The Plan Falls Apart! Its Target Is Me!

At the end of the underground river lay a deathly silent world that no human had ever set foot in.

Ling Shuang's Heavenly Net Immortal Vine moved like a green spirit serpent, silently boring through the cracks in the rock.

Four hundred feet straight down.

The vine's tip touched a patch of icy dead water.

Information flashed back along the vine's veins like lightning.

Ling Shuang's expression darkened inch by inch, and a thin streak of blood seeped from her nose.

"Bad news." She withdrew the Immortal Vine, her voice hoarse from the mental strain.

"The lake is roughly three hundred zhang across and bottomless. There's a stone island in the middle, and that old turtle is lying on it."

Jiang Tieyi instinctively asked, "What's the good news?"

"There is no good news."

Ling Shuang immediately drew out the layout of the underground lake on the ground.

Sheer cliffs surrounded it, with only two narrow passages leading in and out. Each could barely accommodate two people walking side by side.

The lake water was freezing, as if it could freeze one's soul. Beneath the surface lurked at least forty Black Tortoises, their auras ranging from three thousand to thirty thousand years. They were packed together densely.

And the seventy-thousand-year-old monster at the lake's center had a shell more than eight zhang in diameter, like a small black mountain.

"A jar made for catching turtles." Mo Qianye crossed his arms, his gaze grave.

"Not a jar. A turtle shell."

Su Chen crouched before the map, pressing his index finger against the location of the stone island in the middle of the lake.

"The Black Tortoise herd's instinct is to defend, not attack. As long as we don't enter their territory, they'll never take the initiative to strike."

Everyone looked at him.

"So we have to take the initiative and go in."

Su Chen rose to his feet. His gaze swept across every person, and he assigned tasks so quickly that no one had room to think.

"Ling Shuang, use your vines to cover the rock walls throughout the lakebed. Be my eyes and monitor every turtle herd's position in real time. You are not joining the battle."

"Chu Yao."

He pulled a small charred fragment of Ancient Vine from his clothes and tossed it to her.

"The poison downstream is useless against the Black Tortoises. Their shells can isolate them from everything. I need you to use that to make something."

Chu Yao caught the fragment and brought it to her nose for a light sniff. Her brow rose. "Make the turtle herd think the Ancient Vine has come back to life?"

"Exactly." Su Chen nodded. "The Black Tortoises and the Ancient Vine coexist symbiotically. The vine is dead, so the herd is currently in a highly stressed state. Extract its scent from the remains and mix it into the water, creating the illusion that the Ancient Vine has returned."

"I want them to lower their guard, gather at the source of the scent, and leave the stone island."

Chu Yao was already grinding the fragment without even lifting her head. "Seven minutes."

Su Chen turned his gaze toward Jiang Tieyi and Mo Qianye.

"You two, seal off the eastern passage."

Jiang Tieyi grinned, exposing his stark white teeth. "For how long?"

"Until I tell you to stop." Su Chen's tone was devoid of warmth. "Once the turtle herd realizes it has been tricked, it'll retreat to the stone island immediately. The eastern passage is the closest route—weld it shut for me."

Before anyone could order him, Yan Wuji had already gathered cold air around himself. "I'll seal the western passage. My ice wall will be thick enough that Black Tortoises under thirty thousand years won't be able to break through it."

"Not enough." Su Chen shook his head. "Your ice wall can't stop the seventy-thousand-year-old one. So we won't seal the western passage completely."

"Leave a gap."

Yan Wuji froze. "A gap?"

"A bait passage."

Su Chen's gaze turned completely cold.

"When the seventy-thousand-year-old turtle discovers it's surrounded, the western passage will be its only way out. The instant it squeezes through—"

He looked at Ye Linglong.

Blood threads slowly swirled in Ye Linglong's scarlet eyes as she licked her lips.

"Eye of Fear. Break its courage, induce hallucinations, slow it down. Stack all four negative effects."

"It'll be stuck in the narrow passage. It won't be able to run, and it won't be able to dodge."

"And then?" Chu Yao asked.

"Then it's my turn."

Su Chen summoned Iron Wall.

The Dark Golden Terrorclaw Bear pack did not all appear. Only their leader, Iron Wall, emerged. It crouched at Su Chen's side, its breath rumbling like a bellows, its black pupils reflecting the crack leading into the underground abyss.

Su Chen patted its huge paw covered in dark golden scales.

"In a moment, you and your brothers will do the dirtiest, hardest work."

