Fang Hong nodded lightly to the other party, then they bid farewell and left.

The first area was just north of the entrance.

Fang Hong and his companions hadn't walked long before they saw the cave from the video. In the video, compared to the mountainous body of the Purple Mushroom Lord, it did not appear large. But at this moment, as the cave lay quietly in front of the group, they all looked up into the expansive and seemingly endless space above.

Hundreds of glowing crystal clusters hung down from the ceiling, reflecting against the dark waters below, a place known on the map as the 'Waste Water Pond.' It likely originated from before the earthquake, once part of a beautiful, man-made lake on the surface, but the fractured bedrock had completely altered everything.

Inside the cave, the terrain rose increasingly higher, the rocky walls on both sides as sharp as blades. A number of long-eared bats resided here, causing considerable trouble for them. To one side of the elevated cliffs was a deep valley, below which a subterranean river flowed, its banks still spotted with fluorescent residues left behind by the Purple Mushroom Lord.

Due to the various luminescent materials interspersed throughout, the underground world did not seem dark but rather burst with multicolored lights; eventually Parker simply extinguished the torch, his arm having grown somewhat sore from holding it.

The group passed through a smaller cavern filled with stalactites, as a swarm of bats fluttered noisily overhead. Initially, the young man, still naive in his ways, was scared out of his wits, but by now, he had gradually grown accustomed.

But suddenly, Tainaric stopped in his tracks and turned to look back into the darkness behind them.

"Someone is following us," he said in a low voice.

Fang Hong was startled, and instinctively looked back, thinking it was those people from before, perhaps trying to catch them off guard. But he quickly realized, with his Clockwork Fairy still trailing behind, it was impossible for anything to follow them unnoticed.

He confusedly looked at the Lizardman, who was somewhat somberly gazing at the ground, "It's underground."

"Underground?"

Before Fang Hong could respond, he saw gusts of black smoke suddenly rising from the ground not far away. These wisps of smoke gathered together, surprisingly forming a blurry human figure. But to describe it as human wasn't quite accurate, for humans did not have long tails or sharp claws.

More precisely, the creature resembled a Lizardman. It wasn't as robust as an Andasok Lizardman, but it was much taller than the Night Lizard People, apparently different from any current Lizardman tribe.

The creature opened its mouth, letting out a sharp screech — Fang Hong couldn't be sure it was actually a mouth, as the creature's head seemed bizarre, shrouded in black smoke and not fully formed; he could only discern the shape of a mouth from the shifting smoke.

After screeching, the creature immediately rushed towards them.

The first to act, predictably, was Xiangzi, but Fang Hong reminded from behind, "Be careful, it's not solid!"

But it was too late; Xiangzi's sword stabbed through thin air. His thrust could not be deemed a miss as he cut the creature in half at the waist. However, the smoke-formed figure split into two but continued moving unhindered, drifting above and behind Xiangzi.

Physical Immunity—

Fang Hong's scalp tingled as he watched, but he felt he had seen this creature somewhere before. As he was pondering a solution, he noticed Tainaric raising the arm armor on his right hand. The next moment, the Golden Hand emitted a bright glow, and a golden beam shot from the jewel in the Lizardman's palm, striking the upper part of the smoke creature and piercing through it.

The smoke emitted a deafening scream, and the upper half dispersed instantly, while the lower half seemed to lose its strength, falling to the ground and melting into a pool of black liquid-like substance.

Xiangzi himself was also scared half to death, questioningly asking the others for the first time in slight disarray, "What in the world is that thing?"

Fang Hong and Tainaric remained silent, walking over to inspect the pool on the ground, only to realize it wasn't truly a liquid, but rather a cluster of flowing black smoke on the ground.

Although no longer capable of forming a humanoid figure, it still seemed to possess life as it noticeably retracted when Tainaric approached.

This made all three pause and look.

"Does this level have such creatures?" Xiangzi asked, puzzled, "Why haven't I seen this thing in the data?"

Fang Hong looked towards Tainaric, or more precisely, at the bright patterned arm armor he was wearing. The Lizardman Prince, noticing his gaze, also raised his hand, revealing the crystal in his palm—Fang Hong saw clearly, it was actually a milky white fluorite.

Tainaric spoke only then, "In Andasok, the Ritualists believe that fluorite possesses the power of the sun, and we use it to harness the sun's power, which is sacred and can annihilate all evil and negative forces."

It was only then that Fang Hong figured out what that thing was.

Sunflame Ray.

It seemed that the strange cloud of smoke was particularly averse to light, or feared the sun's attribute, and he immediately thought of a type of creatures that perfectly matched this characteristic—Undead. Could it be that this cloud of smoke was actually a type of Undead?

Below the relics, it wasn't strange to find various forms of Undead dwelling under there. It also made sense for Toragotos to arrange such creatures here. However, as Xiangzi said, Fang Hong had never seen such a strange creature in the records.

While he was puzzled about what this thing might be, he suddenly realized they might have overlooked a detail. Before this, all the Phantoms set up by Toragotos that they encountered beneath these relics would immediately disintegrate into dust upon being killed.

But this black mist in front of them seemed to last a bit too long.

It was at this moment that Xiangzi's voice, sounding somewhat surprised, came from one side, "Wait, did you guys notice?"

"Notice what?"

"This thing has experience points."

"Experience?"

"I mean, after we killed it, there was an experience prompt," the young man's voice was full of surprise, "So high, over four thousand. My god. If all the creatures down here are like this, aren't we going to make a fortune?"

Fang Hong gave the guy a look, feeling that there was something off about his words.

While the young man was speaking, Parker suddenly ran back in a hurry from ahead. As soon as he saw the three of them, he shouted, "Hurry, I found that Purple Mushroom Lord, but there are others ahead. We need to move fast or it'll be too late!"

Upon hearing this, Fang Hong was quite startled.

The Purple Mushroom Lord was something they had exchanged for with Magic Storage Crystals. If someone else snatched it, that would be unacceptable. He immediately disregarded discussing this strange creature—after all, the Underground World was full of strange creatures, just like the long-eared bats outside. Not all were Phantoms set by Toragotos, and an occasional anomaly wasn't surprising.

The Lizardman Prince apparently thought the same, as, considering the situation, there was nothing more important than completing the trial. Upon hearing this, he turned his Arm Armor and shot a thin Flame Ray at the black smoke, burning it to nothingness.

After emitting a high-pitched scream, the black smoke disappeared in an instant.

This startled the Papalarians, who, uncertain, looked at the spot where the creature had been and said, "What was that?"

"Nothing," Fang Hong replied decisively, "Lead the way, no one dares to snatch our Purple Mushroom Lord!"

"The Captain is right," Xiangzi clearly agreed with this remark, "If someone wants trouble, we'll teach them a lesson."

Tainaric, however, didn't say a word, just retracted his arm armor and silently followed.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute," the Papalarian shouted, "Since when did that thing become ours?"

"Of course, when we paid for it," Fang Hong replied irritably.

Those Magic Storage Crystals had cost them quite a bit of money.

Even though they weren't originally theirs.

...

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