the degree of our poisoning should be continuously deepening. It's impossible for us to wake up at night. So, this cursed power is likely released intermittently according to some pattern... The last cycle was release during the day and disappearance at night."

"Therefore, we must leave this damn place before dawn. Otherwise, we won't be lucky enough to be tied up this time. We'll just be waiting to die here!"

After exercising, the two broke off the trunks of two pine trees and threw them into the water as life preservers, then jumped in. The water in the lake was quite cold. Fortunately, the two had warmed up before going into the water, otherwise they might have started shivering immediately.

Even though Fang Senyan had to carry the elf girl, his swimming skills were quite good. Plus, with the tree trunks to support and provide buoyancy, it didn't take too much effort.

Everything was quiet, except for the sound of feet moving through the cold lake water. Both were afraid that speaking would attract some monster. They also didn't dare to talk. The darkness all around seemed to be completely impenetrable.

After entering the water, Reef noticed that there was a faint green light on Fang Senyan and the elf girl's bodies. The elf girl's was probably the overflow of natural power, while Fang Senyan's was probably the blessing of the dawn elf taking effect. Under the illumination of that little bit of green light, although they could clearly feel something ribbon-like moving mysteriously and quickly underwater, the three did not encounter any danger.

However, after swimming for quite a while, Fang

Senyan suddenly felt something was wrong. He lowered his voice and said to Reef, "Have you noticed that the water has gotten a bit warmer?"

Reef was about to speak when he suddenly noticed two condensed green lights in the water next to him, rapidly approaching. In such a strange and dark environment, his whole body had been in a state of alert. At the sight of this strange phenomenon, he instinctively activated his light saber and slashed it out!

Reef's attack power in close combat was already quite good. With this slash, he immediately hit the target. A faint green glow quickly spread in the water, even illuminating Fang Senyan's face with a faint green tint. Clearly, the creature in the water had been severely injured. Its blood also contained a fluorescent component, thus forming this bizarre scene.

However, as the blood spread, the little green lights around became more and more numerous. Clearly, the creatures in the lake were attracted by the smell of blood and gathered one after another. Under the illumination of those little green lights, it could be vaguely seen that the creatures gathering were grotesque fish, similar to the strange fish that had been eaten before. The wounded strange fish kept bleeding green fluorescent blood from its wound, and its kind rushed forward to devour it, stirring up the lake water as if it were boiling.

Although Senyan and the others took the opportunity to swim away quickly, they were still chased by several persistent strange fish and were eventually bitten when they were not agile enough underwater.

The teeth of these strange fish were quite sharp. Once they bit, they left a bizarre wound, and a large piece of flesh was torn off. Fang Senyan and the others felt an intense numbness and itchiness in their wounds, and they were also extremely cold. It was as if a cold air was penetrating their bones from the wounds, almost completely numbing half of their bodies.

Fortunately, Reef's talent had the attribute of resisting abnormal states, and Fang Senyan had also received the blessing of the dawn elf, and his body naturally had resistance. Therefore, the cold air in his body raged for a while before gradually disappearing, and the blood also gradually stopped.

The two swam forward while fending off the frenzied attacks of the strange fish. Just as they were running for their lives, they realized that these strange fish seemed to have lost their desire to attack and gradually swam away. Fang Senyan looked up and realized that a glimmer of dawn was appearing on the horizon. A chill immediately surged in his heart, and he didn't even have time to deal with his injuries before frantically swimming forward. "The only reason why the strange fish would abandon their food and flee is because dawn is approaching, and a more terrifying threat is about to appear. Even these ferocious strange fish that devour their own kind have to retreat!"

Shadowy, undulating black shapes finally appeared on the distant lake, but they were not clear in the faint morning light. The two, finally seeing the hope of landing, mustered their last strength and swam desperately, finally reaching the shore of the lake. However, despair enveloped their hearts.

Because as far as the eye could see, the surrounding lake shores were all steep and smooth cliffs. Although the height of the cliffs varied, the lowest point was at least two stories high. If no one was there to meet them from above, then it would be impossible to climb up by hand!

After swimming here, Fang Senyan realized that the lake water was becoming increasingly warm. Despite facing such a despairing reality, they still did not give up and tried to swim upwards along the lake shore, trying to find a low place where they could successfully land.

However, just as the two were about to exhaust themselves, a black line appeared hanging down from the cliff in front of them. The two quickly swam over and discovered that it was a rope ladder that could be climbed!

In that instant, a thousand thoughts raced through Fang Senyan's mind, but he did not hesitate. Instead, he carried the Wu Ge (pinyin) girl on his back and took the lead in climbing the rope ladder up the cliff.