Hedonist Prodigy

Chapter 97: Forbidden Formation

“Puff…! Puff…!”

Several rough breaths came from the emerald green water monster’s mouth. 

Jiang Feng heard the sounds and knew his presence had alerted the monster.

He dared not linger. In a flash, he ran backward.

As Jiang Feng moved, the water monster’s breathing became even heavier, and it slowly rose from its dormant state.

Hurrrmm! 

Several loud rumbles echoed, as if the entire enclosed underground space was about to collapse. Jiang Feng staggered, almost losing his balance, and quickly steadied himself, retreating.

The tremors lasted for about two minutes. Finally, the emerald green water monster stood up and took a step forward. The monster’s body was enormous, like a small mountain, and with its movement, another earthquake-like tremor resounded.

Jiang Feng felt a chill run down his spine. He knew all too well how insignificant he was before this water monster, utterly incapable of killing it. His only option was to escape, to flee this underground space with all his might. Only by reaching the Tianchi Lake would he have a chance of survival.

With a thought in mind, Jiang Feng didn’t hesitate for a moment and started running.

The underground space was of unknown size. Jiang Feng ran for several minutes without seeing an end. This made him uneasy. He knew that, considering the surface area of ​​the Tianchi Lake, at his current speed, he could easily cross it from one side to the other on the surface.

But after running for so long, there were no obstacles in sight. Suddenly, Jiang Feng’s steps came to an abrupt halt. He saw those enormous, eerie green eyes again.

“What’s going on? How did I end up in front of the water monster again?” Jiang Feng’s heart sank. He realized he seemed to be trapped in a vicious cycle. No wonder the emerald green water monster wasn’t in a hurry to chase him when he ran. It seemed the monster already knew he couldn’t escape; any struggle would be futile.

Is this why none of those driven into the underground space by the black water monsters of Tianchi Lake survived?

In such a secluded and gloomy place, with that giant emerald green water monster watching from the sidelines, even the strongest mind would break down. Even if they weren’t scared to death, they would be trapped and inevitably become food for this monster.

But beasts are beasts. Even if they possess sentience, they are still beasts, only possessing a rudimentary form of intelligence. Compared to humans, they are far inferior in wisdom.

Moreover, although these water monsters possess sentience, their methods of hunting and transporting food are extremely crude, clearly lacking advanced intelligence.

In other words, they don’t possess intelligence equivalent to humans. So how did they manage to trap humans in this underground space? Unless, there’s something else strange?

Thinking this, Jiang Feng secretly increased his vigilance. He could tell that the emerald green water monster wasn’t very agile; its movements were far inferior to his own. It would be almost impossible for it to chase and prey on him unless it exhausted itself.

Therefore, as long as he conserved his strength, he wouldn’t need to fear the emerald green water monster for the time being.

Jiang Feng focused his attention and looked around. What he saw almost gave him goosebumps. Behind him was a small hill, about three or four square meters in size. This hill wasn’t made of rock, but rather a pile of bones.

The bones were densely packed together, piled up like a mountain, covered in moss and mold. Some bones were ancient, their surfaces beginning to decay and peel away, while others still gleamed with a pale white light, clearly indicating they hadn’t been dead for very long.

Jiang Feng didn’t know how many people this emerald-green monster had devoured to reach such a size, as cases of missing persons at Changbai Mountain’s Tianchi Lake hadn’t been numerous in recent years.

Therefore, it was highly likely that this emerald-green monster had been surviving in this underground space for an unpredictable period of time.

But judging from its size, the amount of food it consumed must be enormous. This mountain of corpses, while not small, probably couldn’t fully satisfy its needs.

Spiritual beasts possess an instinct for seeking advantage and avoiding harm. When food is scarce, they generally migrate to find places with abundant food to meet their survival and reproduction needs.

But this monster had continued to live here. Could it be that its existence was to protect something?

After a moment’s thought, Jiang Feng felt that this was very likely, only he didn’t know what this emerald-green monster was protecting.

Jiang Feng didn’t have the mind to think about that further at the moment; he only wanted to leave this underground space as soon as possible. He moved stealthily, searching his surroundings as carefully as possible without disturbing the emerald-green water monsters.

