Seeking Truth with a Sword-Chapter 659 - 595 Nine Nether_2
A few withered yellow leaves still clung to the stone tablet.
It had grown late. Chai Chai was sound asleep on a nearby bed, his pale, flawless legs exposed from beneath the slightly-too-small blanket, completely unaware.
Li Ang silently got out of bed and gently tucked the corner of the blanket around Chai Chai. He then walked to the bedroom window, opened it, and leaped out.
He activated his Qi Sea, releasing Telekinesis to move the well cover’s stone tablet aside, placing it on the courtyard ground before stepping towards the well.
The well walls were as smooth as ever, and the water at the bottom rippled slightly, reflecting the moonlight. It looked completely normal, indistinguishable from any other well.
"..."
After a long silence, Li Ang called out in his mind, "Are you there?"
"Here."
Thanks to Mo Si’s instantaneous communication, Lu Yunan’s voice from the distant Northern Black Mountain was clearly conveyed. "What’s wrong?" she asked.
"I’m home, back at my house in Yizhou."
Through Mo Si, Li Ang briefly discussed recent events, including the influence of the Dream Eater and the two Illusion Realms he had experienced.
Lu Yunan quietly listened to Li Ang recount everything, sighing ruefully when she heard that Jin Wusuan had died.
"Clearly unable to change anything, yet risking his life for revenge. I don’t know whether it’s bravery or foolishness and selfishness. Of course, I’m not really one to talk."
Lu Yunan laughed wryly at herself; she too was bound by a lifelong desire for revenge.
"Anyway," she shifted the topic, "do you still have doubts about whether you’re in the Dream Morphing Illusion?"
"Um..."
Li Ang replied, "Even if it might just be the Dream Eater invading my brain, making me imagine and construct this Dream Realm, it still feels too real."
Lu Yunan rubbed her chin. "Hmm... maybe you should find a top and spin it on a table to see if it just keeps spinning?"
"Inception, right?" Li Ang rolled his eyes. "Can you offer some useful suggestions?"
"Useful suggestions..." Lu Yunan’s eyes flickered, and the next second, Li Ang’s face flushed instantly—he felt a soft sensation.
"What are you doing?!"
"Oh, are you embarrassed now?"
Lu Yunan took out a phone made of Mo Si from her snug bodice. Lying on the bed like a hoodlum, she propped up her chin and grinned. "You’ve lived two lifetimes combined, yet you still act like a fledgling. You live with your maid day and night. Surely you haven’t done nothing, right?"
"Get lost!"
Li Ang waved his hand, utterly speechless. This transmigrator compatriot and one-sided childhood sweetheart of his, Lu Yunan, had initially presented a cultured, lady-like image, discussing literature, movies, and art. Now, she was increasingly revealing her true self.
"HMPH HMPH, HEE HEE HEE, HA HA HA HA!" Lu Yunan laughed for a good while before barely managing to stop. "Isn’t this what you asked for? According to the rule ’a Dream Realm cannot construct things beyond cognition,’ you should have encountered a [dream missing dll file] error just now and naturally woken up. If you’re still uneasy, why don’t you try Flying up the Sky?"
"Flying up the Sky?"
"In the first Dream Realm, didn’t you wake up suddenly after reaching space?"
Lu Yunan suggested, "Create a spacecraft with Mo Si, fly out of the planet’s surface, reach deep space, and observe the stars. If you’re still in a Dream Realm made by the Dream Eater, keep expanding the Dream Realm’s scope, forcing the Dream Eater to fill more and more content, and eventually, it will collapse."
"...That makes sense."
Li Ang scratched his head. The problem was that the high altitude was filled with violently fast Gang Winds, which even Mo Si could hardly withstand. "Let’s drop it. I’m going down the well to take a look."
"Alright, stay safe."
Li Ang stepped forward, exerting Telekinesis to lift himself and slowly sank into the well.
The well’s stone bricks were unusually smooth, and the air was filled with moist vapor. Li Ang hovered above the water’s surface, using his Spiritual Sense to carefully scan every nook of the well, finding nothing unusual.
How could this be?
Unsure whether to feel relieved or disappointed, Li Ang thought for a moment, then released Mo Si, letting it penetrate the well walls and floor.
The courtyard’s well was about fifteen meters deep, its water source permeating from the underground aquifer.
Mo Si passed through the stone bricks, burrowed into the soil, and explored in all directions like tree roots.
Thirty meters, fifty meters, one hundred meters.
Still detecting nothing unusual, Mo Si stopped. Li Ang pursed his lips, flipped his palm, and concentrating Mo Si, he started digging downwards, following the direction of the vapor.
Two hundred meters, three hundred meters, five hundred meters, a thousand meters...
BOOM!
Deep below sea level, in an unexplored depth, the sudden roar of a violent current echoed.
The foremost delicate strands of Mo Si were accidentally caught in the flow and nearly snapped.
Li Ang’s eyes snapped open, and he controlled Mo Si to retract from the current.
This was an immensely long underground Dark River, its current fierce and rushing southwestward.
The Nine Nether?
Li Ang instantly thought of the legendary Nine Nether, whose water system spread throughout the world, with the Dark River beneath the Chang’an Ghost Market being just a small part of it.
Although the Nine Nether water system was extensive, a current just so happened to be located right beneath the old Yizhou residence’s well.
Was this too much of a coincidence? Could the real reason he had awakened memories of the Otherworld be that he had drunk well water containing water from the Nine Nether?
Li Ang’s expression grew solemn. He controlled Mo Si to extract metal from the surrounding rock layers, creating a half-meter-long streamlined submarine shell with a propeller at the back.
He poured a small part of Mo Si into the submarine’s interior, activated it, and submerged it into the Dark River.
