Chapter 289: 285 The Hollow Earth Theory

Following the place where the afterimages converged, Fang Mu made a shocking discovery: hidden within this river, which appeared shallow on the surface, was a bottomless chasm that seemed to stretch into infinity. The afterimages of every person who had vanished were swimming toward the depths of the darkness, some of their own volition, others forced.

Those forced to swim into the deep chasm seemed to be drawn by some kind of sound. Although their faces showed resistance and they had the heart to fight against this mysterious power, human mental resistance is ultimately limited. Their faces, once contorted in resistance, slowly shifted into a despairing numbness as they continued to dive downward, never to surface again.

Fang Mu discovered this deep chasm. After a moment of hesitation, he did not turn back to surface; instead, he took the initiative to go deeper.

Better if fewer people die. Fang Mu thought to himself; this was a slight resistance of his gradually hardening conscience against his numb rationality.

The deputy following behind Fang Mu also discovered the chasm, his eyes full of shock. He, too, felt the thick darkness and the unknown from the unfathomable abyss. His years of professional experience, basic rationality, and physiological instincts were all telling him not to follow, not to go deep below. Yet, he glanced at the receding Fang Mu and gritted his teeth to continue the pursuit. However, before following, he fired a signal flare toward the water's surface, believing that as long as the people outside saw the signal, they would head to the location he marked and thus discover the Abnormalities here. He trusted his captain to make the right judgment.

The two of them, one after the other, delved into the dark seabed. The deputy had eyes only for Fang Mu; he could only stare fixedly at him. Even though the darkness blurred his vision and he could eventually only see the outline of the other person swimming, he still refused to shift his gaze, for he was afraid he would lose himself in this melancholy, gloomy water.

Compared to the deputy's situation, Fang Mu relied on his superhuman vision to see normally even in the darkness. It was just that the scene presented to his eyes was not like it was in daylight, but deep green; everything was a mysterious green.

Being able to see did not bring Fang Mu much comfort; instead, he feared seeing too much. Hidden beneath this deep, narrow chasm were all sorts of sinister sights: unknown aquatic plants resembling water weeds, like poisonous snakes, binding every creature that strayed here. There were the dry bones of fish, the dry bones of humans, and members of the Xuanmi Group who had just died miserably after the "water weeds" pierced their Seven Orifices.

Those "water weeds" seemed to be the same individual. Because they had just finished feeding, their bodies were in a sluggish state of digestion, emitting a faint, ghostly glow. Even if prey accidentally touched the water weeds, they would not show much of a reaction.

Fang Mu's diving movement inadvertently touched them. In the contact between his skin and the "water weeds," he felt a sensation similar to suction cups beneath the fine fuzz. It was just that at this moment, because they were "full," they had no great interest in him and did not show strong aggression, nor did they entangle Fang Mu and refuse to let go.

As the "water weeds" lit up, the deputy following behind Fang Mu also saw the scene of frantic torture under the water. The teammates he was looking for had already turned into rations for these dark, hateful creatures, and he was unable to bring them back. Their corpses were perhaps destined to be submerged forever beneath this pitch-black, nameless river.

The feeling of sorrow did not last long; the deputy still had to continue tracking Fang Mu. He had to figure out the secret on Fang Mu and find useful intelligence.

Fang Mu noticed the deputy following behind. He did not persuade him to leave because he had no means or reason to do so. These members from the Xuanmi Group were not much different from him; they all had a special kind of "stubbornness."

Diving another ten meters or so, Fang Mu saw something similar to glass. It was embedded on the surface of a rock at the bottom of the water. He leaned in to check and discovered it was a thin membrane. Behind the membrane, there seemed to be a space. He reached his hand into the membrane, and after slight resistance, he successfully passed through, feeling the warm air in the space behind the membrane.

Gurgle...

Fang Mu exhaled a large patch of bubbles from his nose. He happened to be unable to hold on any longer and wanted to change his breath, so he immediately squeezed his whole body into the membrane.

Escaping the buoyancy of the water, his body was once again almost entirely affected by gravity. Fang Mu passed through the water above the membrane and fell onto the ground three meters vertically below.

Because his clothes were very thin, Fang Mu fell onto the ground solidly, and the resulting pain was very clear. However, he protected his head well, so he did not end up completely disoriented.

