Splintered wood chips flew everywhere, and Wu Tianzhen and Fatty retreated to dodge. The wooden pieces, like hidden weapons, smashed into the skeletons on the side walls, sinking into the water along with the remains of their victims.
When everything calmed down, the two looked forward. They saw the wooden head, half boy and half girl, slowly floating on the water. Driven by the ripples, its face gradually turned, staring intently at them.
"Good heavens... so it destroyed itself by trying to do something big!"
After a long while, Fatty smacked his lips and uttered words of utter bewilderment. "Could it be that because we were pulling it, it couldn't think straight and decided to prove its innocence by dying?"
"Damn, you don't think so, do you?"
Wu Tianzhen didn't reply. He stared fixedly at the debris bobbing on the water's surface, a strange thought suddenly surfacing in his mind.
... What if the Zhangliu God died because it was illuminated by Xiao Ge?
But that didn't make sense.
Whether Xiao Ge had a normal lifespan, or as Wu Tianzhen had always feared, his lifespan was short, the Zhangliu God shouldn't have ended up like this.
Wu Tianzhen turned and looked at Zhang Qiling, who was standing behind him.
Zhang Qiling was looking at the water surface, his expression neither happy nor sad. But he was always sensitive to changes in his surroundings. Noticing Wu Tianzhen's gaze, he quickly looked over.
Those eyes were still clear and limpid, as if one could see straight to the bottom. But when you truly looked, you found that there was nothing there; it was a pure enigma.
Wu Tianzhen opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but swallowed it all back.
... What did he know? He couldn't remember anything anymore.
"Xiao Ge, let's keep going!" So he quickly adjusted his mood, raised his head, and continued energetically.
But Zhang Qiling didn't speak. He seemed to have suddenly discovered something, and his posture instantly shifted from slightly relaxed to completely tense.
"...It's moving."
He slowly reached out and pressed the stone wall beside him. Realizing the problem wasn't there, he quickly shifted his gaze to the bottom of the water.
"Moving?" Wu Tianzhen pondered the two words carefully and then looked up sharply at Zhang Qiling.
Zhang Qiling had been leaning against that slightly protruding stone wall. But looking now, that protruding stone wall was already a meter behind him.
Wu Tianzhen had been staring at Zhang Qiling the entire time and knew clearly that he hadn't moved his legs during this period.
... So why had his position changed?!
The bottom of the water... was moving?!
Wu Tianzhen felt a chill run down his spine. He felt a cold air surge from the bottom of the water, piercing his spine and entering his brain, making him dizzy.
He abruptly turned his head to look ahead. The waterway ahead was incredibly long, its end invisible, the exit seemingly unreachable.
"Run!" Zhang Qiling's sharp shout jolted the two frozen figures awake!
Wu Tianzhen practically leaped up instantly. "Fatty, quickly get back to that water curtain!"
... No matter what was under their feet, it had indeed started to become slippery from the water curtain. If they wanted a sliver of hope, they had to go back!
Fatty was still immersed in his musings about the puppet proving its innocence. He let out a "Huh?" and his brain hadn't caught up yet, but his feet moved quickly. In a few swooshes, he overtook Wu Tianzhen.
The three ran desperately. Wu Tianzhen neither had Zhang Qiling's agility nor Fatty's bulk, and he gradually felt the resistance of the water. So he simply switched to swimming mode.
And as they retreated, the movement at the bottom of the water gradually intensified, and the few of them could faintly hear the sound of sand and stones grinding underwater.
"What is this thing? Damn, a water conveyor belt?!"
The ground became even harder to traverse once it started moving. Fatty slipped several times and simply plunged headfirst into the water, swimming with Wu Tianzhen.
He submerged his head in the water. In the pitch blackness, he could only see countless white bubbles rising continuously from the bottom of the water, giving rise to an unknown fear.
Ten minutes had passed. They heard the faint sound of flowing water and looked up. The water curtain was twenty meters away!
"How can a conveyor belt be this smooth?" Wu Tianzhen struggled and paddled forward a couple of times, replying to Fatty, "Don't worry about what it is, escaping is the priority!"
"No, no, don't reply to me!" Fatty suddenly became terrified. "Damn, you're just adding power to it, I really can't take it anymore!"
Whether it was one of their mouths that was particularly effective, the moment Fatty's voice fell, the anomaly at the bottom of the water suddenly erupted!
From the dark water in the distance, a massive white shadow shot out at high speed, striking the stone ceiling heavily. Instantly,碎石 (suì shí - shattered stones) splashed down, falling with a crackling sound.
A stone accurately hit near Fatty, and the huge wave of water sent Fatty crashing directly onto Wu Tianzhen's head.
"You guys go first!"
Realizing the urgency, Zhang Qiling stopped, grabbed the two by their arms, and with a flick of his wrist, instantly flung them towards the water curtain.
The Black Gold Ancient Blade unsheathed with a clang. Zhang Qiling gathered his strength and broke through the water.
When Wu Tianzhen and Fatty landed and looked back, they saw the black figure suddenly twist its waist in mid-air to change its attack. Zhang Qiling's toes touched the stone ceiling. It looked gentle, but when he shot out, the stone ceiling actually cracked under the immense force!
The tip of the blade pointed downwards, transforming into an unstoppable force. And the moment he leaped down, a white shadow that almost filled the entire waterway suddenly rushed out from the dark water!
The two collided with a piercing sound. Wu Tianzhen, enduring the noise, looked over. He saw an endless, elongated white mass squeezing out from the water behind the water curtain. The thing was covered in armor, its body extremely flat, and its sides densely covered with long, sharp, slender legs, looking like a white double-sided comb that had come to life.
... This was actually a giant white centipede so long it covered the entire waterway?!