CHAPTER 279: COLD DARK POOL

Carlos yawned and pointed outside.

"Yolanda went out. And take her armor to her."

"...Young master, I can cover for Yolanda..."

Sara hesitated, not wanting her friend to look bad in front of the young master.

But Carlos waved it off.

"Sister’s orders. I get it."

"...Yeah...it really was Captain Iris’s instructions..."

Sara nodded uncertainly. She’d also gotten orders from Captain Iris to keep the young master as happy as possible and not let him work himself to death.

But... what Yolanda did... well... thinking about it carefully, she’d nailed it...

Sara grabbed the armor Yolanda hadn’t had time to take and beat it out of there.

Carlos sighed quietly.

"Better not let them know about the Shadow Twins."

Sara and Yolanda’s deep emotional connection with the Shadow Twins was crystal clear.

But Carlos couldn’t be sure whether the current Shadow Twins still felt the same way.

With Ginya’s capture attempt going up in smoke, unless he ventured deep into the Shadow Realm, there was no hope of nabbing them anytime soon.

"After Ginya gets back, hitting up the Ersbah United Kingdom ruins to swap for a new set of legion shield gear is priority number one..."

"Moo moo!"

Blood Silver had drunk its fill and kept nuzzling Carlos with its smooth little face, begging for mommy’s attention.

Carlos patted Blood Silver’s little head.

"Go entertain yourself!"

"Moo moo!"

Blood Silver hung its head sadly—it wanted to play with mommy.

Carlos ignored Blood Silver’s mood. His focus was now on Purple Vortex’s side, and his expression lit up with excitement:

"Finally found the cold dark pool!"

....

Deep in the Cold Bamboo Forest in the Inte Mountains, a sky-blue deep pool gave off bone-chilling air.

The closer to the pool, the more brutal the temperature got. The cold bamboo near the pool was already covered with a thick layer of frost.

Roar!

A lance-wielding knight with terrifying aura carved a straight path to the pool with just one swing, the devastating death waves leaving destruction in their wake.

Outside the cold dark pool, over ten Cold Bamboo tribespeople hid in the mist, their voices panicked.

"This is bad—he’s breaking into our sacred ground!"

"Chief, what do we do!!!"

"I’ll stop him!"

The female chief looked grim, grabbing the reckless tribesman and laying into him:

"Idiot!

This guy’s shown power that matches the old chief’s. Going out there would be straight-up suicide!"

"Chief, then what should we do?"

The female chief shook her head, her face dark as a storm cloud.

"Nothing!"

The female chief had recently taken over the position, with the inherited power still being absorbed and not yet broken through to that supreme realm, so she chose to bite her tongue.

"What? Nothing?"

"Chief, that’s our sacred ground!"

"I’m gonna defend the sacred ground!"

The tribespeople were fired up, clearly pissed off about their chief’s decision.

The female chief’s brows went icy, her face stone cold:

"Enough! I said nobody goes!"

With her words, mist gathered and ice crystals instantly formed, freezing the tribespeople’s legs to stop their crazy ideas.

"Chief!"

"But!!!"

Seeing the tribespeople still wanting to mouth off in the chaos, the female chief snorted coldly. Mist gathered again, forming ice to seal their mouths shut.

The scene suddenly went dead quiet. The female chief turned her attention back outside, but that terrifying knight had suddenly vanished, leaving only the previously calm lake surface of the sacred pool rippling with waves.

"He went in?"

The female chief was stumped.

The reason the cold dark pool was the Cold Bamboo tribe’s sacred ground was simply because this pool was the only water source in the Cold Bamboo Forest.

As generations of Cold Bamboo tribe members who’d lived here, nobody would know this pool’s secrets better than her.

"This guy seems to want to find something underwater?"

But in the cold pool, besides some fish and bugs, there were only some rocks. What would be worth an outsider breaking in for?

The female chief was completely baffled. She turned to look at her tribespeople.

"All of you get lost. I’ll keep an eye on the outsider here."

The ice crystals on their legs melted away, and the Cold Bamboo tribespeople who’d just been frozen didn’t dare cross the chief and obediently took off following orders...

Deep in the cold dark pool, Purple Vortex headed straight for the bottom. Though it couldn’t swim, Carlos understood propeller shapes well enough.

Now behind Purple Vortex, dark purple force fields condensed into a massive propeller, spinning like crazy to rocket Purple Vortex through the water.

Carlos, far away in the first dark mist layer, watched through Purple Vortex’s vision. After Purple Vortex hit rock bottom, he gave new orders.

"Purple Vortex, clear away the junk and weeds at the pool bottom!"

Dark purple force fields instantly spread from Purple Vortex’s feet. Within moments, the pool bottom exploded with dragon-like force. Under crushing pressure, countless stones and weeds turned to powder. The messy pool bottom got cleared out, revealing a deep opening at the center where sharp, cold water currents flowed out nonstop.

"That’s it—Purple Vortex, go in!"

The cold current barely scratched Purple Vortex. It passed through the opening and dropped into an underground river below the pool. Carlos watched the underground river’s flow direction and guided Purple Vortex to set up a vortex gathering magic circle.

Under the gathering effect, countless underground currents got instantly scrambled, flowing into the secret magic circle and quietly pulling back.

Minutes ticked by, and suddenly a greatsword got carried by the current, rushing to the gathering magic circle. The alert Purple Vortex quickly snatched the greatsword—this was one of the dormant Blue Stone Bamboo Clan Swords.

Where there was one, there’d be more. As time passed, Blue Stone Bamboo Clan Swords got carried by the current to this spot. Purple Vortex collected them one by one until all twelve were bagged.

Roar!

Mission complete!

A water column erupted from the deep pool as Purple Vortex transformed into purple light, dying to get out of this place.

"He’s gone?"

The Cold Bamboo tribe’s female chief watched the purple light take off, her gaze falling on the sacred ground, wondering what the hell the outsider had accomplished.

...

At the Ersbah Merit Exchange ruins, a magnificent pyramid stood tall. On the surrounding barren sand, a sand house had popped up at some point.

"Ugh! When will this nightmare end!"

The sand house door creaked open as a girl in alchemical work clothes looked up at the desolate ruins, spitting out sand that the wind had accidentally blown into her mouth.

About three minutes later, a round-topped, square-bottomed alchemical life form floated in front of the girl. As the golden gem at its center flashed, it spoke in a metallic voice:

"Apprentice Demi, break time is over. Please continue studying, please continue studying!"

Hearing this voice, Demi’s head felt ready to explode with complaints:

"Three minutes is way too short! I want to rest!"

"Apprentice Demi has violated apprentice management regulations—one warning!"

The alchemical life form issued a cold, merciless warning as its surface glowed red.

"Damn it!!!!!"