Sail Shadows in the Sea of ​​Fog

Chapter 34: Lights in the Underground River

After a brief silence, everyone in the auction house immediately rushed to the various tunnels connecting the mine!

"Tough luck!"

Cheng Lang kicked away a cloaked man who tried to snatch the ice core he had taken. He picked up the ice core, which was the size of a human head, wrapped it with the corner of his cloak and held it in his hand. He followed the crowd and ran towards the nearest mine tunnel.

But in just a short while, the ship lights hanging in the mine went out one after another with cracking sounds!
Before the mine was completely plunged into darkness, screams rang out from everywhere!

"boom!"

A sharp gunshot was heard in the darkness, and the people running wildly in the dark became even more panicked.

"boom!"

Another gunshot rang out, and the auctioneer who had just lit the oil lamp on the stage was shot in the chest and fell to the ground.

Didn’t they say you can’t bring weapons?

Cheng Lang cursed inwardly and squeezed to the edge of the mine with the help of the firelight. At the same time, he took out a whip with a highly poisonous smell to guard against his surroundings.

Fortunately, perhaps because he was standing close enough to the edge, no one crowded over and no one noticed him.

It was also during this opportunity that he clearly saw a ghostly shadow jump onto the stage, pick up the oil lamp, wrap it with a cloak prepared in advance, then jump off the stage and disappear into the darkness again.

Get out of here as soon as possible!

Cheng Lang secretly thought that something was wrong, and he stuck to the wall and tried his best to avoid the crowd and started moving towards the mine tunnel that led to an unknown place. At the same time, in the thick smoke and flickering flames, he was vigilant against the people around him, fearing that someone would stab him.

Just as he was about to reach the entrance of a mine tunnel, he caught a glimpse of a thin shadow crouching and rushing towards him, and he also saw a flash of cold reflection in the other's hand!

In such a small space, his whip simply couldn't exert its full combat power, unless he chose to poison everyone around him, but that would undoubtedly confirm his guilt as an "accomplice"!

In a flash, he swung the whip hard and hooked it onto the hook above his head where the ship's lamp was originally hanging. He pulled it hard, and with the help of the contraction of the whip, he lifted himself away from the crowd on the ground.

"Ding!"

Almost at the same time, a sharp dagger hit the rock wall along the corner of his clothes, and a flash of sparks flew out!

Having narrowly avoided the fatal blow, Cheng Lang did not dare to relax. He lengthened the whip again and swung it like a swing directly to another mine entrance far away. He kicked down a cloaked man guarding the entrance and knocked over his oil lamp, starting a fire at the entrance.

"Feel sorry"

Cheng Lang muttered something hurriedly, put away the whip and started running wildly along the mine tunnel.

Fortunately, the oil lamp hanging in the mine tunnel was not extinguished, allowing him to see everything around him clearly.

But it was also with the light emitted by those oil lamps that he was able to see that there were many corpses lying in this mine tunnel. Without exception, all of them had their chests pierced by sharp knives, and some of them had not even died completely.

There's someone killing someone up ahead.
Cheng Lang realized that something was wrong, but he had no choice at this moment. He heard hurried footsteps and screams behind him!

In desperation, he could only continue running along the mine tunnel, and hurriedly stopped after turning nearly 90 degrees again.

At this time, several forks in the road had appeared in front of him, but he also saw a man in a cloak pulling out a slender sharp knife that was half a meter long from the back of a corpse.

Without any communication at all, the shadow rushed towards him with a sharp knife in hand!
Seeing this, Cheng Lang ran into a fork in the road without thinking, and at the same time swung the whip behind him!
At the same time, the shadow that was rushing over also stepped on the rock wall of the mine tunnel and rushed into the fork in the road in an almost flying manner, holding the sharp knife in one hand and stabbing it at Cheng Lang's back!

However, when the sharp knife was less than half a meter away from Cheng Lang, a black whip that was inconspicuous in the dim mine was swung on the man's neck first!

