It wasn't long before crew members from the boat behind them started making inquiries and complimenting their princess for her excellent guidance over the team channel.

But all the eyes on the boat were filled with admiration for the young Alchemist sitting quietly at the stern.

Fang Hong sat motionless, watching the swiftly changing scenery before him through his lens, amazed by the speed that was so fast it was almost too much to bear—and the screen occasionally went dark because the canoe was moving too rapidly to retrieve the Clockwork Fairy that had flown off into another branch of the river.

Moreover, in the underground environment, the range of magic power transmission was greatly reduced after passing through the thick rock layers.

In these circumstances, he had no choice but to constantly replenish his Clockwork Fairies, but it took only a short while before his supplies ran out. He reached into an empty pocket and looked up somewhat helplessly, but Sophie's voice was already coming from outside, "Xi, open supply box number one and take out all the Clockwork Fairies."

As soon as she finished speaking, Fang Hong felt something cold and somewhat heavy placed in his hand.

Model II Clockwork Fairy, it was a bit extravagant to use these as cannon fodder, normally priced at thirty to forty thousand each, and even he had only prepared a single one just in case. "This is all there is," Sophie told him, "but there should be enough. These Clockwork Fairies are all yours now, so you can use them with confidence."

"All mine now?" Fang Hong almost blurted out, "Can I keep what's left over if I don't use them all?"

But Sophie had already seen through his thoughts, "Don't be too frugal when your life is at stake."

Fang Hong, embarrassed at having his thoughts read, still nodded in agreement.

He definitely wouldn't be stingy, but he couldn't help criticizing the Grand Guild's extravagance and his own peasant-like mentality; although it was difficult, he gritted his teeth and released the Clockwork Fairy anyway.

With his Clockwork Fairies scouting ahead, the subsequent journey became much easier. Dangerous shoals and hidden currents remained, but after everyone got the hang of it, they weren't too much trouble.

About a quarter of an hour had passed, and there were still seven or eight Model II Clockwork Fairies left in his pocket, but the current began to slow. Just as Fang Hong breathed a sigh of relief and was about to retrieve the Clockwork Fairies ahead, a dark shadow suddenly swept across his vision.

Four Clockwork Fairies attacked at the same time!?

This incredible situation stunned Fang Hong for a moment, but he quickly realized what was happening and hastily lifted his Wind Goggles to see a ghastly skeleton dangling from the top of the cave, lunging at him.

However, before it could land, two spears stretched out, one from each side, shattering the skeleton mid-air and sending it flying into the river.

The ones who acted simultaneously were Xi and the Lizardman Prince Tainaric. The latter gave an approving nod to the mountain girl, though she seemed unused to the gesture and made no response.

"Something's on both sides of the river!" someone immediately shouted.

When Fang Hong looked in that direction, all he could see were glinting eyes, but those weren't the reflections of nocturnal pupils caught in torchlight, rather the air was thick with the stench of rotting corpses, and those shining spots were ghostly fires.

Undead—

Encountering the Undead here wasn't surprising; not to mention the Bottomless Depths here were unknowingly filled with wandering souls, and the former residents' regrets and despair lingering in this underground river were conducive to spawning such things.

More importantly, they hadn't forgotten that eerie Ghost Ship sailing through the thick fog previously.

"Prepare for combat," Xi relayed Sophie's command to the others in her stead.

Fang Hong couldn't bother with the Clockwork Fairies ahead any longer and pulled Parker up, "Fire an Illumination Bomb, one hundred meters ahead."

"Illumination Bomb?" The Papalarian exclaimed, "Here!? Don't we have torches?"

"No more talking!"

With no choice, Parker complied, drawing his crossbow and firing an Illumination Bomb. The pale light revealed the river's surface, and the others screamed in shock as they saw it, "The water's turned black!"

Not only had the water turned black, but fog was also beginning to fill the river channel, exactly like before. This might also be considered good news, at least indicating they had not taken the wrong path, and Fang Hong's previous method was still effective.

But the bad news was—

Someone suddenly shouted, "There's something beneath the water!"

