Qinyang and Bao Zhi entered the pillar of light.
Their vision was engulfed by a blinding whiteout. They felt the power of Ti Fisher Grotto as it transported them.
When the sensation abated and their vision returned to normal, they found themselves sitting in a small samapan boat.
Small waves gently rocked the tiny fishing vessel.
Thick mist covered the water surface, limiting the range of vision. The water seed pale white as it reflected the fog.
There was no land in sight, only the silhouettes of other sampan boats dotted the foggy horizon in the distance.
"What is this place?" Qinyang studied the environnt, as a shiver ran through her body. "It gives the creeps."
Bao Zhi could also feel a strong force weighing him down. He has felt this kind of suppression before.
"This... Why? This seems like a segnt of the River of Ti!" He exclaid.
"But shouldn't we be inside the grotto heaven? If this really is the River of Ti, aren't we in grave danger?" Qinyang was quick to recognize the situation's seriousness.
"Can a grotto heaven be placed inside the River of Ti?" She wondered, her mories unable to answer her question.
In her mind she continued. "But the River or Ti shouldn't be this calm, because Fate gu is currently in a damaged state in Spectral's era. Only if it was perfectly restored would the River of Ti return to its original tranquil state. Then you could even see into the future with certainty, without wisdom path deductions."
"This can't be the River of Ti. It doesn't make sense." She reached out to touch the water, but Bao Zhi cautioned her to stop.
"Sothing is off. This place is indeed like the River of Ti, but I rember no river segnt similar to this." Bao Zhi also had his doubts.
As a forrly rank eight gu immortal he had much more hands-on experience than what Qinyang knew.
Even if this place wasn't inside the River of Ti, the water all around them were unmistakably the water from the River of Ti.
Its dense ti path dao marks suppressed the dao marks of other paths by the principle of dao mark conflict.
The River of Ti was a secluded domain of heaven and earth, a quasi rank nine existence!
It even suppressed the effect of immortal gu to a degree!
Bao Zhi activated his investigative killer moves, but their effects were greatly reduced. Mortal killer moves were practically unusable, they couldn't reach further in the fog than what the naked eye could see.
Only his immortal killer move—Human Qi Sensation—produced a passable effect, but due to the suppression, it could only reach the baseline of a rank five killer move outside in the five regions.
Still, he manged to obtain so useful information.
"There are so many gu immortals here! Many more than I saw in Immorial Desert." Bao Zhi could vaguely make out the auras of the others on the boat around them.
Soul path, transformation path, ti path, wind path, dark path and many others.
There was a great variety in the paths of the gu immortals he could sense.
Ti Fisher Grotto has clearly lured in not only ti path gu immortals, but many people who were looking to grasp its secret of longevity.
"This is not what we expected. Do we change our plan now?" Qinyang asked.
Bao Zhi was silent for a mont.
"Let's observe the situation for now before we decide."
The silhouettes of the other immortals stood still with their boats, calmly following the gentle rhythm of the waves.
They were also testing the environnt with their thods.
A faint voice reached Bao Zhi and the rest.
"Friends, we are all here for the sa reason, let's not make our situation more difficult than it has to be. We can still decide on splitting the gains after obtaining the Ti Fisher inheritance."
His ssage garnered so silent agreent.
"Hmph! Wishful thinking!" Another voice from a seemingly very distant boat replied. "We've just arrived and you are already thinking of splitting the loot. What makes you qualified? Hot headed fools like that have no hope to unravel this place."
The first gu immortal tried to negotiate an agreent, but they couldn't co to a consensus as more immortals chid in to state their terms.
So voiced intent of cooperation, so threatened to fight to the death if the others didn't yield more benefits to them.
But nobody dared to act first, not in this unexpected environnt, so their threats remained empty.
"Quiet down, you witless rabble!" An aged voice bood, easily suppressing the other voices. "I am here for the inheritance. I do not mind if you follow , but if you dare stand in my way... Hehehe."
"Who said that? State your na! I can't sense you." One of them cursed. "If it wasn't for this damned river fog!"
"I'm using my most powerful technique to transmit my voice, yet it can barely reach. How is his voice not suppressed?"
"He must clearly be a big shot, at least a rank seven gu immortal."
"He is a ti path gu immortal. He isn't suppressed by the river water." Soone deduced.
The gu immortals could only guess, but they couldn't verify the identity behind the voice. It was hard to establish who it was just by his voice.
"Friend, who cultivates ti path, you are right. I'm willing to follow you and lend my strength if you let join you."
The gu immortals didn't just talk idly, they soon discovered the ans to control their sampan boats via their gu worms.
The boats moved at a slow pace. It felt arduously slow especially for the gu immortals who were used to the blazing speeds of immortal level movent techniques.