Iron Wall let out a low growl that spoke of slaughter.

In the sixth minute, Chu Yao finished the scent bomb.

A wax pellet the size of a thumb, sealing the Ancient Vine's final trace of life.

Su Chen took it without wasting a word.

"Abyss Seven Generals, take your positions."

"All forces—move in."

The descent was torture for the nerves.

The rock walls of the western passage were damp and cold. Thick moss could swallow one's ankles, and the air was filled with the harsh scent of ancient minerals and decay.

Su Chen walked at the front, with Iron Wall behind him.

The ten Dark Golden Terrorclaw Bears were too enormous. They could only advance in a single-file line through the narrow passage, their claws scraping against the rock walls with an ear-piercing screech.

After descending three hundred feet, the underground world suddenly opened up.

A lake.

A dark green lake, like an ancient bronze mirror forgotten for ten thousand years.

There were no ripples, no sound of water, not even a single bubble.

Deathly silence.

Yet the mental perception Ling Shuang conveyed through the Immortal Vine allowed everyone to clearly "see"—beneath the water lay forty-two enormous, cold life forms in hibernation.

On the stone island at the center of the lake, the black mound lay silently still.

Seventy thousand years. An Ancient Black Tortoise.

Mineral crystals like stalactites covered the edges of its shell. It had nearly fused with the entire underground lake, as though it had been there since time immemorial.

Su Chen raised his hand and silently tossed the scent bomb into the center of the lake.

The wax pellet entered the water without a sound.

Three seconds.

Ten seconds.

Thirty seconds.

The lake remained deathly still.

Su Chen's patience ran deeper than the lake itself.

One minute later.

Ling Shuang's body suddenly trembled. Her Immortal Vine twitched wildly as information surged into her mind like a storm. "They're moving! Seventeen of them! They're rising!"

The dark green lake surface began to bulge.

One, two, seventeen enormous black arched shells broke through the dead water and slowly gathered toward the scent bomb.

They were searching for the scent of their "companion."

"Keep waiting." Su Chen's voice was extremely low.

Another two minutes passed, and a second group of turtles swam out from the shadows around the stone island.

Twenty in total.

They were larger, their shells covered in deep cracks worn by the passage of time.

The seventy-thousand-year-old turtle on the stone island still had not moved.

But its head extended from its shell.

It was a vicious head covered in skin like rock.

A pair of clouded eyes, nearly white, crossed three hundred zhang of darkness. Ignoring all the moving turtle herds, they pierced through space and stared directly at the entrance to the western passage.

It was looking at Su Chen.

Su Chen met those inhuman eyes for two full seconds.

Then he smiled.

A cold, cruel smile brimming with killing intent.

He softly uttered two words.

"Close it."

Boom!

In the eastern passage, Jiang Tieyi unleashed the power of the Savage Ancient Ape and fiercely shoved down two colossal boulders weighing ten thousand jin, sealing the exit! The blazing flames of Mo Qianye's Nine Netherworld Phoenix followed immediately, melting the seams between the rocks and welding them into a wall of despair!

At almost the same time, Yan Wuji's Extreme Frost Ice Wall surged up wildly in the western passage, leaving only the planned fatal gap!

The entire underground lake was completely sealed off!

Bzzzz—!

All thirty-seven Black Tortoises flew into a rage. They let out muffled roars like thunder, dark green water barriers pouring from beneath their shells as they began madly ramming the rock walls!

The earth shook and the mountains trembled! The entire underground space quaked violently!

And on the stone island at the lake's center, the seventy-thousand-year-old Ancient Black Tortoise finally moved.

It stood up.

Four massive legs as thick as thousand-year-old trees lifted that eight-zhang shell which blotted out the sky.

With every step it took, the stone island beneath its feet cracked a little more.

But it did not charge toward either passage.

It ignored the dead end to the east and the only "way out" to the west.

Step by step, it walked into the lake in Su Chen's direction.

The lake surface churned madly as it entered.

Ling Shuang's voice rang in everyone's minds, trembling with uncontrollable horror.

"Su Chen! It didn't take the narrow passage... It's coming straight across the lake!"

Su Chen stared at the dark green lake, churned into chaos by the enormous beast.

The smile on his face slowly faded.

"The plan—"

He clenched his fists. Deep within his soul, the fourth Spirit Ring card slot on the Void Throne, which had been dormant until now, erupted with a blazing radiance bright enough to blind.

"Has changed."

"All forces—attack!"