Hearing the three's thoughts, Yang Han gave a bitter smile. "That king isn't much pressure, but can you guess what I ran into?"
"Here, the only thing stronger than the king is the White Tiger, that divine beast's descendant. Don't tell me you actually ran into the descendant?" Melody Wood quickly guessed, being clever.
Lynn Lin and Ember Yang looked surprised. Yang Han smiled, "You guessed right, but it wasn't the White Tiger that acted. Instead, it sent me into a mysterious space, and in this space, everything is a Painting Array. Now I've entered a place full of steles, and each stele has its own secrets. I went into one that's a White Tiger mirror."
"White Tiger mirror?" Melody Wood asked suspiciously, and Ember Yang and Lynn Lin were also curious about the place.
So Yang Han explained where he was and the illusion he encountered. When everyone finished listening, they all gasped.
"So what do we do now? Does that mean we can't get out?" Lynn Lin asked suspiciously.
"Yeah, that's right. Unless we defeat that illusion, maybe then we can leave," Yang Han said.
"Let's go help you," Melody Wood said.
Yang Han thought of Melody's zither skills. If she could help him, it would be perfect, but this would put them in danger, so he worried, "That would make you all very vulnerable."
"It's fine, we're not that fragile. After this trial, we've improved a lot," Ember Yang said proudly.
Speaking of this, Lynn Lin suddenly asked, "Was that pill you gave to Ember Yang, and then had her give it to me?"
"You figured it out?" Yang Han smiled when he heard Lynn's question.
"At first Melody told me, but I didn't believe it. Now hearing you say it, it really was true. What's going on?" Ember Yang asked, surprised.
Yang Han smiled and said, "Here's how it is: I've been watching everything you do. Several times you were in danger and I wanted to step in, but I knew it would disrupt things, so I pretended not to know. When you got hurt, I could only change my appearance and give you the pill in disguise."
After listening to Yang Han, Lynn Lin said, "At least you still have some conscience."
Ember Yang laughed, "I knew Dad would always be there and wouldn't abandon us."
"But your trial this time really surprised me. You managed to get through so many obstacles," Yang Han said with a smile.
"Of course! Who are we? Those little minions could never handle us," Ember Yang said, laughing.
"You, you..." Yang Han said with a bitter smile.
Knowing that Yang Han had been watching over them all along, Lynn Lin finally let go of her anger. But now they faced a big problem: how to leave safely.
Melody Wood repeatedly asked Yang Han to let them out so they could help. Yang Han finally agreed, saying, "Alright, but if there's any danger, don't resist—just return to my artifact immediately."
"Okay," the three replied in unison.
Yang Han prepared himself and said, "When I go out, I'll draw its attention. The three of you quickly combine your strength to attack it."
"Alright, be careful," Melody Wood said.
Yang Han nodded, then with a flash, appeared outside. As soon as the White Tiger phantom saw him, it attacked immediately, and Yang Han released Melody, Ember, and Lynn.
Seeing such a massive tiger, the three gasped, but quickly calmed down. Melody controlled five zithers, while the other two assisted; Yang Han kept the White Tiger distracted.
Soon, a mighty wave of zither power surged through the space, targeting the White Tiger phantom directly.
Boom! After the White Tiger phantom was hit, the entire space trembled, and in the end, all four appeared outside the stele.
"Whew, good thing we're alright," Yang Han said with a smile.
"Told you we're awesome," Ember Yang said, laughing.
"Alright, for now you all should go back into my artifact. It's still too dangerous out here. If the White Tiger outside suddenly comes in and finds you, it'll definitely take you away," Yang Han said.
Lynn Lin and the others had no objections, so they returned to the Strange Spiral Shell. As for Yang Han, he didn't dare touch any more steles—not knowing what might lurk inside.
At this moment, he skirted around the steles and came to a river. But this river was strange: it looked like black water, but when he scooped it up, it was clear.
"Weird, why does the water look totally different once it's in my hand?" Yang Han muttered.
Puzzled by the strange phenomenon, Yang Han tried several times; it was always the same. He frowned and saw the river wasn't wide. For an Immortal Sovereign, crossing it should be instant, so he decided to leap over.
But as soon as he stepped out, he froze above the river, unable to cross. The bizarre effect was like being locked in midair, shocking Yang Han.
"What's going on now?" Realizing he was locked in midair and couldn't move, Yang Han wondered aloud.
