987 Hidden Below



Knowing how to cross the water now, Xuan Hao ended up spending the next few minutes trying to catch more of the crystal fish, but ultimately failed, as they had now become far harder to catch because none of them dared to go anywhere near the edge of the terraced pool after seeing him catch a few of them from the water earlier. 

The fact that they had also witnessed what happened to the crystal fish who had been thrown into the water after having been caught by Xuan Hao, only served to make them no longer dare approach the edge of the terraced pool.

So far, the only way to get them to approach him would be for him to enter the water again and wait for them to regain their courage and try to attack him after he was weakened by the spatial anomaly and the water.

Crack-!

Splash!

Thinking about whether or not to jump into the water to try and catch more of the crystal fish, the edge of the terraced pool that he was standing on top of suddenly started trembling as a large part of it broke off and fell into the water below.

"This…." Seeing that the edge of the terraced pool he was standing on top of had somehow started breaking. Allowing a large amount of water to rush out of the terraced pool and into the large ring-shaped lake, Xuan Hao noticed that the same had started happening for the terraced pools behind him.

Rumble-!

Watching as the terraced pools broke one by one and merged together into a single large pool of water behind him, Xuan Hao did not take long to realize that it would not be long before all of the terraced pools of water broke apart and flowed together with the ring-shaped lake surrounding the terraced pools of water.

At that point in time, he would no longer have anywhere to escape from the constant drain of the water and would inevitably end up running out of energy and get overwhelmed by the countless crystal fish hiding inside the crystal-clear water…

Swish-!

Splash~

Knowing that he didn't have any time left to try and figure out a way that he could bait the crystal fish to approach him without putting himself in danger, Xuan Hao jumped into the water before using all of his power catch a large number of unsuspecting crystal fish who had no time to react before their special organ was extracted by Xuan Hao.

"Haaa…"

Feeling a wave of exhaustion wash over him as he felt close to 80% of his energy had been drained in the short time, he had used his full power inside the water to catch a little over a dozen of the crystal fish, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a wave of fear wash over him as he realized just how close to death he was at that moment.

If not for the fact that some of the crystal fish had grown curious and approached after seeing part of the edge of the terraced pool he was standing on top of break off, Xuan Hao doubted that he would have been able to reach the other crystal fish who had remained far away from him due to fear of him catching them like he had done to the crystal fish from earlier.

This is not the time to relax, the fish I caught will only barely be enough for me to reach the other side of the lake…

Swoosh-!

Not wasting any time after feeling the strange aura from the strange crystal fish organ protect him from the absorption of the crystal-clear water and the spatial anomaly, Xuan Hao used all of his remaining energy to rapidly swim through the water at a speed far exceeding that of the crystal fish who had been watching the entire scene from afar and were trying their best to escape in the opposite direction of Xuan Hao.

Unfortunately for some of these crystal fish, the path that they chose to escape in happened to be the same one Xuan Hao was travelling towards the base of the mountains on the other side of the ring-shaped lake-

Splash~ Splash~

And Xuan Hao was more than happy to catch a few of these crystal fish in case he happened to run into any unexpected situation that would extend the time he needed to reach the other side of the lake.

RUMBLE-!

As if to answer his worries, a loud rumbling sound echoed out from the center of the ring-shaped lake before a crystal fish several hundreds of meters long emerged from the depths of the crystal-clear water, its size alone only barely fitting inside the two-kilometer-wide part of the ring-shaped lake.

At the same time, this also made it impossible for Xuan Hao to avoid it, as the colossal crystal fish had appeared directly in front of him. Especially considering the fact that he still couldn't fly due to the spatial anomaly still preventing or disrupting anything that had to do with spatial movement or manipulation.

"So, there is indeed a crystal fish in the Soul Ascension Realm…" Freezing for a moment as he saw the colossal creature that had appeared in front of him, Xuan Hao could not help muttering this to himself as he felt a sense of urgency.

Although the massive crystal fish in front of him had only reached the Third Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm like the rabbit demon beast and was weaker than him, his current condition didn't really allow him to fight with the enormous crystal fish. Not to mention, the number of smaller crystal fish still left on him would only allow him to stay inside the water for a little over 15 seconds. Far from enough, even if he was at full strength.

ROOOOOAR-!

Not at all carrying about the thoughts going through Xuan Hao's head as he was thinking about how to avoid the colossal crystal fish that had suddenly appeared in front of him and blocked his path, the crystal fish in question didn't intend to let him wait, as it opened its large maw before biting down towards Xuan Hao in an attempt to swallow him whole.

"Not again…" 

Seeing the massive maw of the crystal fish about to close around him, Xuan Hao inevitably ended up getting a flashback to the time when the sandworm and Peak Soul Ascension Realm demon beast from the forest had also swallowed him. 

Swish-!

Not thinking too much about how this was already the third time that a demon beast was attempting to swallow him since he entered the mystic realm, Xuan Hao dived underwater and moved to the side-

Bang!

Just barely avoiding getting swallowed by a giant demon beast again.

Roar!?

However, the colossal crystal fish was not done with just this, as it turned around and tried to swallow him again-

Rumble!

But unfortunately for the colossal crystal fish, Xuan Hao didn't plan on giving it a chance to swallow him again, as he gathered the power of his dao domain before smashing it into the head of the crystal fish-

BOOOOOM-!

Showing it just how large the distance in strength between someone in the Third Tribulation of Soul Ascension Realm and someone in the Fifth Tribulation of the Soul Ascension Realm was.

R-Roar!

Only able to let out a painful roar as part of its head was blown to bits by the powerful attack-

Swoosh~!

Giving Xuan Hao a much-needed opportunity to slip past the colossal crystal fish before it had any time to realize that its opponent had already escaped.

ROOOOAR!

By the time that it realized Xuan Hao was missing, it could only let out a roar filled with killing intent before charging towards Xuan Hao who had already managed to reach the base of the mountain range.

"Hehe, you want to fight me now that I'm out of the water?"

However, it was already too late for the colossal crystal fish to do anything to Xuan Hao, as he was now no longer limited by the few seconds bought to him by holding the strange organs of the crystal fish. Even if he only had a little below 20% of his qi left inside his dantian at this point in time, the crystal fish was no longer his opponent.

ROOOOOAR!

In the end, the crystal fish didn't seem to care about this, as it let out a terrifying roar that caused the rest of the ring-shaped lake to start trembling violently-

ROOOAR!

ROAAAR!

ROOAR!

And before Xuan Hao had any time to react, dozens of similarly large crystal fish began emerging from the depths of the crystal-clear water before also charging towards him.

"This…"

Seeing the large number of colossal crystal fish emerge from the water before rushing towards him, Xuan Hao lost his confident expression before turning around to rush up the mountain range in the opposite direction of the large number of Soul Ascension Realm crystal fish who had suddenly emerged from the water.