After being reborn, all I want to do is run away.

Chapter 195 Debts Must Be Repaid

Shen Xu didn't know how much time had passed, but he felt as if he had been in this stone chamber for a full month.

However, he had no idea when he could leave this place, let alone whether he could even get out. The feeling of waiting to die was unbearable; if he hadn't been able to pass each day through meditation, he would have gone mad long ago.

During his time trapped, Shen Xu tried almost every possible method to escape the stone chamber. This included, but was not limited to, attacking the stone walls with all his might to try and find the weak points in the chamber, and examining every corner inch by inch, hoping to discover hidden mechanisms or passages.

He even tried activating the teleportation array on the jade tablet, but it had no effect.

As time passed, Shen Xu's mood became increasingly irritable and restless.

He had finally broken through to the Qi Condensation Realm and could have happily returned to the outside world, but now he was trapped here to die, and his heart was filled with resentment.

"Kunyuan Palace is a trap!" Shen Xu lay helplessly on the rough, cold ground, staring blankly into the darkness before him.

The white lamp had long since stopped burning, and he didn't even have a single Qi-Nourishing Pill to replenish it.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck him: "Add it in!"

Shen Xu suddenly sat up and solemnly said to the surrounding darkness, "I know I did something I shouldn't have done, and I am willing to pay the price for my actions."

"Even if you trap me here to death, it won't help. Only by letting me out can I have a chance to replenish the Qi Condensation Pool. I hope you can give me a chance to make amends."

After Shen Xu finished speaking, he nervously observed the surrounding darkness. After a while, when he found that nothing had changed, he lay down again, muttering with a bitter smile, "How stupid!" Then he closed his eyes in despair.

When he opened his eyes again, he found a hazy yellow ball of light floating in front of him. However, before he could figure out what was happening, the ball of light transformed into a stream of light and instantly plunged straight into his chest!

Immediately afterwards, with a crisp "thud," a crystal-clear, lustrous mutton-fat jade bottle suddenly fell in front of him.

Looking at the jade bottle in front of him, Shen Xu couldn't help but take a deep breath. After a moment's hesitation, he finally reached out and carefully picked up the jade bottle into his palm.

But the instant he grasped the jade bottle, an extremely dazzling white light suddenly flashed before his eyes without warning! The intense light stung his eyes, causing him to instinctively close them again.

"Glug, glug..." When Shen Xu opened his eyes again, he was shocked to find that he was completely immersed in icy cold water!

Worse still, a gaping maw covered in sharp, serrated teeth was lunging at him from beneath him with lightning speed.

In an instant, an unprecedented fear surged into Shen Xu's heart like a tidal wave. He trembled all over and then desperately swam toward the surface of the water.

Fortunately, he is now at the Qi Condensation Realm, and his strength and speed have increased significantly. In the end, he was able to narrowly escape the bite of the giant beast whose appearance he could not see underwater. If he had been at the tenth level of Qi Nourishment Realm, he would probably have been devoured by the beast in that situation.

But the giant beast had no intention of letting him go. After regaining its footing, it launched another swift attack on him. Shen Xu knew that he could not afford to entangle with this monster underwater for long. He could not stay underwater for long, especially with such intense activity.

To make matters worse, the monster's speed in the water was significantly greater than his, and it seemed that only one path remained before him—a swift and decisive victory.

However, the underwater environment made Shen Xu extremely uncomfortable. Every simple movement felt like a heavy burden was pressing down on him, making him feel extremely strained, which made him realize that he was currently in a very deep place.

Seeing the enormous beast getting closer and closer, Shen Xu had no time to hesitate. He made a decisive move, quickly drew the sword from his waist, and unleashed a powerful Five Waves attack on the beast.

In an instant, an incomparably powerful water-attribute energy roared out like a surging wave, merging with the surrounding water and instantly creating a giant wave in the water.

The giant wave crashed into the beast with overwhelming force, sending it flying a great distance.

"Such power!" Shen Xu was immediately shocked by the power of the five waves he had casually unleashed. However, he also knew that the five waves should not have caused too much damage to the giant beast, but they had successfully bought him precious time to escape.

Taking advantage of the moment when the giant beast was swept away by the swift current, Shen Xu dared not hesitate for a moment. He swung his arms with all his might and swam towards the surface of the water like an arrow. At this moment, he could clearly feel the oxygen in his chest cavity disappearing at an alarming rate.

However, the five waves he had just witnessed seemed like a clarion call to awaken the sleeping beasts. In an instant, numerous giant beasts of similar size and appearance emerged from all around him. These beasts gathered swiftly like ghosts, surrounding him completely.

When Shen Xu finally got a clear look at the group of demonic beasts surrounding him, a chill instantly rose up his spine. They were actually enormous blue-snouted crocodiles! They bared their fangs and claws, looking ferocious and terrifying, their sharp teeth gleaming coldly.

"Damn! This is Qinghu Lake. This is truly karma!"

Suddenly, Shen Xu felt the world spinning, and his vision blurred. A strong sense of dizziness washed over him, and he realized that this was a symptom caused by extreme oxygen deprivation. He had to grit his teeth and try to hold on, but his body became increasingly unresponsive.

At this moment, the lake was like an unreachable shore to Shen Xu. No matter how hard he swam, the seemingly close water always maintained a distance that filled him with despair.

Just as Shen Xu was so dizzy that he was almost losing consciousness, a giant blue-snouted crocodile of unimaginable size appeared silently beneath him like a ghost, steadily supporting him on its broad, ridge-like back.

Immediately afterwards, the enormous creature carried him and sped towards the surface of the lake.

He quickly took the opportunity to put the sword and jade bottle into his ring, and then tightly gripped a protruding scale on the back of the blue-snouted crocodile.

"Why did it save me?" After this thought popped into Shen Xu's mind, he fell into a coma.

……

"Cough cough~" Shen Xu coughed up a mouthful of lake water, then frowned and opened his hazy eyes. Through the blur, a handsome face appeared in front of him.

"Did you save me?" Shen Xu slowly sat up. He remembered that the girl was the first swordswoman he encountered after entering the Kunyuan Secret Realm.

"The lake is full of blue-snout crocodiles. It's your skill that you survived; it has little to do with me," the girl in black said slowly.

"Blue-snout crocodile!!" A blue-snout crocodile of enormous size suddenly appeared in Shen Xu's mind.

"It was it that carried me out of the lake, so why was I in the lake..." As the memories returned to his mind, Shen Xu couldn't help but sigh.

At first, he thought that the one who saved him was the blue-snouted crocodile that he had been dealing with all along, but in his memory, the size of that blue-snouted crocodile was obviously much larger than that of the Qi Condensation Realm blue-snouted crocodile, and it looked a lot like the dark shadow he saw when he first came to Qinghu.

"I have nothing to thank you for, but how about I take you out of this red soil?" Shen Xu suggested.

"Do you know how to get out?" the girl in black asked, somewhat puzzled.

"No one knows the way out better than me, but why didn't you go out with the Tianhe Society?" Shen Xu asked with some doubt.

The girl in black replied, "They're too good. I'm afraid they'll eliminate me."

“That’s certainly very possible, but why don’t you eliminate me?” Shen Xu asked curiously.

"I think you are a good person."

"Haha, I stole something from someone not long ago, but I really think I'm a good person," Shen Xu replied with a smile.

Do you know how long the Kunyuan Palace has been open?

"I don't know, but the Tianhe Society members have been gone for more than ten days."

"So much time has passed!" Shen Xu murmured.

“You must be bored staying here all the time. How about I take you to see the Kunyuan Secret Realm beyond the Red Soil?” Shen Xu asked with a smile.