“Woahhhhhh…”

Zhang Dong could feel his body being tossed around through this space like a pinball. He could not imagine anyone else surviving this treatment or at least not anyone that wasn’t prepared for it. Perhaps there was a way of traveling in a normal fashion but after he triggered the blizzard it might have become inaccessible to him.

‘Bob, are you sure this is safe?’

‘Affirmative, we will be reaching the exit in 3… 2… 1…’

His Ai partner informed him about the safety of this dimensional tunnel so he decided to take the plunge. After the countdown was finally over he could see something at the end of this strange tunnel. Soon he was able to stop holding his breath as his body appeared outside, in an area with increased temperature.

“Where did I end up now? Bob, be sure to inform me if there are any more beasts nearby.”

Zhang Dong popped out in the middle of the ground and had to stop himself from being thrown up into the air. The first thing he noticed was the heat, it was a stark contrast to the desolate lands filled with snow that he came from.

“About thirty degrees I would say? A good temperature to take a dip… and it seems that someone has already decided to do so…”

To his surprise, he could quickly feel the presence of living beings. There was no way of seeing these beings with his own eyes but they were certainly not human. Previously he had analyzed the underwater creatures that plagued their lands and these were similar in nature. Their Qi was a lot purer than what he was used to, even the generals that were at the pinnacle of power didn’t have this pure.

‘Considering that all of that army was made out of clones, could these be the original denizens from the Cerulean Empire?’

This was one of the theories floating around his head yet for a place that should belong to the royal family, it wasn’t very well protected. The spiritual energy coming from these creatures was quite low, they were around the level of core formation experts at the early stage. Even his old self that just arrived into this world would be able to handle them in combat.

‘Their strength won’t be a problem, but those two energies with them…’

To his surprise, the creatures that were there weren’t alone. He could feel a familiar presence. It was only two people but they were of the nascent soul variety. For some reason, they were surrounded by the being there. It didn’t seem that they were injured or anything but it was very suspicious that they would just be sitting there with the enemy.

‘Could they be under some type of spell? or could these people be non-violent or something?’

Zhang Dong really hoped that his somewhat calm way of approaching things rubbed of on his sect members. Yet this scene that was unfolding before him was kind of strange. Considering that the last place he came from turned into a death trap of ice, it could be possible that his companions were being duped. Perhaps this time around he would be able to use his Dao of darkness to erase his presence.

Thanks to it he could sink into all the shadows that the strange trees here were producing. It was a strange movement technique that allowed him to approach without making a sound. Thus he quickly departed towards the area that had his sect members and potential brain-sucking monsters. Perhaps the nascent soul masters that were there would be under their control, so he had to prepare for a fight with them. Subduing them could be tricky as one of the people there was quite strong.

“...”

‘What the hell are those two doing there?’

Finally, he was there, hiding in the shadows as an inconspicuous blur. What he saw when he arrived at the spot was truly baffling. The two energy signatures that he recognized belonged to Zhang Jin and Huo Qiang. The latter posed an actual threat if he engaged in a proper battle so he wanted to make sure that there wasn’t any trickery here. Yet, instead of someone being controlled by some demonic spells, the two seemed to be having a swell old time.

“No~”

“Come here, he he he, I’m going to get ya~”

“Pervert!~”

“Yes, guilty as charged!”

On one side he could see his grandfather slowly chasing after one of the beings that he previously felt. This person looked like a beautiful woman from the waist up but had a large fishtail instead of legs. It was a beautiful mermaid, like in the stories that he read. She even had a bra made out of seashells like that famous one with red hair he still remembered. At this time, she was being very playful with his grandfather who had a very perverted look on his face.

When he glanced to the other side he saw Huo Qiang partially submerged in water as well. He was resting his hands on the edge with one mermaid on each side resting on them. There was a certain grin covering his face as he was trying to take a peek at the large peaks that these two fishy women had. It seemed that these two were enamored with these lovely ladies, considering that these two were horn balls by default he was not sure if they were actually under any mind-affecting technique.

