The Thorne of Destiny

Daniel eventually broke the silence by asking a question.

"What now?" He said after their recent expenditure failed. No one replied at first. They didn't expect to gain nothing from their previous actions which made them a bit skeptical.

"Perhaps we need another bait." Andrea the other girl in the group suggested.

"That will take too much time. I don't get why you're all so scared. We haven't even gone that deep into the outer regions so whatever is there can't be that strong. I refuse to believe that we can't take care of it with our group." For the first time in a while, Robert's words made sense.

They didn't have to be so cautious in the outer regions when they hadn't even reached the depths of it.

"I'll take my leave now. It seems you all have a lot to figure out." Adrian started leaving without even waiting for a response.

"Stop right there! You're also going to help us" Bryce bellowed.

"And why would I do that?" Adrian answered in annoyance. He had already done everything that they had asked yet they still weren't letting him leave.

Bryce didn't respond but rather brought out his sword. His actions alone spoke of his intentions. His companions mirrored his action and Adrian soon found himself facing five cultivators in the foundation establishment stage.

His expression darkened as he realized he was trapped. A tense atmosphere enveloped the group as it seemed like a fight was about to break out. Adrian let out a sigh and remained in his position. He couldn't overpower them so he would still follow their orders for now.

Bryce snorted after seeing his action and turned his attention towards the lake again.

He then ordered in a deep voice. "We're going in the water."

Everyone then started moving until they all entered the lake. They didn't waste time enjoying the cool sensation on their bodies as they swam deeper into the lake. After reaching the center of the lake, they took deep breaths before diving underwater.

A cultivator's lung capacity far exceeded that of ordinary mortals. They could easily hold their breath for dozens of minutes. This was especially the case for the group. The weakest of them was at the fifth level of the foundation establishment realm. They could easily hold their breaths for at least thirty minutes without issue. The group kept diving for dozens of meters until they reached the deep end of the lake. At first, they didn't notice anything. Due to the depth at which they were, light was scarce so they could only see a few feet in front of them.

What they didn't realize was that within a cave in one of the crevices, a pair of reptilian eyes had opened and were staring intently at its prey.

The water around them started to ripple. Bryce, who was the one that had reached the deepest depths suddenly turned his head towards a particular direction as he brought out his sword and held it in front of his body.

His cultivation technique allowed his senses to be sharper than an average cultivator. That coupled with his high cultivation level allowed him to sense the beast before anyone else.

Still, he couldn't react fast enough and was soon sent flying by a single tail whip. He crashed on a boulder underwater while puking out a mouthful of blood.

The rest of the group was utterly dumbfounded when they saw the scene that had just unfolded. A beast had just attacked them before they could even sense it. That could only lead to one conclusion. Their bloods ran cold as this realization hit them. They could soon see the massive body of the creature swimming around them. The aura radiated from its body confirmed their fears as it circled them.

It was a rank-3 magical beast.

"A granite crocodile!!!" Adrian yelled in his mind.

The magical beast was a giant crocodile that was about as big as a basketball field.

Its skin had the color of granite, hence the name. The color also gave it great camouflage abilities when it among rocky terrain. Its reptilian eyes stared at its prey as its long tail gently swayed in the water.

If Adrian wasn't so terror-stricken already, he would have noticed an excited glint in the beast's eyes. It wasn't often that it would have so much food at its disposal. It opened its mouth and hundreds of serrated teeth came into view as it let out an ear-piercing roar. The lake shook as the sound waves sent Adrian and his associates flying.

However, this was to their favor as they were sent flying upwards towards the surface of the lake.

The roar woke Adrian up out of his terror and he started swimming madly towards the surface. The others who were previously still in shock saw him and immediately snapped back to reality. Even Bryce who was flung away earlier joined them. However, no matter how fast they swam, how could they swim faster than the granite crocodile?

The first person to get caught was Andrea, she reacted later than everybody else and thus, was at the bottom of the group when the crocodile arrived.

"Water bullet!" She pointed her longsword and yelled just as the crocodile was about to reach her. This was the martial skill she had purchased just before embarking on this mission. She had spent most of her sect points before finally being able to obtain this silver-rank martial skill.

The skill condenses the water qi in the dantian before shooting it out at a very high speed. The longer one condenses qi, the more powerful the skill will be. Of course, there were limits. The amount of Qi present in the dantian of cultivators was limited. Also condensing that amount of Qi would require a long time. An opponent would obviously not wait for you to complete the activation of the skill.

The combination of these factors was what limited the water bullet to the silver rank.

However, because they were underwater, the skill unleashed more power as it shot forward and landed on the left eye of the granite crocodile.