As Red nodded after hearing what she said, Lin Qiao responded, “Alright, since you’re not going, we’re gonna get there by ourselves.”
After saying that, she turned and waved at the others before moving forward fleetingly.
After Lin Qiao and her people all disappeared into the distance, the big cat sat down on the leafless tree and looked like a giant red fruit on the tree.
Lin Qiao and her people found a dark river less than a mile ahead, looking black as ink. The surface of the river was perfectly still, looking almost like a black mirror. The river was tens of meters wide, and one had to be able to fly or swim to cross it.
With surprise, Lin Qiao found that the dark river didn’t reflect any light at all. That seemed unusual. She raised an arm and said to the people behind her, “Don’t approach the river just yet.”
Meanwhile, she narrowed her eyes to observe the water in the river. Once she narrowed her eyes, the river in those eyes immediately changed color—the black water became dark-purple. The purple color of the water was so deep that it still looked a bit black.
Lin Qiao raised her head and noticed that the energy in the water was thicker than that in the air. Obviously, no one should touch the river water. Any human beings who touched it would suffer what Yuan Tianxing did. As a zombie, even she felt that the water was dangerous for her as well. The energy contained in the water was highly condensed, so it might corrode a zombie’s skin and energy at least, even if it couldn’t kill it.
“Do not touch the water. Step back!” Lin Qiao opened her eyes and ordered her people with a serious look. Lu Tianyi was going to touch the water. However, once he approached the river, he instinctively felt how dangerous it could be.
Since the water was dangerous, Lin Qiao and her people had to fly across the river. Before doing that, she needed to put the others into her space.
The cat was able to fly as well. However, it wasn’t willing to approach the river. Why? Was the cat afraid of the energy in the river? That shouldn’t be possible. Its own body contained the same kind of energy as well. The energy in the river shouldn’t be able to harm it at all.
Why wouldn’t it come near to the river?
“Come here! I’m gonna put you all into my space and let you out after I cross the river,” Lin Qiao waved at her team, signaling for them to line up.
Seeing that, the team quickly lined up in two straight lines in front of her, and she threw a long rope to each group. As everybody had a hand on the ropes, she pulled them and brought all the people and zombies into her space, throwing them before a house.
“Stay here and wait for my order,” Lin Qiao left them a few words and then flashed out.
In the house next door, Yuan Tianxing was sitting on a chair near the window and looking outside. On hearing Lin Qiao’s voice, he stood up and stuck his head outside the window, only to see Duan Juan, Li Zheng, and the zombies who were standing still in two straight lines.
“What’s going on? Why did she put you all in here?” Yuan Tianxing’s vibe had grown much stronger after he took some rest. He at least had the strength to talk now. From the window, he looked at the people down there and asked.
Hearing him, everyone turned simultaneously. They weren’t surprised to see him, because Lin Qiao had told them that he was awake.
“There’s a river we can’t cross. So, Chief needs to cross it alone,” Li Zheng, who was standing on the side nearest to Yuan Tianxing, answered the question.
Yuan Tianxing grinned, “Thankfully, Chief has this space. This space makes the mission a lot easier, right?”
“No other bases possess something like this,” Li Zheng gave a grin as well.
After exiting her space, Lin Qiao stood meters away from the riverside. She didn’t rush to fly across the river but narrowed her eyes again to observe the energy flow in the river. She felt that something else existed in the river which was filled with poisonous dark energy.
Standing near the riverside, Lin Qiao spent nearly three minutes observing the river but failed to detect any creature in the river or find anything unusual. After confirming that nothing was wrong, she sprung up and wielded an arm, releasing a stream of dark mist to support herself. After rising about thirty meters high in the air, she started moving toward the river.
She paid all her attention to the river down below. As she was above the river, a pressure suddenly descended to her from the air.
Lin Qiao immediately raised her head and saw a series of swirls emerge from the dense mist about a thousand miles away from her head. The moment she raised her head, the swirls came down together and landed on the river surface within a blink, stirring the peaceful river.
The sound of water immediately broke the silence as the swirls descended and created a series of whirlpools in the river.
Lin Qiao flashed to the side and dodged the energy swirl that was the nearest to her. However, she was trapped among countless energy swirls. Those swirls were merely meters away from each other, all spinning swiftly. They created a strong suction force, seemingly to suck Lin Qiao in. If she let herself being sucked into one of those swirls, she would undoubtedly fall into the river.
It was dangerous indeed. Lin Qiao finally understood why the big cat wouldn’t approach the river. One or two energy swirls might not be able to threaten its safety, but dodging countless of them would be difficult. More importantly, it definitely didn’t want to fall into the river.
While thinking about why the red cat wasn’t willing to come near the river, Lin Qiao raised both arms to steady the dark mist under her feet. If she relaxed slightly, she might be sucked into an energy swirl. The power of the dark mist was way weaker than the suction force generated from the swirls. Therefore, she released a stream of black fire. The fire merged into the mist and then grew large under her feet.
She was now surrounded by energy swirls. To cross the river, she had to go through the space between the swirls. That was a simple idea, but not easy to accomplish. She had to control her own energy steadily to maintain the balance between her own power and the suction force, and in the meantime, she needed to move through the space between the energy swirls using her power. Any slight carelessness might cause her to lose the balance and be sucked into a swirl.
