Chapter 32: Towards the Bottom of the Sea

  I simply sat on the ground and refused to get up, just like a child who has just learned to walk and falls down but doesn't get back up. I deliberately stuck to the ground, you're not going to knock me down, am I? I'll just sit here and not move, see how you can knock me down.

  It's also a manifestation of my negative psychology, with so many things happening at once, after this fall I wanted to vent out all the resentment in my heart, I really wanted to cry loudly, maybe since school days I haven't truly cried like that before, this time I really felt like crying, in this unknown depth underground, endless darkness, I wanted to cry it out.

  But the road still needs to be walked, I don't want to know anything, I just want things to go back to normal, back to the scene of us three eating and drinking in the tavern, back to the scene of us walking on the road and playing around, what tomb, what treasure, what adventure, it's all too far away for an ordinary person like me, now I just want to go home.

  After being disappointed, I still fumbled to install the battery into the flashlight. My eyes had already adapted to the darkness, and at this moment, I could see without using the flashlight, although it was a bit blurry. To save some power, I continued to move forward in the dark.

  This was a narrow passageway, just like it hadn't closed up after an earthquake. I unconsciously turned my head back and saw the hole where I had fallen through, faintly revealing some carved Buddha statues.

  Following the water flow, I continued to move forward. The path became narrower and narrower, until I had to squeeze through sideways. This made me complain about my figure a bit, but what's the use? Now it's too late to turn back, so I gritted my teeth and kept going. Using my last bit of strength, I squeezed out of that narrow road and stumbled forward, falling into another pool of water. Fortunately, it wasn't very deep. With some effort, I stood up, finding myself in waist-deep water. I thought this must be where the underground water flow converged. Looking around, I saw a wide open space, which was probably once a large reservoir. The sunken tower had blocked the water flow, causing the area to slowly dry up over time.

  I turned on the flashlight, wanting to see if there was another way out, but my mind kept thinking about what that mysterious person had said. Pengpeng and the coffin had gone down to the next level, but I had already left the tower and come to a completely unrelated place. How could I get down from the sixth floor of that tower now? This was just a hole formed by the movement of the earth's crust, there wouldn't be any other mechanism. Was I supposed to go back the way I came, and look for it in the place where I had fallen earlier?

  As I was hesitating, I suddenly heard a noise coming from underwater. Could it be that I had disturbed the monster in this pool? Thinking about how it had been trapped here for hundreds of years, starving, and now it's going to make a meal out of me! I quickly swam towards the only passage, no matter what, I had to save my life. Who knew that the more anxious I was, the more accidents happened? I climbed onto the shore and crawled back into that narrow slit, possibly because I had been soaked in water for too long, I got stuck inside, unable to move forward or backward, with half of my body still exposed outside. The noise in the water grew louder and louder, so I closed my eyes and remained motionless, pretending to be a stone.

  "Can't take it, that place is too far away, can't even swim there."

  It was actually a human voice, and it sounded very familiar, it was Pengpeng.

  "Who made you not exercise usually, your lung capacity is small, blame who?" This is undoubtedly a coffin.

  "That's not the problem, the key is that we can't get rid of the thing inside. My dagger is still stuck in and hasn't been pulled out yet, what a pity for my treasure."

  "What's so good about that crappy thing? When you're done with it, I'll get the organization to assign a new one for you."

  "What's to be done now? To get to the sixth floor, we have to cross this waterway. We can't just go back and dig downwards, or it'll take till the year of the monkey."

  "Take a deep breath first, then make a loud noise and scare it away next time. I have some food here, throw it over to distract it."

  They said that in order to reach the sixth floor, they had to dive from here and swim across. The water must have a secret passage, and there must be a terrifying monster waiting for them inside the passage, which is why they were delayed. I wanted to call out to them, but then I thought of the scene from before, so I remained silent and just watched what would happen next.

  At this time, many bubbles emerged from the water surface, as if the water was about to boil.

  "It's gone after us!" Coffin shouted first.

  "Hurry up, let's retreat to the other side of the tower, where we're in charge on the water."

  Two people swam towards me at the same time, I thought it was over for me. They saw that I had blocked their only escape route and didn't know if they would go crazy or not. Just as they were about to reach me, they suddenly sank underwater.