Chapter 163 A Great River

That howling black wind raged for a good half-day before finally subsiding.

At first, Lin Zhan had let Shui Xinxin stand on her own. However, as the wait for the wind to stop dragged on, he noticed her dozing off, her little head repeatedly nodding against the rock wall. Feeling a soft pang of sympathy, he pulled her back into his arms, and now, the wind had finally died down.

"Oh! How did I fall asleep?" Shui Xinxin woke up with a start, wiping away a stray trail of drool from the corner of her mouth, and lowered her head in embarrassment.

Lin Zhan was equally baffled by this. Logically speaking, cultivators had little need for regular sleep, and someone nodding off the way Shui Xinxin had was exceedingly rare.

"You're just a kid still growing. A bit more sleep isn't a bad thing," Lin Zhan chuckled.

Shui Xinxin straightened her posture, giving him an indignant look. "You're the one who hasn't finished growing!"

Realizing that no matter how much she puffed out her chest, she still lacked curves, she let out a dejected sigh and surrendered the argument.

With the black wind outside the rock crevice resting, the two of them crawled out.

Through the dim and flickering light, Lin Zhan noticed that the surrounding landscape had undergone drastic changes. Fresh, chipped marks scarred the edges of the molten rock formations, and the terrain of the entire region had been altered.

"Senior Brother, you... ah..."

Movement stirred ahead. This time, Lin Zhan reacted swiftly, catching sight of a figure running desperately in his direction, looking utterly panicked and abandoning all caution.

The disciple, hailing from some unknown peak, suddenly spotted Lin Zhan and froze for a fraction of a second, a fierce glint flashing in his eyes.

Lin Zhan immediately unleashed his Scorching Fire Fist, striking the oncoming attacker head-on.

With a loud crash, the opponent was blasted straight into a rock wall, letting out piercing screams accompanied by the faint, ominous sound of snapping bones.

Lin Zhan walked over and spotted another corpse lying nearby—evidently the "Senior Brother" the other man had been screaming about just moments before.

"Which peak are you from? Why did you kill your own junior brother?" Lin Zhan vaguely suspected this was a disciple of the Tiangang Peak.

Ye Xiaoyao belonged to Tiangang Peak, and Lin Zhan wondered how he was faring now. As for Fang Daguang and Lian Ming, their strength was somewhat inferior, so they probably wouldn't last until the very end. He only hoped they would know when to quit, withdrawing automatically if things looked bad, and escape without injury.

Sure enough, the man who had murdered his fellow disciple was indeed from Tiangang Peak. From him, Lin Zhan also learned news of Ye Xiaoyao, who had long since safely withdrawn from the Southern Radiance Abyss.

Lin Zhan ended the man's agony with a sweep of his sword. Hidden within the traitor's storage pouch were numerous precious herbs and medicinal ingredients, presumably plundered from other disciples in the exact same manner.

Pressing forward, they encountered a roaring, torrential river rushing downstream, carrying countless splintered tree branches, sand, and shattered rocks with overwhelming momentum.

The river looked perilous, seemingly pregnant with some ominous omen. As they drew closer, an inexplicable sense of accelerated heartbeat and restricted breathing gripped them.

If Lin Zhan had visited this place before, he would have immediately noticed that this massive river was a newly formed feature, non-existent prior to this disaster.

"Water is over there!"

Lin Zhan looked up to trace the source of the voice. A few disciples were jumping and shouting with joy, seemingly ecstatic over the discovery of the grand river.

One of them dashed to the bank, rolled up his sleeves, and leaned down, intending to scoop up a handful of water to wash his face.

The moment he crouched and reached out, a black tentacle burst from the water, wrapped around him, yanked him high into the air, and dragged him back beneath the surface. In a split second, he vanished without a trace.

Lin Zhan remembered those black tentacles all too vividly, having encountered them once before. He had not expected to find such monstrosities lurking in the water here as well.

That unfortunate disciple had stumbled into a death trap without a clue, losing his life in an instant.

The remaining disciples panicked, scrambling away from the riverbank. Amidst the chaos rang out the calm, commanding voice of a woman.

"Tan Qingxuan!" The voice was intimately familiar. Lin Zhan immediately pulled Shui Xinxin and ran downstream along the riverbank, hoping to find a place to cross.

Flying across on swords was out of the question; the thick, miasmic fog hovering above the river made it a death trap.

These few individuals were likely female disciples from the Drifting Shadow Peak who had formed a small alliance with male disciples from other peaks. To have survived and reached this far together meant Tan Qingxuan's leadership skills were quite formidable.

However, they were now facing a terrible dilemma, trapped between dangers ahead and behind. Another group of pursuers was closing in from the direction they were retreating toward. Clearly hostile, this opposing faction had already drawn their blades and summoned their magic treasures, locking them in a tense standoff.

Lin Zhan's judgment was spot-on. This newly appeared squad was the mortal enemy of Tan Qingxuan's group.

Ever since the grand competition began, these two factions had been pitched against each other, entangled in bitter combat with casualties on both sides. What started as groups of several dozen people had now dwindled to barely ten members each.

The final remnants of both factions had fallen into a state of irreconcilable enmity. Whenever one group traveled, the other would hound them relentlessly, biting at their heels and waiting to strike. After a chaotic, heaven-shattering brawl, they would temporarily separate to recover, only to resume the hunt once healed.

Today, Tan Qingxuan's group had reached this riverbank hoping for a brief respite, only to lose a companion to the water. Just as their formation was thrown into utter disarray, they had been ambushed and cornered from both front and rear—a textbook deadlock.

"Break out in separate directions! Preserve as many lives as you can!" Tan Qingxuan's eyes remained calm as water, though her delicate, fair face carried a hardened resolve never seen before as she gave out steady instructions.

There would likely still be casualties or forced withdrawals from the competition today, but scattering was their only chance at survival. Otherwise, the entire group would be wiped out right here.

The moment the enemies closed in, they unleashed various movement techniques and brandished an array of weapons and magical treasures to attack. In response, Tan Qingxuan's faction fought desperately to break through.

The battle instantly devolved into chaos. The sheer commotion drowned out the roaring river; the defenders could hear only the thunderous clashing of spiritual energy and the sharp metallic ring of clashing steel.

Lin Zhan grew increasingly anxious. While searching for a place to cross the river, he kept a watchful eye on the battlefield.

Hidden masters seemed to be lurking among the enemy ranks. The moment any of Tan Qingxuan's people managed to break through the encirclement, they were struck down by covert attacks. In the blink of an eye, three more disciples fell.

Before the dispersal plan could be fully executed, it was ruthlessly suppressed.

Tan Qingxuan, surrounded by three or four loyal companions, was bogged down in bitter combat. The attacks pressing in around them grew increasingly fierce, unleashing devastating ultimate moves in a fight to the death.

They were gradually being forced back toward the river, but Tan Qingxuan knew this was no long-term solution. Once they were driven to the absolute edge with nowhere left to run, it would be too late.

Their strategy had already shifted from a breakout to a desperate, huddling defense, clinging stubbornly to life. Yet, such resistance could not possibly last much longer.

Unable to find a suitable crossing point, Lin Zhan retrieved the white bone pagoda from his storage space, hoping to send it flying across the river to lend Tan Qingxuan a helping hand.

The white bone pagoda soared over the river, but the moment it crossed, it was tainted by plumes of fierce black Qi surging from the water below, and the surface of the pagoda began to dim... (To be continued.)