200: Chapter 200 The Mysterious Island

The sea breeze blew in from the distance, carrying a moist, salty scent.

The laziness in Lu Cheng's eyes faded almost imperceptibly.

Ordinary people wouldn't be able to detect it at all.

But Lu Cheng was different.

He had dealt with this kind of thing too many times, so many that his body could recognize that uncomfortable aura even before his consciousness did.

Contamination... it was very faint.

But it definitely existed. A simulated ruin shouldn't have this kind of feeling.

Lu Cheng did not speak.

He just lowered his head and glanced at Snow Spirit in his arms.

Snow Spirit's two tails were slightly taut, her ice-blue eyes fixed on the distant sea surface, and the tip of her crimson-gold fiery tail burned more quietly than usual.

The little one had also noticed it.

Snow Spirit's voice echoed in Lu Cheng's mind.

"It's... uncomfortable here."

Lu Cheng reached out and rubbed its head.

"Mm."

The few people around them did not notice the anomaly on Lu Cheng's side.

Xu Xinglan had already opened her terminal and magnified the projection of the initial island's map.

Pale cyan spirit patterns emerged in her eyes, and the terminal synchronized to scan the surrounding environment, generating the terrain on the virtual map bit by bit.

"We are currently located on the south shore of the initial island."

"The island's area isn't very large; roughly estimated from the map, the diameter is about three kilometers."

"There are no traces of other teams nearby, which means the entry position for the Dragon Country team is different from the previous few teams."

Jiang Xuance stretched.

"In other words, we don't have to fight that group from Eagle Country for resources as soon as we get in?"

Tang Zhiwei said with a smile:

"They probably don't want to fight us now that they see Brother Lu."

Xu Xinglan continued to analyze the map.

"Let's start exploring from this island."

"Although the simulated ruin can display a map, most resource points, hidden quests, and dangerous areas only trigger after you get close to them."

"Our first goal now is to confirm whether there are any exotic beasts and mechanisms on the initial island that can be farmed for points."

As she spoke, she tapped her finger lightly.

Several basic quests popped up on the terminal.

[Area Quest: Clear Tidal Ghost Crabs]

[Objective Description: Tidal Ghost Crabs reside year-round in tidal caves and shallow reef areas; they are gregarious and highly aggressive.]

[Points: Each Tier 1 Tidal Ghost Crab killed grants 1 point, Tier 2 grants 3 points, and Tier 3 grants 10 points.]

[Area Quest: Collect Scale Reef Merman Scales]

[Objective Description: Scale Reef Mermen are common alien creatures in the Wanhai Archipelago; they have a chance to drop special scales upon death.]

[Points: Each complete Scale Reef scale submitted grants 5 points.]

Jiang Xuance's eyes lit up.

"There are mermen?"

"Then we should be able to farm quite a few Materials, right?"

Xu Xinglan nodded.

"The scales dropped by the mermen are scoring items... going by the typical nature of dungeons, these scoring items should have some kind of special effect."

Gu Changqing glanced at the dense forest in the distance.

"Where are the monsters?"

Ye Beihan looked towards the other side of the coast.

"Over there."

Everyone followed his gaze.

On the reef beach where the tide had retreated in the distance, a dense swarm of blue-black crabs lay sprawled.

Those crabs were not small; the smallest was the size of a washbasin, their shells looked like wet ghost faces, and there were two rows of gray-white bone spurs on their backs.

Every time the tide surged up, their shells would emit a layer of ghostly blue light.

Tidal Ghost Crabs.

And in the slightly further shallow sea area, several hunched figures were standing on the reefs.

Their bodies were covered in blue-green scales, they had fish heads and human bodies, a row of sharp fins grew on their backs, and they held short spears made of coral and bone.

Scale Reef Mermen.

One of the mermen seemed to have sensed their aura and suddenly turned its head.

Its turbid, bulging fish eyes stared straight at the shore.

"Gurgle!"

A strange hiss sounded.

The Tidal Ghost Crabs on the reef beach instantly became restless.

Jiang Xuance twisted his neck.

"Shall we start?"

Heavenly King Lin had already taken down his axe.

"Start."

Lu Cheng hugged Snow Spirit and stood on the side watching the show.

He did not make a move right away.

The monster intensity on this island was not very high, which was perfect for letting the rest of the Dragon Country team get into the zone.

Besides, if he did everything, this competition would really turn into a field trip led by Lu Cheng.

