Chapter 251 – Underwater
After fighting for half a day, the enemy actually fled right before it was about to die. The group was extremely vexed.
The hall was restored of its initial peace. There was something very uncanny about it as pieces of bones floated about in the clear and s.h.i.+ny water pond.
“So… You wanna go down and take a look?” Fatty asked Han Shen.
Han Shen dropped on the floor and rolled his eyes, looking as if he was going to faint from exhaustion.
“Let’s go. Let’s try another place.”
The group had no other choice but to exit the hall and try a new tunnel.
“Be careful, there are traps up ahead.” In a tunnel, Fatty looked at the ground with a serious face.
Boom!
A thunderous sound echoed and bird feathers fluttered about in chaos. The Lightning Bird had died without anyone even noticing.
“What a powerful trap!” Everyone was stunned.
“That d.a.m.n Sallip! I will never be done with you!” Liu Lan wanted to cry as the Lightning Bird again returned to her pet inventory with one level less.
At the end of this tunnel was an unlatched crystal door.
“Do we still go in?” Fatty asked.
“Why do I feel like this hall is gonna be the same as the last one?” Han Shen questioned dubiously.
“Let’s check it out,” Xiao Jian proposed.
With two rogues, the trap cracking speed was much faster. The party arrived at the door over two hours later.
Same round hall, same structure, same water fountain at the center.
Whoos.h.!.+ As the players neared the fountain, a huge tentacle shot out and swept at them.
The four hastily left the hall. The tentacle wiggled around for a bit before slowly retracting back into the water pond.
The party changed to another direction and came across a bunch of traps after a while of walking.
“Man, does this Sallip ever feel tired? Just how much time did he waste on these traps?” Fatty snarled.
“Don’t you guys think it’s weird?” Liu Lan gathered up her long hair. “Why did Sallip want to block all of the paths to the big halls?
“Isn’t it obvious? Those halls have something to do with the Celestial item.”
“What is that something?”
“The fountains. Or to be exact, the pa.s.sage under those fountains.”
Everyone quickly reached a conclusion. If they wanted to reach the area with the Celestial item, the pa.s.sage under the fountains was their only way.
Since they found the answer, the group no longer hesitated and quickly returned to the first round hall. The tentacle here withdrew due to heavy injuries, so this one was safe for the time being.
The fountain was over a dozen meters in diameter, its bottom couldn’t be seen when looking down from above. The sight of floating bones sent chills down one’s spine.
“I’ll go down first and let the Water-Break Shuttle out.” Fatty closed his eyes and jumped into the pond. The unusually cold water made him shudder.
The pond seemed very deep. Fatty dived down over ten meters and still saw himself within the round structure of the fountain.
“Hiss…” Fatty trembled all over as a layer of ice solidified on his body. His movement was slowed, and the oxygen he inhaled was quickly used up. Fatty’s health started to drop at a faster rate.
Quickly swallowing some red pills, Fatty violently hurled himself down and finally arrived at the bottom.
Underneath the fountain was a rapid seawater current. Obviously, there were areas connected to the ocean somewhere.
This place wasn’t dark as there were glowing plants that lit up the water.
Looking up from down here, the Crystal Maze above was like a s.h.i.+ny colorful sky out of a fairytale.
“Come down,” Fatty announced after setting down the Water-Break Shuttle.
The others jumped down one after another. When they reached the shuttle, everyone felt frozen stiff.
“Ughhhh I’m gonna freeze to death!” The three climbed s.h.i.+vering into the shuttle.
“We’re lucky the shuttle is a submarine. Can you guys imagine it? If this is a fis.h.i.+ng boat…” Xiao Jian commented.
Fatty picked a random direction and tried to steer the shuttle straight along that way. They didn’t need to wait long to see that terrifyingly huge w.a.n.g Zhang’s Tentacle.
The part that was revealed above the fountain earlier was scary enough with the length of fifty meters. Now that everyone got a full view, they couldn’t help but gasp in shock.
Under the illumination of the plants quietly lay a gigantic tentacle of unknown length and the size that could rival a several-thousand-year-old tree. Countless seaweeds tangled around it and even more fish swam by, both under and above.
“Can anyone tell me how many people it would take to eat this one tentacle?” Fatty asked in a trembling voice.
Terrible w.a.n.g Zhang
???
Level: ???
……
All question marks. Even its level couldn’t be appraised.
The shuttle sneakily moved up along the tentacle. Gradually, the ma.s.sive body of Terrible w.a.n.g Zhang was revealed before their eyes.
In the face of this towering underwater ent.i.ty, the Water-Break Shuttle was like an ant looking up at a mountain. They spent over three hours moving and had yet to make a complete circle around the monster.
Fatty moved the shuttle down and up and slowly got a complete picture of Terrible w.a.n.g Zhang.
Unknown height, unknown size, unknown quant.i.ty of tentacles. The only thing they knew that this creature only needed to yawn to blow them all the way back to Black Tortoise City.
“No wonder Sallip was so straightforward when he gave me the map. He was sure that I wouldn’t be able to take the Celestial item,” Fatty said after he woke from the shock.
“Please don’t tell me the Celestial item is inside this fellow’s tummy.” Han Shen’s jaw trembled and clacked.
“This thing is too big. Ignoring the fact that it can annihilate us with a casual movement, we’ll never be able to kill it even if it just stays still and lets us attack.” Xiao Jian drooped his eyelids, genuinely dejected.
