The underground river’s water flowed rapidly, and the temperature was extremely high. I originally thought there would definitely be no life inside, but unexpectedly, before the water had even cooled, a sudden burst of yellow water shot out, soaring up to the cave ceiling and knocking everyone down onto the shallow bank.

In the chaos, I didn’t get a clear look at what happened to Ermazi, who was directly hit by the water column. I only heard Uncle Tai loudly asking Master Liang what was in the water, but the latter was so frightened that he couldn’t even speak, completely unable to answer him. I turned to look and only saw a large splash of water; I couldn’t make out what was beneath the surface at all.

The water column shot up to the cave ceiling without showing any signs of weakening; instead, it seemed to grow more ferocious, reminding me of a whale in the sea. But how could there possibly be a whale in this mountain ravine? If I really encountered something so outrageous, I wouldn’t want to live anymore. However, aside from a whale, what else could create such a commotion? I suddenly thought, could it be the legendary adult salmon that is over twenty meters long and has a head the size of a truck? My heart sank; in this day and age, with deities turning a blind eye, all sorts of monsters were coming out to roam. This fight probably wouldn’t end well.

At that moment, Ermazi suddenly thrashed about and emerged from the water, looking inexplicably flushed. He only managed to take a few steps before collapsing back into the water, motionless. Uncle Tai, not knowing what had happened, kicked me hard and told me to pull him back.

I cursed this old guy silently, thinking he was no good, but with a gun pointed at my back, I had no choice but to brace myself and rush into the water. The water from the column that sprayed up to the cave ceiling was now pouring down like rain. As soon as I got drenched, I realized something was wrong; the water was scalding hot, causing blisters to form on my skin. In a panic, I quickly lifted my clothes to shield myself while using my other hand to grab Ermazi.

However, as soon as my hand touched Ermazi’s body, I recoiled in shock; damn it, this guy was already cooked, there was no saving him.

At that moment, there was another loud bang, and a burst of yellow gas spewed out from the water column. I realized something was off; this was definitely not a fish. Any creature moving in water at such high temperatures would have long been boiled alive.

Old Yang shouted at me, “What the hell are you dawdling for? Hurry and dive into the water! This is an intermittent hot spring; it’ll cook you alive without a trace!”

The water column grew larger, and scalding water began to pour down like a torrential rain. I quickly hunched down and dove into the underground river. The others, being scalded by the increasingly boiling rainwater, screamed like pigs being slaughtered. When they saw me diving into the water, they all followed suit, plunging in after me.

The fountain water mixed with the underground river water, raising the river’s temperature significantly. As I dove in, it felt like I had swum into a hot pot, and my entire body began to burn. I swam a few meters and popped my head above water. Looking back, I saw that the water around the spring had already started to boil; the hot current spread rapidly, and I could see steam rising from almost the entire surface of the river. If I didn’t find a place to surface soon, I would end up with the same fate as Ermazi.

At this point, it was impossible to return to the mine tunnel we had come from. The water over there was at its hottest, almost boiling, so we had no choice but to brace ourselves and go down the underground waterway. I looked at the direction of the water flow and regretted that I should have chosen to swim upstream when I first entered the water. That way, the current would have carried the hot water away from us. Now we were being swept downstream along with the hot water, and it felt ridiculous to be competing with the water in the water itself.

However, there was no other option at this point. Was I supposed to just wait here to die? I waved to Lao Yang and took the lead, swimming ahead while the others followed closely behind me.

With the speed of the water current, I surged forward several hundred meters in an instant, feeling that the water temperature had stopped rising. I let out a sigh of relief, turned onto my back to swim and shone my flashlight back, only to see Lao Yang frantically waving at me and shouting, “Stop! Stop! Up ahead—”

Before he could finish his sentence, he suddenly collided with something, his mouth submerged in the water, and I didn’t hear the rest of what he said. At that moment, I heard a roaring sound of water behind me. Turning my flashlight, I saw that not far ahead, the water was churning violently; it was a large cliff, with yellow water cascading down from it. Below the cliff, there was a thunderous roar—this was definitely a massive waterfall.

I was stunned; this was serious. Being swept over that would mean certain death. At that moment, Lao Yang popped his head up again, shouting, “Move to the side! Move to the side!” It was only then that I realized what was happening. I quickly swam towards the edge of the waterway, gripping the cave wall tightly. The current pulled me out several meters before I managed to stop myself. Just as I was about to breathe a sigh of relief, suddenly that cool guy crashed into me from behind, shouting for help, and knocked me out into the water, causing us to tumble together.

