MDZS - In Cinemas Now! Starring WWX and LWJ

Chapter 17 - Refinement

A few disciples paddled and used nets to chase after the underwater shadow. Someone shouted from the other side, "There are some here as well!" On the other side, a mass of black shadows also whooshed past.

"That's a lot of water ghouls..." Jingyi muttered, beginning to feel anxious. The idea of being surrounded by unseen monsters greatly unsettled him. He much preferred enemies that he could look in the face and charge at (or away from, if they looked scary). If he had been one of those disciples, he'd be already on his sword, zooming away.

A number of narrow boats dragged nets and went over, but they didn't catch anything. Wei WuXian spoke, "That's strange. The shape of this shadow doesn't seem like a human. It's also sometimes long and sometimes short, sometimes large and sometimes small..."

Wei Wuxian's words, though sounding casual and flippant, sent chills shivering through the audience's spines. Not human? What else could water ghouls look like? If Wei Wuxian was right - and by now they could reluctantly all agree that he generally was, about these sorts of things - then were these black things not actually water ghouls?

Jingyi was starting to feel a bit sulky that he'd never gotten to go on any adventures as interesting as this. The most exciting thing he'd done was that night in Yi City, and without Senior Wei's guidance, he probably wouldn't have survived that. How come Senior Wei always got to be involved in the good action?

Suddenly, Wei Wuxian's tone changed from cooly impassive to sharp and urgent, for once no trace of a joke in his voice.

"... Lan Zhan, beside your boat!"

Instantly, the Bichen on Lan WangJi's back unsheathed and stabbed into the water. After a moment, it flew out of the river with a sharp resonance, taking with it a crescent of water. Yet, it didn't pierce anything. He held the sword in his hand with a stern expression.

"I wasn't joking around!" Wei Wuxian said quickly. "You all saw that black shadow creeping onto the side of his boat!"

"I didn't see anything." said Jin Ling mulishly.

Wei Wuxian sniffed with irritation. "Well, Lan Zhan trusted me! Even though he hated me back then, hahaha!"

As he was about to speak, a disciple on the other side also drew out his sword, thrusting it toward a dark shadow which swiftly swam by in the water. However, after his sword went underwater, it never came out again. He chanted the sword incantation for a few more times, but nothing was retrieved from the water. It was as if his sword had been devoured by the lake, disappearing without a trace.

The disciple's face looked vaguely familiar to most of the cultivators, but none of them could place where they had seen this face before. All they knew was that they immediately felt an irrational amount of dislike towards him

The disciple looked like he was a youth of similar age as Wei WuXian and the others. Without his sword, his face grew paler and paler. An older disciple beside him spoke, "Su She, right now, we still haven't determined what the thing inside the water is. Why did you act on your own and make your sword go underwater?"

"Su She?? Sect Leader Su??"

"Of course, who else would do such a stupid thing like sending his sword into the lake while still so young and inexperienced?" There were several unkind snickers.

The younger cultivators gaped at the image of Su She in Lan sect robes. It looked incredibly wrong, like seeing a snake in sheep's clothing. He had the same permanently grimacing face with the faintest hint of a sneer, but his eyes weren't as hard and sour as they were at adulthood.