At this moment, Yang Han was like a figure suspended in space, unable to move his limbs, with unknown river water below.
Faced with this, Yang Han tested if his soul could leave his body. Sure enough, his soul could move freely, but his body remained locked.
"I'll store my body in the artifact first," Yang Han thought, planning to put his body into the Strange Spiral Shell.
Once his body entered the Strange Spiral Shell, Yang Han found he could move again. This made him realize something outside must have been locking him in place, so he entered the shell and tried to control it to cross the river.
But as soon as the shell floated for a bit, the river below surged with a splash and swallowed it whole.
"What the—? Seriously?" Yang Han exclaimed in shock. He tried to control the shell, but found a strange force pulling it down. When the shell finally settled on the riverbed, Yang Han saw all sorts of things around him, some of them ancient and even valuable treasures.
"If I could take all this out, I'd be rich. But why does this place suck in all the artifacts?" Yang Han muttered. He also noticed many corpses, perfectly preserved and motionless in the water.
"Are these bodies still alive?" Yang Han wondered. He considered the possibility and called out to the corpses.
"Are you still alive?" Yang Han asked.
There was total silence, not a sound. At first, Yang Han thought they were all dead, but then he noticed a few people's eyebrows twitching.
"Could they really be alive?" Yang Han was shocked, realizing that being immobilized meant they couldn't speak, which made sense.
Yang Han debated whether to pull them in and ask about this place. But bringing them in could be risky—there were five in total, and if any were malicious, it could be trouble.
After much thought, he realized he had no other way to learn about this place, so Yang Han sucked all five into the Strange Spiral Shell. Sure enough, the shell easily absorbed them.
In an instant, two of them moved, opening their eyes. The other three, Yang Han found, were already dead—their souls completely extinguished.
The two saw Yang Han and were shocked, then quickly thanked him. "Thank you, senior."
"Uh, I'm not really a senior. I just want to know—what is this river? Why is it like this? And who are you? How did you end up here?" Yang Han asked.
"We were originally from the same sect, but a White Tiger stole our sect treasure, so we chased it here, only to be trapped. As for this river, it's another mirror space inside our sect's artifact," one of them explained.
"Artifact? Are you saying this whole space is your sect's artifact?" Yang Han asked in shock.
Both nodded, "That's right."
Yang Han realized he'd finally found people familiar with the artifact. "Do you know how to leave this space?"
"Our sect records say to leave the artifact, you have to go through a tunnel. We've searched for it for ages, but never found it, and ended up sucked into this river," one said, frustrated.
"What are your names?" Yang Han asked, curious.
"I'm Shane Xiao, he's Rex Xie, we're senior and junior brothers," said the man named Shane Xiao.
"Your sect's artifact is really impressive," Yang Han said with a smile.
Shane Xiao gave a bitter smile, "There's nothing we can do. Our artifact is truly heaven-defying. The sect leader feared it would fall into the White Tiger's hands and endanger humanity, so he sent us five out. But the other three couldn't withstand the passage of time and died."
"How long have you been here?" Yang Han asked.
"Over a hundred thousand years," Shane Xiao replied.
Yang Han was shocked by the length of time. "That's a long time."
"There's nothing we can do. If we stay much longer, we might not last either," Shane Xiao said.
"I see. Well then, can you tell me how to leave the underwater space?" Yang Han was in the Strange Spiral Shell but didn't know how to get out.
"Are you inside an artifact?" Shane Xiao asked curiously.
"Yes, that's right," Yang Han replied.
After thinking for a moment, Shane Xiao said, "Actually, you can use a method from our sect—add a protective space around your artifact."
"A protective space? How do you do that?" Yang Han asked, puzzled.
Shane Xiao said, "I'll explain it to you now."
So Shane Xiao explained to Yang Han how to add a protective membrane around the artifact, shielding it from the environment.
Sure enough, Yang Han set up an isolation membrane around the Strange Spiral Shell. With it, he easily controlled the artifact to break through the water's surface and reach the opposite bank.
Once on the far bank, Yang Han released the two and said, "We're here."
"Thank you," Shane Xiao said.
"I want to leave here too, but I can't find a way. Why don't we search together?" Yang Han suggested after some thought.
Shane Xiao nodded, "Of course, with an expert like you, we're more than happy to join."
So the three set out together to search for the tunnel, and Yang Han learned more about their backgrounds along the way.