Chapter 219: Chapter 207: 3-Eyed Long-Haired Black Chimpanzee
The four of them walked along the deep, dark tunnel until they suddenly came to a fork. One path was even darker, utterly devoid of light. The other shimmered faintly with the rippling reflection of water, and the seawater at their feet was much deeper than elsewhere.
"Two paths. Which way do we go?"
"I’ve scouted ahead. The path with the deep water and light leads straight to the base of Morhaven. It’s filled with concrete and rocks along the way, and the end is a dead end. If it weren’t for the plant roots tangled all over, the weak tunnel walls would have been washed away by the encroaching seawater," Saul Sterling explained. "This path was probably just a mistake Morgan Sterling made while digging. Even though it was refilled, seawater still seeped in from the bottom. That’s why this whole basement is flooded."
When Saul Sterling mentioned the plant roots, Flora Bloom’s eyes lit up. Through her mental link, she quickly identified the source of the roots that had grown deep underground: they extended down from the two lawns inside the quarantine wall.
"What about the other path?" Flora Bloom asked curiously. ’A place Lex Cross wanted to check out himself couldn’t be just some simple little tunnel.’
"The second tunnel is the important one. I’ve detected that it starts on a nearly level slope, but after about a kilometer, it begins to gradually incline upward. The Spiritual Energy at the end is exceptionally abundant. Based on the direction I scouted, its location should be in a wetland park on the western outskirts."
Abundant Spiritual Energy, a secret passage leading directly to a wetland park on the outskirts? Flora Bloom looked up and met Lex Cross’s gaze. "It can’t be that much of a coincidence, can it? Did Morgan Sterling dig this tunnel all the way from here just for easy access to the secret realm?"
"Highly likely," Lex Cross said coolly, raising an eyebrow.
"Let’s go, let’s go check it out!"
Flora Bloom pulled Lex Cross along, and with Saul Sterling and Five following behind, they headed into the dark passage!
The tunnel was over two meters high, but its width only allowed for two people to pass at a time.
"This place is so cramped. What if it collapses?" Flora Bloom said, a little unnerved.
"Don’t worry. I had Holden Warren go ahead and reinforce the tunnel. Holden Warren is a Level 3 Earth Ability User; it won’t collapse."
Hearing this, Flora Bloom finally relaxed.
The tunnel was so pitch-black that even with Lex Cross right beside her, she couldn’t see his face. After walking for a while, her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, but she still couldn’t make out the path.
Flora Bloom took out two flashlights from her space, handing one to Saul Sterling behind her and keeping the other for herself.
"That’s much brighter."
"Saul Sterling, about how long is this tunnel? How long will it take us to get to the wetland park?"
"If we moved quickly, about half an hour. But the path here is uneven, and the space is too narrow for running. It’ll take just under an hour to reach the wetland park."
Eventually, the four of them began to feel the path under their feet start to slope upward. Gradually, a faint, dim light appeared at the end of the tunnel.
"That light should be the exit," Saul Sterling said, pointing at the bright spot ahead.
"This upward-sloping path is straight, with no turns. That point of light we’re seeing now is the exit."
At last, Flora Bloom’s group of four, along with the Earth Ability User Holden Warren who had gone ahead of them, reached the tunnel’s exit behind a rockery in the wetland park.
Just as they were about to emerge, Flora Bloom spoke up, stopping them.
"Don’t go out yet. There’s something outside."
With that, Flora Bloom immediately placed a huge water shield at the mouth of the cave to block their scent from the outside.
A massive figure strode slowly past the front of the rockery. It glanced suspiciously at the rockery’s location, then plopped itself down, facing their tunnel entrance directly.
The five of them looked out.
The giant creature was covered in long, black fur, with an exaggerated six-pack of pectoral muscles on its chest. If you had to name an animal with pecs, you wouldn’t think of anything other than an ape.
