The passage from the third to the fourth level's passage, Zheng Zhu Liu and Qing Mian had successfully escaped and entered. Both looked at the mercurial river with concern as it churned. After the mercury giant python swallowed Fang Ming, he had stopped moving.
"Will Fang Ming be okay?" Zheng Zhu Liu worriedly asked.
Qing Mian did not answer, his expression solemn.
"I can sense the Professor's aura," Qing Mian suddenly said.
"What? Where?" Zheng Zhu Liu exclaimed, as encountering the Professor now would mean certain death.
"In the mercurial river."
"In the mercurial river?" Zheng Zhu Liu looked towards the mercurial river, but of course, he couldn't discern anything.
"Look, what's happening to the mercurial river?" Zheng Zhu Liu pointed at the mercurial river, shocked.
Qing Mian followed his gaze to the mercurial river. The entire river began to boil, and numerous Sha creatures writhed in agony before melting away at a visible speed.
"Is that the Professor? What is he doing?" Qing Mian's expression grew even more serious.
The two watched the mercury's transformation, their thoughts divergent. Zheng Zhu Liu worried about Fang Ming's safety, while Qing Mian pondered the Professor's actions.
Half an hour later, the mercurial river stopped boiling. The river's surface had dropped by nearly a third, exposing large sections of the riverbed. All the Sha creatures within were dead, and even the massive python Sha had vanished.
"Bang!" A figure suddenly shot out from the mercurial river. Upon closer inspection, it resembled Fang Ming's Sha form but was much larger and had undergone significant changes in overall shape.
"Is that... Fang Ming?" Zheng Zhu Liu was unsure.
"Yes," Qing Mian confirmed his guess.
Meanwhile, Fang Ming woke up at the bottom of the mercurial river and was surprised by the changes in his body. Why did his body change every time he lost consciousness? It felt like he was cursed.
"My body's strength has increased by at least fivefold. What is going on?" Fang Ming couldn't understand and, finding no reason, decided to stop searching.
Suddenly, Fang Ming realized something was missing.
"Damn it, where's my backpack?"
His backpack was gone!
Startled, he immediately searched the riverbed. Fortunately, his enhanced body had developed a high immunity to the mercury in the river, allowing him to search freely.
Fang Ming recalled the fight. His backpack must have been swallowed along with him by the mercury giant python. A backpack made of ordinary materials would surely have dissolved in the mercurial river by now. He wondered if his diary was still intact.
"Please hold on, my book," Fang Ming prayed anxiously as he searched the riverbed.
Perhaps his prayers were answered, or perhaps the backpack had fallen not too far away. In less than fifteen minutes, Fang Ming felt something shaped like a book. When he brought it to the surface, it was his diary!
As for the backpack and its contents, they seemed to have succumbed to the mercurial river's toxicity. However, as long as the diary was safe, he was immensely relieved.
With the diary in hand, Fang Ming rushed out of the water and towards the passage. He moved like a dragonfly skimming across the surface, quickly traversing the mercurial river and reaching the passage entrance.
"Fang Ming, are you alright?" Zheng Zhu Liu rushed forward to ask.
"Of course, I'm fine. I even feel like I can take on ten people," Fang Ming chuckled.
Qing Mian approached, examined Fang Ming's changes, and asked,
"Did you see the Professor?"
"The Professor?" Fang Ming's smile faded as he realized something. "Why do you ask?"
"Your body's transformation was likely done by the Professor. I sensed his aura in the mercurial river just now."
"What?" Fang Ming exclaimed. The Professor was in the mercurial river just now?
Qing Mian nodded. He had a feeling the Professor was planning something around Fang Ming, though he was unsure of the specifics.
Fang Ming glanced back at the mercurial river, which was now unusually calm.
"Why have all the Sha creatures in the river disappeared?" Fang Ming suddenly noticed something amiss with the mercurial river.
Zheng Zhu Liu quickly recounted the events to Fang Ming, who fell into thought.
"Wait for me," Fang Ming suddenly remembered something. He left the passage and returned to the mercurial river. Leaping up, he jumped onto the stone ceiling and looked down.
As the mercury level in the river dropped, the inscribed rune marks on the riverbed became more apparent. Fang Ming traced the riverbed's pattern on the stone ceiling with his fingertip, then broke off a piece before returning to the passage.
"The mercurial river is also a giant rune," Fang Ming said to Qing Mian and Zheng Zhu Liu, dropping the broken stone slab on the ground.
"The entire mercurial river is a rune?" Zheng Zhu Liu was astonished. "That must have been an enormous undertaking!"
"Do you recognize this rune?" Qing Mian asked.
Fang Ming pondered. He had seen this rune before in Bai Mu Village, a vague memory resurfacing.
"I remember seeing this rune in the cemetery at Bai Mu Village. It's likely used to seal the flow of resentment. But what does this have to do with my body's transformation?"
He had seen this rune in the Bai Mu Village cemetery, used by the ancient Huai Fierce Sha to seal the place where resentment gathered. After it was destroyed, all the resentment flowed out.
Qing Mian and Zheng Zhu Liu were also confused. After thinking for a long time, they gave up.
"Let's go. We should hurry to the fourth level," Fang Ming said.
