Chapter 63: The Mystical Ancient Well!
Translator: AstralGhost Editor: Kurisu
The river flowed steadily, heading towards a gigantic underground lake.
It was difficult to comprehend how an underground lake of such enormous proportions came to exist so deep below the ground.
A vast vault-shaped ceiling spread out endlessly above the lake, glimmering with countless specks of light from unknown sources, causing the lake below it to glow with a faint shimmer.
A peculiar-looking fish over two meters long charged into the lake from the river, as though it was in a great hurry. The fish was scaleless, appearing as smooth as an eel.
Numerous sharp teeth lined the inside of the fish’s mouth. It looked extremely ferocious, and was not something one would willingly provoke.
On the back of this peculiar fish was a wound as big and deep as a human's fist. Blood ebbed steadily out of the wound, dyeing a small area of the gigantic lake a faint red.
This fish seemed to have gone through a terrible battle, and its senses were working at their maximum output as it scanned its new surroundings with alert.
A mammoth white shadow flashed through the water under its surface, causing the fish to turn around violently. However, no matter where it looked, the water remained calm.
Feeling uneasy, it swayed its powerful tail and dashed off in search of a hiding place.
Finally spotting a sizable crack in the wall of the lake, it hurried to burrow into it. As it neared the mini cave and a sense of relief came over its face, the head a huge creature suddenly shot out from the very same crack!
Like a sudden clap of thunder which leaves no time for response, the humongous creature had arrived before the peculiar-looking fish, its enormous mouth looming over it as it chomped down on it!
"Hua, hua!"
The top half of the over two meter long fish was firmly caught within the mouth of the powerful white creature. The lower half of its body thrashed furiously, causing the waters around it to churn violently as it attempted to free itself.
However, its struggles were in vain. Although the white beast did not have dagger-sharp teeth to bite through its prey, its teeth were hooked and thus were very effective for trapping prey. Right now, its hooked teeth were embedded deep within the peculiar fish’s flesh, making sure that it could not escape!
The biting force increased continually, and fresh blood flowed freely from the fish’s body, spreading out in all directions and causing the smell of blood to permeate through the surrounding area.
The fish’s struggles soon became weaker, its tail drooping downwards.
Attracted by the blood, a few more white beasts appeared, each one around three meters in length. When compared to the huge fellow who was currently feeding on the fish, however, they were much smaller in size.
The white beasts had the appearance of a lizard, only, they were stouter and their heads flatter.
They looked much like the salamanders from Earth, multiplied several times over in size. Their slimy bodies were smooth and scaleless, and multiple strange patterns adorned their backs. Their abdomens were pale white in color, and their limbs looked strong and powerful!
The newcomers appeared to be rather wary of their bigger cousin, not daring to get too close to it. After lingering in the area for some time, they finally left unwillingly.
Without much effort, the white beast had finished swallowing the over two meter long fish into its stomach. Done with its meal, it moved back into the hole lacklusterly.
At this time, a translucent silk line dropped down from the sky and, completely bypassing the many layers of earth, appeared above the underground lake.
"Plop!"
A small spider landed on the water with a soft, almost indistinguishable sound.
A tiny ripple spread outwards with the spider as the center, gradually growing weaker as it expanded outwards.
Within one hundred meters, three white beasts rushed towards the ripple simultaneously as they went to receive this foreign guest to their lake.
The white beasts, who had spent their entire lives in the pitch black subterranean lake, had little to no vision to speak of. However, their perception relied on other senses, and was without comparison. It was more than enough to make up for their poor vision!
The white beasts’ speed was quite shocking. Within a few seconds, they had arrived at the spot where the spider had landed.
Based on the vibrations in the water, the white beasts discovered with an annoyed look on their faces that their ‘prey’ was only an insignificant little thing. It was not even worth their effort to swim upwards to swallow it. Their interest lost, each of the white beasts went off in a different direction.
How this lake came to be infested with so many white beasts was a mystery unto itself.
The lake had practically become the nest of these white beasts. Any foreign creatures that entered had only one ending awaiting them.
Some time after the white beasts left, the poor spider also drowned in this foreign subterranean world. The spot it had landed on happened to be near the point where a river joined the lake. Thus, the dead spider was slowly carried away deeper into the lake by the current.
