As Xu Banxian's figure sank into the churning well water, the crowd was left uneasy and uncertain.
They looked around at the thick fog, as if they had lost their backbone entirely!
Fortunately, Zhang Dan and the other man also had Fifth-Turn Cultivation, so they had some strength to rely on. They quickly gathered everyone together, then handed each villager a Yellow Talisman.
The two had acted on a whim and never expected the talismans to prove so useful later!
"Ah! Everyone, look! There's a black shadow coming toward us from the village road!" a villager cried out in terror. He had been holding his Yellow Talisman with curiosity, mimicking a "Daoist's pose" for the others.
But he spotted something abnormal in the thick fog.
Zhang Dan and the other man rushed forward, warily shielding the crowd behind them.
This scene showed that the two weren't entirely heartless after all. Their scoundrel-like demeanor had largely come from their good-for-nothing Master.
Ah, choosing the wrong master to follow—a lifetime of regret!
"Huh? It's the Old Bodhisattva..."
"Finally, you've come!"
Once they recognized the newcomer's face, the crowd felt as if they had taken a reassuring pill. They spoke up excitedly, one after another.
A few even gave Zhang Dan and the other man disdainful looks, thinking, Hmph, these two petty men judge a gentleman by their own low standards!
We said it all along—the Old Bodhisattva isn't the type to flee from danger like some coward!
The crowd's earlier doubts were understandable. Feng Ling had told Old Wang not to reveal his whereabouts, so the villagers, unaware of the truth, had grown suspicious.
"You two young men have admirable character! Following that strange old Daoist Xu Banxian has been a true waste!"
The Withered Old Man gave the crowd a slight nod, then looked at Zhang Dan and the other man with a faintly mocking smile.
"Thieving Daoist, what are you saying? Don't you dare try to drive a wedge between master and disciple..."
The Young Daoist's face immediately filled with anger, while Zhang Dan lowered his head and pondered the remark.
"Hey, don't walk away! Come back and explain yourself clearly!" the furious Young Daoist shouted.
He hadn't expected the seemingly sluggish figure to move with such astonishing agility.
With a single leap, he cleared the crowd blocking his way and jumped straight into the ancient well.
"Foolish child! Was this old man's explanation really not clear enough?" Hearing the confused shout echoing up from the well, Feng Ling—who had already plunged into the water with a splash—fell silent.
Feng Ling had already recalled his Original Body.
His Clone had waited at Old Wang's House for several hours without seeing any movement. Feng Ling guessed that the Evil Entity might emerge only at a fixed time: the hour of the rat.
Fearing that something might go wrong at the ancient well, he sent his Clone over.
"Water Escape, technique of traveling through water!" The moment he entered the water, a burst of qi surged out from all around Feng Ling's body, sealing him off from the bone-chilling well water.
The next instant, Feng Ling darted through the ancient well like a joyful fish, heading swiftly toward its depths.
He felt not the slightest resistance from the water's current or pressure!
Meanwhile, Xu Banxian had sunk more than three hundred meters below the surface of the ancient well. The already frigid water felt as bone-piercing as Frost, and rippling waves surrounded him.
"Achoo! Damn it, how can this broken well be so deep? This poor Daoist is freezing to death! And it's all thanks to that damned brat—just wait until I get out, I'll find a chance to properly deal with him..."
At three hundred ninety-eight meters, a faint glimmer emanated from the bottom of the well.
The Bull-Nosed Daoist shuddered and cursed indignantly while keeping watch for movement below.
The ancient well's bottom was a roughly three-meter-wide circle. Its space was neither too large nor too small; if a fight broke out, one could still maneuver with difficulty.
Different environments evoke different feelings. Ordinary people see fire and call it hot, see ice and call it cold, and call unknown darkness terrifying.
That was exactly how Xu Banxian felt.
He used his Ghost-God Power to block the well water and its Cold Qi, so he felt no chill. Yet he still shivered, because fear gripped his heart.
Perhaps the "cold" in one's heart is the harshest, most bone-piercing kind—and the most deadly.
