The Purgatory Calamity

Chapter 43: Chapter 34 Crescent Lake_1 Chapter 43: Chapter 34 Crescent Lake_1 Su Yuntian dared not take the situation lightly; he kept an eye on the lake’s surface in case of any sudden incidents.

It was only after Su Meng swam up to him and left the water that the solemn expression on his face somewhat diminished.

“Who was at the bottom of the lake?”

Looking at his daughter, who was covering her chest with her clothes and had her wet locks of hair clinging to her cheeks, Su Yuntian felt a surge of anger.

“I couldn’t see clearly.”

With a round face as rosy as an apple and shining bright eyes, Su Meng, who was crouched in a cluster of grass, holding her clothes, exclaimed, “He didn’t do anything to me; I was just startled by his sudden appearance.”

“The man probably meant no harm.” He Rong kept urging his old friend to stay calm.

Su Yuntian, still with a stern face, continued to watch the surface of the lake intently.

Under the dimming sky, the lake’s surface, lit by the golden light of the coach, seemed calm, with scattered glints of light.

In the distance,
the many loyal followers of the Su and He families also ceased their actions and curiously watched the lake.

A moment later, true to form, someone burst through the surface of the lake, looking around somewhat bewildered.

The man appeared in the middle of the lake, quite far from them, with messy hair entangled with seaweed, appearing rather unkempt.

He raised a long spear in the middle of the lake, with fish threaded onto the long shaft like candied haws on a stick.

“It seems to be a misunderstanding.”

He Rong let out a slight smile, pressed down the short blade in Su Yuntian’s hand, and said, “He is too far from Su Meng’s position; he certainly wasn’t planning to harm her or spy on anything.”

Su Yuntian took a deep breath and then called out loudly, “Young brother!”

Pang Jian heard the shout and saw Su Yuntian and He Rong, as well as the shattered remnants of the golden coach.

“Crescent Lake.”

He too instantly realized where he was now.

This freshwater lake in Solitude Mountain Range, viewed from above, was shaped like a crescent moon, hence it was named Crescent Lake by his father.

In the heart of Crescent Lake stood a towering peak; beyond the mountain was supposedly Black Water Pool.

Unlike the forbidden Black Water Pool, Crescent Lake was a familiar territory to him and a regular encampment.

As a freshwater lake, Crescent Lake was abundant in fish and shrimp, and beasts would often come here to drink, making it an excellent spot for hunting and resting.

He never expected to find a crevice at the bottom of Crescent Lake that hid a secret stone path leading to Black Water Pool.

Seeing the familiar boundaries, Pang Jian felt much more at ease, no longer anxious and wary.

Hearing the man by the lake shouting repeatedly, he glanced at Su Yuntian and He Rong from the middle of the vast Crescent Lake.

Soon, he guessed that these people, like Zhou Qingchen and Ning Yao, were probably exploration teams from the seven major clans.

After slight hesitation, he swam towards Su Yuntian.

However, he did not swim directly to the shore where Su Yuntian was standing; instead, he landed a little farther away from the two of them.

He scraped together flint and wood from a dense thicket of wild grass and dried branches by the lake and immediately started a fire to roast fish.

He was all too familiar with Crescent Lake; because the lake was large enough, he had left supplies at several points along the shore.

Similar secret spots were scattered throughout Solitude Mountain Range, some even stocked with dried meat and food supplies.

When he started the fire and took the fish off the Dragon Pattern Spear, replacing them with another wooden pole for roasting, Su Yuntian and He Rong began to discuss in amazement.

“He’s very familiar with this place. Also, it seems like he had prepared firewood and seasoning in advance,” He Rong mused, stroking his chin, “He must be a local.”

“Let’s go and ask,” said Su Meng, now fully dressed, as she stepped out of the bushes and rolled her eyes at the two men who were surreptitiously speaking before walking straight up to Pang Jian and asking curiously with widened eyes, “Were you catching fish under the lake earlier?”

