Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 1113 - 226 Big Trouble

Chapter 1113: Chapter 226 Big Trouble

"Let’s keep moving forward," Pannis frowned and didn’t stop the raft. Instead, he continuously thrust his pole into the water, speeding up the raft. Through the clear lake water, they could see numerous packages or backpacks scattered on the lake bed, spaced tens of meters apart. The locations of these packages were haphazard, but overall, they maintained a straight-line direction, stretching off into the unknown.

"Is something chasing them?" Catherine quickly deduced the underlying implications. "It seems like they were trying to lighten their load. At least the first thing they discarded was the ultimate package."

"It does seem like they were desperately escaping," Pannis said uneasily as he circled the rear of the raft. Even though the range of his vision remained normal and even the Twisted Souls drifting in the sky showed no abnormality, the uncontrollable situation made Pannis irritable. He frowned and said, "But what are they hiding from? The only thing I can think of is that the Twisted Souls started becoming restless, expanding the wandering range. But that’s illogical, since if they dared to cross the lake, they must have a way to temporarily make the Twisted Souls ignore their presence. Even if the Twisted Souls became restless, it shouldn’t have a significant effect on them."

"Is there any other possibility?" Catherine’s heart also began to tighten. Both expeditions were led by two Demigods with several Legendary Rank members, and the capabilities of the group from forty years ago weren’t much different than theirs. However, the fact that the team members from decades past had to desperately discard their equipment to escape clearly indicated that the unknown threat was not easy to deal with. Moreover, the most critical issue was its unknown nature, preventing them from preparing strategies in advance or cleverly avoiding risks, leaving them merely to passively wait for the threat to approach, which was not a comfortable feeling.

"I don’t know either, I don’t know much more about this lake than you do," Pannis said with a bitter smile, shaking his head. "There’s almost no record of the depths of the lake. Apart from the previous expedition, hardly anyone has ventured deep into Lake of Termination. As for what’s inside, everyone is clueless."

"I understand." Catherine also started scanning the lake surface like Pannis. Unfortunately, her search was equally fruitless. The lake remained calm and beautiful, but now, no one dared to admire it with a relaxed demeanor because no one could be certain that such a peaceful and beautiful world wouldn’t expose its danger and ferocity in the next instant.

But everything was very normal, even excessively so. Everything was too calm, so calm that it seemed abnormal, so calm that even the flowing air, unnoticed by anyone, had stopped.

"Something’s wrong," Pannis’s forehead was now sweaty with tension, his eyes tightly shut, ears twitching as he tried desperately to pick up any sounds in the environment. Suddenly, Pannis’s eyes snapped open, and he hissed, "This is bad."

At the same time, Dillie, with its beastly instincts, also leaped up, even its mane bristling, as it roared, "Quick, paddle the boat, trouble’s coming, hurry up and leave here."

The world seemed to shift from stillness to turbulence, and the environment was no longer silent. In the midst of the girls’ panic, a faint rumbling sound, unknown in origin, echoed, a persistent and continuous rumble that poured into the girls’ ears. The rumbling started off low and weak, but as time passed, it grew louder and louder. After a few minutes, the deep rumble turned into a piercing screech, making everyone feel the urge to cover their ears as the screech made their eardrums ache with pain.

However, it was just an urge. Before anyone could actually act on it, the screeching silence abruptly stopped, without any signs or processes, the roaring screech just disappeared, and everything returned to the original silence. After experiencing the rumble for contrast, when it quieted down again, the girls felt they could almost hear each other’s hurried breathing.

No one relaxed, as no one would be foolish enough to think that the danger had passed. Years of adventure experience had taught them all that the piercing rumble was just a beginning, and only when the rumble stopped was it the calm before the storm. The calmer everything was, the more intensely danger brewed, and as for the source of the danger...

"It’s below!" Pannis struck the lake bed with his pole, infusing Aggression into the pole which hardened like Magicsteel. He kept striking the lake bed, and the powerful thrusts continuously accelerated the raft. It pierced through the water surface like an arrow, causing its front to tilt upwards at an angle to the water, stirring up waves that turned into a cloud of spray, splashing onto the girls’ faces.

"The water temperature is rising," Catherine wiped the water drops off her face and spoke quickly. "It’s already over fifty degrees now, and it shows no signs of stopping."

