Adventure in the Underground Water Vein

Chapter 20 · Adventure in the Underground Water Vein

Splash!

In the pitch-black surroundings, the rushing current surged continuously toward an unknown destination. Lu Minghao's tiny body was swept along like a rootless duckweed, occasionally caught up in underwater currents and carried toward places unknown.

"We'll meet again."

At the bottom of the pitch-black water, Lu Minghao slowly opened his tightly shut eyes. A terrifying grin appeared on his liquid body. Earlier, when he sensed that he was about to be struck, Lu Minghao had instantly condensed a layer of shadow barrier behind himself.

But Lu Minghao knew that wasn't enough. To the monster pursuing him, the shadow barrier was no different from paper, and once it was struck, the suckers on its tentacles would surely seize his body firmly.

Thus, Lu Minghao used the shadow barrier to block the tentacles for that brief moment and split off part of his body, successfully dodging the attack. Borrowing the force of the impact, he escaped into the Underground Water Vein.

However, with Lu Minghao's vindictive personality, how could he simply flee? Relying on the Slime's inherent Asexual Reproduction ability, the part of his body that Lu Minghao split off formed a smaller Slime.

Still, whether it was because he had become a Lower Demon or because of some innate talent, the part of his body that Lu Minghao split off could not only be used to reproduce the next generation, but also serve as his temporary clone. The price was that the split-off portion would lose its potential to become an entirely new Slime.

Lu Minghao naturally didn't care about that. After successfully entering the Underground Water Vein, he transferred his consciousness there without hesitation and hid in the darkness, observing the one who had pursued him. Only then did he learn that the ones secretly targeting him were the monster legions of the Eastern Empire.

"Then, until we meet again, my enemies. Look forward to the day we meet again!"

Amid the surging current, Lu Minghao felt the magic essence within him growing increasingly vast. During his desperate escape earlier, the many Giant Rats he had swallowed had almost been completely digested by Gluttony. With the abundant supply of nutrients, Lu Minghao finally began advancing to an entirely new stage.

"Still, I have to be more careful in the future."

As the advancement began, waves of drowsiness started engulfing Lu Minghao's consciousness. In the final second before falling asleep, Lu Minghao made up his mind: until he had sufficient strength, if he encountered another abnormal situation like the Giant Rat Kingdom, he would run as far away as possible without a second thought.

Splash!

The endless current continued rushing forward. Countless tributaries converged into a vast Underground Water Vein network. Asleep, Lu Minghao continued drifting with the current, crossing one fork after another and flowing into entirely new branches.

From time to time, underwater currents swept him away into new branches. In the pitch-black depths, Lu Minghao's body emitted a faint glow, and vast amounts of magic essence began gathering within him, bringing a trace of weak light to the dark Underground Water Vein.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a several-meter-long fish was attracted by that faint glow. Its ferocious, terrifying head and powerful body were encased in an exoskeleton. Any adventurer here would have easily recognized it as a Middle Demon known as a Devil Ray. It lived year-round in dark, frigid waters and possessed the ability to control water and ice.

The enormous Devil Ray easily swam over to Lu Minghao and examined the Slime whose entire body was wrapped in magic essence.

The next second, its mouth, filled with serrated fangs, opened wide and swallowed the Slime before it in a single gulp. It then swam forward along the current with a hint of satisfaction.

After being swallowed by the Devil Ray, Lu Minghao traveled down its esophagus and reached its stomach. The instant his body landed inside, large amounts of stomach acid began to form, attempting to dissolve this new food completely.

Lu Minghao's sleeping body seemed to instinctively sense the danger. Gluttony began frantically absorbing the food remaining inside him and converting it into nutrients for his body. The instant Lu Minghao's body touched the stomach acid, an entirely new resistance emerged, allowing his body to rapidly adapt to its current environment.

As the price, the small amount of nutrients Lu Minghao had possessed after evolving into a Mid-tier Monster began rapidly depleting. In just over ten seconds, they were nearly exhausted. Once that happened, with the resistance Lu Minghao had only just developed, he would certainly be dissolved by the endless stomach acid.

Smack!

Suddenly, something fell into the Devil Ray's stomach. The corpse of a fish torn in half landed not far from Lu Minghao's body. Driven by instinct, Lu Minghao's body immediately swallowed it, and with the supply of fresh food, Gluttony began digesting it continuously once more. A strange force also began spreading outward from Lu Minghao's body, invading the Devil Ray's body.

Outside, the several-meter-long Devil Ray had just finished feeding, but strangely, it did not feel the slightest bit full as it usually did. Even after eating a huge amount of food, its body remained terribly hungry.

What's going on?

The Devil Ray smacked its lips twice, feeling that something was wrong. Although a Middle Demon's intelligence was no weaker than a human's, it had always lived alone in the Underground Water Vein and acted mostly on instinct. It had no idea why it was still hungry after eating so much.

The next second, unable to figure it out, the Devil Ray chose to obey its instinctive needs and began searching for food again. Its thinking was simple: since it was hungry, it would just eat more.

A day later, after devouring a huge amount of food, the Devil Ray felt even hungrier. It frantically slaughtered everything within sight. Even though its once-sharp teeth had become somewhat dull from all the biting, the hunger inside its body still drove it to seek out new food.

Why? Why can't I ever get full?!

The Devil Ray's ferocious maw tore wildly into the prey before it. Its scarlet pupils were filled with hunger and madness. Even though it clearly felt vast amounts of food entering its body, its stomach seemed like a bottomless pit. No matter how much it ate, nothing could satisfy it.

An endless hunger drove it to seek more—more food.

"More! I need more food!"

The next second, the Devil Ray's scarlet eyes turned toward an Underground Water Vein in the distance. It remembered that there was a huge amount of food at the end of that waterway. Once it reached there, it would surely be able to eat its fill.

Whoosh!

Its powerful tail lashed out, and the Devil Ray's body shot into the Underground Water Vein like a sword. Along the way, everything edible was ruthlessly killed and swallowed by the Devil Ray, while the clear water was gradually dyed red by the spreading blood.