If it weren't for the familiar-looking rope tied around the tentacle, I would have almost thought this was another monster. Just a short while without seeing Qinggong, and it seems to have improved vastly.
"Be careful," I pointed at the tentacle on the lake surface as a warning.
Tomb Robber and the others turned back simultaneously, and as Miss Scream caught sight of the tentacle on the lake, she barely let out a syllable of her scream before Chen Qinghan knocked her out.
Wen Jing skillfully caught her and slung her over his shoulder; the two had an extraordinary understanding in this matter.
"Could you guys be a bit gentler to Miss Cheng? I've heard that frequently knocking someone out is very harmful to the body!"
Shunfeng's protest went unanswered as Chen Qinghan kept his eyes firmly locked on the tentacle on the lake.
The tentacle seemed to know it was exposed and stopped hiding altogether. After a splash of water, a colossal creature over ten meters tall appeared before us.
The path to the Underground Lake had never been walked before, or rather, no tomb robber knew the 'Beauty's Tears' pathfinding method.
Only Group 317, some of them knew the right way to open this tomb; Boss Lu knew, and Chen Qinghan knew too.
So I had never heard of the Underground Lake, nor the monster hidden within it. This was the first encounter with the creature.
Wen Jing, carrying Miss Scream, held a gun with one arm. The monster in the lake was so huge that even a near-sighted person could see it clearly as long as they weren't blind.
Shunfeng, grinning with excitement, pulled out a water gun filled with Didiwei Plus. Seeing the two ready to pounce, I quickly called out to stop them.
"Don't shoot, it means no harm!"
The monster surfaced and conveyed some information to me, then stopped moving.
"How do you know it means no harm? It looks furious to me~" Shunfeng pumped his water gun, still in a defensive stance.
The lake monster had countless tentacles akin to the roots of an ancient tree, and its face resembled a blobfish. At the moment, its grimacing and glaring expression blatantly showed anger.
"It's trying to catch the thief who stole its preserved meat." To avoid unnecessary conflict, I had to act as a translator between the two parties.
"What? Who stole the preserved meat, where did the preserved meat come from?" Wen Jing, quick with words, blurted out without thinking.
Chen Qinghan glanced at the corpse on the ground, leaving Wen Jing momentarily stunned with a 'swallowed a toad' expression.
"It killed someone; as a Mountain Mover Taoist, it's my duty to uphold justice~"
"You're a Mountain Mover Taoist, not a monster-catching Heavenly Master, what justice are you upholding!"
Wen Jing rebutted Shunfeng's argument while simultaneously protecting him with his body.
"It said that the meat was found; who wouldn't want free meat, but it wasn't well preserved before being stolen... twice." I continued translating.
"Oh no, Little Fu, you're not jokin' with big bro here, are you? Can it really talk?"
"It can't talk, but it can communicate; it's not low in intelligence." Much smarter than those senile snakes.
"Ask it if there's a passage at the bottom of the lake," said Chen Qinghan.
After communicating with the monster, I said, "Yes, it leads to another lake. It lost a piece of preserved meat over there, so it hung it here after finding it the second time, but it got stolen again."
"It's not really lost; it's still here. Ask it if we give the corpse... no, the meat back, will it let us go?"
"Sure, oh, it asked if you'll eat the piece of meat you're carrying and if not, if it can exchange something for it."
"No way~ There's no meat on Miss Cheng, not tasty at all. Look, her face is sharp like a snake demon's, her figure is like a washboard; especially those legs, like chopsticks possessed. Even if you salt it, it's all bones, only good for soup, won't fill you up though~" Shunfeng excitedly exaggerated Miss Scream terribly.
"It doesn't eat live creatures. I told it Miss Cheng is alive."
Wen Jing wondered, "Wait, if it doesn't eat live creatures, then it's a scavenger. But why would it salt preserved meats?"
The reason is actually simple. This monster seeks a quality life; though it eats rotten meat, it has a heavy palate and considers eating directly too crude. That's why it 'carefully' processes its food before consuming it.
It's much like humans eating smoked fish.
"Ask it how deep the passage is from the water surface," Chen Qinghan said, doing the most serious thing among a group of unserious tomb robbers, always speaking of business.
"It says it can take us through quickly." I guessed Chen Qinghan asked about the depth to calculate if we could swim across without diving equipment.
"Hold on, could there be a trap in this? If it takes us across, but halfway through it wants a break, we drown, and it gets free meat!" Wen Jing took a step back, resolute in not being tricked.
"I told it we are poisonous, staying in the water too long would easily leak toxins, causing fatal pollution."
"It believed that?" Wen Jing whispered.
"It can smell the Didiwei Plus, maybe it has a natural ability to discern toxins."
"Oh come on! If it can smell Didiwei, doesn't that mean we've inhaled it into our lungs too?" Wen Jing said nervously.
"Don't talk nonsense; I specially sealed the gun. Perhaps some water got on the gun, just a drop or half of it, not lethal."
"Maybe this creature has a keen nose, like a mouse. A mouse's sense of smell is keener than a dog's, it can detect even a drop. Alright, wake Miss Cheng up, let's prepare to get into the water."
This time I saw Miss Scream waking up totally unaware that Chen Qinghan had knocked her out, asking us why she fainted again.
With a pinch of his fingers, Shunfeng deceitfully mentioned her low blood sugar and anemia, and fobbed her off with a piece of chocolate.
Group 317 had a doctor, but unfortunately, he was with Boss Lu. Miss Cheng evidently hadn't experienced such things before, and without a doctor, she was clueless and relied on Shunfeng's nonsense.
Miss Cheng is like a flower nurtured in a greenhouse. In her life, breaking a nail or getting a pimple has probably counted as major troubles.
What kind of parents would nurture a daughter to be like this?
Is it overindulgence or a conspiracy?
"Eww... this thing is so disgusting, I'd die before letting it touch me!" Miss Scream shook off Wen Jing's hand, refusing to get near the monster.
"Miss Cheng, with its help, we can quickly pass through the underwater passage; please bear with it." Shunfeng coaxed her gently.
In the water, Miss Scream needed to hold her breath, so Chen Qinghan's knockout skill was not an option. He frowned, seemingly out of ideas for Miss Scream.
"I... I won't suffocate unless someone transfers air to me underwater; then maybe I can bear with this ugly thing..." Despite her makeup being a mess, Miss Scream confidently gazed affectionately at Chen Qinghan.
"Let me~ I'm young, have great lung capacity!"
"Get lost, it has nothing to do with you!" Miss Scream was adept at changing faces, always ready with two expressions—one fierce and one coy.
I quietly issued a command to the monster, thinking that Miss Scream was refusing to drink a pleasant toast, so she might as well drink a bitter one too.
"Ah——"
We watched as Miss Scream sailed through the air in a parabolic arc and plopped into the water, a splash following, then the lake's surface returned to calm.