"This won't do! I can't even see where we should be heading. Going in the wrong way at this rate will only waste ti."
With that said, this gu immortal jumped from his boat and activated his movent technique to soar above the thick fog.
Woosh!
Splash, splash!
Almost imdiately two huge splashes could be heard!
Shortly after, followed by a strong gust of wind and a ring of waves that rocked the boats, the gu immortals listened keenly, but there was no sign of that gu immortal; complete silence.
"What did you see?" Soone broke the silence.
No response.
"There is sothing in the water!" A gu immortals got imdiately alard.
"I saw it!" Soone pointed at a dark patch in the water. "A creature is under the water!"
"It must be a desolate beast native to the River of Ti."
The atmosphere got imdiately tense, nobody dared to leave their boats after this.
After a while an ethereal chi sounded seemingly everywhere and a voice rang in the people's ears.
"Contestants of Ti Fisher Grotto!"
All gu immortals turned their attention to the voice.
"You have passed the first trial and deciphered the clue. It was a test of your understanding."
"Show that you not only understand it but can carry it out in act."
"Should you try anything nefarious, you will be disqualified and expelled from the competition."
"Now, let the second stage begin. Take your fishing rods."
A simple fishing rod materialized on the boats for each person and the voice disappeared as quickly as it ca.
So gu immortals started experinting right away, trying various thods to complint their fishing.
So contemplated the information, ruminating on its deeper anings.
So simply took the fishing rod in their hands and cast its hook into the waters.
"Are we going to just sit?" Qinyang took her own fishing rod studying it closely, but it all seed but ordinary.
"If the first test was testing our understanding of the clue and this test is about embodying that clue, then this test is about our patience, whether we can achieve tranquility." Bao Zhi pointed out.
"Is that it? Then we will have just be still and ditate." Qinyang had her doubts. This seed too simple of a test to her.
Her suspicions were confird not much later, when she noticed an obvious problem.
Woosh!
A dark purple arrow shot out from one of the boats, streaking across the mist and hitting the closest sampan boat.
Bang!
The attack was weakened by the environnts suppression, but it still rocked the small boat, almost flipping it over.
"You!" A wind blade struck back in retaliation, leaving a gash on the boat.
The small boat quickly started to take on water; its owner hastily used his thods to try and fix the hole and avoid sinking.
The rest observed the events silently.
Will the two be disqualified?
But there was no repercussion from the grotto heaven's arrangent.
"It seems, this clash was still within the rules."
The gu immortals distanced themselves warily, now glad for the thick fog's isolation.
"The problem is the other gu immortals here!" Qinyang noted.
"Indeed. If your tranquility can be disturbed, you will likely fail this test." Bao Zhi nodded solemnly. "The rules are intentionally vague. Its limits need to be determined carefully. Overshoot, and you'll be the one who is disqualified."
Ti passed as everyone tried their best to pass this stage. Clashes were rare, but still present; using new and indirect ways to compete.
Strangely, it was the ti path gu immortal, Shi Ji who encountered the most trouble!
"This damnable beast!" He cursed in anger.
This was the third ti the creature disturbed him; now almost plunging him and his boat under a wave.
"Protect Lord Shi Ji. He is our pillar to conquer the grotto." One of his ally rallied to help.
But they could only catch a glimpse of the nimble beast before it disappeared again.
Their attempts to harm it were all but futile; only Shi Ji's thods were sowhat effective.
"This situation is troubleso." Shi Ji grumbled. "Only if I could fight back freely, I could catch this damn fish and skin it alive!"
Shi Ji intentionally restrained his power, not wanting to cross the line.
Bao Zhi and Qinyang faced no obstruction so far; both of them sat idly on their boat.
Qinyang couldn't help but feel bored seeing the saness of the unchanging scenery.
"I might as well do sothing useful while we wait for this la trial." She activated a killer move in her aperture.
The killer move had no effect on the outside, but in her mind she could clearly hear a lifeless, monotone voice.
"[BOOT SEQUENCE START]"
"[1/27] - CIRCUIT CHECK... [OK]"
She found it hard to contain her excitent.
"[2/27] - POWER SOURCE CHECK... [4%]"
"[WARNING]: INSUFFICIENT ESSENCE"
"[3/27] - AUXILIARY POWER... [ON]"
"[DEBUG]: not gu immortal yet just use the stones"
"[DEBUG]: TODO remove these"
"[4/27] - SENSOR CHECK... [OK]"
"[5/27] - ACTUATOR CHECK..."
"[ERROR]: ACTUATORS NOT FOUND"
"[INFO]: BOOT OVERRIDE SET: IGNORING ERRORS"
"[DEBUG]: full send it yolo"
"[DEBUG]: TODO remove these"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it's missing. I only activated the core part."