“Hmm.”

Pang Jian looked up at her and, seeing that the young girl was about the same age as his sister Pang Lin, only thirteen or fourteen years old,
he noticed her round face with a pair of bright, large eyes and hair tied into two pigtails that bobbed, giving her an air of courage.

“My name is Su Meng, and I was just cleaning myself in the lake; you didn’t see anything, did you?” she asked aggresssively, hands on her hips.

Pang Jian shook his head and casually responded, “Crescent Lake is very big. I was deep underwater catching fish and didn’t notice anyone above.”

“Crescent Lake?”

As Su Meng looked over the lake, she felt the name was very fitting, and seeing Pang Jian’s explanation, she reined in the feigned fierceness in her eyes, expressing surprise, “Are you familiar with this place?”

“I’m a hunter from Lingshan Town who often goes into the mountains to hunt; of course, I’m familiar with this area,” Pang Jian replied indifferently.

At this moment, Su Yuntian and He Rong also came over.

Both of them sized up Pang Jian, and the always cautious He Rong, looking at the Dragon Pattern Spear laid on the ground, asked, “Do you practice cultivation?”

Pang Jian’s expression did not change as he fabricated, “An elder came to Solitude Mountain Range a few years back, searching for Spiritual Materials to make medicine and had me guide him.”

“After I helped him find the Spiritual Materials he wanted, he taught me a method of cultivation and gave me this Long Spear.”

Although He Rong felt suspicious, he did not continue to interrogate.

“My name is Su Yuntian, this is my daughter Su Meng, and this gentleman is He Rong.”

Su Yuntian transparently disclosed his identity, lowering his guard and casually mentioning, “This area has been rather unsafe recently, with some complex situations; we came from another part of Solitude Mountain Range.”

“Young brother, since you are a hunter from Solitude Mountain Range and live in nearby Lingshan Town, can you tell us if there have been any unusual discoveries around here lately?” Su Yuntian asked earnestly.

Pang Jian was roasting fish, his face calm as he replied, “Not long ago, huge, withered bones fell from the sky. And then, there were…”

He looked toward the shattered Golden Coach, saying, “Shortly after, I saw this coach, a huge sailboat, and a White Tower sinking.”

“Inside the mountain, for a while, the earth shook and animals howled day and night. I waited until everything settled down before I came back in to hunt.”

Upon hearing this, Su Yuntian and He Rong exchanged a glance.

Suddenly, a crisp eagle’s cry sounded from above their heads, and everyone looked up to see a deep gray old eagle circling above them.

This deep gray eagle looked at the group below with a strange gaze, frequently turning its attention to Pang Jian.

It flew back and forth in the air, seeming to observe Pang Jian from different angles as if trying to confirm something with care.

Pang Jian, annoyed by its stare, thought about shooting the peculiar eagle with his bow. Only then did he suddenly remember he’d discarded his usual bow and arrows outside of Black Water Pool.

The old eagle flapped its wings above their heads for a while before flying off towards the other end of the mountain.

“Young brother, if you don’t mind, come be our guide.”

After the eagle had left, Su Yuntian took the initiative to invite him, smiling as he said, “We are not familiar with the Solitude Mountain Range, having just entered not long ago. I am willing to pay for your services.”

Pang Jian, who had cooked a few fish, was eating heartily, his mouth full of muffled words, “I’ll consider it.”

…

The other side of the mountain.

Black Water Pool.

Luo Hongyan, possessing Ning Yao’s body, suddenly closed her eyes and connected to the circling old eagle with a thread of God’s Thought, observing the land below from multiple angles through the eagle.

After a moment, she hummed softly, “I’ve found you.”

Behind her, a shadow clearer than Roman silently floated, unmistakably Hong Tai, the leader of the Dark Ghosts who had reached the Marrow Cleansing Realm.

This Dark Ghost leader, who had been ensnared by her and had his living soul drawn out and refined into a “Spirit Evil,” had become a servant she could command.

