Chapter 134: 133 Underwater

In the deep water, a square formation of five diving Pujis was cautiously descending.

The formation suddenly changed direction, swimming sideways for dozens of meters before continuing downward.

Just now, a nearly completely transparent large fish had been in front of the Pujis, but it was exposed without a trace under 【Sonar Detection】.

Under continuous detection, that strange fish with a mouthpart capable of extending over thirty meters was soon discovered again in the distance.

One diving Puji used 【Infrasound Attack】; this could not inflict enough damage on that strange fish, but it could make it feel uncomfortable!

Sure enough, the strange fish twisted its body and swam toward other areas.

And when a giant jellyfish caught up to the Puji formation, wanting to sweep them all up in one net.

The Puji at the very back broke away from the formation and charged toward the jellyfish behind them.

Boom—

After the dull thud, the Puji was shattered everywhere, while a huge hole appeared on the jellyfish, robbing it of mobility.

It was a self-destruct!

Lin Jun added self-destruct!

This was already the third batch of diving Pujis.

Since the first batch was wiped out, after painful reflection, Lin Jun still decided to add the 【Self-Destruct】 skill.

Sure enough, the Pujis could not escape the fate of self-destruction.

This skill was also forcibly taken by Lin Jun from lv5 to lv6, with its power rising another level.

The seventh layer was even more tricky than Lin Jun imagined; the most difficult part lay in the appearance of giant monsters.

Perhaps size is easier to increase in deep water?

Giant monsters meant that under the same level, they had higher attributes and thicker health.

The specific situation was just like the Earthworms back then; two Earthworms under lv50 had wiped out Lin Jun's expeditionary army.

With the same level, if it were spiders or minotaurs, they would have been knocked down long ago.

The giant monsters in the water of the seventh layer were the same; the Pujis' combat power in water was already a cut weaker.

Although it wasn't to say they couldn't win, going to fight them head-on would be a futile effort.

Lin Jun just wanted to explore all the waters once, so naturally, he avoided them whenever possible.

Fortunately, monsters are always monsters; their habits and attack patterns follow rules.

Relying on three rounds of trial and error, Lin Jun had more or less memorized the entire map.

Finally, four Pujis successfully arrived at the bottom layer covered in sand and ruins.

Probably because there were many hiding places on the bottom layer, giant monsters generally did not come down; it was very safe...

A claw suddenly shot out from the sand on the sea floor and clamped onto the tail of a diving Puji.

【Infrasound Attack lv6】 x4

An attack that ignored defense; the effect on this crab monster, which relied purely on its shell for defense, was outstanding.

It directly shattered its internal body, and the claw clamping the Puji naturally loosened.

Two other crab monsters hiding in the sand nearby, who hadn't had time to act, also died along with it.

The injured Puji had a gash on its waist, making movement difficult, and its health was reduced to a sliver.

Perfect for using as a pathfinder!

The low-health Puji swam laboriously in front, while the three intact Pujis behind followed leisurely.

This time, Lin Jun had the diving Pujis float up, keeping a distance of five or six meters from the sandy bottom, so they didn't have to fear crab ambushes.

The bottom layer was indeed a sanctuary for small monsters; in just this short while, Lin Jun had seen four or five types of monsters not seen above.

These small monsters hid among the wreckage of ruins or, like the crab monsters, buried themselves in the sand.

None were strong; seeing the Pujis in a group, they didn't even dare to attack.

Swimming along the way, Lin Jun looked at these stone architectural ruins, constantly wondering what area this had been before?

A residential district?

Unlikely; although these Shi Zhu structures had already collapsed and were broken, one could still vaguely see that they were once magnificent buildings; residential houses should have been smaller. But if it were a large venue like a temple, a council hall, or a royal palace, everything before his eyes seemed too plain.

There were neither superfluous decorations nor statues representing a certain god or person.

Lin Jun felt this place was a bit too "clean."

According to his impression, locations like underwater ruins or sunken ships shouldn't have rusty ironware, treasure chests, and such things?

But here, there was nothing but stone.

Human adventurers?

This guess was rejected by Lin Jun as soon as it arose.

It wasn't that humans couldn't reach here; it was just that the difficulty was obviously incomparable to fishing only in the upper layers.

With such difficulty, coming down once would definitely mean picking up good items; it was impossible for them to have picked everything so clean.

Most likely, there were simply no treasures here to begin with...

The exploration lasted nearly two hours, yet no particularly fatal danger was encountered; that low-health Puji had not even been consumed yet!

Although there were no special gains, Lin Jun also temporarily found no traces of a rift's existence.

That could be considered good news?

While Lin Jun was distracted, a diving Puji swam past a patch of seaweed, and its scales caught on an inconspicuous hook.

The Puji pulled the hook along with it; the next second, the seaweed connected to the hook was quickly retracted, dragging the Puji down with it.

A sharp Shi Zhu pierced the Puji that had been hooked down, sending it to Pu-Heaven on the spot.

Lin Jun hurriedly ordered the remaining 2.5 Pujis to stop and carefully observed the surrounding environment.

Only then did he discover that there was not just one hook; many of the seaweeds in this area were connected to hooks, and the hooks were tied on rather than naturally grown this way.

The bottom of the seaweed connected to the hook was a primitive yet ingenious mechanism, designed to pull back any prey caught by the hook, with the final kill delivered by the sharp Shi Zhu placed specifically at the base.

Lin Jun saw several water demons impaled on the Shi Zhu.

Clearly, this was a trap made by an intelligent creature.

Good heavens, there are intelligent creatures on the Seventh Layer too!

Merfolk?

That doesn't feel right; if they were merfolk, shouldn't they be going to the upper layers to sing and deceive adventurers? Isn't living at the bottom, catching fish and shrimp to eat, a bit too miserable?

He controlled the diving Pujis to explore with even greater caution and detail.

Half an hour later, the Pujis found no intelligent creatures, but on a stone wall of some ruins, they discovered a switch that could be turned!

A treasure chest room underwater?

It took two Pujis working together to turn the switch; with a muffled "Gulu-long" rumble, a sloping downward passage appeared.

This feeling... doesn't seem like a treasure chest room.

Lin Jun had seen treasure chest rooms before; they were all simple, exquisite single rooms with a treasure chest placed right in the center.

What lay before him was less like a treasure chest room and more like a passage leading to a new area.

Without much hesitation, Lin Jun sent two and a half Pujis swimming straight in; that was what they were made for.

Inside the passage, Lin Jun saw grooves on both sides for lighting crystals, and in one groove, he even spotted the remains of a crystal that had been scrapped who knows how long ago.

Along the way, many symmetrical forked paths appeared, but with only a few Pujis available, splitting up made no sense, so Lin Jun simply went straight ahead.

At the end of this path was a large hall.

At the feet of a massive headless stone statue with tentacles, three stone discs stood side by side, while on the walls to either side, murals depicting content long impossible to distinguish were carved.

On the stone walls to both sides were some faded murals, but unfortunately, time had eroded them so thoroughly that their content was hard to identify.

So, this is a temple?

At the same time, within the perception of 【Sound Wave Detection】, some living creatures were converging toward this hall...

(End of this chapter)