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墨書 Inktalez
Zhong Kui's Diary
Half an hour passed, and there was no movement on the water's surface.
"Could there be some kind of monster in there?" I couldn't help but worry about An Ran. Although An Ran was currently possessed by a Moon Attendant, she had been with us for so long that this concern was only natural.
"This pond is like this; what kind of monster could there be?" Kong Xuan pointed at the lake and laughed dismissively. "A few bigger fish would be nice, yes, grilled fish is a good option."
Thinking about it, I set aside my worries and began an academic exchange with Kong Xuan about the four ways to grill fish.
Another hour passed, and the sun started to blaze down. Kong Xuan and I were parched, so I asked Mo Lu if the water from the lake was drinkable. After receiving Mo Lu's affirmative answer, I leaned over the water's edge and took several big gulps. The water quality was quite clear and a bit sweet.
As I wiped my mouth with my hand, I heard Aijia Yu exclaim in surprise. She looked at the lake's surface in astonishment. Following her gaze, I saw something vaguely rushing towards the shore from beneath the water. The surface churned, and then with a splash, An Ran shot straight out of the water into the air. The bubble surrounding her burst instantly, revealing her panicked face as if she were trying to escape from something.
"What happened?" Lin Tao asked in astonishment.
"It seems like there's something in the water!" An Ran landed and brushed her hair back, her face filled with fear.
Come on, you're a Moon Attendant; how can you be so timid? Kong Xuan and I exchanged glances, both puzzled.
"What is it?" Lin Tao asked sternly.
"I didn't see it; I just felt it!" An Ran admitted, looking a bit embarrassed as she lightly coughed to cover her awkwardness.
Lin Tao paused for a moment before asking, "Then what did you find down there?"
"Nothing at all!" An Ran shook her head. "I searched very carefully and didn't find any entrances or mechanisms!"
We had no doubts about her words. In such a small lake, she had searched for about an hour and a half; that was indeed a thorough search.
"Isn't it here?" Lin Tao furrowed his brows tightly. "Upper Hollow and Lower Hollow, that's right."
Everyone fell silent, only Kong Xuan was mocking with a chuckle, "Did you not hear your ancestors clearly? What Upper Hollow and Lower Hollow really means is just a bunch of howling!"
Lin Tao, already irritated, shouted directly at Kong Xuan, "Put your head underwater!"
Kong Xuan immediately cursed loudly but nonetheless walked over to the water's edge and plunged his head into the water, a series of bubbles rising up.
Damn, Lin Tao actually wanted to drown Kong Xuan.
Although Kong Xuan was also a piece of work, I clearly had some brotherly feelings for him. I was about to step in when suddenly Aijia Yu dashed forward even faster than I did, fingers splayed as he reached for Lin Tao's face.
Mo Lu silently blocked Aijia Yu from the side, and the two started fighting. It looked like Mo Lu was slightly at a disadvantage, but Aijia Yu couldn't take him down in a short time.
As for me, Lin Tao smiled at me and said gently, "If you still don't know the meaning of Upper Hollow and Lower Hollow, you might as well put your head underwater too!"
Damn!
My feet uncontrollably moved toward the water's edge as I shouted in panic. Looking at the increasingly close lake water, I could only follow his words and yelled, "I know where the Land of Eternal Sleep is!"
Lin Tao responded with an "Mm," and lifted the magical control over me and Kong Xuan. Only then did Kong Xuan raise his head, gasping for breath. Aijia Yu also stopped his attack and stood beside me and Kong Xuan.
"I hope you're not fooling me!" Lin Tao said with a smile as he looked at me.
Motherfucker, I'm just messing with you; what are you going to do about it? Of course, I couldn't say that out loud; my mind was racing to come up with an excuse.
Quick! Quick! Find a reason to stall him.
"Where is the Land of Eternal Sleep?" Lin Tao continued to smile, but the smile began to twist, and the coldness at the corners of his mouth made me shiver.
"Why did your ancestors choose Upper Hollow and Lower Hollow? There must be a reason!" In my desperation, I started to fabricate: "If the Land of Eternal Sleep is in this lake, why not just say it's the lake? We have been wandering within Tianzhuang Township and have only seen this one lake!"
"You mean, this is the Portal, but the mechanism to open the Portal isn't here?" Lin Tao's eyes flickered.
As soon as Lin Tao said this, I felt an inexplicable sense of strangeness, as if I had returned to my school days, with a teacher gently guiding me to answer questions.
"Yes. And then?" Lin Tao's eyes sparkled with intensity.
"Then it’s clear; we need to go back to Upper Hollow and Lower Hollow. Perhaps there is some mechanism around where we see Upper Hollow and Lower Hollow, specifically around that Pine Tree!" My mind gradually cleared, recalling the entrance to the secret room of Golden Blade Advertising Company; wasn't the entrance switch in the general manager's liquor cabinet?
"That makes some sense!" Lin Tao clapped his hands and waved. The six of us returned to the mountain peak from last night. After all this commotion, it was already afternoon.
We searched high and low for quite a while but found nothing unusual; everyone fell into silence.
