"Grab the blood vessels... I mean, grab the vines to come out!" He Lingchuan slid down along the rock face, pulling his hand back the instant he reached out. "Right, put on your gloves!"
The moment his skin touched the rock, a sharp pain shot through it; the flesh felt as though it were being roasted, accompanied by a faint numbness.
A smear of slime clung to his palm.
He Lingchuan hurriedly brought out some medicinal powder and sprinkled it on. Only after frothy bubbles surfaced and he rinsed his palm with a waterskin did the stinging pain subside a little.
This slime was acidic and venomous, thoroughly unfriendly to humans.
Gloves were standard equipment for patrolmen on duty. Once everyone pulled theirs on, touching the stone wall no longer harmed them.
The group slid more than ten feet down the rock face before discovering that below lay an enormous cavern, at the bottom of which sat a murky, viscous pool!
Bubbles occasionally broke the surface of the pool, clearly showing it was nothing benign.
Willow suddenly spoke up, "Look in the pool, quick!"
She thrust her bundle of fluorescent grass as far forward as she could. In the bright illumination cast downward, everyone saw that the pool was far from calm; something kept churning beneath the surface.
What was that thing, pale tinged with red?
Just then, an object rolled up to the surface, granting everyone a clear look.
It was a human.
Strictly speaking, it was the upper half of a corpse, ending at the sternum. Flesh hung in ragged tatters, no longer able to cover the bones beneath.
Half of the face was dissolved, while the other half still bore flaps of flesh. The mouth curled at an unnatural angle, as if smiling up at them, but the eyes were gone—leaving only two gaping dark sockets.
A newly recruited patrolman retched aloud and vomited.
The others fought back the churning in their throats, while Skinny clamped a hand over his mouth.
Severed limbs and fragmented bones, flesh peeled from bone, littered the entire bed of the pool!
Evidently, the humans captured by the ferry whelp were all placed here to be digested.
From their vantage point, the scene was grotesque and sinister, no different from the legendary Blood Pool of Hell.
Door Plank muttered, "Just how many people did this creature eat?!"
They had dealt with plenty of man-eating monsters, but one that gorged itself so voraciously was a first.
The young patrolman was still vomiting uncontrollably in shock, unable to stop. Just as Door Plank was about to warn him not to bend so low, something flashed across the rock wall behind the youth!
"Watch out!"
Unfortunately, his shout came too late. The companion was standing somewhat further down, and with a violent shove from that creature, he plunged into the pool.
The patrolman reacted quickly, however, instinctively grabbing out and dragging down the thing that had shoved him.
It was none other than the ferry whelp from earlier.
With a heavy splash, both hit the water.
The spray barely rose, muffled by the thickness of the viscous liquid.
The patrolman instantly thrashed in the pool, wailing in agony.
He Lingchuan had merely brushed the rock wall with his palm earlier and felt a stinging burn; with the man falling entirely in, the pain had to be magnified at least tenfold.
When his head broke the surface, his face, head, and clothes were all giving off faint wisps of white smoke.
The ferry whelp had parted from the patrolman the moment they hit the water, taking advantage of the commotion to sink to the bottom and vanish in an instant. This was its domain; the corrosive acid had no effect on it at all, serving only to invigorate it.
With the prey already in the pool, there was no need to tangle with him; it only had to wait for the human to be dissolved.
All these people would eventually become rich nourishment for it.
The moment the patrolman hit the water, Door Plank pulled out a coil of rope and hurled it down. "Grab on!"
But water had gotten into the man's eyes as he fell, corroding his vision into a milky blur. He could not see where the rope was at all, and the excruciating agony across his entire body left him completely panicked.
Willow frowned and simply fired a sleeve arrow.
Her aim was dead-on. The arrowhead pierced right through the fallen man's left arm, then sprang open with a snap, hooking fast.
Overcome with pain, the man let out another loud cry of "Aagh!" With a taut face, Willow triggered the mechanism to reel in the line, hauling him forcefully out of the pool.
The cord of the grappling mechanism was remarkably sturdy, suffering little from the acidic pool, and the metal point was completely unaffected.
The pool seemed relatively incapable of dissolving metal.
Yet just as she was bent over, exerting all her strength to pull him up, a claw emerged out of thin air from the rock wall behind her, aiming to shove her down as well!
Willow had one hand straining to pull the man and the other clinging to a vine; she had no third hand to deal with it.
Yet how could they fall for the same ambush twice? Skinny had been prepared from the start. The moment Willow leaned forward to haul the man, he had slid down with a swish. Just as the claw touched Willow's shoulder, Skinny drove a pickaxe into the back of its hand and wrenched outward with all his might!
There was no need for spoken plans; this was tacit understanding forged through long cooperation. All four were ready.
The monster's skin was not as tough as its sibling's. That strike sent green blood splattering, a few drops landing on Skinny's face. The pain made his brow furrow and his eye twitch twice, but he did not instinctively turn his head away. Reports indicated that each ferry whelp possessed different gifts; none could be taken lightly.
Sure enough, the ferry whelp howled and lunged straight toward him with the momentum.
Tackling whichever opponent made no difference to it. But right then, gears clicked from behind as another sleeve arrow arrived, punching a bloody hole through its shoulder blade!
He Lingchuan had made his move.
