Going rogue

After I had ripped the talisman into two pieces, my surroundings changed within less than a second. Maybe I wasn't able to see the difference in milliseconds, because the changes to my surroundings was as fast as the time when the hooded girl had kidnapped me, and when the skinny guy had brought me to this world.

All it took was a fraction of a second, and all of a sudden, I was in the very same hard stone area where the hooded girl had brought me before. The difference between then and now however, was that I had someone else along with me at the moment.

"Where are we?" That person was Xiayen, who questioned me after she became aware of the fact that she was no longer in the sect.

"Remember that hooded girl that invited me to her sect? We're in their sect, I believe." I explained to Xiayen.

"Is it because the elders are trying to dispose you off?" Xiayen proceeded to ask me right after I had given her my short explanation.

"Oh... You were able to catch that? Phew… That makes things more easier for me then, I guess. By the way, you don't mind the fact that I took you with me, right?" For confirmation, I decided to ask Xiayen if she didn't mind, because if she did mind, It would mean that I did the same thing that the hooded girl did to me.

Blatant kidnapping.

I mean… Maybe that's why she was interested in recruiting me. Hehe… Are they a sect of kidnappers perhaps? Ha!

Anyway... At the moment, Xiayen seems to be talking to me while she looked around for a way down.

"Me? Of course I don't mind. We're going to research a lot of stuff together, aren't we? I doubt the sect would also allow me to study something unorthodox like the source of demonic powers... I'm bound to leave that sect in the future anyway, so, thanks to you, things happened much earlier. Also, I wouldn't really want to lose my only friend, would I? Who else will help me with my research? Hihi." Was what Xiayen told me.

While talking to me, the tone in her voice sounded quite cheerful, which honestly, made me feel at ease. Like, thank goodness, I am not a kidnapper.

"So, are you coming or not?" She asked after she had made her way to a ladder which led to an area below.

It turns out that the stone area was some kind of gigantic concrete block amongst the many other gigantic blocks and pillars. The place was located in some kind of swamp, which one could see if they looked below the edge, or if they looked at the type of vines that stretched their way up on the pillars.

After looking at the swamp below me, I was certain that not many people would be willing to come and walk to such a place. I even thought that it was because of the bad location of the sect, that the hooded girl was desperate to recruit me. Who knows… That might be true after all.

With Xiayen going down the ladder first, I had the time to check the surroundings before I went for the ladder as well.

The ladder was in a corner, where there was a cut out part on the surface, which led to the inside of the stone block of a construction.

After going down the ladder, we made it to another floor. The thing was, that the new floor was the opposite of the upper floor. Where there was a hole in the upper floor, a solid surface was on the current floor, and where there was a solid surface on the upper floor, no surface was on the current floor.

Fortunately, the surface of the current floor is big enough to easily fit two people.

"There's water down there." Xiayen went on to tell me.

"You sure? I mean… It's very dark to see."

I was a bit unsure about Xiayen's words. I did understand that the water of the swamp would be on same level, however, clearly, the water must be blocked by the stone walls. There was only a slight chance for there to be water down below, because the walls were simply too damn thick to break a hole through. Well, I mean… The floor is also a thick layer of stone.

After confirming that it was indeed possible for there to be holes in the wall, I believed in Xiayen's words. Also, she was a high leveled cultivator, so of course something like night vision should be possible for her.

"Yeah. I have night vision."

'Did she just read my mind?! Oh, wait... That's just an answer to my actual question. I'm actually stupid…'

'Isn't the water level too shallow then?" My cautious ass asked, which Xiayen replied with a "Nope. It looks very deep to me."

"Oh. Okay." I could only say. But of course, in case she was lying, I decided to push her.

"Ahh!" As a result, she yelled out loud, because she did not expect me to push her all of a sudden.

"See! It's not shallow!" Her voice reverberated throughout the walls, a few seconds after I had heard the splash of someone landing on water.

"Okay!" With that said, I decided to dive inside the water as well. While I was in the air, I sure did hope that the water doesn't smell.

The water was quite cold, and I even shivered for a bit. What was strange, was that Xiayen was indeed right about the water level. I couldn't feel the bottom of the swamp, which was indeed strange, because swamps were usually quite shallow.

"Can you hold your breath for long? We should swim downwards to see what's down there. There has to be a way out for people that can't fly, right?" Was Xiayen's conclusion about the strange depth of the water.

"I don't know. One thing I know, is that ladies should go first."

With that said, Xiayen went below the water surface first, and I, right after…