Chapter 1

Before this, Fang Senyan had also seen this ring of scars. At that time, his heart was full of passion for finding the entrance, so he had taken it for granted and ignored it. But after the frustration of a long search with no results, Fang Senyan inevitably began to suspect that his judgment might be wrong. So, when he saw this large scar again, shaped like a prominent "T," his heart suddenly stirred, and he couldn't help but take large strides in the direction indicated by the vertical line of the "T" scar.

After walking about twenty meters, Fang Senyan took a deep breath. He felt his heart begin to contract violently, powerfully pumping blood to his brain.

The first time was a coincidence, the second was accidental, so Fang Senyan continued to move forward along the direction indicated by the newly discovered "T" scar. He discovered a third tree with a "T" shaped scar carved into it.

Then the third time was inevitable.

Therefore, Fang Senyan immediately called Mbenge over: "Do your people have the habit of carving marks on trees to use as road signs to avoid getting lost? Or have you heard of similar customs?"

Mbenge gave a very proud African answer: "Every one of my people is a hybrid of a wild dog and a cat in the forest. Get lost? Hahahaha."

So Fang Senyan followed the road signs without hesitation. Some of these road signs were quite hidden, concealed in the canopy, but there was definitely one every ten meters or so. Therefore, in just half an hour, a particularly huge tree appeared before Fang Senyan's eyes. Its trunk was unusually large. The width of the buttress roots alone reached two or three meters, and the canopy covered at least two or three hundred square meters, but the height was less than ten meters. It looked quite "short and fat," as if it were originally a wine barrel that had been hammered hard.

If viewed from the air, it would be completely hidden in the dense forest, even if its leaves faintly showed a hint of purple. Fang Senyan casually broke off half a branch from above and found that a thick liquid oozed from the cut, and it smelled of an indescribable fishy odor. After touching the skin, a slight tingling sensation also appeared.

After circling this strange-looking giant tree twice, Fang Senyan immediately noticed that a cluster of plants was growing particularly lushly. At this time, it was the dry season of the year, and the tropical jungle had been longing for rain for two weeks. The surrounding plants appeared very dry and withered, only the cluster of plants was full of vitality, out of tune with the overall environment.

Fang Senyan led Mbenge to the vicinity of the large cluster of plants. A large gust of humid air rushed towards them, refreshing their spirits. Mbenge strode forward and used the wooden spear in his hand to clear the bushes under the buttress roots. Suddenly, a dark hole was revealed.

The hole was about the height of a person. If Fang Senyan wanted to walk in, he had to lower his head. The entrance had two or three large spider webs. Seeing their webs being destroyed, several long-legged spiders hurriedly moved their fat abdomens with conspicuous yellow patterns and fled at high speed. Fang Senyan lowered his head and stepped into the cave. The feeling under his feet was not as soft as he had imagined. Fang Senyan immediately reached out and felt stone slabs with regular edges, a clear sign of artificial construction.

"This is it." A fluorescent stick was lit on Fang Senyan's finger, illuminating the road ahead clearly. Rushing towards him was a wave of water vapor. Fang Senyan also realized that after walking down the stepped road for ten meters or so, the common plants around him had disappeared, replaced by a strawberry-like ground cover plant, its leaves about the size of copper coins, growing close to the ground, showing a purplish-black color, and the fruit it bore was greenish. There was also a strange smell in the air, neither fragrant nor foul.

Where this plant grows, no other plants are allowed to grow! It has an indescribable domineering aura. Even the buttress roots of large trees that penetrate deep into the ground avoid growing near it. When Mbenge saw this plant, his face suddenly changed drastically. He knelt on the ground, ignoring the dirt, and kowtowed to the plant repeatedly, calling out: "Chali Ba!"

This word is a newly coined word in the local language, similar to "laxative diarrhea" in Sichuan dialect, or the insulting "what is this thing?" in Northern dialect. Understanding its meaning literally is completely off track. But when Fang Senyan asked Mbenge why he was kneeling and kowtowing, he seemed very dazed, his mouth almost drooling, unable to explain the reason, obviously a kind of instinctive reaction.

