After the dragon lizard fell, the flowing black mud that had originally covered its body dissipated strangely, and gathered together like a living thing.

"Uh......h What a stinky smell. ”

Paimon suddenly covered his nose.

Well? What a smelly smell?

Sasuke sniffed.

It seems that there is only the unique underground smell of the mine, but there is no stench.

Seeing Sasuke's puzzled look, Paimon was stunned for a moment.

"Huh? Sasuke, don't you smell it? ”

Paimon flew to Sasuke's side, pointed to the black mud that looked like a living thing, and said:

"That's it, wow, the smell is coming from there."

"Hmph... Anyway, I think it's better not to go near those black things, because they are dangerous to look at. ”

But looking at Paimon's disgust from the bottom of his heart, Sasuke was thoughtful.

Wait a minute......

The more Sasuke looked at this black mud, the more familiar it felt.

His hands were sealed, and a shadow clone appeared beside him.

After the shadow clone stepped on the black mud, the black mud seemed to have found some prey, and desperately climbed up, spreading up the soles of the shadow clone's feet, as if trying to devour it.

Immediately after that, the shadow clone turned into smoke with a bang.

Sasuke closed his eyes, feeling the feedback from the shadow clone.

Sure enough, the feeling was familiar.

When I first fought with the Abyss Princess, the black mud thrown by the other party was very similar to the black mud that the shadow clone stepped on just now.

Sasuke didn't know if it was the same substance, but it was clear that nothing would end well for him to get on this thing.

The huge dragon lizard just now seemed to have been swallowed and controlled by this black mud.

Sasuke looked around and noticed that there was a lot of black mud like this, and it seemed to be found in all dark corners.

And there is a scab-like thing in the center of these black mud, as if this scab is maintaining the surrounding black mud.

After a period of observation and exploration, Sasuke found that there was no black mud on the rock wall or in the corner near the glowing stones.

Is there any connection between them?

Sasuke split a few shadow clones again, dug up a few of the glowing stones, and then had the shadow clones carry the stones to the edge of the scab.

As he expected, as the shadow clone approached with the stone, the black mud that was illuminated by the ghostly light immediately dissipated as if it had melted.

There is a clear restraint between the two.

Is it a coincidence?

Sasuke thought this was a clue, and packed some of the glowing stones into the folding belt, and then continued to search for some of these stones in the surrounding area, intending to use the rock elemental force chakra to fuse them together and turn them into a larger stone, only to find that the elemental power chakra seemed to have lost its effect on these stones at this moment.

The power given by Zhongli actually failed?

Sasuke frowned.

This place is getting weirder and weirder.

The elemental power chakra was out of effect, and Sasuke had to use a stupid method to hold the stones together with ropes, physically make them bigger, and move on.

His instincts told him that the glowing stones would be of great use to him on his quest.

Sasuke continued to explore the depths, except for the dragon lizard wrapped in black mud, and Zhiqiong, who he saw at the beginning, he didn't see any living creatures during this time.

Along the way, Paimon's words have obviously increased, and he keeps chatting with Sasuke about the happy things in his previous trip, as if he wants to dispel the anxiety in his heart through chatting.

After traveling some distance, Sasuke came to a place that resembled a rest stop, and after examining the surroundings, he found a basket of glowing stones that he had collected earlier on a shelf.

Next to this stone frame are several fragments of paper with handwriting on them.

Sasuke cautiously used the shadow clone to pick up the paper and look at what was recorded on it.

“…… As soon as you get close to the black lava, you will have a disordered mind, sensitive senses, and irritable emotions. But going near these hedrons can alleviate a lot of ......"

“… My ears are still itchy and I heard someone call me and she said there was water deep and mushrooms ......"

“… Mom, maybe I'm going crazy. ”

Although this note is a fragment, it does not seem to be particularly far from the present time, at least from the handwriting is relatively clear.

Could it be that there are living people under this rock abyss besides Zhiqiong?

"Itchy ears...... Water...... Mushroom ......"

Paimon read the words on the paper, and his whole body began to tremble again, clinging to Sasuke.

"Sasuke...... Something is wrong...... How do I feel like this is a bridge I've seen in the mysteries of Liyue......"

"There's nothing strange under this rock abyss, right?"

Sasuke looked at Paimon, who was trembling, and gently patted the other party's back with his hand.

"Yes, there is."

"Wow!"

Paimon let out a strange scream.

Then listen to Sasuke continue:

"But it shouldn't be the things in the scripts you think, if it's just those things, Lingzhi and Zhongli and Wendy will definitely be able to solve it themselves."

"You don't need us to explore, do you?"

Paimon nodded.

"Hmm...... You have a point, but how does it feel more and more dangerous? ”

"Well, it's dangerous, but it's not that dangerous."

Sasuke said.

"Wisdom and Wendy's conjectures are correct, these have something to do with the abyss."

"The black mud just now is a bit similar to the black mud used by the Abyss Princess we met in the Wind Rise, and I think we're almost getting to the truth."

"We weren't fighting against something completely incomprehensible, I was able to draw with them with the help of Wendy's powers, and if it were, now I'm confident that I'll at least be able to get out of it."

Hearing Sasuke say this, Paimon breathed a sigh of relief.

"Is it their doing?"

"When you think about it, it really doesn't seem so scary."

"I always feel like I'm fighting against something indescribable, worried that a bunch of tentacles will come out of the corner and drag us in together, and when we come out again, we'll have eyeballs all over our bodies, tentacles or something......"

"Babble!"

"Sasuke, why are you poking me?"

Sasuke withdrew the hand that poked Paimon's forehead.

"You usually don't watch more weird things, it's better to learn more knowledge with Zhongli if you have this kung fu."

"Hmm...... If you can't learn, you can't learn no matter how you think about it, right? ”

"Sasuke, when did you become the kind of annoying adult who likes to force people to learn?"

“……”

I have to say that in this depressing underground, having Paimon by your side does feel a lot more relaxed.

After taking fresh water food from the folding bag as a refuel, and resting a little, Sasuke and Paimon continued to move deeper into the depths.

All the way down, the entry into the position is getting deeper and deeper.

At this time, Sasuke spotted a fire diagonally below.

Well? Someone?

(End of chapter)