Sensing the anomaly of the underground river, all three looked in that direction.
Like the reflection of the sunset on the horizon, shimmering fragments of gold.
They saw the clear river water that flowed in being replaced by golden liquid.
The dazzling golden light even cast tiny star-like glints in their eyes.
A strange sensation spread through them.
Their hearts skipped a beat.
In Jiang Fan's ink-black eyes, the golden waterfall reflected did not flow downwards, but rather—
Upwards!
Into the opening above, its end unseen.
This scene was captivating.
"Jiang Fan, you don't mean you can talk to spirits, do you..."
Dai Xiaomei murmured softly, but the other two remained silent, finding the scene before them almost incomprehensible.
Jiang Fan took a step forward and touched the golden river with his fingertips.
The moment he made contact with the golden cascade, he felt a powerful force pull his body upwards.
Gravity seemed to lose its hold. Jiang Fan felt his weight lessen, lifted off the ground by the water, almost swept into the waterfall.
Stunned for a moment, he instinctively withdrew his hand and fell from mid-air.
Only then did he realize he had been nearly a meter off the ground.
The intense sensation of weightlessness left his mind in a haze, making him stumble with nausea, his face pale.
Zhou Niannian quickly came to support Jiang Fan and looked at the golden river.
"What on earth... is this?"
He didn't answer, rubbing the golden water droplets still clinging to his hands and sniffing them.
"I don't know."
Perhaps it was an unknown substance with the property of reversing gravity.
Jiang Fan felt weak.
Even knowing this place was closely connected to Hukaro, everything about it exuded abnormality and strangeness.
Backstage, the director and the middle-aged man watched the inverted waterfall, their hearts pounding.
They felt they were on the verge of uncovering a secret they had never touched!
"Have you ever heard of a... waterfall that flows towards the sky?"
"It's appeared in prophecies."
The middle-aged man said with a complex tone.
"When the stars connect with the sea, and the golden waterfall reverses, the one chosen by prophecy will reveal the true face of Hukaro."
"This Jiang Fan is likely the person we're looking for."
Even the person they were looking for, they couldn't bring out at the moment.
After all, they hadn't found an entrance to this place yet.
Perhaps they could let other contestants try.
He had observed that the contestant named Yao seemed to be quite strong.
.......
The bullet comments in the live stream had completely stopped.
Fifty million people were engrossed in this scene, forgetting even to comment.
The comments ceased to grow as everyone was captivated by the stunning beauty.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
They finally reacted, and the comments began to flood in so rapidly they were impossible to read.
"Holy crap! Holy crap!!! Jiang Shen is the chosen one, isn't he?! It happened right after he spoke, a waterfall flowing backwards?!"
"Isn't this what a poet wrote about before, 'Northwest of Kunlun, stars link to the sea, waterfalls high and low, the Han flows backward'?"
"Heaven! Does Earth still have such places? It's fake, right? Even for a movie, show some respect for Earth's reality, how can such a place exist?"
"Do you believe it? I certainly don't! I can clearly see green screen compositing, and you guys are still praising it like fools."
"Shark Official, this is your special effect, right? Is it fun to trick people?"
The overwhelming spectacle, paradoxically, made people doubt if such a scene could exist on Earth.
Rather than believe that Jiang Fan and his companions had genuinely reached a secret realm inaccessible to humans, they were more inclined to believe the Shark Official had deliberately created special effects.
Where could an ascending golden waterfall exist?
But as they were complaining, Jiang Fan and the other two had also just recovered from their shock.
"It's too magical..."
Dai Xiaomei stared intently at the golden river before her, murmuring.
She looked up, the waterfall extending upwards. Dimly, she could see a river above, extending into the depths.
The miracles of nature were truly boundless.
She tentatively reached out, wanting to know if the waterfall truly flowed upwards.
Warm water splashed against the surrounding rock walls.
Dai Xiaomei's hand entered the water.
That invisible force instantly lifted her body.
Earth's gravity was rendered useless at this moment.
In the blink of an eye, Dai Xiaomei was swept into the waterfall.
"Ah!!!"
A mere probe had sent her away.
"Dai Xiaomei! Grab me!"
Seeing her good friend about to be swept away, Zhou Niannian quickly reached out to grab her but grasped nothing.
Even her own body was pulled upwards by a force, nearly dragging her into the waterfall.
Fortunately, Jiang Fan pulled her back in time.
The two could only watch helplessly as Dai Xiaomei, her eyes filled with terror, disappeared into the turbulent waterfall and was swept upwards.
Gravity was reversed. She was pulled by the waterfall into the river, desperately grasping at protruding rocks, but she was no match for the invisible force.
Her speed increased, scraping against sharp rocks with each moment, a hair's breadth from death.
In the rapid river at the top, only a few splashes of Dai Xiaomei tumbling in the water could be seen.
She vanished at the cave's ceiling.
The two wooden balls didn't follow, floating aimlessly in mid-air.
The calmly flowing golden river, the waterfall still roared, but to these two who had lost a teammate, it was no different from a death knell.
The atmosphere suddenly became stagnant.
Lele's mouth hung open.
It was too sudden.
She hadn't even recovered from the shock of witnessing this peculiar sight before someone had already perished here.
This...
Was hard for her to accept.
"Dai Xiaomei, could it be that..."
"Perhaps this place is their way out, she should be alright... right."
Lele spoke with extreme uncertainty.
Dai Xiaomei being swept away was too abrupt, like a small hammer striking her head.
She, who had just felt a sense of wonder towards this place, was brutally taught a lesson by the golden waterfall.
This was underground.
A place humans had never set foot.
Death could happen at any moment.
The only thing they could do was be as cautious as possible, hoping to survive in the end.
As a commentator, Lele shamefully felt fortunate that she wasn't among those exploring, as the immense pressure alone would have driven her mad.
But Dai Xiaomei's fans found it unbearable.
"She was swept away, how could she be swept away?!"
"I don't believe it, Shark Official, stop playing games, you pulled her up with a rope, right? Haha, it's so realistic."
"Old woman, no... If she really dies, I will hate Shark forever."
"Jiang Fan, why didn't he pull her back in the end? He could save Zhou Niannian, why couldn't he save Dai Xiaomei too!!!"
"You guys in front, stop it, it's such a dangerous place, saving one person is good enough!"
"Exactly, Dai Xiaomei herself was reckless by reaching out, blaming Shark and Jiang Shen is too much!"
The crowd, who had been marveling and shocked moments before, completely changed.
In their eyes.
Dai Xiaomei was swept away = Dai Xiaomei was dead!