Almost simultaneously with the shout, water splashed everywhere, and a giant fish, stripped to bare bones, leaped from the water and bit at the Elementalist at the edge of the boat—but it obviously chose the wrong target. The young Elementalist girl, quick and agile, reversed her staff and knocked it back into the water.

But she didn't take risks, immediately retreating two steps back into the midst of the crowd after her successful strike.

The wisdom of this decision soon became evident.

The next moment, the river churned tumultuously as countless bonefish leaped out, but the Knights had already raised their shields. The shields rang continuously with impacts, and any fish that slipped through were taken down by the Rangers behind them with precise arrow shots.

There were only three Rangers on this boat, but their archery was incredibly accurate. Theoretically, skeletal frames were somewhat problematic for Archers, but these people were making shots that almost invariably hit the big mouths and skulls of the bonefish.

You have to understand, this is not shooting on flat ground.

If it were ordinary Adventurers, they would have been in disarray by now, but Fang Hong couldn't help but feel fortunate that the elites of the Silver Weslan Youth Training Team were his allies; they not only acted in an orderly fashion, but even under such circumstances, half of the crew maintained a focused and undistracted rowing—oh, paddling.

Soon, there were new developments beneath the surface of the river, as corpses floated down from upstream, drawing near to their boat. They reached out with pale, rigid hands from the water, grabbed onto the boat's gunwale and bottom, and started shaking it vigorously.

The ones at the gunwale were manageable; the Knights drew their swords and chopped off the hands, one by one. But they were powerless against those beneath the surface. The canoe, not particularly seaworthy to begin with, was at risk of capsizing from the shaking.

"I'll go take a look," Xi suddenly stood up and said.

But Fang Hong stopped her with his hand—not because he had to take care of Sophie, but because he glanced ahead. The canoe had sped out of the range of the Illumination Bomb and was now moving fast into pitch darkness ahead, which made him feel a sense of unease.

"Parker, let's have another one at a hundred and fifty meters," he suddenly said.

"That far, it could get blocked,"

"Just try," Fang Hong knew this was a difficult ask, but the situation was too urgent to care. Sophie's team included several Crossbowmen, but on this boat, there was only Parker. Moreover, the Crossbowmen of Silver Weslan might not be as skilled in this 'acrobatics' as the Papalarians.

Parker clearly understood the urgency and wasted no more words. He pulled his crossbow, squinted his eyes, and silently invoked the saints. With a shot, the bolt tore a bright streak through the air. It passed precisely through the dense stalactites on the cave ceiling, miraculously hitting none of them.

Then it exploded with a 'boom' far ahead, slowly falling from mid-air and illuminating the river's surface.

"Damn it!" several Rangers from Silver Weslan stared wide-eyed at the spectacle, their gaze towards Parker somewhat worshipful. Belonging to the same ranged profession, they knew all too well how difficult that shot was—or rather, how extraordinarily lucky.

Fang Hong also swore internally, suddenly realizing that the Cursed Mark on Parker must have completely disappeared.

And as things went to extremes, it must have started the lucky streak—

He just hoped that this shot didn't use up all of Parker's luck, Fang Hong thought, gazing forward. But instantly, he couldn't help but curse in his mind. Not just him, everyone saw that beneath the illumination of the light bomb, a giant shadow was making its way towards them from beneath the waters ahead—

"What the hell is that thing!?"

"It's coming!"

The enormous shadow nearly covered half the space under the water's surface and was moving at an incredible speed. In almost an instant, it had reached below their canoe. Just as Fang Hong looked down, he felt a violent shaking beneath his feet. He knew something was wrong and reached out to grasp something stable, but in the blink of an eye, he was tossed upside down.

He then heard a loud splash as he fell into the water, a stench of dirty water surging toward him. Fang Hong quickly clamped his mouth shut, raised his head, and saw the canoe rising high, flipping over towards him.

Underneath the canoe, a massive skeletal creature slowly rose from the water, countless small waterfalls streaming down its enormous bones.

"Damn it!"

Fang Hong almost blacked out—Corpse Tomb Demon!

...

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