Chapter Eighteen: Another Paradise

  The lake water was icy cold, with only a faint light penetrating from the surface, casting a deep blue glow on the water. The azure lake water surrounded Zhao Yin, who secretly regretted underestimating the chill of the lake water, causing his limbs to stiffen and become immobile, unable to move except for drifting slowly with the current. The surroundings were eerily quiet, with only the sound of his own heartbeat audible. Memories flashed through Zhao Yin's mind like a movie, facing death he was calm, without struggle or confusion, but with a sense of relief and faint regret.

  At this moment, Zhao Jian's Lingpai, which had been calm for a long time, emitted a majestic purple gas that wrapped around his entire body. Zhao Jian only felt a warm current instantly penetrating his whole body, and he involuntarily recovered his energy. The Lingpai seemed to have completed its mission and fell back into silence.

  Zhao Kang didn't think much of it and continued to dive towards the bottom of the lake. As he went deeper, the light grew dimmer. Suddenly, Zhao Kang's pupils constricted, and two black shadows emerged from a short distance away, slowly approaching him. Relying on his exceptional eyesight, Zhao Kang roughly made out that they were two sharks, each over three meters long. His first reaction was to turn around and flee, but drawing on his survival experience, he forcibly controlled his body to remain still. The two sharks swam slowly towards him, almost brushing against his body as they passed by. Zhao Kang had already broken into a cold sweat. Just then, the tail of the shark swimming behind accidentally knocked against Zhao Kang's oxygen tank while carelessly swinging back and forth. Zhao Kang's heart rate accelerated, and he prepared to make a desperate last-ditch effort. The shark opened its massive jaws and charged towards him, but it was heading in the direction below Zhao Kang - a rock at the bottom of the lake. It turned out that a piece of stone had fallen off from the clock jade stone beside Zhao Kang, catching the shark's attention.

  After the shark swam away, Zhao Meng finally breathed a sigh of relief. No wonder no one had successfully dived to the bottom of the lake in all these years. Even if someone's body was strong enough to resist the cold water, they would still die once they saw the shark. Wanting to compete with sharks in swimming speed in the sea is not as good as letting the sharks eat them directly, which can also save some physical strength. I believe that most people who dive down are already frozen stiff, and when they see a shark, they want to turn around and escape, naturally having no chance of survival.

  Zhao Kan continued to search at the bottom of the lake, and after a long time, he found a cave hidden between two huge rocks. The cave was not easy to find in the dimly lit lake bottom. A small fish swam by Zhao Kan's side from time to time, disappearing into the icy cold lake water.

  Zhao Yan tentatively threw a stone into the cave, and seeing no danger, he used both hands to hold onto the entrance and crawled inside. The interior was like a maze, seemingly endless, with several places already showing signs of collapse. Zhao Yan quickly and carefully made his way through, just as he was about to become exhausted, a bright light appeared in front of him. He swam towards it, and after a brief moment of blindness, he saw the scene before him. Here was a high platform altar about three zhang tall, with four sides carved with vivid totems. The altar was surrounded by lush green vines that wrapped around it, full of vitality. This was a huge cave, unknown how long it took to hollow out the mountain. Zhao Yan couldn't help but feel that the ancient people were really powerful.

  On the eastern platform, a green dragon was carved, and on it were neatly arranged numerous white silver and gold, pearls and agate everywhere, with an unknown value. On the western platform, a white tiger totem was carved, and many armor, knives, guns, swords, and halberds were placed, some of which had already rotted, but most still emitted a cold aura. On the southern platform, a vermilion bird was carved, and books were placed, Zhao Bian walked closer to take a look, mostly in Liao script, with only a few Han language classics. On the northern platform, a black turtle was carved, and many bottles and jars were placed, Zhao Bian randomly picked one up and opened it, and a pungent medicinal smell came out, apparently a medicine bottle. The central platform, compared to the other four platforms, had only a few palm-sized objects, with a brocade box placed on it, Zhao Bian opened the brocade box, and a ball-like object as white as a pearl lay quietly inside, when Zhao Bian opened the brocade box, a dazzling light burst out from inside, illuminating the entire altar in snowy white, after the light faded away, Zhao Bian found that his surroundings were shrouded in a white mist, ethereal and mysterious, with an extremely divine aura. Standing beside the brocade box, Zhao Bian felt as if his blood was about to freeze, and he had to retreat several steps back.

