Volume 8 Chapter 34: Strange Shadows in the Swamp

Looking closely, I saw that the mud at the bottom of the pond was stirred up by something. It seemed as if a huge thing was moving beneath the mud, lifting the black gas that existed beneath the mud. The entire bottom of the pond was moving, and there seemed to be an irregular whirlpool in the mud, wrapping the bodies in and spitting them out.

As the mud became more and more active, more and more black gas rose from below. I was no longer afraid, but my teeth were clenched and my body was tense.

This black gas could be toxic gas formed by the decay of a large number of leaves in the rainforest. This gas often exists under the mud in the depths of swamps and rainforests, and is released if there is a major natural climate change.

Many tropical rainforests are inaccessible to humans because the presence of this toxic gas blocks large areas of access. Some toxic gases are formed by the volatilization of special minerals or volcanic gases, or by mixing with fog to form highly toxic clouds.

If so, this stuff is definitely not a good thing, and I don’t know if it will be as blinding as the fog I encountered in front of the temple yesterday.

I thought about going down immediately and rushing back to the ruins, but after calculating the distance and time, there was nothing I could do at this point. The black gas had already filled the trees, and I was unable to go down. And if the fog from the temple hadn’t receded, it would probably poison me again and I would lose my eyesight. If I ran into a group of snakes, I might end up like the fat guy, so I would rather end it myself.

I prayed that the black mist would only spread under the tree and not rise to the canopy, but obviously that was impossible. Slowly, I noticed that the black mist was like a living thing, rolling and beginning to fill the entire space.

I cursed in my heart, knowing that if this black mist was poisonous this time, I was afraid it would be even more serious than blinding. In a hurry, I immediately tore off a piece of my clothing and smeared a large piece of black mud on my body, covering my mouth and nose, and made one for the fat man.

Then I remembered that I was in the tree, so I immediately found a vine to tie myself to the tree to prevent me from falling from the tree if I became confused from the poison later.

As soon as I finished, the black mist reached my feet. When it came, it spread at an alarming rate. The black shadow was like a ghost, almost instantly wrapping the branch we were sitting on. I even heard the trees here make a slight crackling sound as it passed by, and then the area within sight was suddenly enveloped in black mist.

The thin black mist immediately filled the area around me. As I watched the black mist rise, I felt as if I were trapped in a house on fire. But at the same time, I immediately smelled a strange smell, and my throat began to itch.

Itching in the throat is obviously not a good sign. I instinctively held my breath and tried to take as few breaths as possible.

After a few seconds, I was relieved that I didn’t die immediately. Obviously, the black gas was not toxic, so we had a good chance. However, if I inhaled too much, it was hard to say what would happen.

I prayed that the black gas would dissipate like the fog, and looked up to see if I could climb higher to a place where the black gas was thinner. However, looking up at the entire canopy, I could see that the entire area was completely covered by the black gas. Under the light of the miner’s lamp, I saw that the black gas seemed to be solid particles, like smoke, not gas. I reached up and touched it, but I couldn’t feel it.

What was this? I suddenly felt that I had seen this black smoke somewhere. Where was it? I thought about it and felt a vague sense of unease in my heart.

I suddenly thought of the smelly oil bottle, and I only wished his ancestors well. If he had listened to me, he wouldn’t have been so embarrassed now. Why didn’t I insist on it? If I die here, I don’t know who to go to for justice.

Maybe I trusted him too much before, but the decisions he made recently were all a bit abnormal, and I suddenly wanted to slap myself in the face.

However, even if he didn’t come, I didn’t know if he would be able to come tonight. It was my mistake not to bring a gas mask, but the gas masks that Ning and the others had were very large.

No matter how I thought about it, it was a disaster that could not be avoided.

I continued to look at the quagmire, and I heard a series of sounds of water churning in the swamp beneath my feet. It was very heavy and not noisy, and it sounded like something huge was about to come out of it.

Something must have happened under the swamp, otherwise this kind of movement would not have occurred. I thought to myself, could it be that the snake eggs in the corpse’s stomach had hatched, or was there a big snake coming to feed?

I could hear the sound of the water getting louder and louder, as if it was getting closer to us under the tree. I took my miner’s lamp and shone it, and saw a black spot the size of a calf hidden in the black mist, moving non-stop. It was bigger than the one we had encountered before. But I couldn’t tell if it was really a snake.

The black mist obscured my vision, and I couldn’t see what was under the black spot. I felt that I could only trust in fate at this time, and I concentrated on watching the movements of the black spot.

The fog was all swamp, and the black spot came from the swamp, so it must not be a land creature. It wasn’t the giant snake I had encountered before, either. I thought to myself, otherwise I wouldn’t have missed it with such a large body. Could it be a large fish buried in the mud?

However, what kind of fish in the swamp could grow to the size of a calf? I thought it was unlikely. If it was a crocodile, I would have been dead already. In this swamp, if there was a crocodile the size of a calf, I would definitely be dragged in. A crocodile would never let anything that intruded on its territory go.

While I was thinking, the black spot suddenly stopped near the light spot of my miner’s lamp. It seemed to have noticed the light spot. I felt a little bad, so I immediately moved the light spot away and turned it inside the tree canopy to shine on the fat man.

As soon as I did, I realized that something was wrong. The fat man’s head was drooping, and black blood was actually flowing from his eyes. I was horrified, reached out to touch him, and broke out in a cold sweat. I could only feel that the fat man was cold all over, and only the air coming out was not the air going in.

I cursed in my heart, not knowing whether it was the snake venom acting up or the toxicity of the black gas. I couldn’t care less at the moment. I moved the fat man into a more upright position and then squeezed his nose hard. It was useless to squeeze him a few times. I felt nauseous and thought I should give him artificial respiration.

However, the fat man’s posture was very awkward, and there was no branch behind him to lean on. I had to hold him up with my hands to keep his head upright. However, this person was extremely heavy, and I stepped on the branches and snapped. I changed to several positions, but it didn’t work. I couldn’t hold his upper body with one hand.

Finally, I simply stepped on the branch he was sitting on, and then lay down on top of him. However, I was so anxious that I only managed to get on top of him after I had already heard a “crack” and then a loud crackling sound. The branch he was sitting on suddenly snapped, and I suddenly felt a void beneath me. Before I realized what was going on, I fell with the fat man under the tree and into the water.