Heavenly King Lin was the first to charge into the reef beach.

His giant axe swept horizontally, directly sending several Tier 2 Tidal Ghost Crabs flying.

Xu Xinglan's Source Array fell immediately, pale cyan array patterns spreading along the reefs, restricting the Ghost Crabs from surrounding them from the sides.

Gu Changqing's sword light flashed, and the shells of several Ghost Crabs attempting to sneak attack from the side were precisely cut open, their crystal core locations directly shattered.

Ye Beihan stood near the seawater and stomped down; frost spread along the tide, freezing a large group of Ghost Crabs and slowing their movements.

Jiang Xuance summoned the Red-Armored Zheng.

The Red-Armored Zheng became excited as soon as it landed, roaring as it pounced into the monster swarm, biting down on a Tidal Ghost Crab, and with a crunch, bit through both shell and flesh.

There were many Tidal Ghost Crabs, but their strength was not high.

A few minutes later, the reef beach was already covered with blue-black crab shells.

The terminal points kept jumping.

[Killed Tier 1 Tidal Ghost Crab: +1]

[Killed Tier 2 Tidal Ghost Crab: +3]

[Killed Tier 3 Tidal Ghost Crab: +10]

Seeing that the Ghost Crab swarm had been mostly cleared, the mermen finally began to move.

They let out sharp hisses, their feet stepping on the reefs, their speed much faster than they appeared.

The bone spears in their hands, carrying cold, damp Source Power, were thrown towards the group.

Tang Zhiwei flicked her sleeve, and fine silver needles flew out, precisely deflecting several bone spears.

"The mermen's Source Power fluctuations are a bit strange."

She frowned.

"It's as if they've been soaked in some kind of cold, sinister Source Power for a long time."

Gu Changqing had already gone up to meet them.

His sword light slashed horizontally.

A Scale Reef Merman's arm was severed, green blood spraying out and sizzling upon hitting the reefs.

"The blood is corrosive."

Gu Changqing warned.

Ye Beihan raised his hand, and a wave of cold air sealed the bloodstains on the ground.

After a Scale Reef Merman died, some of the scales on its body would fall off, turning into complete scales with a cyan-blue luster.

Jiang Xuance picked one up.

"This thing feels pretty good."

Xu Xinglan glanced at it.

"Put it away, it will be useful later."

After one round of clearing, the Dragon Country team's points had risen by a significant amount.

But the initial island was not as simple as they had imagined.

The group pushed into the island along the dense forest and soon discovered a river.

The river water flowed down from the central mountain of the island, passed through the dense forest, and finally flowed into the shallow sea on the east side.

Logically speaking, discovering a freshwater river on such an island is a good thing.

But this river was very wrong.

The water was black-green.

A thin layer of mist floated on the river surface.

The banks were barren, and the soil appeared gray-white from corrosion.

Several Tidal Ghost Crabs had originally followed them all the way into the forest, but after getting within twenty meters of the river, they turned and ran as if they had encountered a natural predator.

Even the footprints left by the Scale Reef Mermen did not come near here.

Xu Xinglan immediately raised her hand.

"Stop."

She took out a small sampler and pulled a drop of river water out from a distance.

As soon as that drop of water entered the sampler, a layer of black spots quickly appeared on the surface of the transparent container.

[Warning: High Corrosivity]

[Warning: Neurotoxin reaction]

[Warning: Unknown Contamination Component]

Xu Xinglan's expression darkened.

"Do not go near this river."

"It's highly toxic."

"And it's not an ordinary toxin."

Tang Zhiwei narrowed her eyes.

As someone with the Tang Family's poison-type Physique, she was highly sensitive to toxins.

"The toxins in this water are very complex."

"There's biological poison, corrosive poison, and a bit of... what looks like blood poison."

Heavenly King Lin looked at the river.

"The monsters on the island don't dare to come near it."

"This means the river is more dangerous than the monsters."

Jiang Xuance squatted nearby, pointing at some marks on the riverbank.

"Something was here before."

Everyone looked over.

On the gray-white soil by the riverbank, there were a few shallow drag marks.

It was like some kind of wet thing had crawled up from the river and then dragged its body into the depths of the dense forest.

The Red-Armored Zheng let out a low growl.

It stared into the depths of the dense forest, clearly somewhat uneasy.

Lu Cheng stood not far from the riverbank, his gaze landing on the black-green water surface.

