"Whoa—"

The water in the underground river has become intense, and we can clearly feel that the speed of the water has become much faster.

At this time, all of us who survived: me, Shen Tangzhi, Lao Dao, Hyde, Tenzin Kava, and Poche, a total of six people, were sitting on the body of the mutated octopus monster, and it was carrying us forward.

Hyde was fine, but his face was ugly, after all, he had walked through the door of the Netherworld, and he was frightened.

In the process of rescuing Hyde from the water, the Vortex Crystal found in Azure Jade Dew had been depleted, turning into a point of light, scattered and invisible.

And convincing Shen Tangzhi to sit on the back of this water monster is also quite a difficult thing, her face is even more ugly than Hyde's now, and her body is still trembling slightly - I suspect that she said that she suffers from deep-sea phobia, in fact, it is just "official rhetoric", she is simply afraid of tentacle monsters similar to octopuses, right?

In order to distract Shen Tangzhi's attention, I told everyone about my underwater adventures, starting from the encounter with the water monster, to the vortex crystal token being triggered, and then to finding the snake pupil blood ring from the mouth of the mutant octopus monster between the gods and ghosts, and then using the ring to subdue the mutant octopus water monster......

This experience is complicated, in fact, it happened in less than ten minutes when I dived into the water, but the thrilling ups and downs were no less than any thrills, and everyone listened to them in amazement.

"Aggie, what kind of monster is this, big octopus?" The old knife touched the skin of the water monster, "It's slimy, but it's similar to an octopus." ”

This monster resembles an octopus, with skin, tentacles, nozzles protruding from the body, and so on.

I shook my head and said, "I don't know." But from the outside, at least it is an octopus that has undergone extreme mutation, you have not seen its mouthparts with countless sharp teeth, and it is definitely not an octopus's feeding device. ”

Not only that, but the monster doesn't seem to have eyes—it may have been, but after years of living in the dark and lightless underground river, this organ has completely degenerated.

"Didn't you say you could communicate with it?"

"I did ask it, but I didn't understand what it answered, it seemed to have a lot of names and titles, but it just didn't specify its species - like 'Silent Realm of Terror', 'Ocator of Ocator', you know what that means?"

Of course, the old knife didn't know why, but just sighed twice: "It sounds quite bluffing." ”

At this time, Hyde interjected: "MR Ji, I once read a book that describes the worship of ancient mythological monsters, the title of the book is "Arkham in the Town of Fear", and the monsters in the books are all ancient ...... The terrifying monsters known as the 'Old Gods' have many titles and names, and even their appearance can change at any time, and many of the Old Gods have existed in this world since before the birth of our earth...... I think the strange names of this water monster are very similar to the style of the 'old gods'. ”

"Bearded, you're blowing too much...... What kind of bullshit 'old god' do you think this big octopus sitting under our butts is? If it was an ancient god, how could it be subdued by Aji with a ring? Lao Dao questioned Hyde's statement, "I only know that Pangu opened the heavens and the earth, and Nuwa made up the heavens, which is already the oldest god in the world - even this big octopus dares to say that it is an ancient god, and I don't believe it if you kill it." Hey, that book you're reading can't be a piece of nonsense, right? ”

"Carpet...... Literature? What do you mean? Hyde had never heard such a down-to-earth term as "stall literature", and he was very puzzled.

"It's literature that is less reliable than a carpet." The old knife laughed.

I smiled and said, "Old knife, don't bully other people, foreign friends don't understand...... Don't listen to him, Hyde, he's teasing you—tell me about the book again. ”

I'm more interested in Hyde's book of Arkham because he said the word "Old God" and it reminded me of one thing.

The Blood Jade Yin Bloodbook has one of its properties - it can sometimes absorb some extremely strange substances, such as specific souls, thoughts, or the Yin Mi Qing that can "resurrect" people (see "The Secret Couple" for details), and after that, the blood jade in the shape of a book will open like a real book, revealing some words.

Last time, a text was displayed in the Blood Jade:

"Netherworld, the gate of life and death,

The Quartet is lacking, and the ancestral god Zhaozi.

