Otherworldly Affairs Office

Just when Pei Yan was moving to intercept the crowd fleeing from the ice surface, the halo suspended in the air suddenly intensified, and several figures leaped out from it one after another. Before Pei Yan could react, a black shadow flew rapidly toward him, descending from the sky with a piercing sound.

Without time to think, Pei Yan immediately turned his gun, pouring countless bullets onto the black shadow. Yet the scene he expected, of blood splattering and the shadow being turned into a sieve, did not occur. The bullets only sparked flashes of blue light on the shadow's body, merely reducing its momentum slightly, as the shadow's attack swept down in an instant.

Helplessly, Pei Yan had to raise his arms high above his head to block the fierce blow.

With a loud "boom," Pei Yan's body trembled. The mech, which had only left faint marks under Xia Yu's all-out attack, was now dented and marked with several claw scratches by the newcomer's hit, revealing the immense strength.

Unwilling to suffer a loss, Pei Yan grabbed the attacker's wrist with his reverse hand. Just as he intended to pull him to his chest for a knee strike, he heard a cracking sound beneath his feet. Alarmed, he thought "not good," but it was too late. The ice surface beneath him cracked under the blow, splitting into several fractures, unable to support Pei Yan's weight any longer, and with a crack, it shattered into a large hole.

"Pei Yan!" Watching the battlefield while engaging in combat, Shangxing shouted when he saw the ice beneath Pei Yan shatter and him grabbing the enemy's wrist, plunging into the ice hole together.

"Leave it to me!" Without waiting for others to act, Zhao Yuanhu shouted, moving rapidly with shadowy figures, fighting the nearby monsters while striving to reach where Pei Yan fell into the water.

Under the dark ice surface, Pei Yan's body, along with his frustrated mood, descended. If there was a ranking for the battle environments he least wanted to encounter, the current situation would undoubtedly be in the top three.

As a northerner who was cautioned by family to stay away from water, the underwater environment was unfamiliar and frightening for Pei Yan. Not that he couldn't swim—having learned freestyle at the swimming pool since childhood—but he certainly couldn't be called an excellent swimmer.

Moreover, in his fully mechanized state, the moment he hit the water, he plunged straight to the bottom with a thud.

Nonetheless, born from extensive training and real combat experience, Pei Yan quickly adjusted to the momentary panic. His face shield automatically sealed upon entry, preventing water from seeping in, though how long the existing oxygen would last remained unknown.

"System, can the mecha convert oxygen underwater?" Pei Yan instinctively asked aloud. It wasn't his first time communicating with the system embedded in his visor, though currently, the mecha couldn't answer overly complex questions, only displaying available answers on the visor.

"Sorry, this operation is not yet possible." Sure enough, a small line appeared on Pei Yan's right visor.

"Then how long can I breathe underwater?"

"If you refrain from strenuous activity, you can survive for five to ten minutes based on your physical ability."

"Is underwater propulsion possible?"

"Yes, small propellers can deploy on your hands and feet for rapid propulsion."

"Excellent!"

Having quickly communicated with the system through the visor, Pei Yan surveyed the pitch-black surroundings underwater. The strange figure had broken free of his grip during his brief distraction and vanished; where it had gone was a mystery.

There was no time for that now; first, he needed to surface. With that thought, Pei Yan wasted no time in activating two spotlights on his shoulders to illuminate the way forward and initiated four small propellers on his hands and feet, propelling him swiftly upwards.

Upon entering the water, Pei Yan finally understood what Ye Jiumu meant by a deep pool. This far exceeded his understanding of a typical fish pond with depths of two or three meters. According to the system analysis, the average depth here was five meters, with depths reaching eight meters at the deepest points.

Fortunately, the distance wasn't a problem with propeller thrust. Pei Yan's body rapidly ascended, driven by four water jets.

Just then, Pei Yan's visor flickered with small red lights, indicating a strong current rapidly approaching from his right.

"Damn it!" Pei Yan cursed, already expecting the foe wouldn't let him escape so easily. Biting his teeth, he disengaged the hand propellers and turned to face the enemy directly.

The opponent seemed momentarily surprised by Pei Yan's quick reaction but soon recovered. A claw wrapped in black mist churned the water horizontally towards Pei Yan's head.

However, just as the claw swung, two steel tubes with long lines shot quickly from beneath Pei Yan's feet, thudding into the bottom. As the claw neared his neck, Pei Yan disengaged the foot propulsion, yanking the long line downwards and pulling himself down sharply.

The claw sliced over Pei Yan's head, and as he watched the water swirl fiercely, Pei Yan could feel the deadly intent in the opponent's strike. Hell, with no grievances or enmity, was he really intent on taking his life?

Fueled by anger, Pei Yan initiated the propellers, launching upwards. When the opponent was slow to recover after exhausting his strength, Pei Yan reached up and grasped their wrists with both hands, driving the drills between his palms fiercely, determined to drill through the intruder's wrists.

At that moment, thanks to the spotlights on his shoulders, Pei Yan finally saw the opponent's full appearance, and his heart shuddered. What the hell was this thing?

It looked humanoid yet had the appearance of something else. Its dark-gray shriveled skin resembled Gollum's, with completely white eyes devoid of pupils, a nose replaced by two hollow sinks, and a massive mouth stretching to the ears but seemingly sewn shut with threads. There were no ears or hair, with a bare bald head covered in irregular lumps, dotted with tiny bubbles—such a grotesque fleshball nearly made Pei Yan vomit.

"Is this a person from the Daoist Realm? Or is it a creature from the Hell Realm?" Pei Yan wondered silently, unable to resist commenting on its bizarre appearance.

But now wasn't the time to concern himself with the origin of this creature; it was a matter of life and death—kill it first!

However, looking at the blue glow between their combined wrists and the messages in his visor,

Pei Yan couldn't help but feel a toothache. Could this be the protective array Captain Hu mentioned, used by practitioners of the Daoist Realm? How could it be this invincible! Even Xia Yu, fully encased in internal energy, wouldn't dare to withstand this kind of drilling, yet the body of this creature endured a full minute of drilling with no progress.

"Gurgle, gurgle!" The system alerted of unusual water flows above, and Pei Yan hurriedly looked up, catching a glimpse he would never forget for the rest of his life.