Plop!

Just as Fang Mu had climbed up from the ground, a figure fell from beside him; it was the deputy who had been chasing him.

"Comrade, are you alright?" Fang Mu knew he couldn't persuade the other person to leave, and it might be difficult to help him go back, so he might as well cooperate with him in a friendly manner. Thus, he took the initiative to reach out a gesture of goodwill, wanting to help the other person up.

An Fang's deputy also fell very hard on the ground. He endured the pain in his back and sat up. Seeing the hand Fang Mu extended to help him up, he hesitated slightly, then grasped it and used the force to stand up. While holding his back, he said, "My name is Xia Chen."

"Alright, I've remembered it, Xia Chen." Fang Mu smiled slightly, knowing that the other party also had the intention to cooperate.

"Where is this?" Xia Chen looked at this strange, bright underwater cave. The passage was so smooth that it made him suspect it was not naturally formed, but had been artificially refined.

Fang Mu looked around, and a sense of déjà vu flooded his brain. He felt he had been here before, or at least to a place very similar to it, and this familiar scene was naturally the sight inside the Nongshan Shandong.

"I don't know where this is, but I have been to a similar place, though that place is hundreds of kilometers away from here. That is the residence of the Toad God." Fang Mu said. He looked up at the membrane that was rapidly "healing" above his head and pointed at it, saying, "Perhaps this really is the Toad God's residence, and that membrane, which is like a biological membrane, is an entrance for traversing space."

"No, I don't think so." Xia Chen said. He took off the waist bag tied to his waist and took out something from it that looked like a brick, which occupied the entire space of the bag. That thing had a screen. After he turned it on, the screen flickered and displayed a picture similar to a radar. On it, several light spots were gathering toward an immobile yellow spot, and that yellow spot should represent Xia Chen at this moment. "This is a radar locator. After the Dongfanghong No. 1 satellite was successfully launched, the organization's communication and positioning devices were upgraded. If we had traversed space, the locator should have failed due to the influence of the magnetic field."

Hearing this, Fang Mu was slightly distracted, perhaps not expecting that the "GPS" of those years was actually so "hardcore."

Xia Chen noticed Fang Mu's gaze, which seemed vaguely spirited. He coughed and said calmly, "In short, it can basically be confirmed that we are still under the water of that river."

Fang Mu ignored the little thoughts of this "old man" who was born earlier than his parents and continued to speculate, "If that's the case, then this is likely another residence of the Toad God. Be careful; there might be frogmen here who can stand on two legs like humans but act fiercely, as well as those poisonous toads that bite and eat people."

As he spoke, Fang Mu released his ear ability and indeed heard the faint croaking of toads and light footsteps. He pointed in a direction where the sound was weak, "Let's go this way. My hearing is strong; there's no sound over there, so it should be a bit safer."

The two walked together, Fang Mu guarding the front, Xia Chen vigilant of the rear.

On the walls of the cave passage, carved pictures appeared from time to time, depicting scenes of humans and other unknown Earth intelligent life living and getting along together in this land in earlier times. The content recorded was grotesque and bizarre, and slowly became horrifying.

Judging from the content recorded in the carvings, humans at that time were mostly used for sacrifices, just as humans use pigs, chickens, ducks, cows, and sheep for sacrifices. What was terrifying was that even when humans used their own kind as sacrifices, humans still participated in the sacrifice and worship of a large toad with a bat-like face together with other Earth intelligent life of that time—those upright-walking creatures drawn like lizardmen or snake-men—a scene of "prosperity" and "harmonious coexistence."

Xia Chen felt a chill in his heart, feeling that their situation was even more dangerous. Suddenly, he said to Fang Mu, "Do you know the Hollow Earth theory?"

"Mm, I've heard of it. It's the idea that the interior of the Earth is hollow, and beneath the outer surface where we live, there is also a habitable inner surface, where a civilization far more developed and advanced than us humans on the outer surface lives." Fang Mu had naturally heard of it. As someone who writes novels, he was full of curiosity about all kinds of sci-fi, bizarre, and horrifying things.

Xia Chen's gaze swept over the carvings on the rock wall from time to time and said, "Doesn't it feel bizarre to think about it now? Throughout history and across the world, there are people with the same idea everywhere. I wonder if the people who proposed these theories have really seen the scenes that can prove this point."

