Chapter 363: The Scenery Beyond the Layered Rocks

In the dim, vast underground cavern, the long-haired girl looked somewhat dejected.

Yu Sheng felt surprised upon seeing this, for it was the first time he had seen such a depressed and low expression on the Miss's face—Princess Long Hair was usually a complete optimist; her mental state, if not at the point of terminal necrosis, was at least maintained year-round in a mushroom-eating haze, so seeing her sink into genuine despondency was truly no easy feat.

Even Hu Li, who generally paid little attention to others, noticed this and asked curiously, "What's wrong?"

"Brother, maybe I shouldn't have urged Zheng Zhi to lead us," Long Hair said, looking at Yu Sheng somewhat helplessly, "Otherwise, he wouldn't have met with this accident..."

"So you're just moping here because of this?" Yu Sheng, hearing her words, felt a mix of helplessness and amusement. "Then you're overthinking it completely—before you arrived, he had already spent most of the day exploring the entire area around Yunling Peak. Did his level of initiative really need anyone to urge him? And honestly, with his 'constitution,' do you really think he wouldn't have gotten lost even if you hadn't looked for him?"

Long Hair blinked as she listened; at first, she thought the other person was comforting her, but suddenly recalling Zheng Zhi's many "achievements," she immediately felt that what Yu Sheng said seemed correct...

At this moment, the Mermaid shed her fish tail and returned to human form—Yu Sheng hadn't quite understood how she changed; in any case, in the blink of an eye, the girl was standing up. She widened her eyes, scanning the surroundings, and after several attempts to speak and then holding back, she finally opened her mouth: "Um, did you hear a buzzing sound?"

"A buzzing sound?" Yu Sheng looked somewhat puzzled. "I didn't hear anything. What kind?"

"It's like... a cave humming? There are faint echoes everywhere," the Mermaid said while observing the surroundings, "and it's also a bit like something snoring."

Yu Sheng frowned, looking up at the others: "Did you hear it?"

Everyone indicated they had not heard similar noises; even Long Hair shook her head, but shortly after shaking her head, she quickly added, "Salty Fish can usually hear many sounds ordinary people can't; she can even hear low-frequency and high-frequency vibrations that precision instruments cannot detect."

Everyone fell silent; although no one present except the Mermaid herself could hear the "buzzing sound" she mentioned, no one ignored this piece of information from her.

The mechanical device inside Qianji Zhenren's body ticked; after a moment of contemplation, he broke the silence: "There is vibration, but the source is unknown, extremely faint."

The Mermaid suddenly raised her head and emitted a strange, soft hum in a certain direction.

It was a very short series of syllables, sounding like the shrill call of some bird.

Then she emitted several more sounds, becoming increasingly shrill and high-pitched until they were beyond human hearing; Yu Sheng only saw her mouth opening slightly, yet heard no sound at all.

Yu Sheng watched this scene in confusion, then suddenly realized the other person was scanning the structure of this "cavern."

He felt this was unnecessary—because Qianji Zhenren's mechanical sphere, Hu Li's detection tail, and the two great guardians, Bai Qie and Salt-Baked, had already been deployed; everyone lacked no means of detection, and the Mermaid's "sonar" should not yield any more intelligence.

However, just as he thought this, a faint "crackling" sound suddenly came from the deep darkness in the distance, interrupting his train of thought.

Yu Sheng instinctively looked up toward the direction the sound came from, and almost at the same time, another even more obvious and louder strange noise rose from that side.

The next second, he suddenly saw a faint light—on the opposite side of the "underground lake," deep within the rock wall shrouded in darkness, a horizontal fissure of light suddenly flared up, flashing into everyone's eyes!

Immediately, that light began to expand rapidly; the boundless darkness in the cavern seemed to be torn open and began to recede, and Yu Sheng also heard a low, deep roar that seemed to make the heart beat along with it; that roar came from all directions of the entire cavern, like the low chant of some giant beast echoing through the space.

The ground began to tremble; the surface of that calm "underground lake" rippled violently and quickly became as turbulent as boiling water; the rock walls around emitted unsettling creaking sounds; the glowing vines hanging from the cavern ceiling and the large and small stone pillars were swaying and shaking; the light in the distance expanded once more; it was no longer a faint light but had become a bright and rapidly widening crack, with jagged contours appearing along the edges of the fissure—

Yu Sheng finally realized what it was.

Those were teeth; it was a mouth slowly opening—they were all inside the oral cavity of a giant beast!

"Oh my god!!" Erin finally cried out in shock; although the small doll's brain was mostly empty most of the time, she realized what situation this was at this moment. In an instant, she leaped onto Yu Sheng's shoulder. "Th-th-th-this thing is alive! Fish, what do we do?!"

As she spoke, another roar of rock friction sounded, and the trembling of the entire cavern intensified once more. Seeing this, Hu Li immediately lay flat on the ground, instantly transforming into a giant nine-tailed silver fox, using her body to block the space above Yu Sheng and the others.

