novelraw Chapter 643 - 435: Bound by Vines
Chapter 643 - 435: Bound by Vines
Before, ten kilometers away, he couldn’t feel how thick the vine bundle was.
But now, looking at it up close, the vine is nearly a hundred meters thick!
Absolutely majestic!
However, the vine bundle isn’t uniformly a hundred meters thick from top to bottom.
He looked up toward the sky.
Directly above was the bright gap in the air.
The part of the vine bundle emerging from the gap was not as thick as the portion before him.
The upper half of the vine bundle was still relatively thin, with only a diameter of about ten meters.
But about two to three hundred meters near the ground, the vine bundle began to thicken like branching out, forming a half-open umbrella shape, embedding into the ground below and covering a circular area with a diameter of about a hundred meters.
On the map, his current position was right below the Snow Mountain Array.
He could confirm that the bright gap above him was actually beneath the Snow Mountain Array.
It seemed his decision to trek all the way here was not wrong.
This thick vine bundle must be related to the way back to the surface.
If he came down from that spot above, naturally he must return there as well.
At this moment, he was still over a hundred meters away from the thick vine bundle, and looking around, he couldn’t see anything noteworthy on it.
He started walking toward the hundred-meter-diameter vine bundle.
"Ying!" Keke nudged his breastplate from his arms, stopping his movement.
"What’s wrong, Keke?" Xu Xin asked, a bit puzzled.
"Ying..." Keke looked at the vine bundle, then jumped out of Xu Xin’s arms with a kick of its hind leg, landing on the ground, and turned back to look at him, "Ying!"
Keke’s intention was clear; it wanted him to follow it.
Could it be that there was danger within this hundred-meter range ahead?
Indeed, there was something strange about it.
On the path he just walked, every few distances there were powerful beasts, and the place was crawling with massive bugs, so many that a glance would reveal numerous ones.
But here, in this area near the vine bundle, there were no beasts or bugs at all.
Not even a vine,
Empty!
A flat land!
Perhaps, because of some danger, other creatures dare not come here.
Or perhaps, the creatures that came are no longer to be seen.
"Keke, let’s not enter yet, let’s go around and see first." Xu Xin decided to circle around this vine bundle in a relatively safer area to see if there was anything special about it.
The vine bundle, with its hundred-meter thickness, was about half the diameter of a giant peak, so he needed to observe it first by circling around it.
"Ying!" Keke nodded its little head and climbed back into his arms.
Walking around the vine bundle, Xu Xin observed and looked toward the directions of the other five vine bundles.
The other five slanting vine bundles ended at the spots where the others had landed.
Was he the first to arrive?
Logically speaking, Zhao Xiaochuan and Wen Guixin should be stronger in this regard.
Zhao Xiaochuan could directly put himself in a concealed state, walking over unnoticed by any creature.
Wen Guixin could control beast herds and had very strong physical abilities. By avoiding the giant beasts uninterested in them, she could even enlist a few bugs to help carry her over.
Ji Chaoyang and Wang Lei were about the same as him, lacking such abilities.
The most unfortunate should be Lou Fei’Er. Her situation was presumably similar to Silver King’s: once her presence was exposed, she could likely attract a large number of giant beasts to surround her.
Fortunately, although they couldn’t contact her, from the watch, her name was still well-lit.
As long as she’s alive, it means she has found some way.
"Huh?" Xu Xin stopped walking.
Because he spotted a narrow gap in the vine bundle.
A narrow gap just big enough for one person to pass through.
He had circled almost the entire vine bundle, and most of the vines were tightly entwined, with no gaps for people or even Keke to pass through.
Except for this gap in front of him.
Though one could only enter sideways, it was an entrance!
He didn’t rush in but completed circling the vine bundle to confirm this was the only gap before returning to the position with the gap.
"Keke, lead the way, take me into that gap." Xu Xin rubbed Keke’s ears and said.
"Ying!" Keke jumped from his arms, trotted to the ground, turned back to look at Xu Xin, and cautiously walked forward.
Why so cautious?
What danger lay within this range?
Judging by Keke’s actions, it looked as if it was treading through a minefield.
Could there really be landmines?
Thinking this, Xu Xin immediately followed behind Keke.
Wherever Keke stepped, he stepped too.
Keke walked ten or so meters ahead, stood up, and turned its little head.
"Ying!"
It called out, then didn’t walk straight ahead but bypassed the area in front, taking two steps to the right before turning to look at Xu Xin, "Ying!"
It meant for him to follow it.
This truly felt like a mine-clearing operation.
"Keke, is there something in front?" Xu Xin asked with curiosity as he followed closely behind Keke.
"Ying...?" Keke shook its little head as it walked, indicating it didn’t know.
Alright, perhaps it merely sensed danger.
