Volume 1, Chapter 396: A Person's Secret
Among the eight of them, Zhang Ya was the only expert fisherman. He could catch large fish weighing dozens of kilograms even in the deep waters of the river. However, although Zhang Ya was good at catching fish, he could not catch them with his bare hands. He still needed fishing tools, such as steel forks.
Everyone knows that no matter how good a person's swimming skills are, they can't compete with a fish in the water. Catching a fish with your bare hands is not an easy task, and catching two big fish at the same time is even more difficult. When he was in the water, Brother Zhang Ya had thought about catching a fish to get through the hunger crisis, but it was difficult to do it with his bare hands.
While expertly gutting the fish, Zhang Yage wondered how Zhou Xuan, so young, could be so mysterious.
Despite his exceptional diving skills, his swimming movements in the water appear somewhat clumsy. How could he possibly catch fish with such movements?
Zhang Ya Ge was very skilled. He used a dagger to remove the fish bones, then sliced the fish into pieces, cleaned it thoroughly, and prepared to distribute the fish slices to everyone.
Zhou Xuan took the fish slice and casually popped a piece into his mouth. As he chewed, he thought, "If even I can't do anything about it, then this is truly a difficult situation. Has this really reached a dead end for me?"
There's no way up, and it's too deep to go down. There's really no way out either way. What should we do?
Everyone was silent, but they were still eating sashimi. At this moment, having physical strength was extremely important, but how could they get out of this predicament?
Of the eight people, only one light was left on; the others were all turned off. Just like physical strength and gas cylinders, in this place, without light, it would be annihilation.
All eight people remained silent. Now, every option was on the verge of extreme danger. Gazing at the cascading waterfall, An Guoqing slammed his palm hard against the rock!
If the power to the lighting lamp runs out, then there's no way to survive. Although we've found this cave where we can stay, without a light, we definitely won't be able to catch any fish, and if we wait too long, we'll starve to death.
While Zhou Xuan was surveying the surrounding environment, he hadn't noticed An Guoqing for some time, but now he discovered that An Guoqing was carrying two pistols. It seemed that he needed to be more careful with him.
Wei Xiaoyu wasn't used to eating sashimi because of its strong fishy smell, but Fu Ying had no problem with it. Zhou Xuan and Fu Ying had both experienced this at the bottom of the cave twice before, and they didn't find sashimi unpleasant.
Seeing Wei Xiaoyu's discomfort, Zhou Xuan thought for a moment and then quietly took the sashimi from her hand. He then used his Solar Flame to heat the sashimi, raising the temperature to over 150 degrees Celsius. In just a few seconds, the sashimi turned into cooked sashimi.
Wei Xiaoyu and Fu Ying were sitting in the right corner, while Zhou Xuan sat between them and An Guoqing and the others. After Wei Xiaoyu took the sashimi, Zhou Xuan said, "Xiaoyu, don't feel uncomfortable. Even if you feel uncomfortable, you have to eat something to conserve your energy."
Wei Xiaoyu gave a soft "hmm" and took the fish slice again to eat slowly. However, when she put it in her mouth again, she found that the taste was suddenly different!
After a moment of surprise, Wei Xiaoyu glanced at Zhou Xuan again. Zhou Xuan secretly gave her a wink, and Wei Xiaoyu immediately understood. This was another thing Zhou Xuan had done using his special ability. It was just a little strange, though, as Zhou Xuan had never had such an ability before. But strange as it was, it wasn't the first time she had seen Zhou Xuan act strangely. She immediately started eating the fish slices in silence.
Actually, the fish slices still had a slight aroma after Zhou Xuan roasted them with the sun's flames, but the pool was very humid, and since no one else expected such a strange thing to happen, no one noticed.
After gutting and deboning the two large fish, there were still more than 30 kilograms of fish meat left. The eight people ate only half of it, and then put it back on their diving suits to save for the next meal.
An Guoqing's face was gloomy. He frowned and looked troubled for a while before saying, "Everyone, take a break. Take some time to rest and recover your strength before we divide the work again. Our task is still to find a way out."
At this point, An Guoqing didn't mention the Nine Star Pearl at all, but only talked about finding a way to escape.
Single-mindedly focused on the Nine Dragon Cauldron and the Nine Star Pearl, they had always believed that the insurmountable 300-meter-deep water in the underground river was the greatest obstacle, thinking that once they overcame it, they would obtain the Nine Star Pearl. But now, having overcome that obstacle, they were trapped in a far more perilous situation than the 300-meter-deep water, and they hadn't even seen a glimpse of the Nine Star Pearl. People often say that in dangerous environments, as long as one sees the true form of a treasure, one would die without regret. But what about the Nine Star Pearl? Judging from the current situation, even if they died, they probably wouldn't see where the Nine Star Pearl was!
Zhou Xuan sighed but didn't say anything. At this moment, he felt that life was really difficult, but he also felt relieved. Although he couldn't go back to the original time, being with Fu Ying was a beautiful thing, even if he died. However, he had also dragged Wei Xiaoyu into this life-and-death predicament, and Wei Xiaoyu was deeply in love with him. He always felt sorry for her.
The eight people had different thoughts and ideas at this moment, but they all understood one thing: it was highly likely that they would not be able to get out of this abyss.
An Guoqing had weapons on him, but Zhou Xuan did not secretly convert or devour them. In this environment, having weapons is not necessarily a bad thing. If the Black Dragon Pool incident were to happen again, having weapons for self-defense would be better than not having them. Besides, if An Guoqing wanted to harm him, he could guarantee that he could eliminate An Guoqing's weapons in an instant.
