Death... and me

Eventually, Rean touched the floor of the lake and started to look around. The only problem was that the light inside wasn't very good. Well, in fact, even the light outside the water wasn't great either since they were inside a confined space. Naturally, the artificial methods to generate light outside could barely make their way to the bottom end of the lake.

Rean didn't seem to care, though. Suddenly, his own body began to shine as if he was a lamp himself. "I might not be able to bring Divine Energy outside, but I can still use it inside my body." He simply used the Light Element that was present in his body to brighten his skin. There wasn't much Light Element since he couldn't gather some from the surroundings, but that was enough to at least illuminate the things around him.

He couldn't help but say sometime later, 'Sister Orb, this water is a lot heavier than normal water.'

[Indeed. I can tell the same thing about the Divine Water Roan sent into the well here. It's at least five times heavier than normal water. However, I made a small test here. This water can be consumed just like any normal water, and it'll nourish the body the same way. The only difference is that you will have a hard time using Divine Energy until your body processes the water in your body. Other than that, there are no harmful side effects. It seems like it's only a bad thing for Divine Energy and nothing else.]

Because of the water's heaviness, the pressure over Rean's body was obviously many times higher than if he was inside normal water. Fortunately, Rean still had his Third Grade Star Body, so he didn't feel anything at all.

Rean walked around and found a few more things than just the bottom. First, there were no living beings inside the lake. Perhaps because of the heaviness of the water itself. Though, he did find many bones and a few dead bodies of common fish and low-level demon beasts. "These things are probably the transformed living things that got sent to this place as well. Because their cultivation level was too low or inexistent, they ended up dying due to the water pressure after the Divine Water transformed their bodies back to normal."

[You're probably right. If you look closely, you'll see that their bones seem to have been squashed while their bodies were flattened.] Sister Orb agreed with Rean there.

Rean walked on the bottom of the lake for over an hour, but he couldn't find anything at all. 'Sister Orb, this place is completely empty.'

[I believe it's not that it's empty, but that we can't find anything because of the water's Divine Energy dispersal effect.]

It was then that Rean got an idea. 'Dispersal effect... right! Why didn't I think of it earlier?'

Immediately after, Rean tried to release his Divine Energy from his body. Of course, the moment the Divine Energy touched the water, it dispersed straight away. He had sealed it in his body so that it wouldn't disperse, but now he wanted that to happen.

Naturally, that puzzled Sister Orb. [Why are you doing that?] She wasn't afraid of Rean dying or anything like that since the system was still open. Rean could simply enter the Dimensional Realm if he ran out of Divine Energy.

Rean didn't stop there. He couldn't access his spatial ring since it needed Divine Energy to work. However, the Dimensional Realm only needed the power of space as it had its own Divine Energy inside. With that hat said, Rean immediately brought out many Rank One Divine Stones and started to spread them around as he moved as fast as he could down there.

'Divine Energy dispersal will act on anything that has Divine Energy, right? In that case, it should also work on whatever is making the statues appear in this lake. The Divine Water is robbing the stones and myself of Divine Energy. However, it can't wipe it out instantly. It will take some time to do so. I'm using this method to see if I can find someplace in this lake where Divine Energy Dispersal will act differently. Perhaps it'll be slower or faster. In any case, that's the place I think to have a connection with the outside world.'

Sister Orb had to admit the idea wasn't that bad. Besides, they didn't have much choice at the moment. [Well, I can't tell if it'll work or not. However, since it's only Rank One Divine Stones, it's totally worth a shot. Still, do you think no one has tried this method before?]

Rean shrugged his shoulders in response. 'I don't think so. Did you forget? This is a sealed space from where no one has escaped from. We can't even tell whether this is a Dimensional Realm or not. Do you think people and demon beasts would waste their Divine Stones and Energy in such a way when they don't have access to more?'

[I see...] Sister Orb agreed with Rean. [Well, I'll keep an eye on the Divine Stones. Just try to spread them as fast as possible.]

Rean nodded and continued to spread the Divine Stones while leaking out his own Divine Energy slowly. That continued for twenty-two minutes when Sister Orb's voice suddenly called Rean's attention. [Wait! Over there!]

Rean immediately looked in the direction Sister Orb mentioned. It was a place he had just spread the Divine Stones a minute ago. Rean quickly approached the area and noticed the difference. The Divine Stone Energy was indeed being dispersed by the 'Divine Water.' However, some of that Divine Energy seemed to be gathering at a specific point before that happened. 'What is this thing?'

Rean looked up closely and approached his hand. Surprisingly, the Divine Energy coming out of his hand didn't disperse in that place. 'Is this the other end of the teleport, perhaps?' Rean wondered.