Soon, Jiang Feng discovered that a powerful array had been set up here—a forbidden array of immense strength.

This forbidden array, besides preventing the water from the Heavenly Pool from seeping down and creating a dry space, had an even more powerful effect: turning this sealed underground space into a dead loop.

Jiang Feng measured the area for a while and realized that the underground space wasn’t actually that large; everything was due to the forbidden array.

Jiang Feng stared intently for a few moments, then suddenly understood.

It seemed his earlier guesses were correct. No wonder these newly sentient water monsters possessed such strange abilities. Now it seemed these monsters were like pets kept here by some powerful, reclusive master.

If these water monsters weren’t guarding the corpse of that reclusive master, they were very likely guarding the treasures he had buried here.

Both of these points greatly stirred Jiang Feng’s heart.

However, he knew that with his current strength, even if he discovered the ultimate secret of this place, it wouldn’t be of much use to him; on the contrary, it might bring him death.

Perhaps it would even completely enrage this emerald-green water monster, and he would inevitably be buried here as well.

Suppressing the tremor in his heart, Jiang Feng stopped thinking wildly. He carefully avoided the emerald-green water monster and studied it for nearly several hours before finally discovering the location of the life gate of this formation.

That life gate was behind the emerald-green water monster; it was a one-way passage. People could exit through that passage, but when entering from the outside, the formation would change, making it impossible to enter through that passage.

Jiang Feng had no clue about the passage from the outside, but in his opinion, activating the formation was very likely related to the dozen or so black water monsters outside.

Jiang Feng was quite knowledgeable about formations. Of the dozens of formations he knew, although about a dozen could rival this forbidden formation, only a handful could be made so concealed.

Earth was indeed too mysterious, and the thousands of years of Chinese heritage were vast and profound, far more complex than he had imagined.

Jiang Feng didn’t linger. He reached out and pulled two relatively new skeletons from the mountain of corpses, suppressing his nausea, and floated towards the emerald green water monster.

Sure enough, seeing his aggressive action, the emerald green water monster opened its mouth, as large as a blood basin, revealing sharp, menacing fangs.

Jiang Feng quickened his pace, charging towards the creature. Simultaneously, he gripped the skeleton in his left hand and swiftly thrust it into the emerald-green monster’s mouth.

Sensing the threat from Jiang Feng, the emerald-green monster instinctively snapped its jaws shut. With a few cracking sounds, the skeleton snapped in two. The monster’s mouth opened again, spewing out a cloud of foul air, and its tongue coiled towards Jiang Feng.

The monster’s tongue was covered in barbs and coated with a ghostly green slime. Jiang Feng knew that if he was careless and got caught in its grip, he would become the monster’s meal.

He dared not be careless. He swung the skeleton with his right hand, striking the emerald-green monster’s tongue with almost all his might. The monster’s tongue, struck by the blow, let out a piercing scream. Then, with a flick of its tongue, it pulled the skeleton close, its massive head retracting as it became wary.

Jiang Feng had been waiting for this moment. His figure flashed, and he rushed behind the water monster. His feet moved swiftly and strangely, and then, with a flicker, he vanished from the underground space.

Soon, Jiang Feng felt himself submerged in water. Overjoyed, he swam faster upwards. A few minutes later, accompanied by the splashing sound of water, Jiang Feng surfaced from the Heavenly Pool.

He looked up at the sky. The moonlight had already disappeared behind the clouds; dawn was approaching.

Taking a few deep breaths, Jiang Feng struggled to swim towards the shore.

Once on land, Jiang Feng breathed a sigh of relief. He turned his head to look at the water’s surface. V-shaped ripples appeared and disappeared; Jiang Feng recognized them as the tracks of the black water monster.

The black water monster seemed to have noticed his presence and immediately swam towards the shore. However, upon realizing he was on land, it flicked its tail, slowly moved away from the shore, and sank into the water, disappearing in an instant.

Jiang Feng stood on the shore, his expression uncertain, but he didn’t linger any longer and quickly walked towards the inn where he was staying…