Chapter 1757: The Secret of Kidney Lake

The grey parrot flapped its wings. "You think Kidney Lake, not Inverted Lake, is connected to Qianhuan?"

"We've searched the bottom of Inverted Lake and even brought silver pearl fruits down there, but we found nothing," Bai Ziqi continued, theorizing, "Could it be that we've been looking in the wrong place?"

"Villagers nearby always fish and dive in Kidney Lake, and aside from its glow on moonlit nights, they haven't reported anything strange. So, we'll need a special method to get results underwater," Bai Ziqi said, looking at the faint lights by Inverted Lake. "Bring back a few giant isopods and gather some silver pearl fruits from the shores of Inverted Lake. Throw them into Kidney Lake as soon as possible!"

As the commander, his "as soon as possible" meant not a single moment's delay was permitted.

Bai Shiqi responded with a solemn "Yes" and quickly relayed the orders.

Soon, three isopods carrying freshly picked silver pearl fruits were transported by demon birds over ten miles and dropped directly into Kidney Lake.

Just like before, they flipped their shells and paddled their legs, preparing to dive deep into the lake bottom.

The avian demon, hovering in mid-air, could still see their forms disappear into the glowing algae, as if they were entering a primeval forest.

And then, there was nothing.

The sorcerer standing beside Bai Ziqi suddenly opened his eyes and reported, "Lord Commander, my connection with the isopods has been severed. I can't sense them."

"Are they dead?"

"Possibly, but their connection was severed almost simultaneously."

Good, a disturbance! Good, not peaceful! Bai Ziqi could barely contain his excitement. "Send five more over."

Five more isopods were dispatched to Kidney Lake, carrying silver pearl fruits and entering the water.

A few moments later, they too were completely wiped out.

The avian demon, which had been circling above Kidney Lake trying to gather intelligence, quickly flew back to report that it had seen the isopods dive into the water one after another. At that spot, there was a sudden flash of light, and both the isopods and their silver pearl fruits vanished.

Bai Ziqi immediately stood up. "Send one or two lesser demons with silver pearl fruits, quickly!"

Isopods were, after all, mere puppets that couldn't act without their master's command. Bai Ziqi needed to know exactly what was happening underwater!

This task was quickly assigned to a chameleon water lizard.

This creature was an amphibious demon with the ability to change size, shrinking like a gecko or expanding like a saltwater crocodile. Bai Ziqi had brought it from the Glimmering Gold Plains, anticipating the complex terrain and waters of the Inverted Sea, and now it proved useful.

Bai Ziqi's orders to it were:

If it encountered anything unusual after entering the water, it was to return immediately and report, without delay or acting on its own initiative!

"Such a secret has been exposed to the mortals of Silver Pearl Island for years, yet they've been unable to uncover it," Bai Shi remarked to Bai Shiqi. "Our Lord Commander arrived and immediately spotted the clues."

Bai Ziqi glanced at him. "The silver pearl fruits and Kidney Lake aren't far apart, only thirteen li, but the fruits only glow for a quarter of an hour. Mortals can't cover thirteen li in a quarter of an hour, nor would they think to intentionally throw glowing silver pearl fruits into Kidney Lake. This design was specifically to prevent unrelated outsiders from stumbling upon the secret of Kidney Lake!"

Even if such people existed, they would be few. A small number didn't matter; in an archipelago as vast as Silver Pearl, a few people went missing every year.

Bai Ziqi awaited the little demon's report, having not felt such anxiety in a long time.

After an unknown period, the avian demon reappeared in everyone's sight, clutching the chameleon water lizard in its talons.

*Plop.* The water lizard landed on Bai Ziqi's table, bowing low to him.

Bai Ziqi gestured, urging, "Tell me, what did you encounter at the bottom of the lake?"

He had a premonition that this was an extraordinary discovery.

"I entered the water, everything flashed brightly, and then I was out of the water again," the chameleon water lizard's words were simple and unadorned. "I swam to the shore, and there were no yakshas, no yourselves, and no barrier."

Bai Ziqi frowned. "Swam to the shore?"

"Everything I saw after emerging from the water was unchanged. I thought I had gone the wrong way, so I swam back to the surface. There was a moon, trees, and the shoreline was exactly the same—just no people," the chameleon water lizard continued. "I didn't dare go further, so I held onto the silver pearl fruit, went back into the water, and then returned here."

Exactly like this place? It sounded like—

"The entrance! We've finally found the entrance!" The grey parrot's voice rose three octaves. Bai Ziqi had never seen a True God so excited. "The place it just went to, that's the real world, the real Inverted Sea!"

This unassuming lake was, astonishingly, the dividing line between illusion and reality, the entrance from the illusory realm to the real world!

"There's no insurmountable formation in the world, and the illusory realm is no different; this is a fundamental truth. No matter how powerful Qianhuan is, the illusory realm it constructs using mirage arts must have at least one passage to reality, a 'gate of life'!" This was the most basic rule, one that even a True Immortal could not defy. "All it can do is meticulously conceal this entrance or make it rotate periodically."

"Or both," Bai Ziqi's eyes flickered. "So Qianhuan used Inverted Lake as a smokescreen, and also made the transient silver pearl fruits grow on its shores, glowing only one night each month. This was to prevent living beings from accidentally entering?"

