Chapter 119

"An earthquake?"

The ground trembled, as if stepping on waves; Qin Menglan and the others, already far from the lake, nearly lost their footing and almost fell.

The shaking came quickly and passed quickly.

Soon everything calmed down, as if nothing had happened at all.

"Will there be another earthquake?" King Kong said.

"It feels like it came from the lake side." Li Qing turned his head toward the direction they had come from.

"The lake?" Qin Menglan turned her head, glanced at the Sky Hound on her shoulder; the Sky Hound looked lazy and didn't take the earlier tremor to heart.

"Shall we go back and check?" Zhao Gailun said.

The sudden tremor made everyone feel uneasy.

"Alright." Qin Menglan nodded; the others had no objections.

They had come specifically to look for abnormalities and find clues; now such a major anomaly—how could they possibly miss it?

As they drew closer to the lake's location, the surprise on their faces became harder to conceal.

The terrain and landscape had been altered.

Trees were uprooted, soil and rocks overturned, a scene of utter chaos.

The original lake site had become utterly unfamiliar; a brand-new pit had replaced where the lake once was.

Yellow muddy water surged across, the water level dropping significantly.

"What happened here?" Zhao Gailun gaped, "Was it bombed?"

"And where is Master Xuanzang?" King Kong asked.

Before they arrived, Tang Luo had gone into the water; now the terrain here has changed—where is Tang Luo?

Did he survive this "earthquake"... or did he trigger something that caused all this?

"Is your master alright?" Qin Menglan cradled the Sky Hound and asked.

The Sky Hound looked bewildered—how did she know that?

"It seems you don't have any special sensing either." Qin Menglan said, looking at the Sky Hound shaking its head.

"What should we do—look for him?" Zhao Gailun asked.

King Kong said: "Where should we look?"

The lake water below was murky and constantly churning; unless one had the corresponding skill, even gods and demons walking underwater couldn't hope to find someone—just preserving oneself would be good enough.

"I can try." Li Qing said, but didn't enter the water; instead, he raised his hand.

Fresh blood began to seep from his index finger, floating in midair, forming lines.

Everyone recognized it—this was the signature skill of the painter Gu Feng: the Painting of the Black Tortoise.

Li Qing had fortunately obtained this skill.

The Black Tortoise he painted was somewhat smaller than Gu Feng's, its movements not sluggish; it leapt into the utterly murky water and vanished in the blink of an eye.

"Five minutes." Li Qing said, "The Black Tortoise can last five minutes; if we don't find him, we'll proceed with the original plan—how about that?"

The others all nodded, agreeing with Li Qing's approach.

Five minutes passed in a flash.

Li Qing shook his head and said: "The Black Tortoise has already dissipated; we didn't find anyone, but there should be no danger in the water."

The Black Tortoise simply lasted its set time and then naturally faded away.

"Let's go check elsewhere first." Yunxiao Huan said, "Waiting here does nothing."

After taking another deep look at the drastically changed lake, everyone set off again.

"What a hidden grotto..."

In the pitch-black underground where one couldn't see five fingers ahead, Tang Luo slung his wooden bow across his back and sighed.

This plain, dark-gray wooden bow is a piece of equipment named the Canghui Bow, seemingly coated with a layer of gray dust that can never be wiped off.

This is likely the origin of its name.

It comes with two skills; the first is somewhat similar to Tang Luo's unknown qi-blood pellet, called the Qi-Blood Arrow.

The arrow formed by condensing the qi-blood of the one drawing the bow effectively solves the problem of ammunition shortage at critical moments.

As for consumption, it is certainly greater than that of one qi-blood pellet.

The other skill is called the Explosive Arrow.

Firing a special arrow, upon contacting an object, it generates a surging explosive force, with a cooldown of 12 hours.

A fairly standard long-range attack equipment.

Unfortunately, Liuxian never got the chance to draw the bow in this mission.

Based on yesterday's events and inferring from Liuxian's words, before he split from the main force, the purple gourd had likely already pulled off a "beam substitution, cicada shedding."

That leaf had become the "location of the true body"; the gourd was merely left as an empty shell.

This is also why, no matter how Zhao Gailun tried to persuade him at the time, Tang Luo still made gourd soup from the purple gourd, yet the gourd remained completely unresponsive.

Whether Liuxian was passively corroded by the gourd inside or simply neglected by it, we cannot know.

Based on the wounds on Liuxian's body, it seems he ate that gourd leaf, and the gourd leaf then broke out of his body and escaped.

Tang Luo kicked down, also to see if he could injure that escaped gourd leaf.

See if he could touch the prize.

How to say—Tang Luo now also has over one-tenth of his strength; sometimes his methods can be a bit rough.

Tang Luo doesn't know if he hurt the gourd leaf with that kick, but the kick did step into a "hidden grotto."

Originally he only thought the lake connected with the underground dark river; he never expected this mountain range to actually have a vast, interconnected underground world.

But now, it certainly isn't as extensively connected as it was at first.

Tang Luo's kick destroyed many passages and underground spaces.

Water droplets fell from time to time above his head, and there was a "small stream" under his feet; the underground passage Tang Luo was currently in sloped slightly downward.

I don't know where it leads.