"Pfft!"

Cheng Lang sat down on the ground, and with the remaining firelight outside, he watched as the sharp knife pierced through his cloak hood and nailed him into the mine tunnel.

Immediately afterwards, the figure whose neck was strangled by the whip also became stiff due to the deadly poisonous stings injected into the whip tip. Then, when he fell into Cheng Lang's arms, the whip sucked all the blood out of his body.

Carefully pushing away the floating corpse on his body, Cheng Lang pulled out the sharp knife from the hood on his head.

Before he could get up, he heard the sound of footsteps and screams coming from outside the fork in the road.

Gritting his teeth, he picked up the body and continued to move forward to the fork in the road in the dark.

However, he had only taken a few steps when his feet slipped and he fell down with the corpse!
"Pfft!"

Hearing the faint sound of someone falling into the water, Cheng Lang immediately realized that something was wrong, but before he could react, the rushing water wrapped him and the corpse, and rushed forward at a high speed, and finally disappeared into a pitch-black hole under the water!
Fortunately, the ability to breathe underwater granted by the ship's core was not limited to the sea, but the dark underground river still made him feel uneasy, so much so that he subconsciously grabbed the corpse and used the whip to entangle it and himself.

In the rushing water, the only thing he could do was to hide behind the corpse and let the other party help him withstand the possible impact.

Gradually, the water flow became slower and slower, and he and the corpse that served as a shield gradually stopped swimming with the water. He even gradually noticed that there seemed to be a hint of salt in the water.

Could this underground river lead to the sea? Cheng Lang breathed a sigh of relief, but there was no light around him.

In desperation, he could only try to swim upwards, and after touching the cold rock wall, he felt the rock wall, feeling the water flow and continued to move forward carefully.

In this pitch-black darkness, the flow of time seemed to slow down. He didn't know how much time had passed, maybe five minutes, maybe ten minutes, or maybe half an hour had passed.

Finally, his hand felt as if it had left the water, which was good news.

Continue to move forward carefully, and the space above the water becomes larger and larger.

In the end, even though his entire upper body was floating on the water, his hands still couldn't touch the top of the rock.

Although this was good news, the surroundings were still pitch black and nothing could be seen.

After a moment's thought, he grabbed the corpse with his hand, then gently swung the whip to explore everything around him while moving slowly.

With the sound of the whip tip colliding, he immediately changed direction and swam over carefully.

After careful groping, Cheng Lang climbed onto a rock less than one meter above the water surface, and then pulled the body up.

After some searching, he found the mirror he had brought from the boat. However, no matter how he knocked on the mirror or called out softly, the magic mirror did not respond at all. In the darkness, he had no way of seeing if there was any feedback on the mirror.

In desperation, he could only stuff the small mirror back into his arms and turned to feel the light mummy, and soon realized that something was wrong.

This mummy is unique in that it not only has scales, but also appears to have breasts! Although they are not large, they are enough to prove that it is a female!
Cheng Lang was stunned for a moment and continued to feel around on the body of the mummy.

Soon, he found something at the lower back of the female corpse - the oil lamp that had not been sold yet, wrapped in layers of cloak and tied around the waist!
It was with the faint light from the oil lamp that he finally saw the appearance of the mummy.

She was indeed a woman, and she did have a patch of delicate scales on her neck, and she also had three gills, which were unique to sirens.

The only difference between this woman and the one being auctioned is that she doesn't have the pair of white rabbit ears!

After a moment's hesitation, he continued to search the body, and finally found a small crossbow on her cuff, and a leather wristband with several slender iron arrows fixed on it on the other cuff.

But apart from these things, there was nothing else on the female corpse. After a moment's hesitation, he raised the oil lamp above his head and observed his surroundings with the faint light.

This was an enclosed cave above the water. The water was calm, but because of the brightness of the oil lamp, he couldn't see clearly what was farther away.