‘I can’t throw out that possibility yet…’

Zhang Dong knew that he couldn’t be hasty. Even though he wanted to just jump in there and give the two idiots a good smack on the head, he couldn’t. It was possible that something down in that environment was making them act like this. It could be the mermaids themselves but could also be the food they were eating or even the water they were in.

All of them were gathered in what looked to be a lake. The water was really clear and some other mermaids were seen in the deeper parts just having some fun with the other fish. It was some kind of tropical setting, the trees were somewhat similar to palm trees. It had some strange pink-looking fruits on them that Huo Qiang seemed to be munching on.

It was quite bright outside and the light source over them looked quite real. He remembered the moment that he flew up to the other one in the other pocket dimension. There was a possibility that he would trigger another ice age if he flew up there again or that it could be triggered by his interaction with the natives.

First of all he needed to identify the fruits. After sinking back into the shadows he arrived at one of these trees with the fruit already on the ground. Thanks to it being surrounded by shade it was easy enough for him to pull it right in. Bob was initiated to give it an assessment and just as he thought there was something in this food.

‘So, it’s something like an aphrodisiac?’

‘Affirmative.’

‘How did those goofballs end up eating these…’

By the look of it, the fruit was a potent drug even nascent soul masters weren’t safe from it. Yet the preliminary analysis told him that it shouldn’t be enough to make them lose their mind and just take a dip with the enemy troops. Next he approached one of the mermaids that had decided to sunbathe a bit. With a little poke to her forehead he sent her into a deep slumber and quickly made the second test.

‘So… their vocal cords have some type of hallucinogenic effect that could work in conjunction with that aphrodisiac?’

‘Affirmative.’

Bob answered him again while he moved away from the sleeping mermaid. After analyzing some other things, like the water in the lake he came to one conclusion. All of the things here were tailor made to take out these two idiots. They would only work on people that couldn’t keep it inside of their pants for too long. The small amount of substances here should normally not be able to force a nascent soul master to act this way. There was only one reason that it actually was, the two must have wanted it to happen.

This didn’t make any sense otherwise, why would they have fallen into such an obvious trap. Even though some of the mermaids were producing a very sensual tune it wasn’t hard to block out. It was as if the two arrived in this place and allowed themselves to be enticed by these beauties just so that they could have some fun with them. Perhaps if it was any other person he wouldn’t believe it but considering that these two had harems of women everywhere, this was quite plausible.

‘The possibility of a hidden expert doing this to them isn’t very high…’

Bob confirmed all of his claims as the two weren’t showing the telltale signs of being coerced. Normally their eyes would be a lot more droopy and the way they moved would be impaired by something. On the other hand, the two looked quite chipper; they were probably just trying to get something out of these encounters. It was probably them that were trying to coerce these mermaids into some naughty acts and not the other way around.

‘Uh… are they playing stupid and hoping that they would commit to something more?’

Zhang Dong frowned while stepping out of the shadows. He was standing directly over Huo Qiang who was trying to peel off one of the mermaid's shells from her chest. Before anything could happen his large fist connected with the man’s head. The force from the impact plunged him directly into the ground while causing water to splash everywhere.

“What the hell are you two idiots even doing? Get ahold of yourself!”

“D-Dong’er is that you?”

“Don’t you Dong’er me you old fart, stop chasing that mermaid already!”

He started shaking his Qi-covered fist at his grandfather that was close to two hundred years older than he was. The moment he appeared on the scene the mermaids that were gathered here started scattering to the sides out of fright. They quickly dove into the lake and headed to some underwater tunnels that it was connected to. It seemed that there was a large web of those underground.

These Zhang Dong had somewhat investigated with his spiritual sense and there was a possibility of them leading to their next destination. However, before he attempted to get through this pocket dimension he needed to get some information out of these two bozos. They were clearly inside the golden palace before they were swallowed by the large anglerfish, he needed to know how they ended up here.