Shao Xuan didn’t walk too fast under the quagmire. He was walking at the same pace as the shaman from before. Even their tracks were in sync. He was actually planning to catch something. Even if he couldn’t find any True Eyes, he wanted to catch a Universal Eye at the very least, or else it would’ve been a waste of his time.
However, as he walked under the quagmire, he felt like something was watching him in the dark. It was like a person who was observing him under the quagmire. This gaze did not come from Miu or the shaman. Shao Xuan could tell which vision was theirs. He could even feel Miu and the shaman watching him distantly, but this third person wasn’t looking from above. It was under the quagmire!
Shao Xuan looked around him through his eyelids.
There were more luminous spots. In the area around him, there were more than twenty ground eyes!
However, all of these were not as bright as Shao Xuan wanted. At best, these ground eyes only possessed stones of normal quality. They weren’t even Universal Eyes.
Shao Xuan couldn’t see everything under the quagmire. The centre quagmire wasn’t big or small. Compared to a natural lake, it was small, but compared to man-made lakes, this was near twice the size of the human-made lake in the Flaming Horn headquarters!
This was why the Jing tribe had a giant property but not a lot of land. Most of their property was the quagmires.
The lights were blurrier the farther they were from Shao Xuan. Simply put, even if it was a brighter object, if it was far away from Shao Xuan, he wouldn’t be able to tell what type of ground eye stone it was. It was just like late-night stargazing. If a star wasn’t bright, it wasn’t actually not bright. It was only farther away.
The ground eyes were not slow at all under the quagmire. The better the ground eye, the faster it travelled.
Ground eyes were special creatures that could sense a human’s presence. Even as Shao Xuan walked, many of these ground eyes noticed Shao Xuan. Some hurriedly dodged while others pretended not to have seen him, but their gaze was not strong at all. They weren’t stronger than the one that was observing him in the dark.
Without any murderous intent or aggression, it didn’t seem to have any emotion. In the Jing tribe’s quagmire, besides the ground eyes, there were no other dangerous creatures.
Shao Xuan was guessing, if this gaze indeed came from a ground eye, what level had it reached?
He had already sensed a Universal Eye before, but this gaze was even stronger than the Universal Eye......
Was it the true eye?
If it was indeed the true eye, how come the shaman didn’t say anything about it?
Could it be that even the Jing shaman couldn’t tell its exact location?
As he thought about this, Shao Xuan walked toward the object that was observing him.
The “thing” that was observing him moved away as Shao Xuan tried to get close. It maintained a distance from Shao Xuan. Shao Xuan couldn’t tell what it looked like from that distance and many times when he chased after it, even though he had locked onto his target, he couldn’t tell how bright it was due to the distance. He could only tell by comparing it to other ground eyes. It was at least the level of a Universal Eye, but because the lights in the quagmire were increasing, it was not obvious.
Shao Xuan continued to chase after this light. When he lost his way, he followed his intuition and tried to judge where the gaze was coming from.
After walking around the quagmire once, Shao Xuan walked up the stairs to catch a breath.
After the stuffy feeling in his chest was relieved, Shao Xuan told Wei and the others who were holding onto the rope and following him, “Later I’ll be running a little faster, so just loosen my rope.”
Even though they didn’t understand what Shao Xuan said and couldn’t tell how much faster he would be running, Wei and the others loosened the rope. Usually, when the Jing people went into the quagmire, one end of the rope would be tied onto the person while the other end would be tied onto a wooden stake. The wooden stakes were deeply pinned to the ground beside the quagmire, and only about six metres of the stake was above ground. A third of the length up the wooden stake, there was a basket with a long bundle of grass rope.
There were ten similar wooden stakes in total around the quagmire.
They were located in ten different directions. When people went under, they would only move in their own space and not pass their allocated ground. If they walked past their allocated distance and there were many people under the quagmire at the same time, their ropes could easily get tangled. After all, in the Jing tribe, besides people who had three eyes, other people had to tie a rope to themselves if they decided to go down. It would cause them a lot of trouble if the ropes were tangled at the bottom.
However, Shao Xuan was the only one going down right now. The only reason he could move so easily under the quagmire was that the rope that was tied to him was not fixed to the stakes. Wei and the others were holding onto his rope as he walked under the quagmire. They just ran and followed as he moved.
Now, Shao Xuan told them to stop holding onto the rope. He also untied the rope that was attached to him. He was planning to run around the quagmire, and he knew he might get tangled by the rope. The centre of the quagmire was solid ground. It was like an island in the middle of a lake. Stones were piled up in that location and the fire pond was there too. This was the place the Jing people would go and hide if there were any undefeatable threats. So, if he was tied to a rope, Shao Xuan’s movements might be hindered during his chase.
