I treaded the water, maintaining our balance, Old Mo and I, in the river.
Old Mo gazed around, seeing only black mist and waves of water rising higher than the last.
And looking at the bank, only ten-odd meters away but impossible to reach, his heart pounded with fear.
"Damn it, this evil spirit is truly formidable.
And that Hei Tou, what's his name.
Utterly unreliable. At a time like this, and he's still nowhere to be seen."
Old Mo grumbled, somewhat bewildered.
I wore a wry smile.
I had no idea what was happening on Hei Tou's end either.
I could only say:
"Forget about that. Do you have a Bagua compass on you?
Let's use it to try and pinpoint our location and escape from here."
My own Bagua compass had been lost when the small boat sank.
Now, I could only ask Old Mo.
Old Mo fumbled at his waist, reaching into his treasure pouch:
"Wait, let me check!"
"Yes, mine is here!"
He said, quickly producing the Bagua.
At that very moment, I suddenly felt a chill down my spine.
A wave of coldness washed over me.
I spun around abruptly and saw a human head emerge from the water.
With the river waves, it let out an "Awoo" and lunged towards my face.
It was just an ordinary water ghost, a lost soul, trying to sneak up on me.
My pupils contracted, and I instinctively drew my sword.
With a "bang," the water ghost was cleaved into a wisp of black mist and vanished.
Old Mo, meanwhile, raised the Bagua compass:
"Here, the Bagua compass."
I glanced at it:
"You hold it, I'll read it!"
I said.
This was because I had to support Old Mo with one hand and hold the peach wood sword with the other, leaving me no free hand.
Old Mo nodded and held the Bagua compass steady.
I gazed at the Bagua compass, recalling the incantations my master had taught me when he was alive.
And how to deduce directions through the pointer and the Bagua.
These messages flashed through my mind.
I began to chant them aloud:
"Qian, Kun, Xun, Dui, Gen, Zhen, Li, Kan.
The Post-Heaven Bagua directions;
Zhen to the East, Dui to the West, Li to the South, Kan to the North, Qian to the Northwest, Kun to the Southwest, Gen to the Northeast, Xun to the Southeast.
The moon shines west, this side is Dui West.
The Seven Stars point north, this side is Kan North.
..."
As I spoke, I also judged our position based on the celestial signs.
Old Mo was clearly not as skilled as I was in this regard.
He stared at me and urged:
"Are you done yet, Old Qin? The water ghosts around us seem to be gathering again."
He then raised his peach wood axe and swung it into the water.
To instill fear.
Finally, through the pointer and directional judgment, I determined our position in the river:
"We've been swimming in the wrong direction. Swimming this way, we've actually been going upstream all along.
We should be heading towards Dui West or Li South; those are the directions to the bank."
After speaking, I pointed to the directions.
Old Mo exclaimed in surprise:
"But the bank is clearly over there! Could it be that what we're seeing are all illusions?"
I nodded:
"Likely so. That evil spirit has used some means to cloud our vision.
Making us swim upstream all the time.
Coupled with other tricks, we haven't been able to escape the river.
So, we need to go this way..."
Old Mo suddenly understood:
"So that's why! No wonder we've been swimming for so long at this distance of ten-odd meters without reaching the bank.
Let's not delay, let's swim quickly!"
I grunted, then grabbed Old Mo and began to swim in another direction.
This direction, though it seemed to be upstream,
felt much easier when we started swimming than before.
And the further we went, the less the surrounding black mist became.
However, the lost souls from beneath the water still harassed us from time to time.
They were all water ghosts seeking replacements.
The two of us, alive and well, especially me with my Yin destiny, were a great attraction to them.
But fortunately, we both possessed true skills.
We could handle these weaker water ghosts.
Indeed, we felled three water ghosts consecutively.
After swimming forward for a stretch, the black mist around us dissipated.
The scene around us changed.
The river water was no longer as turbulent, much calmer.
The real bank appeared, only seven or eight meters away from us.
Seven or eight meters, at this distance, it would take me at most thirty seconds to pull Old Mo ashore.
"We're here, we're almost there."
I exclaimed excitedly.
Old Mo also nodded happily, splashing the water like me.
Trying to speed up a bit.
However, this evil spirit had no intention of letting us go.
Now that we were close to the bank,
that damnable evil spirit appeared again.
Three meters in front of us, a series of bubbles suddenly gurgled to the surface.
A chilling cold swept through the water.
Old Mo and I felt our hearts clench, knowing something was wrong.
Before either of us could react,
from the spot where the bubbles had appeared three meters away, a human hand suddenly extended.
The hand gripped the surface of the river and then pulled itself upwards with force.
The previously appearing evil spirit crawled from beneath the water onto the river's surface.
It still had that pale face, its mouth split to the ears, and a pair of white eyes without pupils.
There was a bloody hole on its left shoulder, looking wet and glistening.
"Evil spirit!"
Old Mo cried out.
I also inwardly cursed my bad luck, quickly splashing the water to keep us steady.
The evil spirit appeared, but Mr. Jiang was nowhere to be seen.
This suggested that Mr. Jiang had likely met a grim end.
A surge of anger rushed towards me.
Wanting to strike down this evil spirit.
But now, I didn't show it.
Instead, I pondered how to deal with this evil spirit.
Because only by staying alive would I have the right to talk about revenge.
Now, although we were only seven or eight meters from the riverbank,
even at this short distance, we were still in the river.
If we attacked rashly, both Old Mo and I could perish here...