A strange fish around half a meter long and as flat as a curved dagger carefully crawled out from under a pile of rocks.
It lay motionless, checking its surroundings repeatedly. In order to survive in this lake, caution was the most vital trait!
The less prudent creatures had long been eaten by the numerous white beasts, turning into fertilizer at the bottom of the lake. After checking for three times, the dagger-like fish confirmed that there was no danger. Then, it steadily crept toward the dead spider.
Every movement it made was done with utmost caution. It positioned itself in such a way that its influence on the water flow was as minimal as possible. The white beasts had extraordinary senses and could detect even the slightest water tremors within one hundred meters of their surroundings!
Within the dark expanse of the underground river, food remained the most scarce item. This was the reason why the dagger-like fish could not afford to give up even a small, dead earthling spider!
With a single gulp, the spider disappeared into the stomach of the dagger-like fish. Just as it was about to retreat, the dagger-like fish found to its dismay that it could not move at all!
Following the steady flow of the dark lake’s currents, the horrified dagger-like fish found that it was now floating at the entrance of a gigantic cave! It watched with tears in its eyes as the current carried it into the depths of the cave...
Within the cave, a humongous white beast lay, fast asleep. It had just consumed a large fish over two meters in size. Such a feast was enough for it to sleep for 3-4 months straight without eating anything else!
With its limited brain capacity, the gigantic white beast was only able to display the slightest look of satisfaction on its face as it slept. As it lay contentedly on the floor of the cave, a dagger-like fish with a constipated expression floated near it and bumped against its mouth.
Once!
Twice!
The contact was very light, like a balloon bouncing off the wall. However, this was already enough to awaken the hypersensitive white beast!
The gigantic white beast did not even bother to open its eyes as it turned its head slightly and directly swallowed the irritating dagger-like fish!
Although it had recently had a satisfying meal, a fish that had been sent to its doorsteps still should not be wasted!
Immediately after it swallowed the fish, the white beast discovered with shock that it was unable to move! If one could observe the eyes of the white beast in that moment, they would find that it was filled with fear!
In such an environment where danger lurked at every corner and where food was scarce, it was not surprising for starving creatures to engage in cannibalism. Even the white beast with its limited intellect could understand what sort of fate awaited an immobile big piece of meat like itself!
"I got something!"
Bei Feng smiled in glee. His mood soared every time he caught something!
Whenever he went fishing, he felt like an exalted being, looking down upon all of creation, the life and death of all beings grasped in his hands!
As he reeled the line in, the massive white beast was also slowly pulled out of its cave.
As the rest of its body emerged from the cave, the full extent of its size became apparent. The humongous white beast was around 7-8 meters long, and its weight no less than one or two tons!
On the other end of the line, Bei Feng also felt a huge force weighing down on the line. Based on the one to ten ratio of weight distribution, it was obvious that he had caught something big this time!
With great effort, the white beast was slowly pulled out of the lake. Just as it was about to collide with the roof above it, it completely disappeared!
Just like that, within the Ancient Well, an ugly head which took up every inch of the Ancient Well could be seen rising out of the swirling vortex.
‘D*mn, this thing is really freaking hideous!’
Bei Feng almost let go of the fishing rod in his disgust.
The creature’s skull was grotesque and flat, its eyes only as big as a thumb. Its skin was wrinkled, reminiscent of an old grandma.
Its wrinkled skin, although creased and saggy, was as white as snow. If that was the only issue, so be it. However, there were patches of skin missing in random spots on its body, as though it were molting. It looked extremely grotesque.
Could it be that this thing’s mum ran out of dye while creating it, resulting in its skin lacking in uniformity?
Bei Feng increased his strength, hoisting the huge creature out of the well!
As the last part of the creature’s body was pulled out, it suddenly ballooned to a massive size as it immediately reverted to its original 1 meter thick and 7-8 meter long body!
‘This Ancient Well actually has the ability to control the size of the items within it?’
Bei Feng gasped in disbelief. Staring at the humongous beast before him, he understood that either the System had shrunk the beast temporarily or the Ancient Well had expanded for an instant to allow the beast to pass through!
These two were the only possible methods to allow this huge beast to pass through the regular-sized well!