Flush with wealth, the custom arrowheads he had purchased at the magic artifact shop on Yunling Island were far superior to Willow's. Their hardness, strength, and penetrating power were on entirely different levels. Although that profiteer Bai Guo had charged him a fortune, he had genuinely delivered top-tier goods. Right now, after punching through the monster's shoulder, the arrowhead flared open and locked firmly in place, while the attached flying cable remained completely undamaged under the corrosion of its acidic body fluids.
With his hit landed, He Lingchuan yanked back on the line. Learning from earlier, he would not give the creature a second chance to escape.
Thus, Skinny and He Lingchuan hooked into opposite sides of its body, each hauling hard in a different direction.
The creature was effectively pinned. Though it struggled desperately, it had little hope of breaking free.
At this point, Door Plank pointed toward a large opening about thirty feet away:
"Over there to treat him!"
Strictly speaking, it was not a cave, merely an alcove, but more than spacious enough to hold four or five people.
The rescued patrolman gave off wisps of pale smoke all over. Though he had regained his senses, he was trembling violently from the pain.
The monster held by the other two was even worse, thrashing frantically. The rock wall was already steep and treacherous for footing, and Skinny lacked He Lingchuan's brute strength, getting dragged forward several times.
At moments like this, He Lingchuan missed the magic artifact in his old man's hands—the silk-binding rope. With that item, automatically tying this beast up would take less than two breaths.
Fortunately, Door Plank arrived. Tall and brawny, he favored heavy gear. What he pulled out now were two sets of chains: one immediately shackled the monster's legs, and the other clamped down on both its arms. As soon as He Lingchuan eased his pull, Door Plank yanked tight, binding the monster's arms as well.
What's more, the two sets of chains could interlock, restricting the monster's range of motion even further.
Against ape-like monsters, this double-knot lock was the most effective; it seemed to work just as well on a ferry whelp.
Fearing it might sink into the rock wall if it made contact, Door Plank simply slung it onto his back.
The monster screeched sharply, kicking against the rock wall several times.
Then, the entire cavern began to writhe.
It was truly writhing, squeezing and churning up, down, left, and right in a bizarre rhythm.
This place could actually coordinate with the ferry whelp to attack enemies? The patrolmen started in fright and scrambled toward the alcove.
Halfway there, one patrolman lost his footing. His forehead slammed against the rock wall, throwing him backward.
Below was the pool.
Fortunately, He Lingchuan was nearby. Swift of hand and eye, he seized the man's collar and hoisted him up.
The patrolman turned ashen with terror. "Th-thank you!"
"Move!" He Lingchuan had no time for pleasantries. "Quick!"
The group tumbled into the alcove in utter disarray. Leaving this patrolman to keep hold of the monster, Door Plank and Skinny carefully peeled off the injured youth's clothes and sprinkled medicinal powder over him. "Can you hold on?"
"I can... but my eyes—I can't see." The youth trembled violently all over. Acidic water had entered his mouth as well, scorching the interior so badly that his speech was slurred and indistinct.
He was only sixteen; if he went blind, how would he live the rest of his life?
Willow patted his shoulder, her voice resolute. "You shut your eyes in time. Once we get outside and apply some medicine, you might be completely fine."
Only then did the youth calm down somewhat, taking a sip of medicinal powder to cleanse his mouth.
Door Plank pointed at the youth, looking at Willow with a baffled expression that clearly said, *Are you serious?*
Willow glared at him in annoyance, mouthing back:
*How would I know?*
In a peril-ridden crisis, if you didn't bolster someone's spirits, were you supposed to just let him collapse or give up?
He Lingchuan, keeping watch in all directions, suddenly said, "The way we came is closed."
Everyone looked up. Sure enough, the narrow path they had taken was shrinking into a sliver of a slit, rapidly vanishing from sight.
The patrolman holding the monster voiced his worry: "I can't see an exit. I don't know how we're getting out."
The path behind them was gone, and beneath them lay a man-eating pool. How were they to leave this place alive?
"If this mine tunnel is a human body simulated by the ferry whelp," He Lingchuan said, a claim none disputed, "then we should be inside the 'stomach'?"
"Right." Willow surveyed their surroundings as well. "In that case, there should originally be two passages. One is at the bottom of the pool..."
Everyone looked at the pool; none thought that would be a viable way out.
"The other passage should be directly overhead." Willow tied a bundle of fluorescent grass to an arrow, drew her bow to full draw, and released.
The luminous arrow flew forty feet. Everyone saw that while there was no opening directly above the cavern, there was a large patch of sunken, folded wrinkles diagonally overhead.
"Is that the cardia?" In other words, the valve connecting the esophagus and the stomach. Skinny let out a sigh. "Only after it opens can we climb our way out, right?"
"Even if we can climb up there, further up is a nearly vertical passage," Door Plank noted, realizing the difficulty. "This 'body' has a foul temper. It won't let us climb up easily."
The patrolman holding the monster couldn't help asking, "Th-then what on earth do we do?"
The group exchanged glances.
Willow walked up to the monster. "Can this thing understand human speech?"
Door Plank said, "According to the intel we received, some can."
"The city is getting more and more unreliable. What does 'some can' even mean? Does that mean some can't?" Willow snapped her fingers twice in front of the ferry whelp. "Can you understand me? Lead us out, and you might get to keep your life, you know."
The ferry whelp went quiet.
Was it working? Willow raised an eyebrow, thinking her luck was holding.
To her surprise, in the very next second, the ferry whelp spat right at her with a sharp *pbbbt*.
She dodged aside in a flash as the green spittle splashed against the rock wall.
Chapter 309