If this had been even just five minutes earlier, Jia Yu, who was currently embracing the heavy lotus bud, might well have turned it over and over, savoring the sight of it from every angle. But now, what leisure or poetic mood did he have left? The moment he lowered his head, he blew straight at the flower.

This, too, was something every competitor had to do. After finding the Overlord Lotus, one had to blow open the lotus bud before the rest of the Lotus Festival could continue.

It was only then that the Overlord Lotus could be cut down.

The ambusher, of course, was Fan Sheng.

He had also seen what Jia Yu was doing, but the wager had been made between Zhongsun Mou and He Lingchuan. Whether it was won or lost had nothing to do with him. He had only one objective: to kill He Lingchuan.

So Jia Yu was able to lower his head in complete safety and blow a fierce breath straight into the lotus bud.

Infused with human breath, the bud began to open slowly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Only then did the blood-red petals, the pink-gold lines, and the green lotus receptacle with streaks of gold reveal themselves one after another.

The blossom itself was over a meter across, making it bigger than a washbasin.

Only now did the name Overlord Lotus truly fit it.

A flash of golden light swept over its surface, and then a beam shot straight into the sky!

Even beneath a cloudy sky, that golden radiance was especially conspicuous.

The spectators who had been craning their necks on and below Chao Lake Tower instantly pointed toward the golden column of light and shouted, “It’s lit up, it’s lit up! Someone found it!”

The crowd exploded with noise.

“It’s only been an hour, hasn’t it? That’s way too fast!”

“That’s not normal at all. Could someone be cheating?”

“I wonder which team came in first?”

And one busybody smacked his forehead and cried, “Who won and who lost that massive wager? I hope the Cen household won!”

“Even if they did, they wouldn’t hand you a single copper coin!”

“Yeah, but I could still win money today!”

Amid the arguing, the golden pillar of light suddenly dispersed.

That too was an oddity, and it set everyone off into another storm of speculation. In previous years, the beam would last at least the time it took to drink a cup of tea before vanishing.

Fortunately, the rest of the process did not change.

The hundreds of thousands of lotus buds throughout the maze all seemed to receive the same command and bloomed open at once.

Even the hundred-plus water lilies in the embanked pool beneath Chao Lake Tower instantly opened too.

Such a marvelous spectacle, even if one could witness it once every year, still won thunderous applause every time.

“The lotuses have bloomed!” Only at this moment did all the lotus flowers across Baishajue truly burst into full summer blossom.

The best season for admiring lotuses began today and would last about forty days. During that time, fresh buds would continue to grow, but they would no longer be governed by the Overlord Lotus.

County Magistrate Tian was all smiles as he said to the honored guests on the tower, “The lotus flowers have opened. Esteemed guests, please come below to attend the ceremony.”

Only now was the Lotus Festival truly about to begin. The grounds below the tower had long since been prepared, just waiting for the guests of honor to take their seats.

So the crowd naturally moved with the flow and began descending from the tower.

As for the wager between the Crown Prince’s special envoy and the Touring Commissioner from Lingxu City, the stakes were still sitting on the table, guarded by designated attendants.

No one knew that inside the Lotus Palace, before anyone could even cut down the Overlord Lotus, its stem had already snapped with a sharp crack.

Jia Yu held the lotus in his arms and froze, not knowing what to do.

The Overlord Lotus was in hand, but the boat had been smashed apart, and the Crown Prince’s special envoy was being hunted down.

So how were they supposed to get back?

Another boat came rowing over from the opposite side, carrying guards from the Cen household.

They had followed He Lingchuan here the whole way. Fan Sheng had dove into the water, while the guards remained on the boat to provide support.

The moment the guard saw what Jia Yu was holding, he immediately poled his boat over, intending to snatch it by force.

* * *

After He Lingchuan hurled himself onto the boat, he rolled straight into the water in the next moment, and he did not forget to throw something out as he did so.

The posture looked like a crocodile diving. It was ugly, but fast and practical.

Water was the best cover. Any attack would have more than one layer of its force stripped away by it.

