Liming

Huanghu has been underwater for a long time before she was s.u.c.k.e.d into the vortex. So when she was vacuumed into that darkness, coupled with shortage of air and shock, she had lost her consciousness.

In contrast to what Huanghu expected, she did not fall from the skies like what happened when she first came to this world. Instead, she was still underwater. But this time, the water is no longer red but black, and the river is no longer a river but another lake in an underground cave. The water is so dark that it looked like this lake is the main producer of all the world's ink.

Right above the black lake, there was a pair of huge golden eyes staring down. These eyes are so ferocious that it doesn't belong to a human.

The creature moved a little and a huge stalactite fell down to the lake. Splaaash!

"A human?", he said in a penetrating voice. His eyes glowed in interest.

His claws released the grip he has on the cave's ceiling. He majestically flapped his wings to turn himself upside down to land beside the lake.

A humongous dragon!

The dragon then released a concentrated wind that is directed towards Huanghu who was still underwater.

Surprisingly this fearsome-looking dragon's wind is not aimed to hurt Huanghu but it was gently pulling her to shore.

Once her unconscious body was ashore, the dragon stared at her and said, "Hmm. Not bad human, you actually restricted a demon fire. Hahaha!"

The cave shook and countless stalactites fell from the ceiling to the surroundings as the dragon laughed his heart out.

"This world is not as bad as I thought it would be."

---

Back in the academy, Great Elder Feng wore a grim expression. He was staring at an empty box in a secret room on his office.

His office is located at the third floor of the academy's library. As one of the most prestigious academy in Fu Yang Continent, even as a "rookie", the amount of books collected by the Council goes up to hundreds of thousands.

Most of the books here can actually be seen on low to high-end bookstores, but even though, for poor students who didn't have resources or connections, this place is a heaven for them.

Then, there are some books that are a little harder to obtain because they came from prominent families that either gave them as presents to curry favor and to make connections or were given as payment for some work the Council did for them.

Other than these books, there are a few exclusive books that are only accessible by the Great Elders, protectors and direct disciples. These books were mostly obtained from expeditions or were written by the Great Elders themselves. They are considered priceless in this continent.

This library has so many things from regular books about hunting, cooking and how to play the zither, to records of current officials, to the countries laws, to cultivation, and even some information about the other continents that they only hear from bedtime stories.

"Long An!", Great Elder Feng called.

"Here!", a man in black answered. This man is wearing the same uniform as the protectors but he never appeared in public.

"Dispose all of the guards stationed within 100 meters and get the list of the students who visited the library after I left this room.", Great Elder Feng ordered.

"Yes!"

As a protector under Great Elder Feng, Protector Long An knew how things worked for his master. Once he orders something, you shouldn't ask why. Just do it.

The fingers he have are not enough to count all those protectors who mysteriously disappeared after they questioned the orders of this Great Elder.

If you ask him, he would rather die doing what he was asked than to be 'taken care of' by this monster.

He remembered when he was young and ambitious. He greatly wanted to catch Great Elder Feng's attention and be his direct disciple. He was a promising talent who is always on top ten but unfortunately he wasn't good enough for Great Elder Feng's standards.

Young Long An was devastated and wanted to leave the academy after his second year but to his surprise, that year the Council announced that they are going to hire what they call 'Protectors'.

He decided then that he will take that examination no matter how hard it is as long as he can follow his idol Great Elder Feng, as long as he can learn a thing or two from time to time from this master.

In the end, his efforts paid off and he got hired after he graduated from the academy. But it was the start of his hellish nightmares.

Out of the five protectors who got hired the same year as him who are under Great Elder Feng, he is the only one left. And every year, another five will join the ranks but slowly and surely they all disappear. Just imagine, there should be at least more than seventy protectors alone under Great elder Feng since they started hiring fifteen years ago, but including him, there are only four of them left.

This proves how Protector Long An knows how to live smart.