Chapter 1 Watching

Watching the old man stride into the vortex, disappearing into the rushing blood-water in the blink of an eye, Hao Ren was a bit stunned. Gerton looked old and weak, but he didn't expect him to be such a straightforward fellow at heart, stepping in without the slightest hesitation.

He had just wanted to say that he had a detector on his side... but now it seemed that the detector was not needed.

The mages who came with him, whether members of the church or subordinates of Aofra, were quite shaken by this scene. Even Vivian couldn't help but frown: "... Although devout faith is a good thing here, this parish chief doesn't need to go so far... He could have used other methods to explore the vortex below first."

At that moment, a faint golden beam of light suddenly rose from the bottom of the great vortex, interrupting Vivian's words. Aofra nodded after seeing the beam of light: "It is a signal from the parish chief. It seems that the bottom is safe."

Saying that, she tidied up her equipment and turned to look at her confidants behind her: "You wait here. If the vortex cannot return the same way, we will return to the church in town through the teleportation stone, and then contact us as usual."

After speaking, she looked at Hao Ren and the others: "Now it seems that the situation here is worse than we expected in town. The situation under this vortex is unpredictable. You have the right to choose to withdraw. As mercenaries, you have far exceeded your peers, and no one will laugh at you for withdrawing here..."

Before she could finish her words, Hao Ren stood up with a righteous expression: "What are you talking about! Our Good Name... mercenary group has always kept its promises. If we say we will accompany you, we will definitely accompany you. Do you want to jump first, or should I?" He had to be righteous: the Bearded Four were watching from behind. He estimated that with the stubbornness of these Four Diamond Warriors, they would not be satisfied today unless they tossed a group of "Heavenly Chosen Spirits" down into the vortex.

Aofra took a deep look at Hao Ren, with unfathomable meaning in her eyes. Then she turned her head and stepped into the vortex, wrapped in a semi-transparent shield like an "aura" that pushed away the surrounding lake water, disappearing into the vast vortex in the blink of an eye. Behind her, the follower werewolf also jumped down.

Becky grabbed Hao Ren's hand: "You have to make sure that the 'outside' one-button shutdown button works..."

Before she could finish her words, Lily rushed forward excitedly: "Let's go, let's go--" knocking everyone down.

"May the goddess bless us." The Bearded Four also made a religious gesture on their chests and entered in a solemn manner.

The rain was pouring down, and the vortex remained. The group of people quickly disappeared into the vast blood-water, as if they had never appeared.

Hao Ren only felt dizzy. Even though he had a shield on his body to resist the lake water, he was still thrown around by the vortex until he was dizzy. He only felt like he was being thrown into a washing machine, swirling wildly. All he could see was a red blur, and he couldn't tell up from down, left from right. He could only judge that he was rapidly approaching deep water based on the light around him that was constantly dimming. In his dizziness, he finally couldn't help but think of Nangong Wuyue's goodness—if he had the help of the siren girl, it would definitely be much more comfortable than now! That was a super-god-level support who could let people stroll around in the deep sea trench!

He didn't know how long he had been stirred in this crazy rotation, but Hao Ren suddenly found his eyes lit up, and then his body fell rapidly. He felt like he was being rushed into a deep pool by a waterfall-like current. He struggled for a while before finally surfacing.

Lily's voice came from beside him: "Puha--I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die... Hanging on a ceiling fan and turning it on at high speed for a day probably feels like this..."

Then Hao Ren felt a furry head crash into his arms: Lily was still dizzy, and after paddling in the water for a few strokes, she instinctively swam towards the most familiar scent.

"Is everyone okay?" Hao Ren tried to regain his focus while calling out to the others. Soon, Vivian's and Aofra's responses came from nearby. After a while, an exceptionally loud splash came from behind, followed by Izhaks' muffled voice: "I'm down too."

Then after a while, he heard Izhaks splashing and salvaging things behind him: "I think I hit someone..."

When Hao Ren heard this, he immediately broke out in a cold sweat. He thought to himself, Izhaks was such a mighty figure that falling from any height was equivalent to a lead weight of equal volume. He wondered who was unlucky enough to be hit by this tough guy. Just as he was curious, the Bearded Four's indifferent voice came from Izhaks' side: "It's okay, it's okay, this is the goddess's test..."

Hao Ren turned his head and glanced, then quickly greeted: "Master, you should stop the bleeding on your head first..."