"Don’t use your sight or hearing to observe, use energy perception," Pannis shouted over the splash of the water. "Energy underground has suddenly started to brew violently, it’s unclear how it will burst forth, but I think it won’t be just enough to warm a bath for us. Stay alert, the danger may appear at any moment, use perception to identify the location where the energy will burst forth."

"It’s too far away," Lina shouted back, "At this distance, we can only vaguely feel the convergence of energy below, but we can’t pinpoint its exact location."

"Actually, even if you could figure it out, it wouldn’t be useful; don’t forget you’re on a boat now." Dillie stood proudly at the bow, his mane fluttering in the wind, making the scorpion-tailed lion look particularly majestic. Dillie’s growl pierced through the thick fog, reaching the girls’ ears, "That idiot had you sense it just to train your energy perception as much as possible. When professionals become powerful enough, the way they observe things gradually shifts from the five senses to energy perception. He just wants you to break free from the limitations of the five senses sooner, but he’s too embarrassed to teach you directly, so that’s why he’s an idiot."

"Shut up, you piece of transport," Pannis roared from the stern, "And you, you bastard, get down! Don’t you know standing at the bow increases wind resistance?"

"Focus on steering your boat," Dillie roared back defiantly, "Be careful, or you’ll be the one embarrassed when the boat flips."

"Stop joking, I—" Pannis had just started speaking when his expression suddenly changed, "It’s coming, everyone hold on tight, and don’t fall off."

As Pannis warned, a loud noise erupted not far away, sounding like the explosion of high-strength Crystal under the ground, massive yet muffled. However, the explosion wasn’t isolated; as the boom sounded, the water around the raft two hundred meters away suddenly shot up in a white column about ten meters wide, sending large volumes of water, steaming from the heat, defying gravity like a geyser shooting straight into the sky, rising up to a hundred meters before dispersing like rain mist. As the column erupted, the calm lake surface began to violently churn, creating huge seven to eight-meter-high waves, spreading outwards continuously.

"It’s scalding," Lina called out softly, as rain mist inevitably splashed onto the girls. Several droplets dotted Lina’s fair face, scalding her with red spots, forcing her to deploy a Magic Shield to counter the hot water.

"Hang in there, it’s still a long way from over," Pannis nudged the pole to the side, skillfully changing the raft’s direction. Just in its original path, another column of water erupted fiercely, due to its proximity, the resulting huge wave relentlessly chased after the raft. Even though Pannis sped up as much as he could, after escaping a few dozen meters, the raft was still hit by the wave. Fortunately, with the energy dissipated over the distance, the wave didn’t possess enough force to damage the raft, but even so, the girls still felt the scorching heat through their Shield as the wave crashed over them.

Even Dillie stopped arguing with Pannis at this point; distracting the person controlling the boat now would be suicidal. Of course, with the strength of a Demigod, he might not die, but the five Legendary Rank girls wouldn’t be so lucky. Even if the suddenly erupting scalding geysers didn’t drain their Shields and scald them to death, they could still become companions of the Twisted Souls drifting unaffected in the air and beneath the water.

"Whoosh," the raft made another agile turn, dodging a group of staggering Twisted Souls, aligning its angle straight into an oncoming giant wave. However, curiously, the people on the raft didn’t feel a strong impact. As the giant wave dispersed, the girls could see that right before the impact, Dillie suddenly spread his wings and flew up, his body expanding to ten meters, breaking through the wave before the raft could hit it directly, causing only a bump from the aftermath.

Thunderous sounds continued, the lake surface turning into a hellish scene, with scorching water columns erupting everywhere, filling the air with pungent odors as they burst.

"Should we throw over the side?" Catherine finally understood, forty years ago, what her grandfather must have felt when he threw so many valuable items into the water. Taking advantage of the moment they had just dodged a water column, although it hurt like cutting through her heart, she still gritted her teeth and shouted, "We have sorted out everything that can be thrown overboard."

"Not necessary for now," Pannis shouted back, "I can still manage. If I feel the raft is getting too heavy, I’ll tell you."

"Oh, Blessings of Denia." Suddenly, Lina pointed dumbly at the water and stammered, "I think we have bigger problems now."

On the water, where the columns had been erupting, whirlpools were slowly forming, expanding in scope almost to cover half of the water area. At the same time, in the places not covered by whirlpools, new columns of water continued to erupt, creating a chaos resembling Doomsday.