"Alright."
The three set off again, leaving the stone slab behind. Soon, their figures disappeared into the passage.
A transparent figure appeared before the stone slab, its body forming a tentacle to pick up the slab and swallow it. Then, waves of resentment gathered from the surroundings and merged into its body.
...
The ancient ship at the H City coast.
The sudden appearance of waves caused a secondary disaster, catching everyone off guard. However, the city's response was swift. With this lesson learned, the responding personnel were all fully equipped.
A cordon of a hundred meters was established, preventing any foolhardy onlookers from being affected.
Mayor Huang personally led the team, with Professor Liu closely following. This time, they decided to act themselves to capture the Sha creatures.
"All non-combat personnel, evacuate the large ship immediately. Sky Eagle teams one and two will erect an isolation wall around the ship to prevent the target's escape. The rest will conduct a thorough search of the ship to locate the target's hiding place."
Professor Liu systematically directed his subordinates to seal off the entire ship.
The dispatched combat personnel immediately began to blockade the ship and then deployed specialized scanning equipment to scan the entire vessel.
At the highest point of the ship's roof, a figure in a Zhongshan suit observed the bustling crowd below with an unchanged expression.
"Principal, should we eliminate these humans?" a head covered in eyes emerged from the void and asked the Principal.
The Principal shook his head.
"The Painter will deal with them," the Principal said indifferently.
"We received news from the eighteenth floor that the Divine Child's power has inadvertently broken through to the Nether Sha stage. This might affect the subsequent plan. The Professor is asking what to do next?" the monster asked.
"It has broken through to the Nether Sha stage?" the Principal murmured.
"Don't worry, the Divine Child's power is unstable. Breaking through to Nether Sha is only temporary," the Principal replied calmly after regaining his composure.
He then asked, "How are Fang Daolong and his wife doing?"
"Their physical bodies are currently fine, but their spiritual bodies in the Everlasting Realm are not in good condition. They have been banished to various time fragments and likely won't last long."
"Have their current coordinates been located?"
"Yes, at the mine."
"The mine?" The Principal's expression grew serious at this news. "The mine... the one there is quite troublesome."
...
The early development of H City relied on a massive gold mine. This mine had enormous reserves and caused a sensation when it was discovered in the late eighties and early nineties.
H City also rapidly developed with this trend, eventually becoming the first-tier city it is today.
However, twenty years ago, due to over-mining and a lack of protective measures, an unprecedented mine disaster occurred.
On that day, it rained heavily. Tens of thousands of miners underground had no time to escape and were buried by the sudden collapse of the mine shafts. Out of 36,526 miners, fewer than a hundred survived!
Afterward, although H City provided compensation, it was severely weakened. Later, when H City reopened the mine shafts, a series of strange incidents began to occur.
Everyone who entered the mine shafts vanished without a trace. Even drones sent in for exploration would suddenly go black.
Extensive research by various experts failed to find the cause of these occurrences.
Finally, under pressure, H City was forced to permanently close the goose that laid the golden eggs.
But some people were determined to try, or perhaps, under the lure of profit, life itself was no longer so important.
"Quick, quick! After this mine, we won't have to worry about food and drink for years!"
A group of people was busy at a concealed, abandoned mine entrance, unknown to the city authorities.
"Brother, you're amazing to know about this mine!" a subordinate admired.
The tattooed leader took a puff of his cigarette and kicked the subordinate, "Hurry and lower the rope!"
Of course, he knew about this mine entrance because he was one of the survivors!
It was through this small mine entrance that he had saved his life. If he wasn't desperately short of money now, he wouldn't have considered this mine again.
When the flash flood occurred, the mine shafts were instantly buried, and many miners who couldn't escape died inside. Later, he heard that the city had reopened the mine, only to be frightened by the supernatural events within.
Frankly, he was still a bit apprehensive about entering the mine. The horrific sights and despair of the dying miners were still vivid in his memory, but he was truly in dire need of money.
"Brother, the rope is ready," a subordinate ran back to report.
"Let's go!" The leader stood up, stubbed out his cigarette, and followed the subordinate to the mine entrance.
The mine entrance was very small, only large enough for one person to descend. The leader went to the entrance and tested the rope's strength.
"It's fine. I'll go down first. You follow behind. Old Five and Old Six, you two guard the entrance. If anything goes wrong, activate the machine to pull us up immediately," the leader instructed.
"Understood, Brother."
The leader secured the safety rope and descended first, followed by the others.
Half an hour later.
"Ring ring ring..." Urgent alarm bells startled Old Five and Old Six, who were guarding the entrance.
"Quick! Start the machine and pull Brother and the others up!"
"Vroom vroom vroom..." The machine started, and the rope was slowly wound up.
Finally, the last one to descend, Old Four, appeared. He looked panicked and pale. As soon as he emerged, he scrambled outward in terror.
"Run!"
Old Five and Old Six hadn't even reacted when the rope below was pulled up. A disfigured corpse came into view – it was Old Three!
Old Three's entire body was torn and mangled, with no intact skin or flesh, all ravaged by some creature's bites.
"What the hell happened?" Old Five and Old Six exchanged glances and, without a word, took to their heels, leaving the machine still whirring, continuing to pull the rope...