The Mermaid had long since stopped her "chanting" by then, but when she turned her head, she also wore a dazed expression. Hearing Erin's cry, she immediately replied, "I don't know either! I just kept hearing a buzzing sound; the more I listened, the more it sounded like some living thing humming quietly, so I tried to imitate it, wanting to communicate with that thing..."

"Salty Fish, you... next time you have similar thoughts, can you tell someone first!" Long Hair's voice was somewhat frantic; the shaking beneath her feet made her almost lose her balance. The next second, the golden hair behind her began to grow wildly, firmly propping up the surrounding rock walls and ground, and forming an interwoven defense around her. "That 'lake' is boiling! What the hell!"

Before Long Hair finished speaking, a low and solemn voice suddenly came from the front. She looked up and saw that Qianji Zhenren had somehow floated into mid-air; layers of radiance rippled across the surface of his Dao robe, which shimmered with a metallic texture; countless profound runes lit up in succession on the surface of the robe. The True One then raised his arm toward a certain direction; the shell on his arm unfolded like fish scales, and accompanied by the lighting of the talismans, a command echoed layer upon layer throughout the "cavern":

"Silence—"

Thus, that "giant beast," so immense it was hard to believe, truly calmed down briefly, and the violently shaking "cavern" returned to stability in an instant.

At this moment, Yu Sheng had already reached a hand into the air, preparing to open a door to send some people away first; however, just an instant before the gate opened, he suddenly felt the connection established by blood.

Instantly perceiving and judging the information carried within that connection, he stared with wide eyes at the opening on the opposite side of the "lake."

"Zheng Zhi is over there!"

Long Hair was stunned: "What?!"

"He's outside that 'fissure'—he fell outside!"

Yu Sheng spoke rapidly, while at the same time reaching out to grab one of Hu Li's tails. With practiced and swift movements, he flipped and climbed onto the back of the giant demon fox. Immediately, he waved to Long Hair and the Mermaid: "Get up here quickly!"

Long Hair paused for a moment; after all, riding a nine-tailed fox was a first for her in her life, but she quickly reacted, mimicking Yu Sheng's actions to climb onto the demon fox's back with great speed. Immediately, her magical golden hair grew wildly again, scooping up the Mermaid who was still standing on the ground in a daze, lifting her and tossing her to her side.

Several fluffy fox tails then closed around Yu Sheng and his group; the protective spiritual energy raised a barrier emitting a hazy, faint light. The next moment, Hu Li took steps toward that boiling "lake." She ran faster and faster, treading on the lake surface in mid-air, and under Yu Sheng's command, charged toward the giant open mouth in the distance.

Xuan Che and Qianji Zhenren followed closely behind, each riding a wisp of spiritual light.

The light spilling in from outside the giant mouth had completely dispelled the darkness in the "cavern"; that light carried a strange dark red hue. The demon fox and the immortals leaped through this red light, instantly crossing the "lake water" that had seemed boundless in the darkness.

"... So this expanse of water isn't that big after all."

Erin, perched on Yu Sheng's shoulder, poked her head out to look at the water below and unconsciously muttered to herself.

"Because, before, it was dark," Luna said slowly beside her.

Yu Sheng's gaze remained fixed on the front.

Hu Li crossed the giant mouth.

Yu Sheng saw Lin Li's sharp giant stones; rocks covered in moss stood like blade-like barriers at the very end of the "cavern" exit, and among these strange "teeth," one could also see a large number of torn vines and withered branches.

He saw rugged rock layers; outside that giant mouth, they were as steep as a mountain wall.

He found it hard to imagine what kind of giant beast this was—a living mountain? Or a moving island?

"Fly upward, follow that sloping ridge; Zheng Zhi is up there." Yu Sheng commanded Hu Li, while simultaneously sketching in his mind the possible form of this "giant beast." At the same time, his gaze involuntarily turned again toward the farther distance; his line of sight crossed the rock wall in front of the giant beast's sharp teeth, wanting to see what the scenery was like beyond this giant beast.

And then, he saw a torn planet and an atmosphere that had almost completely evaporated.

A curved horizon line flashed into everyone's eyes; that land was covered with churning seas of magma and scorching fire columns that could almost erupt into space. There was also a terrifying trench, deeply branded into that torn land as if splitting the entire celestial body in two. Below the trench, molten fire rose; above the land, the atmosphere had been completely evaporated, facing the dark and mad stars of the universe directly. Billions of stars trembled, fell, collided, and burned above that torn horizon. An ominous dark red light spread across the entire cosmic background, scorching all remaining things on the planet.

The giant beast slowly passed over the planet that was gradually breaking apart into four pieces; a low and desolate wail echoed in the atmosphere that remained beside it, belonging to its homeland.

(End of Chapter)