Chapter 663
A Violent Capture
DOGE’s Note: Wishing everyone a happy chinese new year! may your 2021 be filled with prosperity & fortune <3
Under the quagmire, Shao Xuan was fully focused on that bright spot. His totemic energy flowed wildly through his body. The muscles on both his legs bulged up suddenly and his body bent forward as his legs dropped into a squat. Following this motion, he burst forward rapidly, like a loach blasting through the mud, flying towards its target.
The mud under the quagmire trembled and then surged upward. The people who were standing beside the quagmire only saw bubbles constantly coming to the surface, as if the mud was boiling with bubbling sounds.
Through his third eye, the Jing shaman could see Shao Xuan’s movements under the quagmire. Seeing this, his facial expression twitched. He had never seen anyone run like that under the quagmire.
The quagmire was unlike normal ground. Underneath, there was a natural force pulling the person down to the bottom. People couldn’t move as conveniently as they usually did on ground, and sometimes they would even feel dragged by the pressure under the mud. This was an unchangeable factor.
Shao Xuan knew this fact, so when he was chasing after his target under the quagmire, he didn’t run. Instead, he used a jumping and sprinting method to chase after it. Every time he leaped forward, his foot that landed first would bend down and push forward, propelling the next movement. Thus, with every leap, he burst ten metres forward, and after Shao Xuan got used to this method, he became even faster.
Ten metres, fifteen, twenty......
With every leap, the gap between the last would increase under the mud, and following Shao Xuan’s movements, the bubbles boiled even faster on the surface.
The Jing shaman was still chasing after him and his forehead was already covered in sweat.
He couldn’t understand how the brat could travel so fast under the quagmire. He was just like a fish in water. If he merely observed Shao Xuan’s movements, he wouldn’t have been able to tell that he was moving under a quagmire. He was even so close to a foreign tribe’s fire seed, but his movements were not at all hindered by its energy.
How incredible!
The Jing shaman never expected such an occurrence when he promised to let Shao Xuan go under the quagmire. At first he only thought that the brat was curious and wanted to take a short walk under the quagmire, but this situation was far beyond what he had expected. Seeing the way Shao Xuan was chasing after his target, it was too late now even if he wanted to call him back to the shore.
But that didn’t matter. The Jing shaman wiped away the sweat on his forehead quickly and continued to chase after him. Even though chasing after him like this was tiring, he was even more confused.
What was this brat chasing after?
He couldn’t tell. He still couldn’t tell!
Now, every leap Shao Xuan took caused a tremble under the quagmire. The thick mud was trembling so much that many of the ground eyes stopped gathering under the quagmire but instead swam up to the surface.
The people who were standing around the quagmire also noticed this.
More and more ground eyes floated to the surface.
Bang!
A loud noise! It seemed as if someone was stirring up the quagmire from underneath, mixing the mud together, making the muddy water on the surface even muddier and stickier than before.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A series of muffled sounds could be heard. Each of these sounds were caused by Shao Xuan’s steps. They were caused his feet’s impact on the bottom of the quagmire.
In the external quagmire in the Jing tribe, Di Pi and Di Pa, the two Ya brothers, had just come over to watch the Jing people catch the ground eyes. Suddenly, they heard the commotion coming through the ground from the centre quagmire.
Di Pi and Di Pa turned away from the people who were busy catching the ground eyes and their ears followed the series of trembling sounds. They could pinpoint the exact location this sound came from and what exactly caused it.
Did it not come from the ground?
Who was it? It did not sound at all like any member of the Jing tribe. No one here had such a powerful strength.
The two of them were suspicious, so they walked toward the centre quagmire.
The Jing people did not stop the two brothers from approaching the centre quagmire because they were already familiar with them.
However, these two brothers didn’t stay close to the quagmire. The Jing fire seed’s repulsive energy made them feel uncomfortable. They felt worse if they stood closer, so they kept a distance from the quagmire and stopped there. They narrowed their eyes and tried their best to judge what was going on there, but their eyesight was too bad, so they could only judge by the sounds.
“The Flaming Horns are there!”
“What are they doing there?”
They could feel the presence of a group of Flaming Horns and a group of Jing people. They were running crazily around the quagmire, and he couldn’t tell what they were up to. Something strong was happening under the quagmire too.
“What’s underneath?”
Di Pi and Di Pa, the two brothers, leaned their ears to the ground and tried to read the message the earth was trying to send them.
With every tremble in the ground, their ears shook. The beard and hair on their faces were like probe needles opening outwards. They could sense the smallest vibrations in the air and ground.
Shao Xuan walked up the stairs to catch a breath of fresh air.
This time the Jing shaman seized the opportunity and asked him, “What did you see?”
“There’s this ground eye. I can feel it looking at me. You said it yourself, the True Eye is like a pair of real eyes and felt different from all the other ground eyes......”
Shao Xuan didn’t even get to finish his sentence, but the Jing shaman interrupted, “That’s impossible!”
If it was indeed the True Eye, he would’ve noticed it. It was impossible that he missed out on such a fact. ‘You think I’m really blind? I can’t even see the True Eye? Do you think I’m a Ya person?’
The Jing shaman didn’t believe what Shao Xuan said. If the True Eye actually appeared, there was no way it could escape his third eye!