He had long since tested the waters here. On average, the Lotus Palace waters were about 1.7 meters deep, but the northeastern corner where they had entered was a bit deeper, around 2 meters. Only lotus plants strengthened by the lotus monster could grow into such gigantic forms, rising well above the surface even from that depth.

That was deeper than the average lotus pond, and it was deep enough for him to work with.

He Lingchuan would not dare claim to be some peerless flood dragon, but chasing fish through murky water was no problem for him at all.

And what lotus pond bottom was not thick with silt? For all its size, this Lotus Palace was no exception.

The instant he entered the water, he churned up the bottom.

Mud and sand billowed upward, and Fan Sheng above could no longer see him.

But at that very moment, dozens of palm-sized figures suddenly shot out from the surrounding waters and bit at every part of his body, with special attention paid to the key spots.

These things had the bodies of pomfret, but beneath their fins and along their bellies, they were blood-red. When they kept their mouths shut, they looked almost kindly; once they opened them, however, their mouths were packed with razor-sharp teeth even sharper than blades.

Their attack speed was terrifyingly fast. In a single second, one could lunge five times, making five bites on a human body, and each time they snapped down, they thrashed madly side to side with their tails, hoping to tear off a larger strip of flesh.

A single one of these man-eating fish would not have been too hard to deal with, but dozens attacking together were the worst nightmare of anyone who fell into the water.

Fortunately, a faint azure light shimmered over He Lingchuan’s body.

The Soul-Stealing Mirror’s automatic protective power had activated on its own, reducing the damage that got through to less than ten percent.

Even so, it immediately cried out as well, “Hey, hurry up and think of something! I can’t hold on much longer! These things are vicious!”

Even ten percent of the damage still hurts badly. He Lingchuan could not help but curse, “What use are you, then?”

With the treasure pearl in his mouth, he could breathe underwater without issue, and that did not stop him from talking.

Of course, he knew perfectly well that the mirror’s protective barrier was already quite impressive. Back in the ruins of Qianxing City, it had even withstood Uncle Da’s full-force attack. The reason it was panicking so quickly now was simply that the combined attack power of these piranha-like fish was too overwhelming.

These things were either minor monsters or summoned creatures. There was a high likelihood that they were Fan Sheng’s doing. After all, before the race began, the water spirit had already ordered the fish to leave.

He Lingchuan cursed furiously in his heart while swimming hard into the distance.

A whole school of the man-eating fish pursued him relentlessly, attacking in a frenzy.

“Quick, quick, quick! Do something!” the mirror kept urging him. “Ow! That hurts!”

Before the fish could inflict serious harm on He Lingchuan, they first had to break through the mirror’s protection. But enough ants could bite an elephant to death, and this sort of rapid gnawing backed by origin energy was more than the mirror could comfortably withstand.

He Lingchuan swam quickly, but before he had gone even seven meters, a warning suddenly flared in his heart.

Fleeting Life had already fused with him into one. This was the treasured saber itself warning him that danger was coming from—

Above!

* * *

Beneath Chao Lake Tower, the figures of influence had already reached the sandy islet by the lake.

The boats in the lotus token contest would not be returning that quickly, so the Lotus Festival ceremony had to proceed first.

The sand here was naturally fine and white, requiring no grooming by human hands. The islet was level and broad, with a sweeping view across Chao Lake. Over the past ten years, seven Lotus Festivals had opened here.

The embanked pool behind it, serving as the backdrop, was now bursting with blooming lotuses. Alongside the islet stood a broad stretch of covered corridors and pavilions, ordinarily meant for visitors to rest and enjoy the scenery, but now serving as seating for the honored guests.

The commoners and merchants, meanwhile, stood packed together behind them so tightly there was hardly room to breathe.

County Magistrate Tian struck the chime and the bell, drawing everyone’s attention, then smiled and gave a few opening remarks.

This was all routine. He knew the old script so well that he could recite it backward without a manuscript.

Next, Zhongsun Mou strode onto the stage in an unhurried manner to deliver his ceremonial address.

Warm applause broke out throughout the audience.

The constables nearby, along with the plants hidden among the crowd to stir the mood, applauded especially enthusiastically, and only then did they successfully draw the rest of the audience into clapping along.

Though Zhongsun Mou had lately been full of worry, he had no intention of missing a scene like this.

