Chapter Fifty-Nine: Unraveling the Cocoon

  Suī fēng hé Liáng tōu ér liǎng rén yī bù yī bù qiāo shēng de yán zhe xiǎo jìng wǎng zhe Fèng huáng Shān nèi bù zǒu qù. Hái méi jìn shān de shí hòu, Liáng tōu ér jiù hé Suī fēng yuē hǎo le bú zài shuō huà, zhuāng zuò jìn shān dǎ chái de xiǎo fū, miǎn dé yǐn qǐ Xuě Yǐn Táng de nàxiē dìzǐ jǐng jué.

  If King Goujian of Yue really hid his troops in the mountains for training, how much space would be needed? And if such a large space were to be opened up in the mountains, how many people and resources would it take? He thought about these details, bowing his head slightly as he walked, without looking at the road ahead.

  "Ah!" Something suddenly hit the back of his neck, and his train of thought was immediately interrupted, giving him a fright, and he let out a cry.

  Looking back, Liang Ze was holding up his hand in a finger-gun shape, sneering mischievously.

  Seeing the feigned anger in his eyes, Liang Stealer spread his hands and shrugged, pretending to be helpless: "You see what's in front of you yourself, I'm just kindly reminding you."

  Just then he raised his head and looked over, not far away was a small tree, according to his previous posture he would definitely hit the tree.

  Following the wind, he suddenly realized that Liang had good intentions and smiled awkwardly, "Even so, you can just tell me with your mouth, why do you have to hit me with a stone, it hurts." His tone suddenly changed.

  Liang stole a glance at his own fingers, "Hey, I've always reminded people like this since I was young, verbally, I won't do it."

  Li was hit on the neck by a stone thrown by Liang, and suddenly thought of when they were in Jinling, wanting to leave the city, they used this method. He asked: "Liang brother, what is the skill of throwing stones? Why have I never heard you mention it before?"

  This time, however, Huan Liang was somewhat embarrassed, "What kind of skill is this? It's just a little trick with internal energy. Compared to the finger-popping skills on the streets, it's not even worth mentioning. If you want to learn, I can teach you. Just focus your energy at the tip of your fingers and then lightly press down on them to pop them out, like a spring."

  As he watched with the wind, it seemed interesting. According to Liang Ze's meaning, this wasn't difficult at all. He casually picked up a small stone from the side of the road and pinched it between his fingers. It was unclear whether it was because the stone was too big or because he was not skilled enough, but Su Feng held his breath until his face turned red before finally shooting the stone out.

  The stone flew into the thicket beside the path and disappeared. Liang Zei couldn't help but burst out laughing at his somewhat clumsy appearance, but he only laughed once before immediately stopping, his face sinking like water, and it was unclear what had happened.

  "What's wrong?" Feng had originally prepared himself to be ridiculed, and the two of them teasing each other was nothing new. But seeing Liang Shier's reaction, he also sensed that something was not right.

  Liang Zei tilted his head to the side, his face stern, and seemingly a different person from the one who was giggling just now. "This voice doesn't sound right." He hastily dropped this half-sentence and walked towards the direction where the stone had been thrown by the wind.

  "What's wrong with the sound?" Feng was even more confused, but he still followed.

  "The sound of the stone hitting the ground doesn't feel right." Liang Ze walked ahead for a while before responding to this sentence.

  Liang Zei hadn't gone far when he stopped. "You see for yourself, what's wrong with this place?"

  "This... what is this?" Feng stood beside Liang Ze, somewhat suspicious of the things before his eyes. He slowly crouched down, stretched out his hand and touched the thick layer of fallen leaves in front of him.

  As soon as the hand was stretched out, a "splash" sound was heard, and it had reached into the water. In front of him was actually a pond. Only then did Su Feng remember that earlier, he had vaguely heard the sound of a stone entering the water with a "plop". At the time, he hadn't paid much attention to it. Now thinking about it, it's indeed a bit strange. Fortunately, the stone Su Feng chose wasn't small, otherwise, how would anyone have been able to hear the sound?

  "This is under the foot of Fenghuang Mountain, and I didn't hear the sound of a stream. How could there be a splashing sound? Listening to the sound, it's completely unlike an ordinary forest pool. I didn't expect that indeed there was something unusual." Liang Tou'er stared at the pool, saying slowly.

  As the wind blew, he took a closer look and found that this pond was indeed very strange. It was a regular square shape, with each side over ten feet long. The surface was covered with fallen leaves, and there was no difference from the ordinary forest floor, so if you didn't step on it, you wouldn't know that there was such a deep pool here. But this pool was hidden in the dense forest, even woodcutters wouldn't come here, how would they know that there was such a deep pool here?

  "Do you think this has something to do with the Dragon Ascending Platform we're looking for?" Su Feng stood up, looking at Liang Ze.

  Liang Ze nodded slightly, then surprisingly took off the long shirt on his body. While handing over the jacket to Sui Feng, he said: "This square pond must have been opened by someone, and there must be some secret in this pond. I want to go down and take a look."

  Take a look? Dazed by the wind, now is the cold winter season, just after the New Year's festival, the spring chill is sharp, to dive into this bone-chilling water, even if one has martial arts skills, it's not certain they can withstand it.

  Liang stealthily furrowed his brow without a wrinkle, took off his shoes, and with a "plop" sound, he jumped right in.

  The tip of his nose was filled with the musty smell of fallen leaves, and there were still some water weeds floating on the surface, giving off a faint fishy smell. But this water was good, and it could be considered clear. Liang Ze took a deep breath and dove in suddenly. Once he entered the water, he began to regulate his breathing while driving out the cold with his inner energy.

