Chapter 681: 【Soul‑Shocking Abyss】 (Part 1)

Although it was already early spring, the pond water remained cold; upon entering the pond he instantly felt a bone‑chilling cold. After adapting, Hu Xiaotian swam toward the water, because it was night and the underwater light was naturally dim, so he could only rely on his earlier judgment to locate Tang Qingxuan's position. Straining his eyes, he barely made out a figure sinking into the water.

Hu Xiaotian quickly approached Tang Qingxuan in the water, seeing that she seemed to have lost consciousness, her whole body motionlessly sinking toward the pond bottom. Hu Xiaotian's swimming was excellent; he soon reached behind her, embraced her, and began to rise. A point of phosphorescence flickered before his eyes, then another and another glowed—it was a jellyfish drifting up from the pond bottom. Hu Xiaotian was captivated by the beauty before him, yet he dared not slow his ascent in the slightest; the faster he surfaced, the greater Tang Qingxuan's chance of rescue.

But almost in an instant, tens of thousands of jellyfish appeared around his body. Those jellyfish, which had been drifting gracefully, suddenly swarmed toward Hu Xiaotian and Tang Qingxuan for some unknown disturbance. Hu Xiaotian first felt a prickling on his soles as if stabbed by needles; soon he saw the pink, phosphorescent jellyfish blanket the sky and earth, lunging at his face and body. He clung to Tang Qingxuan and desperately swam upward, yet countless jellyfish still clung densely to his exposed skin. He couldn't help regretting that, to facilitate the rescue, he had stripped down to only a pair of shorts before entering the water—never expecting the pond to harbor tens of thousands of jellyfish.

Any creature encountering an external invasion will choose defense; these frail jellyfish, once enraged, present a terrifying spectacle—like falling petals scattering, like willow fluff in the wind, a pink vortex enveloping the two bodies in the water. The sensation of needles pricking Hu Xiaotian's surroundings was continuous; at first it hurt, but soon it turned completely numb. Though the journey from pond bottom to surface took less than the time to finish a cup of tea, for Hu Xiaotian it felt like an eternity.

After breaking the surface, he first pushed Tang Qingxuan onto the shore, then clambered up himself, slapping off the frenzied jellyfish from his face and body until he pulled the ones blocking his nostrils free, only then daring to breathe freely. Opening his eyes, he felt an unbearable itch all over. He didn't have time to check his own stings, went to Tang Qingxuan, removed the jellyfish covering her mouth and nose; she lay motionless on the ground, silent, unknown whether dead or alive.

Hu Xiaotian felt her pulse and detected a faint beat. His mind eased slightly; he held Tang Qingxuan and carried her away from the pond to a flat, clean patch of grass, where he began CPR—this was the second time he had pulled her from the water. He pressed on her heaving chest, then pinched her nose and blew into her mouth to give artificial respiration.

These first‑aid techniques were child's play for Hu Xiaotian; after repeating them several times, as he blew into Tang Qingxuan's mouth again, he felt a soft, sweet tongue slip into his lips, startling him. Opening his eyes, he saw Tang Qingxuan's eyes alluring and silky, gazing at him with myriad charms, her pretty face flushed crimson in the moonlight. He tried to rise, but Tang Qingxuan clung to him like ivy.

Hu Xiaotian whispered, "Miss Tang, it's me!"

Tang Qingxuan writhed beneath him, not pulling away but pressing closer; Hu Xiaotian was already nearly naked, and though Tang Qingxuan wore clothes, they were soaked through, so their bodies lay flush, each feeling the other's warmth. In the bloom of youth, his blood surged and a natural reaction arose. Though this fellow was no good man, he would not take advantage of her peril; he also noticed Tang Qingxuan's expression was clearly off, recalling how the Black Hu Horse Merchant Zayan had once had someone feed her an infatuation pill—evidently Tang Qingxuan had been drugged.

After finally shaking off Tang Qingxuan's clinging embrace, Hu Xiaotian rose and walked to the pond's edge, gazing at the dead jellyfish scattered along the shore, his heart still pounding—if he had tarried a moment longer he might have been stung to death by those jellyfish. His body still tingled unbearably; by moonlight he looked down and saw his skin had turned pink, his face hot and swollen. In the moon's glow he dimly made out his reflection in the water, but before he could see his current appearance, a soft, plaintive moan came from behind him—needless to say, it was Tang Qingxuan as the drug took effect.

Hu Xiaotian turned and saw that Tang Qingxuan, in that moment, had stripped completely naked; moonlight poured over her soft, jade‑like body, revealing every graceful curve, enough to make one's blood race.

