Guan Xin had determined our direction, and we resumed our journey.
This time, we needed to find a stream.
We kept walking, the surrounding mist unchanging.
The silence was frightening.
Besides our footsteps, there wasn't even a bird's cry.
As we walked, we suddenly heard a faint sound of water, "Huala la."
Hearing this, everyone stopped, trying to pinpoint the direction.
Xia Qiuxin was the first to identify it, pointing to the front right.
"The sound of water is coming from over there!"
"Good, let's go!"
Yun Xia Gu commanded.
Everyone nodded and started heading towards the front right.
Before long, amidst the mist, we indeed found a wide stream.
It was about ten meters across.
Above the stream, mist swirled, flowing slowly through the woods.
Making a "huahualala" sound.
"It seems our direction is correct; we've found the stream now!" Old Mo said.
Xu Han Chi also nodded.
"Yes, let's not wait any longer. Let's go now! The other teams might have already passed us. We can't let them steal the spotlight. This concerns the honor of our respective sects."
The others all nodded in agreement.
But as I looked at the stream, I furrowed my brow.
"Everyone, don't let your guard down. I think there's something wrong with this stream."
"Something wrong?"
"What's wrong with this stream? There's no Yin Sha Qi on it."
"That's right! I don't see anything wrong, Brother Qin. You're overthinking it!"
"..."
Yun Long, Yun Hu, Xu Han Chi, and the others all spoke up. They didn't take my words seriously at all.
Only Uncle-Master and Yun Xia Gu remained silent, their eyes narrowing slightly.
"Old Qin, what did you notice?"
Although Old Mo couldn't see any issue, having known me for so long, he understood my personality and principles: calm and cautious.
As Old Mo spoke, everyone looked at me.
I responded in a low voice.
"It looks too safe, too normal."
"What? Too safe? Too normal?" Long Hu exclaimed.
The others were astonished.
"Brother Qin, isn't safety a good thing?" Luo Fei countered.
I didn't pay much attention to their reactions, continuing to voice my thoughts.
"Think about it. After we entered, we encountered two malevolent spirits. And when we were coming this way, there was clearly so much Yin Sha Qi. But the closer we got to this stream, the more the Yin Sha Qi disappeared. Logically, water should be a place where Yin Qi gathers more easily. But look, the stream is about ten meters wide. Such a wide stream, apart from the faint common mist, has no ghostly energy at all. I feel it's abnormal, out of place with the surroundings. It's better to be careful. We absolutely cannot recklessly just wade through it..."
I explained my thoughts. Coupled with my previous encounter with a water ghost in the Qingshan River, I knew that encountering malevolent spirits in water was extremely dangerous. Here, especially in this misty forest filled with such entities, I believed that being cautious was not a bad thing.
Upon hearing my explanation, everyone seemed to find it reasonable. The surrounding Yin Sha Qi was so heavy, yet it vanished completely upon reaching this stream? How could this be explained? When there is an anomaly, there must be a cause.
Uncle-Master and Yun Xia Gu, who had been silent for a long time, finally spoke.
"That's right, there is indeed something wrong with this stream. Although I haven't figured out what it is yet," Uncle-Master said.
Yun Xia Gu, however, said sternly, "Brother Tang, look closely at the stream."
Look at the stream? Everyone was a bit confused but widened their eyes and peered at the water.
White mist curled above the stream, flowing slowly downstream. Not fast, not slow. After watching for a while, they saw nothing unusual.
"Aunt-Master, the stream seems fine?"
"Master, I don't see anything unusual about the stream either?" Xu Han Chi and Xia Qiuxin both asked.
Most of the group didn't understand. Old Mo also nudged me.
"Old Qin, did you figure it out?"
I hadn't noticed anything initially, but Old Mo's nudge jolted me. When I looked at the stream again, my heart tightened. I said with some surprise.
"Yun Xia Gu, are the ripples on the stream repeating?"
"Brother Qin, repeating ripples are normal, aren't they?"
"What's so strange about that?" Yun Long and Yun Hu also chimed in.
But I shook my head.
"You see, about ten seconds later, the ripples you see are exactly the same as ten seconds ago. And that leaf, in ten seconds, it will float out from the other side again!"
As I spoke, I pointed at the stream in horror. Our visible range was only about ten meters. We couldn't see the ends left or right, only the scene in front of us.
At this moment, after I said this, everyone's pupils contracted sharply. They all turned to look at the stream, at the leaf I was pointing at.
"Huala huala..."
The water continued to flow, the stream silently moving, waves after waves crashing against the bank. A dry, yellow leaf floated downstream with the current. Soon, it entered the mist and disappeared. However, shortly after the leaf vanished, another identical leaf floated out from the other side, following the same current. The trajectory of its drift was identical.
Witnessing such a scene, everyone's heart sank. What was going on? Was this stream caught in an infinite loop?