“The kid never left Black Water Pool, but he surfaced from the lake at the other end, which means there’s a secret pathway under the pool,” she mused.

“It’s just that I don’t know if the Dark Giant Python, which has only a Beast Soul, left with him.”

Looking at Black Water Pool, Luo Hongyan thought that since Pang Jian had left, maybe the “Dark Giant Python” that came from the Fifth Realm would leave with him too.

Keen to explore Black Water Pool, Luo Hongyan pondered for a while before sighing, “The Phoenix Marrow has been absorbed by that boy into the bronze gate. Only the bones of the Dark Giant Python remain underwater, and I, unfortunately, cannot take them with me.”

She promptly dismissed the idea.

After a while, her eyes lit up slightly as she suddenly thought of a brilliant new plan.

Clothed in a red dress, she appeared in Ning Yao’s Sea of Consciousness with her Spiritual Body and looked at Ning, who was dimly imprisoned in the darkness.

“Ning, tell me carefully about your situation, and don’t force me to learn it through soul searching. I plan to use your body for a while longer, and I hope you will cooperate,” She warned with a smile on her face.

“Soul searching would leave your soul incomplete afterward, and I suppose you wouldn’t want that, would you?”

Her smile was threatening.

The vague and ghostly figure of Ning Yao, flickering like a candle in the wind, said shakily, “What do you want to know?”

“Everything that happened after you met that boy,” she demanded.

Half an hour later, the circling old eagle returned.

Luo Hongyan looked at the cloth bag that Pang Jian had thrown away, which had ended his employment relationship with Ning Yao, and squatted down to pick it up again with a smile, saying, “This bag of Silver Taels, I will put it to use once more.”

The old eagle suddenly took flight.

Spirit Evils like Hong Tai and Roman transformed into wisps of drifting gray fog, following the flying old eagle toward the other side of the high mountain.

…

Crescent Lake.

Pang Jian, full and satisfied, stepped on the fish bones on the ground as he placed the salt and matches back to their spot, covered by grass leaves.

Immediately after, he stood up holding the Dragon Pattern Spear and said coldly, “It’s time for me to leave.”

He had turned down Su Yuntian’s invitation.

He knew that He Rong and Su Yuntian were from two of the bottom-ranked families among the seven great clans, and the direction they wanted to go was precisely Black Water Pool on the other side of the mountain.

—He had no intention of returning to Black Water Pool.

In the bamboo basket on his back were plenty of Spirit Stones for him to cultivate with; he would never starve in the Solitude Mountain Range, and he wasn’t in urgent need of money at the moment.

All he wanted was to stay away from the crowd and find a place to test the body that had been refined by the Phoenix Marrow a second time.

With the Su and He families around, it would be inconvenient for him to do anything.

“Alright, we won’t force you. By the way, since you were fishing under the lake, why did you ignore the fragments of the golden coach?” Su Yuntian asked with a look of regret.

Pang Jian answered, “I thought no one would come, so I was planning to check the gold artifacts after catching the fish and having a meal. Now that you’re here, I don’t have much interest anymore—I couldn’t beat you to it anyway.”

Su Yuntian couldn’t help but chuckle at the reply, “You, young man, are not greedy and know when to yield.”

He called an old servant with a command and had the servant hand a purse full of Silver Taels to Pang Jian, smiling as he said, “It’s just some Silver Taels, consider it compensation for the information you’ve provided. When you leave the Solitude Mountain Range, this money… will still be of some use to you.”

Pang Jian was somewhat surprised but didn’t refuse the gesture, accepting it and saying, “Until we meet again.”

After he left, the people from the Su and He families remained at Crescent Lake.

Mimicking what they had seen, they too went under Crescent Lake to catch fish, making use of the leftover firewood from Pang Jian to cook.

A group of people sat around the fire, roasting and enjoying fish, when suddenly a woman came alone, calling from a distance, “Where’s Pang Jian?”

“Ning Yao!”

…