Chapter 54: Getting a Gift, Part II

Wu Jian began doing laps around the spring. It wasn’t very big, maybe about twenty zhang from one side to the other, but that was big enough for him to get some exercise in. Yet as he was swimming near the side furthest from the girls, something powerful like a strong current pulled him down. Curious, he took a deep breath, ducked under the water, and swam down.

The water wasn’t exactly clear, and the further down he went, the darker his surroundings became. He realized this spring was much deeper than he could have imagined.

How far down does this go? It feels like I’ve been diving for nearly an hour.

He looked left, then right, but he could barely see, such was the murkiness found this far down. If it wasn’t for the sun high above just barely peeking through, he would have been swimming in total darkness.

The water’s so cold. Is it because the sun can’t warm it up? I remember reading something like that. Water is colder the deeper you go because the sun can’t reach it. But it’s okay. I can still handle this much.

Just as he was beginning to worry about running out of oxygen, he spotted something that looked like a cave in the side of the lake. Frowning, he went to take a closer look, but then a burning in his lungs reminded him that he needed to breathe.

With a loud splash and a gasp, Wu Jian breached the surface. He thought about immediately going back down again, but then he changed his mind and swam back to where the others were.

The girls didn’t pay him any mind. They were where they had been before he left, sitting on the edge, their feet resting against the pebbles as the water lapped at their toes. It seemed they were locked in a conversation about… him, if he had to guess. They were staring at him and giggling. Anyway, he ignored them and walked up to Wu Taohua.

“Is something wrong, young lord?” she asked.

“No. Nothing’s wrong, but I think I found something interesting while I was swimming. There’s a cave down at the bottom of this lake and I want to check it out,” he explained.

“I see.” Wu Taohua paused, and even Wu Meiying and Hou Jingshu stopped talking to pay attention. “I certainly do mind you checking out that cave. There is a good chance you will find a treasure inside that we can give to Zhou Lihua as a gift, but I should definitely come with you.”

“I thought you might say that,” Wu Jian said. That was the whole reason he had decided to speak with her first.

Wu Taohua began peeling off her clothes, revealing a well-proportioned and muscled figure underneath. She was a very lean woman. Her chest, wrapped in breast bindings, seemed to be of a decent size. What Wu Jian really paid attention to was her abdominal muscles. Her stomach was completely free of fat and far more chisseled than he could have imagined.  Both her arms and legs were also free of fat, toned from years of training, and had several scars marring her skin.

I never realized she had such a defined physique. What kind of training must she have done to get such a powerful figure? Wu Jian wondered.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Yes,” Wu Taohua said.

“Hold it. If you two are going, then we’re going too,” said Wu Meiying as she and Hou Jingshu stood up.

“You want to come with us? Really? I thought you wanted to be lazy,” Wu Jian teased.

“I did, until you said you found something interesting,” Wu Meiying fired back.

“I’m just curious to know what you discovered,” Hou Jingshu said, looking away. Her ears were red. “Don’t look too into it.”

“Well, I don’t mind if you come along. The more the merrier,” Wu Jian said with a shrug.

Wu Meiying and Hou Jingshu both stripped off their clothes, until they were in their underwear and chest wraps as well. Because they were both young, neither of them had a figure like Wu Taohua, but Wu Jian did think they were both very pretty.

Wu Meiying had a bigger chest than Hou Jingshu.

Before long, Wu Jian, Wu Meiying, Wu Taohua, and Hou Jingshu were swimming to the bottom of the spring. Wu Jian found the small entrance just like last time. Since he was prepared this time, he had enough oxygen to swim through. The three women followed behind him. As they swam, he thought he heard a gagging sound and turned around to find Hou Jingshu struggling, her face blue.

He grabbed the girl and quickly kicked his feet, traveling through a small tunnel. His chest soon began burning as he struggled against the lack of oxygen. His head was beginning to feel funny. Resisting the urge to take a breath, he soon reached the end of the tunnel, burst out of the water, and inhaled sharply.

“Hack! Coff! Coff! Ack!”

Beside him, Hou Jingshu was coughing and hacking out water she had accidentally inhaled. They were fortunate to have broken through the surface when they did. She had only inhaled a little bit of water, not enough to prove dangerous.