Since Fang Senyan didn't know the meaning of it, he simply didn't bother to think about it. As long as it wasn't poisonous. He followed the winding passage, feeling that he had penetrated nearly a hundred meters below the ground. Seeing that Blue had only a dozen hours left, he couldn't help but speed up his pace.

But after turning a sharp bend, Fang Senyan suddenly noticed a person lying on the steps below! This surprise was no small matter. Fang Senyan immediately and instinctively adopted a defensive posture. But after a long time, the person remained lying on the ground without moving. Fang Senyan immediately realized that this guy should be dead.

He quickly walked forward and found that the person's attire looked very familiar, wearing...

...tight-fitting cotton socks that reached the calves, and looser pants on top, so that he would be presentable and could move easily on the boat, the buttons of the double-breasted vest were loosened, and inside was a dirt-resistant beige shirt, without a bow tie.

In the Caribbean world, Fang Senyan had seen such people on many merchant ships. They would moonlight as second or third mates when necessary, because they were good at calculations and so on, so their status was higher than that of sailors, but lower than that of the captain and chief mate. Considering that he had been attacked by that variant before, even though this guy was a corpse, Fang Senyan broke his hands and feet before searching to confirm his identity.

Soon, Fang Senyan, relying on his rich maritime experience, determined that this person should be a crew member who followed Lord Fokas to the African continent that year. His cause of death was a gunshot wound in the back. What was surprising was that the shape of the bullet that killed him was exactly the same as "Ambition"... obviously, this was the evil deed of "Repentance," the twin brother of the "Ambition" that Lord Fokas carried with him.

Perhaps because of the special environment here, this person's body has remained here, without rotting. This kind of thing is not common, but even in the real world, there are often ancient corpses unearthed that look lifelike. So Fang Senyan didn't feel anything wrong.

Fang Senyan walked dozens of steps further and found a platform of about twenty square meters. Ordinary people would basically feel tired after coming here. The purpose of this place was probably to allow people to take a nap. Here, Fang Senyan found a very old and dilapidated canvas bag scattered to one side. So the scene of Lord Fokas and his party arriving at this platform was basically restored by him: Lord Fokas certainly wouldn't directly tell his subordinates that they were looking for "immortality" drugs. Most likely, he used the wealth of African diamonds and gold as an excuse to lure them to be loyal. Perhaps the unfortunate guy above walked here and realized that there could be no gold or diamonds here, or perhaps he suddenly remembered his family, or the gloomy atmosphere directly robbed him of his fighting spirit, so this guy casually threw away the canvas bag he was carrying and turned to run.

Lord Fokas certainly couldn't allow this to happen. He drew his gun, fired, and took the life of this companion.

He killed the chicken to scare the monkey, and also warned the rest of his subordinates.

Fang Senyan checked the discarded package, but found that the package had been opened, obviously searched through, but it was still surprisingly heavy. When he opened it, he found that in addition to a few pieces of clothing, it was actually filled with completely withered plants, the Chali Ba that was seen above, and worshipped by Mbenge! The extraordinary weight of the package came from this. Fang Senyan was a little stunned, and an idea immediately came to his mind: this person certainly wouldn't bring so much Chali Ba in the package for no reason. It must have been ordered by Lord Fokas.

And yet, after killing him, Lord Fokas casually discarded the package filled with Chali Ba here. Does this mean that Lord Fokas had everyone bring a considerable amount of Chali Ba? Then it can be further inferred that this plant, which seems to only grow in large quantities here and is worshipped by Mbenge, should be of considerable use!

At this thought, Fang Senyan immediately returned without hesitation, grabbing handfuls of the plant. Sure enough, he received a prompt from the space: You have obtained an unknown plant! This plant cannot be taken out of this world.

At this time, time was tight, and Fang Senyan could only continue to move forward. He walked forward and downward for nearly ten minutes, and suddenly felt a strange sensation, as if it were the strange feeling of weightlessness when an airplane takes off, and the eardrums seemed to be buzzing! After standing still for a while, he realized that it was the fierce and noisy sound of water! It was the roar of the underground river crashing against the walls!!

After bypassing a bend, what appeared before Fang Senyan's eyes was an underground river about seven or eight meters wide! Fang Senyan couldn't help but take a deep breath. He had finally found it!! He had found the secret hidden in the torn page!!