His speech was polished and ornate. Heard amid the fragrance of flowers and the clear waters, it carried a special charm.

As the merman’s voice spread across the sandy islet, a child standing behind the pavilion suddenly tugged at his mother’s sleeve and said, “Look over there.”

His mother, half-squinting as she listened to the pianwen[1] being delivered up front, was already starting to doze. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

She ignored the child, but the child kept tugging insistently.

“What is it?”

The child pointed toward the embanked pool opposite them. “There’s something over there.”

The mother glanced over. The lotus flowers were swaying in the breeze. “What thing?”

“It looked like something moved underneath the lotuses.”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

No sooner had she said it than the fine sand of the islet suddenly bulged slightly upward, right beneath Zhongsun Mou’s feet.

He sensed that something was wrong as well, but he kept reciting without pause, merely lowering his head to look.

A giant abyssal mouth suddenly opened below him.

Before he had time to react, everything went black before his eyes.

To everyone else standing in front of him, the Touring Commissioner had been standing there perfectly fine one instant, and the next, some enormous thing burst up from beneath the sand and swallowed him whole in a single gulp, from bottom to top.

In less than the blink of an eye, the Touring Commissioner was gone.

That aberrant creature was truly massive, and it was rounder and larger than a granary. Most of the honored guests in the pavilion had their line of sight completely blocked by it.

Is that a gigantic... snail?

What are those strange patterns on its shell?

But why does that aberrant creature carrying that snail shell have four legs?

Wait, wait a minute, the Touring Commissioner was just eaten!

The spectators were stunned.

Whether noble, guard, commoner, or constable, all of them went silent in that instant.

Wu Kai was horrified. “Lord Zhongsun!”

Cen Boqing, meanwhile, slammed his hand against the table and leaped to his feet.

The aberrant creature had appeared right in front of the embanked pool, standing exactly where Zhongsun Mou had been a moment before.

Cen Boqing felt that its pair of antenna-like eyes was fixed directly on him, as though it were openly provoking him.

Zhongsun Mou’s guards came to their senses as well and rushed forward. Naturally, when their master had gone up to give his speech, they would not have accompanied him onto the stage.

Now that Zhongsun Mou had met with disaster, they knew there would be no good outcome for them when they returned. The guards’ eyes nearly split with fury, and two of them hurled their weapons without thinking.

They aimed for the monster’s eyes and jaw, but the aberrant creature’s eyes suddenly retracted backward, and the spears missed.

Another blade, however, struck the creature in the cheek, sinking some two-thirds of a meter in as sticky fluid sprayed out.

But the thing was simply too enormous. That slash was like stabbing someone in the mouth with a toothpick. While it might be painful, it was nowhere near fatal.

Another flying spear shot in, but this one came from Cen Boqing, who had drawn his own weapon and hurled it like a javelin while shouting, “Kill it!”

His strength, accuracy, and speed were far beyond those of the guards.

The aberrant creature suddenly opened its mouth and flicked out a red rope, actually knocking the spear aside.

What in the world is that?

Cen Boqing could tell, though, that the red rope was its tongue.

What sort of aberrant creature has snail-like eye stalks, yet the tongue of a frog or toad?

Cen Boqing ground his teeth, while Uncle Wu had already gone deathly pale.

Isn’t this the aberrant creature Mai Xuewen had used to hunt monsters?

The spearpoint clattered down before the pavilion, and the honored guests and commoners cried out and recoiled, while the constables and the bodyguards from the various households surged forward.

However, it was too late.

The aberrant creature lowered its head and drove it into the sand, and then its huge bulk burrowed downward with astonishing speed.

All kinds of divine techniques and magical artifacts struck its shell, producing a few dull clangs, but none of them pierced through. At most, they left a few white marks.

The aberrant creature dove into the sand with incredible speed, as smooth and effortless as a fish plunging into water, and vanished in an instant.

1. Pianwen is a highly stylized prose style, prevalent throughout the history of Chinese literature. Its prominent features lie in its regular lines arranged in couplets; in its early history, these lines were mostly of either four or six characters, and so pianwen are also known as Four-Six Prose. ☜