Chapter 19: Drifting on an Underground River

  People in a narrow space will produce an unconscious sense of oppression, especially in dark and narrow spaces. This is the psychological effect at work. Like Liu Yi and his team entering this cave, not only was it dark, but the top of the cave was less than half a meter from the horizontal surface, and occasionally stalactites protruded from above, requiring everyone to bow their heads and sit in the boat to move forward smoothly.

  This feeling is like a person struggling hard, but the road ahead is dark and uncertain, producing a kind of oppressive feeling that is similar to having an idea in their heart, which is to leave this dark place as soon as possible and arrive at a bright place, arriving at a wide and endless road.

  People like Lu Zonghan who have been cooped up in the underground palace for years have also developed feelings, which is a bad omen.

  "He said: 'I think there must be something strange in this cave!'"

  His words once again lifted everyone's heart to their throat.

  Malacca sat at the stern of the boat, holding a knife in his left hand and a gun in his right hand, swinging a miner's lamp on his head back and forth, as if observing whether there were any monsters nearby.

  Liu Yi looked at the Tibetan antelope Xiao Ke, who was lying quietly on the bow of the boat, and said thoughtfully to everyone: "Xiao Ke is so quiet, which proves that there is no danger for the time being. As for what's inside, I don't know yet. Maybe Xiao Ke will give us a warning!"

  Everyone who heard Liu Yi's words felt that they made sense. In the long process of animal evolution, they are closer to nature than humans. Their sixth sense is often more accurate than humans and can perceive potential dangers in nature earlier.

  It can be said that animals are the true children of nature, while humans have been destined to be abandoned by nature since they left the forest - lonely and orphaned.

  "The Tsang Hai smiles, waves surge on both shores..."

  Malacca let out a loud "Hahaha", startling everyone. The broken gong-like voice that came out of his mouth was unbearable to listen to. All the members, except for Professor Zhou Tao, let out a disdainful "hiss".

  Liu Yi said with a smile: "You're shouting so loudly by the river, don't be too loud!"

  Malacca ignored the ridicule of others and continued to shout, the oppressive atmosphere eased a lot. In his shouting, the wooden boat had moved forward for a distance, Liu Yi and Professor Zhou Tao at the bow, except for occasionally holding the paddle to adjust the wooden boat that was brought by the current, were silently looking ahead.

  They remained vigilant at all times, in case some unknown creature appeared, and who knows what kind of aquatic monster might be lurking in this underground dark river. The searchlight on the bow of the boat illuminated this narrow, less than five-meter-wide, but unknown-length dark river.

  The dark river is like the devil's dark mouth, quietly waiting to swallow those who enter.

  The water flowed neither fast nor slow, and the crowd didn't seem to be in a hurry either. Everyone was silent, lost in their own thoughts as they moved through the dark, narrow space. Time seemed to have stopped for them, and they had no idea how long they'd been walking when suddenly a sharp turn appeared on the right front side. Liu Yi quickly adjusted the boat's direction, barely avoiding the danger of collision.

  Unexpectedly, after turning this bend, the dark cave became a slanted shape. Not long after, another left turn appeared, and soon after that, another right turn.

  "I know, it's an 'S' curve!" Malacca said with a pleased expression.

  Young Kexi gave him a disdainful look with an 'I-knew-it-all-along' expression and said, "I once heard my father say that after passing the bend, it will become very spacious and the waterway will be easy to walk!"

  Malacca awkwardly touched his head and suddenly shouted: "There is light ahead."

  No one responded to him, for everyone had discovered the light in front of them and were staring with wide eyes. All that could be seen was that at the end of the S-shaped dark passageway, under the surface of the water, countless points of light were moving about.

  The youth Korkyxe, sitting in the middle of the boat, suddenly knelt down: "Messenger of the Holy Mother, protect us as we cross the dark cave..."

  Liu Yi heard this and turned his head in surprise, asking: "Do you know where this light comes from?"

  "My father said that they were the messengers of the Sun Goddess who stayed in the world to investigate good and evil, with the body of a fish but able to emit yellow light."

  Liu Yi listened and didn't think so, thinking to himself: "I'm afraid the ancient Qiang people called everything in this world that shines brightly and gives off heat a messenger of the Sun Goddess."

  "It should be a lanternfish!"

  The knowledgeable Lu Zonghan nodded in agreement on the side: "Exactly!"

  Before long, the wooden boat emerged from the S-shaped tunnel. The moment they exited the tunnel, the oppressive feeling in everyone's heart disappeared, and they entered an even more spacious giant tunnel.

  Underwater glows, dotted in the dark water, bright and pleasant to look at, like a static ink painting. This scene is just as beautiful as when people lift their heads on a pitch-black night to gaze at the dense stars in the dark sky.

  "How beautiful!" Ma Liu Ka exclaimed in admiration.

  It wasn't strange for Liu Yi to see glowing fish, as his family's aquarium had several artificially bred ones, but this was the first time he saw naturally grown ones. He vaguely saw that the glowing fish at the bottom of the water were about the size of a mullet.

  Lu Zonghan was extremely curious: "Glowing fish are generally more common in the deep sea, and very rare in freshwater! Such naturally grown glowing fish have great research value!" He had a mind to catch one up to take a look, but unfortunately, Korksi was warning everyone with a fierce gaze: "I don't care about glowing fish or not, you mustn't disturb the Mother's messenger at rest, otherwise there will be consequences!"

