Roger and Zhang Ya were so excited that they didn't think to check the remaining gas cylinders and swam ahead eagerly.
The heavy pressure on my body was gone, and there were no more terrifying monsters like those in the Black Dragon Pool. I felt very relaxed and completely free of the worries I had at the beginning.
In fact, both of their gas cylinders only had half full left. The Wolf brothers were slightly better off, as they were the first to receive Zhou Xuan's secret assistance.
Wei Xiaoyu and Fu Ying were in better condition, having used less than a third of their gas cylinders. This was, of course, because Zhou Xuan had been helping them with all his might from the beginning. Zhou Xuan himself had only used about 10% of his gas cylinder, leaving nine-tenths of it. This was intentional on Zhou Xuan's part, because he was worried about encountering danger later and wanted to save his gas for Wei Xiaoyu and Fu Ying.
The eight people took turns removing the line from the second guide reel and connecting it to the first reel before continuing their dive.
Zhou Xuan hesitated whether to remind these people that if they went any further, they might not be able to turn back because they wouldn't have enough air. The underground river was completely enclosed underwater with many branching passages, and going even a little further would pose a great threat to their lives.
But after thinking about it, he ultimately didn't say it, because the Nine Star Pearl was just too tempting for him.
If Zhang Ya Ge, Roger, and the Wolf brothers were to return at this point, they would only have four people left. An Guoqing was their enemy, with ulterior motives and a perilous future ahead, so they really didn't want these people to leave.
In truth, no matter who you are, everyone would be afraid in this unfathomable, perilous, and sunless underground river.
Even someone like Zhou Xuan, who possesses special abilities, felt fear. What sustained him was his desire to obtain the Nine Star Pearl, because without it, he had no way to return to the past.
Although Zhou Xuan's superpower is powerful, in such an environment, if it exceeds his limit or he can't get out, he will still die. Having superpowers only means that he can last a little longer than an ordinary person, but it does not mean that he is invincible or omnipotent!
After connecting the guide wires, the eight people continued forward. Fortunately, the water flow here was parallel and did not deepen further. Although An Guoqing was a little tired, he could still bear it. However, the waterway here was winding and Zhou Xuan could not detect further. He could only probe the water flow without rocks blocking it. Once the water flow turned a corner, his supernatural ability could only penetrate to a depth of three or four meters in the rocks.
It seems that these rocks contain some other substances. On land, and in the Black Dragon Pool, Zhou An's special ability can easily detect rocks from a distance of twenty meters.
At this moment, Zhou Xuan, Fu Ying, and Wei Xiaoyu were at the back, with Roger and Zhang Ya Ge at the front, followed by the Wolf Brothers, and then An Guoqing.
There was another sharp bend ahead, even more pronounced than the previous one, seemingly ninety degrees.
Seeing that Roger and Zhang Yage had already turned the corner and passed by, and then the Wolf Brothers had also passed by, An Guoqing followed suit without thinking, and then Fu Ying turned the corner.
But just then, Zhou Xuan swam closer, and his supernatural ability suddenly detected that there were rapids and cliffs behind the bend. He was shocked and quickly shouted, "Yingying, don't go!"
As Zhou Xuan shouted, he quickly turned around to grab Fu Ying. Wei Xiaoyu followed closely beside Zhou Xuan and followed him around the bend without thinking.
Because of his supernatural ability, Zhou Xuan acted in advance, so just as Fu Ying turned the corner and encountered danger, Zhou Xuan reached out and grabbed her calf, while Wei Xiaoyu grabbed his own leg, and the three of them were linked together.
Behind the bend was another side tunnel, three meters in diameter, through which a rapid current rushed out. Fu Ying couldn't keep her balance at all and was swept away by the current. Zhou Xuan, who was clinging tightly to her calves, and Wei Xiaoyu, who was clinging to Zhou Xuan's calves, were all swept into the rapid current in a row.
At this moment, exclamations of surprise could be heard over the walkie-talkie. However, the five people, including An Guoqing, who had turned the corner ahead, had vanished without a trace, swept away by the rapids. Their voices could not be heard over the walkie-talkie.
Zhou Xuan understood this. The fact that An Guoqing and the others didn't make a sound meant that they had been swept away beyond the range of the communicator. Here, even his special ability couldn't penetrate rocks taller than five meters, so the communicator's waves had even less chance of penetrating.
Although Zhou Xuan possessed powerful supernatural abilities, they were utterly useless at this moment. He simply dragged Fu Ying back with all his might, holding her tightly with his right arm, and then pulled Wei Xiaoyu in front of him with his left arm, holding her in one arm and never letting go.
In the raging torrent, Fu Ying and Wei Xiaoyu were terrified and could only hold Zhou Xuan tightly as the three of them were swept away by the flood.
Zhou Xuan felt that the three of them were swept away and impacted by the rapid current for less than a minute, but then suddenly they were falling downwards, as if they were falling from a huge waterfall on the top of a cliff. During the fall, the distance downwards seemed endless, and they didn't know how high or how deep it was!
This is a straight line, so Zhou Xuan quickly used his special ability to condense it into a beam and probe downwards. The speed of the rapid descent was so fast that Zhou Xuan couldn't even detect the bottom!
Zhou Xuan's current condensed beam can detect a distance of at least two hundred meters, and the three of them are still falling rapidly, getting infinitely closer to the bottom, but no matter how far they fall, Zhou Xuan still cannot detect the bottom!
