Chapter 251: What Do You Do When the Rope Breaks?

Faced with the sudden current, Qin Yun did not panic; instead, he instantly calmed down.

He did not struggle, for struggling was useless—in water, human strength could not control one's own body.

So he relaxed his body, letting the current carry him, while his hands swiftly groped through the chaotic vision. But whether due to bad luck or something else, his hands touched nothing at all.

As the current dragged his body toward a crack in the rock, his right hand finally brushed against a thick stalactite; using it, he forcibly stabilized himself.

The terrifying power was fully revealed at this moment—he strained his arm, forcibly resisting the strong current and breaking free from its grip. Then, adjusting his buoyancy, he quickly rose a short distance, avoiding the underwater current below.

"This damn place, ambushes are everywhere."

Qin Yun sighed, and the livestream audience breathed a slight sigh of relief. The screen was now murky, completely obscuring Qin Yun's figure.

"Some undercurrents form due to water seeping through underground rock fissures, which is why the mud collapse happened so suddenly just now." As he spoke, he swam forward and soon passed through the undercurrent zone.

At this point, one must again praise the brilliance of the master-level skill, Spatial Memory.

Such a complex underground labyrinth gradually reconstructed itself in his mind as he advanced. Though he could not build areas he hadn't reached, even so, a 3D stereoscopic image centered on him was crystal clear.

Anyone who's played Diablo knows that in the game, the map unfolds as the character moves—areas not yet visited remain pitch black. His Spatial Memory worked exactly like that.

Only places he'd been could be reconstructed; places he hadn't visited simply couldn't be, after all, this was a modern urban novel, not fantasy.

As he advanced, the scenery ahead slowly revealed itself—then, in a frustrating direction, he reached a dead end. The terminus of this water passage was a seamless wall, not a single crack to be found.

Qin Yun shrugged at an underwater drone.

"Looks like my luck isn't great—I'll have to waste half an hour going back and forth."

After saying that, he quickly retraced his path and chose another branch, but his luck remained poor; back and forth, he spent a full hour and a half in this first layer before finally finding a suitable branch entrance.

The depth gauge now read: 167 meters.

For an ordinary person, this was already an extremely terrifying number.

"My current depth is 167 meters; the pressure on my body is roughly 17.7 standard atmospheres." His voice was rock-solid, "At this depth, every square centimeter of my body surface bears 17.7 kilograms of force. That means my body is being continuously compressed—each time I lift my arm or leg, it's extremely difficult."

"But…" Qin Yun suddenly chuckled, "that's for you. For me, this force has no effect whatsoever. My physical condition is formidable—17 atmospheres? Even fifty wouldn't matter."

Hearing Qin Yun's words, the livestream audience was utterly speechless.

"Damn, you're not even pretending—you're forcing it."

"666, even though I wanna punch him, I have to admit Qin Ye is truly awesome."

"Awesome, definitely—35 pounds of pressure constantly crushing you, every movement a struggle. Look at him—any sign of distress? But this guy's attitude is just begging to be punched."

"Hahaha, you can only silently watch him show off—you can't even beat him."

"So frustrating!"

Watching these comments, the staff at the pit entrance all laughed.

In truth, even 67 meters was already the limit for ordinary people. Most people could dive only 40 to 50 meters—anything beyond that was strictly for professionals.

But did Qin Yun lie?

He didn't. At 17 atmospheres, his body did feel something—but it had no real impact. It was simply that, with skill after skill enhancing him, his body was gradually approaching a non-human level.

After all, no master in any field could achieve all-round enhancement like Qin Yun.

Fighters need to enhance specific areas, wilderness survival requires different boosts—how could anyone match Qin Yun, where even the bare minimum is master-level, human peak?

Qin Yun continued forward, passing through a stalactite forest; the side waterways gradually narrowed, and the current steadied. Along the way, he spotted several blind fish—translucent, eyeless, scaleless, small-bodied—startled by his presence, they scattered wildly.

He also saw a gray-brown cave-dwelling water snake, slowly crawling along the rock wall, utterly indifferent to his arrival.

