Volume 2: Shenzhou Academy & The Battle of Venice
Chapter 142
Crimson-Corpse Sea Monsters and Seabed Anomalies
The ocean gale howled outside the rocky fissure. Savage undercurrents of pale, turbid crimson lashed relentlessly against ancient coral reefs, their subterranean pounding echoing like muffled thunder rolling beneath the ocean’s skin.
After departing the armored escort warship of the East Sea Military Command anchored thirty nautical miles offshore, the five-member expedition squad from Shenzhou Magic Academy had navigated a treacherous subterranean fissure at the foot of the sheer coastal cliffs, advancing straight toward the heart of Blood Wave Bay. Before them now loomed the entrance of the Sea Dragon Grotto—a colossal subterranean marine cavern bored deep into the roots of the coastal mountain range, marked in military reconnaissance as bearing traces of a supreme-grade Water Crystal Spirit Ore deposit.
The moment they crossed the cavern threshold, the atmosphere shifted drastically. The briny, nauseating reek of sea salt churned with a cloying, metallic stench of rust, thick and suffocating enough to make their chests feel clamped in a vice. The temperature plummeted without warning; drafts of frigid, moldy dampness snaked through the fissures in the rock, biting into their flesh with bone-chilling hostility.
“Click... Magic Crystal Resonator, activate!”
Xie Zhaoyuan thumbed the ignition rune on the grip of the half-meter-long military-grade magiteck spotlight slung at his hip. The Light-element magic crystal core embedded in its housing hummed to life with a resonant vibration. Through its thick crystal lens, a dazzling beam of golden radiance punched forward, tearing through the dense, moisture-laden fog hanging suspended in the subterranean air.
As the golden light swept across, it unveiled a subterranean expanse both breathtakingly magnificent and drenched in crawling dread.
The cavern vault soared more than thirty zhang into the gloom, vast as the cavernous belly of an ancient prehistoric beast opening its maw to swallow all mortal light. Hanging densely from that pitch-black arched ceiling were tens of thousands of limestone stalactites, clustered like inverted fangs—sharp, jagged, and cold as a demon’s maw. From the needle-sharp tips of those stone spires, viscous droplets of dark, purplish-crimson water seeped forth, gathering slowly before plunging into free fall toward the granite floor below.
Plop...
Plop...
The echoes of the droplets shattering upon the stone reverberated through the spine-chilling silence, rhythmic and relentless as the countdown of a death clock.
“Watch your footing, everyone. Don’t slip.”
Gu Ling spoke in a low, cautious voice from her position on the right flank. A standout second-year elite from Shenzhou Magic Academy, she possessed a tall, lithe frame, yet every step she took was firm and steady. In place of the flamboyant attire typical of female mages in academy lecture halls, she wore a form-fitting suit of ash-gray sea-beast leather armor beneath an anti-corrosion duster tailored for deep-sea hunters.
In her hand, Gu Ling held a brass Nautical Magic Compass. Its needle spun in agitated circles before jerking erratically, casting faint, sickly pulses of pale-blue luminescence.
Her gaze surveyed the surrounding terrain with rare solemnity: “Blood Wave Bay is no academy simulation arena. Last year, a seasoned Grade-B hunter squad of seven Intermediate Mages ventured into these caverns seeking mineral veins, and not a single one returned alive. The military only ever recovered fragmented lifeboat wreckage washed up on the outer reefs. The mana fluctuations here are violently chaotic; long-range communication talismans are completely useless. Whatever we encounter, no one breaks formation.”
“I know, Big Sis. You’ve repeated that eight times since we stepped off the boat,” Gu Xiaowei pouted slightly, her twin short braids bobbing with every step. Yet for all her stubborn bluster, the girl’s small hands remained instinctively clamped to the hem of Ye Qingwan’s duster beside her, her round, luminous eyes darting with extreme vigilance toward the ink-black hollows pocking the cavern walls.
