The situation had become extremely perilous.
Master Jiang's condition was unknown, and Old Mo was on the brink of death.
Looking down, a water ghost grabbed my ankle, desperately dragging me towards the riverbed.
Its face contorted into a grinning mockery as it pulled.
"No, if this continues," I thought, my expression turning grim, "we're all doomed."
Holding my breath, the twelve streams of True Qi within my dantian began to circulate rapidly.
In an instant, a wave of Dao energy surged from my body.
With a hum, it vibrated outwards.
However, the water ghost holding my ankle did not let go, continuing to drag me down.
I looked at it, reaching back to my sword bag.
Grasping the hilt, I drew out my peach wood sword with a swift motion.
My eyes hardened, and I slashed at the water ghost's arm.
Seeing this, the water ghost, startled, loosened its grip.
But I was faster, twisting my body.
I lunged towards the water ghost.
With a whistling sound.
Before the water ghost could evade again, my sword struck its head.
It didn't even have time to cry out.
Its body dissolved into a cluster of black bubbles, "glug glug glug" rising to the surface before dissipating into black mist.
I had no time to concern myself with this water ghost.
My immediate priority was to get Old Mo to the surface.
With my Heavenly Eye open, I had some visibility even in the darkness of the water, though it was blurry compared to the surface.
Squinting, I focused on the struggling Old Mo and swam towards him.
Though Old Mo possessed some Dao cultivation, his inability to swim put him at a severe disadvantage in the water.
He had already been injured in several places by two water ghosts.
Blood, following the currents, began to disperse around us.
This only made the surrounding water ghosts more excited.
They cried out in the water, "Aow, aow, aow," and lunged at Old Mo.
In just a short while, he was surrounded by over ten water ghosts.
Old Mo, to protect himself, could only hold his breath and slash and hack blindly in the water.
The only fortunate thing was that these were weak specters, not the Water Corpse Ghosts we had encountered before.
Otherwise, Old Mo might have lost his life.
At this moment, I surged upwards from the riverbed.
My peach wood sword pointed straight ahead.
A few fearless water ghosts lunged at me.
They cried out in the water, "Aow, aow."
Their faces were pale and ghastly, their teeth black, and their eyes empty sockets.
In the water, their appearance was chilling.
But now, I couldn't afford to worry about such things.
No matter what kind of ghosts they were, or how many,
they had hurt my brother, and that was unacceptable.
In a single exchange, three water ghosts lunged at me, mouths agape.
I raised my peach wood sword and killed one instantly.
Another, I grabbed by the neck.
Channeling my cultivation, I squeezed hard.
With a "bang," I crushed the water ghost, which was of Baiyi rank and at the peak of Lingquan cultivation, into dust, its soul scattered.
The remaining one, seeing this, cried out in terror, "Aow, aow," and fled into the distance in panic.
I didn't pursue it, but instead charged into the horde of ghosts.
From behind, I slew one.
The ghosts around me also attempted to attack me in the water.
But I was, after all, at the mid-stage of the Soul Palace realm.
Even though my power was limited in the water,
preventing me from displaying my peak combat strength, I was not someone these Baiyi-ranked "water monkeys," who were barely stronger than wandering spirits, could harm.
I attacked continuously in the water.
Stirring up wave after wave.
One water ghost after another was killed by me.
I carved a bloody path through the water.
Old Mo was starting to falter, swaying unsteadily in the water.
He choked on more water, exhaling a stream of bubbles.
His eyes bulged like ox eyes, nearly popping out of their sockets.
His body was slowly sinking in the water.
I rushed down, grabbed his arm, and pulled him towards the river surface.
The specters below still wanted to drag us down.
But under the immense disparity in strength, I repelled them several times and killed a few water ghosts.
Finally, I dragged Old Mo and surfaced.
As soon as we reached the surface, Old Mo began to gasp for air.
"Almost, almost, almost died."
"With me here, you won't die. Grab on tight, and let's keep swimming to shore!"
I shouted.
At this moment, the river surface was churning with fierce waves.
The sound of splashing water was incessant.
But Master Jiang's figure was nowhere to be seen on the river. His condition remained unknown.
However, Old Mo and I were in no position to worry about him.
We could only pray for his well-being.
I dragged Old Mo, paddling frantically.
But water ghosts continued to appear around us.
We would swim for a bit, then be forced to stop and deal with the surrounding minor ghosts.
Whether by killing or scaring them away, once the area was safe, we would continue swimming forward.
However, Old Mo and I gradually noticed something was wrong.
This particular bend in the river was quite wide, but only about a few dozen meters across.
I felt like we had been swimming for a very long time, dragging Old Mo.
But looking up now, I saw that the shore was still over ten meters away.
No matter how we swam, we couldn't get any closer to these ten meters.
"Brother Qin, what the hell is going on? We've been swimming for so long, and we're still not near the shore."
Old Mo beside me also noticed the situation.
He asked with a frown.
I scanned our surroundings with a solemn expression.
The river water rippled all around, shrouded in black mist.
The sound of "hua la la" was incessant, and water ghosts shuttled beneath the surface, harassing us from time to time.
I gritted my teeth and said,
"We've likely fallen into the trap of that evil ghost. We're probably just going in circles in the river.
If we don't break its spell, we'll never reach the shore, even if we swim until we die."