Chapter 580: Breaking Through Illusion at Last—Only to Be Left Completely Bewildered |
Year 13 of Great Xia, the eighth day of the first month, the latter half of the night.
Xia Hong, in a state of frantic urgency, finally arrived at Red Dragon Lake.
"Halt! Who dares trespass into a forbidden... Lord Leader!"
The soldiers on duty on the lake surface saw someone descending from afar. Even though they clearly recognized it was a Sun Manifestation Level expert, they still drew their weapons to block the way. However, when Xiang Ping, the Deputy Military Commander of the Bingrong Office leading them, saw clearly that the newcomer was Xia Hong, he was instantly terrified, sheathing his weapon and kneeling on the ground with an excited expression to pay his respects.
All the soldiers on the lake surface knelt down one after another, prostrating themselves before Xia Hong.
"No need for such formalities, all of you, rise!"
Xia Hong still had some impression of Xiang Ping. When Great Xia first expanded into the Wuyuan territory, among the four families north of Wuyuan Mountain, the first to side with Great Xia was the He Feng camp led by Xiang Ping.
Unlike his son Xiang Liang, who served in the Penal Department, Xiang Ping had always developed his career within the military. He was first in the Longyuan Army, and now, after several years, he had clearly been gradually promoted.
"What is the situation here? Tell me!"
Xiang Ping naturally began speaking immediately, explaining the whole story from beginning to end.
As he narrated, Xia Hong's gaze turned toward the lake bottom. He had noticed the golden light the moment he landed, and only now could he clearly see the golden palace within.
"...Then, Lord Cheng, along with Lords Xiahou Yong and Jiang Yiqing, dove underwater. It has been half an hour now, and we were just about to send someone down to the lake bottom to investigate."
By the end of his report, Xiang Ping's expression was already very grim.
The flesh and blood of a Warmth Realm cultivator could briefly withstand the underwater cold, and by temporarily sealing the skin membrane pores, the diving limit was roughly around two quarters of an hour. Exceeding this time limit made it very easy for problems to arise. Cheng He and the other two had been underwater for half an hour, already double the limit.
Therefore, the three of them must have encountered an accident.
"Lead everyone to withdraw from the lake surface. I will go down alone to investigate."
"Lord Leader, absolutely not..."
Hearing that Xia Hong intended to personally take the risk, Xiang Ping immediately showed an anxious expression, stepping forward to try and stop him. But before he could finish speaking, Xia Hong had already plunged into the water.
"Everyone, withdraw from the lake surface and wait on the shore!"
Xiang Ping stood in place with a troubled look, hesitating repeatedly before finally turning around and ordering all the soldiers to retreat. He only took a few stronger subordinates to guard by the side, waiting with a deeply uneasy heart for Xia Hong to emerge.
"Sir, wasn't the Lord Leader over at Mo'ao Chuan? How did he suddenly return? Could it be that those who previously dove into the lake bottom came from the Four Feudatories?"
"Don't make wild guesses. Everyone, stay alert. I'm afraid something major is about to happen!"
What his subordinate could think of, Xiang Ping naturally could too. Combined with the urgent look on Xia Hong's face when he first landed, it wasn't hard to guess that some major incident had occurred. In the twelve years since he joined Great Xia, he had almost never seen the Lord Leader show such an expression.
"Red Dragon Lake is two hundred meters deep. Before going to Mo'ao Chuan, I dove down to explore no less than ten times and never saw this golden palace. So, this palace was deliberately created by that foreign princess who abducted Xuanling and the children."
Xia Hong quickly descended to the lake bottom. Similar to what Xiang Ping had told him, although the golden palace seemed to get closer and closer to the naked eye, once it reached an arm's length distance, the palace would immediately vanish without a trace.
"Previously, I searched the lake bottom several times over but couldn't find that Fiend Dragon's lair. Without a doubt, this golden palace is most likely it. This means that foreign princess is intimately familiar with the Fiend Dragon, even able to casually locate its lair. The question is, why did she abduct Xuanling and the three children, deliberately lure me here, and bring out this Fiend Dragon's nest? What is her goal?"
Xia Hong possessed far too little information. He had just raced all the way from the Bone-Erosion Path. Although he heard Hou Tong explain the whole story along the way, even Hou Tong himself was vague on the details. Apart from the name Li Longyu, the title 'Princess,' the opponent's strength, and the fact that the three women's attitude toward Li Xuanling and the children wasn't particularly hostile, there was no other valuable information. So, he truly couldn't figure out the opponent's purpose.
"Regardless of what schemes the other party has, I must rescue them first..."
A moment later, having neither found the palace entrance nor discovered Cheng He and the other two, Xia Hong took a slight breath. After making up his mind, a divine light suddenly flashed across his left eye. Standing at the lake bottom, he looked toward the area where he had just seen the palace.