It was 9:30 p.m., a full twelve hours had passed since they entered the water at the bottom of the sinkhole. The eight people had been resting in the rock cave for three or four hours. Here, there was no sense of day or night, and everyone was anxious and worried, so how could they fall asleep!
Zhou Xuan glanced at Fu Ying and Wei Xiaoyu. The two girls were huddled together. Although they didn't like each other, they were now inseparable. Dangerous environments can really bring people who can't stand each other together.
Seeing Fu Ying's slightly furrowed brows, Zhou Xuan suddenly felt a pang of heartache!
Why did he agree to let Fu Ying come along? It was one thing to let Wei Xiaoyu come along, since he had brought her into this time and he had an obligation to take her back. But Fu Ying was someone he shouldn't have done. She should have been a person in this time, but because he loved her, he forced her to tell him everything and all his secrets, making her curious and bringing her here as well. If anything happened to her, the person he would be most sorry for would be her!
As Fu Ying organized her phone, she seemed to be having a nightmare, moaning, "Grandpa and... don't force me... Grandpa..."
Fu Ying's rambling woke Wei Xiaoyu up. She noticed the beads of sweat on Fu Ying's forehead, her hand tightly gripping Fu Ying's, and then turned her head to look at Zhou Xuan.
Zhou Xuan's face clearly showed his heartache, and Wei Xiaoyu's eyes immediately reddened. Wei Xiaoyu knew very well that Zhou Xuan's heartache was not for her.
An Guoqing and the other five people were all in a daze, staring at the waterfall that seemed to have no top or bottom. The four sides were made of rock walls, and even the most secure and tightest cage was not like this!
Zhou Xuan said softly to Wei Xiaoyu, "Xiaoyu, you look after Yingying. I'll go down into the water and explore again. Rather than waiting to die like this, we might as well see if there's another way out. I'll go down and check!"
Zhou Xuan has a point. Among this group of people, he is the strongest in diving. If they go down to a depth that deep, it will be pointless for the others to go down. They won't be able to reach that depth, and if they don't go down, they definitely won't find the exit. Whether they are afraid or trying to make excuses, he is the only one who can go down.
Moreover, the others only have about an hour's worth of gas left in their tanks, so going underwater to explore would be a waste of gas and futile. The only option now is for him to go down alone to explore and find the underwater exit before figuring out what to do next.
An Guoqing and the other four were also thinking about this problem. Because they only had one-fifth of the gas left in their gas cylinders, this was a serious problem that they had to consider. Zhou Xuan suggested that he go into the water alone to investigate, and the others had no objections.
An Guoqing had originally planned for eight people to take turns going down into the pool to explore and find a way out. This would save gas and manpower, and it would be fair so that no one would have any objections. But before he could even say it, Zhou Xuan volunteered to go down into the pool to explore, which was exactly what everyone wanted.
Zhou Xuan naturally had no intention of arguing or quarreling with them. After saying this, he silently put on his diving suit. The five people on An Guoqing's side sat back to back. The temperature in the cave was only about six degrees Celsius. Except for Wei Xiaoyu and Fu Ying, who were protected by Zhou Xuan's superpower and did not feel cold, the other five people were so cold that their lips turned blue. They all put on their diving suits, but did not wear hoods.
Zhou Xuan put on his diving suit and hood, gave a thumbs-up to the crowd, nodded slightly to Wei Xiaoyu, and then stepped into the water.
Zhou Xuan carrying the gas cylinder was just for show. At this moment, he had to conserve the gas whenever possible, saving it to take care of Fu Ying and Wei Xiaoyu. So, after entering the water, he used his supernatural ability to hold his breath.
From the moment they entered the water until they fell into this deep pool, everyone was anxious and exhausted, but Zhou Xuan's superpower had not been greatly depleted, with almost 90% of its energy remaining. After stepping into the pool, he used his superpower to its fullest extent. However, he had already explored the area above 500 meters and found no underwater cave entrances. In the 200-meter range below 500 meters, although people had not reached that depth, there were still no underwater passages detected by his superpower. If he wanted to explore the underwater underground river passages again, he would have to dive to a depth of at least 700 meters.
Even Zhou Xuan was somewhat terrified by the depth, but there was nothing he could do. The others didn't have the ability to accompany him to explore such deep water, and Zhou Xuan didn't want to tell them about his abilities. If they found out, it would only let them know that he had super diving skills, which didn't matter.
As Zhou Xuan descended into the water, he concentrated his supernatural abilities and imagined a very heavy weight. As a result, his body felt like a piece of steel, and he plummeted straight down.
It's very fast, much faster than swimming or diving. It's like throwing a large stone into the water; the stone's descent speed in the water is far greater than that of swimming or diving.
Zhou Xuan focused his supernatural power into a beam and probed downwards in all directions. This distance had already been explored clearly, but there was no harm in probing it again. He wanted to leave no stone unturned.
It only took three minutes to reach a depth of 200 meters underwater. If you were to use a nasal scuba dive, it would take at least 15 minutes. If you can't withstand the pressure while diving, it would probably take more than an hour to reach that depth.
When he reached 300 meters, Zhou Xuan slowed down and reduced his body weight. He was worried that if he descended too fast, he would suddenly reach a place where he could not withstand the pressure. Descenting slowly allowed him to feel the level of pressure his body could withstand. If he felt any discomfort, he would stop descending immediately.
Reaching 500 meters, the same depth as before, took Zhou Xuan only about twenty minutes. At this point, he became more careful. He only used his supernatural abilities to probe further down, without actually going down with his body. His supernatural energy probes down without worrying about the pressure, but going down with his body would require considering that issue.