  At this moment, the Lingpai in Zhao Jian's chest was about to come out, as if it was very urgent. Zhao Jian no longer had much hostility towards the Lingpai, especially after it saved his life in the icy water today. "Do you want this ice pearl?" Zhao Jian asked doubtfully. The Lingpai shook even more violently.

  Zhao Xian stretched out his hand and grabbed the ice bead, a chill ran down his spine, causing his hand to lose its sensation, but the ice bead seemed to stick to his hand and didn't fall to the ground. As he moved the ice bead to his chest, the Lingpai suddenly burst through his clothes and absorbed the ice bead into itself. After absorbing the ice bead, the Lingpai flew wildly in the air as if it was drunk, before flying back to Zhao Xian's chest again. When Zhao Xian touched it with his hand, apart from a chill, it felt like he was touching his own flesh. Zhao Xian had long been accustomed to such strange occurrences and began to search around him. At this moment, the stone gate on a nearby stone wall slowly opened, and Zhao Xian hastily hid behind the armor of the White Tiger Platform to observe the incoming person.

  A girl in blue walked out of the stone gate, and Zhao Yi thought with surprise, "It seems that there is a secret passage leading to the outside." The girl saw the scene in front of her and suddenly became excited, covering her face and crying. After a while, the girl's emotions gradually calmed down, and she began to pray towards the east. Zhao Yi saw the girl's face from the side. Although not as stunning as Xiuer or Wu Caixia, she was also very beautiful and moving, with a sense of elegance and refinement, and more importantly, a heroic spirit that made people surrender.

  The girl stood up and walked onto the high platform. Her target was clearly the middle platform. Zhao Bi had no choice but to dodge and flash out.

  "Who." The girl asked back.

  "In the lower reaches of the Zhao River, I had already arrived here. What did you just say?" It turned out that the girl was speaking in Liao language, so Zhao Xian asked this question.

  The girl asked in fluent Chinese: "How did you get here?"

  Zhao Yan said: "I came down from above."

  "It's impossible. Legend has it that there are ferocious sea monsters in the lake, and besides, the seawater is icy cold, it's like inviting death." The blue-clothed girl said angrily.

  "It's really like that." Zhao Yan said helplessly.

  "It seems that only this princess can capture you and interrogate you thoroughly." After finishing, she drew out the whip from her waist and swung it forcefully towards Zhao Jian. The blue-clothed girl's martial arts were not high, and Zhao Jian easily dodged the girl's whip. The girl was stunned for a moment, but then attacked even more fiercely. Zhao Jian had no choice but to grab the whip, and the girl pulled with all her might, but the whip didn't budge. The girl decisively abandoned the whip, drew out the dagger from her waist, and charged towards Zhao Jian. Zhao Jian slightly shifted his body to dodge the girl's stab, and then countered by grabbing the girl. The girl angrily shouted: "Let go of this princess, or I'll kill you!"

  Zhao Yan said calmly: "Then you guarantee not to attack me again."

  "Uh-huh." The girl replied.

  Zhao Kuang let go of the blue-clothed girl. The girl sat on one side and said in a low voice, "Whether to kill or to spare is up to you."

  Zhao Yan said: "You and I have no grievances or hatred, I don't want to hurt you, but I hope you won't do anything stupid either."

  "You Han people are not trustworthy, if it weren't for the Song army betraying our Liao army, how could we have been defeated by the Jin country and had our capital city breached? And you Song people even went on to kick us while we were down, slaughtering our unarmed civilians." The girl glared at Zhao Jiong and said harshly.

