Chapter 8: The Bottom of the Small Pond

  Yang Feng has been in the small valley for a whole year, and the 16-year-old boy has undergone earth-shaking changes. Although his appearance is still ordinary with a hint of elegance, his face now reveals an unyielding determination, and he is no longer that weak and frail boy, but has grown into a person who can stand on his own.

  It's been a year, and Yang Feng is now seventeen years old. It's also deep autumn now. Yang Feng looked at the precipice in front of him and started to climb up bit by bit. This was his tenth attempt to climb up, and the previous nine attempts had all ended in failure. Although Yang Feng had cultivated the Spiral Nine Shadows, a superior lightness skill, he still couldn't fly up the high cliff in one go when facing such a steep precipice, and could only rely on climbing up bit by bit.

  At this time, Yang Feng's Nine Yin White Bone Claw played a crucial role. Both claws came out and climbed up one after another. Unfortunately, the cliff was too high. Yang Feng exhausted all his strength, plus the little true energy in his body, which was consumed to climb only halfway, and then he couldn't move forward anymore.

  The tenth attempt still ended in failure! Yang Feng let out a sigh, leaning against the cliff to rest, thinking to himself why this cliff didn't have any vines or anything like that growing on it. If there were those things, he could've used them to climb up. Alas, now there was no way.

  Yang Feng quietly looked at the water pool in front of him, now it was already deep autumn, the rainwater had decreased a lot, and the waterfall's flow had become smaller, no longer as turbulent as before, slowly flowing into the pool.

  Yang Feng suddenly thought of a question, that is, in the summer when it rains a lot, the water in this small pool is also so much, but he hasn't seen it overflow, and now when it rains less, the water level in this small pool is still like that, and he hasn't seen it drop. What's going on? Where did the extra water go during rainy days?! And where does the water come from to supplement this place when it rains less?!

  Yang Feng thought for a long time and felt that the only explanation was that this small pool might be connected to an underground dark river. When it rained, the water in the small pool would flow into the dark river, and if the water in the small pool decreased, it would be replenished by the dark river. Thinking of this, Yang Feng's eyes lit up, thinking that he could use this small pool to leave here.

  However, this method is much more dangerous, because Yang Feng can't be sure if Xiaotang is connected to the Dark River, and where the Dark River leads to. But Yang Feng decided to give it a try, because if he didn't try, he would only be able to sit here and wait for death, and by trying, he might still find a way out.

  Yang Feng would have probably stayed and waited for death if he hadn't taken the risk, as there was no more food left. He wanted to climb up the steep cliff but it was impossible, unless he made rapid progress in a short period of time, perhaps relying on his agility to climb up the cliff. However, the growth of internal power wasn't that easy, and Yang Feng would probably have died before making any significant progress.

  So the only choice left for Yang Feng was to take a risk, Yang Feng took a deep breath and plunged into the water. Having gone fishing many times had made Yang Feng's swimming skills very good, and because of his inner strength, he could see things in the water by channeling his inner strength to his eyes.

  Yang Feng continued to dive down to the bottom of the small pool, what surprised Yang Feng was that this small pool didn't seem very deep, but he had been diving for a long time and still hadn't reached the bottom. Now his body's oxygen was insufficient, and the water pressure and buoyancy were also getting bigger and bigger, making it hard for Yang Feng to hold on, yet this small pool still seemed to have no bottom.

  Helpless Yang Feng had to swim upstream immediately, quickly floating to the surface of the water. Yang Feng took a few big mouthfuls of air and at the same time expelled the turbid air from his lungs, only then did he feel a bit more comfortable. After resting for a moment and recovering some physical strength, Yang Feng found a very large stone on the edge of the small pool, then hugged it in his arms, step by step heading towards the bottom of the pool.

  This time, Yang Feng dove down very quickly, using only a short amount of effort to reach the place he had been to earlier. Then, gritting his teeth and withstanding the pressure of the water, he rapidly descended downwards. This pool was indeed very deep, and Yang Feng held his breath for an unknown amount of time, feeling like his brain was already getting dizzy. Just as he was about to lose consciousness, a massive suction force came from the bottom of the small pool, sweeping Yang Feng away.

  At this time, Yang Feng was still tightly hugging the big stone, but that suction force unexpectedly effortlessly swept away Yang Feng and the stone, Yang Feng only felt dizzy, he couldn't tell what was happening at all, he just vaguely felt that he had passed through a very long waterway, finally the suction force disappeared, and he appeared in a huge underground river.

  Yang Feng discarded the stone in his arms as soon as he felt the suction disappear, and then used all his strength to dive upwards. After swimming upwards for a long time, he finally reached the water surface. As soon as Yang Feng reached the water surface, he quickly took a few breaths of air. At this moment, he felt that being able to take in two mouthfuls of air was truly blissful. Just now, he had been holding his breath underwater for too long and almost lost consciousness. Fortunately, the suction force stimulated Yang Feng, making him come back to his senses. Otherwise, Yang Feng might have died at the bottom of the water.

  After taking a few breaths of air, Yang Feng concentrated his eyes and saw that the top of his head was just a stone wall concave upwards. It had to be said that Yang Feng was very lucky, the place where he swam upwards happened to be here, if it were elsewhere, there would be no air for him to breathe, and he could only suffocate in the water!

  As he sighed to himself about his good fortune, Yang Feng carefully sensed the direction of the water flow beneath him, then took a few deep breaths before diving down again. He wouldn't stay here forever, although this place had air that made one feel extremely happy, but staying here would only lead to death. So Yang Feng must take advantage of his remaining strength to find the exit of this underground river as soon as possible.

  Yang Feng swam rapidly forward in the direction of the water flow, his eyes seeing clearly ahead with the support of his inner strength. The water flow in this hidden river was very rapid and the speed of progress was very fast. Just when Yang Feng was about to exhaust his last breath, he finally saw the exit ahead!

  It's not entirely accurate to say that it was an exit, but rather a huge opening where the entire dark river flowed into. Yang Feng also followed the water flow and entered the opening, only to find himself being carried by the water flow into a massive cave. The cave was enormous, with most of it filled with water, except for a small area emitting a faint white glow floating on the surface.

  Yang Feng, who was washed into the cave, quickly floated to the surface of the water and then took a few more breaths before swimming towards the place emitting white light, because Yang Feng's whole body was now weak and numb, he had to find a place to rest for a while.

  However, what made Yang Feng strange was that the more he swam towards that place, the lower the water temperature became, and gradually there was even a chilling feeling, but that place was the only land in this place. Yang Feng had nowhere else to go, so he could only swim towards that place.

  It wasn't until he got closer that Yang Feng saw clearly, and it turned out that the thing emitting a faint white glow was not land, but a huge floating iceberg about three square meters in size! No wonder Yang Feng felt so cold, it was this thing that was causing trouble!

  However, Yang Feng found it strange that this place was already in the southern part of Huaxia, how could there be floating ice? Moreover, the temperature inside the cave wasn't low, so why hadn't this piece of floating ice melted away?!

  But strangely, Yang Feng still climbed onto the floating ice. Fortunately, this piece of floating ice did not sink to the bottom of the water due to Yang Feng's climb, and it withstood Yang Feng's body weight. Although lying on the floating ice was very cold, Yang Feng, who was almost fainting, could no longer care about that much. He lay on the floating ice and soon fell asleep.