Moon’s Nineteenth Misfortune (1)

As Aquila stumbled along the ground, suddenly on one step, an intricate and large blue magic circle inexplicably spiraled out from under her foot. The strange shapes and symbols making up the magic circle glowed, pulsing with energy.

Seeing the magic circle, the man that was directly behind her felt a sense of foreboding, but he was too late to do anything.

The magic circle opened up a bright blue portal under Aquila and sucked her into it before closing and disappearing into thin air.

The man who had his arms stretched out towards the girl preparing to yank her over to him lost his balanced and stumbled. His face darkened, more ominous than the night sky. He couldn't believe the girl had gotten away from him yet again.

"You piece of sh**!" The man cursed aloud. He was extremely frustrated at the moment. Up till now, he had always taken stealth missions; the kind where he sneaks up on his unsuspecting or unprepared prey and accomplishes the mission easily. This was his first time having a mission where wild goose chasing was required, and he hated it, especially when the one he was chasing was as slippery as an eel.

Meanwhile, Aquila who had fallen through the portal had landed on the ground of a natural underground cave. While landing, she had knocked her head against the ground and fell unconscious.

Someone who was walking by at the moment happened to see her unconscious body.

"Tsk." Clucking his tongue, the man lifted a leg and kicked her body into a corner. Call him rude, but in his opinion, this was the nicest thing he could do for a stranger. Others might have even stepped on her, breaking her bones in the process.

Without giving the girl a second glance, the man walked over to where a group of cultivators were chatting with each other.

***

Aquila was knocked unconscious for two days, meaning she was physically healed up already, but still needed six more days before her mental energy was restored.

Blinking her blank eyes, Aquila slowly got up from the ground. Looking around with her dull eyes, she started walking around the place.

The underground cavern was rather empty of people, with only a few groups of cultivators and several lone cultivators scattered around the huge place.

After walking around aimlessly for a while, she sat down in a secluded corner and closed her empty eyes. She was going to sleep, which would also allow her mental energy to restore itself quicker.

A couple days passed, and Aquila was still sitting motionlessly in her spot. On the other hand, the underground cavern was getting populated with more and more people. Strangely, even though there were tons of people coming in, the cave was not getting crowded whatsoever.

It was only after the sixth day did Aquila finally open her eyes. Looking around blankly, she had no reaction seeing herself surrounded by people.

Opening her mouth slightly, a breath of air escaped from between her lips.

Just then, a pained cry resounded through the cavern. Multiple pairs of eyes turned towards the girl sitting on the floor who had her head buried under her arms. As she looked up, the people close to her could see her dull silver eyes flashing with a bright blue light. Soon after, the bright blue light faded away, and in its place were a pair of shining silver eyes that screamed, "Don't bother me, I'm not in the mood."

Most people weren't interested in this random girl, and the ones that were curious were dispirited after feeling her icy gaze.

But immediately after, her eyes flashed once more, a dull and blank gaze taking over.

The reason her mind blanked out again was because this sudden blast of strong Superlunary energy in her surroundings was too much for her to bear. Indeed, this cavern filled with crystals as well as crystallized stalactites and stalagmites had abundant energy flowing within.

Just then, a spectacle in the cavern took the focus off her. The ground everyone was standing on suddenly shifted, jerking to all sides as the cavern enlarged itself once again. In the center where a space had opened up revealed a large and deep glittering blue sea. This sea was many times larger than the land surrounding it.

As soon as this sea appeared, every person in this cavern jumped into the sea excitedly.

Even the soulless Aquila was attracted by that sea. Slowly walking towards it, she was the last person still on land. As soon as she approached it, she fell into the sea.

Jerked awake by the even more abundant energy in this sea, Aquila's eyes flashed once more. Blinking several times in succession, Aquila's gaze finally stabilized. Surprised to realize that she was in the water, she started swimming towards the surface.

Breaking her head up above the surface, Aquila looked around at the enormous but completely empty cavern around her. What surprised her was the large abundance of Superlunary energy condensed in this sea, even so much that the energy spread to the cavern.

'Well... I don't know what exactly happened, but since I'm here in this natural energy spring... I might as well use this opportunity.' She thought to herself happily.

Diving down, she blinked several more times to adjust to the water. When her sight cleared, she saw hundreds upon hundreds of people diving down deeper. Some were cultivating in the waters, while others were diving deeper and deeper. The Crystal blue water seemed to be beckoning her to go deeper.

'Hmm, I wonder how long I can last underwater? Well... I can use energy to circulate air through my body so I should be able to last quite a while...' Thinking this, Aquila dived down deeper into this small ocean.

There were many caverns inside this sea, but even so, all the ones she swam past had dozens of people in them. The deeper she went, the fewer people there were. Realizing that the pressure was getting greater, she swam over to a small cave to the side of the small sea that was closest to her to take a rest. Swimming inside, she realized that there was a type of magical air bubble when she entered the underwater cave and could breathe.

"Eh..." Aquila muttered to herself quietly the moment she entered the air bubble, flipping through the air to land on her bare feet softly. Under her feet right where she stood were three words engraved onto the surface of the white rock, 'Moon's Nineteenth Misfortune'. Looking around, she saw close to a dozen people sitting around cultivating while one person was staring at her warily.