Chapter 421: Stone Shadow: Black Fur

What is this? Before I could see clearly, there was a splash, and the thing suddenly leaped entirely out of the water, charging at me.

Thank God for my reflexes—fast enough that even I couldn't believe it. Instantly I ducked and rolled, and the thing slammed into the stone wall behind me.

This was the first time I realized my body was faster than my nerves, all thanks to the series of things I had been through recently. No matter what that thing was, I must have seen much fiercer things than it, and seen how those things were taken down.

After the tumble, I immediately got up. In the past, I would have steadied myself to see what it was, but this time, for some reason, I didn't look. Although I wanted to turn my head, I still rolled behind the bearing at top speed.

Almost at the same time, I heard a gust of wind at the spot where I had just stood, and the thing pounced almost simultaneously. If I had hesitated for a second, I would have been rolling on the ground with it.

But no matter how well I dodged, the situation was extremely unfavorable. Before I could stand up, I found my waist had no strength left after two rolls, so I immediately sprinted forward while twisting around to fire a shot from under my arm.

The gun's recoil was enormous—I had learned about that in Qinling and was mentally prepared. After one shot, I let the recoil swing my hand back, instantly onto my shoulder, and fired another shot as I turned.

All the actions were completed in an instant. I heard a sound of something falling behind me, so I knew I had hit it, but I didn't know how effective it was. I ran around the bearing back to the corridor entrance, tossed the gun in my hand, grabbed the equipment bag, pulled out two more guns, braced one against the wall, chambered a round, then lay down on the ground and turned around.

I expected the thing to be right behind me, so I could blast it away with a direct shot. But at that moment, I found nothing behind me.

Almost simultaneously, I saw the iron chains above me shake, and then the cold flare went out.

The whole dark room went dark instantly. Instinctively I lunged forward without even time to show shock, and felt a sharp pain in my back, as if something had grabbed onto it.

Then the impact knocked me to the ground, and my foot immediately cramped.

In the previous few seconds, I had almost exerted all my potential. For a moment, I even felt I had it under control, but it was an illusion, damn it. My thoughts raced like lightning, and I almost despaired, knowing I was dead.

In the blink of an eye, suddenly my foot slipped, the gun swung, I rolled, and I tumbled into the well opening under the bearing, falling into the water.

After entering the water, it was pitch black, but I immediately hit the rotating blades below. The water current was extremely fast, and I was swept away by it. Then with a violent collision, I hit something—an underwater iron chain.

I grabbed it and felt around, discovering that the space under the well opening was very large, but crisscrossed with iron chains forming a net that covered the area around the well.

Almost simultaneously, that thing followed me down, but I entered the water first, and the strong current caused it to hesitate for a moment.

I knew that no matter what it was, it couldn't kill me instantly underwater. My back was burning with pain. Holding my breath, I quickly pulled out two cold flares, reached my hand above the water, lit them, and threw them out.

The firelight illuminated everything, and blinding white light shone down through the water surface. In that instant, I saw a blurry shadow right in front of me.

I immediately kicked out. One foot was already severely cramping, but I surprisingly felt no pain. That kick landed squarely in the crotch of the thing.

It felt like kicking a thick tire, but underwater it had no leverage, so I kicked it away and simultaneously used the momentum to surge to the surface. Outside was blindingly bright. I let out a roar and desperately climbed up, managing to get out. But before I could stand, the water exploded again, and that thing also emerged.

At that moment, I finally saw what that thing really was.

It was almost like an ape, but I could tell it was a human, extremely skinny. The only thing was that its entire body was covered with the same kind of hair we had seen in the cave earlier, all clinging to its body. Its nails were very long and seemed fossilized. This thing looked like it had been here for some time.

What terrified me most were its eyes—I couldn't see them, because its eye sockets were also filled with hair.

Its movements were extremely eerie, completely unlike a human's. After coming up, it quickly charged at me. This time I had no strength left to dodge, so I mustered all my remaining energy, lit the last cold flare on me, and used it as a weapon.

It was useless. The thing practically pounced on me, and a claw caught me right next to my ear, immediately leaving a very deep bloody gash at the base of my ear.

I couldn't think at all. I was disgusted and frantic. I swung a punch at its face—it felt like punching a lump of steel and splashed water onto my face. The second time, I swung the cold flare and smashed it hard on its head. Sparks flew everywhere. I didn't think it would work, but I saw the thing suddenly retreat.

At the same time, I saw that all the hair on its body began to writhe.

It suddenly hit me: Holy crap, this hair is afraid of my blood.

I immediately touched the blood from my ear and pointed at the thing. It instantly flinched. A strange feeling rose within me. I shouted at it, "Kneel!"

But the thing suddenly stood up, climbed up the bearing onto the iron chains above, and started crawling into a crevice.

I saw this was bad, so I turned around, grabbed a short-barreled shotgun beside me, aimed, and fired, blasting it down. Then another shot made it stumble. I ran to the crevice opening and only then noticed that the thing's collarbone was actually chained to an iron chain, the other end in the water.

I immediately went up, grabbed the chain, and jammed it into the teeth of the bearing. The rotating shaft immediately pulled the chain, dragging it. Unexpectedly, the thing was astonishingly strong; the chain pulled a bit and even stopped the entire axle. But with the chain taut, it couldn't move an inch. I took out a few bottles of liquor from the equipment bag and smashed them at the thing, then lit a lighter and threw it over.

The fire caught instantly, spreading incredibly fast, covering its entire body in an instant. Soon it lost its strength, the axle continued to turn, quickly winding up the chain. The thing was dragged under the axle, and then the fire went out.

The alcohol burned cleanly. Under the charred hair, I saw a greenish ancient corpse. The parts above water were smoking, its wide-open mouth and eyes completely empty. The air was filled with the smell of burnt hair, nauseating.

I let out a long breath and touched the wound on my back. Only then did my legs start shaking. I felt that the skin on my back was completely split open, and I could probably feel my own spine.

Just as I was distracted, I saw the head of the green corpse suddenly move. I raised the gun, thinking it wasn't completely dead. Suddenly, several bubbles appeared in the water, and then in an instant, a red thing shot out from its mouth and landed right on my neck.

In a flash of red light, I saw it was a red snake, coiled around my neck and raising its head. Right by my lips, it pulled its head back, assuming an attacking posture.