Chapter 268: Obtained

The moment the words left his mouth, the two of them bolted toward the underground lake.

The great treasure had appeared. While the phenomenon had yet to spread and those outside remained oblivious, they had to seize it and flee immediately!

On the surface, the great monster—which had spent five days matching wits and strength against the horse bandits, constantly attempting to break through their perimeter to dive into the lake and return to the underground lake—suddenly charged toward the water as if its life depended on it.

Any horse bandit who stood in its way was either brutally bitten to death or crushed under its weight.

Realizing the monster’s ferocity, the three bandit chiefs were forced to join forces to intercept it.

However, this time the monster ignored them entirely. Protecting only its head and eyes and keeping its mouth tightly shut, it relied on its suit of hard scales to smash through the bandits’ encirclement and dive into the water.

The three bandit chiefs looked on with grim expressions. With such a monster occupying the lake, how could they continue to camp by the shore or search the desert?

Yet, before they could devise a plan, they suddenly felt the surrounding temperature drop significantly.

Though it was high noon in the heart of the desert, a distinct chill had settled in the air.

While the other bandits marveled at the oddity, the three chiefs seemed to realize something simultaneously. Their expressions shifted instantly, and they shot wary glances at one another.

One of them, more impatient than the rest, took several strides toward the lake before stopping. He turned to the other two and said, “That monster is incredibly powerful; we have no chance of winning against it alone. If we don’t join forces to kill that beast, the treasure will be claimed by it.”

The other two bandit leaders’ eyes flickered. They did not respond directly but instead turned to begin barking orders to their subordinates.

Soon, the leaders of the three bandit factions led their respective men into the lake, following close behind the great monster.

The monster had no interest in dealing with them. Once in the water, it located the underwater passage and dove in, swimming toward the underground lake.

The bandits followed. Before they had swum far, they felt the lake water become impossibly cold.

The three chiefs, possessing deep internal energy, could barely endure it. However, the bandits with weaker cultivation began to suffer from hypothermia, their muscles gradually turning stiff. They tried to swim back to the surface, but their speed could not keep pace with the plummeting temperature of the water.

Seeing the situation, the bandit chiefs realized that although the three of them could persist, no one knew how long they would have to stay submerged or if the temperature would continue to drop.

Even if they could follow the monster to its destination, their men clearly wouldn’t survive the journey.

If they continued, even if the three of them arrived, they might not be able to handle the monster—especially since the underwater realm was the beast’s domain.

Despite their immense reluctance, the three bandit chiefs turned and led their men out of the lake.

They stood on the shore, staring at the water with faces full of resentment.

The treasure was clearly right beneath them, yet they could only watch helplessly, unable to reach it.

The bitterness was extreme…

“Search! I don’t believe there isn’t another entrance.”

Once that monster consumed the supreme treasure and resurfaced, they would surely skin it, eat its flesh, and drink its blood.

***

Beneath the lake, Lian Li and Yun Huizhou rushed back to the edge of the underground lake.

The temperature here had dropped so low that even Yun Huizhou was forced to wrap himself in internal energy, to say nothing of Lian Li.

Lian Li felt his internal energy draining away like a fuel leak, consuming itself at a rapid pace.

Neither dared to waste time in such an environment. They quickly scanned the underground space, locking their gaze onto the leaves in the center of the lake.

The surface of the lake had already frozen over, and those leaves were covered in a thick layer of ice that still preserved their clear textures.

The entire underground space had become a world of ice.

Furthermore, in this short span of time, many of the leaves that had previously been spread across the water’s surface were now being pushed high into the air by their stems, rising out of the water.

Guarded by the surrounding leaves, a palm-sized, colorless lotus was faintly visible. It looked exactly like the lotus they held in their hands before it had turned red.

Yun Huizhou took flight, landing above the newly appeared lotus.

In just an instant, Lian Li saw Yun Huizhou’s entire body become covered in a layer of frost. The frost thickened at a rate visible to the naked eye; in a few more moments, Yun Huizhou risked being turned into an ice sculpture.

Lian Li noticed his movements becoming significantly sluggish, likely due to the extreme cold.

Yun Huizhou did not stop. With a jolt of internal energy, he shook off all the frost from his body, restoring his previous agility.

This reprieve was brief. As Yun Huizhou drew closer to the lotus, frost began to creep over his body once more.

Yun Huizhou was now about a meter away from the true lotus. The fingertips of his extended left hand were no longer just covered in frost, but a thin layer of ice.

One could imagine that the moment Yun Huizhou actually touched the lotus, his entire hand might be frozen and crippled.

Yun Huizhou realized this as well, but giving up now was clearly impossible.

In this short time, his internal energy consumption had been massive, and as time passed, the temperature of the underground space would only continue to drop.

If he gave up now to return to the shore and recover, he would likely never have another chance to get close to this lotus.

In fact, they had to leave this underground space as soon as possible, or he and Lian Li would be frozen into ice statues right here.

He tightened his grip on the saber in his right hand, only to suddenly realize that of his entire body, the frost on his right hand was the thinnest.

He had descended from above, and his right hand was the closest part of his body to the lotus after his left hand.

He glanced at his right hand and suddenly remembered that during the fight with the great monster, his right hand had been drenched in the creature’s blood.

The saber in that hand had practically been soaked in the monster’s blood as well.

In an instant, he understood what was happening. He immediately shifted his posture, withdrawing his left hand. With a flick of his right wrist, he unsheathed his saber and gripped it, slashing toward the stem beneath the lotus.

However, a single strike failed to sever the seemingly fragile stem. Instead, ice began to crawl up the blade, threatening to spread to Yun Huizhou’s right hand.

Seeing this, Lian Li ignored his own cold-induced sluggishness. He pulled the still-warm transparent lotus from his robes and threw it toward Yun Huizhou.

“Yun Huizhou, catch!”

The moment the transparent lotus left his person, Lian Li felt the cold intensify twofold.

If he felt this way standing by the shore, it was even worse for Yun Huizhou, who was right next to the supreme treasure without the protection of the transparent lotus.

To keep himself from freezing completely, Lian Li could only consume his internal energy even faster.

Fortunately, he had previously consumed nine Youxia Fruits, and his internal energy was now robust enough to reach a first-class level. Otherwise, he likely wouldn’t have been able to remain here at all.

Yun Huizhou raised his left hand and caught the transparent lotus Lian Li had thrown. Instantly, he felt the chill on his body lighten considerably, and the ice that had been creeping up his saber came to a halt.