Ye Qingwan chuckled softly, her slender, elegant hand gently patting the back of Xiaowei’s knuckles to soothe her nerves. She was clad in a practical, dark-forest-green wilderness outfit, her silky black hair swept up into a high, pristine chignon that showcased her porcelain-pale neck. Her gaze was tranquil and deep, her fingers resting lightly near the satchel at her belt—a repository packed with rare medicinal herbs and magically conditioned seeds.
Lin Feng held the vanguard position, shoulder to shoulder with Gu Ling.
His gaze was sharp as a hunting falcon prowling the dark. Beneath his sleek tactical bodysuit, every bundle of muscle remained lightly coiled, primed to erupt with lethal magic at a microsecond’s notice. He paid no mind to the grandiose stalactites overhead, nor did he linger on the glistening pools underfoot. Instead, his eyes were fixed on the deep claw gouges ripped into the granite walls flanking their path.
The gouges were fresh. Each torn furrow spanned wider than a splayed hand, cleaving through granite as unyielding as forged iron as though carving through silken bean curd.
Beneath his chest armor, the Primordial Dragon Pendant pressed against his skin suddenly flared with rhythmic, searing pulses of heat. Within, the Black Dragon Spirit let out muffled, rumbling growls—a primal warning that a savage, blood-reeking intent was coiling in the near dark.
“Lin Feng, did you catch something?” Gu Ling noticed his cadence hitch by half a step and asked in an undertone.
“The air is growing more pungent, but it’s not the usual stink of rotting carrion,” Lin Feng replied, his voice deadpan and icy. “It’s the scent of fresh blood drained to the marrow, mingled with a heavily concentrated acidic venom. Look up at the rock wall fifteen meters ahead.”
Xie Zhaoyuan caught his meaning instantly. Tilting the barrel of the Magic Crystal Resonator, he twisted the focusing ring, converging the golden beam into a tight cone directed squarely at the cliff face Lin Feng had indicated.
When the radiant golden beam struck the sheer granite wall on their left, the breath caught in the throats of all five mages simultaneously.
The tableau laid bare before them was grisly enough to freeze the blood in their veins!
Hung along the sheer granite precipice, four to eight meters above the stone walkway, dozens of carcasses of magical sea beasts were pinned in midair, forming a macabre, suspended wall of corpses stretching for dozens of meters!
“Sweet heavens above... What kind of unholy madness is this?!” Xie Zhaoyuan choked out, his knuckles whitening as he gripped the spotlight casing until the metal groaned.
Dominating the center of this grotesque display was the carcass of a Black-Iron Frenzy Shark—a famously ferocious predator of the shallow seas measuring over five meters in length. In life, this species boasted an armor of dense iron scales capable of pulverizing underwater reefs and chewing through the hulls of fishing vessels with its triple-tiered serrated jaws. Yet at this moment, the beast’s entire spine of steel-cartilage had been violently snapped backward at a brutal ninety-degree angle!
The shark’s colossal bulk had been sucked completely dry, emptied of every drop of blood and marrow. Its thick, ironclad hide had shriveled into a withered, wrinkled husk like a sun-dried rag, hugging tightly against the jagged ribs protruding through the skin. Its eye sockets were sunken, hollow cavities devoid of ocular fluid, lined with sticky, rust-red threads resembling spider silk.
A short distance away hung the shells of two Ironclad Giant Tortoises—peak Soldier-tier magical beasts famed for stone carapaces over an inch thick, defenses so resilient that even Tier-1 Primary Fire or Wind spells could scarcely leave more than a scorched scratch on their surface.
Yet now, clean circular holes half a meter in circumference had been punched through the crowns of both carapaces! The flesh within was utterly gone, hollow as a hollowed-out log, leaving behind only a few desiccated tendons clinging to chalk-white bone.
No maggots. No stench of bacterial rot. Only the chilling, sterile desolation of living creatures stripped of every drop of vitality in an instant!
