Chapter 208: The More Beautiful, The More Dangerous
All morning, Faye Yardley fished for treasure boxes while cultivating the Health Care Scripture. She discovered that she could multitask while practicing it, as it didn’t interfere with her other activities at all.
She just needed to make it a physical habit. Then, the breathing rhythm of the Health Care Scripture could completely replace her normal breathing.
That way, she could be cultivating all day long.
Of course, reaching that stage would require more hard work and practice.
After lunch, she no longer felt like fishing for chests. She had already caught five that morning, two of which were Iron Treasure Boxes. She stored them all in her warehouse, deciding not to open them for the time being.
If anyone else found out she could just store away her chests without opening them, they’d probably be sick with jealousy.
Faye felt it was high time she got to know her new Talent.
So, she dove straight into the sea.
The moment she hit the water, she instinctively held her breath and started paddling with her arms and legs.
It took her a moment to remember she wasn’t there to swim or practice holding her breath. She relaxed as much as possible and tried to breathe naturally. To her surprise, it actually worked.
’A passive Talent like Underwater Breathing is so incredibly useful in this vast ocean.’
She was as free as a fish now. ’Tsk, next time I see Bella Dillon, I can really give her a shock. After all, The Merfolk’s innate advantage is completely useless against me now.’
As she strolled freely through the water, a few curious schools of small fish swam toward her, only to scatter when they got close and regroup in the distance.
Faye just drifted along as she pleased, heading ever downward.
’I want to see what my limits are, and maybe find some underwater treasure while I’m at it.’
’That treasure cave I found last time was perfect. No danger at all, and I even got an important item.’
’Things like that depend on luck, of course. But hehe, I’m not exactly unlucky.’
She was in a good state of mind and wasn’t desperate to find anything in particular, so she simply enjoyed the magnificent sights of the sea—the small crabs, tiny shrimp, and glowing jellyfish.
She saw a coral reef and patches of seaweed, casually picking up several large seashells along the way.
’I can still keep going down. This is truly amazing.’
Maybe it was because the event had just ended, but she didn’t see any large fish or encounter any particularly aggressive sea creatures.
As she continued deeper and deeper, the pressure on her body began to increase.
Her visibility grew worse and worse, even with the Luminous Pearl she carried.
But even down here, she actually saw Lanternfish. Their terrifyingly sharp teeth looked like they could shred anything to bits.
The moment they saw her, they charged. One, then another...
She was surrounded by a school of Lanternfish.
Faye didn’t feel the slightest bit of panic. In fact, she craved a fight. The Luminous Pearl in her hand had already been seamlessly swapped for Light Wound.
Without waiting for the Lanternfish to attack, Faye charged forward with her blade.
The glowing lanterns on their heads were perfect locators.
The one-versus-many battle made her increasingly excited. Even though she could breathe freely, fighting underwater was vastly different from fighting on land.
She needed to adapt, and she needed more battles to strengthen her underwater combat abilities.
’So these Lanternfish have come at the perfect time.’
The Lanternfish were enormous, especially their massive mouths filled with countless sharp teeth. A single bite could probably snap a bone clean in two.
So during the fight, Faye pushed her agility to its absolute limit.
She brandished her blade, kicked, rolled, and spun 360 degrees, with no thought for elegant forms—only for how to end the fight as quickly as possible.
While Faye was fighting underwater, Logan Langdon had already set out to get his qualification. He’d thought his own progress wasn’t slow, but he never expected the Yardley siblings to both be outpacing him.
Zachary Pierce was a step ahead of him. His team had already passed the qualification test. While they hadn’t yet obtained the item for a permanent guild headquarters, there was no issue with them announcing their formation. After all, the guild headquarters could be used as a temporary shelter.
However, Leonard of Freyan had founded the Freyan Liberty Party before them, so their Veridian First Legion was temporarily ranked third.
As the second and third guilds to be founded, they naturally received varying amounts of reputation.
Although it wasn’t yet clear what reputation was used for, the system wouldn’t create something useless. It was bound to be useful one day.
Faye’s reputation was about to reach 10,000. She had no idea what kind of changes would happen when it did, but of course, she was too busy hunting Lanternfish to pay attention to such things.
It hadn’t taken Faye long to go from being surrounded to turning the tables and hunting her attackers, and in that time, her underwater combat abilities had grown by leaps and bounds.
After killing the last Lanternfish in front of her and harvesting its Fish Meat, Faye had no idea where she was.
However, the scene before her was somewhat dreamlike.
Fields of faintly glowing, iridescent, and transparent flowers swayed gently. Amidst these vibrant blossoms, similarly translucent, glowing little fish swam to and fro.
’Come to think of it, these little fish look a lot like Mysterious Fish.’
’It can’t be that the fish I caught in the lake on that island were actually these little ones from the deep sea, can it?’
Faye didn’t approach. Instead, she remained where she was, watching from a distance.
A long, slender fish glowing with silver light swam slowly past her. Faye snatched it up and carried it toward the dreamlike patch of flowers.
The fish’s tail thrashed violently, wrapping around Faye’s arm.
As she drew near, she noticed that although it was all underwater, her side and the other side—though only a step apart—seemed to be separated into two different worlds by some invisible barrier.
Faye flung the fish in her hand hard into the other side. The creature, which had been thrashing wildly just a moment before, instantly went rigid and began to sink, as if it had been frozen solid.
Immediately, the small fish swarmed it, devouring the motionless, sinking creature completely. Not even a bone was left behind.
’It’s that dangerous?’
Faye felt a reckless urge stirring in her heart. She desperately wanted to go over there.
After taking a single step forward, Faye abruptly retreated two steps. ’Damn it, I almost let the flowers influence my thoughts.’
’Sure enough, the more beautiful something is, the more dangerous it is!’
But Faye didn’t give up. If those really were Mysterious Fish... just seeing the look on that big guy with Nora Nash when he received one was enough to know they were incredibly rare treasures.
’I still have a few, but who would ever complain about having too much of a good thing?’
’And these flowers... they were able to entice me even with my Spirit at 30 points. They must be valuable, too.’
’But I definitely can’t just cross over.’
So, Faye naturally retreated a few more steps and took out her Special Fishing Rod.