"Aside from the camp system, the item with the greatest origin on my person should be the Yin Yang Mirror. After all, so many Abominations recognized it at a glance!"
The Yin Yang Mirror has two sides. Back when they destroyed the Mirror Immortal Camp, he and He Yuanhun each took one side. He obtained the Yang Side mirror.
After the Yang Side mirror fused into his left eye, he gained three skills in total: the offensive technique Shattering Divine Light, the superhuman vision that could see through the meridians within the human body, and finally, the Truth-Discerning Eye.
The early function of the Truth-Discerning Eye was merely to see through disguises. But as his own strength grew stronger, Xia Hong discovered this function was also upgrading, capable of seeing through Abomination illusions and even spatial anomalies.
This golden palace was clearly in the water but couldn't be found no matter what. It was either an illusionary trick like a concealment spell or an alternate dimension, making it perfectly suited for the Truth-Discerning Eye to penetrate.
"Indeed..."
Xia Hong stood at the lake bottom, his left eye scanning the underwater area. The palace appeared again, but not in front of him; it was above his head.
Just now, when viewed from the ice surface, the palace was underwater. After diving into the water, the palace was at the lake bottom. But now, with him standing at the lake bottom, the palace was above his head, at the middle section of the water body.
"It's not an illusion; it's an alternate dimension!"
Xia Hong stared intently at the palace above his head. Seeing the palace's outline, not connected to the water body but completely independent of the lake water, he immediately reached this conclusion.
The next challenge was finding the entrance!
Looking at the golden palace seemingly within arm's reach, Xia Hong furrowed his brows, tightly locked in thought, and began searching for a way to enter.
............
"Father is here! Father has come to save us!"
Just as Xia Hong was pondering hard within the water body, inside a vast and expansive golden palace, Xia Yusheng, holding his mother Li Xuanling's hand, pointed excitedly at the giant pool in the middle of the great hall and cheered.
The great hall was overall square-shaped, with a width of at least a hundred meters. Inside the hall stood a total of thirty-six golden pillars, each about three meters in diameter. Every pillar was entwined with a ferociously posturing golden divine dragon, creating a majestic and imposing sight that was visually stunning to the extreme.
The entire great hall was golden in color, though different parts had slight variations in shade. In the very center of the ground was an open area. Rather than an area, it was more like a thirty-meter-wide square plaza. In the middle of this plaza was a rectangular pool, twenty meters long and ten meters wide.
Beneath that pool, a human figure stood silently.
The facial features of the person underwater were incredibly clear. He was frowning deeply, clearly deep in thought about something.
That was none other than Xia Hong, who had just dived to the lake bottom. His brows were tightly knit, obviously contemplating a way to enter the palace.
"Mother, they don't seem to be bad people!"
Unlike her brother, Xia Yuyao, on the other side of Li Xuanling, wasn't as excited. Her small hand was held by her mother, and her gaze remained fixed on the two green-clothed women at the side. Her eyes were full of contemplation and confusion. After a long while, she finally spoke softly, whispering a sentence to her mother.
Upon hearing this, Li Xuanling didn't respond. She just shook her head at her daughter. First, she glanced at Xia Hong in the pool, a look of worry appearing on her face. Then, she turned her head and spoke to the two maidservants, "Ladies, my husband has arrived. Since you have important matters to discuss with him, why waste time here?"
Li Xuanling said this with a frown.
If her daughter could see it, she could see it even more clearly. That foreign princess who called herself Li Longyu, along with her two maidservants, indeed harbored no ill will toward her and her three children.
No, not just no ill will; they could even be considered polite.
Throughout the entire process last night, from being forcibly taken by Li Longyu and the other two to Red Dragon Lake, Li Xuanling even had the illusion that the three seemed to treat her and her two children with a degree of... respect.
What reason could there be for three experts, each at least at the Third Turn of the Tribulation Body Realm, to show respect to her and her three children?
This must be an illusion!
Unable to think of any reason, Li Xuanling could only conclude in her heart that it was her own mistaken perception.
Nevertheless, the courteous treatment from Li Longyu and the other two still made her relax considerably. Her own safety was secondary; the key was that her two children were by her side. She couldn't let anything happen to them.
After arriving at Red Dragon Lake at night, Li Longyu ordered her two maidservants to break the ice on the lake and led them underwater. Then, using some unknown secret technique or method, they somehow summoned this golden palace.
This unbelievable scene broadened Li Xuanling's horizons but also gave rise to several worries in her heart.
The Blood-colored Fiend Dragon beneath Red Dragon Lake had always been a ticking time bomb for Great Xia, something she was also aware of. The periphery of this golden palace had many dragon-shaped sculptures, making it obvious at a glance that it was deeply connected to that Fiend Dragon.