At the same time, Zhou Xuan also sensed the immense size of the underground current and the vastness of the space. In the space they were falling into, the horizontal and vertical area was at least three hundred square meters. There was even a space where air existed on the cliff where the torrent had rushed down!
This is a huge and unfathomable underground space. The height of this waterfall is unknown. At the same time, Zhou Xuan suddenly realized that the torrent of this waterfall actually contained molecules of the Nine Star Pearl Solar Flame Energy, which were exactly the same as the molecules in the well water of Poxin Village!
Volume 1, Chapter 394: The Deep Abyss
Zhou Xuan immediately realized that the source of this other rapid current must be connected to the well water in Poxin Village. The entrance to the skylight is upstream, and although the rapid currents converge here, there is no water source upstream that contains solar flame molecules.
Although they had confirmed that they had found the source of the Nine Star Beads, the current situation was extremely critical, and the guiding lines on their backs had been torn off by the force of their sudden fall due to the end of the lines.
Zhou Xuan and the other two embraced each other as they plummeted into the bottomless abyss. At the same time, their supernatural abilities detected that there was still an abyss two hundred meters away, which seemed endless. The speed of their descent was very fast. Fortunately, all three of them were wearing diving suits, so their mouths and noses were not affected by the blast of wind. However, the endless darkness of the abyss made all three of them feel a chill in their hearts.
Although Zhou Xuan possesses powerful superpowers, he doesn't have the abilities of a superhuman. He can't reach the heavens or the earth, he can't fly or crawl. If the ground below is rock, he will still be smashed to pieces. Given the current unpredictable height, even if the ground below is water, it's uncertain whether he can withstand the enormous pressure and impact of the fall.
Under the intense light shining on their foreheads, they could see that the three of them were in the rushing water of the waterfall, while outside the waterfall, which was tens of meters wide, was a space of hundreds of square meters, with no bottom in sight.
Of course, in this space, the naked eye cannot see very far, perhaps not even as far as Zhou Xuan's special ability can detect.
They had been suspended in mid-air for several minutes without hitting the ground, and their hearts were filled with nothing but fear. An Guoqing, the Wolf brothers, Roger, Zhang Ya Ge and the other five people seemed to have vanished. Their cries could not be heard and their figures could not be detected. In this abyss, it was as if only Zhou Xuan, Wei Xiaoyu and Fu Ying remained!
Zhou Xuan sighed inwardly. This was truly terrible. Falling into such a deep abyss, even if he didn't die, there was no way he could go back. Last time, when he and Wei Xiaoyu were setting up a trap for Ma Village in Moyin Mountain, they fell into that deep hole. Fortunately, they had ropes and used their superpowers to create hooks on the rocks to climb up. But now, that was impossible because this abyss was too high, beyond his imagination. Without any safety ropes or anything like that, climbing such a high cliff was a pipe dream, and his superpowers couldn't possibly last that long.
This is not like being at home in a safe place. In other places, you might be able to rest, eat, and continue the next day. But here, even if you climb a hundred or two hundred meters, are you going to get tired and climb down to rest before climbing up again?
After falling for another ten seconds or so, Zhou Xuan suddenly froze, his supernatural ability finally detecting the bottom two hundred meters below!
Below was a large pool of water, several thousand square meters in size. Even as Zhou Xuan was falling, his supernatural abilities couldn't reach the bottom of the pool, and he had no idea how deep the water was.
However, they did detect that An Guoqing and the other four people were swimming in the pool and were still alive!
Zhou Xuan felt relieved. If they were alive, it meant that the three of them might not necessarily die from the fall. He quickly hugged Fu Ying and Wei Xiaoyu tightly and said, "Xiaoyu, Yingying, be careful. Keep your posture correct. We're about to reach the bottom, which is a big pool of water. Just think of it as jumping from a height!"
Before they could finish speaking, the three of them were swept away by the waterfall and plunged into the water. The immense force of the impact propelled them into a depth of twenty meters!
Fortunately, since they were all in the waterfall's flow, the impact on the pool was mostly due to the force of the waterfall itself. The impact of the waterfall water reached depths of tens of meters in the pool, so Zhou Xuan and the other two were not greatly affected.
If they were to fall into such a height of water out of thin air, even if they were wearing such advanced diving suits to prevent the impact of airflow on their heads and bodies, their internal organs would still be shattered by the impact!
However, Zhou Xuan's special ability undoubtedly had a positive effect. Furthermore, because he was in the flowing water, the impact was absorbed by the waterfall's water flow by 90%. So, while there was vibration, it was within the range that a person could withstand. Otherwise, An Guoqing and the other five people would have been five corpses the moment they fell into the water!
Wei Xiaoyu and Fu Ying were unharmed except for the slight tremor from falling into the pool, thanks to Zhou Xuan's secret use of his supernatural abilities to protect them.
After being swept into the water more than 20 meters deep by the waterfall, they floated up again after the impact subsided. Ten or twenty seconds later, they surfaced, where seven or eight powerful lights shone haphazardly. Looking through the glass mirror on their headgear, An Guoqing and the other four looked on with a mixture of surprise and uncertainty.
Zhou Xuan first looked at Fu Ying and Wei Xiaoyu and asked, "Xiaoyu, Yingying, are you alright?"