This black, long-haired ape was about the same height as a nearby twenty-year-old camphor tree. But as it twitched its flat, broad nose in their direction, a vertical eye on its forehead slowly began to open.
Flora Bloom had a premonition that if she looked directly at the third eye on its forehead, she would be instantly pierced through.
"Back into the tunnel! Don’t let its eye see you!"
Lex Cross grabbed Flora Bloom and, along with his three subordinates, quickly retreated deeper into the tunnel. A second after they stopped, a loud BOOM! erupted from the entrance. A blast from some unknown energy sent earth and rock flying, and a shower of stones and dust rained down on them from the tunnel mouth.
The water shield Flora Bloom had just placed at the entrance was also instantly blasted apart, vanishing without a trace.
Just then, the sound of churning earth and rock came from the tunnel’s opening, and a giant hand, the back of it covered in long black fur and with fingernails bigger than her face, reached inside.
As soon as the giant hand entered, it began clawing menacingly through the dusty air inside the tunnel. Terrified, Flora Bloom quickly threw up several more layers of water shields in front of them, and the five of them retreated deeper into the tunnel once more.
The massive hand swiped a few times. Finding nothing, it tore through Flora Bloom’s water shields again. As the shields dissipated, the water drenched the back of the three-eyed, long-haired ape’s hand.
It immediately pulled its hand back, brought it to its mouth, and licked it a few times. Its eyes lit up.
’Sweet. This water is delicious.’
With a couple of tugs, it uprooted the bothersome rockery in front of it. Its enormous body slumped down over the small hole that had suddenly appeared, and one of its eyes peered intensely inside.
’Did that water just now come from those little crawlers inside, the ones not even as big as its palm?’
"HUFF! PUFF!"
’Little crawlers, give me more water.’
"HUFF! PUFF!"
’Don’t you run away!’
Its original intention was to get more of the sweet water to drink, but it discovered it was simply too big to squeeze inside. So, it reached its hand in again, but still couldn’t reach them.
When it poked its head in again to look with one eye, the little crawlers had already vanished without a trace.
Flora Bloom’s group of five retreated out of the tunnel at top speed, returning to the water-logged basement.
"That was a chimpanzee just now, right?"
Flora Bloom looked back into the pitch-black tunnel with lingering fear, terrified that the chimpanzee would recklessly charge after them.
"A three-eyed chimpanzee... I doubt you’d see one of those even on the Outer Battlefield," Saul Sterling said with a frown. White energy spread out from him as he tried to check if the chimp had left. But suddenly, his breath hitched. He held back a mouthful of blood, not spitting it all out at once.
"Saul? What’s wrong?"
Flora Bloom took out some spiritual water and handed it to Saul Sterling. "Why did you suddenly cough up blood?"
PUH! Saul Sterling’s white superpower aura receded, and his face turned frighteningly pale.
"That three-eyed ape can track my scouting superpower. Its three eyes locked onto me, and I couldn’t escape!" Saul Sterling took the spiritual water from Flora Bloom and downed it in one gulp.
"Whew! Sis-in-law, your spiritual water is no joke. No matter how serious the injury, internal or external, it heals it right up!" His injuries recovered, Saul Sterling patted his chest with lingering fear and a smile.
Flora Bloom was not in such a good mood. She hadn’t been able to sense even a hint of energy fluctuation from such a massive, three-eyed ape. That third eye was immensely powerful, capable of tracking Saul Sterling’s ethereal scouting superpower and even using it to directly harm his physical body.
"Just now, I sensed that the Spiritual Energy in the wetland park was abundant, and it seemed to be overflowing from a single spot. It must be the secret realm, without a doubt," Flora Bloom said to the others with a serious expression.
"It seems that even though we’ve found the secret realm, we can’t rush in," Lex Cross’s calm words drifted into their ears, but he was suddenly interrupted by the Golden Crow from behind Flora Bloom’s ear.
"Tch! Master, this furry thing is pretty strong, but its intelligence is pathetic. Why don’t you just subdue it?"
