Behind the two, a water spout as thick as a car was rapidly approaching them.
The clear, azure lake water was whipped into the sky by the tornado, reflecting rainbow-like brilliance under the sunlight.
It looked beautiful and magnificent.
But it struck blue Ying with soul-stirring fear, her eyes filled with terror, stammering, "This is a water spout unique to our West Sea..."
"We're dead for sure this time!"
Legend says the West Sea is the gate to heaven.
Every year, the Pillars of Heaven appear several times. The so-called Pillars of Heaven refer to these water spouts.
One end in the lake, the other piercing the clouds.
Appearing suddenly, vanishing just as suddenly.
But wherever it passes, nothing remains intact. There have been many records of fishing boats encountering water spouts in the lake before.
None survived.
Imagine, if a person is sucked into such high-speed swirling wind, blown hundreds or thousands of meters into the sky.
Then, when the wind stops, they fall. Would they live?
Even the water surface would be splattered into a pulp due to the powerful counter-force.
"Hold on tight!" Li Chonglou roared, pulling Lan Ying to his side, then using his oversized down jacket as a float and fastening rope, wrapping the two of them inside and tying a dead knot around their waists.
Running was impossible.
The speed of the water spout was immeasurably faster than their two exhausted bodies.
Resigning themselves to fate was the only option.
Lan Ying obediently wrapped her arms around Li Chonglou's neck, hugging him tightly.
Facing this terrifying natural force, the fear of death spread through her heart.
But the sudden intimate contact, and the male pheromones emanating from Li Chonglou, surprisingly calmed her heart.
"Are we going to die?"
"Actually, it's not bad like this. At least I won't die alone. With him accompanying me, I can go to meet my parents in the underworld."
"I just don't know if my godfather is still alive..."
"Li Chonglou, I never expected that I, Lan Ying, who has always been proud and aloof, would die with you in the end."
While Lan Ying's mind was filled with fleeting thoughts,
Li Chonglou's brain was working at high speed, thinking of ways to escape death.
Unfortunately, the water spout did not give him enough time or opportunity.
Swish!
A gust of wind carrying water waves struck them, and the two were directly pulled from the water by the powerful suction.
Li Chonglou heard Lan Ying's screams, felt dizzy and disoriented, enveloped by a violent sense of weightlessness.
It felt as if they had gained complete freedom, flying in the air.
Soaring higher and higher.
Once accustomed to this feeling, it wasn't unbearable. The wind speed of the water spout was far from enough to tear a living person to shreds.
The reason they were lifted into the air was because water was also being swirled within.
But the real danger was not in the process, but the ending.
No one knew when this Pillar of Heaven would break. Once it disappeared, they would lose the support of the wind and fall to their deaths as pulp.
"Li... Chong... Lou... do you regret it?" Lan Ying's fear had also vanished, and she shouted with all her might.
Although her mouth was by his ear, due to the vibration and roar of the wind, speaking required a desperate effort.
Hearing this, Li Chonglou smiled with a sense of relief.
Regret?
What was there to regret?
He had been reborn to make amends for his regrets; that was already incredibly fortunate.
His mother was still alive, his wife had not been harmed, and his master and senior sister were all well. What else could he regret?
He had come to avenge his master, and now his great revenge was complete. What regret was there?
If anything, his only regret was bringing Xu Lie with him.
Up to now, there was no trace of him, and he might have already met his demise.
Human strength truly meant nothing in the face of the immense power and oppression of nature.
What was the difference between being unable to even lift a chicken and being at the third level of Qi Movement?
At least, in front of this Pillar of Heaven water spout, they were equally frail and helpless.
But not regretting did not mean he was willing to die.
The two ascended higher and higher, but trapped within the swirling wind, constantly shifting, they could not see the outside world clearly.
Otherwise, it might have been a beautiful sight before death.
It was only at this moment that Li Chonglou finally understood what his master meant by a great tribulation.
It was not Liu Zhibo, nor the Qiang King's tomb underground, nor the river channel.
But this truly irresistible force of nature.
Everything in this world was filled with variables, and the only constant was constant change.
They thought they had escaped the underground river through great hardship and could return safely.
Who would have thought they would encounter such a natural wonder as the West Sea Pillar of Heaven?
Besides divine destiny, what else could there be to say?
The water spout continued to move, carrying the two of them and a large number of cold fish, spreading wider and wider.
But the wind speed also slowed down.
After reaching a certain height, it no longer lifted them higher.
Li Chonglou and Lan Ying's skin had turned a pale white, and they could both feel each other trembling.
They were already cold, and being blown hundreds of meters into the sky, if they hadn't held onto each other tightly with the down jacket secured, they would have frozen to death.
In this situation, every second was torment.
But all they could do was endure slowly, waiting for the water spout to dissipate and then fall into the West Sea, to be smashed to death.
Death itself was not terrifying.
But waiting for death was truly something that few people could endure.
If not for Li Chonglou's strong will, he would have gone mad by now.