Tang Qingxuan swayed gracefully toward Hu Xiaotian, who for the first time felt at a loss—this sort of thing had happened to him before; once he had been stuffed with seven Red Yang Burn Yin Pills and, in a daze, slept with Xu Mi Tian Cheng. Back then it was the drug's effect; now he was clear‑headed, and besides, he felt no special affection for Tang Qingxuan. This was no era of casual one‑night flings where everyone went their separate ways the next day; although Tang Qingxuan was willful and headstrong, she was still a respectable young lady, and any involvement with her would demand responsibility.

Tang Qingxuan's mind was in turmoil, her thoughts reduced to a single impulse: to throw herself into Hu Xiaotian's arms.

Seeing her approach, Hu Xiaotian seized her arm in one grip and plunged Tang Qingxuan's whole body into the pond water—not to drown her, but to shock her awake with the cold.

The cold water jolted Tang Qingxuan awake for a brief moment; not knowing what had happened and seeing her surroundings, she let out a loud scream.

Hu Xiaotian's original intention had also been to wait until she calmed down before dragging her ashore, for the pond still teemed with jellyfish; as soon as Tang Qingxuan's body entered the water, the bottom glowed with pink phosphorescence, and the countless jellyfish surged back.

Before the jellyfish swarm could close in and envelop Tang Qingxuan, Hu Xiaotian pulled her back onto the shore again; the jellyfish lunged at nothing, then dispersed in all directions, drifting in the water like stars in a night sky. Hu Xiaotian drew a breath, about to leave the pond's edge, when he saw a dark, indistinct thing suddenly leap upward from the jellyfish mass. He started, instinctively leaning back, and saw a serpent whose head was as big as a washbasin launch itself upward, jaws agape, aiming to swallow the prey on the shore in one gulp. Hu Xiaotian arched his body to evade the strike, but before he could flee the bank, a purple‑scaled tail shot out of the water, coiled around his legs that he could not yet free, and with a hard yank dragged him back into the pond.

Tang Qingxuan's mind had just cleared for a moment when she saw Hu Xiaotian being dragged into the pond by a dark, indistinct thing; terrified out of her wits, she screamed, "Hu Xiaotian……!"

By then Hu Xiaotian had been hauled to the pond's depths, empty‑handed; in desperation he unleashed the Profound Dark Yin Wind Claw at the purple python, but his fingers slipped off its scales—though his grip strength could now crush a man's throat, the beast's hard hide suffered not a scratch.

In the distance two ghostly green lights drifted toward him; Hu Xiaotian's heart leapt, realizing they were not lights but the python's eyes. His legs were bound by the creature's tail, unable to break free, and he held no weapon to resist; he inwardly sighed, "Am I really to die here?"

Suddenly a flash of inspiration crossed his mind: the only recourse now was to play dead—a trick the old beggar had taught him, which he never used unless in dire emergency, recalling that many creatures have the quirk of refusing to eat the dead; though Hu Xiaotian knew this was extremely risky, he had no alternative but to gamble on it.

Hu Xiaotian immediately employed the 'playing dead dog' technique; the python's two large, ghost‑green eyes slowly approached his face, its massive jaws opening to swallow him whole—then it halted. His desperate gambit succeeded at this life‑or‑death juncture: the python indeed refuses carrion, sensing no breath from Hu Xiaotian, it presumed its prey dead, and, greatly disappointed, slowly loosened the tail coiled around his body.

Hu Xiaotian felt the python's body loosen, secretly rejoicing—heavens, the old man had actually escaped this peril by feigning death. Just as he thought the python was releasing him, its tail tightened again, and he panicked, wondering whether the beast had changed its mind, starving to the point of devouring corpses.

But now he was in a bind—afraid as he might be, he had to keep up the act; the python dragged Hu Xiaotian's body toward deeper water, and his ability to hold his breath for long periods underwater now proved vital, otherwise, even if not swallowed, he would suffocate to death in the icy pond bottom.

The pond's depth far exceeded Hu Xiaotian's imagination; as the python dove deeper, the water grew ever colder, the abyss plunged into total darkness—even the pink, phosphorescent peach‑blossom jellyfish vanished, presumably because they feared this purple giant python.

The purple python turned its body and entered a cavern at the pond's bottom; inside, only a surging undercurrent could be felt, and the python glided with the current even faster. Hu Xiaotian suddenly sensed he was being dragged away from the water's surface—first sliding through a mire, then the ground grew much firmer, his skin scraping against it and acquiring numerous abrasions; though the pain burned, he kept silent. A flick of the python's tail launched his body straight upward like a shot from a cannon; Hu Xiaotian felt himself akin to a projectile leaving the barrel, his heart pounding, silently cursing—if he slammed into a hard stone wall he'd be shattered to bits, even a mere earthen wall could not withstand it. Just as he was terrified out of his wits, his body arced to the height's apex and then fell in a parabola, landing on a pile of soft, yielding material; he dared not open his eyes, guessing by touch that it was mud or the like, and he also refrained from breathing, so he could not smell anything around.

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