While Lin Wu was having his internal villain monologue, the trio of men had started descending towards the crater. Half way through to reaching the ground though, they had to halt as a yellow glow suddenly appeared on their body.
"Young Master, the defensive talismans are about to run out, we have to get away and quickly replace them." Ye Dai urged.
Shirong did not respond and simply flew back up into the sky, away from the proximity of the Crater. Upon reaching there, all three of them took out a rectangular piece of paper from their respective spatial treasures. They then slapped them onto their clothes and the paper started burning.
After the paper was gone, a string of runes appeared in the air and then sank into their bodies, before a yellow barrier appeared close to the surface of their skin.
~Phew~
"That was close, but why did the rate of deterioration of the talismans suddenly increase by so much? The talisman still had almost forty percent of their energy left before we reached the Crater?" Bei Wen wondered.
"There's no doubt, it is the strange energy that is present in the area. The closer we get, the stronger it gets. Looks like we won't be able to stay there for much longer if we don't use additional talismans." Shirong guessed.
"It's better to be safe than taking the risk. Let's do it!" Ye Dai said before taking out another talisman and applying it onto his clothes.
The other two did the same before starting to descend on to the ground again. While the three could have gone inside the Crater directly with the help of their spirit swords, it was still better to be cautious. They landed on the ground and Shirong did a quick sweep of the area.
In a shock to him, he discovered that his spirit sense was suppressed to half of his usual strength. He could not extend it beyond a certain length and if he tried to do so he could sense it starting to breakdown.
"Dammit, this strange energy in this area is even affecting my spirit sense!" Shirong cursed.
The two men looked at Shirong upon hearing his words and verified the claim themselves.
"Young master, I can only exert a quarter of my spirit sense," Ye Dai said with a helpless tone.
"It is the same for me too," Bei Wen added, feeling a bit fearful.
"Looks like the cultivators from the Ling Kingdom's Royal court were scared for more than one reason," Shirong stated.
He thought for a bit before gritting his teeth and taking out a triangular piece of a Stone from his spatial storage ring. He then poured his spirit qi into the stone and a barrier started forming around him. This barrier was different than the one from the defensive talisman and seemed to be much stronger.
The Barrier reached a radius of about three meters before stopping.
"Come here, you two stay within the barrier. We should be protected for a while." Shirong said unwillingly.
"Thank you, Young Master," Ye Dai and Bei Wen said in unison.
The three then walked closer to the hole of the Crater and peered down into the darkness. Bei Wen gestured with his hand and a small ball of fire appeared, which he then dropped into the crater. The falling ball of fire illuminated the pitch black crater and allowed the three to gaze into it.
They could see the water below that glimmer under the light of the fire. The water was still and there were no ripples on it.
"Huh, is that an underground lake?" Bei Wen questioned.
"We'll know when we go there. Looks like the meteor crashed and broke through the underground caves. There are a lot of them under the millennium forest." Shirong said.
The three then started descending into the Crater as Bei Wen created a few more balls of fire to illuminate their path. The three of them had their spirit senses extended but realized that the more they got closer to the water, the stronger the suppression was getting.
By the time they reached the surface of the water, Shirong's spirit sense had been reduced to a mere four meters, while the other two's was at a tiny one meter.
"We won't be able to react fast enough if something attacks us with the suppression of the spirit sense." Bei Wen spoke.
"That's why I added the secondary barrier, I had a guess that something like this may occur," Shirong spoke.
The three of them were now at the very surface of the water, and the barrier was just a few centimeters away from touching the water. They still could not see the depths of the water clearly and thus did not know if there was something hidden there.
"Looks like we have no choice but to continue further," Shirong said before controlling the barrier surrounding them to lower into the water.
He did not want the water to soak them, hence he solidified the barrier so that it would keep the water out while the three of them stayed dry. Besides, Shirong was also doubtful about the water. His gut was telling him to get away from there, but his desire for the fortune was preventing him from acting on it.
~Sizzle~
As soon as the barrier touched the water, though, it started sizzling.
"WHAT! What is happing?!" Bei Wen yelped.
"The barrier is shrinking!" Ye Dai cautioned.
"This is much worse than I thought. This water is extremely corrosive, it can even harm the barrier made by a mid grade spirit tool." Shirong said with a little fear.
Ye Dai looked at Young master Shirong as he thought about their situation. If he was fully honest with himself, he did not want to continue downward.
"Young Master, should we go back?" Bei Wen questioned while slightly trembling.
"No!" Shirong shouted, "I won't go without seeing what's hiding below with my own two eyes."
"Does this guy think he is a protagonist of a cultivation novel or something?" Lin Wu said as he enjoyed the show, completely unworried about the water he had been 'Reborn' in.
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