Death... and me

Sister Orb immediately called Rean's attention as she told him. [Rean, I can feel it through your hand. It has the same feeling as the natural formation after we entered that cave.]

That confirmed Rean's suspicions, prompting him to reply, "So I was right about the lake water and the river water being two sides of the same coin."

[Although it isn't 100% guaranteed, that's most likely the case. Then again, it isn't hard to guess why. One is basically the byproduct of the other. For you to create the white water in that river, this colored water appears as a side effect. Or, it may be the opposite. For this lake water to appear, that white river is the side effect.]

Rean nodded, saying, "It's a basic rule of equivalent exchange as one is filled with huge amounts of Divine Energy while the other gets rid of all of it. One transforms us into statues while the other recovers us from that state. Though, how come we get transformed into statues so quickly but take so long to return to normal with this colored water?"

[That's where the Divine Stone dust comes in. Did you forget that we believe that there's a Divine Stone Mine below the white river? The Divine Energy from that mine and especially the Divine Stone dust is boosting the transformation speed by a lot.]

Rean had to admit Sister Orb's words made sense. "I see... well, we'll be able to confirm it as long as we can head back there and not get attacked by those white powder creatures. The only question is whether the creatures were the fruit of the natural formation or not. In any case, now that we know the exact location, we can go there while the Salt Sweep is gone. No Salt Sweep, no white powder."

[We need to find a way out of here first. If possible, I really don't recommend using the Circuitry Teleport Formation in this situation.] Sister Orb then continued to analyze the point where Divine Energy wasn't dispersing. [Okay, here's the thing. I can tell that this point where the energy from you and the Divine Stones is gathering is connected to the white river somehow. If you build a teleport formation and use this point as the target, it should serve as coordinates to get back to where the white river is located. Well, at the very least, you will be teleported somewhere in the Salt Canyon.]

Rean narrowed his eyes after hearing that. How would he build a teleport formation here if the lake dispersed all Divine Energy? After all, no Divine Energy, no teleport formation. "Hmm... perhaps I can forge a chamber and throw it into the water. It's just that it'll need to be really, really heavy since this water is heavy itself. Otherwise, it will just float on the surface."

[Just forge a chamber with holes and let the water enter. Once it reaches the bottom, close the holes and pump out the water.]

Rean shrugged his shoulders as he told her, "And how exactly do you want me to do the pumping without Divine Energy? Unless I use some kind of tube that'll be over half a kilometer long to reach the border of the lake, that won't work. It's way better to simply forge something heavy enough to sink."

[I see... well, would you be able to forge such a thing with your current cultivation?]

It was then that Rean noticed how idiotic his thoughts were. "Forget all of that. I'll simply forge something in the Dimensional Realm and take it out here."

[Ahem... that's a good idea as well.] Well, Sister Orb also felt like Rean at that moment.

With that, Rean marked down the area where he found the connection point before swimming back to the surface. Surprisingly, Xuve was there when he arrived, talking with Roan and Celis. "Hey, what's up?"

Xuve noticed that Rean had come out of the lake and couldn't help but laugh, saying, "Hahaha! Just like everyone else, you couldn't just give up, could you? So, did you find anything that no one else did?"

Rean nodded. "Seems like it. We should be able to return to Salt Canyon in a few hours..." or so Rean wanted to say. However, he knew that such a thing would cause chaos since everyone wanted to leave this place. With that said, he had to hide his discovery for now. "If I had found a way, do you think I would still be here?"

Xuve agreed with Rean, saying, "That's true. Divine Energy here isn't as abundant as outside, so there's no lack of people who wish to leave."

Rean then changed the topic after that. "So... why are you here?"

Celis explained from there, telling him, "Xuve asked us if we wanted to help with a certain fight for territory or something like that."

Xuve sighed in response. "You make it look like it isn't anything important. As you can imagine, space is everything in the Upside Down World. Every centimeter is owned by someone or some power. However, you heard before that high-level fights can't happen. Because of that, the territories came up with an easier way of settling things. That's the territorial contest or challenge, if you will. In this contest, we will have disputes with cultivators of each level to determine which power will get extra land."

Roan couldn't help but mention, "So it's basically some fight for victory. I don't see how you lack participants for this. Why us?"

Xuve continued, "That's because we don't have enough strong Core and Soul Fusion Realm disciples. Our Tranquio Sect is very small, you see? The Core and Soul Fusion Realm cultivators we have at the moment are mostly between the Initial and Late Stages. There are only five Peak Stage ones."

"Can't you call those ones?" Rean asked.

Xuve nodded, replying, "We did. The problem is that we need ten participants. Since we only have five at the peak level, we came here to ask for this extra help. I know it looks too sudden, especially since we could have asked you during the questioning. However, the challenge just came in."

Rean then used his connection to Roan to talk. 'Well, I don't mind it. I do feel like I didn't pay them enough for the help they gave us to turn back to normal.'

Roan already imagined Rean would say that, telling him, 'Fine. By the way, did you find something?'

Rean nodded in response. 'Seems like it.'