Wu Meiying and Wu Taohua emerged beside both of them, and while the younger of the two looked like she was struggling to regain her breath, the oldest among them looked fine.

“How can you… hold your breath… for so long?” asked Hou Jingshu.

“Assassins like myself learn breathing techniques to mask our presence. They require us to expand our lung capacity, so I can intake more oxygen than you three,” Wu Toahua explained.

“Is that really how it is?”

“Yes, it is. Anyway, I never would have expected that tunnel to lead us to an underground cave. How interesting. Naturally forms caves like this often hold natural treasures,” she said.

“Do they really?” asked Wu Jian, excited. If this place had a natural treasure, then it might be something they could give to Zhou Lihua.

Wu Taohua nodded. “Yes. Natural treasures are scarce resources that often hold a unique form of sentience and a self-preservation instinct. They often only grow in places where people are unlikely to think of looking or reach.”

“Which means there is a good chance we’ll find something amazing here. A natural treasure hidden in an underground cave that can only be reached by swimming must be something incredible,” said Wu Meiying.

“Let’s swim to the shore and search the area,” said Wu Jian.

Wu Jian helped Hou Jingshu reached the shore. The girl was no longer coughing, but being forced to hold her breath for so long had definitely drained her. He rubbed the girl’s back as the other two emerged from the water. Wu Jian thought it was a good thing their chest bindings and underwear was made from the durable hide of a magical beast, or it would have been soaked through.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I’m… I’m fine,” Hou Jingshu said taking several more deep breaths. “Whew. Yes, I feel fine now. Thank you, Wu Jian.”

“Mm. You’re welcome.”

Wu Jian stood up and offered his hand to Hou Jingshu, who took it and allowed him to pull her up.

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The place where they found themselves was a narrow tunnel with uneven walls. As was the case with most natural tunnels, this one sloped and curved and possessed a bumpy surface. It was dark, so they could only see a few feet in front of them. However, there was some softly glowing moss that provided at least a bit of illumination. It was stuck to the walls and ceiling in thick clumps.

“That’s lamp moss,” Wu Taohua explained. “It’s not exactly rare, but it only grows in certain places.”

“The Imperial Capital uses lamp moss to light the sewers,” Hou Jingshu said. “I’m told it’s to help sanitation workers clean.”

Wu Jian didn’t want to think about cleaning sewers, so he kept his eyes locked forward and his ears alert for any signs of danger. None had presented itself so far, however, and the cavern soon opened into a much larger space that looked almost like a room. More moss covered the ground and glowed far more brightly than in the tunnel. This allowed them to see the massive underground lake, which had numerous floating flowers gently swaying on the water’s surface.

“What a beautiful sight,” Wu Meiying sighed, hands to her cheeks.

“This place looks almost mystical,” Hou Jingshu agreed.

“Th-those are sacred lilies!” Wu Taohua exclaimed.

What Wu Taohua called sacred lilies were large flowers vaguely shaped like a normal lily, except these had at least twelve petals and some had as many as twenty. Further out was the largest flower he had ever seen. That one at least one hundred petals, though he thought it might have even more. It was hard to judge from this distance.

“I’ve never heard of a sacred lily before. What are they?” asked Hou Jingshu.

“Sacred lilies are a very rare flower that can increase one’s cultivation by an entire realm if consumed. It gains a petal once every ten years. The more petals a sacred lily has, the more potent its effects. That large one over there must be at least a thousand years old, though I suspect it's much older,” explained Wu Taohua.

These sacred lilies sounded incredible. Wu Jian was tempted to take as many as he could and use them for his own cultivation. But not only could he not use them right now since he was much too young, there was something even more important they needed these for.

“Then… this would make a good gift for Zhou Lihua, right?” asked Wu Jian.

“A very good gift,” Wu Taohua confessed. “However, we shouldn’t act imprudently. Natural treasures are always protected by magical beasts. Unlike humans, magical beasts who haven’t reached the fifth rank or become the pet of some cultivator must rely on natural treasures to increase their power. I am sure there’s a magical beast hidden within that water. You three stay back and let me deal with this.”

Wu Taohua stepped forward as the three kids moved back toward the tunnel. She made a seal with her hands, though Wu Jian couldn’t see which one, then vanished before their eyes. He blinked several times as Hou Jingshu let out an exclamation of surprise. This wasn’t his first time seeing Wu Taohua use one of her techniques, but he always found it impressive.