Qianhuan must have known that accidents were the most common things in this world. Even immortals could only try to minimize the probability of unforeseen events.

No matter how well it concealed the entrance, under certain conditions, people might still enter.

So, it added a few more conditions for passage.

"In the real world, it's not so easy for Qianhuan to cause trouble," Miaozhantian said. "Otherwise, it wouldn't need to hide itself."

After the storm wall disappeared, when the Heavenly Palace fleet sailed into this sea area, they had in fact already entered the illusion meticulously crafted by Qianhuan.

From the beginning, the Illusion Sect could evoke responses from the illusory realm at minimal cost, using powerful divine abilities to severely damage the Heavenly Palace fleet. Even now, they relied on Miaozhantian's lighthouse barrier, otherwise the Heavenly Palace's thousands of people would have been annihilated long ago.

Fighting Qianhuan within its illusory realm was like rowing upstream against a waterfall; it required not just three or five times the effort, but far more. The Heavenly Palace fleet appeared to hold its own, but in reality, they were already exceptionally fatigued after less than two hours, and suffered heavy casualties—

Bai Ziqi had brought over three thousand people, and now fewer than seventeen hundred remained, even with his full effort in commanding the army and cleverly dividing the enemy's ranks.

Even he found a battle of this difficulty exceptionally strenuous.

If they rushed into the real world, Qianhuan would surely not be so difficult to deal with.

But Bai Ziqi still had concerns. "The Illusion Sect immortals must also know about this entrance, and since they haven't been able to summon Qianhuan this entire time, that side must be extremely perilous. I'll send a few more people to scout ahead and gather some intelligence."

However, the people sent this time did not return. Bai Ziqi calculated the time; they had been in the water for over two quarters of an hour.

This was within his calculations. "It seems that once the silver pearl fruits' glow is exhausted, they can't return."

He called the water lizard back and asked a few more questions. The creature replied that the lake shore on the other side had no glowing spots; it was just an ordinary forest under the moonlight.

"There are no glowing silver pearl fruits on that side." A silver pearl fruit, once picked, would take time to transport to Kidney Lake and then be thrown in—

Bai Shiqi remarked, "In other words, this journey is essentially a one-way trip."

To cross into that other world, one would have to land and explore, right?

A quarter of an hour simply wasn't enough.

Bai Qi, listening nearby, whispered, "Can the main army cross? They'd need to reach Kidney Lake within a quarter of an hour."

They would need to rush thirteen li in a quarter of an hour. Avian demons could do it, and powerful individuals with agility could too, but the Heavenly Palace army had no horses and could only travel on foot. Even with large-scale speed-boosting divine abilities, time would be tight, not to mention the Illusion Sect would surely try to obstruct them.

Bai Shiqi blurted out, "Carrying a single silver pearl fruit definitely won't be enough time. What if we cut down the trees and take them with us?"

Bai Ziqi nodded at him, a hint of satisfaction in his eyes. "Good idea. Go try it."

Then, he turned to the grey parrot. "Qianhuan's methods are unfathomable. Could this small lake be another one of his traps? If the other side of Kidney Lake is Qianhuan's hiding place, why would the Illusion Sect lead us there?"

The grey parrot chuckled softly. "Even if this is an illusion, their power alone can't keep you at sea forever. You'll eventually land with your fleet, so they might as well choose the most advantageous landing point for themselves. Half of the casualties in your force are from the yakshas in Inverted Lake."

These monsters were endless, and leader-level yakshas often landed. It was clearly disadvantageous for the Heavenly Palace forces to fight them with their flesh and blood.

"Besides, you don't know Xiao Wencheng, the Illusion Sect's master. He has his own agenda; he's capable of doing such things."

Bai Ziqi was slightly surprised. "You mean, he intentionally...?"

As the saying goes, know yourself and your enemy, and you will win a hundred battles. But concerning ancient immortals, he truly lacked understanding—nor did he have the means to understand, as they always hid in their caves and wouldn't emerge.

"In ancient times, Xiao Wencheng sacrificed his senior and junior disciples, but that was to help Qianhuan kill a True God. So Qianhuan didn't blame him; in fact, it rewarded him afterward," Miaozhantian stated calmly. "Perhaps Xiao Wencheng has already planned that if the Illusion Sect truly can't defeat us, they will use our power to awaken Qianhuan! If you can't figure out the way to cross the lake yourself, he might even find a way to let you know."

But the Illusion Sect hadn't anticipated the Heavenly Palace's lighthouse barrier, which effectively covered the wounds inflicted on the small grotto-heaven by both armies.

Bai Ziqi mused, "If we can secure ample xuanyuan crystal replenishment, I still suggest proceeding cautiously, first eliminating the Illusion Sect completely, and then going to Kidney Lake to expose Qianhuan's true nature!"

This battle had reached a critical juncture. Eliminating the Illusion Sect meant clipping Qianhuan's wings; once it was isolated, the Heavenly Palace and Miaozhantian would find it much easier to deal with.

But this had a prerequisite, as Bai Ziqi stated: "sufficient xuanyuan crystals."

This depended on whether the Goddess Fengho and Wu Shidao could procure enough xuanyuan crystals!

Contesting for xuanyuan crystals was thus contesting for the initiative in this war.