Since they had already confirmed that Shao Xuan wouldn’t have any problems walking under the quagmire, the Flaming Horns weren’t worried when he told them to let go of the rope. They were even guessing whether Shao Xuan could actually catch a Universal Eye.
The Jing shaman who was watching the excitement from the side finally stood up. He was only watching from the same spot just now, so he didn’t see all of Shao Xuan’s movements clearly, but he felt that Shao Xuan discovered something. No, he already had a clear target.
Was it the Universal Eye? No, it wasn’t. Whatever Shao Xuan was chasing was too far away from the Universal Eye that was moving rapidly. His direction wasn’t even correct. It was definitely not the Universal Eye.
Then did Shao Xuan find another Universal Eye?
That wouldn’t be right. From what he observed, Shao Xuan also missed a few other Universal Eyes.
Then what was Shao Xuan chasing?
The Jing shaman couldn’t sit any longer because he couldn’t understand what was going on. He wanted to follow him and see.
Seeing the Jing shaman on his feet, and hearing how the Flaming Horn who was going under was planning to catch ground eyes, the Jing people were suddenly excited.
Following the shaman, they wanted to see whether this Flaming Horn would succeed.
After Shao Xuan took a few deep breaths, he went down into the quagmire once again.
This time, without the rope’s hindrance, he didn’t have to worry about going around the centre of the quagmire, so his speed was a lot faster.
The night was growing darker. Above the quagmire, the moon cast a bright light down on the earth, making the night as bright as day. Everything on earth was clearly visible.
More ground eyes appeared in the quagmire. The bright moon hung high in the sky, and they seemed excited. The people who stood around the quagmire also noticed some ground eyes flying out from the surface. As they flew upward, their rapid spinning splattered the mud onto the people who were standing by the quagmire.
“How nice would it be to have a net with a long handle,” Duo Li remarked.
“We have a lot of nets, but without the shaman’s permission, no one in the Jing tribe dared to touch them,” Tuo said after the Jing people told him about it.
Duo Li looked over. There were indeed many Jing people waiting to give it a try, but without the shaman’s permission, they didn’t dare to make a move.
“Even if you have nets with long handles, you can’t catch those. They’re too fast,” Wei tried to explain in objection. Those ground eyes that jumped out from the quagmires didn’t jump very high, and they were too fast. All of them came up and went back down in a flash. Only traces of splashed mud was left behind.
Duo Li and the others were just about to say something, but Wei suddenly said, “Stop talking, follow them!”
The Jing shaman had started running. Obviously, the person under the quagmire had started to move. They couldn’t tell what was going on underneath. After Shao Xuan went under, they couldn’t even sense his energy. Above the quagmire, they could only guess what was going on by looking at where the shaman was going.
Thus, the people who couldn’t see what was going on under the quagmire followed the shaman tightly as he walked around the quagmire. Very soon, obvious ripples appeared on the surface. This was because the person who was under the quagmire was running at a rapid pace, dragging the mud along as he ran.
Running under the quagmire was very inconvenient compared to running on land. Sometimes you would feel a sense of helplessness because you couldn’t run as fast as you could on land. However, after running a lap under the quagmire, Shao Xuan got the gist of it and increased his speed on his second lap.
Above the quagmire, the Flaming Horns and the Jing people followed the Jing shaman and ran a lap around the quagmire, then another, then another......
The Jing shaman’s third eye was wide open as if he was focusing all his attention on something. The veins on his forehead were bulging from overexertion. His expression became more perplexed and confused.
After the fourth lap, some people couldn’t stand it any more, especially the Flaming Horns. They all glared furiously at the Jing shaman.
Say something, Three Eyes?!
Can’t you see what’s going on down there? Why can’t you say something? Stop frowning with a deep expression!
If the Jing shaman knew what the others were thinking, he would definitely protest his innocence because even he couldn’t understand what Shao Xuan was chasing!
He could only tell that Shao Xuan was chasing something, but he wasn’t sure what it was. There were many other ground eyes where Shao Xuan was heading, but those only had normal ground eye stones. Many times when the shaman expected Shao Xuan to catch the Universal Eyes that were close to him, Shao Xuan changed his direction and ran elsewhere. He completely ignored the loud Universal Eyes.
What was it? What was he chasing?
‘Was it something that my third eye can’t see?’ the Jing shaman was curious.
No way!
The Jing shaman was confused and couldn’t understand what was going on. Meanwhile, inside the Jing shaman’s house, Miu also tried to observe what was going on under the quagmire with his third eye. He couldn’t go out to run with the others, so he couldn’t see what was going on clearly.
At first, Miu also couldn’t understand what Shao Xuan was chasing. Only after Shao Xuan ran the second lap, then the third lap, Miu’s expression became even more perplexed. He could see what Shao Xuan was chasing after, but he wasn’t sure what it was.