  The glowing fish swam happily underwater, and the little Tibetan antelope suddenly stood up and bleated "meh, meh" twice, looking extremely excited, as if it had seen an old friend.

  After the little Tibetan antelope's cry, the fish in the water seemed to be responding to it, forming a strange pattern. Upon closer inspection, it indeed looked like an irregular small sun.

  The little antelope saw the fish underwater and responded, extremely excited, jumping twice on the boat. Just as everyone was amazed at the strange phenomenon of "sheep and fish" communicating with each other, the glowing pattern composed of glowing fish suddenly went out. Moreover, all the glowing fish around the water turned off their own lights, and the water below was instantly pitch black.

  In fact, this is a kind of luminous fish similar to the light-eye bream, with a layer of black membrane in its body. When the membrane opens, it shines brightly; when it closes, the light disappears. Generally speaking, when the luminous fish turns off its own light, it must have sensed danger.

  "When the light disappears, the devil will arrive..." The young Korky muttered to himself, since he knew that he would undertake the mission of continuing the village of Coco in the future, he has grown up a lot and suddenly realized a lot, gradually becoming a bit mysterious, really like a great wizard.

  Liu Wei said: "Kekesi is right, the glowing fish closing their own light organs is definitely not a good omen. Everyone should be on guard and beware of unknown aquatic creatures!"

  Xiao Ke also seemed to have sensed the arrival of danger, "meh, meh" called out twice, and lay down. As soon as its cry fell, everyone heard a burst of "gurgling, gurgling..." water sounds coming from near one side of the stone wall.

  Liu Yi held up his flashlight and shone it towards the source of the sound, only to see a "human face" floating on the surface of the water. He suddenly let out a startled cry: "Water ghost!"

  As soon as the words fell, the Malacca in his hand, with a tacit understanding, shot out flames from his 54 pistol, and bullets "pang, pang, pang" shot towards the water surface, it is unknown whether they hit or not, but at the sound of the gun, the "face" sank down and disappeared without a trace.

  Malacca had never seen a "ghost" before, and now that he saw one, he wasn't afraid at all, but instead became extremely excited, holding his gun and shouting loudly: "Did you guys see? There really is a water ghost! That's Old Zhang's face, I reckon he's been dead for a long time!"

  Lu Zonghan looked at him with the same gaze as a neurologist, raised his thumb and said: "I've seen people who have been scared to death by ghosts, but I've never seen anyone who is so excited to see a ghost. You're the first one, you're a real man!"

  Liu Yi stood up during their conversation, like a highly vigilant wolf, holding a flashlight to check around, and that "water ghost" didn't know whether it was scared away by the gunshot or what happened, but it didn't appear again.

  Korksi muttered to himself, probably reciting some kind of incantation to ward off evil spirits.

  Professor Zhou Tao was an atheist and didn't believe in the existence of water ghosts, but when that "human face" floated on the surface of the water, he took a glance under the lamplight, and it was indeed a vivid "old man's face". He thought to himself: "Could it be that there really are ghosts in this world?"

  The boat drifted slowly forward, and everyone was on high alert, holding their weapons and looking around to prevent the "water ghost" from appearing again.

  After moving forward for about five minutes, Liu Yi suddenly felt that the hull was shaking slightly. The feeling was as if there was something under the ship, generally pushing against the bottom of the boat. He said: "Do you feel it? The boat is moving!"

  "The boat will drift on the water and move naturally!" said Malacca.

  "No, there's someone under the boat!" Lu Zonghan also felt something was off.

  Then he bent down and shone his flashlight into the water, but the light was reflected off the surface and it was too deep to see anything at the bottom. All he saw were a few dark shadows flashing by quickly.

  Just then, a stirring sound of "gurgling, splashing" came from under the bottom of the boat. The wooden boat seemed to be surrounded and pressed by countless things, and after a pause, it actually stopped.

  ……

  Liu Yi followed Tai Shan Xuan Yun Dao Zhang, not only learning his boxing, swordsmanship, and light body techniques, but also learning the skills of driving out ghosts with talismans. Since he didn't believe in that stuff, he wasn't very diligent about it, and didn't even learn Xuan Yun Dao Zhang's nine-cow-one-hair technique. Fortunately, he had some talismans that Xuan Yun Dao Zhang had given him earlier, so he quickly pulled out a ghost-driving talisman and slapped it onto the side of the boat with a "slap". In his haste, he came up with a self-made slogan: "The Great Lord has arrived, all ghosts retreat, hurry up like a law enforcement order!"

  "Come out if you dare, thief!" Malacca Ah Si brandished his curved knife and stabbed it into the water, only to hear his own "heh heh, ha heh" sounds of self-entertainment as he inserted the knife.

  A loud "bang" sounded as a gunshot rang out, and a flare shot obliquely towards the far end of the cave roof, only to be bounced back by the wall and fall onto the water's surface.

  Lu Zonghan was itchy from being teased by this water ghost and urgently wanted to see what this thing was, so he fired a flare.

  In an instant, more than half of the space in the entire stone cave became bright and shining.

  They suddenly found a vast expanse of "human faces" on the surface of the water!

  "Ah! We're surrounded by water ghosts!" Liu Yi exclaimed.