1065 They Went Down

Seeing its mushroom friend go down, Bowwow immediately struggled out of Black's grip and excitedly darted into the hole. As a result, Black was left outside, so it coiled its body and stayed motionless.

Yun Meng looked at the snake and said to herself, "Oh, those two went down. Isn't this one going too?"

Black stayed exactly where it was for about ten seconds. At last, it helplessly crawled toward the hole and wriggled in through the edge.

Lin Qiao, who had no idea that her three pets had also entered the underground cave as well, was moving forward through the tunnel.

The ground in the tunnel was inclining again, with a turn up ahead.

She kept moving forward for about ten minutes when she abruptly saw an enormous space before her. She couldn't see things far away; all she could see was the end of the road under her feet. She raised her head and couldn't see the top of the space or the bottom. She couldn't see what was on the other side of the space either. She looked around and found a two-meters-wide passage on both sides. Every three of four meters on the side of the passage was a hole.

A very strong scent of those underground creatures could be sensed there. Clearly, that space was not another junkyard.

Lin Qiao moved right toward the hole about three or four meters away. She thought it was the entrance of another tunnel, leading from somewhere else to here.

Unexpectedly, it was not a tunnel, but a cave. It was a small one, about two meters tall and around four or five meters squared. A thick pile of hides existed in the innermost corner of the cave with a dent in the middle, as if something often lay upon it.

Was that a bedroom? A bad smell could be sensed from the pile of hides.

Lin Qiao walked into the room and looked around with curiosity. But, nothing was found there except for those hides.

With no discovery, she stepped out and kept moving forward. At about five meters away, she found another cave which was also like a small bedroom. In that cave was also a pile of hides, coming from unknown animals.

She moved further and further forward until she returned to the first cave. All the way, she saw many small bedroom-like caves. The ceiling of those 'bedrooms' was all earth. She stood at the edge of the passage and looked up and down, finding more similar caves.

She had made a circle in the space, but didn't see any underground creatures. Where had they all been?

She headed back through the tunnel that she came from. She walked downhill when she came, so she, of course, needed to go uphill to go back. Through the tunnel, she returned to the round room and looked around, then walked into another tunnel.

This time, she reached a fork after a short walk.

Lin Qiao sniffed around before the fork and then chose a way, from which she sensed a relatively heavy underground creature scent. Soon, she reached another fork and felt as if she was in a maze. She had no idea what was in front of her.

She sensed the scent of the underground creatures from both the ways, but also sensed another weird scent from one of them. She had no idea what it was. It was weird, not bad but not good either. It was just… weird.

So, she curiously moved toward the source of the scent. The tunnel was small, so she needed to lower her head slightly, or her head might bump into the top. It didn't take her long to reach the end of the tunnel. Before her was a pile of earth, halfway dug and seemingly abandoned. She walked forward and gave the area a look.

It was a dead end; the earth and rocks on the ground hadn't been cleaned. The whole area was left messy, and on the surrounding cave wall were a series of disordered claw marks.

Clearly, it was an undone, abandoned tunnel. Perhaps, they stopped digging and then moved backward to dig the other tunnel.

The three who came down without permission had now been moving in the cave as well. The mushroom was exploring the way while Bowwow was sniffing around. It sensed the scent that Lin Qiao left in the air and followed it.

Bowwow became much quieter than before since he came down into the cave. It was still darting around excitedly, but it was quiet now at least. Black followed behind the two, vigilantly sensing the vibes coming from the front. Soon, the three followed Lin Qiao's scent to the first round-shaped room.

The mushroom moved left while Bowwow right as the two checked all the tunnel entrances surrounding the room. At last, Bowwow paused before the tunnel that Lin Qiao went in and let out its tongue as it turned to look at his friends.

The mushroom reached its tentacles out of its head, poking into the cave wall. Bowwow had no idea what it was doing. As the mushroom didn't come to him, the dog hopped to it and pushed it toward the entrance of the tunnel with his head.

Black came over and looked inside the hole, then went in first. After that, Bowwow pushed the mushroom in.

In the abandoned tunnel, Lin Qiao carefully looked around, trying to figure out why those underground creatures stopped digging that tunnel. There were some rocks in the cave wall cut into pieces. Clearly, it was not the rocks that blocked their way.

What was it?

Lin Qiao stayed there quite a while but failed to find anything. At last, she turned and left back to the fork, walking the other way. In that tunnel, the ground was slopping downward by at least fifty degrees. She held the wall as she moved ahead, soon arriving at a large hole.

Back on the earth surface, Yun Meng mumbled to herself a while after the three disappeared into the underground cave, "Will those three cause a problem down there? Will they hinder Lin Qiao?"

The answer was…

'I hope they won't cause Lin Qiao any trouble,' Yun Meng thought as she raised her head to look at the sky. It was already getting dark.

…

In Sea City Base, Wu Chengyue was sitting in his office, reading some files. Wu Yueling and Teng were sitting on the couch, both reading books. The office was quiet even though two kids were in there. Only the sounds that he made while writing on papers or turning the pages could be heard.

A short while later, Xiao Licheng showed up at his door and knocked before walking in.