Chapter 20: Encountering an Aquatic Ghost

  The flare fell onto the distant water surface, 'hiss' went out, after a brief brightness, everyone's vision was plunged into temporary darkness. They only heard the sound of "gurgle, splash" constantly echoing, and the entire space became even more eerie!

  Suddenly, Ma Liya at the back of the boat let out an "ah" and fell off the wooden boat, followed by a loud splash.

  Liu Yi heard the sound of falling into the water, turned his head and shouted: "Who fell in!"

  Near Malacca, Lu Zhonghan stretched out his hand to grab Malacca, but the latter fell into the water and disappeared instantly, as if dragged down by something. He suddenly shouted: "Little Ma!"

  With the bow lights, they only saw splashes of water rising continuously. Lu Zonghan felt guilty for not catching Malacca and shouted: "What's it to you, water ghost or wild ghost? I'll tear you to pieces!", also jumped into the water.

  Liu Yi ran to the stern of the boat and saw Lu Zonghan struggling in the water, as if he was fighting some kind of monster. He wanted to go and help him, but unfortunately, he couldn't swim, so he stood at the stern of the boat, holding his knife anxiously.

  Liu Yi stood on the wooden boat, only to see one after another "human face" constantly emerging, surrounding and attacking towards Lu Zonghan. It was then that he saw clearly, it was a "water monster" with human-like facial features, its mouth was particularly large, all of them had sharp and sharp teeth, more terrifying than the so-called man-eating fish.

  Lu Zonghan treaded water, one hand slapping the surface and the other swinging his knife in a frenzy of cuts. The surrounding water churned up into bloody foam, it was unclear whether it was Lu Zonghan's own blood from his injuries or the monster's hot blood.

  At this time, another long-haired head emerged from a distance, and the head only exposed its hair to the water surface, accelerating towards Lu Zonghan.

  Liu Yi was shocked and thought, "Not good!", pulled out his gun to shoot, but at this moment the skull suddenly lifted its head, it turned out that the owner of this "skull" was actually Ma Li Ka who had fallen into the water.

  He was stabbed by a water monster while stabbing randomly in the water, and was dragged into the water. Then he wrestled with the water monster at the bottom of the water for half a day. The water monster saw that it couldn't win him, turned around and ran away. Ma Liuji chased after him, ran far away, killed him, and then floated out of the water to see Da Hu Zi being surrounded, hurriedly came to rescue.

  "Ah!", Liu Yi shouted, his handgun turned towards the "monster" that was attacking Lu Zonghan.

  Bang, bang, bang, the sound of gunfire splashed water everywhere, and the "water monster" that was hit let out a strange "hiss" sound. Then, dark red blood spurted from its body, dyeing the surface of the water within three meters around the wooden boat a bloody red color.

  It wasn't just Liu Yi, Professor Zhou Tao and Ke Kemu also joined the battle, holding guns and firing wildly in the water. The aquatic monsters smelled the bloody smell and became even more frantic, splashing out bigger waves in the water.

  Fortunately, the two people who fell into the water at this time had already reached the edge of the wooden boat. Liu Yi quickly pulled them onto the boat. After getting on the boat, they were still frightened.

  "Quickly row the boat away from here, I reckon this is the lair of the water monster!"

  The crowd listened and didn't make a sound, quickly using wooden oars to row away from this dangerous place.

  Those water monsters were wounded countless times, how could they give up easily? They charged towards the wooden boat crazily, putting it in a precarious situation. Among them, there was one water monster that was one meter long, which suddenly jumped out of the water with its huge bloody mouth wide open and attacked Liu Yi.

  Liu Yi had been holding his knife at the ready for a long time, and seeing this, he let out a loud cry: "You've come just in time!", swinging his knife to chop at the monster.

  With a single slash of the sword, the monster's head and body separated, and with a "plop", it fell into the boat. The foul-smelling blood splattered all over Liu Yi's face.

  He looked down and saw that the monster's body, which had been cut in two, jumped up and down twice before stopping completely still, clearly dead. The crowd didn't even bother to check the monster's corpse, exerting their strength to row the boat.

  The wooden boat, with the combined efforts of everyone, shot forward by more than a hundred meters, but the water monster was the overlord of the water, and no matter how fast the wooden boat went, it couldn't outrun them. They quickly swarmed together, chasing after the boat.

  Liu Yi shouted: "Everyone rest assured, this is not a ghost, it looks like some kind of strange fish?"

  "Damn it, are they treating us as food?! This poor devil won't let go!" Ma Liu Ka yelled while firing his gun backwards.

  Lu Zonghan's heart moved and he shouted: "Everyone turn off all light sources!"

  Although everyone was puzzled, they knew he was experienced and followed his instructions to extinguish all the lights. Suddenly, the entire cave plunged into boundless darkness.

  It's strange to say that after the light went out, the strange fish chasing them from behind seemed to slow down significantly by listening to the sound of the water.

  Taking advantage of this gap, everyone desperately rowed forward. Anyway, the cave was huge and there was no need to worry about hitting the stone wall.

  However, the strange fish chasing them only paused for a moment before accelerating towards them again. Malacca heard the "gushing" sound of the water churning and shouted: "Damn it, sister's coming again!"

  Lu Zonghan also cursed in a low voice: "Damn it, these fish aren't blind!"