Qin Yun avoided disturbing these native creatures—when possible, he evaded them; when not, he used the current to warn them off in advance.

He fastened a carabiner, threaded the guide rope, and swam another dozen minutes before suddenly stopping. His spotlight swept ahead, revealing a narrow water passage.

It was called a waterway, but in truth, it resembled a cave.

A series of dark caves lay ahead, the entire environment oppressive; the silt on the bottom was thick, nearly covering the riverbed.

Under the spotlight, the livestream audience watched this scene, deeply moved.

"Damn, if the guide rope breaks, how the hell will Qin Ye get back?"

"Yeah, just thinking about it is terrifying."

"Just this environment alone is suffocating."

Qin Yun chose a waterway entrance, preparing to secure the guide rope with a carabiner—but as he moved to act, a bubble suddenly rose from the cave mouth and shot straight toward him.

He couldn't dodge in time—he was hit dead-on and violently thrown backward.

"Boom—!"

The impact slammed him and his air tank against a Shi Zhu behind him, then flipped him over, hurling his body face-first into the rock wall.

Just as he was about to strike the wall, his hands shot out, bracing against it—the immense force was fully dissipated.

But the scroll was gone.

"Fuck, that came out of nowhere."

"Scared the shit out of me."

"Damn, even Qin Ye couldn't react—what the hell was that?"

"Qin Ye, check your air tank—if it's cracked, you're dead for sure."

Without waiting for viewers to say it, Qin Yun immediately checked his gear the moment he stabilized—his expression was graver than ever.

Just as netizens said, he thought the same.

If the air tank was damaged, even with his non-human physical condition, he could never return the way he came—he'd be dead for sure.

After a thorough check, the pressure readings and all values were normal—he finally exhaled in relief.

"Phew… lucky. My gear has no issues. No wonder it's an international brand—professional."

With gear intact, Qin Yun began searching for the scroll.

The guide rope was easy to find; he quickly pulled the scroll back. But when he returned to the cave mouth, preparing to secure another carabiner, his expression suddenly changed.

He pulled the guide rope closer: "Something's off—look. My guide rope was at 356 meters before, but now it's at 332 meters."

"Uh, what do you mean?"

"I don't understand."

A professional's expression changed drastically, and he immediately began analyzing in the livestream: "He's done for. This means the guide rope from the front section has been dragged over, which means the rope snapped."

The moment this analysis came out, the comment section instantly exploded.

The staff at the cave entrance and Su Huan turned pale.

Qin Yun naturally couldn't see any of this. His voice didn't change as he gripped the guide rope.

"Just as expected, something went wrong. My guide rope probably broke somewhere. If you want to verify it, it's simple — I'll just give it a pull."

Saying so, he gripped the guide rope with both hands and began pulling it back. After pulling in over ten meters, everyone knew that possibility had become fact.

The guide rope really had broken.

"Holy shit, Qin is done for."

"He's screwed, what'll Master Qin do?"

"Damn, can Master Qin still return the way he came?"

"Shit, he's totally boned now."

"Hahahaha, that damned Chinaman, he's dead for sure."

"This is God punishing that evil beast."

The livestream's comment section was in an uproar — every kind of comment was there, especially the foreign PETA organization, which was spouting off even more wildly at this moment, overjoyed at the situation Qin Yun had run into.

Qin Yun kept pulling. When the broken end of the rope appeared in his hand, he looked at the cut surface and couldn't help but shake his head.

"Not great luck. Looking at this cut surface, I'd guess it was sliced by the edge of a rock. There must have been an undercurrent hammering the rope — otherwise under normal circumstances this wouldn't have happened."

As he spoke, he coiled up the guide rope, then continued to drive anchor bolts into the rock wall to secure the rope.

Only the netizens were a bit puzzled by his actions.

After Qin Yun finished securing the anchor, he said calmly: "Forgot to mention to everyone — I might be average at other things, but my memory really is good. Even without the guide rope, I can actually find my way back the way I came. So the guide rope breaking is no big deal for me."