“There are no iron spikes or magical binding cords pinning them...” Ye Qingwan took half a step forward, her gaze locking onto the boundary where the carcasses met the granite wall. Her voice wavered: “They’re anchored to the cliff by some kind of mucus!”
Guided by the light, the team looked closer. Sure enough, behind those desiccated husks lay a thick coating of viscous, dark-crimson slime, simmering with tiny effervescent bubbles like a pot of boiling stew.
This crimson slime exuded a vile, sour-metallic tang, reminiscent of brimstone blended with stagnant, coagulated blood. Worse still, wherever the sludge contacted the granite, the dense bedrock had pitted into massive, gouged craters, foaming with gray scum and trailing thin, acrid wisps of smoke!
Sizzle... sizzle...
Xie Zhaoyuan unclasped a short dagger of magiteck alloy from his combat belt, a blade crafted specifically for carving through the armored scales of monsters. Carefully, he extended the tip, catching a falling droplet of the crimson mucus dripping from the tortoise shell above.
The instant the fluid made contact with the steel blade, a shrill hiss tore through the air! The polished alloy blackened instantly, bubbling frantically as a chunk the size of a corn kernel was dissolved into nothingness in less than three seconds!
“Such monstrous corrosive toxicity!” Xie Zhaoyuan gasped, recoiling as he flung the compromised dagger into a distant rock fissure. “It doesn’t just devour metal and stone—this mucus can dissolve and disperse mana! If it splatters onto bare skin or defensive gear, a magical barrier would shatter in a heartbeat!”
“This is the hunting signature of a mutated deep-sea cephalopod.”
Gu Ling stepped toward the cliff, bending to inspect the circular puncture on the shark’s flank. Her gloved finger traced the neat, spiraling grooves gouged around the rim of the wound:
“Look at this bite pattern. This wasn’t left by the jaws of a beast or a predatory fish. These are the constriction marks of a suction cup. The diameter of these suckers is at least forty centimeters, and the inner rim is lined with hundreds of chitinous serrated teeth harder than quenched steel. Once it clamps onto prey, the suckers lock on, the serrated ring rotates to drill through the defensive armor, and it injects digestive enzymes directly into the prey’s core. It liquefies all muscle tissue, viscera, and marrow into slurry before siphoning it clean down to the last drop!”
Gu Ling’s chilling, clinical breakdown sent goosebumps rippling across Gu Xiaowei’s skin. The younger girl rubbed her arms vigorously, shivering.
“Draining them dry... and then sticking their corpses on the wall like this? Why would it do that?” Gu Xiaowei stammered, her voice trembling. “Does... does it have some twisted fetish for collecting dead bodies?”
“It’s not a collection,” Lin Feng cut in heavily, his gaze boring into the darkness ahead. “That’s how apex predators mark their hunting grounds, while keeping a pantry stocked for days when live prey is scarce. These are the victims of Crimson-Corpse sea monsters—mutated oceanic abominations that turn their kills into blood-drained cadavers. Whatever did this isn’t an ordinary Soldier-tier beast. To snap the spine of a five-meter Black-Iron Frenzy Shark and punch through an Ironclad Tortoise shell as easily as snapping dry twigs... this creature is at least a High Commander-tier, if not standing at the very pinnacle of the Commander tier!”
The atmosphere within the squad turned suffocatingly grim.
High Commander-tier!
On dry land, a single High Commander-tier magical beast possessed the catastrophic power to level a small town, requiring at least two seasoned, tightly coordinated squads of Intermediate Mages to encircle and bring down. But here, within a subterranean cavern flooded by the sea where marine predators held absolute territorial dominion, the threat level of a High Commander-tier beast skyrocketed threefold!
“Keep moving. Lingering in this graveyard only increases the odds of being made,” Gu Ling said, taking a slow, steadying breath and gripping her nautical magic compass tighter. “Our objective is the Water Crystal Spirit Ore deposit. The navigational charts indicate the mineral vein lies in the subterranean lake at the far end of this cavern.”
