The seven-colored treasure glow surged up from within the ancient building, but at its foundation, blood-like liquid seeped out. The underground river flowed through the foundation and brought away the blood-like liquid, immediately turning into a blood-colored river.
Now, Zhou Wen finally knew why the river outside was blood-colored. It was because of this strange building.
Upon closer inspection of the foundation of the building’s "bleeding," Zhou Wen’s expression changed slightly. The bottom of the foundation was actually made of countless skulls and bones. It was as if countless skeletons had been poured into cement. Just looking at it made his scalp tingle.
"Crawl down while keeping close to the mountain wall. Remember, don’t ever leave the mountain wall or fly. You have to keep your feet on the ground." The Thearch’s voice sounded, but it wasn’t a real voice. Instead, it sounded in Zhou Wen’s mind.
"Don’t tell me that the flower you mentioned is in that ancient building?" Zhou Wen whispered as a probe.
As expected, The Thearch heard what he said. "That’s right. After you reach the bottom of the mountain wall, you can swim into the river. Remember not to take the staircase right in front. Swim to the left. There’s a hole there. You have to enter from there."
"There shouldn’t be any strange creatures in the river, right?" Zhou Wen looked at the blood-colored river beneath the ancient building, feeling a little uneasy.
"Of course there are. You haven’t used that bone flute yet, am I right? When you enter the water, bite the bone flute with your teeth and swim forward. No matter what you see or feel, don’t panic or speak. You just have to follow my instructions and swim forward."
"What else is there to take note of? Can you finish it in one go?" Zhou Wen said gloomily.
"That’s all. You can go now," The Thearch said straightforwardly.
Zhou Wen took out the bone flute and bit it with his teeth before climbing down.
Although the river was blood-colored outside, color was the only thing it had in common. There was no smell of blood. However, things were different inside. The more Zhou Wen crawled down, the stronger the smell of blood. It was almost intolerable.
When he reached the bottom, the smell of blood almost made him want to vomit.
After taking a look at the river that resembled blood and the skeleton foundation that was bleeding in the distance, Zhou Wen gritted his teeth and jumped into the water. He had high poison resistance and had injected himself with Doctor Darkness’s poison several times, so he wasn’t afraid of being poisoned by the river.
Even so, Zhou Wen felt his skin itch after entering the water. Although he had already put on the Mutated Stone Chi armor, the armor still had some gaps. It couldn’t stop the blood-like water from seeping in.
Thankfully, other than the itch, there was no other reaction. Only then did Zhou Wen feel a lot more at ease. He sped up and swam to the left of the building.
As he swam, Zhou Wen suddenly felt something float up from beneath the blood-colored river and approach him.
That thing was a massive object. Its entire body seemed to be trembling with some kind of power. Truth Listener could hear its existence, but it was affected by the tremors. It couldn’t hear its exact appearance, but it felt humongous.
"Don’t stop, don’t speak, continue swimming. Don’t panic, unless you want to die." The Thearch’s voice sounded in his mind again.
At this point, Zhou Wen could only continue swimming forward, but he kept his ears pricked up. He felt that the thing underwater was just beneath him. The thing was unimaginably huge spanning a probable hundred meters in length. He didn’t know what it was.
D*mn you flower, don’t you harm me! Zhou Wen thought to himself. He felt like the thing was about to touch his body. Furthermore, many things like seaweed or tentacles had already touched his body.
"Don’t stop, continue swimming. Ignore it." The Thearch’s voice rang again.
Zhou Wen could only listen to her and continue swimming forward, but soon, he realized that there were many red things tearing out of the water around him. The things were the thickness of a thumb. They resembled seaweed or tentacles that crawled out from the water, occupying the hundred-meter-long river.
When Zhou Wen’s body touched the items, he found it soft and sticky. He had no idea what it was.
"Continue swimming and don’t worry about them. It doesn’t matter even if you touch them." The Thearch’s voice sounded in Zhou Wen’s mind again.
Zhou Wen felt his entire body itch. He knew that it definitely wasn’t harmless as The Thearch had said. At the very least, these things were definitely poisonous. It was only because his poison resistance was high enough. If it were someone else, they would have sunk to the bottom of the river long before now.
He swam in the red objects with the bone flute in his mouth. This wasn’t swimming anymore; he felt like he was crawling on the red objects.
Thankfully, other than feeling itchy, the objects didn’t attack him. Zhou Wen crawled all the way to the left of the ancient building and crawled a few hundred meters, but he didn’t see the hole that The Thearch had mentioned.
"You’re there. About three meters down. Dive in from here," The Thearch suddenly said.
Holy sh*t, I definitely won’t come again even if I’ll get all five limbs severed. Zhou Wen gritted his teeth and peeled away the red seaweed-like objects. He swam through the blood which had a smell that made him feel like vomiting.
The red objects kept trembling, severely affecting Truth Listener’s hearing. Zhou Wen dived through the red seaweed and searched for a while before finally finding the hole that The Thearch had mentioned.
The cave was about the same size as a dog hole. Zhou Wen’s head was just able to enter, so he barely managed to squeeze in. There was a tunnel behind him that was flooded by the river. Thankfully, the red seaweed wasn’t here. Truth Listener could probably hear the situation inside.
"Don’t surface yet. Just swim underwater according to my instructions. You have to be careful now. You have to stick to the stone slab right below. If those things outside discover you, you’re dead."
D*mn it! Zhou Wen had the urge to curse.
But since things had come to this point, there was no other way. All he could do was carefully swim forward while keeping close to the stone slabs at the bottom.
The tunnel below was connected in all directions. Zhou Wen swam forward according to The Thearch’s instructions. At the same time, he remembered the path he had taken, making it easier for his next venture here.
He definitely wouldn’t come back in person. However, he still could continue exploring in-game.
Thankfully, Zhou Wen had learned the Nine Dragons Art. His ability to hold his breath underwater was far greater than the average Epic expert. If it were an ordinary Epic human, not only would the poison in the water prevent them from swimming underwater for so long, but they would probably have already surfaced to catch their breath.
"Alright, there’s a stone staircase up ahead. Just go up with the stone staircase." After swimming for quite some time, he passed through many flooded tunnels. Just as he needed to take a breath, he finally heard The Thearch telling him to leave the water.
Zhou Wen rushed out of the water along the stone stairs, gasping heavily for his breath. However, while panting, he couldn’t help but hold his breath when he saw the scene in front of him.
At the end of the stone steps was a stone platform. On it was a small mound of dimensional crystals that glittered like a mountain of treasure.