Chapter 18: The Underground River Styx
(The missing chapters and the monthly pass display problem have been restored, is anyone still reading the book...... )
I don't know how long Takayama Yuo, a capable controller, can lead those people to support.
And Li Jie, Leonid and the others can't take care of them anymore, and now there are a total of 6 people who have entered the underground of the Tower of Babel with the Kamihara Division, in addition to them, there are also ordinary people such as Michio Tani Shin, and another hired master Kusama Ichiro, the third person in the Kamihara Society, and the head of the General Headquarters Takenaka Kenichi.
Of course, Li Jie can be sure in his heart that except for Gu Xin Michio, a weak archaeologist, everything else is undoubtedly demonic.
The boulder staircase in the corridor continued to extend diagonally downward, although it was almost pitch black, but it was not too much of a problem for everyone's super vision, not to mention that I don't know from where, there was a faint glimmer of light, only Gu Xin Michio was difficult to see clearly because of his weak eyesight, and he was caught by Takenaka Jianshi and his breathing was a little short.
I don't know how many generations of manpower it took to build these countless long stone stairs, but it was unexpectedly long, even with their extremely fast downward speed, they walked for nearly a quarter of an hour, Li Jie estimated in his heart that it was at least more than a kilometer away from the entrance, and it was not known how many hundred meters deep into the ground.
In this isolated environment, there is no surrounding scenery as a reference, and all senses and psychology are magnified, and it is easy to have the illusion of getting lost in it, making it impossible to judge how far and where you are.
But Li Jie's sense of direction will not be disturbed, he can clearly sense that he and others seem to be twisting and turning. In fact, there is always a move in a unified direction. It's supposed to be going deeper and deeper into the ground. Reach a considerable depth before starting to make your way towards the area.
When the artificially repaired staircase finally came to an end, the faint light in front of them made everyone's hearts flutter, and through a huge hole with irregular edges, the ground under their feet had turned into an irregular rock wall with countless damp moss attached to it, and the eye was an empty deep valley like an underground cave, most of the area was an underground river flowing quietly, and only a narrow path less than two meters wide could be treaded.
But after a few moments along the trail. The road in front of me gradually widened. In this underground river, there are many ores composed of unknown substances on the empty walls, emitting a glowing glow, and finally it is no longer pitch black, and it is more conducive to everyone to observe the environment.
Li Jie's eyes flickered, and he could clearly see the large exposed blue-gray rock wall at the top, as well as the rock pillars of different lengths hanging upside down, and the plants in it were not only strange in shape, but also huge than those on the ground. The leaves resembling prehistoric naked ferns bloomed everywhere, each one larger than a human body. Even the moss under the feet is unusually large, with leaves and tendrils exceeding tens of centimeters in length.
Not only that, but everyone clearly sensed that there was an indescribable strange energy surging around, imperceptibly affecting themselves, just like the sunshine and rain dew as natural and gentle, making the soul qi more lively.
A realization rose in Li Jie's heart, this is the magical energy that affects the entire region, the reason why it feels so obvious when they come here, of course, because they are closer to the source of that energy.
This is almost a metaphor for the right path, which undoubtedly lifted the hearts of several people, and the slight fatigue that came along the way was suddenly swept away. However, at this time, a mutation protruded!
Originally, on the rugged ground around everyone, there were many strange plants with long stems and curled up into balls at the top, like clusters of threads, which looked very light and special.
However, since entering this underground, what has appeared in front of Li Jie and the others are all kinds of strange plants, most of which have never been seen on the ground, so there is no way to judge what specific properties they have.
It's just that the moment a few people stepped into this line of green plants, those long pompoms that were originally tightly curled up seemed to sense something, scrambling to bloom like flower buds, countless thin and long tendrils waving, and the thin but tough stalks were also swaying lightly, welcoming the road, which was inexplicably reminiscent of the dandelions dancing in the wind after the summer rain, which looked very good-looking.
It's just that Li Jie and the others didn't have the intention to appreciate it at all, but they were very vigilant and vigilant, and they immediately thought of Koji Tsunoda, the leader of the Tokyo team who was devoured by the terrifying man-eating plant.
In order to protect the fragile Tani Shin Michio beside him, Kamihara even directly created a circular hollow ice cage to cover him, but after waiting for a while, he only saw those emerald green plush swaying and waving, and no other movements, which made everyone a little confused.
"It's the smell!"
Leonid said loudly, but he reacted immediately, the smell that gradually diffused did not affect him much, but was fragrant and sweet, and seemed to have a miraculous effect of calming and sobering.
"Under water!"
Li Jie's eyes flashed and he shouted.
