After descending, Yun Luohe let out a long breath.She took a closer look at the remaining two murals on the stone wall.The third mural depicted a merfolk with a human head and fish body; behind the merfolk was a giant vertical pupil and a spiral-shaped symbol.The fourth mural showed a volcano erupting, with a flame symbol at its heart and many black symbols painted around it.She did not really understand them.But since all four murals appeared together here, these four locations must be connected somehow.The merfolk should be underwater, while the volcano reminded Yun Luohe immediately of a volcanic island.However, she recalled that the Four Seasons Islands were Spider Island, Bat Island, Volcano Island, and the other was Machine Island.Could it be that the merfolk were not in the deep sea but on the Machine Island?That did not sound likely.But now was not the time to ponder such details.She decided to focus on what lay ahead.—The bottom level was pitch black, with only a faint light from one corner.Yun Luohe heard the sound of water—it was a hidden river down here.They had noticed the river below when descending, and it likely connected to the outside river.She sensed danger lurking in the river.Something occasionally surfaced but never fully showed its head.Ripples on the water made her uneasy.At the other end of the hidden river was a black door set into the rock wall, decorated with a bronze ring and submerged in water.Faint red light glowed on the walls, the only illumination for the cave’s bottom.The atmosphere was eerie.Yun Luohe stared at the door, contemplating how to cross over.And how to open it.She carefully examined the cave environment and soon noticed some special runes on the floor.Following the runes, she found a stone pillar covered in runes with several indentations, seemingly for placing objects.Yun Luohe thought for a moment and took a Blood Crystal from her backpack to place into one indentation.Soon, the sound of stone grinding echoed from the river as a stone bridge slowly rose.The bridge was very narrow, about 20 centimeters wide, and irregular, but enough for her to run across alone.Yun Luohe sprinted forward, reaching the other side in just over ten seconds.Standing before the door, she raised her resin lantern to illuminate and studied it for half a minute.She found no way to open it—no mechanisms, no keyholes, and certainly no high-tech facial or fingerprint recognition.Finally, she gave up and tried pushing the door with force—and surprisingly, it opened easily.Well, she had overthought it.Entering the door, Yun Luohe’s eyes widened in amazement.The cave walls were carved with intricate bat totems and complex ritual inscriptions.Directly ahead was a circular blood pool boiling with scarlet liquid, likely bat blood.The air was heavy with a metallic stench.The blood pool was surrounded by twelve stone bat statues, their eyes glowing red, unnervingly watching.In the center of the blood pool was a round altar, beside which was a ring of recessed grooves stained with dried blood.She was unsure whether the blood in the pool came from bats or some other creature, but it was truly terrifying.Compared to this, the altar they had seen in the Bat King’s cave was like child’s play.The ceiling was densely covered with scarlet moss, growing thickly—she wondered how it reached so high.The moss provided the only lighting, allowing clear sight throughout the cave.All the statues faced the same direction.Yun Luohe slowly approached and saw a groove atop the altar.She intuitively placed a Blood Crystal into the groove.Nothing happened.She tried another.She placed the Blood Crystal Core.This time there was a reaction.The blood pool instantly boiled, and the red lights in the twelve statues’ eyes converged into a beam of light.The beam struck the wall, projecting images like a slideshow.A short, blood-robed dwarf man was cutting his palm, pouring blood over the altar and onto the Blood Crystal Core.At first, only his back was visible.Soon he turned around, revealing his half-human, half-bat form—no wonder he was so short; he was actually a bat, with a very ugly face.He held a scepter pointing at the blood pool’s bottom.The image vanished the next moment.Yun Luohe’s face darkened.What did this mean? They wanted her to activate the altar with her own blood?The image ended there; no one knew what would happen after activation.But if she didn’t activate it, should she just leave?Yun Luohe was conflicted.She certainly could not use her own blood to resurrect a °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° millennia-old bat.That would mean death a hundred times over for her.Still, trusting her intuition—which gave no sign of danger—she decided to try.Yun Luohe took out her dagger, cut her finger, and dripped a few drops of blood onto the Blood Crystal Core.She was reluctant to cut her palm—too much blood loss would be dangerous given her low HP.But no reaction followed; it seemed like the blood was insufficient.She stared at the altar, deep in thought...Fine.She made a slightly bigger cut, without flinching, and let fresh blood flow steadily onto the Blood Crystal Core and into the altar’s blood groove.Though little, it finally triggered a response.A loud rumble arose, and the blood pool boiled violently.With enough blood poured onto the Blood Crystal Core, the core’s surface