Chapter 332: Mountain Belly |
"Right here." The fish-man chieftain held the stone slab in his hand, comparing it repeatedly before finally confirming the location of the cave.
Qin Ziwen and the others were positioned at the summit of the middle section of this undersea mountain range. At their feet was a large hole, a full five meters in diameter.
"No mistake, the location written on it is exactly this place." The fish-man chieftain, holding the stone slab, circled the area before ultimately confirming the large hole beneath their feet.
"Are we going down from here?" Qin Ziwen crouched down, reaching his hand into the hole. The large hole at his feet, like the other caves around it, was pitch black. In this already dim seabed, inside was complete darkness where you couldn't see your own hand.
After confirming once more, the fish-man chieftain jumped down without hesitation.
Qin Ziwen didn't even have time to make a gesture to stop him before the fish-man chieftain had already dropped into the pit.
A long while later, a voice came from deep within the cave. "Qin, it's very safe down here."
Qin Ziwen rolled his eyes. Was this kind of terrain something you could just casually drop straight into? Couldn't he have checked it a few more times first? What if it was wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, trapping someone inside?
Mogu glanced at Qin Ziwen. "Master, I'll go first."
Mogu's physique was burly. Fortunately, the width of this cave wasn't low either. Tucking in his arms, he slowly sank down.
As the two fish-men beside him descended into the water, the gloomy seabed was left with only Qin Ziwen.
The only sound in his ears was the rushing of the deep-sea currents scouring the mountain range.
From a cave behind him, a slender black shadow slowly extended outward. It seemed to have detected Qin Ziwen not far away. After lying in wait and observing its surroundings, it slowly approached from behind him.
Suddenly, it launched a fierce attack from behind.
Qin Ziwen, with his back to it, swayed his body as if he had eyes on the back of his head. Dodging in the instant, he reached out with his fingers to grab his assailant.
His slender fingers dug into its body, but the slippery, elastic skin slid past his fingertips.
The ferocious eel twisted its head, opening its maw full of tusks to bite at Qin Ziwen's head.
"CRUNCH!!!"
The water flow shattered. The eel's head went blank, dizzy from the punch that hit it square in the face.
"Pfft!"
Taking advantage of its dazed state, Qin Ziwen used his foot to hook the nearby long spear. With one thrust, he stabbed the spear into the eel's head, directly skewering this over-four-meter-long tiger-striped giant moray eel on the spearhead.
He had sensed its approach earlier through the changes in the water flow. The species within the caves of this undersea mountain range were quite abundant. Besides numerous fish with bizarre and strange appearances, there were also many sea snakes and moray eels.
These caves were most suitable for them to hide in.
To prevent attracting more sea beasts, Qin Ziwen pulled out the long spear and threw the corpse far away.
The eel slowly sank and fell to the seabed, blood from its wound slowly diffusing outward.
At the same time, in the distant seawater, a massive black shadow was slowly swimming. Suddenly, it seemed to sense something and changed direction.
After the earlier little episode, no other sea beasts came to harass them for the time being.
Qin Ziwen took another Deep Sea Oxygen from his pocket and placed it in his mouth.
Feeling the continuous supply of oxygen coming from his lungs, Qin Ziwen thought one advantage Deep Sea Oxygen had over Hundred Jade Coral was that he didn't have to keep something in his mouth all the time. This way, his mouth wasn't as sore, and he could still open it to speak.
Although speaking underwater made sounds become blurry and distorted, Mogu wasn't an ordinary person. His senses were acute, and his hearing far surpassed that of a normal human.
Movement suddenly came from the cave at his feet. A water current carrying a massive black shadow rapidly ascended.
Mogu's head emerged. "Master, you can come down. This path is very safe and leads directly to the mountain's interior."
With Mogu having scouted the path, Qin Ziwen finally felt reassured.
Following Mogu into the cave, after descending less than a meter, all light from the surroundings was completely swallowed up. It was pitch black, unable to see one's own hand, plunging into utter darkness.
Fortunately, he could still perceive air currents.
As he and Mogu continued to descend, the surrounding seawater surged, flowing past the walls. In his perception, it formed a vague trajectory.
After several minutes, his feet touched solid ground.
A faint glow appeared before his eyes. The fish-man chieftain held a luminous pearl in his hands, illuminating the surrounding scenery.
After Qin Ziwen got a clear look at his surroundings, his pupils involuntarily contracted.
The environment here was too spectacular.
Deep within the mountain range, there was actually a massive cave extending forward and backward, leading to both sides, as if a tunnel had been excavated inside the mountain wall.
The inner walls of the cave were covered with many uneven patterns, the patterns quite regular.
The air was permeated with a scent of decay and fishy stench.
Qin Ziwen looked at the cave wall beside him, reaching out a finger to rub against the fibrous-textured stone wall. It was very hard, yet it didn't feel like pure stone.
These textures were not chaotic and disorderly but arranged in a pattern he couldn't comprehend.
On the surrounding rock walls, at regular intervals, there were several holes, their destinations unknown.
The fish-man chieftain took another luminous pearl from his bosom, placed it on the ground, then floated up and used a small knife to carve marks on the surrounding walls.
"We'll go that way." The fish-man chieftain pointed behind him.
Qin Ziwen and the others followed behind.
He had originally thought there wouldn't be many creatures inside the mountain's interior, but he soon realized he was wrong.
After traveling a distance, the inner wall of the mountain's interior ahead was densely covered, crawling with white worms.
These white worms were about the size of watermelons, snow-white all over, clinging to the interior wall.
Qin Ziwen cast Insight.
【Ordinary·Scavenger Worm: ☆☆☆☆☆】
Good news, this was just an ordinary deep-sea creature.
Bad news, there were far too many of them. At a glance, the interior wall ahead was completely covered by these things. Illuminated by the luminous pearl's light, these worms began to squirm uneasily. In that instant, it was as if the mountain wall had come to life, making Qin Ziwen's scalp tingle.
Moreover, these things had developed exceptionally well. Qin Ziwen cast Insight. Out of ten, seven or eight were five-star.
This indicated the environment here was very suitable for their survival.
The fish-man chieftain said, "The stone slab records that as long as you don't touch them, they won't attack living creatures."
Thus, the three of them floated in the water, slowly swimming forward through the middle of the mountain's interior.
Passing by their sides, Qin Ziwen heard dense rustling and scraping sounds.
As the saying goes, enough ants can kill an elephant, and these things were much larger than ants.
One scavenger worm was suddenly pushed aside by a companion, almost falling from the ceiling. Fortunately, its sharp mouthparts firmly bit into the surface above. Its abdomen was directly facing Qin Ziwen, its dense legs constantly squirming.
Qin Ziwen lowered his head, avoiding it.
This thing reminded him of...
These scavenger worms were very much like albino, tailless centipedes with legs grown twice as long.
After swimming for over half an hour, the surrounding scenery gradually changed. Finally, it was no longer densely packed scavenger worms.
It was only then they realized the cave walls ahead had widened considerably compared to the beginning. The reason they hadn't noticed earlier was partly due to the scavenger worms.
At this point, the width of the cave walls on both sides was roughly twice that of the section where they had descended.
Yet the environment here didn't seem entirely normal either. Embedded in the stone walls here were a large number of sac-like clumps of rock. Simultaneously, the number of holes had become more dense, and the width of the holes had also become much smaller, almost triggering Qin Ziwen's trypophobia.
Right at this moment, from a hollow space ahead, a familiar head slowly extended. It was precisely the Silver Bobbit Worm they had seen earlier on the mountain range's surface.
But the size of this Silver Bobbit Worm was almost the width of a normal adult man...