Chapter 64: The Horror Beneath the Water

He was deeply concerned by what Xu Xuehui had said about the corpses, the flower, and the treasure.

She wouldn’t have just made it up. Since she spoke of it, it likely meant something was truly hidden deep underwater. However, they were still at a relatively shallow depth and hadn’t seen it yet.

Seeing Su Li’s gesture, Ding Longyun and Gong Xiao oriented themselves head-down, weapons in hand, and continued to descend.

Su Li followed behind them. The weight of the iron rod in his hand made his descent much easier.

All three were extremely vigilant. Although the monsters on the two floors above seemed to be resting, that didn’t guarantee the safety of this area. No one knew if other monsters might suddenly appear.

The trio stopped after sinking another three meters, reaching the 27th floor below. This floor was also occupied by Sea Spiders.

Su Li quietly approached a window and peered inside. He saw the walls were covered with dense, tightly packed spiders.

These Sea Spiders were covered in black and white stripes. Crowded together, they rendered the entire room a bizarre landscape of black and white stripes.

There were countless Sea Spiders, occupying two floors of the building. Su Li couldn’t even guess their total number. The thought that occurred to him was the Spider Queen. Could it also be lurking somewhere within?

Su Li dared not alarm them and slowly continued his descent.

Suddenly, Ding Longyun, who was at the lowest depth, stopped. He used his left hand to signal to Gong Xiao and Su Li, indicating that there was something ahead.

Gong Xiao, who was less than two meters away from him, also immediately halted upon seeing Ding Longyun’s signal.

Su Li had now sunk to the area of the 26th floor, submerged over ten meters deep.

Su Li moved beside Ding Longyun and looked down. About four or five meters below them, a human corpse floated.

The head of the human corpse was missing. A translucent white tendril extended from its neck, trailing downward into the deeper water. Due to the murky visibility, they couldn’t see where the tendril led or what was at its other end.

“What is that?”

The question surfaced in all three of their minds. Su Li thought back to Xu Xuehui’s words.

“Corpses, flower, treasure. Could the ‘corpse’ she mentioned be this one right here?”

Su Li immediately moved closer to the corpse below. He soon saw a large number of blurry dark shadows in the water beneath. As he sank, these blurry shadows gradually became clear. His heart involuntarily shuddered.

The massive shadows below were all corpses: human bodies, Sea Spider bodies, Water Rat Beast bodies, Marine Iguana Monitor bodies…

He lost count of the number of corpses. There might be even more similar bodies in the deeper water below. He turned to look through a nearby window. This was the 25th floor underwater, and he saw the rooms of this floor were also filled with large quantities of monster corpses, some familiar and some he had never seen before.

All the corpses they could see shared one common feature: a single, translucent, slender tendril emerging from their bodies, trailing downward into the water. As they watched, countless translucent tendrils below them intertwined and converged.

It was impossible to imagine the situation in the deeper waters below. As each person took in the sight, a sense of dread rose in their hearts—a visceral, instinctive fear of the unknown and the mysterious.

Ding Longyun’s scalp tingled. He dared not sink any further. He felt that taking one more step down might lead to eternal damnation, an unimaginable horror. He urgently signaled upward with his hands, indicating that they should return.

Even the fiercely competitive Gong Xiao was advocating for retreat now. Looking at the countless floating corpses and the horrifying, bizarre translucent tendrils, she couldn’t imagine what lay beneath them. She only sensed an aura of evil and terror encompassing the area, seeping into their souls and filling them with dread, as if they were trapped in a nightmare.

Su Li finally understood why Xu Xuehui had looked so terrified when she mentioned the corpses. She must have seen the situation beneath the water, but couldn’t fully describe the details, only managing to utter “corpse, flower, and treasure.“

“The ‘corpses’ she mentioned are here, and there are so many monster bodies. If everything she said is true, is there really some kind of ‘treasure’ beneath all these bodies? But the current situation is too bizarre. How did so many monsters die? And where do those tendrils growing out of the monster corpses lead to…”

Ding Longyun and Gong Xiao were already ascending. Su Li had no choice but to give up. In fact, like Ding Longyun and Gong Xiao, he was also shrouded in an unknown fear, feeling that continuing down would likely lead to disaster.

This unease compelled him to abandon further exploration. Even if there was some important, precious treasure below, it wasn’t more important than their lives. At the very least, now was not the time. Although he felt some regret, he had to choose to retreat.

“Maybe when I’m a little stronger, I can come back and take a look. Not now…” Su Li thought silently, chasing after Ding Longyun and Gong Xiao as they floated upward.

Just then, a basin-sized dark shape suddenly shot out of a window on the 27th floor, stirring the water flow.

The dark shape was a large spider with black and white stripes—a Sea Spider. No one knew why it was suddenly awakened. It burst out of the window and positioned itself right above the ascending Gong Xiao.

The sudden event startled all three of them. They weren’t afraid of a single Sea Spider, but they feared disturbing the entire colony, which would be disastrous.

Su Li hurriedly accelerated his ascent. Gong Xiao reacted quickly, thrusting the machete in her right hand toward the creature.

Su Li desperately wanted to tell them that the Sea Spider’s mouthparts contained paralyzing venom. Although not fatal, a bite would slowly paralyze the entire body, leading to a loss of resistance. Unfortunately, he couldn’t speak underwater to warn them.

Gong Xiao’s strike was quick, but the Sea Spider was faster. It easily dodged Gong Xiao’s machete with a quick turn in the water.

Su Li continued to ascend, only to see two more Sea Spiders emerging from the windows on the 27th floor.

The situation was dire. Ding Longyun frantically signaled upward, telling them to hurry and surface.

Fighting these monsters underwater would create a lot of noise and could attract even more creatures, placing them at a great disadvantage.

(End of Chapter)