suddenly cracked with a golden web-like pattern.Blood-red liquid gushed from the fissures, and a dazzling red light bathed the entire cave.It was finally activated!Minutes later, a bronze coffin slowly rose from the bottom of the blood pool.Yun Luohe was startled.No way—they were really going to resurrect the millennia-old Bat King?She stared at the coffin, terrified.She was utterly powerless now.At full strength, she might have fought, but now her blood bar was mostly empty.Yun Luohe had already prepared to flee at the first sign of trouble, no matter what treasures lay here.However, after waiting a while, the coffin showed no movement.She sensed no dangerous aura at all.Instead, through Scan Eye, she saw faint light inside the coffin.She decided to approach.The coffin was made of bronze; she had no idea how long it had been here, submerged in the blood pool, emitting a foul smell.Yun Luohe was shocked to see the bottom of the blood pool was filled with Blood Crystals.She was rich.Could she take all of these Blood Crystals?Still, she dared not just reach in.Who knew if the blood was poisonous?It felt unsafe.Even wearing gloves wouldn’t guarantee protection; what if the gloves dissolved upon contact?She took out an arrow and dipped it into the blood pool.As expected, the submerged part of the arrow dissolved immediately.Yun Luohe muttered, “...”After descending, Yun Luohe exhaled deeply.She now clearly saw the remaining two murals on the stone wall.The third mural depicted a merfolk with a human head and fish body; behind it was a giant vertical pupil and a spiral-shaped symbol.The fourth mural showed a volcano erupting, with a flame symbol at its core and many black symbols painted around it.She could not quite understand them.But since all four murals appeared here together, these four locations must be connected somehow.The merfolk should belong to the deep sea, while the volcano made Yun Luohe immediately think of Volcano Island.However, she recalled the Four Seasons Islands were Spider Island, Bat Island, Volcano Island, and Machine Island.Could it be that the merfolk were not in the deep sea but on Machine Island?That seemed unlikely.But now was not the time to ponder this.Better to focus on the task ahead.At this moment, Yun Luohe’s feelings were no longer just fear after the fact.This cursed place, seeing so many Blood Crystals, if she were careless and tried to grab them, wouldn’t that mean instant death?She could only look at the valuable items before her and not take them.Suddenly, she recalled the gauntlet blueprint from the previous treasure chest.Maybe if she wore those gauntlets, she could safely reach into the pool, or use other high-level gauntlets whose defense might withstand the blood pool’s damage.However, for now, there was no solution.Yun Luohe diverted her gaze, no longer focusing on the unreachable Blood Crystals in the pool.Instead, she used her Military Shovel to directly pry open the coffin lid.Inside the coffin lay a treasure chest.Yun Luohe smiled.This was true happiness.She took out the chest and realized this chest required a key to open.That made sense; the previous chests had been rewards for completing tasks, but this one was found through her own exploration.The moment she removed the chest, the Blood Crystal Core stopped seeping red liquid, and the cave began to violently tremble.The blood pool churned like boiling water.Splashes flew out of the pool, soaking Yun Luohe.If not for her armor, she might have been burned through.Without delay, Yun Luohe hurriedly removed the Blood Crystal Core, placed it and the chest into her backpack, and quickly exited the area.At least she needed to put some distance between herself and the blood pool—if it exploded, she would not survive.As the tremors intensified, the scarlet moss on the ceiling began to peel off.The cave floor and walls shook violently.Suddenly, a gust of wind blew in.Yun Luohe’s heart jolted as she looked around to find the source.Since wind was blowing in, this meant there was an exit.At the same time, several statues toppled over.Only then did Yun Luohe realize the eyes of the statues were Blood Crystals.And they were quite large.She glanced at the moss, then at the Blood Crystals in the statues’ eyes, steeled herself, and quickly collected them.With the little time left, she grabbed as many as she could.Though greedy, she only wasted a minute.She ignored statues farther away, taking crystals from the three nearest statues and about twenty pieces of scarlet moss, then hurried toward the wind’s direction to escape. ****Yun Luohe hammered at the narrow cave entrance with her Military Shovel for half an hour before finally climbing out.Outside, it was pitch black and raining heavily.Wind and raindrops fell coldly on her face, but she felt good inside.Because getting out meant escaping danger.Now, she only needed to wait until dawn and contact Lin Zhu and Zhao Xuan to leave.She did not know how they were doing.The Blood Marrow Mine might not be very safe, but with Lin Zhu’s luck, she guessed they would likely escape unscathed.If they faced unavoidable danger, Yun Luohe could not help, so she could only wait.With some time left, she planned to find a place to rest and eat, then see if she could collect anything else to bring back.This should be at the bottom of the canyon, and perhaps there were