The key to the Yellow Springs, the bloodline of the Tattoo,

By the heavens, Xuanjun seven chapters. ”

Among them, the word "ancestral god" is very similar to the "ancient god" that Hyde just said.

And the sentence "the four directions are lacking, the ancestral god Zhaozi" means that "the barrier of the four directions of heaven and earth has been broken, and the ancient gods have begun to recover".

Perhaps, I have come into contact with more and more ghosts and monsters, and it is precisely because the barrier that seals the "ancestral god" has been broken, so all kinds of ancient monsters have reappeared in the world and started to make waves?

Thinking so, Hyde had already continued his story, and he said, in fact, that "Fear Lost in Arkham" was one of a series of books.

The exact number of books in that set is unknown, as it is the product of a collective creation that continues to be created today...... I only know that the founder's name is Lovecraft.

Those books similar to Yu tell a new view of history - after the formation of the earth, at least three alien life forms from the depths of the universe descended on the earth, each of them has powerful and terrifying abilities, in order to fight for the earth, there have also been conflicts, but in the end, for various reasons, have hidden, sleeping in the hidden places of this blue planet, and these histories, All of them occurred from the birth of the earth in the Archaic period (3.8 billion years ago) to the Ice Age (2.6 million years ago) in the Quaternary of the Cenozoic Era.

"You can think of it as some horror set." "But what attracted me the most, and what impressed me, was that it invented a whole new element of horror, which I call 'cosmic horror.'" ”

This sense of fear comes from the worldview it creates: the universe is too big and vast to be manipulated or fully explored.

Human beings, as individuals, are so small and even worthless to the blue planet we live on...... And we, the human species, as a whole – even though the number of our individuals are almost measured in the huge unit of "tens of billions" – are as small as a grain of sand in the ocean for the entire universe.

This sense of terror is very similar to deep-sea phobia: it is pitch black, bottomless, and there is an endless danger lurking in all directions, but our perception is almost completely ineffective, neither to rely on nor to know what to do......

In fact, if we look at the entire universe, our planet is in such a situation that it is nothing more than a lonely and small planet suspended in a universe far larger than the depths of the ocean...... It was as if he was alone adrift on a lonely boat, with the endless sea in front of him, and the dark and deep bottomless abyss beneath his feet.

It has to be said that this fear is actually very real.

As human beings explore the world more deeply, the more clear their positioning of themselves becomes—we are small, and we are facing an inconceivable, indescribable universe.

Even with the latest technology, our tentacles to perceive the universe are still so weak and short, and we are caught up in the unprovoked flux of the universe, and we can only follow the fragile and small planet under our feet......

We don't even know where we're going to drift and what awaits us in the long river of time......

This huge and small gap is not only in terms of space volume, but also in time. The time possessed by an individual is also meaningless compared to the entire flood of history. We have always known that individuals cannot stop, or even lead, the tide of the times in the true sense of the word.

We have seen a lot of science fiction works with the theme of apocalypse, and have made many fantasies about the way and ending of human destruction of the earth, but in fact, we do not have the power to destroy the earth, if one day, the nuclear world really comes, what we destroy is only our own civilization.

The Earth will still be the same Earth, still revolving around the star called the Sun as it did 3.8 billion years ago, and over time, a new, vibrant world will gradually evolve on Earth - only by that day, our human race will no longer exist.

Hyde said, "Perhaps...... Millions of years later, new intelligent civilizations emerge, and they will also conduct scientific archaeology, unearthing human relics and guessing everything about our race. ”

"Quite possibly." I nodded, then waved my flashlight, and the pillar of light swayed in the huge cavern where the underground river flowed, half-jokingly, half-seriously, "What if everything we experienced, such as this huge cavern in front of us, was once the man-made product of some extinct species...... Then, the adventure we are now on could turn into a rare discovery that will shock the world. ”

"It's entirely possible." Hyde didn't hear the joke in my words, and said seriously with a frown, "In that set, all human beings who seek the truth eventually become crazy, because they realize their incomparably small and the incomparably terrifying, huge, and unknowable universe, and that kind of gap and despair will destroy all hope, self-esteem, and reason in a person, and even think that death is the final destination and liberation." ”

The old knife on the side made a long yawn with a "heh", obviously having no interest in the topic we discussed, and even wanted to sleep.