When Feng Ling descended to around three hundred ninety-eight meters, Xu Banxian had already passed the five-hundred-meter mark.
"Huh? The space seems to be widening! And there's a hint of chill..."
When Xu Banxian descended past six hundred meters, Feng Ling floated at a depth of five hundred meters. Feng Ling touched the well wall and frowned; the water grew even colder from that point onward.
Snow-white Ice Flowers drifted through the well water in a gentle pulsation. Together, they looked like a boundary line separating different temperatures.
"I'll curse your damn grandmother... Why hasn't this thing reached the bottom yet?" Xu Banxian seethed, his fear completely replaced by rage.
"No good! This won't do—better to use a Divine Ability to scan the area once more!"
At six hundred fifty meters, Xu Banxian stopped descending. He slung the Demon-Slaying Sword over his back, formed a hand seal with one hand, closed his eyes, and focused his senses.
When he first entered the ancient well, Xu Banxian had sensed that it was six hundred meters deep. Once he descended into it, however, he found that the result differed greatly from what he had expected!
"What's that..." Suddenly, Xu Banxian spotted two flickering, faint beams of red light below, dazzling and brilliant like gemstones!
"Hm, seven hundred forty-eight meters? Ninety-eight more meters and I'll reach the head. No, wait—bah, I mean I'll reach the bottom!" Realizing the actual depth, Xu Banxian was so shocked that he began babbling.
As he corrected himself, the Bull-Nosed Daoist expelled two streams of qi. A figure with a long, strange tail shot toward the well bottom, which now lay just ahead.
Xu Banxian had long wanted to explore the bottom and leave. He could have turned back halfway; the group at the well's mouth would never have known.
But he continued—not because he was noble, but because he was curious about what lay at the bottom of this ancient well.
"Glug, glug..."
Before long, countless tiny bubbles mixed with fine sediment rose toward the surface. Xu Banxian's feet slipped, but he swept his hands through the water and deftly steadied himself.
"Ah! Rubies!" The Bull-Nosed Daoist thrust out his nose, his eyes turning red. Xu Banxian's old face filled with wild delight, and his sword hand trembled as he stared at a pile of debris three meters ahead.
The bottom chamber was about six meters across, and Xu Banxian stood at the center of the well floor.
"Haha, I've struck it rich, struck it rich!"
Xu Banxian felt overwhelmed with excitement.
Golden Radiance filled his eyes as he lunged at the two dazzling, crystal-clear Rubies in the debris.
Who could have imagined it—for a man like Xu Banxian, who loved even a single copper coin as if it were his own life.
How irresistible were these two gleaming Rubies, with their faint metallic scent!
"Ah, a... a frozen corpse!" Xu Banxian eagerly seized the gems with both hands. When he tugged hard, a stiff female corpse rose from the sunken mud, sending him stumbling backward in terror. He was too frightened even to retrieve the Demon-Slaying Sword he had flung aside.
"Hm!" After retreating two steps, Xu Banxian's body suddenly went rigid, his spine prickling with violent numbness.
A bone-chilling cold, accompanied by an overwhelming sense of danger, struck at him from behind!
"Ha! Vicious Ghost, how dare you!"
Startled and furious, Xu Banxian spun around and hurled several burning Yellow Talismans at the blood-robed Female Ghost charging toward him.
"Ah!" The Female Ghost shrieked. A flash of manic, bloodthirsty light flickered through her pitch-black Ghost Eyes. Wreathed in Deathly Energy, she tore through one blazing Yellow Talisman Lockdown after another, snarling as she advanced. Her jet-black Ghost Claws gleamed with merciless sharpness, intent on tearing Xu Banxian apart!
"A deep well... a Millennium Water Ghost!" Xu Banxian's voice trembled, his ears ringing, his mind crawling as if infested with a nest of black ants.
An Eighth Rank Vicious Ghost!
Only an Eighth Rank entity could withstand the Sacred Flame from the Yellow Talismans he had formed with his seventh-transformation Ghost Spirit Master cultivation!
As for anything beyond that rank, the Bull-Nosed Daoist's heart lurched with frantic dread, and he no longer dared imagine it.