On the Ark.

"Is this the suspicious place you mentioned?" Chūmaru looked at the hole, which was even shorter than him, and said, "It's really small. What could possibly be in there?"

“I’ve already explored it with a drone,” Magellan said. “The drone flew about twenty meters in, but we couldn’t see the bottom. However, the terrain inside is quite complex, and I was worried about the drone malfunctioning, so I didn’t let it go any further.”

"You can't even see the bottom after twenty meters?" Chūmaru said in surprise. "That's really deep. Where does it lead?"

“I don’t know, but the air quality inside isn’t bad, which means the air is circulating,” Magellan said. “So we have a good chance of finding an exit on the other side of the island.”

"Is that so? That sounds quite interesting." Chūmaru stretched his limbs and adjusted the position of the spotlight on his helmet. "Let me go scout ahead. You guys wait for me outside, or what?"

“It’s best not to,” Blue Poison said. “If Miss Skadi also encounters trouble here, you basically won’t be able to handle it alone. It would be safer if we went in together. Miss Magellan, have your drone fly in front. That way, if we encounter any emergencies, we’ll have some buffer time.”

Magellan nodded: "I understand, that's what I think too."

Blue Poison was the only one present with experience fighting large creatures, so everyone was willing to listen to her. After the discussion, Magellan's two drones flew into the cave first, followed by Ch'en. The formation then changed slightly; Blue Poison no longer brought up the rear but followed Ch'en, then Magellan, Lin Ye, and finally Frostleaf.

As Magellan said, the space inside the cave was not spacious; it was more like a tunnel than a cave—a narrow tunnel where two people could not walk side by side. Such tunnels were also the most unsafe, because if something happened, there was very little one could do inside.

But there was no other way. Since we were already here, we had no choice but to bite the bullet and go in, no matter how uneasy we were.

The searchlights of the five people, plus the searchlight on the drone, instantly illuminated the dark and narrow cave.

"This place is too difficult to move around in," Chūmaru complained.

“It’s alright, I’m right behind you,” Blue Poison said. “I’ve already prepared my arrows.”

"...Um, please don't shoot me, okay? I've heard of your reputation; one arrow from you and I'm done for, right?"

Blue Poison said somewhat helplessly, "It's not that exaggerated, and I brought an antidote."

"Oh, that puts my mind at ease." Chōmaru was still very easygoing; if he said he was at ease, then he was.

Because the cave was so small, their words echoed several times, making it very difficult to hear. So after a few words, the people in front fell silent, and the cave became quiet again in an instant.

It was so quiet that Lin Ye could hear Shuang Ye walking behind him, the music coming from his headphones, and the sound of flowing water coming from somewhere.

Wait... the sound of running water?

Lin Ye was stunned.

He immediately called out to the people in front: "Wait, did you hear that? The sound of flowing water."

Magellan and Blue Poison, who were walking ahead, stopped.

"The sound of flowing water? I think so." Blue Poison nodded. "We might be able to see it if we go a little further ahead."

“I can see it,” Magellan said. “No, my drone can see it. It’s about a hundred meters away from us.”

Lin Ye and Lan Du exchanged a glance, and then simultaneously urged the group to quicken their pace.

Because the sound of flowing water could be heard in Lin Ye's phone conversation with Skadi, it could be determined that Skadi's phone was located not far from a water source. And that water source was definitely not the ocean, because the sound of ocean waves would be much more violent than the sound of flowing water.

After walking the first few dozen meters, the path widened considerably, and the group no longer needed to stoop and walk cautiously, allowing them to quicken their pace. Soon, they arrived at the location Magellan had described—an extremely narrow and shallow stream. Magellan's two drones were hovering directly above the stream, illuminating it with searchlights.

"This must have flowed in from outside." Blue Poison squatted by the stream, dipped her finger in the water, licked it to her lips, and then showed a surprised expression. "It's actually fresh water."

"...You dare to drink this?" Chōmaru said. "This water is so dark, it doesn't look normal at all."