After a while, Lin Tao suddenly said, "We can't see the waterline of the lake from here, which is what we call Lower Hollow. Since the hint mentions Upper Hollow and Lower Hollow, could it be that something unusual only appears at night? Moon Attendant, tonight it will be up to your moon shadow sensing technique."
An Ran nodded. Everyone remained silent because Lin Tao's words made a lot of sense. Besides that, we had no other options but to sit down and wait for nightfall.
While we were resting, there was a rustling in the grass nearby; I couldn't tell if it was a person or something else. Lin Tao signaled to Mo Green, who nodded and walked over. Moments later, sounds of fighting and animal roaring came from that direction. Before long, Mo Green returned dragging a wild boar and said with a smile, "Let's eat this tonight!"
Mo Green was quite skilled at this; he quickly gutted it and started a fire. In just over ten minutes, the wild boar was already roasting over the fire.
As Mo Green continuously turned the spit, the skin of the wild boar gradually turned golden, and fat began to seep out, dripping into the fire with a sizzling sound. When that delicious aroma wafted into my nostrils, I couldn't help but swallow hard and was about to step forward for a feast when a loud roar echoed from afar. Mo Green's expression changed drastically as he shouted, "Not good! Climb up a tree!"
He grabbed Lin Tao and quickly climbed up Big Pine Tree. I looked in the direction of the roar and saw a large wild boar charging down the hillside from afar.
I swear, this is the biggest wild boar I have ever seen, bar none.
This wild boar was about the size of an adult cow, with tusks that were nearly a foot long. Seeing the roasted boar, its eyes blood-red, it charged towards us like a galloping horse.
"Climb the tree!" My face changed dramatically.
That's right, I do have martial arts skills, but this boar weighed around seven to eight hundred pounds. With its sharp tusks and thick skin, I certainly didn't think I could take it on.
An Ran flashed and disappeared. Aijia Yu and I quickly rushed up the Pine Tree. Only Kong Xuan ran a step, turned around, grabbed the roasted wild boar, and then flew up the tree. Just as he climbed up, the boar crashed into the Big Pine Tree with a loud bang.
Boom!
The sound shook the ground, and the Big Pine Tree trembled violently. I couldn't help but gasp; wow, this tree's diameter was nearly two meters.
After crashing into the tree, the giant wild boar seemed a bit dazed, sitting nearby and panting heavily.
Once Kong Xuan was in the tree, he quickly hung the roasted boar meat on a branch and kept blowing on his hands; the meat was definitely very hot.
I was quite curious about the appearance of this giant wild boar. Although Tianzhuang Township is located deep in the mountains, there have always been hunters throughout history. With technological advancements, hunting tools have evolved from bows and arrows to firearms and eventually to powerful hunting rifles. As hunters' weapons improved, various beasts in the deep mountains gradually became scarce. A wild boar of this size should have been hunted down long ago.
Seeing that the boar posed no threat to us below the tree, Kong Xuan chuckled, pulled out a knife from his pocket, made a cut in the meat, sliced off a large piece of fragrant meat, blew on it twice, and started devouring it with satisfaction while occasionally inhaling sharply.
Seeing this, I also broke off two branches to make a pair of simple chopsticks. Kong Xuan used his knife to cut the meat into pieces, and we enjoyed our meal immensely. The others looked at us in shock until An Ran finally summed it up: "Eat without regard for your life!"
The giant wild boar below saw us eating and began angrily crashing into the tree. After about ten crashes, it stopped and fixed its blood-red eyes on me and Kong Xuan as if trying to remember us. It grunted a few times before walking away.
Night fell once again. None of us slept or climbed down. The six of us split into two groups and chatted away until midnight—the same time I had taken photos last night.
An Ran stood in the position I was in yesterday, her long hair flying around in the night breeze, exuding an ethereal quality. Without any visible movement, a silver halo emanated from An Ran, gradually expanding until it radiated into a massive sphere of light centered around her, enveloping the tree we were standing under.
"Look, what is that?" Aijia Yu suddenly pointed at the treetop and exclaimed.
We instinctively looked up at the treetop. Under the illumination of the silver light, a fist-sized yellow sphere was suspended in mid-air, flickering and emitting a strange glow.
"The Mysterious Golden Sphere!" This time it was Kong Xuan who gasped.
"What sphere?" I looked at Kong Xuan in surprise.
"The Mysterious Golden Sphere, a magical power storage orb used to store extremely powerful spells," Kong Xuan said solemnly.
After that, Kong Xuan turned his gaze toward An Ran, and we couldn't help but follow his gaze. An Ran had already retracted the silver halo; without it, the golden sphere vanished from sight.
"It’s clear that this Mysterious Golden Sphere is the mechanism to open the Portal!" An Ran smiled at us, her figure flickering before disappearing and reappearing at the location where the golden sphere had been.
She struck the spot where the golden sphere had been with her palm. With a ringing sound, brilliant golden light erupted before us. Within the golden light, a silver shadow shot up, tracing an arc in the air before diving directly into the lake across from us.
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