Chapter 36: The Strange Underground Cave
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After finishing his preparations, Xu Xin held the stone spear and entered the underground cave.
He was now a little sensitive to the word "underground", so even though Cocoa had indicated to him that there was no danger down there, he still kept his guard up and took a red berry and orange.
After entering the cave, Xu Xin looked ahead. The cave was very narrow, only a little wider than his shoulder. The narrow space did not even allow two people to walk side by side.
The hole was not straight, but rather, it was slanted downwards. If he followed the path, he would only get further and further away from the ground.
On both sides of the passage were pockmarked earth walls. It looked like a passage that had been artificially dug.
Xu Xin saw the end of the path with a single glance. The end of the cave was only a few hundred meters away from him.
"Strange, a dead end?" Xu Xin muttered, confused.
Along the way, he had also checked the surrounding walls. He thought that there would be other tunnels in the walls of the cave, but until he reached the end of the cave and touched the earth wall at the end with both hands, he did not find any other tunnels.
The end of the cave was no longer slanted downward, but flat land. Xu Xin did a quick calculation. His current position was about twenty to thirty meters under the ground.
He lowered his head and looked at Cocoa. It was at his feet, digging at the ground with its little paws.
Xu Xin focused his eyes and looked over. The color of the soil on the patch of ground was slightly different from the surrounding soil. If it wasn't for his night vision, he wouldn't have been able to see the difference even if he had a torch.
This piece of soil had been loosened.
The golden treasure chest must be buried here!
"Alright, Cocoa, leave it to me!" Xu Xin moved Cocoa, who was digging hard, to the back while he took out his stone shovel and began digging at the different-colored soil.
"Yin, yin, yin!" In a moment of carelessness, the soil dug out by Xu Xin splattered all over Cocoa. It cried out in dissatisfaction, shook off the soil on its body, and jumped over to hug Xu Xin's calf.
"Haha, I'm sorry, Cocoa!" He couldn't help but chuckle.
He reached out and patted Cocoa's head, then patted the dirt particles he felt off it as he said, "I'll give you a bath when we get back!"
"Yin!"
Xu Xin continued to dig, but even when the pit was already at his waist, he still didn't find anything.
He looked at the soil in the pit. As he dug, the soil was gradually dyed red. Although it was not obvious, Xu Xin could easily see it.
"Is there really no danger?" Xu Xin hesitated. The soil beneath his feet seemed to be soaked in blood. It reminded him of the blood-red threads and thorns on the dark green vines, as well as the blood-red petals and pistils of the man-eating flower.
He sighed and touched the little guy's head, "If anything happens here, we'll have to die together."
"Yin!" Cocoa hugged Xu Xin's calf with one paw and patted its chest with the other, as if to say, "Trust me. If I say there's no danger, then there's no danger!"
He decided to continue believing in Cocoa.
They had already come this far, it wasn't good to give up halfway.
He continued digging, but not downwards. Instead, he did as he had done at the entrance to a cave. He dug up diagonally, creating a path for him to walk out of the pit. He also spread the soil from the pit evenly on the path, so as to prevent the soil from blocking his way out.
He had to leave a way out for himself first. If he were to dig too deep, wouldn't it be very difficult for him to come back up?
He continued to dig until the depth of the hole was almost the same as his height when suddenly, his shovel hit something hard, making a sound different from the collision of stones. It seemed to be something made of metal.
Xu Xin's eyes lit up.
Was it the treasure chest?
He increased his digging speed and quickly cleared the soil under his feet.
It was indeed something metal under his feet, but to his disappointment, it was not gold, but iron.
He wondered how long this metal object had been buried in the soil. There was a layer of dark red rust on its surface.
Xu Xin cleaned up the soil around the exposed iron surface and realized that it was no small object, but an underground iron door!
An iron door that led deeper underground!
"How could it be a door?" Xu Xin looked at the rusty handle and mumbled to himself, "The iron door leading to the underground space?"
This iron door gave him the same feeling as the manhole covers on the side of the road. However, the manhole covers were round, while this rusty iron door was square, and there was a handle on it that was also made of iron.
He dug around and found that the soil was still red, completely different from the red soil he had seen before.
Xu Xin grabbed a handful of it.
[Contaminated Soil (gray): The soil has been contaminated by unknown power. It is useless to the survivors.]
As expected, there was something wrong with the soil.
Xu Xin threw away the dirt in his hands and looked at the iron door.
He could only go down.
He dug out an area where he could stand, reached out to grab the door handle, took a deep breath, and then pulled with all his might.
The iron door was very heavy, but fortunately, it was not locked. Having his strength being strengthened twice, Xu Xin used all his strength and finally managed to pull the iron door open.
The rusty iron door let out a sharp, ear-piercing sound and opened for a crack.
Before Xu Xin could exert more strength, a strong and unpleasant smell came out of the crack and entered his nose.
"Blargh..." Xu Xin retched and loosened his grip. With a loud bang, the iron door that had just been opened a little closed again.
Even Cocoa shrieked in disgust at the smell and retched.
"What's in there? why is it so smelly?" Xu Xin suffered from pharyngitis. Every time he caught a whiff of an unpleasant smell, she would feel nauseated. However, this time, the nauseating feeling had nothing to do with her pharyngitis. The smell coming from behind the iron door had far exceeded the tolerance level of a normal person!
This was simply too stinky! It was like a can of herring that had gone bad with a combination of moldy preserved bamboo shoots. It was a scent that was completely unacceptable from a physiological perspective!
Xu Xin had no choice but to use his clothes as a mask to cover his nose again.
Then, he grabbed the rusty handle again and exerted all his strength. With a screeching sound, the iron door was opened by a crack.
Xu Xin endured the nauseating feeling and exerted more force.
"Open!!"
"Clang!!" The iron door flipped over and smashed heavily on the other side.
A red gas rose up from below, and the unpleasant smell filled Xu Xin's nose.
He couldn't hold it in any longer. He rushed to the passage above, pulled off the clothes on his face, and vomited.
It was too smelly, just too smelly!
Xu Xin felt that the smell inside the door was even scarier than the man-eating flower! This was simply a biological weapon!
Cocoa also used its tiny paws to hold onto the cave wall as it let out retching sounds beside him.
This can't do, the cave was filled with the smell!
Xu Xin immediately caught Cocoa and rushed to the ground, breathing in the fresh air of the forest.
He had never felt that the air in the jungle was so fresh before. He even felt that the light man-eating flower fragrance in the air was so pleasant.
After a while, Xu Xin clenched his jaw. He couldn't give up just because of some smell!
He had a solemn expression on his face as he prepared to go down and truly enter that extremely stinky iron gate.
Just as Xu Xin was about to enter the cave again, he suddenly stopped in his tracks. The corner of his eyes twitched as he looked at the hole that he had just enlarged.
A light red gas was slowly floating out from the hole and spreading around it. It drifted to Xu Xin's side and entered his nose.
"Blargh!"
-- Gift
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