Chapter 24: The skeleton

In the light of the flashlight, we saw a monster that could not move. To be precise, I must admit that it was a fish, because the obvious characteristics of the fish’s tail fin were still present on the monster’s body.

But its body has developed in an unknown direction, as evidenced by the four seemingly soft and weak claws that have grown on the front and back of the fish’s abdomen.

The front half of the body is elongated, becoming thinner and more slender relative to the body, and becoming a neck-like existence, making the head appear more protruding. The tail part at the back, to be exact, is more like a long tail, swaying in the water.

As for the belly part, it hasn’t changed much, just looking round and big. If you only look at the belly and the front half, it looks a bit like a turtle at a glance. The belly part is the turtle shell…

This description may not be scary or stressful, but when I and Xiao Chengqian looked at it like this, we felt enormous pressure. No one can not feel pressure in front of a huge guy with a body length of nearly 20 meters, especially when it is swimming less than 50 meters away from us.

Xiao Chengqian and I were both dumbfounded, our faces as blank as if we had seen an alien. I had only one thought in my head: Why was the fish in the X pool? Was it to raise this creature, or to appease it?

I had no way of accessing the secrets of that level, and I could not influence or interfere with the attitudes and decisions of the higher-ups. This water monster was definitely not the only secret in the X pool. Under the X pool, what else was hidden in the complex terrain and the water level that had remained unchanged for thousands of years?

I was overcome with a sense of the vastness of the world and the limitations of my knowledge, but I didn’t want the water monster that had been swimming around to stop slowly, and then suddenly turn around and rush towards the position where Xiao Chengqian and I were standing!

My scalp suddenly went numb. Even if a fat guy were to jump at you in real life, it would be an extremely stressful thing, let alone such a guy.

Xiao Chengqian and I almost flew backwards instinctively, but the turbulent turbulence made both of us feel a bit unsteady. Fortunately, we were able to resist!

The big face was still at the entrance, but Xiao Chengqian and I looked at each other in fear and dared not stay there any longer. We paddled hard towards the hole, which was tilted upwards.

In the dark cave illuminated only by the flashlight, Xiao Chengqian and I were both unusually silent. When I think back on that moment now, the feeling of fear is even more pronounced, because everything points to one thing: this monster is intelligent, and it just tried to kill us by surprise!

If it has a certain degree of intelligence, we can’t estimate how high it is, then it’s not hard to explain why it didn’t leave any evidence, or maybe it deliberately avoided it? Plus, the authorities may have discovered some of the monster’s rules of behavior and deliberately covered them up?

I couldn’t think about it in detail because the monster was obviously evolving. How far would it evolve if it was left alone? Or was there another deeper meaning to letting it exist?

I frowned and fell into my own thoughts, not paying attention to any changes around me. But at this moment, I felt my body lighten and my forehead hurt. It turned out that I had floated to the surface and entered the part of the cave that was not submerged in water.

Xiao Chengqian had already climbed up, looking at me who had made such a low-level mistake, as if he was somewhat helpless. He reached out and pulled me up, allowing me to climb up smoothly.

Leaning against the cave wall, Xiao Chengqian and I panted heavily. Underwater activities are physically demanding, and we needed to rest after the shock of being underwater and not being able to breathe freely on land.

“The air here is fine. It seems we’re lucky. This isn’t a dead end, and we’re still within the range of positioning. We’ve stumbled upon the right place.” After resting for a few minutes, Xiao Chengqian said to me, smiling quite contentedly, completely ignoring the fact that there were water monsters outside the cave and that we were in a hurry.

This kid is optimistic. I casually touched my wet hair, stood up, took off my fins, removed my oxygen tank, and some miscellaneous items on my body, and only wore a wet suit and said to Xiao Chengqian, “Since that is the case, let’s hurry up. We have already met the water monster, but we haven’t found the right place.