The crucial point was that Li Longyu's performance throughout, showing complete familiarity, all indicated that she was extremely well-acquainted with this palace and the Blood-colored Fiend Dragon within it.
"Three years ago, my husband and I searched underwater for so long but couldn't find the Fiend Dragon. So its true body was inside this palace all along."
Seeing that the two maidservants did not reply, Li Xuanling turned her gaze toward the very front of the great hall, her eyes slightly narrowing.
Like a human palace, the deepest, central position at the front of the great hall also had a high platform. However, this platform was enormous, about fifty or sixty meters long, occupying a large portion of the palace. Moreover, there was no seat on it, only a single Pillar of Heaven.
Yes, a single Pillar of Heaven. The pillar was pure gold, with a diameter of roughly thirty meters. It pierced through the top of the great hall, reaching straight into the sky, with no end in sight.
What was most eye-catching wasn't the pillar itself, but a blood-colored tail entwined around it.
The tail was covered in crimson scales, each exuding an extremely terrifying aura. Li Xuanling had long seen clearly that above that blood-colored long tail was precisely a Blood-colored Fiend Dragon.
The Blood-colored Fiend Dragon that she and her husband Xia Hong had searched for so long without finding was actually inside this golden palace all along.
"Why did these three people lure my husband here?"
Initially, Li Xuanling thought Li Longyu and the other two's target was the Fiend Dragon. She had even considered the worst-case scenario: the other party might be trying to awaken the Fiend Dragon to deal with Great Xia, which had filled her heart with anxiety at the time.
But what happened afterward took an unexpected turn, truly leaving her somewhat baffled.
After Li Longyu opened the golden palace, she only came in to take a look. Leaving her two maidservants to guard the three of them, she actually turned around and left.
Then, the two maidservants didn't communicate with her at all throughout, merely standing guard at the side wings of the great hall. It continued like this until now, when her husband Xia Hong arrived, and the two maidservants finally showed slight changes in expression.
She had seen very clearly just now. The moment these two maidservants named Qingyu and Qingyue saw her husband, a distinct look of reverence and fear flashed across their faces.
Reverence... fear...
Although Xia Hong's reputation was great, it shouldn't be enough to make two Tribulation Body Realm experts show fear. As for reverence, that was even more inexplicable.
What in the world is going on?
Gurgle...
"Madam, Your Highnesses, it seems Lord Xia has already found a way to enter. We have offended you greatly this time. We beg for Madam and Your Highnesses' forgiveness."
"Madam, Your Highnesses, please forgive our offense. Qingyue takes her leave!"
However, a sound came from the pool in the middle of the great hall. Ripples spread across the water surface. Xia Hong at the bottom of the water was rapidly rising at a speed visible to the naked eye.
At the same time, the two maidservants also spoke.
Not only did the two women speak one after the other to beg for forgiveness, they even bowed respectfully to Li Xuanling and the three children. Then, taking advantage of the moment before Xia Hong fully surfaced from the water, they directly jumped into the pool from its side.
Interestingly, Qingyu and Qingyue were clearly in the water below the pool at the same time as Xia Hong, even appearing to be only a few meters apart. Yet, Xia Hong simply couldn't sense the presence of the two, and they just passed each other by.
"Xuanling, are you all alright?"
By the time Xia Hong surfaced from the pool and saw Li Xuanling and the three children, Qingyu and Qingyue had already vanished beneath the water.
Seeing the mother and children safe and sound, Xia Hong was naturally overjoyed. He quickly flew out and moved close to the three of them.
"Father, we're fine."
Xia Yuyao was the first to rush forward and hug Xia Hong. Then, pointing at the great hall, she said, "Father, were you looking for gold? I just saw behind that Fiend Dragon, there are many golden things. Go quickly and see if it's gold."
Xia Hong was slightly stunned, not having time to explain in detail to his daughter. He looked up and saw the golden pillar, then noticed the Blood-colored Fiend Dragon entwined around it. His entire body jolted violently.
"So it's here!"
Li Xuanling didn't waste time. She quickly recounted the appearances and characteristics of Li Longyu and the other two, including everything that had happened along the way, explaining it all truthfully and in detail.
After listening, Xia Hong was instantly utterly bewildered.
What is this?
An inexplicable kidnapping, then conjuring up this golden palace. The key point is the Fiend Dragon shows no signs of awakening. Moreover, Li Longyu wasn't present the entire time. The two Tribulation Body Realm maidservants left just before he arrived, seemingly not wanting to meet him...
"This doesn't seem like a kidnapping, more like..."
"Coming to give Father a treasure!"
Xia Yuyao picked up her mother's sentence, looking at Xia Hong with a somewhat proud expression.