Squeak!
Not wasting a single second after it was rescued, the rabbit demon beast dashed inside Xuan Hao's sleeve before hiding away inside the hidden pocket. Forgetting to get the spirit stones that it had come out for in the process. In the back of the rabbit demon beast's mind, it had already decided that it wouldn't leave the small hidden pocket inside Xuan hao's robe before they reached the mountains on the other side of the large ring-shaped lake.
Ignoring the rabbit demon beast as it moved around inside the hidden pocket trying to make itself more comfortable, Xuan Hao turned his attention towards the crystal fish that he captured when rescuing the rabbit demon beast.
Different from any other fish demon beast that he had seen so far, the crystal fish were completely transparent outside of a few vital organs that were still somewhat visible through their skin. Making them extremely hard to spot inside the crystal-clear water that already made it hard to use divine sense over a large area due to its absorption of anything that touched it.
"No wonder I didn't see any of them before, they are practically invisible in the water if one doesn't know about their presence. Good thing I didn't end up entering the water just now…" Muttering this to himself as he looked over the crystal-clear ring-shaped lake, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine when he realized how close he was to ending up in a life and death situation.
Even if the crystal fish were far weaker than him, their numbers more than made up for this. Not to mention, the crystal fish were not affected by the spatial anomaly or the absorption of qi. Meaning that they could just draw things out and wait for him to exhaust himself to death.
However, the presence of the crystal fish hinted at there being some way to avoid the effect of the crystal-clear water and the spatial anomaly…
Turning his attention back towards the crystal fish now on the ground in front of him, Xuan Hao smiled slightly as his divine sense and dao domain spread out and began to examine every single part of the crystal fish who could do nothing but flap around in a panic after being forced out of the water.
Demon beasts or not, they had never thought about leaving the water before and as a result hadn't adapted to being outside of the water. Although they could survive for a far longer time due to their cultivation base, they couldn't exert more than a small fraction of their power and under Xuan Hao's powerful divine sense and dao domain, they couldn't even continue flapping around the ground anymore. Forcing them to give up on their futile attempt to get back into the water again.
Whoosh~
Not able to resist in the slightest, Xuan Hao's divine sense slowly seeped into their transparent bodies and began analyzing every single part of them, while the dao domain kept them in place and prevented them from moving or trying to escape.
"Hm?"
Searching through the bodies of the crystal fish for anything interesting, Xuan Hao could not help narrowing his eyes as he noticed a special kind of organ inside one of the crystal fish that seemed to radiate some kind of strange aura. Looking closer, Xuan Hao realized that all of the crystal fish had this special organ inside of them, radiating the same strange aura that seemed to serve no purpose other than radiating the strange aura that seemed to create a thin barrier of sorts that covered the entire body of the crystal fish.
Ptsh-!
Extracting the special organ from one of the crystal fish to inspect it more closely, Xuan Hao realized that it didn't stop producing the strange aura after being extracted, but instead began covering him in the strange yet harmless aura that now no longer covered the crystal fish whose organ had just been cut out.
Is this perhaps what is allowing the crystal fish to live inside the crystal-clear water without being affected by the absorption or the spatial anomaly? What will happen to it if I throw it back into the water like this?
Thinking about this, Xuan Hao glanced back down on the crystal fish that seemed perfectly fine after having one of its organs cut out-
Whoosh~
And deciding to test out his hypothesis, Xuan Hao threw the crystal fish who had just barely managed to close the wound back into the water.
Splash!
Watching as the crystal fish landed in the water and soon became almost completely invisible beneath the crystal-clear water, Xuan Hao saw the crystal fish happily swimming around for a few seconds before suddenly freezing on the spot before violently wiggling around in the water for another few minutes before slowly loosing power and sinking to the bottom without any signs of life left.
Confirming the fact that the special organ was indeed responsible for the crystal fish being able to live inside of the crystal-clear water without dying. Not because their cultivation realm was lower than the Soul Ascension Realm like he had first suspected after not seeing any crystal fish above the Domain Lord Realm.
Now the only question left on Xuan Hao's mind, was whether or not he would be able to use the strange aura covering his body from the strange crystal fish organ.
If he really could, the difficulty of crossing the ring-shaped lake would be close to negligible, as a distance of two kilometers would take no more than a few seconds to travel with his current strength. Even if he couldn't use any of his movement techniques or abilities.
Well… There is only one way to find out…
Splash!
Deciding to jump into the water just next to the edge of the terraced pool that he was standing on top of so he could escape in case he was wrong; Xuan Hao felt the crystal-clear water surround his entire body as he firmly held the strange crystal fish organ in one of his hands.
However, even after a few seconds passed, nothing happened.
The spatial anomaly that would trap him inside some kind of spatial tunnel was nowhere to be seen and the crystal-clear water didn't absorb as much as a single bit of his qi.
All things considered, the crystal-clear water that could kill him if he stayed inside of it for too long, was now nothing more than ordinary water that didn't have any kind of danger inside of it. Outside of the few crystal fish, but with their strength, Xuan Hao didn't have to worry about them now that he was no longer affected by the crystal-clear water and the spatial anomaly. Only the restriction on the space itself that prevented teleporting and his movement technique was still around.
"Looks like it does work…" Muttering this to himself as he looked at the strange organ in his hand, Xuan Hao was just about to cross the ring-shaped lake, when-
Bang!
Splash~
The strange organ of the crystal fish exploded in his face, covering the thin barrier created by his dao domain around his body. Following which, the familiar sensation of space around him twisting and his qi being forcefully drawn out of his body returned. Not only that, but the crystal fish who had been observing him from afar also began cautiously making their way towards him.
Although they didn't dare to attack him as fast as they did with the rabbit demon beast due to how he had captured two of them and saved the rabbit demon beast not too long ago, it would only be a matter of time before they worked up enough courage to start attacking him.
Swish-!
Understanding this and how dangerous his situation was now that the strange organ had blown up all of a sudden, Xuan Hao didn't waste a second before rushing out of the water and back up to safety at the edge of the terraced pool of water. Not daring to stay in the water and having to deal with the attack of the crystal fish like what had happened to the rabbit demon beast. Different from the rabbit demon beast, he didn't really have anyone who would show up to save him.
So, the strange organs can't exist outside the body of the crystal fish for an extended period of time…
Standing back up on the edge of the terraced pool of water, safe from the crystal fish and crystal-clear water below, Xuan Hao went over the things he had just learnt about the strange crystal fish organ.
In the end, he decided to test things out in more detail with the remaining two crystal fish and ended up concluding that the strange organ could only protect him for a little over two seconds after he entered the water.
To cross the distance of two kilometers without any movement technique or abilities assisting him, he would at least need ten or more seconds… And that was considering nothing unexpected happened…