If possible, Tang Luo naturally hopes it leads to the snake demon's cave; if he's lucky and finds the snake demon, he can complete the mission.

"Uh—just now that kick, it probably wouldn't collapse the snake demon's lair and crush Grandpa, right?" Tang Luo suddenly thought of a possibility, then immediately dismissed it, "After all, it's a snake demon, there shouldn't be any vegetables."

That gourd baby could escape Tang Luo's grasp; a stronger snake demon would certainly perform better.

Otherwise, how could it be worthy of Tang Luo's suppression mission?

"Indeed, all passages connected." The intricate underground passages reminded Tang Luo of an 8D city, and also of the X Capital subway dubbed a labyrinth.

Anyway, he's now completely lost, can't tell southeast from northwest, only up/down and left/right can be distinguished.

The key is, along the way, not even half a ghost's shadow has been seen.

The only sound is Tang Luo's footsteps, plus the sound of flowing water coming from somewhere unknown.

"Hope they can find some relevant clues." Tang Luo thought to himself.

If he really can't find where the snake demon is, he plans to spend some time thoroughly plowing this area, digging out the snake demon.

Think about it, why is it always like this every time?

Those mission targets, one by one, are hidden so deeply.

Even those who should be mountain kings, with bats, centipedes, and toad demons as underlings—scorpion demons and snake demons—have started playing hide-and-seek.

In horror movies, ghosts one by one know to come out and scare people; sealed demons and the like desperately yearn to break the seal, go on a rampage, and wreak havoc on the world.

Why doesn't it work in Tang Luo's case?

He also didn't deliberately release any terrifying aura—why are those ghosts and monsters running?

Or is it because, after all, he's injured, and unconsciously just "leaked domineering aura"?

"Hold on, recover a bit more before I can capture perfectly." Tang Luo thought this, when suddenly a faint sound reached his ears.

Like a muffled knocking.

After passing through the passage's layered "echoes," it's hard to determine the exact location.

Tang Luo stopped his steps, tilted his ear to listen carefully for a while, then quickened his pace forward.

Because of the passage's transmission effect, the sound source is hard to pinpoint.

Tang Luo can only use a rather clumsy method: constantly moving forward, changing direction, and judging roughly based on the size changes of the uninterrupted sound.

As for how to change direction as needed inside the passage—this isn't difficult; Thousand Hands Can't Prevent can be deployed to dig out a brand-new passage in minutes.

Even if it collapses immediately, it doesn't matter; he can just dig it out again right away.

Digging, that's just how simple it is.

"No wonder not even half a ghost's shadow is visible—turns out it was blocked off."

About ten minutes later, Tang Luo found the source of the sound.

A large stone block lying across the passage, completely blocking it, the muffled impact sound came from behind the stone.

Around it, rubble and a small amount of dirt were falling down.

Underfoot, the "walls" on both sides also had slight vibrations.

"Good."

Tang Luo decisively punched out; as his fist struck the huge stone before him, numerous fine cracks spread across it, like a dense spiderweb.

Like disassembled building blocks, it "collapsed" toward both sides.

Although this stone blocked the passage, it also served as the passage's support.

As Tang Luo shattered the stone, the passage also began to collapse, with large amounts of rubble and dirt falling down.

The "presence" behind the stone, under these circumstances, lunged at Tang Luo.

It was a huge snake head, mouth wide open, directly occupying the entire passage; inside were not ordinary fangs, but rings of teeth arranged inward.

In the center was a black hole, looking like a meat grinder.

"Snake?"

Tang Luo wasn't startled but delighted, and unleashed an Empty Palm strike.

The force transformed into an invisible palm filling the passage, blasting into the distorted maw before him.

Just like a train crashing into a mountain, the entire snake head impacted into a blur of flesh and blood, the snake body tangled into a clump, and flew backward.

Behind it was not a passage, but an underground space similar to a karst cave.

Tang Luo stepped forward, chasing up; behind him, the passage kept collapsing; when he stood in the underground space, the passage he came through also completely caved in.

This rather spacious underground space overall resembled an inverted bowl.

The entrance passage was in the middle, over ten meters above the bottom.

After Tang Luo rushed out of the passage and landed, what he stepped on was neither solid ground nor muddy "ground."

But slippery scales!

Several stone pillars "stood tall," entwined and coiled with bluish-black giant snakes.

Tang Luo lowered his head; under his feet were likewise strands of bluish-black giant snakes tangled together, constantly writhing, occupying all the "ground."

The largest probably couldn't even fit into the passage just now; the smallest was at least 10 meters long.

The one Tang Luo blasted away was, among the snake group, only medium to upper-medium.

This place, indeed, is a snake den! Or rather, a den of a heap of snake demons!

The intrusion of strangers stirred this group of snake demons into agitation; hissing sounds rang out continuously; in the darkness, pairs of dark green eyes emitted a faint glow.

Ferocious, violent, frenzied, as if flames were burning!

"Such intense and undisguised violent demonic aura—I haven't felt this in a long time…"

Tang Luo slowly lifted his head, muttering to himself, his gaze sweeping over the cave, yet his eyes remained unfocused, as if lost in memories of the past.

Being swept by that pair of eyes that seemed somewhat dazed, the serpent demons that had just been writhing their bodies suddenly froze in place, like statues.