Chapter 1581: Witness

Xiao Jianren puffed out his chest and said proudly, "Our master has weathered countless storms; this small pond couldn't possibly trouble him."

"Blackwater Pool is not shallow," Zhang Zitong corrected. "But I suspect he'll return empty-handed. Our people have already searched the water multiple times; if there were any clues, they would have been found by now."

"That's not necessarily true..." Xiao Jianren said, though he lacked conviction despite speaking for his leader. In truth, he had been on this case for a long time and was completely stumped.

If it weren't for the bizarre fact that a distinguished Gold-rank Embroidered Uniform official had drowned in the pool, he might have dismissed it as an accidental death.

Meanwhile, Zu An, using his Blue Duck ability, formed a protective bubble around himself and began surveying the Blackwater Pool.

The pool contained a good number of plants and fish, and nothing appeared out of the ordinary, certainly not as if it were tainted by any malevolent presence.

The only thing noteworthy was how exceptionally cold the water was, though this was normal for a deep pool, especially in the middle of the night.

He searched around for a while longer, finding nothing amiss, and continued his descent.

Before he knew it, he had sunk nearly a hundred meters. He couldn't help but frown; this pool seemed remarkably deep.

For an ordinary cultivator, unless they possessed water-aligned abilities, diving this deep would already be a challenge.

After descending another hundred meters, Zu An finally reached the bottom of the pool. It was completely dark there, so he took out a luminous pearl for illumination. With its faint glow, he saw that the pool bed was entirely mud and sand, devoid of any plant life. Occasional animal bones protruded from the sediment, creating an atmosphere of desolation and deathly silence.

It was normal for such a deep, dark place to look like this. After observing for a moment and finding nothing unusual, Zu An began to ascend.

He recalled how in his previous life, he had only seen such underwater worlds through documentaries on television. He never expected to experience one firsthand in this world.

As he mused on those documentaries from his past life, his expression suddenly stiffened. He abruptly halted, his gaze sharp and fixed on the ground below.

He finally realized what was amiss. In those documentaries from his previous life, even the deepest parts of the ocean teemed with life—various strange-looking fish, bone-eating worms, and so on.

This pool was only a few hundred meters deep, yet he couldn't sense a single trace of life at its bottom. This was not normal!

He descended back to the bottom, pressed his hand against the mud, and extended his spiritual energy to probe beneath the surface.

His expression suddenly changed. There was space beneath the ground after all; what appeared to be the pool's bottom was actually a disguise created by a sophisticated formation.

Just then, a large hand suddenly shot out from the mud, grasping at his neck.

The arm had grayish-green skin, with bulging veins and swirling death energy. Though its shape resembled a human hand, it certainly couldn't be one—how could a human hand be covered in such dense scales?

Zu An was startled and quickly dodged backward. The hand grabbed empty air but continued to extend relentlessly.

Zu An's eyes turned cold. A flash of chilling light pierced the dark pool bottom, and the grayish-green hand was instantly severed.

The arm seemed startled and instantly retracted back into the ground.

Zu An frowned, observing the severed half-hand. No blood flowed from it; instead, it transformed entirely into a cloud of bluish-black smoke and dissipated.

"Huh?" While Zu An was still surprised, more than a dozen large hands suddenly erupted from beneath the ground, surrounding him from all directions. There was no space left for him to evade; one wrong move, and he would be crushed by this inescapable net of interwoven arms.

If he couldn't dodge, he wouldn't!

A flash of sword light swept through, and the thick, hard arms were instantly sliced into several pieces by an unparalleled burst of sword energy.

A shriek echoed from beneath the ground. The sound was incredibly sharp and seemed to carry a certain mental impact, but Zu An's spiritual foundation was now stable, so he felt no fear.

Without hesitation, he plunged downward, thrusting his sword toward the ground. Aided by his Blue Duck ability, his movements in the water remained completely unhindered.

As his longsword pierced the ground, a wave of blue runes erupted, clearly indicating that the formation laid out there had been activated.

Yet, almost instantly, it crumbled before the might of the Tai'a Sword.

The mud and sand before him vanished, replaced by an open space—evidently the true bottom of the pool.

"Mercy, Immortal! Mercy, Immortal!" A small voice cried out, belonging to a tiny figure who knelt on the ground, kowtowing repeatedly and begging for mercy. There was no other option; in their brief exchange, he had instantly realized he was no match. Moreover, the sword before him exuded such a terrifying aura, as if it could annihilate him at any moment.

Zu An was somewhat surprised. After seeing so many thick, powerful hands, he had expected some massive creature to be lurking there, never imagining it would be so small and skinny.

The crucial point was his incredibly bizarre appearance: a mouth pointed like a bird's beak, a body as thin and small as a monkey's, and something resembling a turtle shell on his back.

His overall appearance strongly resembled a Kappa from Japanese legends.

"What are you?" Zu An asked directly.

"I am but a small turtle from this Blackwater Pool," the creature answered respectfully. "I used to live a peaceful life until, several hundred years ago, a stroke of good fortune granted me sentience, and I began cultivating in the pool."

"A turtle?" Zu An was a little surprised. Having spent a considerable time in this world, he understood the distinction between demon-kind and common monsters. Demon-kind possessed nobler bloodlines and could typically assume human form naturally.

Monsters, however, had impure bloodlines and were often indistinguishable from ordinary animals and plants. A select few, through fortunate circumstances, gained sentience and, after many years of cultivation, also had the chance to transform into human form.

The demon-kind did not acknowledge these monsters as their own kin, viewing them merely as lower-level creatures—even though many monsters capable of transformation possessed considerable power.

Furthermore, savage beasts mostly retained their animal instincts. High-level savage beasts possessed intelligence no less than that of humans, but they often prided themselves on their bloodline and form, disdaining to assume a human shape.

"So it seems all the mysterious legends of this Blackwater Pool are your doing, then?" Zu An said coldly. "How many people have you harmed over the years?"

Seeing his stern demeanor, the turtle spirit trembled in fear. "Immortal, you misunderstand," it pleaded. "I have long since turned over a new leaf. For the past century, I've been diligently cultivating and haven't eaten anyone."

"So you're admitting you ate people before?" Zu An said coldly.

"No, no!" the turtle spirit frantically waved its hands in fright. "It's just that those people had ill intentions and tried to exploit me, and then they ended up losing their lives here. I figured it would be a shame to let them go to waste, so... But I swear I never actively intended to harm anyone."

"You, a monster, are that kind-hearted?" Zu An naturally didn't believe a single word.

"It's true! I aspire to become the Water God of this Blackwater Pool, so how could I carelessly commit such acts of bloodshed?" the turtle spirit hurriedly explained.

"Water God?" Zu An was somewhat bewildered, as this seemed to exceed his understanding. However, he was more concerned with another matter. "About a month ago, someone wearing clothes similar to mine fell into this Blackwater Pool. Do you remember him?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" The turtle spirit nodded frantically.

"Why did he drown here? Was that your doing?" Zu An asked sternly.

"Ah, he was already dead when he fell into the water?" the turtle spirit replied with a bewildered expression.