The 'islet' moved quickly toward the shore.
The approach of the foreign beast brought upon them formless tension. Aside from a few-Lan WangJi, Jin ZiXuan, Jiang Cheng, and Wen ZhuLiu-everyone else kept on staggering backward. Just as everyone thought that the underwater creature would flip out any moment, it halted.
The dormant beast had been awakened because Wei WuXian jumped onto its back. Now, Wei WuXian didn't dare move rashly. He remained where he was and waited.
Above the dark water that surrounded the 'islet' were a few maple leaves of an unusually bright shade of red, slowly floating by.
Below the leaves, within the depths of the pool, was something that looked like a pair of glowing bronze mirrors.
The bronze mirrors grew larger and larger, nearer and nearer. Wei WuXian exclaimed under his breath. Dragging Wen Chao, he stepped back just as the surface below his foot shook and suddenly began to rise. The 'islet' rose into the air. The large, coal-black head of a beast, atop it the couple of maple leaves, soared out of the water!
Under the screams varying in pitch, the beast slowly turned its head around, staring with its massive eyes the two humans on its back.
The round head of the beast appeared rather strange, similar to both a turtle's and a snake's. Simply looking at its head, it'd be more like a gigantic snake, but looking at its body, which had largely risen out of the water already, it seemed more like a...
Wei WuXian, "... What a large... tortoise..."
This wasn't the average tortoise.
If the tortoise were to crash onto the Lotus Pier's training ground, its shell alone could fill up the entire martial arts field. Even three burly men wouldn't be able to put their arms around its dark crown. Much less, the average tortoise couldn't extend out of its shell a snake's long, winding head, within it a full mouth of yellow, criss-crossed fangs, let alone grow four sharp claws that seemed quite agile.
Wei WuXian met the pair of large, golden eyes. Its pupil was just a slit, its thickness shifting, as though its eyes were switching in and out of focus, not completely able to tell what exactly was on its back.
It seemed like that the beast had the eyesight of a snake as well-not too good. As long as they didn't move, maybe it wouldn't be able to notice.
Suddenly, two streams of water vapor shot out of its hole-like nostrils.
The maple leaves that had been floating in the water just happened to be near its nose. It spurted out the air likely because they were itching it. Wei WuXian was still motionless, standing as if he was a statue. However, the slight movement scared the life out of Wen Chao.
Wen Chao knew that the beast craved slaughter more than anything. Seeing that it suddenly shot vapor from its nose, he thought that it was about to go into a rage. Disregarding the sword by his neck, he screamed toward Wen ZhuLiu, who was at the shore, "Why aren't you helping me yet?! Help me now! What are you waiting for?!"
Jiang Cheng cursed through clenched teeth, "That idiot!"
Among the two strange things before its eyes, one suddenly started twitching like a worm and let out ear-piercing sounds. The beast was provoked at once. Its snake-like head pulled back quickly before immediately springing up. Its yellow and black fangs parted wide as it lunged for its back!
Wei WuXian flicked his arm. Wen Chao's sword flew with the speed of an arrow toward where the heart of the beast should be.
However, as it was covered in black scales, the head of the beast was as hard as armor. As though it had hit a piece of iron, the blade of the sword sent off a trail of sparks with a clang before it plummeted into the water. The beast seemed to hesitate. Its large eyeballs turned down to look at the slender object that glowed even when it was underwater. Grabbing the opportunity, Wei WuXian pushed down with his legs and lept into the air along with Wen Chao, onto one of the other islets, thinking to himself, Please don't tell me that this one is a huge tortoise as well!
