Chapter 1 Myriad Dangers

After hearing Hong Jie's question, Shopkeeper Wang stroked his beard and smiled, a mysterious expression on his face. He said faintly, "As for whether dragons truly exist in this world, it's difficult for me to say definitively. After all, I haven't had the good fortune to witness a real dragon with my own eyes. But..."

As soon as I heard that "but," I knew Shopkeeper Wang must know some inside information.

The other grave robbers also stared intently at Shopkeeper Wang, waiting for him to finish speaking.

"But, Gao Shiye once told me that China does indeed have dragons!"

The whole place erupted in an uproar!

Hong Jie said without the slightest doubt, "Since it's Gao Shiye's golden words, it seems there really are dragons in this world!"

It was clear that Gao Shiye's status in the hearts of these tomb robbers was even higher than Shopkeeper Wang's. Gao Shiye's words, to them, were like golden rules, allowing no room for doubt.

Hearing what Shopkeeper Wang said, I couldn't help but become curious as well. I quickly pricked up my ears, wanting to hear what else Gao Shiye had said about real dragons, so I could take the opportunity to broaden my knowledge.

But Shopkeeper Wang liked to speak in half-sentences. Just as he had piqued our interest, he pointed to the dragon skeleton coiled around the giant tree in front of us and said, "Now that the guardian dragon has appeared, the tomb owner's coffin must be nearby. Now is not the time to chat idly, let's hurry up and get to work!"

The tomb robbers responded enthusiastically, and began looking for a path to the giant tree.

But after circling the tree, they discovered that the tree was rooted in the center of a turbulent underground river. There was no dry path to the tree at all. If they wanted to climb the tree, they could only cross the underground river.

But the underground river was rushing and surging, and no one knew how deep it was. Rashly venturing into the river would probably be a near-death experience!

Just as these grave robbers were at a loss, Shopkeeper Wang's gaze suddenly fell on me and Uncle Mei. Sensing his malicious gaze, I knew that Uncle Mei and I were probably going to be the pioneers of the river crossing.

Sure enough, I heard him laugh loudly, then he strode towards Uncle Mei and me, put a big hand on my shoulder, and said with feigned enthusiasm:

"I knew Xiao Hong asking you two to come along would be useful sooner or later. Just as I expected, now that the brothers are blocked by this underground river, it's a great opportunity for the two of you to show your abilities!"

Uncle Mei and I weren't in a hurry to commit. We just gave a dry laugh to show our response.

Shopkeeper Wang knew how to use people. He knew that if he wanted us to risk our lives, he had to give us some benefits. He said with a smile:

"I heard Xiao Hong say that the two of you are excellent swimmers, so this underground river shouldn't be a problem for you. But my brothers' swimming skills are average, and they might lose their lives if they rashly go into the river. How about this, the two of you take the trouble to tie the rope and swim to the other side first, then tie the rope to the tree, so that the other brothers can pull the rope to cross the river. If this is successful, I will give you two a great credit! When we get out, I'll not only give you two a bigger share of the reward, but if we encounter this kind of rich opportunity in the future, I'll definitely invite you two to join me again. How about it?"

Hearing this, Hong Jie quickly grabbed my hand and said, "Rongsheng, this is a rare opportunity! Why don't you hurry up and show off in front of the boss? If you can really get the boss's appreciation, you'll be on the road to success in the future!"

Uncle Mei and I looked at each other, and Uncle Mei nodded slightly.

It wasn't because the two of us cared about Shopkeeper Wang's appreciation. To be honest, Jiang Yongguang and the others were probably already setting up an inescapable net outside. Shopkeeper Wang was already in dire straits, unable to protect himself. What use was his appreciation?

I understood Uncle Mei's thoughts. The reason he decided to risk crossing the river was because he wanted to find the whereabouts of the woman in white.

Since Uncle Mei nodded, I didn't say anything more.

I turned to look at Shopkeeper Wang and said boldly, "Boss, give me two ropes, the stronger the better, otherwise I'm afraid they won't be able to withstand the rapids of this underground river."

Seeing that Uncle Mei and I agreed so readily, Shopkeeper Wang immediately smiled and gave a thumbs up, saying, "Good courage! Xiao Hong really has an eye for men, the two of you didn't disappoint me!"

After saying that, he personally selected two ropes for us, one end tied to the shore and the other tied to our waists. When Uncle Mei and I successfully crossed the river, we would tie the end on our waists to the ancient tree, which would form a simple rope bridge across the underground river.

Before going into the river, I stretched my foot in to test the speed of the current, and roughly calculated in my head. I led Uncle Mei to walk upstream a bit.

Because once we entered the river, we definitely wouldn't swim straight towards the ancient tree. The rushing underground river would definitely push us downstream. At this time, we had to calculate this advance amount in advance, so that we wouldn't take any detours and swim to the other side with the least amount of effort.

After calculating this advance amount, Uncle Mei and I prepared to enter the water.

Before entering the water, Hong Jie came over and hugged me worriedly, and said in a low voice, "Rongsheng, be careful! If it really doesn't work, retreat first, don't lose your life because of temporary face!"

I nodded and said, "Got it."

After saying that, I took the lead and jumped into the underground river.

I thought the water in this underground river should be ice-cold, after all, there was no sunlight here, but after jumping in, I found that the water temperature was not very cold, and it was even warmer than the water in the Duck River.

"Strange, could there be hot springs nearby?" I couldn't help but mutter curiously.

Immediately afterwards, Uncle Mei followed me into the river. After he entered the river, he also subconsciously said, "Oh yo, this river water isn't cold at all, it's very comfortable!"

I nodded and took the lead in swimming towards the ancient tree on the other side, while swimming, I tried to explore the depth of the water. I didn't expect the underground river to be bottomless. I explored it several times, and once I even dived down completely, but I still couldn't see the bottom.

After swimming up again, I shook my head and said to Uncle Mei, "This river is very deep, I'm afraid it can drown people."

Uncle Mei quickly urged, "Then hurry to the other side, don't waste your energy!"

However, just as we were talking, I suddenly heard a series of "crackling" sounds in the water. This was not the sound of the underground river flowing, but the sound of a group of small fish swimming towards us.

I had vaguely heard this sound before, in the tomb passage when we came in!

Piranhas!

The piranhas are here!

I looked in the direction of the sound, and was immediately frightened!

Sure enough!

I saw that the underground river was full of piranhas, each the size of a palm, dark red, and with sharp teeth! Because Uncle Mei and I were both injured, there was a smell of blood as soon as we entered the water. They were like flies that had smelled rotten meat, and quickly attacked us.

"Damn! Uncle Mei, run, there are piranhas!" I shouted, and quickly led Uncle Mei to swim hard!

At this time, we had already swam halfway, so we didn't turn back, but simply swung our arms and swam to the other side, so that we could get ashore and escape the danger faster!

But the piranhas swam so fast that they caught up with Uncle Mei and me in a short time!