Fang Er, who had been exploring the west for a while, reappeared at the foot of Mount Fuji.
He was accompanied by the brothers Li Tai and Li Ke.
Sun Simiao had been handed over to Li Shimin, along with instructions to check the elder gentleman's pulse and help him regain his health.
Around Mount Fuji, due to the combined effects of volcanic activity, earthquakes, and tsunamis, all surface elements had vanished.
Even the ruins had been swallowed by the volcanic crater.
Now, the world before Fang Er's eyes resembled the deserts of the Western Regions.
However, in addition to the barren rocks, there were countless Di Jiang wreaking havoc.
The three of them were hovering above the crater.
Several days had passed, and the all-consuming power had disappeared.
The crater had now become a massive, bottomless black hole.
A steady stream of Di Jiang emerged from the hole, turning an area of a hundred kilometers into their playground.
Beneath their gold panning ships, each was equipped with a Bluetooth speaker, playing Li Ke's "beautiful" singing on repeat, ensuring they wouldn't be attacked by Di Jiang leaping up from below.
Li Tai pointed downwards and said, "Mountain Master, doesn't this scene look like Fang Family Village's pigsty exploded?"
Upon hearing this, Li Ke firmly denied it, "That's impossible. Setting aside their armor, their terrifying strength alone suggests they are not creatures that can be contained!"
The armor fragments of a previously consumed Di Jiang had been collected and weighed.
That single set of armor alone weighed no less than two hundred jin.
Combined with the Di Jiang's own weight, exceeding five hundred jin, they could still leap a hundred meters high.
Contained?
What a joke!
It wasn't just Li Ke who didn't believe it; even Fang Er found it preposterous...
Just then, Li Ke added, "Rather than calling them contained livestock, I'd say these creatures are like the vanguard of an invasion force from another world conquering Earth!"
"Mountain Master, do you think this hole leads underground, or to another world?"
Hearing this, Fang Er had an inspiration. He took out a grenade, pulled the pin, and tossed it into the hole.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1!
"Boom!"
An explosion echoed from below.
Hearing the sound, he mused, "It should lead underground."
If it led to another realm, the sound shouldn't have been able to travel.
"Let's go down and take a look!"
He took the lead, piloting his gold panning ship into the hole.
Li Tai and Li Ke quickly followed.
The three of them, in their three ships, descended along the crater's opening. Fang Er periodically tossed a grenade to scout the way.
The grenades detonated in about 5 seconds, limiting their reconnaissance range, and making it difficult to determine if a gateway to another world was hidden below.
Fifty meters...
One hundred meters...
As they descended further, the surroundings grew increasingly dark.
By the time they reached two hundred meters down, visibility was almost zero.
What should have been a world of raging magma, all red, was now pitch black.
Darker than black fungus...
Fang Er activated his searchlight, pointing it downwards. The abyss below remained unfathomable.
Countless Di Jiang still swarmed the vicinity, leaping upwards along the uneven cave walls.
Those unlucky ones would slip and fall.
Only a portion could safely climb to the crater's edge and reach the outside world.
Looking at the dense, swarming scene, Li Tai felt goosebumps rise on his skin.
"Damn it, how many Di Jiang must be down here!"
"It's like an ant nest!"
Half an hour later, they still hadn't reached the bottom of the hole.
However, the space around them had become much wider than the area above.
They also spotted traces of magma. This magma seeped from somewhere on the cave walls, flowing downwards like a dark red waterfall, a spectacular sight.
The temperature, which had been decreasing with their descent, began to rise again here.
"Mountain Master, look over there!"
Li Tai's searchlight pointed to a section of the cave wall. Fang Er followed his gaze and saw countless crystals embedded in the wall, shimmering under the light.
"Let's go see!"
There was no magma falling there, making it relatively safe.
Upon reaching the area, the colorful crystals dazzled them.
"This, this is damn gems!" Li Ke exclaimed, his eyes wide with shock. He leaned closer to the cave wall and chipped off a piece, examining it.
Fang Er, seeing this, was alarmed, "Throw it away quickly!"
Li Ke, startled by his tone, dropped the crystal, which clattered down.
He asked in confusion, "Mountain Master, why?"
"Why else? These don't look like ordinary gems," Li Tai commented with a sneer.
He then shifted his searchlight elsewhere, and the area he had previously illuminated was still emitting light.
"See? This thing might be radioactive."
"Did you stuff all those books into your dog's stomach?"
Li Ke:..........
"Clang..."
Unexpectedly, after more than ten seconds, they heard the sound of something hitting the ground.
"We're almost at the bottom!"
Fang Er's eyes glinted, and he quickly maneuvered the gold panning ship to continue descending.
Soon, with the aid of the searchlight, the three of them saw the ground below.
However, the sight left them utterly stunned.
The ground below was not flat. Large quantities of rubble, solidified magma, and Di Jiang corpses were piled together like small mountains.
Fang Er even saw remnants of the surface world that had been swallowed into the crater.
Innumerable Di Jiang emerged from the darkness in the distance, climbed to the mountaintops, and then leaped high, grabbing onto the overhead rock face and charging furiously towards the surface world.
A large amount of magma rained down from above, cooling into stone as it fell.
The falling Di Jiang, mixed with these stones, forced the trio to quickly evade, piloting their gold panning ships away.
The space below was vast. The beam of the searchlight disappeared hundreds of meters away, its boundaries unseen.
"Damn it, have we opened up a new world?"
Li Tai stared blankly at everything around him, his jaw dropped.
Fang Er had also not anticipated such a situation beneath Mount Fuji.
Stopping in the distance and looking back at the small mountain, he formed a conjecture.
Perhaps this place had been separated from the surface world.
It was not connected to Mount Fuji above.
It was only due to the nuclear explosion that the geological structure changed, opening the partition above, thus allowing these Di Jiang to find a passage out!
The terrifying suction emanating from the mountain that day was likely caused by air pressure differences?