  "Regardless of the truth or falsehood of this matter, your Liao army has been plundering our Great Song border for years, burning and killing without restraint. Should I say that the people of Liao are untrustworthy?" Zhao Yan argued strongly.

  The girl in blue fell silent and stopped speaking.

  "What's your name?" Zhao Jian asked.

  "Yelü Yu Jia Yan." The girl said faintly.

  "Are you the Princess of Western Liao? Are you going to find Yelü Dashi and return to Western Liao in the near future?" Zhao Yin asked in shock.

  "How did you know?" The girl in blue suddenly asked, looking at Zhao Jiong with increased vigilance. After weighing the pros and cons in his mind, Zhao Jiong thought that helping Western Liao could get him high-quality warhorses, contain the Jin Dynasty, and leave a hidden danger for the future Mongols. He then seriously said to the Shu Kingdom princess: "Princess, please forgive my earlier offense. I advise you not to go to the old capital of the Northern Song Dynasty to look for Yelu Dashishi. In the near future, he will be defeated and head north. If you go, you'll only get captured. Trust me."

  The princess of Shu Kingdom stared at Zhao Yan's eyes, trying to find something, and finally suspected: "Why should I believe you?"

  "The enemy of my enemy is my friend. I represent myself, not the Song Dynasty court. I only want to recover my mountains and rivers, protect my people, so you and I cooperate. I need war horses, need your help to resist the Jin State together. You need living supplies and ironware, I will try my best to stop the Song army from attacking the future Western Liao. We each take what we need, how about that?" Zhao Kan replied.

  "Do you want to have your own army and stand on your own? I don't think highly of you." The princess of Shu was slightly moved, but she didn't think much of Zhao Yan. There were many local armed uprisings in the Song Dynasty, but truly promising ones were rare. An uprising force of several hundred thousand had been put down by the Yue family's army in just three months, and this was only the tip of the iceberg. Usually, these uprisings would make a big show, but as soon as the government troops arrived, they would be quickly defeated. The princess of Shu knew about these intelligence reports.

  "I forgot to mention, I'm also a government official. And you are the prince, so now we can cooperate." Zhao Chan said with a smile. "Alright, let's cooperate." The Princess of Shu thought for a moment and didn't hesitate, the two of them clasped hands in agreement. Later on, someone referred to this important meeting as the Kaiyuan Agreement.

  The princess of Shu said: "The treasure in this place, books and medicines I will take away all, the rest of the money and armor, I will only take half, as a gesture of my cooperation."

  Zhao Kuo said: "Then you go first and bring people back to move these things, I'll move the rest of the things. By the way, how did the princess arrive here?"

  "I'm afraid the imperial family of Liao has been passing down this treasure map, which marks a secret passage. However, there are many mechanisms in the passage that make it difficult to proceed. My ancestors had decreed that unless it was time for the country's revival, no one should come here to retrieve this national treasure. Since Liao has already perished, I have naturally come to take this treasure and fulfill my mission to revive the nation."

  Actually, Princess Shu deliberately left out a sentence from the will, which stated that the princess who came to search for the treasure must marry the master chosen by the Ice Jade, before proceeding with the plan to revive the nation. There is only one person in this place, Zhao Jiong, and since the Ice Jade is no longer here, there's an 80% chance it has been obtained by him. If the Ice Jade doesn't recognize its master and tries to take it by force, the result will be death from freezing.

  Legend has it that the Ice Jade came from heaven and fell into a large lake in the capital of Liao during a scorching summer day in August. The lake water instantly froze into thick ice, and the imperial family secretly excavated it, making it a treasured heirloom to this day. It was eventually placed in this secret chamber along with many other treasures as an important condition for selecting a son-in-law.

  "By the way, Princess, that icy bead in the center of the hall, what's its function? It has entered my body, won't it cause any harm?" Zhao Jin also asked, anyway he had eaten the Yin Yang Creation Pill, so other things didn't matter.

  "No... no... hidden danger." Zhao Song didn't notice anything wrong with the Princess of Shu either, and she hastily walked down from the altar and left through the stone gate.

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