“Is this a Divine beast?” Liu Lan asked, curious.
“If it’s not one, then it isn’t far from one.”
“Unwinnable.”
“We’re only pa.s.sersby!”
The sound from the Water-Break Shuttle was simply not enough to catch this ma.s.sive monster’s attention. It only lay there quietly for who-knows how long.
“That’s weird. Who could build a maze above such a big guy and make it guard the maze?”
The group couldn’t understand no matter how hard they thought about it. Looking at the ma.s.sive Terrible w.a.n.g Zhang, everyone was at a loss of what to do.
“We can’t leave empty-handed, ahhh…” Fatty mumbled and subconsciously waved his Elemental Sword as if thinking where to cut out a piece of meat for a souvenir.
“Maybe it’s already dead?” Han Shen said expectantly.
“Yeah right, keep dreaming.” Xiao Jian shot him a scornful glance.
Rumble! A huge whale swayed its tail as it swam past the shuttle, causing a water current to push it back. Surprisingly, this huge whale wasn’t even 1% of Terrible w.a.n.g Zhang’s body ma.s.s.
“Deep Sea Vicious Whale, level 65 normal Yao monster. If we kill it and harvest its inner core, this trip wouldn’t be in vain,” Fatty turned around and said after getting the whale’s information with Appraisal.
Then, he saw the three fellows behind him twist their faces in extreme horror, each stuttering “ah… ah…” as they propped up their lower jaws with one hand and pointed at something with the other.
Fatty turned around again and saw that there was no sign of the Deep Sea Vicious Whale anymore.
“The whale is that quick?” Fatty was a bit startled.
“Quick my a.s.s!” Xiao Jian pushed his jaw back in place with difficulty. “It was eaten whole by the octopus in one bite!”
“What?!” Fatty paled in fright.
“There’s another whale over there.” Fatty set his sight on another Deep Sea Vicious Whale and quietly steered the shuttle over.
At nearly seventy meters long, this whale was even bigger than the last one. The whale leisurely swam around as if taking a stroll after a good meal.
Hooo… The motionless Terrible w.a.n.g Zhang suddenly trembled so slightly. A slit over a hundred meters long suddenly opened up on its body. In just a blink, it sucked in the Deep Sea Vicious Whale before closing its eyes again.
“With this kind of attack, it can swallow ten thousand players at once without a problem!” Fatty gulped, his heart shaking in fear. Pondering a moment, he moved the shuttle. “Let’s go.”
“Go where?” Liu Lan asked.
“Up. I suspect the heart of Crystal Maze is right above Terrible w.a.n.g Zhang.”
The Water-Break Shuttle ran at full speed and drew a white streak across the water. Like a dragon breaking out from the sea, it headed up towards w.a.n.g Zhang’s head.
Not long after, the party arrived atop w.a.n.g Zhang, where a hole of a hundred meters in diameter was channeling out bubbling seawater high up above.
All of a sudden, a huge monster charged at the shuttle. Fatty hurriedly steered and dodged it.
“What’s that?” Everyone flocked over and saw a giant, green, two-horned anaconda coiling around. Its pair of huge eyes that emitted a meter-long green light was fixed on their shuttle.
“How can there be other monsters living near such a terrifying beast like w.a.n.g Zhang?” Liu Lan was confused.
“Of course there is, otherwise Terrible w.a.n.g Zhang would have nothing to eat,” Fatty casually explained as he tried to avoid the anaconda’s attack and got the shuttle above water.
The green anaconda was about fifty meters in length. Only a dozen meters long, the Water-Break Shuttle nimbly avoided the majority of the monster’s attacks. When the shuttle was about to reach the hole…
BOOM.
A ma.s.sive waterball exploded right next to the shuttle and knocked it off its path. The shuttle swayed and temporarily went out of control.
“Not good. Everyone, prepare to jump out!” Fatty shouted.
“Ah woahh! Bad, this is bad!” Han Shen yelped as soon as he jumped out of the shuttle, his face stricken with terror.
The anaconda was sucking in with its wide open jaws facing the shuttle.
Wheewww! A water whirlpool coc.o.o.ned around the players as they spun towards the monster’s mouth.
“Waterwalk!”
Fatty screamed and took the initiative to Waterwalk right to the green anaconda’s huge head. As the Elemental Sword quickly expanded, Fatty viciously stabbed it at the inside of the mouth.
“Hiss….” The suction force disappeared as the anaconda twitched around and hissed in pain nonstop.
“Go!” The group took this chance to swim up.
Rumble… The green anaconda spat. A water arrow charged at them from behind and caught up in a second.
“Protection!” Liu Lan shouted and took out her s.h.i.+eld. A white light flashed on the surface of the s.h.i.+eld. When the water arrow struck the s.h.i.+eld, it exploded into water bubbles.
Liu Lan was knocked back, blood gus.h.i.+ng out from her mouth. Her health hit a critical low point in one fell swoop.
“Lan’er!” Fatty used Waterwalk to reach Liu Lan and hugged her with one arm.
“Quickly, go!” Fatty flung her up with all his might. Before he could use Waterwalk again, the anaconda snapped its jaws and swallowed him whole.
“Fatty!” Tears flowed from the corner of Liu Lan’s eyes and merged into the seawater.
Whoos.h.!.+
A spear appeared in her hand. Her face resolute, Liu Lan decided to risk her life to kill the anaconda.
“Go now! Or you’ll die for real this time!” Xiao Jian held her back and dragged her up.