Fang Mu did not give a definitive answer, but he already knew what Xia Chen wanted to say, and said, "Perhaps. Maybe that's why this place and the place I've been to can be so similar. If we continue to go deeper, we might go to a place hundreds of kilometers away from the surface."

Xia Chen became silent. He watched as other species slowly appeared in the carvings on the rock wall. That large toad, worshipped and offered sacrifices by humans and lizardmen, gave birth to upright monsters with frog faces through its union with humans. The toads and frogs on Earth, because they received the "blessing" or some kind of influence from the large toad, turned into a group of mutated monster toad-frogs.

The carvings recorded scenes of frogmen and monster toad-frogs eating those punished believers, including humans and lizardmen.

Besides the eerie and brutal content of sacrifices and punishments, there were also things like the Toad God enlightening the believers' wisdom and teaching them to use magic and scientific knowledge.

Although the Toad God was a god that ate people, it seemed to also have a side that could communicate and would actively enlighten its believers.

It could be seen that what it taught should be the real thing, and it did not contain any "private goods" (Abnormal factors that make people crazy). Behind the carvings, a scene depicted more humans and lizardmen worshipping the Toad God, which probably meant that the scale of the faith had grown. If the Toad God didn't have real substance, it probably wouldn't have appeared like this.

Fang Mu had also seen similar content elsewhere and didn't pay too much attention to it, while Xia Chen, because it was his first time seeing it, was greatly shocked and also felt fear because he had read the "true history."

Walking for about ten minutes, the two did not walk fast, which was also to leave marks along the way so that the Xuanmi Group members following behind could catch up with them, but they gradually became suspicious and uneasy.

It was just too quiet.

Xia Chen picked up the locator he carried with him again. This time, he found that the positioning radar display had gone out, and no matter what, it could not be restarted. Even after forcibly turning on the power several times in a row, the entire radar locator began to heat up, then smoked and caught fire. Xia Chen had to throw this equipment away.

Fang Mu released his ear's hearing. He could still hear movements from other places, but compared to before, their movements had become smaller, as if they were doing something else that required quiet. Besides that, he was also looking for the voices of other people. Since, according to Xia Chen's deduction, they were still under the river outside Lin Family Village, and they had also seen the signal of other Xuanmi Group members chasing them, then according to the time deduction, they should have also passed through the membrane and started to scout the way. But Fang Mu did not hear the footsteps of other humans.

This meant they hadn't followed at all!

"Prepare yourself to rely only on the two of us." Fang Mu pointed out the situation of the two at this moment and said to the silent and stunned Xia Chen.

Xia Chen nodded and secretly clenched his fists.

The passage ahead slowly became wider and more exquisite. This was like the difference between the asphalt road in the suburbs he and Xia Chen had walked on before and the city road in the downtown area they were walking on now.

Worried that a monster might pounce out at any time in the caves that extended in all directions, Fang Mu and Xia Chen acted even more lightly and cautiously.

Before long, Fang Mu heard a burst of human whispers coming from the depths of a deep, secluded path, as if they were holding a worship ceremony.

Fang Mu's Abnormal behavior of stopping to watch attracted Xia Chen's attention. Xia Chen couldn't help but curiously ask in a low voice, "What did you hear?"

Along the way, Xia Chen had also noticed Fang Mu's sensory abilities that surpassed ordinary people. In those dark places that he, a person with normal vision and no astigmatism, could not see clearly, Fang Mu could see clearly and remind him to watch his step in time; his hearing was also truly incredible, able to discover underground creatures hundreds of meters away first. Therefore, Xia Chen could now trust the judgments Fang Mu made.

"There are humans over there, it seems they are worshipping something." Fang Mu looked at Xia Chen, "Do you want to go and see?"

Xia Chen nodded, "Be careful."

The two headed toward the depths of the path where the human whispers came from. After walking about 1,263 steps, they stopped and crouched down, hiding behind cover, secretly peeking at a group of people praying while chanting around a mass of black, amorphous life. The black, amorphous substance accepting the prayers kept changing into non-biological, weird forms. Every once in a while, it would swallow a human, and then spit them out. The person who was spat out would twitch all over, and their eyes would emit a strange blue light...