Lin Feng nodded. Taking the lead once more, he strode along the narrow granite shelf, the soles of their combat boots making soft, wet clicking sounds against the damp stone.
As they plunged deeper into the roots of the mountain, the cavern walls expanded erratically, even as the ceiling dropped lower and lower, squeezing the atmospheric pressure down to an unbearable knot. The granite shelf dwindled to a perilous ledge winding along the precipice of an immense, abyssal subterranean lake.
The path ahead vanished into darkness, leaving only an endless expanse of pitch-black void before them.
“This lake is massive...” Xie Zhaoyuan swung the beam of the magiteck spotlight out over the water, but the brilliant golden ray traveled barely thirty meters before being utterly swallowed by the gloom and the dense black liquid, unable to illuminate the opposite shore.
The water was black as ink mixed with thinned blood, radiating an icy draft so bitter that a fragile glaze of rime frosted the surrounding stones.
“Allow me to light up the area.”
Ye Qingwan spoke in a gentle murmur. Stepping to the edge of the shelf, she opened her porcelain palm, revealing three emerald seeds the size of soybeans.
“Wood Spirit Proliferation – Nightglow Tendrils!”
Her crisp, melodious voice rang through the cavern silence. Beneath her feet, an emerald Wood-element Star Path ignited in a brilliant flash.
A stream of pure Wood mana surged into the three seeds. Instantly, their husks cracked open, and vibrant green shoots unfurled at a speed visible to the naked eye! Within seconds, the three sprouts transformed into dozens of silken, resilient vines draped with butterfly-shaped leaves shimmering with soft turquoise fluorescent pollen.
“Go!”
With an elegant sweep of her sleeve, the Wood-element vines surged forward like emerald serpents, latching onto the craggy rock faces and spreading out along the subterranean waterline in all directions. The radiant luminescence bathed the immense subterranean lake, casting light upon the vaulted ceiling and jagged submerged crags.
Yet as the turquoise glow spread across the water’s surface, none of the mages felt the slightest relief. On the contrary, a suffocating wave of instinctive dread tightened around their chests.
Because the subterranean lake below... was unnervingly, impossibly still!
An expanse spanning thousands of square meters, connected directly to the raging ocean outside, yet its surface lay as flat as a colossal sheet of polished black obsidian!
Not a single rolling wave.
Not even the faintest ripple.
Even the droplets seeping from the stalactites above—plop... plop...—vanished silently the moment they struck that pitch-black expanse, failing to create even a single concentric ripple! It was as if the liquid below were not seawater at all, but a congealed slab of gelatinous tar—or as if some monstrous, suffocating mana pressure were forcibly pinning every vibration of the water in place!
“This is unnatural...” Gu Ling’s delicate brows furrowed tightly, her hand instinctively resting on the hilt of the magic sword at her waist. “The sea outside is surging with heavy swells and high tide. Why isn’t there the slightest tidal movement in a subterranean lake linked to the blood-red seabed currents outside?”
“No movement... means the subterranean current below has been completely dammed by something gargantuan,” Lin Feng warned in a low rumble, the Scarlet Flame Flowing Fire within his magic nebula beginning to churn with restless heat. “Everyone, stay on guard! Prepare your Water shields and breathing bubbles—and do not approach the edge of the water!”
Yet Gu Xiaowei happened to be standing on the most exposed promontory of the granite ledge.
Youthful and naturally curious, the sight of the glassy black surface reflecting the ethereal turquoise glow of Ye Qingwan’s luminescent vines proved too tempting. Unable to suppress her curiosity, she tiptoed two paces forward, leaning over the rim to stare down into the depths.
“Is this water clear or muddy? Why can’t I see the bottom at all...” Gu Xiaowei mumbled under her breath.
Acting on impulse, she raised her right index finger, channeling a faint wisp of Primary Lightning mana.
Bzzzt... crackle...
A spark of violet lightning, slender as a thread of silver silk, danced across Gu Xiaowei’s fingertip. She intended to cast a tiny jolt downward to trigger a flash of reflection, probing just how deep this subterranean abyss went.