"That's because there's silt down there." Blue Poison grabbed a handful of silt and showed it to everyone. "And my body is immune to most toxins in this world, so there's no need to worry, but you'd better not taste it."

Chūmaru pursed his lips: "Even if you didn't say so, I would never try it. You can rest assured about that."

Blue Poison gave a slightly helpless smile: "That's true."

Magellan then piloted the drone, flying it along the current for a while before commenting on the transmitted footage: "The sound of the water over there is much louder. What we're seeing now should just be a very small tributary."

"A tributary?" Blue Poison asked, somewhat surprised. "So, there might be an underground river beneath this island?"

“It’s also possible that it’s just flowing into the sea,” Magellan asked. “Should we continue?”

This was a meaningless question, not even requiring an answer. Chūmaru, carrying her conspicuous guandao, continued leading the way, and the others immediately followed. At this moment, Lin Ye vaguely sensed that Skadi had probably been here before. According to Kal'tsit, Skadi had traveled for a long time through a passage, and the path they had just walked clearly met the standards of a passage.

The reason for this uncertainty is that Skadi's personality is simply too difficult to deal with. She never reports the situation to Kal'tsit in a timely manner, never tells Kal'tsit her exact location, and never tells Kal'tsit what she has encountered.

Skadi always finished resolving everything, placed what Kal'tsit needed on Kal'tsit's desk, and then turned and left. Over time, Kal'tsit tacitly approved of Skadi's way of doing things; she only wanted the result, not the process, and Skadi was too lazy to report the process.

This is why the group still needed to use the communicator's location tracking to find Skadi's last known location before she disappeared.

Blue Poison had clearly considered this as well, and said directly, "According to the information Dr. Kal'tsit gave us, Miss Skadi is very likely to have been here before, and walked the same path as us, which means..."

"Are we not far from where she went missing?" Chūmaru glanced back at Blue Poison. "Could we be facing the same predicament Skadi did?"

"Yes." Blue Poison nodded.

Everyone immediately became extremely alert.

Chūmaru was eager to try: "If it can bring disaster to the strongest deep-sea hunter, I'd like to see what kind of power it is."

Magellan, somewhat nervous, replied, "I will do my research."

Blue Poison inspected his bow and arrows; the highly poisoned arrows seemed to radiate a chilling aura under the searchlight.

Lin Ye silently released the safety of the Vector and pulled the bolt at the same time.

Even Shuangye turned down the volume on her headphones.

The atmosphere became tense as no one spoke.

After walking in silence for about five minutes, Magellan suddenly exclaimed, "My drone has found Miss Skadi's communicator!"

Everyone's hearts skipped a beat, and they asked almost in unison, "Where is it?"

“We’re very close now, less than two minutes away,” Magellan said. “That’s the confluence of the tributaries we were talking about earlier. There really is an underground river down there!”

Lin Ye then noticed that the sound of the flowing water was getting louder and louder.

The group immediately sped up and arrived at the drone's location in just one minute, where they also saw the underground river. Although the underground river wasn't very large, it was still two or three meters wide, but its depth was unknown due to the water quality.

Directly below the drone, about 20 to 30 centimeters from the underground river, is Skadi's communicator.

"Magellan, have you noticed anything unusual?" Blue Poison asked Magellan.

Magellan shook his head: "My drone didn't see anything."

Then everyone walked over.

Chūmaru was the first to step forward, picked up the communicator, and then shook it.

"It really's out of power," Chūmaru said, handing the communicator to Magellan. "See if you can find any clues?"

Magellan took the communicator, checked it thoroughly, and then shook his head: "No, it's just out of power. The main unit isn't damaged."

"Where is Miss Nasketti?" Chūmaru looked around. "Is she here?"

“If she were here, we wouldn’t need to come looking for her.” Lin Ye sighed softly, then walked to the underground river.

The communicator is here, which means Skadi lost contact here. But there's nothing here. What happened to Skadi?

