Ling Yan approached the huge purple crystal, reached out and touched it. The crystal was as cold as ice.
He pressed his ear against the amethyst, closed his eyes, held his breath, and listened.
"It's the sound of waves. Outside this crystal is the sound of seawater. It seems that we've been going downhill all along, following the cave, and have reached below sea level, entering the seabed."
Ling Yan frowned.
[Mei.]
[Yes, Boss, your analysis is correct. We are indeed currently on the seabed, but still inside the mountain.]
[In other words, if we break this stone, we won't be able to get out at all. Instead, seawater will flood in, and we'll be directly washed back into the cave. Not only will we drown, but we might also be pushed by the seawater and collide into these stone pillars, breaking our arms and legs, our heads bleeding. It would pretty much be the same as death.]
Ling Yan pursed his lips, complaining inwardly.
Although that was the logic of it, there was no need to say it so directly.
He cleared his throat and said helplessly, "Yes."
However, while the two humans could think of this relationship, the sea rat, being an animal with limited brainpower, continued to frantically claw at the amethyst.
The ear-piercing scratching sound challenged every nerve in their brains. Mu Yuan reached out and pulled the rope tied to the sea rat, dragging it up from the ground.
Ling Yan went to check the area it had just clawed. There wasn't a single scratch on the amethyst; it remained perfectly flawless.
[Boss, this crystal's hardness is no less than that of diamond. Although the sea rat's forelimbs are good at digging, it's far from enough. However, although this crystal has high hardness, it's also very brittle. If you hit it hard with a sturdy object, it can be broken.]
"You better be good, you cunning rat!"
Mu Yuan held the sea rat in one hand, still scolding it. As a result, the rat, perhaps seeing that it was getting closer to the sea, went crazy with anxiety. It twisted its pig-like body, suddenly turned its head, opened its mouth full of sharp teeth, and viciously bit at Mu Yuan's hand.
Mu Yuan instinctively released his hand quickly. As the sea rat fell to the ground, its claws scraped against the handkerchief tied around Mu Yuan's waist that contained the half-gourd.
The handkerchief loosened, and the half-gourd rolled and tumbled towards the huge amethyst in front.
Mu Yuan and Ling Yan acted simultaneously, both lunging towards the half-gourd.
The gourd touched the amethyst, and their hands touched the gourd at the same time.
Instantly, the gourd that had touched the amethyst erupted with an extremely dazzling bright light. The cave was filled with purple light, and at the same time, the sea rat's "squeak squeak" cries filled the air.
Ling Yan felt his body being sucked into the half-gourd that his fingers had touched. The blood vessels and every cell in his body were being strongly compressed. He felt like he was about to explode.
A sense of suffocation and dizziness attacked in waves.
His vision went black in patches, and the surrounding purple light was gradually weakening.
Then, the pressure on his entire body disappeared in an instant, and his vision returned to normal. He took a deep breath.
Then he looked to the side, searching for Mu Yuan.
It would have been better if he hadn't looked. One turn of his head to clearly see his surroundings, and even the battle-hardened him couldn't help but feel a shock in his heart.
He was currently underwater, surrounded by seawater!
Mu Yuan was floating not far from him, along with the sea rat. They were probably both unconscious due to the suffocating pressure that had just made him feel like he was dying.
Ling Yan didn't react for a moment.
He was currently underwater, yet he was breathing deeply? Why couldn't he feel any water pressure?
This was illogical.
As a faintly glowing purple object gradually dimmed and turned into a clod of earth, Ling Yan found the reason for this illogicality.
Needless to say, it was that half-gourd.
Ling Yan swam towards the gourd, storing the half-gourd in his police equipment space. Then, he swam to Mu Yuan's side.
He reached out to check his breath and found it steady, clearly just unconscious.
A weight lifted from Ling Yan's heart. He reached out and pulled over the snakeskin rope tied to the sea rat, afraid it might escape once it woke up.
[Mei.]
[Mei?]
Sigh.
Because of that half-gourd just now, Ling Yan had once again lost contact with Mei in his consciousness.
However, what exactly was this purple glowing gourd?
It had actually been able to bring him and Mu Yuan out of that amethyst, and even allowed them to breathe underwater.
It was indeed a treasure.
Ling Yan had been to many planets in the galactic alliance, seen countless strange things, and even met people who could use magic and immortal arts.
However, after adapting to the world in this book, those fantastical abilities had gradually faded from his memory, even feeling like distant things.
He hadn't expected that an unremarkable, clod-like gourd would once again bring him face to face with reality.
This world was not ordinary.
And neither were the people in this world. He couldn't relax his vigilance, let alone be careless.
Ling Yan patted Mu Yuan's cheeks. Mu Yuan frowned. Ling Yan pinched his nose again, and Mu Yuan finally opened his eyes.
Seeing his unfocused pupils gradually regain their clarity, before Ling Yan could speak, Mu Yuan shouted out:
"Ah! Water!"
His reaction was the normal reaction of any normal person who found themselves underwater.
The information that his eyes transmitted to his brain caused the brain to send a false signal of suffocation, fearing drowning, and his body began to struggle violently.
Ling Yan quickly swam backwards, narrowly avoiding Mu Yuan's wildly flailing arms. Fortunately, Mu Yuan's reaction was also quick.
Mu Yuan soon realized that he could speak underwater and even breathe in the water. He stared incredulously with his large eyes, looking around for Ling Yan.
When he saw Ling Yan, Ling Yan clearly saw his shoulders relax, causing a slight stir in his heart and a twitch of his eyebrow.
Then, Mu Yuan swam towards him with a standard breaststroke, and as soon as he opened his mouth, it was full of questions:
"Ling, what's going on? How did we get out of the mountain? We didn't break the mountain. I almost thought I was going to die... Could it be?"
Mu Yuan looked around in the sea as he spoke. "The gourd! Where's the half-gourd?"
"General, don't panic. I've put the gourd away safely. We should have been teleported out of the mountain because of that half-gourd, and it's very likely that we also have the ability to breathe underwater because of it.
We won't study this gourd in detail for now. Now that we're out, how about we do as you just did when communicating with that sea rat and go meet this Sea Rat King? What do you say?"
Mu Yuan's gaze shifted to the sea rat. At the same moment, the sea rat kicked its legs twice and *swoosh*, opened its black, bead-like rat eyes.
Its body was immersed in the sea, like a fish in water. It excitedly squeaked twice, and its large tail, which had been curled around its lower back, suddenly straightened and spun rapidly like a ship's propeller. Then the entire rat shot off like a black torpedo.
"Hey! Don't let it run!"
Mu Yuan shouted loudly, only to see that Ling Yan was tightly clutching the snakeskin rope tied to the rat.
Just as he breathed a sigh of relief, Ling Yan reached out and wrapped an arm around his waist.
Mu Yuan glanced at Ling Yan, puzzled, and heard Ling Yan whisper in his ear:
"Let's go, General."
Huh?
Immediately afterwards, his waist tightened.
The sea rat carried the two of them swiftly through the sea, heading straight for the sea rat's lair.