"It's okay, it's okay, the goddess's test always comes suddenly..."

"Stop talking nonsense, the goddess doesn't test your blood-making ability and tetanus resistance!"

After confirming that everyone had landed safely, Hao Ren had the time to look around and find a place to go ashore. He raised his head and looked around, and immediately found himself in a wide, magnificent, and terrifyingly huge cave.

This appeared to be a cave that was generally circular in shape, with an unknown radius. Its scale could almost be regarded as an underground world. The cave walls were covered with patches of strange, faintly glowing substances, he didn't know if it was minerals or luminous fungi. These light sources kept the underground space from being completely dark. With Hao Ren and the others' super vision, they could move here without hindrance. Hao Ren saw many karst cave tunnel-like structures distributed on the distant cave walls, guessing that they should lead to very far places—even to the roots of the Twisted Woodland.

The terrain in the center of the cave was deeply recessed, and now it had accumulated into a pool of water. The red liquid filling the pool indicated that it was all lake water that had drained from the Blood Lake. Hao Ren looked up at the cave dome and found that the dome at the highest point had an unusually neat structure, as if it had been artificially constructed to form a perfect half-bowl shape. This dome was inverted on top of the cave, and a large hole was broken in the slightly off-center location. Waterfall-like red lake water poured down from this large hole, causing the entire cave to echo with a huge sound of water.

That was where everyone fell from.

Hao Ren saw that Aofra and Gerton had already landed on the shore of the pool, so he quickly tried to swim over. However, he had only swam a short distance when he felt his back tighten. A group of small bats grabbed his body and directly sent him ashore. Vivian's figure then materialized beside him: "You are the captain, you need to have some poise at this time—I didn't expect that without Nangong Wuyue's help, your swimming posture would be so ugly."

Hao Ren was immediately very embarrassed, while Lily was paddling in the water with her hands and feet, shouting to Vivian on the shore: "You're biased! Why don't you come and help me!"

Vivian clicked her tongue: "Your dog paddle is very impressive..."

Hao Ren ignored these two bickering friends and instead looked back at the pool. The water flowing down from the cave dome was still pouring into the pool, but it was not obvious that the pool had expanded significantly for the time being. The scale of the latter was really not small. If the hole at the bottom of the Blood Lake did not continue to expand, he should not have to worry about it being completely submerged here for the time being. Moreover, Hao Ren felt that the underground world should be wider than he imagined when he saw the entrances of those karst caves around the cave—even if the entire Blood Lake really leaked down, it might not be able to fill it.

Because everyone had their own means of avoiding water, even Becky had received a life-support shield generator from Hao Ren that was originally used for space. Therefore, everyone did not need to dry their clothes after landing on the shore. After a short rest, they began to explore this place. The Bearded Four were a little excited: this magnificent underground cave was like a miracle in their eyes, perfectly in line with the characteristics of the "Sacred Cave" they knew, so they were even more convinced of Hao Ren and others' identity as "Heavenly Chosen Spirits."

Hao Ren was also a little worried. After seeing such a large-scale underground world, he was instinctively shocked, so that he had a little more awe for the first Pope who had explored this place three thousand years ago. He whispered to Vivian: "Could it be that it is really because we belong to the Heavenly Chosen Spirits that we opened up such an amazing place?"

Vivian looked up and observed some rock patterns on the dome hard, and suddenly her face became strange: "... I'm afraid not, we've made a mess again."

Hao Ren: "Huh?"

Vivian raised her finger and pointed at the glowing lines on the dome: "That's some kind of magic circle. Although I haven't seen it, I guess this magic circle is used to sense the Heavenly Chosen Spirits. It has a typical remote sensing structure..."

Hao Ren was at a loss about the magic circle: "Then what?"

Vivian pointed to the big hole in the dome: "The magic circle was not opened because it sensed the Heavenly Chosen Spirits, but... it was damaged by the noise of the spaceship explosion. I'm afraid the real Heavenly Chosen Spirits haven't arrived yet!"

Hao Ren: "..."

Sure enough, the myths created by mortals are unreliable. The secret treasures that only predestined people can open are all nonsense. In the face of the mysterious "opportunity", a big boom can solve all troubles: The door of opportunity in the sacred cave used to detect the Heavenly Chosen Spirits was not opened, it was really blown open!

Hao Ren wiped the cold sweat from his forehead: "Don't tell the Bearded Four about this for the time being..."