Chu Tianle and Ximen Hongchun had just finished smearing the medicinal liquid on the deep-sea salamander’s skin as instructed by Bai Shengyi, when they heard a "swish" of rippling water. Countless tentacles lunged towards the three of them.
They had been discovered!
"Go!"
After repelling the tentacles, the three immediately swam towards the river surface.
Spiritual energy surged, and the river water churned. Although Bai Shengyi and the other two were prepared, they were still thrown into disarray by the dense mass of tentacles.
"This mucus is poisonous!" Bai Shengyi also noticed this problem and quickly reminded Chu Tianle and Ximen Hongchun.
Chu Tianle was a step too late in dodging and got some on his hand. "My left hand is numb, I can't move it!"
The three became even more vigilant.
"You go first, I'll cover the rear!" Ximen Hongchun said in a deep voice.
Bai Shengyi and Chu Tianle did not refuse. The two of them quickened their pace. Just as they were about to break through the water's surface, a white light was spat out from the deep-sea salamander's mouth.
"Master! Use the Ten Directions Netherfire to block it!"
The sharp and piercing voice of the Samsara Brush suddenly sounded in Bai Shengyi's mind. Bai Shengyi had no time to think of anything else and hurriedly unleashed flames to intercept, just as it instructed.
Logically, water and fire were incompatible, but the Ten Directions Netherfire remained dazzling underwater, even brighter, enveloping the white light like a jellyfish.
"Boom!"
Brilliant luminescence instantly burst forth, accompanied by a violent explosion.
In this brief moment, the three had already broken out of the river water through a gap and fled towards the shore, where the other three immediately came to their aid.
"How is it?"
"It should have worked, there's no movement anymore." Chu Tianle listened for a moment and concluded.
"The jade slip lit up again, should we go down now?"
"Chu Tianle, how's your hand?"
...
The other five discussed in a flurry of questions, but Bai Shengyi was multitasking, still querying the Samsara Brush.
"Little Samsara, you're awake! Why did you fall asleep as soon as we entered the secret realm earlier?"
"There's a barrier restriction in the secret realm, so I could only sleep." Before Bai Shengyi could ask further, the Samsara Brush said on its own, "I woke up this time because I sensed the aura of the Dragon Chasing Starfire. Master, that spirit beast has a wisp of Dragon Chasing Starfire in it, don't let it go!"
"That is a divine fire on par with the Ten Directions Netherfire. I didn't expect this small, broken place to have the second divine fire. I'm going to sleep now, Master, you can do it..."
As the Samsara Brush spoke, its voice grew softer.
"Hey! What is the Dragon Chasing Starfire? How do I collect it? Don't fall asleep yet..."
With the Samsara Brush speaking only halfway, Bai Shengyi felt completely at a loss.
"Shengyi, why does your face look so bad? Did you get injured just now?" Chu Tianle asked with concern.
Since Feng Wuya couldn't resolve the toxins in the mucus, Chu Tianle had to pop all the detoxification pills he had on him. Now, he thought Bai Shengyi had also been poisoned and was extremely worried.
Bai Shengyi said, "I'm fine, let's go down and place the boxes now."
She thought for a moment, then added, "That ball of white light earlier was a type of flame, everyone be careful."
"This... Shengyi, are you sure?" Chu Tianle asked in surprise.
"Fellow Daoist Bai, how do you know?" Ximen Hongchun asked coolly, also expressing his doubt.
The other three had already heard about their encounter in the river. Like them, they guessed that the ball of white light was a innate divine ability of the deep-sea salamander. They never expected Bai Shengyi to say such a thing.
Bai Shengyi didn't know how to explain it to everyone, so she directly revealed the Ten Directions Netherfire. "The fire within me will have a reaction."
"No wonder."
With only five days left before the month-long deadline, the group quickly discussed and decided that Xunmeng, who had low combat power, and Hua Xueji, whose weapons were not suitable for underwater, would stay on the shore, while the rest would go into the water.
"It's still asleep, the jade slip indicates the direction is this way." Bai Shengyi pointed towards the sea path where the spirit beast was coiled.
Several people searched around.
"There's nothing."
"Could it be below?" Bai Shengyi guessed.
This immediately reminded everyone, but the deep-sea salamander's territory was vast, its thick body filling the entire river channel. They swam downwards for a long time, only feeling the spiritual energy in chaos, but unable to find the specific placement location.
"It's getting late, this won't do. Ximen Hongchun and I will move it away, and you two, Chu Tianle and Feng Wuya, will be responsible for placing the boxes."
"Okay!" The three responded.
Bai Shengyi did not hide her abilities and directly summoned the Samsara Brush to draw a net and capture the spirit beast. Then, she conjured two vines with spiritual energy and handed one to Ximen Hongchun. "I heard that the Ximen family is naturally strong, can you drag it?"
Ximen Hongchun glanced at the mountain-like spirit beast behind him and silently took the vine. "I can."
Bai Shengyi did not rely solely on Ximen Hongchun, but also asked the Qingshen Vine to help.
The calm river water began to churn with spray. The river waves lapped against the shore. Although much water fell onto the vegetation, the soil below seemed to have a dryer installed, quickly becoming dry and cracked again.
"Water!" Hua Xueji suddenly pointed at the water flow.
Xunmeng looked and saw that the river surface, which had been flowing against the current, had suddenly reversed. She had a bad feeling and quickly manipulated her jade abacus to see what was happening, only to see monstrous waves crashing down!
"Bang!"
Feng Wuya and Chu Tianle were flung onto the shore by thick tentacles.
"Chu Tianle! Feng Wuya, where are Shengyi and Ximen?"
Xunmeng rushed over. Before she could finish speaking, the water churned, and Ximen Hongchun was also thrown out.
This time, it wasn't tentacles, but a green vine.
Ximen Hongchun was conscious. "The deep-sea salamander suddenly went berserk. I don't know what that flame was, but the entire river bottom turned into a sea of fire. Fellow Daoist Bai was worried we wouldn't be able to withstand it, so she brought us all out."
Speaking of this, Ximen Hongchun couldn't help but sigh. The incident happened so suddenly that he hadn't even expected Bai Shengyi to be so decisive in pushing him out.
Chu Tianle woke up and cried out, "I'm going down to save Shengyi! Let go of me..."
"Calm down!" Hua Xueji and Ximen Hongchun quickly held him back.
In just this short while, white flames had ignited on the river surface, with the tips tinged with magnificent red. However, when Xunmeng threw a stone down, it turned to ash before even touching the sea surface.
"Hiss..."
The few of them gasped.
"Will Shengyi be alright?"
Bai Shengyi, who was being worried about by everyone, was actually not in a good situation.
Before Ximen Hongchun left, the two of them had joined forces to briefly control the deep-sea salamander beast. She discovered that the flame within it was merely borrowing the Dragon Chasing Starfire from the depths of the water, so she attempted to devour the Dragon Chasing Starfire with the Ten Directions Netherfire.
However, as the two flames clashed back and forth, for some reason, the Dragon Chasing Starfire ended up entering Bai Shengyi's body!
"Ah!"
A stinging, burning sensation seemed to come from the depths of her soul, causing Bai Shengyi to let out a scream of pain.