Shang left the sandy wall and swam downward in a diagonal way. He didn't want to get too far from the wall, but he knew that he also wouldn't find any beasts that close to it.
Shang had no idea how far down he had to go to find a beast appropriate to his level. After all, he hadn't even found a weak beast up to now.
It was a gamble.
Shang continued swimming down in the dark lake for quite a while.
Everything was silent.
The lake was completely still.
It was almost like it was ancient.
Was this really just a place that a Zone Beast had created, or had the lake been there before the Zone Beast had appeared?
Shang continued descending for about five more minutes before he stopped.
'I don't know how deep I have to go to find an appropriate beast to my level. It's also possible that I might go beyond where I want to go. If I do that, I will die.'
Shang stopped descending and decided to swim further out into the lake from his current depth. He guessed that he was probably nearly three kilometers deep.
The scenery didn't change.
It didn't matter if Shang went down, forward, or up. Everything always remained the same.
There was still no movement.
'I need to do something drastic if I want to gain some intel,' Shang thought.
Shang readied his sword.
BANG!
Shang released an Ice Blast, turning the water behind him into ice as he shot forward.
The rapid speed at which Shang was moving through the water cooled his heated body very quickly, allowing him to cast another Ice Blast just a second later.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Shang used one Ice Blast after the next to rapidly move around.
He had no idea where he had to go.
He was only blindly moving around.
Eventually, about a minute later, Shang felt a strong current that wasn't created by him.
BANG!
Shang exploded towards the place where the current had come from.
BANG!
Shang released a second Ice Blast, turning everything behind him into ice.
CRACK!
The blunt side of Shang's sword had just hit something!
The water around Shang turned red, and he saw something move in the darkness.
Shang extended his hand forward and grabbed the closest thing to him.
It didn't move.
Blood poured out of the thing Shang was holding, telling him that he had just killed a beast.
It was difficult for Shang to see, but he could still see somewhat. He just couldn't see very far.
Shang looked at the thing he was holding and realized that he was holding the lower half of a rather big fish.
Shang had killed a beast by ramming into it with his weight.
Shang didn't recognize the kind of beast since he basically knew nothing about water beasts, but he could still do some basic tests.
Shang tested the resistance of the fish's muscles and the hardness of its scale.
'Should be around the Early General Stage,' Shang estimated.
'Need to go deeper.'
Shang threw the parts of the fish to the side since he had no use for it and descended further.
The blood quickly vanished from around Shang as he continued going deeper into the lake.
He descended for another five minutes.
Nothing.
Shang continued descending for another five minutes.
Still nothing.
'I should be nearly five kilometers deep. I can already feel quite a bit of pressure on my body. I think I will reach my limit at around seven kilometers. I can survive even deeper, but moving would become too strenuous.'
'I don't think that the water beasts want to go too deep due to the stronger beasts down there.'
'I'll descend one more kilometer.'
Moving at such a depth wasn't very easy for Shang. The pressure was all around his body.
Luckily, Shang didn't need to go much further.
After about two minutes, Shang felt a strong current coming toward him, and he immediately reacted to it.
BANG!
Shang released an Ice Blast from his legs, charging upward.
CRACK!
The ice below Shang's feet was broken apart as something smashed through it.
Obviously, something had just tried to kill Shang.
However, Shang couldn't tell where the beast had gone to. He could barely see a couple of meters in front of him.
'Vision isn't very helpful here,' Shang thought as he closed his eye.
He fully focused on his other senses.
A second later, Shang felt something approaching, but he didn't open his eye.
WHOOOM!
Suddenly, the water around Shang vanished.
At this moment, Shang was inside a space filled with nothing but Mana.
Domain of Entropy!
BANG!
Shang kicked backward with his legs and released an Ice Blast.
As Shang shot forward, his Mana was being consumed at a terrifying rate due to how much mass the Domain of Entropy was converting to Mana.
The empty tunnel Shang left behind was quickly closed by the water.
Shang opened his eye when he was certain that he was right in the path of the beast in front of him.
Then, Shang struck forward.
CRACK!
Shang was thrown back, but he felt his sword dig into something before being thrown away.
The water drowned Shang again as he deactivated his Domain of Entropy.
He didn't need it anymore.
Shang's eye narrowed.
BANG!
He released an Ice Blast, quickly followed by another one.
He shot through a sea of blood.
Shang felt another violent current in front of him.
BANG! BANG!
Shang released two quick Fire Blasts to speed up.
Then, he struck to the side.
CRACK!
Shang cut through something hard, and more blood appeared in front of him.
For some reason, Shang felt that the currents were becoming rough and irregular.
'I probably got its backfin. It was trying to run!'
BANG!
Shang used another Ice Blast, and he quickly felt the beast again.
BANG!
Shang shot diagonally upwards when he suddenly felt the current stop in front of him.
Then, he pointed his left arm upward.
BANG!
Shang released another Ice Blast and shot down as he struck forward with his sword in his right hand.
CRAACK!
Sure enough, he hit something hard.
Shang's right eye burned.
BANG! BANG!
He released another two Blasts to increase his power.
CRACK!
And his sword finally broke through the thing he had hit!
Shang paused again and concentrated on his surroundings.
His left side was exhibiting several small currents while his right side was quiet.
BANG!
Shang cut towards his left side and hit something.
Silence.
The lake returned to silence.
Shang quickly grabbed towards his right and his left, shoving whatever he touched into his Space Ring.
BANG! BANG!
Then, Shang released one Ice Blast after the other to ascend again.
He no longer needed to be covert.
About five minutes later, Shang shot towards the sandy wall again and buried himself.
When he felt nothing moving around him, he entered his inner world with his Space Ring.
Inside his inner world, Shang took out the Space Ring and dumped whatever was in there out.
BANG!
The bisected corpse of a terrifying fish appeared in front of Shang.
It was nearly ten meters long and over two meters high. A terrifying amount of teeth came out of its mouth, which then curved around its entire body, creating a powerful armor made of bent teeth.
The fish's head had a deep cut going through its mouth up to the middle of its eyes.
'That was my first attack.'
Shang looked at the backfin, which had long spikes on it.
Sure enough, a horizontal cut had separated the upper and lower half of the fin.
The back half of the fish also had teeth armor protecting it, but the teeth between the two halves had been broken apart.
This had been when Shang had bisected the fish.
The last injury was a deep cut at the place where the fish's left eye had been.
This had been Shang's killing strike.
Shang looked at the fish for a while.
It looked alien and terrifying.
Its mouth was constantly open due to the teeth that bent over its entire body. There were a couple more teeth at the back of its throat that were not bent. This was probably what it used to kill its prey after ramming into it.
Shang bent down and performed a couple of tests on the fish.
Then, he frowned.
'Early Commander Stage.'
'Not sure if I can absorb that.'