In the deep underground river that was originally extremely calm and difficult to see the bottom, an undercurrent suddenly surged, and then a transparent monster the size of a calf swooped straight at the speed of an arrow from the string, instantly hitting the frost cage that covered Tani Shin Michio, making a dull sound, and actually smashed the ice more than half a meter thick through a large hole, although the body could not enter, the hideous claws danced wildly, bringing up large pieces of ice chips.
Kamihara Si snorted coldly, and the extremely cold silver ball of light reappeared, directly turning the monster into an ice sculpture and freezing it, and everyone saw that it was a strange monster, with a long tail fin growing on its back, and only a small eyeball on its huge head, with sharp claws and strong teeth, as terrifying as an enlarged version of a piranha, but there were still a few dragon-like thick toes under the body, and it was obvious that it could move freely on land.
This monster's whole body is almost transparent, and it is difficult to detect it in this dimly lit underground cave, and if it weren't for everyone's keen perception, it is estimated that they would have known nothing when they pounced in front of them.
The appearance of this strange fish was just the beginning, and then as if it had touched a hornet's nest, countless transparent four-legged monster fish frantically jumped out of the underground river. Towards the siege of several people. Li Jie's long sword is unsheathed. Silver shines. Quickly swept over the two monsters that pounced, leaving traces of different shades, and even shot them directly into the river, but they were not happy, but they couldn't help frowning slightly.
Despite his hasty action, his long sword was enough to cut through steel with the blessing of strength, but it took extreme effort to slash at these monsters, and it was only hard to kill. It speaks volumes about the strong bodies and vitality of these monsters.
And these monsters that popped out of the underground river seem to have a lot of intelligence, and they can distinguish the strength of the qi, and most of them actually rushed towards Tani Shin Michio in the ice cage, but fortunately, with the care of the Kamihara Division, the poor archaeologist was not injured.
And the strange fish that was frozen before, the thick ice on the surface of the body seemed to be showing signs of gradually cracking, and it did not die immediately, but could break through the ice at any time, which made Kamihara a little surprised.
The undercurrents in the underground river are becoming denser and more flickering. Apparently more and more monsters are gathering, and soon it will be another fierce battle.
Just got here. Of course, it was impossible to retreat, and everyone could no longer pay attention to their guard, so they had to speed up and continue to rush forward.
In the face of these crazy and powerful monster sieges, everyone exerted all their strength, even the long river of frost that ran through Kamihara Si's side was broken by one after another impacts, but fortunately, his ability was extremely strong, and he could always buy a lot of time to escape.
Leonid, whose whole body turned into a brilliant diamond crystal, roared wildly, and hit a strange fish with a heavy fist, but it only made it let out a terrible scream, and the claws of the counterattack fell on the surface of the crystal, leaving several nicks, this scene immediately angered Leonid, his hands turned into sharp diamond claws, deeply penetrating the body of the transparent strange fish, and the unprecedented terrifying power acted on it, forcibly tearing the body of the strange fish apart, and countless transparent blood was scattered everywhere, spilling on those shaking long pompom plants, Suddenly, the swing became more violent, and it was absorbed completely in an instant.
The people who witnessed this scene did not understand what was going on at this time, the smell of the plush plant was beneficial to the creatures, but it would attract different monsters to fight each other on the riverbank, so that they could reap their own profits, which was really a sinister trap.
Then came another reality that everyone had to face, these strange fish lurking in the underground river were so difficult, and most of the other monsters attracted by the plush plants were also equally ferocious, which would undoubtedly add another obstacle to their progress, and the sooner they crossed this area, the better.
There is no hope that the trap of this strange plant is aimed at the Uzan people, who have lived here for generations, and most of them have their own unique ways of avoiding all kinds of lurking dangers, as evidenced by the fact that the plants in the dense forest only attacked Koji Tsunoda.
Leonid forcibly killed a few strange fish, but he was not complacent at all, but accelerated his speed, obviously unwilling to spend his energy on fighting these inexhaustible monsters, and wanted to rush through this strange place as soon as possible.
However, it backfired, and as the movement caused by the crowd became louder and louder, the monsters that fought against the strange fish in the river finally appeared.
The first thing that appeared was the huge black monster bats flying in the air, several meters long, and the ultrasound waves emitted by these monster bats seemed to be able to penetrate everything and reach the body, causing the pain of the body being separated, and even the hard rock was constantly shattered.
This kind of unguardable sonic weapon, in fact, most of them also have dizziness and hallucinogenic effects, which are enough to provoke other people to hallucinate and attack each other, but because Li Jie and others are strong, they have not been affected too much.
