Arthur soothed her calmly.
"Alright, don't overthink it. The fact that this place is hard to detect is actually a good thing. If it were easy to find, it wouldn't be our turn to explore it."
Huoxuan thought it over and realized Arthur was right. She stopped dwelling on it.
"In that case, let's go down and take a look," Huoxuan said eagerly.
Arthur nodded. He cast a modified version of the Bubble-Head Charm on himself and the three women, sealing them off completely, then jumped in first.
The three followed close behind.
From the shore, the pool looked crystal clear, seemingly no deeper than two meters.
But once Arthur entered the water, he realized it was an illusion. The true depth of the pool far exceeded his expectations—looking downward, there was only endless darkness.
Fortunately, none of them suffered from deep-sea phobia or anything similar.
Arthur conjured a Lumos ahead of them and led the way deeper into the pool.
Not long after, his spiritual perception suddenly detected a group of strange fish swimming through the dark waters.
They were called strange for good reason—each had the face of a beautiful woman. From the back of their heads extended five dorsal fins as long as their bodies, with five smaller fins growing around each gill. At the position of their ventral fins were two tentacle-like appendages, similar to those of a squid.
Sensing Arthur's presence, the fish let out cries resembling mandarin ducks, then fled rapidly into the darkness.
Seeing them, Arthur recalled a passage from the Classic of Mountains and Seas:
"From Mount Qingqiu flows the Ying River, southward into the Marsh of Jiyi. Within it dwell many Chishui—they resemble fish with human faces, cry like mandarin ducks, and those who eat them will never suffer from skin disease."
In other words, within Qingqiu Mountain, a river called Ying flows south into Jiyi Marsh. In its waters live a strange fish known as Chishui—fish with human faces. Their cries resemble mandarin ducks, and consuming them grants immunity from skin ailments.
According to the Classic of Mountains and Seas, Chishui were peculiar spirit beasts—physically weak, yet extremely adept at concealment, and possessing remarkably high intelligence.
The creatures before them perfectly matched the description.
Arthur was certain these were Chishui.
Though he didn't know why a species from Qingqiu had appeared here, the pool's strange properties were clearly tied to these fish and their concealment abilities.
It was precisely because of their presence that the pool appeared shallow and transparent from the surface.
More than that, they masked the spatial fluctuations of the secret realm beneath the pool—explaining why Huoxuan couldn't sense anything before touching the water.
If not for Arthur's powerful spiritual perception detecting the anomaly, they would have missed this place entirely.
Seeing the Chishui flee farther away, Arthur quickly used his spiritual force to stun several of them, then pulled them over with magic and tossed them into the pond inside his Zen Garden.
Such a rare species—how could his Zen Garden possibly go without them?
After that, Arthur continued onward with the three women.
Before long, they spotted a faint glow deep within the pool.
As they swam closer, the light grew brighter. When they finally reached it, they were astonished to find that the source was another body of water.
Passing through it, they officially entered the secret realm.
Arthur climbed ashore and surveyed the surroundings. It was a simple cavern—empty except for the pool they had emerged from.
Nearby was a passage leading out of the cave, its destination unknown.
Once on land, Hermione asked curiously,
"Arthur, what did you collect underwater just now?"
They had seen him take something, but the darkness made it impossible to tell what it was.
"They're called Chishui," Arthur replied, then explained their description from the Classic of Mountains and Seas.
Huoxuan nodded in sudden realization.
"No wonder this secret realm was so well hidden—it was because of them."
Hermione, however, thought of something else.
"Does that count as an Eastern mermaid?"
After all, Chishui had human faces.
Her question reminded Arthur of an old internet meme from his previous life—the nun and the fish.
It was about a man confessing to a nun-like streamer that he'd lost his virginity at thirteen… to the mouth of a fish.
If that guy knew about Chishui, he'd probably be thrilled.
After all, with a human face, the experience would feel even more… immersive.
Arthur quickly shook those bizarre thoughts out of his head and explained,
"Eastern mermaids are called Jiao Ren. Like phoenixes, they're a broad category of beings. Some even resemble the mermaids of Western legends."
