Fang Xiu explained, "Once you're weakened, your earlier haphazard attacks weren't entirely useless; they had a bit of a deterrent effect. Water and fire clash, and this Specter clearly doesn't want to fight head-on with you. It's just biding its time. This Blackwater River is frigid to the bone. Even for a psychic, it's hard to stay in the water for long. The cold will drain a lot of your energy and weaken you until you can't fight backthen it's the Specter's turn to strike."
"Damn it!" Shen Lingxue gritted her teeth. As a person who is already sensitive to cold, being fully submerged in the river was torment. Having already spent her Spiritual Energy attacking the water, she now felt chilled to the bone. Her normally fair face turned ghostly pale, and her lips lost their color.
She never expected that, as a seasoned psychic, she would mess up during a Grade D mission. She began to suspect something was off. Could a Specter capable of moving a lake really be a Grade D? Is it special abilities, or is it really that powerful?
"Shen Lingxue, make a fire," Fang Xiu suddenly said.
Shen Lingxue was taken aback. "My flames may be hotter than ordinary ones, but if you think I can boil this river dry, that's not happening."
"I'm not asking you to dry up the river. Just raise your hand and make some flames. It'll provide some warmth. The cold water is draining your stamina; we need to conserve energy with the situation still unclear."
Shen Lingxue hesitated for a moment.
_'Am I supposed to be a human torch? Or a personal heater?'_
Nonetheless, she followed the advice. Raising her pale, waterlogged hand, a burst of intense, warm light blossomed, dissipating some of the cold.
"Ah, it's so warm, like soaking in a hot spring," Zhao Hao made an ill-timed joke.
Shen Lingxue shot him a cold glare. "Usually, if you feel warm in extreme cold, it means you're close to freezing to death."
"What!?" Zhao Hao was scared enough to press the unconscious Liu Shuai against himself, trying to absorb some warmth.
Maintaining the flame, Shen Lingxue's face regained a bit of color, but her expression became grimmer. "With my current Spiritual Energy, I can only keep this flame up for maybe ten minutes. After that, my Spiritual Energy will be drained. What will we do when the Specter shows up?"
Fang Xiu calmly looked at her. "Doesn't matter. I'll take care of it."
"You'll take care of it?" Shen Lingxue was highly skeptical. In her eyes, Fang Xiu's ability was to foresee the futurea powerful skill, no doubt, but useless in direct combat.
But Zhao Hao completely trusted Fang Xiu. From their time in the mental hospital, Fang Xiu always remained composed, even when facing the most menacing Specters. It was as if he had everything under control.
"Xiu, do you see a way out?" Zhao Hao initially wanted to ask if Fang Xiu had seen the future, but remembering his confidentiality agreement, he cautiously rephrased his question.
Fang Xiu gave a faint nod, offering no explanation.
"Fantastic, Xiu! We're counting on you!" Zhao Hao's demeanor changed. He acted as if they were already out of danger.
In reality, however, Fang Xiu hadn't seen the future, nor had he even seen what the Specter looked like. But that didn't matter.
His actual motive for having Shen Lingxue create flames was to deplete her Spiritual Energy. He guessed that the water Specter's reluctance to show itself was due to fearing their combined strength.
_'So who would the Specter be wary of?'_ Fang Xiu mulled it over. _'It must be be Shen Lingxue, a seasoned psychic with fire powers'_
As time passed, the flame in Shen Lingxue's palm dimmed, nearing dying out. She was about to snuff it out to save some fighting strength, but Fang Xiu stopped her.
"Keep it burning."
Shen Lingxue glanced at Fang Xiu's calm face and ultimately chose to believe him. This was also due to the various mysterious feats Fang Xiu had demonstrated before at the Investigation Bureau.
Facing someone who could seemingly predict the future, people are generally inclined to believe.
Finally, Shen Lingxue couldn't hold on anymore.
"I can't go on. My Spiritual Energy is depleted."
As her words fell, the flame in her palm instantly went out, plunging their surroundings into darkness.
All that could be heard was the sound of flowing water. Everything else was eerily quiet.
"S-something's in the water!" Zhao Hao suddenly exclaimed in horror.
Fang Xiu and the others immediately looked in the direction Zhao Hao was pointing and saw that the black river seemed to be teeming with even darker shapes that were snaking around like water serpents.
"What do we do now?" Shen Lingxue looked nervously at Fang Xiu. Devoid of her Spiritual Energy, she was now a sitting duck, with her hopes for survival entirely pinned on Fang Xiu.
Whether it was an illusion or not, Shen Lingxue felt that there was an intense, repressed excitement in Fang Xiu's eyes.
It wasn't an illusion; Fang Xiu was genuinely excited.
He hadn't encountered a Specter for more than a week now. At this moment, he felt like a parched traveler who had just spotted a seductive oasis.
Without a second thought, he dived into the water.
Shen Lingxue and the others were immediately shocked.
They couldn't believe that Fang Xiu would act so boldly.
Underwater, all Fang Xiu could see was darkness, with shapes resembling water serpents moving swiftly toward him.
Fang Xiu immediately activated his blood pupil. Countless blood-red veins appeared in his right eye, densely interweaving until the white of his eye was covered in red, leaving only a pitch-black pupil.
Using his blood pupil, Fang Xiu finally saw what those black serpentine shapes were.
They were strands of slick, pitch-black hair!
The hair resembled what he had seen on the village chief and others before. Equally thick, equally glossy.
It seemed like the hair wanted to entangle Fang Xiu and drag him underwater.
But Fang Xiu wasn't about to give it a chance. A flash of silver light appeared in his hand, and he was now holding a scalpel that emitted a chilling Specter power.
SWISH! SWISH!
With a few slashes, he immediately severed the strands of hair."