Lin Ye mentally reenacted the scene of Skadi arriving here that night. Skadi must have been somewhat surprised when she discovered the underground river. And after the surprise? What would she do?

As he pondered this, he looked down at the river.

Then he felt something was off in the water, so he squinted and adjusted the angle of the headlight on his helmet.

The next second, his eyes widened, and his body instinctively raised the Vector, then pulled the trigger.

In just a few seconds, Vector launched all twenty-five Originium missiles into the river, creating a series of water jets.

……

……

Author's note: 6k words delivered, still owes 34 more chapters. I should be writing 6k words a day for the next while. It's been a long time since I've written this style of story... Speaking of which, I burned my hand while boiling water today, what a hassle.

Chapter 320 Feng and the [Holy Domain] (3K)

Lin Ye's sudden firing of his gun startled everyone else present.

They all turned their heads to watch Lin Ye scanning the underground river like a madman, the spent bullet casings clattering to the ground. Although it only lasted a few seconds before the Guardian Gun ran out of ammunition and went silent, Lin Ye still didn't release the trigger, biting his lip tightly, even as blood oozed from it, his eyes bloodshot.

"Dr. Lin Ye?!" Magellan was clearly startled by Lin Ye. "What's wrong with you?!"

Blue Poison and Ch'en were the first to react.

Is there something in the water?!

Blue Poison, who was closest to Lin Ye, immediately stepped forward and pulled him back. Meanwhile, Chūmaru gripped her greatsword tightly, quickly advancing and slashing into the water without hesitation. The sharp blade effortlessly sliced ​​through the water, cutting off whatever was flowing beneath it, and a black object was then forcefully pulled ashore.

"what?"

The instant the object landed on the ground, three or four searchlights shone upon it.

From a distance, it looks like a dark tree branch, but upon closer inspection, it turns out to be a severed arm.

Is anyone in the water?

Blue Poison raised his bow and arrow, and Frostleaf took down his battle axe and stepped closer.

The one closest to the river, Chūmaru, stopped moving after swinging his sword, instead tilting his head and making an "Eh" sound.

"What's wrong?" Blue Poison asked.

"There seems to be a corpse in the water... Yes, that's right, it's a corpse."

"Just a corpse?"

"Yes." Chūmaru dipped the sword into the water again, stirring it a couple of times. At this moment, Magellan's three drones surrounded her, at least five searchlights shining on her. Then they watched as she slowly raised the sword, revealing a rotting corpse hanging from the blade, emitting a foul stench, and missing an arm. "Isn't this just a corpse?"

As Chūmaru shook the corpse, he turned back to look at Lin Ye with a strange look in his eyes, as if to say, "A corpse has scared you this much?"

"No! It's not this corpse!" Lin Ye hadn't recovered yet; the scene he had just witnessed was still vivid in his mind. He gritted his teeth and said, "There's a living person underwater!"

"Huh? A living person? What are you talking about?" Chōmaru said. "In such a shallow underground river, if there really were a living person, would I not be able to see them? Don't underestimate me."

Magellan lowered the drone slightly, carefully examined the bottom of the water, shook his head, and said, "No signs of life were found."

"Are you seeing things, Dr. Lin Ye?" Chōmaru said with a smile. "Being so frightened by a corpse, you should stay behind us from now on and not wander around, okay?"

"Chánmàn... don't say that about Dr. Lin Ye." Magellan tried to defend Lin Ye.

"I didn't say anything wrong, did I? Why are you making such a fuss? Are you just scaring yourself?"

Lin Ye struggled to his feet: "No, that's a living person... I can't be mistaken, I was so close to him. I saw his face clearly, I'm absolutely sure."

“I told you you were seeing things, but you wouldn’t believe me. Don’t scare yourself,” Chōmaru said. “The face of this corpse is all rotten from being soaked. What can you possibly see?”

"I told you it wasn't him!" Lin Ye practically roared, his voice echoing across the not-so-spacious underground river. "I know that person, his name is Mephistopheles, I've seen him countless times in my dreams! I absolutely cannot be mistaken!"