It had clearly been dug by someone, but who could have dug such a hole? There so many strange poisonous mahoraga larvae!
A hundred meters ahead, the landscape changed again. There were holes on both sides of the walls, with many strange beasts' armors inside, along with many half-human/half-beast skeletons.
They were extremely old, so they were already dry. Lin Feng thought of something. Chi You had gone through innumerable hardships and tribulations. Could it be that this place used to be the nest of Chi You's clan?
Lin Feng looked at those skeletons and thought they looked like the monsters of Chi You's clan. Lin Feng's expression suddenly changed. He knelt down and looked at the marks on the ground.
The ground was made of stone, but there were fresh footprints on it. Those footprints had claws. They didn't seem to belong to one creature only. Footprints came out of all the rooms from the doors. It meant some monsters had walked here recently. They all went into the depths of the tunnel.
That place was called the Thousand Ghosts Cave. Could it be that the name referred to the souls of the half-human/half-beasts? Had they come back to life?
"What's wrong, Lin Feng? Did you find something?" asked Chang'e, crouching down as well. She looked at the footprints and seemed surprised. "Are we in Chi You's tomb?"
Suddenly, they heard rumbling sounds. It sounded like a boulder was rolling in the tunnel. Lin Feng immediately guessed that a part of the tunnel had collapsed in front of them. If that was the case, then these people were in trouble.
Even though the crowd wasn't strong enough to escape, if the tunnel collapsed, they would have no hope anymore at all!
A powerful Qi suddenly emerged, as well as hot steam.
"Oh no! Chi You and the others are trying to drown us!" Lin Feng realized first. He heard the sound of a wave coming in and sweeping everything away before it.
The crowd panicked. The tunnel was merely five zhang high and three zhang wide, they had nowhere to hide!
Not everybody realized what was going on when a huge foaming wave with foam on it rolled towards them. Lin Feng hastily released an isolated world and protected everybody in the tunnel over behind him!
The water collided with Lin Feng's isolated world. Lin Feng and the others were pushed back dozens of meters. Lin Feng released even more pure Qi, and finally managed to stop the water.
"Chi You and the Holy Buddha Mother of Evil are really sinister and vicious! They lured us underground because they wanted us to drown there!" shouted Most Exalted Lord Lao, grinding his teeth.
Chang'e looked exhausted and said, "How is that possible? We're imprisoned here. If we don't find a solution to get out, are we going to be stuck in here forever?"
"Ah! Look! What's that?" Chang'e wasn't even done talking when she pointed at something behind everybody. Outside of the isolated world, faces had appeared in the water. They kept charging the wall of the isolated world to get in.
"Those things are Man-Bats!" shouted someone. As expected, it was the Man-Bats. The water rolled in waves, it was terrifying.
"Fuck! Those fucking beasts must die!" cursed Ju Ling Shen. He stepped forwards bravely, then attacked the Man-Bats outside the isolated world!
The Man-Bats died one after another. They stopped struggling. Their distorted white faces looked desperate. They were dying and wailing mournfully behind the glass-like curtain of Lin Feng's isolated world.
A face looked at all the people inside the isolated world and cursing them silent for not saving them, and only wishing they would die with it!
That thing suddenly charged the isolated world. It looked like a beast skin, stuck to the curtain of Lin Feng's isolated world. Lin Feng noticed a sign on it, and was stupefied. It was a map!
But the other half of the map was on the other side of the beast skin. Lin Feng said to Chang'e and the others, "Move back a little bit. I need to take that map inside, so some water may flow in as well…"
Chang'e complained, "Don't! There are dead Man-Bats next to it! How disgusting!"
Most Exalted Lord Lao said, "We have no choice but to take it. It may be the map of the underground world. We won't get out alive without it!"
—
Lin Feng had them move back. He put his hand on the curtain of his isolated world; the map was right on the other side. The map started fusing together with his isolation energy and suddenly, a Man-Bat opened his eyes and bared his fangs, snapping his head towards Lin Feng's hand!
Lin Feng was caught unprepared. He hastily pulled the map inside the isolated world, but he hadn't expected the monster to bite the map, so Lin Feng pulled the monster in as well!
——
When it arrived inside, the Man-Bat fell on the ground, rolling towards them.
Lin Feng raised his hand, about to slap him to death, but the Man-Bat suddenly cried out, "Be merciful, don't kill me!…"
Lin Feng stopped and looked at the Man-Bat. He said, "I'll let you speak one last time. After that, I'll kill you!"
The Man-Bat said sadly, "Thank you for giving me one last chance to speak. We've been imprisoned for a very long time, and today we finally got our souls back. We can finally tell someone our story so that we will never be forgotten. But, everything is over now…"
He suddenly started crying while speaking. Lin Feng couldn't help but feel some compassion.
"Please listen to my story until the end. I beg you. You can kill me afterwards, if you wish…"
After that, he stood up, still soaking wet and said, "I don't know who you are, but please save our clan. Our clan has been sealed for a long time. We all became lifeless creatures. We'll never be able to have a normal life ever again. Can you imagine how sad that is?"
Chang'e said softly, "It's alright, slowly… Tell us your story slowly and exactly, and we'll do our best to help if we can…"
The Man-Bat looked nervous, and told them his story. Initially, they were ordinary people. Back in the days, Yan Huang and Chi You had fought a great war. Their people had been involved because the two warriors had fought on their territory. The Man-Bats had escaped and gone to hide in a cave in the mountains.
They initially thought they could watch from far away, but they hadn't expected Chi You's Beast Clan to lose against Yan Huang. Those people had also gone inside the cave. Of course, ordinary people couldn't compete with Chi You's Beast Clan. Many people had died!
In the end, the remaining people had been captured and forced to live underground. Many years had passed, and many people had died. In the end, Chi You's Beast Clan had agreed to release them someday if they finished building the underground world. However, after finishing it, the leader of the clan hadn't kept his promise.
He had turned them into horrible creatures and imprisoned them in the underground world. Their lives had become a curse. They hadn't seen the sun for such a long time and slowly, they had become lifeless souls.
The strangest thing was that when they had become monsters, they had also become immortal. So much time had passed that they had slowly forgotten about time. They had also forgotten their enemies. They had surprisingly become allies with the beasts.
But now Lin Feng and the others had shown up in the underground world, so the Man-Bats had suddenly regained their memories from the shock. Initially, they thought the enemy clan who had captured them were benefactors, so they didn't want to let anyone destroy the underground world.
When Lin Feng heard those things, he was furious. He hadn't expected their lives to be so sad!
"Eh… So you want us to save you, but how…? Are some of your people still alive?" Lin Feng asked. He looked at the dead Man-Bats in the water. Could they return to life?
The Man-Bat said, "Not all of us died. There is an area in the underground world where water can't reach us. Some of my people gathered there. Please help them escape, I beg you. We're not evil people. We've just been cursed because of that evil beast leader!"
Lin Feng didn't really believe him. What if it was part of Chi You's plot? What if he wanted them to go deeper in the underground world?