  Just as he had submerged his head in the water, a strange fish suddenly appeared before him. The fish was not of any species found in China. Its scales were a pale grey colour and its two eyes, which were about the size of soybeans, stared at Liang Ze'er. Liang Ze'er was initially startled but soon realized that there were actually live fish in this pond. Just as he was about to swim away, the fish suddenly opened its large mouth, almost scaring the cold sweat out of Liang Ze'er. Its mouth was full of sharp teeth over an inch long!

  Everything was eerie and frightening. Even Liang Ze, who had stolen the show, couldn't help but feel a little flustered. Without thinking twice, he slapped his palm out fiercely, striking the strange fish across the water with a burst of energy.

  The monstrous fish looked frightening, but it seemed to be very fragile. After being hit by this palm, the entire belly of the fish suddenly collapsed, and even its eyes bulged out. Then it floated up along the water flow, apparently dead.

  Liang Ze's son hadn't even had time to catch his breath when he saw seven or eight more fish like this swimming in from who-knows-where.

  If it weren't for the water, Liang's cold sweat would have flowed out long ago. How could one person with two hands and two feet cope? He didn't think about it anymore, suddenly shrinking his body in the water, then bursting out of the pond in an instant, landing on the fallen leaves by the pond.

  "Are you okay? What's going on inside?" Su Feng looked at Liang Ze and saw that his face had turned pale, as if something unexpected had happened.

  Liang stealthily panted heavily, while also shivering with cold, but his face had a hint of joy. "This place indeed has its secrets, and this pond actually has the tiger-toothed fish from the Western Regions. It seems that the inscription is true, it's very likely that Qin Wang introduced them to hide his secret."

  "Tiger teeth fish?" Sui Feng also heard it for the first time.

  Seeing Su Feng's puzzled expression, Liang Ze didn't say much. He tapped his foot and made a round trip on the pond, picking up the fish he had just killed with one palm and throwing it in front of Su Feng.

  "This...!" The entire terrifying and strange appearance of the tiger-toothed fish suddenly scared him half to death.

  "Could this really be where Deng Longtai is?" After a while, he calmed down and continued what he was saying earlier.

  Liang Tou'er burst out laughing: "You shouldn't be so scared by this fish, should you? If the Dragon Ascension Platform was that easy to find, it would have been discovered long ago. What's the point of waiting for auspicious signs to appear? And think about it, how could the Dragon Ascension Platform possibly be in a pond?" Liang Tou'er laughed for a while before stopping and saying: "However, although this place isn't where the Dragon Ascension Platform is located, it must still have some connection with it. I seemed to see something earlier when I was in the pond - perhaps there's a hidden cave at the bottom of the pond, maybe we can find some clues."

  As for Liang's occasional teasing, Su Feng had already gotten used to it. He looked at the tiger-toothed fish with its sharp teeth exposed and asked, "So, how do you plan to deal with these fish?"

  Liang Ze rubbed the cold water off his face, put on a sinister expression and chuckled: "I have my own way to deal with them, I guarantee that we won't encounter any obstacles when we go down."

  I don't know why, but every time I hear Liang Ze's laughter, Su Feng always feels that something bad is going to happen.

  Liáng Tuōér carefully pulled out a small porcelain bottle from his bosom, which looked ordinary except for the tightly sealed mouth.

  Liáng Tuōér glanced at Fangtang, then looked at the porcelain bottle in his hand and smiled: "This is indeed a rare treasure that has disappeared from the world, just one small drop can make hundreds of people fall asleep. Ordinary people will sleep for several days and nights after smelling it, heh, I don't believe these fish can be more powerful than humans."

  Watching Liang Ze use his palm fan to blow away the fallen leaves floating on the surface of Fang Tang, turning over thousands of people inside, and with the wind, he couldn't help but be speechless. It was as if every time Liang Ze had just the right tool on him to solve the problem. Does it mean that when being a thief, one really needs to prepare various tools to deal with all kinds of situations?

  There was no time to ponder, and the tiger fish in the lake actually floated up one by one. Moreover, the number was not the so-called seven or eight that Liang Ze saw before, but as many as twenty or thirty!

  If it weren't for Liang's miraculous medicine, they would have had a hard time diving to the bottom of the pond even if they risked their lives.

  "Here, take this and swallow it." Liang Zei handed over a red pill.

  "What's this?" Feng took over the medicine pill and asked.

  Liang stole a glance and rolled his eyes, "This is the antidote for the poison that can knock out ten thousand people, otherwise you'd be like these fish in an instant."

  The pill had just reached his lips when a wave of stench surged up. His eyebrows furrowed in distaste, but he still swallowed it down.

  "Alright, the water in here is very cool, remember to circulate your Qi to dispel the cold." With that said, he swallowed a pill and dove into the pond with a loud splash.

  Taking off his outer garment and putting it aside, he gazed at the rippling water in the pool. Does it really hold a thousand-year-old secret?

  Then, along with Liang Ze's jump, they also jumped down. The same musty smell of fallen leaves, the same chilling coldness. When they jumped into the water, the ripples opened up some fallen leaves, and then sunlight shone through these gaps. Barely able to see the situation underwater.

  Although he had eaten the antidote that Liang Ze had stolen, he didn't know if it was psychological or not, but Ran Feng still felt a bit dizzy. Fortunately, he had grown up by the river since childhood and his swimming skills were excellent, so it didn't take long for him to reach the bottom of the pond.

  Just as Liang Ze said, there is indeed a lot to this. It's hard to believe, but the bottom of the pond seems to have another space. And in between, it's actually separated by a layer of light screen. Liang Ze glanced at Su Feng and made a hint to him, then he dove down, his whole body passing through the light screen and falling down.

  Still dazed by the wonders before his eyes, he couldn't help but satisfy his curiosity and slipped through like a thief.

  As soon as he passed through the light curtain, he lost the buoyancy of the water and fell straight down.