The Crocodile Pool and Crocodile Shrine

It was so bumpy!

After leaving the boxing gym, they had followed another dirt road beside it straight north. All the way, Cheng Sheng and the other two in the cargo bed had been bounced around until their stomachs nearly came up.

Cheng Sheng had eaten little for breakfast, so he was doing reasonably well. Besides, he read the Black Book every day, and his tolerance for nausea was far beyond that of an ordinary person.

The young man sitting beside him, who had brought three large suitcases, had it much worse. He had thrown up until the sky and earth spun.

The other passenger, a dark-skinned, short-haired man who looked a little older than Cheng Sheng and the young man, was having a rough time too.

But he sat in a corner of the cargo bed with his lips pressed tightly together and never threw up.

Cheng Sheng happened to glance at him and saw his Adam's apple bobbing fiercely as he fought the urge to vomit. With superhuman willpower, he actually... forced down what was in his mouth!

The sight nearly made Cheng Sheng throw up...

After a drive of nearly an hour, Sulai had taken the three of them through a rubber plantation and into another stretch of rainforest, finally stopping at the edge of a vast swamp.

"All right, get out."

Sulai switched off the motorized tricycle and motioned for them to get out. Looking at Cheng Sheng and the other two, all three thoroughly battered by the ride, she smiled until her eyes curved into two crescent moons, as if she had expected this all along.

"Are we there?"

The long-haired young man with earrings, who had thrown up the most, asked weakly.

Sulai shook her head and pointed into the distance. "There's still a way to go. The special training site is inside the swamp."

The swamp before them lay between a vast stand of mangroves and paperbark trees. Sedges and cattails grew all around it, and when the wind blew, the sedge leaves rustled.

Sharp-eyed Cheng Sheng spotted a long row of wooden stakes driven into the swamp, stretching deep into it. He figured they were the route the group would take into the swamp shortly.

"Pick the one you'll use most often."

Sulai spoke to the young man with earrings, who had brought three enormous suitcases. "I'll have someone carry the other two in for you in a couple of days."

With that, Sulai turned and headed toward the swamp.

She moved lightly, leaving barely a footprint as she stepped across the soft mud at the swamp's edge. Within a few strides, she hopped onto a wooden stake and stood firm.

The short-haired man with the shoulder bag was the first to follow. Cheng Sheng glanced at the young man with earrings, tugged at the straps of the hiking backpack on his shoulders, and stepped forward too. Seeing everyone leave, the young man hesitated for a moment, then picked the lightest of his three suitcases and followed.

The four advanced over the wooden stakes, the swamp right beneath their feet. The water was black and almost still. As the scent of cattails from the shore faded, the sun drew a rotten stench up from the swamp, straight into their heads.

Cheng Sheng dared not open his mouth for fear of swallowing more of the swamp's stench. He also forced himself not to look at the water, focusing instead on the stakes beneath him.

Apart from Sulai, all three of them proceeded with the utmost care.

After walking for around ten minutes or so, level ground finally appeared ahead.

The swamp was astonishingly large, with a patch of solid ground like a small island in its midst. They were now on that "island."

Cheng Sheng jumped down from the last stake and first ran to the side to rub the mud off his soles with weeds.

Suddenly, he heard a suitcase hit the ground ahead with a smack, immediately followed by a cry of disbelief: "Holy... crap!"

Cheng Sheng instinctively looked up. The young man with earrings, who had just passed him, was standing motionless at an opening not far ahead, concealed by tall grass. He was staring ahead as though something had struck him with profound shock.

Cheng Sheng ran over and immediately saw a huge natural pool formed among piles of rocks. The water in the pool was black too, and enormous shadows swam beneath its surface. Near the edge, several black crocodiles lay motionless.

Every one of them was enormous, at least seven meters long. Even lying still, they naturally gave off the presence of apex predators.

"Saltwater crocodiles!"