She’s so fast! Just how fast can she move?

While they could not see her move, they did see one of the lilies—one with exactly ten petals—slowly rise above the water’s surface. There was barely a ripple on the surface. It looked like she was going to get the sacred lily without any trouble.

At least, it did at first.

A loud screech soon echoed around the chamber and tentacles burst from the water. Black, writhing masses of flesh that were thicker than Wu Jian’s torso. Each one was covered in thousands of suckers. Wu Jian and Hou Jingshu screamed in surprise as they stumbled back, away from the lake.

Wu Taohua appeared, sacred lily in hand, and began running toward them.

“Move! Quickly! Back the way we came!”

None of them needed to be told this twice. They all ran back the way they came as the tentacles chased after them, much longer than Wu Jian expected. It seemed as if they could extend for hundreds of feet.

One of them nearly grabbed onto Wu Taohua, but she deftly severed it with a swing of her butterfly sword, which she removed from its sheathe faster than his eyes could track.

The tentacle was not severed like he expected. A loud clang like metal on metal rang out as the tentacle was forced back. However, it quickly came after her again, though she swung her butterfly sword each time it tried to grab her. The clang clang clang of her sword crashing against tentacle echoed around them.

They soon reached the water and quickly dove in, swimming as fast as their legs and arms could carry them. They thought the weird tentacle monster might chase after them. However, once they emerged from the spring, nothing came for them. Perhaps the tentacles had a limit to how far they could extend.

All of them emerged from the surface and swam toward the edge, where they hauled themselves out and sat on the bank, heaving for air.

“That was… frightening,” Hou Jingshu gasped.

“You… you said it. I never want to do that again,” said Wu Meiying.

“What was that?” asked Wu Jian.

“It was probably a freshwater octopus. I’m very surprised one of those lives here. They normally live in larger lakes,” Wu Taohua said, her expression pondering. “If I had to guess, I would say it’s a very old freshwater octopus who was carried here through an underground stream. Perhaps that’s why this spring exists.”

“Why didn’t it chase us though?” asked Wu Jian.

“That is a good question. Octopus are more than capable of fitting through small spaces, and even if this one is over fifty zhang in width, it should be able to squeeze itself through. My guess is that it didn’t want to leave the sacred lilies unattended. Magical beasts zealously guard whatever treasures they have found and won’t leave them for long, lest someone else steal it from under their nose. Anyway, We have what we came here for, so let’s head back home.”

Wu Taohua stood up, went over to her clothes, and began getting dressed after carefully placing the sacred lily inside of a box.

The box was not big. It would have looked unassuming if it wasn’t covered in symbols that Wu Jian couldn’t recognize. All he knew was they were seals, and their purpose was to keep any ingredient fresh. Natural treasures tended to spoil fast if not carefully stored.

Wu Jian, Wu Meiying, and Hou Jingshu also got dressed, though both girls complained about how the water was making their clothes cling to their skin. Wu Jian listened to their complaints with a wry smile. He didn’t say that it was their fault for deciding to come with him, but the words were clearly represented on his face.

They descended the mountain at a slow and steady pace, eventually reaching the bottom. Forest spread out as far as the eye could see. Wu Taohua took a moment to orient herself, then began leading them back toward the Wu Clan compound.

Yet just as they began walking, several figures emerged from the trees and surrounded them. Wu Jian didn’t recognize anybody. All of them were rough-looking, dirty, and wearing horribly dinged and scratched up armor. A myriad of mismatched weapons were gripped in their hands, equally as old and rusted as their clothes.

Mercenaries? I remember Father saying mercenaries had been spotted near Zahn City, but what are they doing in this forest?

One of them stepped forward and gave them a toothy grin. He was a large man with hulking muscles that seemed to barely fit into his armor. His long hair was tied into a ponytail and there was a cross-shaped scar on his right cheek. Greasy stains covered his face. His nose was misshapen, a clear sign that it had been broken at least once, probably more. His arms were bare, so his powerful-looking limbs were displayed in all their glory.

“Look who we have here. Yer the one called Wu Taohua, yeah? We got some business with you… and that brat over there,” he said, gesturing to Wu Jian with his chin.

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