Hermione nodded in understanding.
"Alright, enough chatting," Huoxuan said impatiently. "Let's go see what this secret realm actually has!"
She strode toward the passage, and Arthur and the others quickly followed.
The tunnel wasn't long. Soon, they emerged into the open—and were greeted by a truly astonishing forest.
Some trees bore branches laden with pearls. Others grew multicolored jade, while still others sprouted red and blue gemstones.
Beside a lake stood rice stalks as tall as trees.
At the lake's center was a small island, upon which grew a towering ancient tree. Beneath it stood a shrub entirely jade-green—even its trunk shimmered with emerald hues.
The only relatively normal sight was the scattered cypress trees growing among the bizarre flora.
Staring at the jewel-laden trees, Huoxuan exclaimed,
"Holy—Pearl Trees, Wenyu Trees, Ganqi Trees! And Spirit Rice this big… there's even an Undying Tree! We've struck it rich!"
Arthur had recently studied Mount Shu's Record of Treasures, and every plant Huoxuan mentioned was listed there.
Pearl Trees bore pearls capable of dramatically increasing comprehension. Those who consumed them would experience a short-term surge in悟性, able to learn almost anything at a glance.
Wenyu Trees produced multicolored jade—supreme materials for artifact refinement. Adding them during forging could raise an artifact's rank by an entire tier.
As for Ganqi Trees, they bore red and blue gems.
Even Arthur coveted these, as they contained pure life force and soul force respectively.
By simply fusing the two and refining them with alchemy, Arthur could create a Philosopher's Stone.
The towering rice was Spirit Rice, which accelerated cultivation and strengthened magical power.
And that jade-green shrub was the legendary Undying Tree—said to grant immortality to those who consumed it.
Looking at the vast expanse of priceless spiritual treasures, Arthur nodded in agreement.
"Yes. We really have struck it rich."
Perhaps Huoxuan's voice had been too loud, disturbing the realm's original inhabitants.
From the forest not far away, several brilliantly colored giant birds took flight.
Two were entirely crimson, with long, elegant tail feathers. The other two shimmered with five-colored plumage, their tails adorned with peacock-like emerald plumes.
They were Feng Birds and Luan Birds—both types of phoenix, and the true goal of Arthur's journey.
The phoenixes flew toward them. Arthur looked at their massive forms—each larger than a warhorse—and nodded appreciatively.
This was what phoenixes were supposed to look like.
Dumbledore's phoenix barely qualified as a turkey by comparison.
Moments later, the phoenixes landed before them.
The largest crimson phoenix was about to question why Arthur and his companions had trespassed into their territory—when it suddenly realized it couldn't sense Arthur's strength at all.
As the leader of the phoenix clan, its cultivation had long reached the peak of Void Refinement and Dao Integration.
Yet even so, it couldn't see through Arthur.
It couldn't tell whether Arthur was simply far stronger—or had used some method to conceal his aura.
Cautiously, it asked,
"May I ask… is an Immortal present before us?"
Arthur was slightly surprised that the phoenix could speak, but considering it was an Eastern phoenix, it made sense.
The "Immortal" it referred to was what cultivators called a Land Immortal. Arthur wasn't entirely sure whether his Divine Being realm counted.
So he released his divine aura and asked calmly,
"Does this aura look like that of an Immortal to you?"
To Arthur, it was a simple question.
But combined with the vast, mountain-like presence of a Divine Being, it sounded like displeasure to the phoenix leader.
"Please forgive me, Immortal. Huangxi has spoken out of turn."
The phoenix leader—Huangxi—quickly apologized.
Feng were male, Huang female.
Arthur hadn't expected this phoenix with a neutral voice to be female.
Judging from her reaction, his Divine Being realm did indeed correspond to the level of a Land Immortal.
She had clearly misunderstood his tone—but Arthur didn't bother correcting her.
Instead, he turned the conversation elsewhere and asked:
"…"
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