Cheng Sheng's eyes flickered. He planned to use a crocodile as the offering for his third sacrifice and had looked up a great deal of information about them. At a glance, he recognized the crocodiles in the pool as saltwater crocodiles, known as the largest land reptiles and the ultimate hunters of the wetlands.

But the saltwater crocodiles before him seemed somewhat different from normal ones. Their limbs looked sturdier, and the bony scales standing up along their backs were longer, sharper, and more fearsome.

"Brother, what are you looking at?"

While Cheng Sheng was studying the saltwater crocodiles, the young man beside him patted his shoulder and pointed in another direction.

"What's so interesting about a few crocodiles? Look over there! Now that's fucking awesome!!"

"Hm?"

Cheng Sheng turned to look where the young man was pointing, and the next second, he froze on the spot-

On a patch of wasteland not far from the saltwater crocodile pool lay an incomparably huge fossilized skeleton!

Judging by its shape, it was probably a crocodile too!

But the skeleton was simply enormous. From head to tail, it was probably over twenty meters long and more than five meters tall, like two large tractor-trailers joined together.

The skeleton rested among scattered rocks, bearing a sense of ancient weight and vicissitudes that pierced through the ages. Even from a distance, it delivered an immensely powerful visual impact.

"The fossilized bones of a giant creature from an ultra-ancient era?!"

Cheng Sheng stared at the fossilized skeleton and murmured, his eyes filled with shock.

"Put your luggage down."

Sulai paid no attention to the three of them and their astonishment. She walked familiarly toward the skeleton, saying as she went, "First, come with me to pay respects at the crocodile shrine."

Crocodile... shrine...?!

Cheng Sheng and the other two exchanged glances, took deep breaths, and hurried after her.

In Qingsha City, inside a luxurious residence.

The curtains were drawn, and the slightly dim room was filled with the smell of burning herbs.

Zhou Wenye lay shirtless on a couch, his head drenched in sweat. His lower abdomen was covered in large purple bruises and densely packed little holes, as though it had been stung by bees. Black blood was slowly seeping out of some of the holes.

"That's it."

A woman stood beside Zhou Wenye, slowly wiping her hands with a clean, damp towel.

"Your injury isn't especially serious. I'll use mud bee stingers to relieve the pain and clear the pooled blood every day, and you'll be healed in a month at most... Of course, you need to behave yourself during that month. Don't do anything too strenuous with your lower body again..."

"Black Kill... Sulai..."

Zhou Wenye wiped the tainted blood from his lower abdomen. His face pale and his teeth clenched, he slowly sat up on the couch with someone's help.

His mind was now filled with hatred for everyone at the Black Killing Boxing Gym, especially Sulai!

From childhood until now, what woman had he, Zhou Wenye, ever wanted and failed to get?

At thirteen, he had already pinned his female teacher down on a bed.

For the sake of one Sulai, he had gone to the Black Killing Boxing Gym and put on an act, learning basic fighting alongside a bunch of noobs for nearly half a year. And in the end... not only had he failed to get her, he had suffered such a huge loss and endured such inhuman pain!

Yes, Zhou Wenye blamed the Black Killing Boxing Gym and Sulai for everything.

If not for that bitch Sulai and her high-and-mighty act, he would never have gone to take the formal disciple assessment, never been ambushed and injured during it by some lowlife who had appeared out of nowhere, and never been forced to his knees and threatened and humiliated by Sha Lie in public...

It was all Sulai's fault, for refusing to obediently climb into his bed of her own accord!

"Fucking whore! Bitch!!..."

At that thought, Zhou Wenye could not help slamming his fist hard into the stand beside him. A pile of tweezers, syringes, alcohol swabs, and other things on it went clattering everywhere.

But the blow also jarred the injury to his lower abdomen, and his handsome face instantly twisted in pain.

"Is there any way to bring down the Black Killing Boxing Gym and kill those people from the Black Killing Style?!"

Zhou Wenye looked at the woman beside him and asked, his eyes red.