Chapter 39: The Hand in the Dark Water

  I blinked and suddenly realized I was actually hugging a boulder with all fours, suspended above the water surface!

  My goodness, I almost couldn't help but exclaim "Master!" at that moment! When I was about to die, he reacted so quickly and steadily held onto the rock without falling off, what a top-notch master!

  "How did you do it?" The evil bird was still in a daze for a long time, staring at me and asking.

  "Conditioned reflex!" I glared at him irritably and said: "What are you standing there for, come and save me quickly!"

  "That can be reflected back too!" The evil bird cawed with a gloating smile.

  "Get out!" Just now I hadn't noticed, but now that my head is clear, I feel like all my limbs have gone soft. Even now, I'm still shivering with cold. You know, beneath this black water there are some very strange things hidden! I couldn't help but take another look down, and unexpectedly it really was as if thinking about something made it happen - the surface of the water just below me began to churn and roll again. I could even clearly see many strands of black hair floating and entwining...

  Just as I was about to cry, the water surface suddenly churned even more violently. In an instant, it seemed like the last layer of thin membrane was pierced, and several black, hand-like clusters burst out from the dark water. If nothing unexpected happened, I would have been dragged down this time!

  I gazed at the sticky thing in despair, "Bang bang bang..." Several gunshots rang out, and those few "black hands" were instantly crushed, spewing out a cluster of black viscous liquid. Some even splattered onto my legs, and despite being separated by a layer of pants, I could still feel the bone-chilling coldness. I knew that this chill was largely psychological.

  "Hurry up and climb over, don't waste our bullets." Just at this unlucky moment, I heard the villainous bird's familiar voice coming from afar. Glaring at him with annoyance, I cursed: "You try climbing it yourself!" It's easy to talk big when standing safely on land, but I'm already extremely lucky not to have fallen into the dark water below, and yet he still wants me to climb over such a narrow rock path - what an absurd idea!

  Not to mention whether this stone is solid or not, just saying that it's hard enough for this thin shape to stably lie on top of it, if one accidentally loses balance and slides down, my life would be gone, so I strongly object.

  The wicked bird also gave me a glance, and then actually said to the godly hand with a face of schadenfreude: "Anyway, this kid is useless to us, bringing him along is just a trouble, since he won't come over we won't force him, let's continue on our way! It's wasted quite some time already!"

  The god-like figure seemed to be deep in thought as he glanced at me, and just as I was cursing their ancestors for eighteen generations, he spoke up: "Kong Quan, you go."

  I stared at him blankly, what, was he going to save me? As I watched Kong Qianyan jump onto the stone slab and walk towards me without saying a word, my heart felt both moved and terrified. The stone slab wasn't wide, really not wide, it was even slightly narrower than Kong Qianyan's foot, his balance was extremely good, but even though he walked steadily towards me, I watched with bated breath, this thought made me feel incredibly weak all of a sudden.

  But I won't really feel inferior because of this, because damn it, they're not ordinary people at all! They can be so carefree on such a dangerous black water, stepping on the wooden board as if it's nothing. I have no idea how they trained to do this, did they practice walking on thin air every day? Just as my brain was running wild with imagination, a foot suddenly stopped in front of me.

  I lifted my head and smiled at him, asking: "How are we going back?"

  It's not that I don't trust his strength, but this "single-plank bridge" that looks like it has a danger level of five stars can still hold the weight of two people for how much longer? Can he make it over by himself and bring me, someone with poor balance, back?

  Just as I looked at him in doubt, he suddenly saw his mouth slightly hooked, although the arc was not big, but I had a bad feeling in an instant. Sure enough, the next moment I saw him lean down and grab my collar with one hand, after a dizzying spin, I lost my balance, lost my center of gravity, and suddenly saw the crowd disperse, I hit the mountain wall in an instant, and then fell heavily...

  Although I knew he had a good grasp of the force, I was still hit with a dizziness and even lost my balance and rolled around in a circle before stopping. Before I could feel happy, an icy sensation spread from my ankle, because earlier to leave a mark, my right leg's long pants had become seven-inch pants, and at this moment I was truly feeling that unusual sensation...

  In an instant, I grabbed the nearest big foot with both hands, and the pulling force on my feet suddenly tightened. I slid back a bit, fortunately grabbing onto a leg, or else I would have been dragged down for sure. Then there were several more gunshots, and whatever was holding onto my feet disappeared.

  Under the gaze of everyone, I struggled to get up from the ground, only to see the vicious bird looking at me with disdain. After a moment's thought, I realized that the thing I had grabbed earlier must have been the bird's leg, no wonder I wasn't dragged away. It seems being heavy is also a good thing!

  Although I fell badly, I still thanked Kong and we continued to move forward, this time being extremely careful. This time it was Shen Shou who led the way in front of us, and we followed closely behind him, treading on the same path he had taken. It took a full half hour before the road ahead became wider, and the "slit of sky" above our heads disappeared. Ahead of us lay another stretch of darkness.

  In the pitch-black cave, there was only the faint light of a flashlight. It wasn't until then that I realized this was actually a natural limestone cave. The cave extended upwards, and the ground beneath my feet was uneven with rocks and potholes everywhere. Especially the temperature inside - even though I'm wearing a slightly thicker jacket, I couldn't help but shiver a few times.

  "Don't move!" The divine hand suddenly said in a flash of light.

  "What did you find?" the evil bird asked tensely.

  The godly hand didn't respond, but I saw him shining his flashlight forward, and when the light stopped moving, I saw a figure...

  Because it was quite far away, I could only see a black shadow. The human-shaped black shadow was motionless and stuck to the mountain wall at this moment. The surroundings became very quiet, and even the sound of dripping water inside the cave could be heard clearly. But this sound was more like a death knell, ticking away like the heartbeat of the mountain.

  "You, go take a look." The god's hand pushed me forward, an unquestionable command.

  "Why did I go!?" I asked indignantly.

  "What did you think I kept you for?" God Hand asked callously.

  Was keeping the little master just to let you guys test the thunder?! I glared at him with hatred, and reluctantly snatched the flashlight from his hand, ignoring the "tsk" sound in his mouth as he walked forward. Testing the thunder is also possible, at least not using my flashlight, although there are two flashlights in the bag, who would complain about having too many in such a dangerous cave?

  The flashlight's beam kept shining on that black figure, although I was terrified in my heart, but my footsteps didn't stop for a moment, at least I don't want to be looked down upon by others again.

  After walking a few meters forward, I finally saw the true appearance of that thing. I let out a sigh of relief and turned back to them with a smile: "Aren't you coming? Look how scared you are!"

  "Cut the crap." The evil bird yelled at me but didn't come over.

  I shrugged indifferently and no longer walked with the same caution as before, striding past them with large steps. It seemed they hadn't seen what that thing was after all. I secretly laughed to myself in my heart.

  It's indeed a human-shaped stone statue! I was gleefully shining my flashlight to observe this statue that's about the same height as me, and didn't think there was anything out of the ordinary. Maybe seeing that I'm fine, they started walking towards me, and I suddenly let out a shout, turned off the flashlight and sat down on the ground.