The smell of contamination was clearer than when they had first entered.

This river was like a rotting blood vessel hidden inside the island.

It flowed out from the depths of the mountain, carrying something that shouldn't exist bit by bit into the sea.

Xu Xinglan looked at the terminal and marked this area.

If they wanted to cross to the other side, it was not recommended to swim across this river; the best way was to go from the source.

The group walked upstream along the toxic river.

The further in they went, the darker the dense forest became.

The originally bright island sunlight was blocked by branches and leaves, large patches of slippery moss grew on the tree trunks, the smell of the sea breeze in the air gradually faded, and it was replaced by a damp, fishy-sweet, and moldy aura.

Not long after, they discovered a section of broken stone wall near the foot of the mountain.

The stone wall was hidden behind vines.

If Xu Xinglan's terminal hadn't scanned for anomalies, everyone would have almost missed it entirely.

Heavenly King Lin stepped forward and slashed the vines open with his axe.

A large area of ancient murals was revealed behind them.

The murals were severely weathered, but the general content could still be made out.

In the center of the image, there was a masked man standing on a high platform.

Humans were kneeling all around him.

Those people were wearing extremely ancient clothes, with seashells stuck to their foreheads, their hands raised high, as if they were offering something to him.

In the second scene, the masked man stood by the seaside with black tides behind him, and the humans in front of him pushed paper boats into the sea.

There seemed to be blood on the paper boats.

In the third scene, the image became chaotic.

Many monsters resembling mermen crawled out of the sea; they surrounded the masked man, and those kneeling humans began to transform.

Lu Cheng looked at the murals, his brow furrowed tightly.

"Is it contamination again?"

Snow Spirit suddenly raised her paw, pointing to the bottom right corner of the mural.

"There."

Everyone looked over.

There was a very thin crack in the bottom right corner of the mural.

A breeze was faintly blowing out from behind the crack.

Heavenly King Lin stepped forward and reached out to knock on it.

Thud.

It was hollow.

"There's a hole behind it."

Lu Cheng nodded.

"Open it."

Heavenly King Lin grinned.

"I'm good at this."

He raised his giant axe, preparing to bring it down with one strike.

Xu Xinglan immediately spoke:

"Be gentle!"

"Don't smash the mechanisms inside along with it."

Heavenly King Lin's movement paused.

Then, feeling very aggrieved, he retracted eighty percent of his strength.

Bang!

The stone wall split open.

A tunnel extending downwards was revealed behind it.

A damp, fishy smell surged out from the cave.

The terminal immediately popped up a notification.

[Discovered Hidden Area: Blood Sacrifice Cave]

[Hidden Quest Triggered: Investigate the Contamination Source of the Initial Island]

[Quest Reward: Calculated based on investigation completion]

Jiang Xuance's eyes lit up.

"A hidden quest!"

"Wouldn't this blow up our score?"

Xu Xinglan, however, was not happy.

She looked into the depths of the cave, her tone becoming grave.

"There is a strong life reaction inside."

The terminal scan quickly refreshed.

[Warning: High-Risk Target]

[Target Rank Assessment: Hua Hai Realm Peak]

[Target Status: Abnormal]

Heavenly King Lin shouldered his axe, his eyes actually lighting up instead.

"Hua Hai Realm Peak?"

"Now that's interesting!"

The group were not cowardly people either, and they walked into the cave together.

The inside of the cave was wider than it looked from the outside.

The stone walls were covered with blood-red moss, the ground was wet and slippery, and one could occasionally see gnawed-up merman bones and Tidal Ghost Crab shells.

The further in they walked, the heavier the smell of blood in the cave became.

Finally, they arrived at an open underground space.

In the center of the space, there was a dried-up sacrificial pool.

The sacrificial pool was piled high with gray-white skeletons, and black-red blood flowed through the gaps in the bones.

And in the center of the sacrificial pool, a monster was lying prone.

Its body looked like a skinned humanoid, its limbs were extremely long, flesh-and-blood spines like fish fins grew on its back, but its head wore a half-human, half-fish bone mask.

An eye was carved on the forehead of the mask.

It heard footsteps and slowly raised its head.

Blood-red eyeballs lit up from the slits in the mask.

The terminal notification suddenly popped up.

[Hidden Exotic Beast: Blood Demon]

[Rank: Hua Hai Realm Peak]

[Special Status: Blood Sacrifice Contaminated Entity]

[Kill Points: 300]