It would be a pipe dream to want to swim back the same way at this time. His only option was to find another exit.

The special code magic mirror is also unreliable.
Cheng Lang cursed inwardly. He was sure that this place was not far from his ship, but he had lost contact with the magic mirror. The broken mirror on the Savage Island had promised that they could maintain contact at a certain distance!

Suppressing the panic in his heart, he tore off a small piece of cloth from the corpse's robe and threw it into the water, waiting patiently.

A moment later, the piece of cloth slowly drifted away. Seeing this, Cheng Lang stood up and watched intently. He waited until the cloth disappeared from view before jumping back into the water and swimming in that direction. One minute, ten minutes, an hour, five hours. He felt like he'd been swimming all day, until he was starving, but still hadn't found any exit.

I can't just be trapped to death in such a dark place.
Cheng Lang couldn't help but feel more and more panic and despair in his heart. The only thing he was thankful for now was that the oil lamp he had stolen, of unknown use, was indeed as the auctioneer said, and it would not go out even if he dived underwater.

But the brightness was too weak. Whether above or below the water, the flame in the lampshade could only cover an area with a diameter of less than one meter.

He tore off a small piece of cloth from his clothes and threw it onto the water. Holding the oil lamp, Cheng Lang slowly sank into the water, raised his head and patiently observed the direction in which the cloth drifted. Then he put the cloth away and continued to move along the current.

While a certain captain continued to drift in the underground river, the underground black market at Pier 12 finally paid a huge price to quell the conflict that spread from the auction house, and blocked the pier and all the docks, searching for the culprit with all its might.

In an inconspicuous closed dock in the corner, inside a three-masted sailing ship with a lot of smelly moss growing all over the hull, some people in cloaks were sitting around a table.

"Is Semara back?" asked a woman at the head of the table, her face hidden in her cloak.

"not yet"

The woman sitting next to him replied, "She should have been back half a day ago."

"Could she still be trapped in the underground black market?" a woman on the other side speculated.

"I'm more worried that Semara intends to monopolize the ship's lantern."

One of the women said as she took off the hood of her cloak, revealing a pair of slender and cute white rabbit ears. "She didn't escape according to the original plan, and she seems to have killed..."

“She won’t.”

The woman sitting at the top seat said, "Let's wait another day. If she doesn't come back, we'll find a way to leave Pier 12."

"We need that light!"

Another woman said as she took off her cloak. She had some features of a siren, but also had a pair of orange cat ears.

“The first thing is to survive”

The woman sitting at the head of the table said, "Okay, it's settled. Everyone, don't leave the dock for the time being. If we get caught, we might even be auctioned off."

"Speaking of this, how many gold coins did we steal this time?" a woman asked with interest.

"The fat guy who bought me had over 700 gold coins and two bottles of Poseidon's Blood."

The rabbit-eared siren said as she threw a heavy purse, two cups of Poseidon's blood, and a small box onto the table. "I also found a treasure that looks like armor, but it needs to be identified."

"We also got a lot of money," said the other women, and they each took out a purse from their cloak and threw it on the table.

"These are quite a few hauls. Let's count them together. Keep half for ship repairs and divide the rest equally. We'll find a chance to appraise the armor after we leave here."

The woman sitting at the head of the table took off her cloak as she spoke, revealing her platinum hair and elf-like ears, but also revealing the cheeks on her neck that only a siren would have.

"Snapped"

This woman, who seemed to live to dispel the rumor that elves hate the smell of fish, also threw a heavy, blood-stained purse onto the table.

"bright!"

In the underground river, Cheng Lang, who was almost out of strength from swimming in the water, surprisingly covered the oil lamp with his cloak.

When the light of the oil lamp was completely covered, he became more and more certain that what he had just seen was not an illusion. There was indeed a light in the lower right side of his body, an orange-red light like fire!

After a slight hesitation, he swam towards the bright light that was extremely conspicuous in the darkness.