After enduring for a while longer, Lan Ying finally lost her strength, her consciousness dimmed, and she fell into a coma.
Only Li Chonglou was left to face the immensity of heaven and earth.
And the raging wind.
After an unknown period, which felt like half a century,
The wind speed rapidly weakened, and Li Chonglou could clearly feel himself descending.
His heart stirred; he didn't want to await his fate passively.
He tightly gripped Lan Ying, who was unconscious but still holding onto him, with his legs, and spread open the down jacket tied around their waists in an ambiguous posture.
The water on the clothes had already been blown dry by the wind.
Grabbing the edges of the sleeves, it was like a miniature parachute.
This action was impossible when the wind was strong earlier.
Although he didn't know how effective it would be, he decided to try his luck as a last resort.
This action suddenly increased the surface area exposed to the wind, and their path within the water spout instantly changed.
They were slowly pushed towards the eye of the storm.
Only then did he clearly see that the wind was weakest at the eye of the entire water spout.
It was filled with water that had been sucked up, churning continuously.
Weakest did not mean there was no wind, but if they were to be smashed to death after the water spout disappeared, why not try to dive into the water column now and desperately descend?
Li Chonglou did not know if his idea could be realized.
But since it was death anyway, it was worth a try.
Controlling the down jacket with all his might to catch the wind, he finally reached the eye of the storm as desired.
But in the next second, he found that it was not as he had imagined, and he could not sink.
No matter what method he used, he could not descend along the water column.
Just then, the water spout suddenly stopped.
When the wind ceased, the water that had been caught in it poured down like the Milky Way falling to earth, pulled by gravity.
Li Chonglou and Lan Ying, at the top of the water column, were naturally unable to resist and fell with it.
And the down jacket was useless in this situation.
A great sense of unwillingness surged in Li Chonglou's heart: "Ultimately, I couldn't escape the great tribulation my master spoke of..."
"There are still many things I need to do. If I die now, I will never be at peace!"
"Shi Boqiong's whereabouts are unknown, and my father has not been found."
"Heaven, open your eyes!"
His inner roar echoed, the wind from the rapid descent stinging his eyes.
Death was drawing ever closer.
At this moment, Li Chonglou envied Lan Ying. At least she didn't have to live to see herself smashed to death. Sometimes, a strong state of mind wasn't necessarily a good thing.
Anyone with a weak constitution, or who suffered from acrophobia or heart conditions, would have fainted by now.
Why else would he, with a clear consciousness, welcome death like him?
Plop!
As these thoughts crossed his mind, Li Chonglou suddenly felt his body strike an object.
The immense impact made all his bones feel like they were falling apart.
He was then flung up, and fell again.
Flung up again, fell again, repeating this several times.
"Chonglou!" Just as his eyes went black and his consciousness began to fade, he heard the familiar shouts of Xu Lie and Lin Ying.
"Brother Xu? Senior Sister?"
"This must be my hallucination. I guess I've reached hell..."
With this last thought, Li Chonglou could no longer hold on and fell into a coma.
He had a very long dream.
In the dream, in a tomb, a pair of bloody hands rose from a coffin and violently dragged him in.
Boundless darkness enveloped him.
Startled, his body trembled violently, trying to break free from those hands.
"He's awake, Dad... He's awake..." Immediately, Lin Ying's excited voice sounded in his ear.
"It was worth it, it was worth it!" Then came Lin Zhendong's voice, full of relief and laughter.
Xu Lie's deep voice followed, "Chonglou, wake up quickly. I know you can make it through."
Under the calls of the three, Li Chonglou slowly opened his eyes.
A white light gradually broke through the darkness of his vision.
From blurry to clear.
The three faces before him, each with a different expression but all full of concern, finally brought him back to his senses.
"Master, Senior Sister... Brother Xu, I'm not dead?"
As he spoke, his voice was hoarse like scraping a pot, startling even himself.
"You're incredibly lucky. If Senior Sister hadn't rushed here with people in time, you would have been truly dead!" Xu Lie's words were far more numerous than usual.
"What happened? Where is Lan Ying? Is she still alive?" Li Chonglou was completely bewildered.
Under those circumstances, he couldn't imagine how he had survived.
That height, the water surface was like concrete, capable of smashing a person into pulp.
Yet he was unharmed, merely unconscious.
This was simply a miracle.
"Fortunately, she only suffered some fractures in many places. Her bones and sinews are far inferior to yours, after all," Lin Ying nodded and replied, "But the doctors said her life is not in danger."
"President Su is accompanying her now."
These words made Li Chonglou heave a sigh of relief.
"Senior Sister, what exactly happened?" Li Chonglou desperately wanted to know the sequence of events.
Lin Ying glanced at her father and explained, "After you left, my dad was worried. He divined using your bloodstain on the base and learned that your great tribulation originated from the heart of the West Sea."
"So he told me to rush over and save you."
"When I arrived, I saw Xu Lie and Su Yinchuan just swimming ashore."
"Then I saw that enormous water spout and the two of you being blown into the air."
"So..."