The violet spark snapped outward, diving straight into the dark, silent depths.
The light pierced the surface, penetrating seven or eight meters down into the abyss.
And then... a scene of absolute, mind-shattering horror ripped through Gu Xiaowei’s soul!
Ten meters beneath the pitch-black surface, a crimson point of light abruptly flared awake!
It was no submerged magic gem. Nor was it the scattered reflection of her lightning bolt.
It was A GARGANTUAN EYE!
A blood-red pupil as vast as the wheel of a heavy mining rig! The sclera was webbed with fiery, writhing veins, while at the center, the pupil was slitted into a vertical, amber diamond outlined in cruel, midnight black.
That colossal pupil constricted slightly, brimming with savagery, bloodlust, mockery, and a terrifying intellect unique to an apex predator.
It hadn’t moved. It had been lying in wait on the subterranean floor all along, staring straight up through the glass-smooth black water, tracking Gu Xiaowei’s every breath from just meters away!
The moment their gazes locked, Gu Xiaowei felt the blood in her body turn to solid ice!
A freezing, briny wave of oceanic bloodlust slammed directly into her mind, turning her knees to liquid. Her throat seized, unable to squeeze out a single syllable, while the dancing spark of lightning upon her fingertip withered and died in a pathetic shiver!
“Xiaowei, what’s wrong?!” Ye Qingwan noticed the girl’s rigid, paralyzed posture and called out in alarm.
Standing behind them, Gu Ling saw Gu Xiaowei’s face drain of all color, bleached corpse-pale as she stared blankly into the water. Thunderous alarm bells clanged in Gu Ling’s mind. Tracking her sister’s vacant gaze beneath the dim turquoise glow, she too caught sight of the colossal crimson silhouette expanding beneath the depths!
Gu Ling’s pupils shrank to needlepoints. Her scream ripped through the subterranean silence:
“Xiaowei, get back!! IT’S AN AMBUSH FROM THE BOTTOM!!”
The instant Gu Ling’s terror-stricken cry left her throat, the false peace of the subterranean lake shattered into oblivion!
BOOOOM——!!
An earth-shattering detonation erupted from the abyssal floor!
The mirror-smooth black surface blasted apart into ten thousand shards! Thousands of tons of purplish-crimson, foul-smelling seawater rocketed thirty meters into the air like a colossal depth charge, slamming with cataclysmic violence against the vaulted granite ceiling and snapping stalactites by the hundreds, sending them raining down like a storm of stone javelins!
Deafening waves roared; the nauseating stench of corrosive slime surged upward, thick enough to suffocate!
And from the belly of that erupting water column, the abyssal nightmare of the deep sea finally tore into the open!
Not one. Not two. But DOZENS OF GARGANTUAN TENTACLES!
Each tentacle was as thick as an ancient pillar, stretching dozens of zhang in length, coated in a hideous, bruised purplish-crimson like clotted blood. Lining their bellies were thousands of circular suckers as broad as the mouths of water urns, each sucker rimmed with razor-sharp, obsidian chitin teeth and bristling with jagged spines!
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
Carrying the crushing weight of the deep ocean, the colossal tentacles slammed savagely onto the stone shore!
The two largest tentacles wrapped around the granite shelf where the squad stood. Suction cups locked onto the rock face with sickening, wet squelches, and then—raw, apocalyptic force detonated!
CRACK... SNAP... BOOOM!!
The entire meter-thick granite ledge, which had stood impregnable for millennia beneath their feet, was shattered into jagged rubble by the tentacles in an instant!
The ground beneath them collapsed entirely!
As massive boulders plunged roaring into the swirling vortex below, Gu Xiaowei and Ye Qingwan’s screams were drowned out by the chaos. Deprived of all footing, all five members plunged into free fall straight toward the pitch-black abyss, where colossal barbed tentacles writhed and coiled, blotting out the very sky!