However, even so, the taste of being stirred by various sound waves in all directions was not pleasant, not to mention that the underground river channel was agitated and undulated, which stimulated countless monsters to rush even more fiercely.
The other is an even more peculiar monster, with a dark brown body, covered with strange skin all over the body, and six long sickle-like limbs, but it uses two knife feet to hang upside down on the rock wall of the cave roof, and the other four long limbs dance up and down, appearing extremely flexible, like a super-large mantis with only muscles and cortex.
In the entire cave, it was like a monster world, killing each other in this gloomy underground world, but those newly added land monsters did not relieve the pressure on Li Jie and the others because of the confrontation with the strange fish, because their impact speed was the fastest and was often the most conspicuous attack target.
The hired master Ichiro Kusama was now in a state of endless remorse, and with his powerful death beam, he followed Kamihara into the underground. Although avoiding the fate of being besieged above. But it has also become the weakest link among everyone. Even more miserable than Michio Tanigami, who was under the care of Kamihara Division, those inexhaustible monsters were like smelling blood, and they frantically besieged, which soon made him fall into a state of exhaustion and was injured again and again.
Despite revealing his hideous demonic form, Ichiro Kusama was still under pressure, and as the one in control, he had not encountered such an embarrassment for a long time, and he was angry and anxious. Countless dazzling lasers erupted violently, causing large penetrating wounds on all the attacking monsters around them, and suddenly emptied a large area, and finally had a moment to breathe.
However, he was too early to rejoice, and it was about the glow that was so striking that it caught the attention of the peeping in the darkness, and a huge black shadow that obscured his vision flashed with unimaginable speed, swallowing his entire body completely!
Under the gaze of Li Jie, Kamihara Si and others, this controller only had time to let out a miserable scream before he was completely swallowed by the black shadow. And they were able to see the dark shadow.
It was a terrifying serpent with a body radius of more than four meters, and most of its long body was still hidden in the underground river. The length of the bare water alone reaches nearly twenty meters, almost like a city wall, completely blocking the way ahead.
Ichiro Kusama, who was swallowed by the giant snake, was obviously not completely dead, countless lasers exploded in the giant snake's mouth, causing blood to spray from the wounds, but these wounds were nothing to the huge body, but they angered the giant snake, and Ichiro Kusama repeatedly cut through his sharp teeth, instantly completely crushing his extremely powerful body and swallowing it into his abdomen!
"Yacumama!"
Such a huge volume can no longer be described as a python or a snake, and Michio Tani, who was sandwiched under the armpit of Kamihara Division, was even more completely frightened, looking at this giant snake that had grown for an unknown number of years, chanting the same word repeatedly, as if he firmly believed that this was the legendary river god queen.
"Shut up!"
Kamihara Division's eyes flashed with a cold murderous intent, as if he was noisy, and directly stunned the other party, he just brought this burden with a mentality that might be useful, but because he had to be distracted to take care of his hands and feet, he lost a master-level help, and his heart was already angry, and the silver light in his palm continued to expand, and he threw it directly from his hand to the giant snake blocking the way, and the cold broke out to the bone, turning it into a huge ice sculpture.
"The two of you, if you don't make any more efforts, I'm afraid you may not be able to cross this river!"
Although the giant serpent ice sculpture was frozen in the air, the thick ice covering the surface was still cracking, obviously not completely trapping it, and it could come out at any time. Kamihara reminded in a grim tone, and his cold gaze swept over Li Jie and Leonid, and sure enough, he had already guessed that they had been hiding their strength, and they had not broken it until now.
Leonid grinned, knowing that what Shen Yuanji said made sense, countless diamond crystals continued to grow in their own bodies, and in the blink of an eye, their size skyrocketed to four or five meters high, turning into a spar giant, like a cannonball, violently impacting and rampage all the countless monsters in front of them, and then with an earth-shattering loud bang, the giant snake that was angry and wanted to struggle for frost confinement was hit hard and flew up!
Li Jie also let out a wild laugh, the surface of the long sword suddenly gave birth to a red flame, and a sharp whistle broke through the air under the rapid dance, if the flame storm swirled and rose up, sweeping through, those monsters that rushed from all sides, no matter how tough their bodies were, could not resist under the cutting of this flame long sword, and they were broken into two, and the section that was cut was instantly turned into charred black vaporization, and there was no trace of blood.
The two of them exerted force at the same time, and the pressure suddenly lightened.
The liberated Kamihara Division's long dress danced wildly, and he took Gu Xin Michio into the air, his palm was high and downward, and a violent silver light erupted, submerging the giant snake and other monsters that had fallen in front of him along with the river, completely frozen!
"Let's go!"