Suppressing the urge to take something from his backpack and toss it forward to test, Xu Xin continued following behind Keke.
It’s better not to tempt fate.
Keke traced an arc on the ground, bypassed a large area of about ten meters, then continued toward the vine bundle.
This time, without any detours, Keke led Xu Xin straight to the narrow gap where one could enter sideways.
"Ying!" Once again, Keke climbed onto his shoulder using his leg.
Xu Xin looked into the gap.
Inside was a somewhat narrow passage, but because the vines were rather chaotic, the passage became twisted and winding, only allowing visibility of about five or six meters ahead, beyond which nothing could be seen.
"Is there no danger in there?" Xu Xin asked Keke.
Keke also stretched its little head over his shoulder to look inside. Upon hearing his question, it immediately shook its little head: "Ying."
It meant that it didn’t sense anything.
Xu Xin nodded.
Even with his amplified hearing, he couldn’t detect any sounds in this crevice or within the cluster of vines.
Inside, it was extremely quiet, as if nothing existed.
He raised his head and looked towards the sky, where the light was slightly glaring.
Turning his head, he surveyed all around him once again, confirming that there were no giant beasts approaching nearby and also not seeing any of his companions. He exhaled and decided to enter.
Entering this incredibly thick cluster of vines.
Not wasting any more time, he immediately turned sideways and entered this crevice.
The crevice was extremely narrow, such that Xu Xin could only walk pressed against the walls of vines.
Fortunately, the walls were made of smooth and ordinary vines, not mutated ones, and there were no thorns growing, which made it much easier.
"Ying!" Seeing Xu Xin choose to enter, Keke immediately jumped down from his shoulder and walked ahead of him.
Just like before in the dungeon maze, its little body could move freely through this narrow crevice.
"Keke, be careful."
"Ying!"
Keke responded with a sound and then darted ahead, disappearing from sight.
Xu Xin had strong hearing and could hear its position, so he wasn’t worried about it getting into trouble.
Moreover, this little creature had a much stronger sense of danger than he did.
He groped his way forward.
The surrounding vines were all ordinary vines, feeling very smooth to the touch, and there was a faint warmth to them, which surprised him a bit.
These vines were actually warm!
"Ying!"
Just then, Keke’s call came from ahead, and Xu Xin quickened his pace.
"This is..."
The situation before his eyes was very different from what he had imagined.
Before coming in, he thought there would be a considerable space within the cluster of vines, but now...
He seemed to have reached the center of this cluster of vines, but here...
It was only a very small and narrow place.
Only about two square meters?
Indeed, just a space of two square meters.
Looking up, the height was quite tall, going up unknown meters.
This appeared to be a hollow core of the vine cluster.
He had imagined the vine cluster to be hollow, but this hollowness...
Was way too narrow!
"Ying!" Keke scratched the ground here with its little paw and looked up at Xu Xin.
"...You want me to dig here?" Xu Xin raised an eyebrow and said.
"Ying!" Keke nodded its little head.
So it wanted him to dig...
He had thought about exploring the inside of this vine cluster, perhaps even climbing upward, but he didn’t expect to dig downward?
Already in the underground world, yet still need to go further down...
However, he still trusted Keke, and besides, the surrounding was all vine walls, so apart from digging down, there was nothing else he could do.
Xu Xin took out a metal shovel and started digging into the ground.
Then...
"Clang!"
After just a few digs, he heard the sound of the shovel hitting metal.
Another metal door?
Without hesitation, Xu Xin cleared the thin layer of light red contaminated soil on top.
Beneath the soil lay a metal platform.
Indeed, it wasn’t a door with a handle, but a smooth metal surface less than one square meter.
He dug around it as well, and all around was soil.
Come to think of it, this smooth metal surface looked somewhat familiar...
He crouched down and reached out to touch the metal surface.
[Survivor Gravity Mechanism: A mechanism that activates when a survivor stands on it.]
Well well, it turned out to be a gravity mechanism!
However, the description didn’t say what the mechanism would trigger.
Xu Xin picked up Keke, hesitated for a moment, and then stepped onto it.
"Ka!"
A crisp sound came from underfoot, and then the mechanism began to slowly descend.
Suddenly, the speed of descent increased!
Xu Xin’s expression changed, and just as he was about to push off and leap up, a "bang" sound occurred, and the mechanism had already stopped.
And he was now below the ground level of the underground world!
He looked up and saw that the distance the mechanism had descended was not far, about five meters.
Knowing this, he could easily jump up from here.
Releasing a sigh of relief, Xu Xin began to examine the scene in front of him.
In front of him was a corridor.
A metal corridor, about three meters high and wide, very square.
And on both sides of the corridor, there were...
Iron-barred doors!
Indeed, this place looked like a prison hallway!