Shen Tangzhi asked me, "How long are we going to stay with this disgusting monster?" Her face was full of disgust and fear, and she unconsciously twisted her body slightly, as if she was about to endure it to the limit.

I quickly communicated with the mutant octopus monster, but since we couldn't make an effective correction to the concept of "distance", I couldn't know the exact distance, only that at the current speed, we were almost at our destination.

In front of the Underground River, there will be a huge waterfall where the Mutant Octopus Monster will send us, and then it will return on its own.

I also tried to ask it why it couldn't continue to move forward with us, but it didn't respond to a specific reason, just kept repeating the strong desire of "no", and I also felt that the water monster seemed to have a fear of the area behind the waterfall.

That may represent danger, but we can only get out there, because that is the only way we can reach the surface in our power.

Remember the snake turned Farrado? He also arrived at the temple of Somol from that cavern and launched an attack on us.

Just after I rescued Hyde and put everyone on the monster's back, we took a closer look at where we were.

According to Tenzin Kawa's inference, the underground river we are in is probably connected to the glacial lake we passed by when we first entered the mountain.

This underground river is actually supposed to be a series of dark rivers.

According to the plate theory, the location of the Himalayas is in the middle of the Eurasian plate and the Pacific plate, the whole magnificent mountain range, is formed by the collision and extrusion of the two plates, the Himalayas are also seismic zones, under the surface, there are a lot of geological voids, forming a series of deep caves similar to karst landforms, after millions of years of geological changes, some caves are connected to each other, and eventually form an underground cave group - when the caves are filled with water, the underground dark river group is also formed.

Around Dhaulagiri Peak, there are countless huge glaciers, and the melting snow of these glaciers is the original source of water for the underground river.

We found that there were many cavities similar to the corpse cave in the dome of the Dark River Cavern, and assuming that some of them could lead to the surface, then Farador could enter the Dark River through these hidden holes, and then enter the Temple of Somol from that corpse cave.

But we didn't have the wall-climbing abilities of Farrado, who had turned into a basilisk, and we didn't have enough tools at hand, so I had to trust the mutant water monster that called me "master" beneath me.

Hyde and I discussed the monster's ecological habits, and we agreed that there must be more than one creature in the underground river, otherwise it would not be able to survive here at all given the monster's size.

However, one of the recipes of the water monster may have been the sacrifice of living people at the altar of the Temple of Somol, and those poor sacrifices were reduced to pieces of corpses thrown from the cavern after the sacrifice was completed.

"Boom—"

The sound of a huge water began to appear in our ears and grew louder and louder, and the water monster stopped advancing.

"It's only going to take us here, and there's the waterfall not far in front of us." I say.

"Aggie, you ordered it to go with us! Think about it, if you can take it out - Wo Cao, a big water monster for you to be your subordinate, how awesome. The old knife is still a little unwilling to let go of such a good "coolie".

I reluctantly said, "I've tried many times, but it still ignores my command." ”

"It's here, isn't it?"

Shen Tangzhi didn't wait for me to answer, he jumped directly from the back of the water monster, and as soon as he got into the water, he swam frantically in the direction of moving away from the water monster.

"Section Chief Shen, wait a minute—" I shouted at her.

"I don't listen, I don't listen! Tell your disgusting pet to leave! Shen Tangzhi not only didn't stop, but also swam faster.

"It's not - you're swimming in the wrong direction!"

"Huh?!" Shen Tangzhi stopped his movements and turned around.

But at this time, a few of us had just jumped into the water from the water monster, and Shen Tangzhi just saw the mutated octopus water monster diving into the water, and then passed under her......

"Ahh

The screams resounded throughout the cavern again, almost piercing our eardrums.