When I finally emerged again, I had been swept to the edge of the waterfall. There was no time left to think or react. Instinctively, I reached out and grabbed at anything, and suddenly I caught hold of an iron chain. Gritting my teeth, I lunged forward and clung to the chain for dear life, finally stopping my body at the edge of the waterfall. Looking down, my feet dangled over the cliff, and below was a dark abyss filled with the roaring sound of water—I had no idea how high it was.

Just as I was feeling grateful to be alive, someone pushed my feet from below. I shone my flashlight and saw that the cool guy was hanging onto another iron chain, and my feet were resting on his head. I kicked him hard a couple of times, pushing him aside. As I reached out, I discovered that there were numerous iron chains lying horizontally underwater, intertwined like a railing, blocking whatever was rushing down from upstream. However, some of the chains were broken and hanging down from the waterfall, creating several gaps.

Lao Yang floated over to my side, and I grabbed his hand, pulling him close to me. At the same time, Uncle Tai and the fat boss had also managed to grab onto the chains on the other side and stopped. The body of Er Ma Zi floated past us, spinning on the chains and getting stuck between two of them. Lao Yang reached over and took the camera and the handgun from his waist.

Seeing him with the gun, I made an effort to lift my head above the water, wanting to shoot Uncle Tai, but I quickly pulled him back, scolding, “What the hell are you thinking? There’s water in the barrel; do you want it to explode?”

Lao Yang shouted, “If we don’t take them out now, we won’t get another chance!”

I pulled him back and shouted, “Are you still thinking about that? Look ahead!”

He turned around and saw a cloud of steam ahead; the boiling water had reached us, and after hundreds of meters of cooling, the water showed no sign of losing heat. Even from dozens of meters away, I could feel the heat waves coming towards us. Lao Ya looked at the water and cried out, “Damn it! I never thought that after enjoying hot pot for so long, I’d end up getting boiled myself today.”

I didn’t want to die like this, feeling anxious and grinding my teeth, thinking, what should I do? The only chance of survival now was to go down the waterfall, but I had no idea what the environment below would be like. If it was too high, it would be no different from jumping off a building.

The cool lawyer hanging below me suddenly shouted, “I have a plan!”

I asked, “What plan? Hurry up and tell me!”

“First, pull me up!” the cool lawyer yelled. “Pull me up and I’ll tell you, or we’ll both die together!”

I quickly reached down and pulled him up, grabbing his collar tightly. “Hurry up and tell me!”

He clung tightly to the iron chain, glanced at the surging boiling water, and swallowed hard. “The hot water floats on top of the cold water. We dive down, and when the hot water passes, if we can hold our breath and endure that time, we might have a chance of survival!”

As soon as I heard this, I didn’t have time to think about whether it was feasible. I pushed him back down and plunged into the water, pulling the iron chain down with me.

The underground river was very deep; I dove down to about two meters and felt the temperature drop significantly. I held my breath and calmed myself, preparing to wait for the hot current to pass overhead.

At that moment, my hand suddenly touched something; it felt like something was hanging on the iron chain. I shone my flashlight and suddenly saw an extremely grotesque face appear behind the chain, so startled that I almost inhaled water into my lungs.

Tangled in the iron chain was a rotting corpse, its flesh already decayed, and its eye sockets were staring at me, looking particularly hideous. Upon closer inspection, I noticed it was wearing a winter mountaineering suit and had a backpack on its back.

It seemed to be a climber; how had it been washed down here? I bit down on the flashlight (the back of the mountaineering tactical flashlight has a special part for use with other body parts) and searched the corpse. I found several sketching pens and opened the backpack that had fallen by the chain. Inside were a drawing board and many paints. I realized that this guy was likely one of the art students who had gone missing in the mountains a few years ago, as mentioned by that black guide in the car.

The corpse must have been washed down from upstream and got stuck here. So, the upstream of this underground river should be above ground. This poor guy was truly unlucky to have died here.

I rummaged through the items inside; although there wasn’t anything particularly useful, my own backpack was gone, so having something was better than nothing. I slung the backpack over my shoulders.

At that moment, the water temperature around me suddenly rose, and the boiling water had arrived. I immediately felt a stinging pain all over my body, gritted my teeth, and continued to dive deeper.

The scalding water surrounded me in an instant. Within just a few seconds, I realized that this method suggested by Master Liang was futile; the volume of boiling water was too great. Diving under would only make a difference between being fully cooked and medium-well. The old man who had dived in with me was getting burned and was going crazy. He kicked me hard and pointed towards the waterfall, implying that diving was useless and we might as well jump down to end it quickly!

I glanced at the corpse and thought to myself, “Hang on, buddy, I’ll be down there with you soon.” Suddenly, an even hotter surge of boiling water rushed in. Gritting my teeth, I let go and rolled down the cliff with the current.