The face of the Kamihara Division, who turned the entire area under his feet into a glacier, was not happy, but he quickly rushed through the gap between the glacier and the rock wall, and Li Jie and the others did not hesitate to follow, their perceptions could clearly distinguish, although this time the extremely cold attack of the Shenyuan Division was unprecedentedly terrifying, and the other monsters that were frozen in the ice were slowly cutting off, but the giant snake's aura did not weaken at all, but became higher and higher, as if it was accumulating strength, and could burst out at any time.
However, this moment of barrier finally allowed Li Jie and the others to temporarily get rid of it and speed up.
The cave was cut off from the middle, but this small section of ice did not support for too long, the monster that simply went forward and followed, an endless stream, with terrible strength and sharp minions, broke through the thick ice like a breath, and at the same time let the giant snake break through the ice faster than imagined, the huge body drilled into the water with an elegant posture that did not match it, bringing up a turbulent water wave, chasing straight after, the huge wave surged, countless strange fish could not dodge and were directly knocked away, it can be seen that the giant snake has been frozen twice, and it has really been stimulated to go completely crazy!
All of a sudden, the underwater waves surged, the black shadows in the cave shone, and the pursuit was full of killing machines, and although Li Jie and the others were fast, it was difficult to completely shake off the pursuing monsters in the rear, not to mention that there were constantly new monsters joining along the way.
Fortunately, at this time, they finally saw that the long river had turned into a fork in the road, and at the end of the road beneath their feet appeared a towering gate of earth and stone, with huge strange statues standing at both ends, apparently carved by hand.
Almost without hesitation, everyone rushed through the giant gate, followed by a terrible loud noise, almost the entire cave shook, the rocks fell one after another, it turned out that the giant snake actually refused to give up, and rushed ashore from the water, knocking the countless monsters that stood in the way in the way scattered, and also chased through the giant gate!
Behind the giant gate, what appeared in front of Li Jie and others was a gray mist, faintly revealing a stone bridge, which was almost the same as before, indicating that this was naturally the road used by the Wusang people, and they did not hesitate to step up, only to see that there was already a vast gray river under their feet, and there was no end in sight due to the fog, and they did not see the slightest anger.
The head of the giant snake chasing behind him suddenly froze in the mist, and its two huge eyes stared at the front, but it seemed to be afraid of something and did not dare to step on the stone bridge.
Seeing this scene, Li Jie and the others, who should have been happy, changed color at the same time!
Even the giant snake did not dare to rush onto the stone bridge to pursue, and what danger was hidden in this dead gray river basin was undoubtedly even more terrifying.
Li Jie's eyes swept down suddenly, and he saw that the gray river under the bridge was extremely quiet, without any waves, and the color was dull and dead, and he couldn't see what was inside at all.
However, there is no need for them to guess, the next scene is enough to make people creepy.
Among the monsters that were violently knocked into by the giant snake all the way, several of them could not control their shapes, and they had already fallen through the fog, and they were still screaming wildly, but as soon as they fell into the river, they instantly froze. From the point where it touched the surface of the water, the body was submerged in a thick gray spread, and in less than a second, it solidified into a lifelike stone statue, a vivid form that even the most ingenious craftsman could not carve.
These creatures, which were transformed into stone statues, did not sink to the bottom of the water, but suspended silently above the surface of the river, in stark contrast to the vitality of a moment ago.
And everything that is shocking happened in front of Li Jie and others.
Seeing the death of their kind without resistance, the countless screaming monsters that pursued them all fell silent, and after slowly retreating into the mist, they retracted into their rivers, and even the most striking giant snakes shook their heads, and then stared at everyone for a moment, before they seemed unwilling to turn around and pass through the carved stone door and disappear into the cave.
This unprecedentedly strange river made Li Jie and the others a little solemn. Before they could go any further, a strange voice pierced through the mist, and a series of words with a unique intonation emerged, the same as the language of the previous Usan people, repeated three times in a row, and floated leisurely in the open underground.
Takenaka Kenichi, Tani Shin Michio, and Leonid were all at a loss, obviously unable to understand the meaning of these words, only Li Jie and Kamihara Si were thoughtful, their eyes flashing with a strange brilliance, and they had also absorbed the memories of the Wusangjia people, of course they could understand what the strange voice was saying.
And the owner of the voice seems to quickly realize that it is not his own people who have intruded, and cannot understand what he is saying, and he actually transmits the message to everyone's mind with consciousness, which is a strange feeling beyond the realm of language, and everyone who receives this message does not need to know any language at all, but can immediately understand the meaning of the other person's expression:
"Whoever steps into the River Styx without permission will have his soul fall here forever!" (To be continued......)