...
"[27/27] - GENERATING SUMMARY... [OK]"
"[INFO]: BOOT PROCESS COMPLETE"
"[INFO]: REDUCED FUNCTIONALITY"
"WELCO USER: QINYANG"
"So far so good. The stuff I added seems to work." Qinyang glanced at the ssages scrolling before her mind's eye.
"Hm, the essence consumption is way higher." She noticed the estimated depletion of an immortal essence stone was shorter than before.
"But there is nothing to worry about. As long as I only have mortal gu; essence stones are basically an unlimited power source."
"Still, I wonder; what could be the cause behind this?"
"INQUIRY RECEIVED... PROCESSING"
"Huh? What's this thing doing now?"
"INQUIRY RECEIVED... [2/2] PROCESSING... [1/2]"
"..."
"INQUIRY RESULT [1/2]: INSUFFICIENT DATA TO DETERMINE CAUSE OF INEFFICIENCY"
"INQUIRY RESULT [2/2]: CURRENT TASK: LISTENING ON MIND INTERFACE
"No way... It can read my mind?"
"INQUIRY RECEIVED... PROCESSING... RESULT: TRUE"
"I should have RTFM..." Qinyang shook hear head in disbelief.
"[WARNING]: UNDEFINED STRING: RTFM"
"It ans 'read the fucking manual'. I didn't know about the mind reading, but at least you can only receive my thoughts and not my mories."
"INQUIRY RECEIVED... PROCESSING... 0 RESULTS FOR SEARCH TERM: FUCKING MANUAL"
"..."
"SEARCH FOR ALTERNATIVES? [Y/N]"
"Yeah, right."
"SEARCHING FOR TERMS: REPRODUCTION HANDBOOK, REPRODUCTION GUIDE, BREEDING MANUAL..."
"Aah shut up, you stupid machine!"
"PROCESS INTERRUPTED BY USER: SEARCH"
"CONFIGURATION CHANGED: FEEDBACK: SILENT"
"You're just smart enough to be annoying but too dumb to be useful." Qinyang sighed, lanting why she didn't try out this system sooner.
That's right, this system wasn't her creation; not entirely at least.
"Jue Shi told it's trivial to use these gu so I didn't read the details on them. He should have just given the full inheritance! Why be so stingy?"
"Still, these gu worms, like the electric brain gu are from the Golden Red Armor true inheritance. They are extraordinary creations by a venerable, I'm just using them wrong." Qinyang re-frad her mindset.
"So you got a user manual for ?"
...
"Hello?"
...
"Oh right. I muted it. Um, do a config change and un-mute yourself!"
"CONFIGURATION CHANGED: FEEDBACK: DEFAULT"
Qinyang dived deep into the intricacies and different functionalities of the system.
Ti seed to fly quickly.
At one point she received a group of unexpected notifications.
"[WARNING]: INTERNAL CLOCK OUT OF SYNC... CORRECTING... OK"
"???"
"[WARNING]: INTERNAL CLOCK OUT OF SYNC... CORRECTING... OK"
"[WARNING]: INTERNAL CLOCK OUT OF SYNC... CORRECTING..."
"[ERROR]: UNKNOWN ERROR"
"REBOOTING"
"What's going on?" Qinyang opened her eyes in shock.
While she sat still, her whole body got covered in ice!
Not just that, she found that she couldn't move at all; she was solidly frozen to the small fishing boat.
Her eyes darted left and right; the thick fog was condensing on Bao Zhi and her at a visible speed!
It was no ordinary ice nor an ordinary fog; they were made from the water of the River of Ti!
As the fog receded and turned to ice, at least the visibility improved finally.
Then, Qinyang noticed another anomaly. The water surface wasn't level!
"This, this isn't still water! Are we accelerating?"
"Bao Zhi! Do sothing!" She wanted to shout, but she was like an insect trapped in solid ember.
Bao Zhi sat calmly under a layer of ice with the fishing rod in his hands, his eyes closed."
In the distance Qinyang noticed the other boats again; they were closing in.
Soon, she saw the gu immortals were all frozen solid as well. There was no more commotion, just eerie silence.
Qinyang tried to break free, but how could she overco this overbearing force, when even the gu immortals faltered?"
She fixed her gaze at the ever further horizon.
"How could this be?" If her jaw could drop, her mouth would be agape at this sight.
Behind the curving river water, as if an upside-down mountain was carved out of the river, a huge vortex drew the tiny fishing boats down and forward.
She tried to focus her attention, but it was harder and harder by the mont.
In a flash, her vision sared to darkness.
* * * * *
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