Suffocation.
An intense sense of asphyxiation, laced with a clear and elegant fragrance of sandalwood and flowers, kept drilling relentlessly into her nasal cavity.
Yun Li felt distinctly unwell. Her face was pressed tightly against Su Zhan’s chest, squeezed until it felt stifling.
Yet she didn’t dare move in the slightest, didn’t even dare open her eyes, because she knew perfectly well what she would see the moment she opened them, and she also knew that if her face shifted even a little, the soft mounds currently washing her face would sway right along with it.
Whether she would hold them back or not no longer mattered.
The most important thing right now was: see no evil!
After Su Zhan had pulled her into her arms and leapt into the water, the two of them had spun inside the churning vortex for nearly thirty-odd seconds.
Yun Li dared claim those were absolutely the most unbearable thirty seconds she had ever experienced.
Until that powerful suction finally ceased, Yun Li, her mind spinning, felt herself being lifted and beginning to float upward.
The white light overhead grew brighter and brighter. With a plop, the two of them burst out of the water.
The underwater pressure vanished in an instant. Cool wind slapped against her face, and water droplets kept dripping from the long hair at her forehead.
“You can breathe now, Junior Sister.”
Su Zhan’s voice sounded softly beside the girl’s ear. She brought her down to solid ground.
Only after confirming the girl stood steady did the arms wrapped around her waist loosen and step back two paces.
Yun Li sucked in a sharp breath.
She had held it for far too long.
Using both mouth and nose, with water vapor still lingering in her nasal passages, she inhaled too much at once and started choking, coughing uncontrollably.
The girl’s mind was a complete mess. Her lashes trembled as she slowly opened her eyes.
A thin, hazy mist of water still covered her vision, and the light filtering through was a bit piercing. It took her quite a while to adapt before she could fully open her eyes and look around.
The first thing that entered her view was the water surface they had just emerged from.
This body of water was several times larger than the previous small pit—calling it a pool would not be an exaggeration.
The glowing pearl was embedded upside-down in the stone wall above the pool, tirelessly radiating its faint luminous light.
Beneath their feet, a faintly glowing azure formation flickered dimly, its purpose unknown.
“First continuous rapid descent, but after passing through the entrance, the original falling sensation disappeared and turned into being lifted.”
Su Zhan was also observing the surroundings, looking at the formation underfoot as she murmured, “Gravity was reversed the instant we passed through the entrance…”
She had seen Li Xingyue deploy formations that controlled gravity before, and this formation was more complex than the ones Li Xingyue had used, yet the format of the formation seals was almost identical…
Hmm, to Su Zhan they all looked like ghostly scribbles.
“Senior Sister, what are you saying?”
Yun Li’s head was still spinning. After coughing for so long, her voice was a bit hoarse.
“Nothing… Junior Sister, have you ever seen water hanging upside-down in the sky?” Su Zhan smiled at her.
“Senior Sister is just joking. How could there be water flowing upside-down toward the sky?”
Yun Li muttered, spreading her hands. Water droplets from her sleeves were still slowly dripping. “Instead of thinking about those far-fetched things, we should hurry and dry our clothes.”
She looked at Su Zhan.
The originally rather loose robes, soaked through, clung tightly to the cool beauty’s body, looking just like a forbidden fruit veiled in mist, tempting one to pluck it.
After only a few glances, Yun Li didn’t dare look any longer… Senior Sister was always like this. Wasn’t she afraid of being taken advantage of?
Setting aside whether anyone would take advantage, the two of them being this wet with the clothes sticking to their skin was uncomfortable.
“You’re right.” Su Zhan nodded and raised her hands, about to form a hand seal.
“Let me do it, Senior Sister.”
Yun Li said hurriedly.
“We still don’t know what we might encounter here. We ought to conserve spiritual power. At the very least she could still help with such a small matter. She didn’t want Senior Sister to have to do everything while she just sat around enjoying the benefits.”
When she took the initiative to offer, Su Zhan rarely refused. As expected, Su Zhan did not refuse.
Yun Li reached into the inner pocket of her clothes and took out the jade disk and talisman paper.
Fortunately the talisman paper was made of special material; otherwise this entire stack would have been ruined, and most of her methods would have become unusable.
The girl affixed the talisman paper to the jade disk and circulated the spiritual power in her body. Yet for some reason, the fire talisman that had worked normally before now activated only in fits and starts.
Only after continuously stimulating it five or six times and increasing the output of spiritual power did the familiar flames finally rise from the talisman paper.
Not only that, she could feel her spiritual power rapidly draining, the consumption speed three or four times faster than before… or even more.
Yun Li’s eyes narrowed slightly. She tried slowing the rate at which she channeled spiritual power, but large amounts of it continued to be consumed, as if a greedy giant beast somewhere invisible was devouring it.
“What’s wrong?” Seeing the girl’s expression change, Su Zhan quickly asked.
Yun Li bit her lip. After lighting the talisman paper, she immediately cut off the spiritual power supply to it, yet to her astonishment the consumption of spiritual power did not stop. In just a few short minutes, more than half the spiritual power in her body had already been drained!
“Senior Sister… I… I’m about to be drained dry!” she said with a bitter face.
“My spiritual power is about to be completely exhausted. What do we do…”
A rather unfortunate line, but right now Su Zhan was in no mood for random associations.
If it were a demon beast she could still handle it with her sword, but what to do about spiritual power being exhausted?
Su Zhan began rummaging in her bosom. Yun Li had placed all the medicinal pills she had brought in on her person, including pills that could replenish spiritual power.
She had Yun Li open her mouth and fed the pill in. Only then did the girl’s complexion improve a little.
But this only eased things for a few minutes. The two of them had just breathed a sigh of relief when Yun Li’s face turned ugly once more.
“The spiritual energy is still continuously flowing away…” Yun Li said with a mournful expression.
Damn it!
Su Zhan couldn’t help frowning. These medicinal pills, once swallowed, could replenish a large amount of spiritual power in a short time.
Not complete recovery, but at least a Qi Refining stage cultivator eating one could recover more than half their spiritual power.
“Don’t panic. Sit cross-legged and meditate. Open your mouth, keep refining the medicinal pill.”
No matter what, better to keep feeding for now; otherwise once this girl’s spiritual power was completely depleted it would be troublesome… Hmm?
Su Zhan stuffed another medicinal pill into Yun Li’s mouth, then suddenly paused.
It seemed that even if spiritual power was exhausted, nothing particularly bad would happen. At most she simply wouldn’t be able to use spell arts.
“Senior Sister… what did you feed me?”
While Su Zhan’s mind was wandering, Yun Li suddenly spoke, her voice carrying a tremor, the words coming out soft.
“…I feel like I’m about to be stuffed full. The spiritual power is about to overflow…” The girl couldn’t help letting out short pants, a few rather improper whimpers humming from her nasal cavity.
“I didn’t feed you anything.”
Su Zhan frowned.
She suddenly thought of something, smoothed her expression, and soothed in a soft voice.
“Junior Sister, don’t rush. Close your eyes, calm your mind, circulate your cultivation method, and perform breathing exercises as usual.”
“…”
Another embarrassed hum.
Yun Li pressed her lips together, obediently closed her eyes and did as told, her snow-white cheeks flushed red all over.