As the distance got closer, the light became more and more eye-catching and larger.

Finally, Cheng Lang swam to the side of the light and saw clearly what was emitting the light.

This is a stone, a stone that is also as big as a human head.

It is fiery red all over and emits a flame-like light. In the hazy light, you can vaguely see a firebird circling freely.

Is this the so-called Vermilion Bird Stone?
Cheng Lang guessed that he had never seen the Vermilion Bird Stone, but he had heard Captain Senfa and the Magic Mirror describe this stone.

After a moment's hesitation, he hung the oil lamp on his belt, then picked up the stone to use as a light, which was much brighter than the oil lamp.

It was also thanks to this huge Vermilion Bird Stone that he was able to see clearly that there seemed to be traces of excavation under the water.

Could this be a mine? A mine for the Vermilion Bird Stone?
Based on this guess, he walked cautiously along the mine tunnel that was completely submerged in water.

After drilling through the gaps left by the collapse again and again, he also noticed that the salty taste of the water became weaker and weaker, and finally turned into fresh water completely.

Continuing to swim forward, after turning several corners in the mine tunnel, a little light suddenly appeared in front of us.

Cheng Lang reacted very quickly and used his cloak to wrap up the Vermillion Bird Stone in his arms and the oil lamp on his waist. He hid in the darkness again and swam forward carefully.

"Pfft!"

Just at this moment, he saw a wooden barrel sink into the water, and after being filled with water, it was lifted up again.

Cheng Lang stuck his head out of the gap in front and looked up carefully, then immediately retracted his head. There was a well outside. It was not very big, but it was big enough for him to climb out.

And judging from the noise outside, it must be extremely lively. No matter how tired or hungry he was, he had to continue waiting.

After retreating dozens of meters to regain the corner, Cheng Lang, who was soaking in water, sat down against the rock wall and fiddled with his unexpected gain.

Although the crossbow and iron arrow on the wrist are the most inconspicuous, they are also exquisite enough.

In addition to the loot, the remaining items were the mysterious oil lamp, the ice core bought with 5 gold coins, and the glowing stone that was picked up and was about the same size and suspected to be Vermilion Bird Stone.

He took out the mirror from his arms and knocked on it again. Seeing that the magic mirror still did not respond, Cheng Lang could only put it away and continue to wait patiently.

However, the well not far away was particularly busy, with buckets of water being dropped down almost every one or two minutes.

After finally waiting for the night to fall outside, one or two copper coins or even silver coins would be thrown down from time to time, followed by the girl's prayers or divinations about love, lover, or sweetheart.

Amidst those confessions, some pure and some explosive, Cheng Lang finally waited for the moment when the wellhead became completely quiet.

Cheng Lang tied the three tightly wrapped trophies into a bundle with the cloak stripped from the corpse and carried it on his back. He then carefully swam to the bottom of the well, stood up straight on a thick layer of copper plates and a small amount of silver coins, and listened for a moment.

After making sure that there was no sound outside the well, he swung the whip, wrapped it around the joystick at the wellhead, and pulled himself up.

Leaning his head out to observe, he noticed that not far from him was the lighthouse at Pier 12. A little further away was the pier and coast, obscured by the artificially created fog.

Let’s go back first!
Seeing that the magic mirror still did not respond to his call, Cheng Lang quickly climbed out of the well, crouched down and jogged all the way, then jumped off the dock and into the sea under the cover of thick fog.

After swimming in the sea for more than half an hour following his memory, he finally found the enclosed dock where the Valkyrie was docked. He also noticed the ships towing on the sea and the guards patrolling on both sides of the waterway.

Not daring to come out of the water at all, he swam almost close to the seaweed at the bottom of the channel all the way to the door of the dock, and squeezed in with difficulty along the gap at the bottom edge of the wooden door.

It was not until this time, until he saw the Valkyrie not far away, that he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

(End of this chapter)