more valuable resources.Yun Luohe took out her resin lantern but found it no longer lit; the resin inside had run out after prolonged use.She switched to a resin torch, but the heavy rain kept extinguishing it.Remembering there was a phosphorescent pearl in her crocodile leather backpack, she quickly took it out and used it.At night, this phosphorescent pearl was almost like a luminous pearl; although its light was weak, it was barely usable.Yun Luohe only had one bottle of night vision potion left and was reluctant to use it just yet.She explored the canyon bottom in the rain for three hours until dawn finally arrived.Yun Luohe received a reply from Lin Zhu.Lin Zhu: “Where are you? We’re out now.”Yun Luohe: “At the canyon bottom; I can walk to the shore. It’ll take about an hour. Will the beach be safe?”Lin Zhu: “Yes.”After a brief exchange, they arranged a meeting point and time.An hour and a half later, Yun Luohe saw Lin Zhu and Zhao Xuan, both badly injured and in a sorry state.It seemed they had encountered many accidents in the Blood Marrow Mine, looking quite miserable.But since they were alive, there must have been substantial gains.Yun Luohe did not ask much; if they had anything to say, they would.Everyone was exhausted and just wanted to rest after a sleepless night and constant exertion, so it was best to speak little and return quickly. ****Returning to the reef, the sun was just rising.Ròubāo saw Yun Luohe filthy and soaked like a drowned rat and was shocked.He rushed over in a sprint, meowing non-stop.“Meow? What’s wrong?”Yun Luohe smiled, “I’m fine, just very tired. I want to take a bath first.”She could still hold on; she had eaten some food on the way back to restore stamina, but mentally she was very fatigued.Ròubāo wanted to brag to Yun Luohe that he had killed many fish monsters during last night’s sudden attack, securing lots of fish meat.But seeing Yun Luohe’s state, he only meowed twice.After Yun Luohe took a hot shower, she felt much better.She glanced at the time and then collapsed onto her bed.After a whole night of struggle, she only felt how comfortable the bed was—home was best.She did not even want to open the treasure chest, instructing Ròubāo to wake her in five hours.The moment her head touched the pillow, she fell into a deep sleep.She decided to sleep first.By afternoon, because many things occupied her mind, Yun Luohe woke up early before Ròubāo came to call her.It was still before 1 PM.She cooked while organizing the supplies brought back from Bat Island.The first item she took out was the treasure chest obtained from the coffin.Yun Luohe inserted the key into the chest’s keyhole and gently turned it.The chest opened smoothly.She had considered asking someone else to open it before, since her luck was poor.Having an extremely lucky person open it would definitely yield better items.But then she would have to pay them, risk exposing her materials, and increase danger.So she decided to open it herself.Besides, she had a Trash Bin that could help upgrade damaged items, giving her a chance to salvage even defective loot.[Opened Bat Priest’s Treasure Chest, obtained: Bat Priest’s Staff (Damaged) ×1, Corrupted Mer Pearl ×3, Blood Marrow Ore ×20, Bat Priest’s Journal ×1][Bat Priest’s Staff (Damaged): Can control low-level bat creatures; requires Abyssal Eye Shard fusion to repair.][Corrupted Mer Pearl: A pearl polluted by bat blood; drinking it grants 5 hours of underwater breathing but loses 1% HP per minute; can be purified into a Water-Repelling Pearl.][Blood Marrow Ore: Material for forging Blood Pattern Steel; used to craft advanced Bloodthirsty Set.][Bat Priest’s Journal: Notes of the Bat Priest, containing many insights and experiences; much content is illegible due to time.]It seemed acceptable, better than Yun Luohe had expected.She picked up the journal and flipped through it.It recorded how to craft weapons using Blood Marrow Ore and Blood Crystals and mentioned the Deep Sea Ruins.Though it did not explain how the Bat Priest reached the Deep Sea, Yun Luohe was very interested and read carefully.The passage was brief:“On the full moon night, merfolk offered sacrifice to the Abyssal Eye; their blood can be condensed into pearls.”Basically, on the full moon night, the Bat Priest was at the Deep Sea Ruins witnessing a merfolk sacrificial ceremony.He was ambushed, and after severely injuring a merfolk with a weapon, obtained the mer pearl.However, he was also injured, so the pearl became corrupted, and he escaped.The journal included a partial map of the Deep Sea Ruins with three key coordinates marked, all near a peculiar coral reef.As long as one found the coral, the ruins could be found.Regarding how to purify the mer pearl, he studied for a long time and finally found a clue: it required a living, strange substance to remove the impurities.There were a few other notes, but they were very blurred and illegible.Yun Luohe struggled to decipher the text and only understood a few words, piecing together something like: “Blood Crystal Core has radiation catalytic effects.”Could it mean that the Blood Crystal Core relied on irradiating the player’s vitality to assist in awakening the trait?That would imply high rewards came with huge risks.Who knew whether too much radiation would harm the vitality?

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