"Why is there such a large lake underground? And these creepy creatures live in the lake. Has the entire planet mutated now? The creatures on the earth's surface have mutated, and so many mutated underground creatures have shown up now. The earth isn't going to be destroyed, is it? Are we really going to build a giant spaceship and bring all the humans into the space, like what happened in some science fiction films?" Old Guo shook his head as he said.
The others looked at him speechlessly. "It's not that serious. Humans can still survive on the planet."
A series of noises was suddenly heard, and Yuan Tianxing and the others swiftly drew back to create a safe distance between themselves and those tentacles. However, the creatures in the lake didn't give up. They squeezed their tentacles out of the hole and reached as far as they could toward the group of people.
There was already a safe distance between the people and those tentacles, so the people didn't waste energy attacking the tentacles. However, as the creatures in the lake had blocked the way, they couldn't move further forward.
The lake was massive. Just now, Yuan Tianxing didn't even see the bounds of the lake when he shone his flashlight into the hole. All he saw was the water surface and the dark cave roof, which was tens of meters away from the water surface.
The water wasn't the only thing that had a problem. The surrounding rock didn't look normal either.
Earlier, Yuan Tianxing tried to control the rock on the cave roof, but found that his power been weakened by about seventy percent. Therefore, he only managed to pull a single piece of rock off the roof just now. He was planning on lowering the cave roof until the monster was crushed. However, he failed to do that.
"Let's leave! We can't get through here. If I have guessed right, the water was polluted by those creatures. Perhaps, they are new to this place and they came here in some way. Let's see if we can find another road leading upward," Yuan Tianxing moved back to a bulging rock face and said to the others.
The tentacles which were over a hundred meters long waved in the air for a while. As Yuan Tianxing and the others were unreachable, they slowly shrank back into the hole.
As Yuan Tianxing and his people went back the way they came, a thunderous boom was suddenly heard from the hole upon the waterfall. Next, the ground began shaking and small stones rolled off the rock faces; even some large rock pieces fell off.
"This is bad! Move!" Yuan Tianxing was startled by the deafening bang. He raised his head to glance at the waterfall, then changed his expression and uttered a shout. Another boom was heard from the hole, following which, Yuan Tianxing and the others felt the ground underneath their feet start to shake.
At that very moment, those enormous, ugly fishes created a large breath on the three-meter-wide hole. Rock pieces flew all over the air and the water flooded down. The black water overwhelmed the area like some kind of horrible monster.
The zombies reacted fast as they automatically popped their claws and swiftly climbed toward the higher areas. The relatively stronger ones even carried Feng Yuming and the other few who were slow up to the safe area.
Li Zheng and his men didn't have that instinctive ability that zombies had when facing danger. By the time they could react, the water had already gushed down and splashed everywhere.
The water was dangerous; they mustn't touch it! Despite how clearly they knew that, their bodies reacted slowly.
Yuan Tianxing was at a higher level than the others, so he reacted in time by leaping high. However, the moment he leaped, he saw Fei Chonglin, his subordinate, standing right underneath the water that was descending from the air. So, he thrust a foot against the rock face and flashed to Fei Chonglin's side before kicking the latter away.
He had turned his skin into stone. By kicking Fei Chonglin away, he sent himself flying toward the other side. Therefore, the water that almost poured on Fei Chonglin's body landed on him.
Fei Chonglin bumped into the rock face. Thankfully, he moved quickly enough to grab a stone to keep himself from falling into the river.
Realizing that he was safe, he immediately recalled how Yuan Tianxing shielded him from the dark water just now. "Deputy Chief! Are you okay?" he shouted with concern.
Yuan Tianxing landed on the other side. He spent a great amount of energy to create a shallow hole on the rock face for himself to land in. He turned and waved at Fei Chonglin while responding loudly, "I'm fine. Let's get out of here."
Fei Chonglin, Lei Yao, Feng Yuming and Lin Yu were the weakest four among the group. None of them was above level-three; Lin Yu was only at level-two.
Yuan Tianxing brought them down into the cave because they were his reliable subordinates, and also because they used to serve in the intelligence apartment in Hades Base, and were very observant. However, even though their brain worked quickly, their bodies couldn't make reactions as quickly under serious situations.
That was why Lei Yao and Fei Chonglin had both fallen into life-threatening dangers earlier.
Yuan Tianxing would, of course, try everything he could to save them.
He told the others that he was fine, but he knew that he was not.
He has turned his skin and muscles into stone by using his superpower. At the moment, he was like a walking statue. No physical harm should have been done to him, but as the black water poured on his skin, he suffered a great pain, as if his skin was burning.
He felt as if his neck, shoulders and, half of his chest were on fire, and that his flesh and blood were even about to be melted. He endured the pain and didn't show anything on his face. After landing in the hole on the rock face, he quickly hopped backward.
At that moment, the others had been moving backward as quickly as they could. The shallow section of the underground river in that area was expanded and deepened by the water coming from the lake.
Thankfully, people found foothold before the water flooded the whole area, and then they ran away without hesitation.
Bang! Bang! Bang! A series of banging sound was heard from the hole upon the waterfall. Along with every bang, the ground quaked strongly. The creatures in the lake were still trying to break out; the rocks at the edge of the hole had mostly cracked.
Before, when there was no food, they stayed quietly in the lake, killed each other, and fed on each other for survival. But now, a group of prey showed up and smelled so much more delicious than themselves. The smell of the prey agitated them. That was why they tried to break the hole, so they could come out to hunt those delicious prey.