Chapter 121: Black Taisui – 2

“N-no, what’s wrong? Is there a problem?” I felt a chill down my spine as the three of them stared at me.

After a moment of silence, He Yu tugged at Lu A’yao. “Alright, alright, let’s stop the damn guessing. No matter how dire the situation was, the point is that Little Yao survived. That’s the best outcome, right?”

I was completely lost. Once Lu A’yao let go, I quickly pulled my sleeves down. These guys had overactive imaginations. I didn’t know what they were thinking based on my wounds, but they probably thought I had been in a truly hopeless situation.

I touched my knee. I had some scrapes there earlier, but I hadn’t paid them much mind. Touching them now, they didn’t even hurt anymore.

“Stop staring at me, I’m really fine,” I said, pressing my palms together as if I were about to kneel and beg them to look elsewhere. My mind raced as I changed the subject, asking Lu A’yao, “So, why did you say the water is dangerous?”

“Is it because of the corpse oil? Old Lu, you’re being too sensitive. Corpse oil is disgusting at most, but it’s not exactly dangerous,” He Yu chimed in.

Lu A’yao glanced toward the distant opening leading to the waterway. “It’s not the corpse oil. I discovered that besides the oil, there’s something else in the water. For example, stones.”

I let out a confused “Huh?” and asked, “What stones?”

Lu A’yao explained, “While I was wading through the water, I passed a Corpse Accumulation Ground up ahead. I noticed many stones floating on the surface, right alongside the corpses. It felt wrong, so I stopped and turned back. However, the Corpse Poison was spreading too fast, and I couldn’t make it back to the hole I fell through. I had to use what strength I had left to dig a safe Tomb Robber’s Tunnel upward for temporary shelter.”

“What?! There’s a Corpse Accumulation Ground ahead!” He Yu’s jaw nearly hit the floor in shock.

Lu A’yao nodded at him.

My focus wasn’t on the Corpse Accumulation Ground, but rather on why stones would be floating on the water. That part completely baffled me. Lu A’yao’s description was bizarre. In all my years, I had never seen a stone that didn’t sink in water, unless the liquid in that passage wasn’t actually water at all.

Although there was a layer of corpse oil in the waterway, the primary component was still water.

“Why would stones float on the water?” I asked Lu A’yao.

“I don’t know. I felt something was off, and I was injured, so I retreated first,” Lu A’yao said.

I nearly laughed out of frustration. I thought to myself, so if you hadn’t been injured, you actually intended to go over and take a look, didn’t you?

Suddenly, I recalled a detail. I quickly turned and nudged Chen Canghai. “Wait, do you remember when we contacted Han Jian and the others from the stone pillars? Was the word ‘stones’ mentioned over the walkie-talkie then?”

We hadn’t been ready to jump from the pillars yet, and I had tried to use the walkie-talkie first. I originally intended to tune into Lu A’yao’s channel, but somehow I connected directly to Han Jian’s men. I remembered three words coming through the device in fragments: Stones… go… first?