  Originally, Lu Zonghan had previously seen the glowing fish automatically turn off their lights and hide, and after hearing Malacca say that the monsters treated them as food, he thought that these strange fish relied on light to hunt, so he let everyone turn off the lights. However, these strange fish seemed to be blaming them for killing many of their companions, and they chased them relentlessly.

  "Row faster!" Liu Yi shouted loudly.

  As soon as the words fell, everyone suddenly felt that the wooden boat was speeding up significantly, as if the water flow speed here had increased significantly. Moreover, they faintly heard the rushing sound of water in front of them.

  "It can't be a waterfall." Professor Zhou Tao exclaimed, who had been silent all along.

  The expert's experience was absolutely not a tofu dregs project, and indeed there was an underground waterfall ahead. Also because of this waterfall, they narrowly avoided the attack of the strange fish.

  "My god, we're rowing in the opposite direction!" Liu Yi also felt something was off.

  Who would have thought that changes came one after another, and people were busy waving their oars.

  Suddenly, everyone felt the wooden boat stopped in mid-air above the waterfall and then fell rapidly. With a loud "bang", it smashed into the water surface, creating a huge shockwave that made everyone's blood churn with excitement.

  It's okay, the boat didn't capsize, but a large amount of water splashed into the boat and poured onto everyone's body. The water was extremely cold, chilling to the bone, and instantly turned everyone into drowned rats.

  What they didn't see was that when the strange fish chased to a distance of about fifty or sixty meters from the underground waterfall, they all stopped and turned back to flee wildly. It's clear that inside the underground waterfall is even more dangerous than the black hole just passed through.

  ……

  Everyone was busy opening flashlights and then pouring water out of the wooden boat.

  At this time, the quiet and gentle Tibetan antelope Xiao Ke suddenly became restless, stood up and jumped twice on the boat. If not for Kekemu holding its neck in front of him, it was estimated that this guy would jump into the water.

  It wasn't until they finally calmed Xiao Ke down that everyone was able to take a closer look at the strange fish corpse in the boat under the light of their flashlights.

  That strange fish had countless black whisker-like growths on its head, which looked just like human hair. The dead fish's pair of large eyes were wide open, filled with bloodshot veins, and its mouth was slightly ajar, revealing jagged teeth, making it look extremely eerie.

  This fish has a flat and round head, with a pair of eyes in the middle hidden under its skin, just like a human face. Floating on the water surface, it really looks like a water ghost. Its tail is very long, and its whole body is shiny black. Overall, this fish looks just like a giant tadpole with a human face.

  At this time, Keksi pointed at the strange fish and said: "I once heard my father mention that on the road to Death Valley, there is a human-faced black fish. It is one of the many divine beasts beside the Holy Mother. Day and night, it listens to the Holy Mother's sermons, has epiphanies, and willingly sinks into darkness, guarding the road to the 'Holy Mother Temple' and swallowing the souls of sinful people, guiding them to reincarnation. Could this be that fish?"

  "That fish you mentioned sounds quite benevolent, how can it be so ferocious?" Liu Yi smiled ambiguously and said: "This strange fish in front of us looks exactly like a Goblin Shark!"

  To be honest, most people on the boat were seasoned travelers, but this "black-faced monster fish" was something they had never seen before. The entire face of the strange fish looked just like an angry old man, so they named it: "Old Man Fish!"

  Liu Wei said, "This underground dark river is incredibly strange, with its own ecosystem, but I don't know if this old fish is at the top of the food chain. If not, I estimate that there will be even more ferocious water monsters waiting for us next!"

  Everyone understood that Liu Yi's words were not alarmist, they all raised their spirits, vigilantly looked around and carefully guarded against.

  At this time, Kexi said: "Father said that after the appearance of ghost fish on the water surface, there will be an underground waterfall, and it has reached the most dangerous place in the dark river!"

  Don't look at Korksi's young age, after all, he is considered a small landlord here, and his father is the village elder, often walking this hidden path, and hearing many rumors.

  "Didn't your father ever tell you what dangers might appear?"

  Kok Si Dao said: "I remember what my father said at the time..."

  Liu Yi turned his head and asked: "What words?"

  Korvus's low, mournful voice rose: "Through forests of white bone..."

  Everyone's heart was a shock, wasn't this mentioned by Liu Yi's father in the email?

  What is this?

  It's definitely not good news!

  "Get ready with your guns and ammunition, fire at the devil!" Malacca shouted loudly while holding up a semi-automatic rifle.

  No one went to respond to his call, the whole body was silent and thinking about Kork's words, unconsciously bringing their own thoughts and bodies into a gloomy atmosphere, at the same time, everyone felt a sudden chill all over their bodies.

  This chill comes not only from the heart but also from outside the body.

  Earlier when they fell down the waterfall, their bodies were completely soaked. In such a place, it was impossible to change clothes in time. Everyone felt: cold, cold, too cold!

  "The temperature seems to have dropped!" Liu Yi said in puzzlement.

  "Yes, I feel it too! This cave is damned strange!" Ma Liu shouted, holding his gun and looking around.

  Professor Zhou inserted his hand into the water, and as soon as his hand came into contact with the river water, he felt a chill run down his spine. The water was icy cold, like it had been frozen in a refrigerator.

  Suddenly, a huge "ghost face" appeared in the searchlight range, its mouth opening and closing, quickly swimming towards the wooden boat where Liu Yi and others were on board. Its tail hidden underwater swung back and forth, causing the water surface to become turbulent!

  "My god, it's the ancestor of the old turtle fish!" The crowd exclaimed in unison.