After saying that, I walked forward with my flashlight. When I got to a place that was not flooded, the slope of the cave had suddenly become gentle, and there was no difficulty walking. Xiao Chengqian also quickly did the same thing to keep up with me.

The entire cave was very dry and unusually quiet. Visually, there were no visible living creatures. Walking with a flashlight, you only need to pay attention to the potholes under your feet so as not to trip.

The cave was not long, but it was 78,000 meters long. Xiao Chengqian and I walked for 20 minutes before we saw a slightly shiny exit. We quickly walked towards the exit, and then we discovered that after we came out of this small hole, we actually came to a huge cave.

Standing in this cave, Xiao Chengqian and I took a deep breath at the same time because the structure of this cave was a bit peculiar. The whole cave was semi-circular, 50 meters long and more than 40 meters wide. The entire cave wall was extremely smooth. Except for the position where Xiao Chengqian and I were, there were no other branches. On the top of the cave, which was more than 20 meters high, there was a crack, a very narrow crack, through which the moonlight shone in. This was the little light that Xiao Chengqian and I saw.

This scene somehow has a sense of mystery, so Xiao Chengqian and I took a deep breath at the same time. We knew that if we didn’t find the right place, then this would be a dead end.

A dripping sound entered Xiao Chengqian and my ears. There was nothing to be alarmed about. Since there was a gap, it was only natural for water to drip down. However, I listened carefully and that sound should be the sound of water dripping into the water. Could there be a water source here? It was hard to imagine.

There was still plenty of time, so I wasn’t in a hurry to explore the cave. Instead, I left the flashlight at the entrance where we had come out, and let it shine on. When I was looking around just now, I discovered that the place where we were was densely dotted with a dozen entrances, and our diving equipment was still at the entrance where we had come from. If we wanted to return the same way, we had to do this in order to avoid going into the wrong cave.

“Chengyi, where do you think we are?” Xiao Chengqian asked after all that happened last night.

“In the mountains, but as for which mountain, I can’t be sure after walking around for 78,000 miles.” While talking, I asked Xiao Chengqian to hold the flashlight and shine it at the gap. There were some tree roots there, which made a perfect cover.

“Forget it, I don’t want to know. Let’s see if we can get anything out of it?” Xiao Chengqian is a reckless person who doesn’t like to think too much. Just like me back then, I said I didn’t care and really didn’t bother to care. I just walked forward with the flashlight.

I followed Xiao Chengqian closely, carefully examining the cave. As we walked deeper into the cave, I could already see that there was a pool of water in the back of the cave, which looked very deep and dark. With the light of the moon and the flashlight, I saw that there seemed to be something by the edge of the pool, and in the back of the pool there was a protruding stone pillar against the mountain wall. However, I didn’t pay much attention to it, thinking that it was naturally formed.

Xiao Chengqian and I ran forward quickly. Obviously, we were attracted by the things by the water pool. It was only after we ran there and saw the things by the water pool clearly under the light of the flashlight that we gasped in surprise. We never dreamed that it would be such a thing!

Dry bones. The thing by the water was a human skeleton! Xiao Chengqian’s flashlight shone on a human skull, with two dark circles for eyes and gray teeth. In this environment, at first glance, it was actually a bit scary!

How could human bones appear here? Xiao Chengqian and I couldn’t figure it out. We also discovered that the bones didn’t have any clothes on. Could it be that they came here naked?

The ground was messy, and Xiao Chengqian and I suppressed the feeling of unease in our hearts and searched carefully. We were horrified to discover that none of the seven or eight skeletons on the ground were complete, all of them missing parts of their limbs.

I also made another discovery. Among the bones, I found a pen. I just picked it up, but before I had a chance to look at it carefully, I suddenly felt a chill down my neck, as if something was breathing behind me…

Could it be my imagination? But the next moment, Xiao Chengqian and I both changed our expressions, because there was actually the sound of breathing in the cave, and a light laugh!