Shao Xuan didn’t care. He continued, “You even said that, the higher the grade of the stone, the faster it moved under the quagmire. That ground eye was way faster than the Universal Eyes.”
“Impossible!” The Jing shaman objected once again. He didn’t see any ground eyes moving that fast under the quagmire. Besides the Universal Eye, he didn’t even see any normal ground eye stones moving that fast. There were so many ground eyes under the quagmire. If there was indeed a ground eye that was moving so fast, how could he have missed it?!
The Jing shaman was just about to say something else, but he suddenly heard a cough from inside the house.
They were not far away from the house, and the shaman recalled that Miu was still inside the house. Miu had probably also seen what happened just now, but why did he cough? Miu had stopped coughing ever since his condition improved. Perhaps he was trying to tell the shaman that he noticed something?
After hearing Miu’s low cough, the Jing shaman rearranged his thoughts and swallowed them down. Instead, he said, “If it really is the True Eye, there is no way you can catch it. I’m the only one who can catch the True Eye.”
The Jing shaman pointed to his third eye. “Catching the True Eye is also a contest between eyes. In the history of our tribe, we have always been able to catch it under the help of a shaman. You can’t do it. Even if you have a net, you can’t catch it. There’s no point trying to catch up to it. How about this, wait for me to finish resting. I’ll go down and catch it with you.”
Shao Xuan thought about this proposal, and then nodded. “You can go rest first. I’ll give it another shot. If I can’t succeed, then we’ll discuss what to do next.”
At first, the Jing shaman wanted to go back to the house and ask Miu what he discovered, but Shao Xuan had once again returned to the bottom of the quagmire. The shaman could only return and watch again. He really wanted to confirm whether there was in fact a ground eye moving rapidly under the quagmire.
After Shao Xuan landed at the bottom, the “thing” was still quietly observing him from afar, but the Jing shaman couldn’t see it.
As he recalled the last few times he chased after it, Shao Xuan secretly cried out for help. To these ground eyes, the mud under the quagmire was not at all hindering their movement. On the contrary, it was actually more convenient for them because they travelled by spinning. Every time he got close to it, the ground eye would draw a distance between them once again. After all, the ground eyes lived underground in the mud and didn’t need to get any fresh air from the surface, but Shao Xuan needed fresh air. Even if totemic warriors could hold their breaths longer under water than ordinary people, burning up so much energy would shorten the time they could spend under the quagmire.
The Jing shaman couldn’t see it, but Shao Xuan was already quite sure after he chased it for so long. The Jing shaman said that the True Eyes rarely existed. If he missed it, he might have to wait even longer, so Shao Xuan wasn’t willing to let this chance go that easily. Even if it wasn’t the True Eye, Shao Xuan had to give it a try. It was better to get it wrong than regretting later.
Nets wouldn’t work, neither did speed. So what method should he use next?
The Jing shaman observed Shao Xuan as he used the same method to pursue his target. His eyes opened widely as he stared at Shao Xuan’s direction. His body instinctively stood up and followed Shao Xuan as he moved. As he widened his eyes to search for the target, the Jing shaman was grumbling about how they had to reenact everything again. Even if it truly was the True Eye, this was not the way to catch it. It would only be a waste of energy.
Loud muffled sounds came from under the quagmire again. The mud was starting to boil like before, and everyone who was watching anticipated the same results as before, but very soon, they realised that they were wrong.
Shao Xuan was indeed using the same leaping method to chase after his target, but just as he was getting close to the bright spot, he also needed to catch a breath. So even though he was closest to his target at this moment, he rushed towards the stairs that were closest to him.
His feet kicked on the bottom of the quagmire with full force, creating a loud noise. His body propelled forward, and as his foot landed on the stairs, the Jing shaman thought that he would walk upwards to catch a breath. However, Shao Xuan did not stop there. Instead, he stepped on the stairs violently.
Bang!
Another muffled sound, even lower than the previous ones. It was like a heavy hammer slamming down. The people who heard this felt their hearts tremble with the rhythm.
Under the quagmire, the stone staircase that suffered Shao Xuan’s step sank downward, and large amounts of mud rolled upwards as a result of the impact.
Shao Xuan dashed forward to his target like a battle sword splitting the mud into two halves. He was so fast that his body cut air bubbles through the mud, making popping bubbling sounds. However, Shao Xuan did not use the same method to chase after his target this time. Even though he was still travelling in the same direction, his body was slanted upwards. At the same time, he lifted his arms, held his fists tightly, and moved his arms back and forth.
As he lifted his head from under the mud, his arm also came up, bringing the mud in the quagmire with it. He looked like a fierce shark revealing its murderous dorsal fins on the surface of the sea.
The Jing shaman’s eyelids jerked. He felt like something bad was about to happen.
Bang!
Shao Xuan’s lifted arm instantly turned into a hammer as he brought it down on the surface of the quagmire.
A shocking wave was sent out across the surface of the quagmire. Where his hand landed, the impact caused the water to split and waves to form, pushing away all the mud around him. The waves rippled in all directions, forming a widening trap in the centre of the quagmire. It looked like a black lotus blooming in the mud. It was boiling and ready to explode.
The mud under the quagmire splashed upwards above the surface. Many ground eyes that were swimming near the surface were also propelled from the mud. The wet mud splattered everywhere as the ground eyes spun in the air. Mud rained on the shore.