All the way from the shore to about 100 meters away, it was clear, but from there onwards, the thick fog seemed to be gathering.
If Situ and Xiaohe were present, they would be shocked to discover that the thick fog was black and resembled the aura that just escaped from Su Wei's body after Situ killed her.
It was the same, but thicker.
Seeing the dark, eerie aura, Xu Jing's face turned solemn as he shouted, "Everyone! Gather your true Qi around your bodies. It should give us some protection from the corrosion of this fog."
He then leaped onto the water, from the boat.
His feet stood steadily on the water, and he kept looking into the distance where the darkness was thickest.
Soon the others also followed in his shoes and appeared standing on the water, but none of them had any signs of retreating.
Some energy seemed to be applied to their feet, allowing them to balance on the water, without sinking, at the same time; even then, the water's surface was not disturbed at all.
Then under the shocked gazes of others, the couple kept spiriting on the water's surface; no, it was not spiriting, more like taking a stride in their backyard. The only thing that seemed out of place was the serious expressions on their faces.
The group moved forward, resisting the corrosion of the black, eerie fog. The moment they had just entered the black mist, they could feel a strong, bloody smell sticking to their nose.
Even Bing Yue had a frown on her face as she looked into the fog.
Their vision became blurred, and the temperature around them dropped drastically the further they moved.
A strong, eerie chill was spreading in the air, making them panic.
Only Bai Yue seemed to have no change in expression, but things were not the same for everyone else. Even Xu Jing, the second strongest person in the group, had a furrowed brow.
"Yue'r!" He turned his head and called out to the woman standing by his side.
He wasn't as scared as the group of people around them but felt if this continued, they might lose most of them.
"Nothing is going to happen yet! No need to panic." She didn't even bother to look at him, as she replied.
She knew that even though Xu Jing called himself the Spear Devil, he liked to meddle in other people's business a lot.
Just like now, he was concerned that the situation wasn't good for others, and so she asked BingYue to make a move.
The confidence he had for entering this fog was also because he knew Bing Yue was stronger than everyone else imagined. She had already traveled a half step into the next realm.
With this level of strength, she was able to deal with the weirdness that escaped from this place easily. All he had to do was walk close to her, and he would surely survive.
The deeper they went into the fog, the more difficult it was to see or even perceive the situation around them, but they could feel a sense of danger.
Only Bing Yue could barely see that in the seawater, some corpses were floating, but their state seemed chilling. Even with what she had seen, she couldn't help but feel chilled. After all, these corpses were those that tried to cross this sea without enough strength.
When she was lost in thought, an alarm bell sounded in her heart, and she instantly unsheathed her sword.
The next moment, a white light lit up, and everyone was only able to see the darkness before they had been cut into two.
A passage had been formed, and the darkness couldn't recover to block this path.
"So powerful!"
"So fast!"
That was the reaction from Wu Ming; after having deceived himself, he finally realized the gap.
What they failed to see was some vague shadow Bing Yue had severed into two with that attack.
The darkness then slowly started to retreat, but they weren't excited.
They could see something moving in the water below them. It was massive.
This made many of the people gathered afraid; things were not supposed to be this hard from their thoughts. Not everyone was afraid; those ranked in the top ten in the pagoda had their arrogance, but they seemed to understand what Xu Jing meant; they could not take any burden on themselves. So, they nodded before sprinting into the water; each had unique abilities that allowed them to move on the water's surface.
Just that they made a lot of noise, especially since there were more people at the same time, and thus the attacks came more frequently from underwater creatures. On their level, it was not hard to handle level 3 monsters, but they were on the water, so they avoided being entangled with them long.
Seeing this, some people had the courage, while others were dejected, did not think they could reach the fog, and some were even doubtful about the situation in the fog.
In this way, only close to 17 people reached inside the fog and could see Bing Yue and Xu Jing fighting in the furthest distance, against peak level 3 monsters, and the numbers were not small. But after some time, with collaboration, they crushed them, before disappearing from their line of sight. It was like there had entered another space.
The four that managed to make it out of the fog, were shocked at what they saw; it was like they had indeed moved across some barrier, and the sky in this region seemed clear compared to the region they came from. They could feel that it was possible to improve, and even the energy in the air was ten times that on the other side.
That was not all; before then was a fifty-meter boat. Just looking at it, one could not help but be amazed. But this should be able to show how strong Bing Yue truly is, being capable of perceiving it. On the boat, Xu Jing and Bing Yue had already taken their space. Everyone reacted and jumped up onto the boat.
But looking at their numbers they seem to suddenly realize they were taking this situation too lightly in the beginning and those that manage to survive to the other side, would not be easy to mess with.
After everyone boarded it took less than half a day, before the boat started. That also marked the end of the legend of Mo Bing Yue who had reached the 15th floor of the pagoda with just one single slash.
The journey ahead was what mattered to them, and seeing the opportunity for improvement, everyone got engrossed in practice.
****
Back at the shore, some people who were unwilling to believe it and attempted to enter the lake seemed to have some serious injuries while others were unlucky not even leaving behind bones. Everyone had different thoughts when they seemed to realize that they were the strongest force left in Pagoda City. This alone was a recipe for disaster, as some thought of lording over the city, while others thought of improving their strength and others exploitation of those that came to the city.
Unfortunately, that would not work, considering there would always be a new genius entering the city each season, and offending such people is no different from seeking death, let alone those at Bing Yue's level; even those at the level of Xu Jing can sweep around this group without much of a hassle.
It thus would perhaps take them some time to realize this after all; how many times have people left the pagoda city via the sea? And this would not change even shortly. Ambitions in a world such as this could only be supported with strength; without it, one was just making some noises.
They started to retreat one by one until the entire shore was left without a single person, but then someone walked out from the forest, observing the deep sea lost in thought; when the hood was removed, it seemed to be a woman, the same age as Xu Jing. "That woman sensed my existence and did not bother with me at all."
"What is surprising about this? She was the strongest on the Star Pagoda Tower."
"I thought that I was almost on her level, but now I know it was just my wishful thinking." A beautiful woman in traditional clothes complained as she looked at the old man before her.
When it came to beauty, this woman was top-notch, but she had a wild aura around her, and her hair seemed to resemble ropes, but the color also varied from red to black and brown.
Surprisingly, though, the hair seemed to fit her well. Putting the hood back on, she walked back towards the forest and disappeared, but if one were to look closely, one would realize that sometime later, a huge bird seemed to be flying towards the distant skies with someone, the two of them on top.
That was at least a mid-stage level 3 monster and a flying one; that was rare to acquire. But the scene did not seem to fall in the eyes of others at all.