Deep in the Living
Chapter 543 - 525: Manhole Cover

Chapter 543: Chapter 525: Manhole Cover

The team advancing into the depths of the mountain was aligned in a vertical formation.

Lebeite, the host, led the way, followed by Yu Ze in second, Hua Yuan in third, while Luo Di, having had experience in the back mountain last night, was responsible for bringing up the rear.

It didn’t take long before they encountered the first inferior creature, appearing in the form of a spotted deer.

It was dealt with due to a sound issue,

Even before the deer could approach, its body was ripped apart from the middle, and Lebeite’s internal monster emerged from within it.

He held the head twisted off from the deer’s abdomen in his hand, examining it carefully.

"Oh, so Mother comes to the back mountain every day to catch these things alive, it’s rather simple."

Lebeite didn’t bother to retrieve it but simply crushed it; tonight wasn’t meant for hunting.

Yu Ze, following closely, didn’t make any move,

He widened his eyes behind his sunglasses, observing Lebeite’s actions intently, from the zipper on the back to the internal release, everything was seen clearly.

At this moment, Luo Di, who was at the end, suddenly stepped forward, having picked up on the problem in the earlier statement.

"Lebeite, is it your first time coming to the back mountain?"

The latter slightly turned his head, brushing aside the golden blond hair that was slightly blocking his view, "Yes, why?"

"Huh? Isn’t this your family’s place... Then you wouldn’t even know where the entrance is?"

"I have no idea, aren’t we here to explore? Just like in the video tapes, taking a detour with such intensity should be fine; it shouldn’t delay us too much.

After all, we’re just going to take a look at the entrance, not actually going in for an experience."

"That works too."

At this moment, Yu Ze suddenly interjected into the conversation:

"Should I help locate it? Since these creatures are shaped by the dungeon, they naturally have a connection with it."

He was already holding a small bowl, having picked up the fragments of the head that Lebeite crushed earlier, especially focusing on the pituitary part.

Before Luo Di could respond, Lebeite showed interest first.

"Show us how it’s done!"

Yu Ze lit a yellow talisman and stirred it into the mixture of blood and flesh, then took out a metal compass from his backpack, pouring the acquired liquid onto it.

The blood-stained pointer immediately reacted.

Lebeite was seeing such a maneuver for the first time, completely different from any monster he had encountered.

"You know so many things, humans are truly amazing! Looks like I have to prepare seriously, otherwise, once I descend into the human world and expose my identity, I might be instantly killed by humans."

Yu Ze had already mounted the compass on his left arm and proactively walked to the front of the group, "If you don’t mind, I’ll lead the way~ please handle the things we encounter along the way."

"Fine."

The team order was slightly rearranged, Lebeite moved to second place.

As they proceeded, his chatterbox seemed to be fully opened, discussing all sorts of strange questions with Yu Ze, even finding the topics more interesting than exploring the back mountain.

Similarly, the two left at the end gradually walked together.

Hua Yuan nudged Luo Di with an elbow, "Hey! Your man is being stolen, aren’t you going to intervene?"

"Watch fewer weird literary magazines."

"That may be true~ but your orientation should still be normal, otherwise, you wouldn’t have gone to the hostess’s room.

Speaking of which, what’s the background of that human friend of yours, he seems adept in everything, and those techniques are extremely effective, perfectly applicable to various exploration activities.

Moreover, he doesn’t seem as simple as he appears; my flower pistil can faintly sense danger... His lethality isn’t low either, is it?"

"Just like me, he’s a Connector; I don’t even know his true strength, but his potential shouldn’t be inferior to mine."

"There’s such an amazing human? Never encountered when I was a Pseudo-Person... By the way! Did you come to the Invisible Manor intending to take Lebeite to Wu Wen’s place?"

"More or less."

"Lebeite seems to already have organizational ties, doesn’t he? Are you planning to have him leave the Invisible Manor and join over there?"

"No, just purely going to take a look..."

Hua Yuan suddenly smiled mysteriously, her body involuntarily leaning against Luo Di’s arm, "Oh! I get it, you don’t trust Wu Wen, right?

The so-called new organization might pose a threat to you or impose some personal restrictions.

If you bring Lebeite, myself, and your friend with you, you can minimize risks.

If you don’t trust Wu Wen, why don’t you stay with me! You know how cunning that woman is... I am completely honest with you."

Luo Di’s gaze was unusually firm, "Don’t overthink it, I’m just trying to bring those around me whom I find trustworthy and have potential onto the same line, striving for synchronized growth, aiming to venture into the Corner Depths sooner.

I cannot explore the dungeon alone; all of you are potential teammates.

We must hurry... Otherwise, we’ll all perish."

Hua Yuan’s gaze shifted, "Luo Di, did you manage to peek into the secrets of the Corner Depths through the videotape incident? Care to share?"

"Currently, I cannot subjectively reveal it."

"Alright~ I’ll reluctantly believe you... Though I’ve also learned a bit through that comic book."

Amid their conversation,

Lebeite had already killed several more inferior creatures up front.

Having advanced for about half an hour, Yu Ze, at the front, stopped, raising his hand to signal the entire team to halt.

Even Lebeite temporarily recalled his internal monster by his side, the scene before them was slightly exaggerated, like stumbling into an unmanaged wildlife park.

A dense and large number of "animals" gathered in the area ahead,

All types of animals were present, it felt like a malfunction in an animal game, with the developer configuring the wrong parameters, stuffing all kinds of animals together, resulting in a myriad of fusion bugs.

Some of the animals had fused due to prolonged dense contact, their heads sticking together as a core, altering their animal forms,

Lebeite already started taking action, "No wonder Mother kept forbidding me to come here, such numbers combined with sound restrictions are indeed tricky, but it also confirms that the [entrance] is indeed here."

As the leader, Yu Ze started formulating plans as well, taking out vermillion to draw an invisibility talisman on the spot.

Before he could even draw the talisman, he felt a strong wind pass by, immediately followed by a figure charging forward in an exaggerated half-body vertical posture at 90 degrees.

"That’s!"

Animals fell one after another.

There were no flashy moves, no expression of energy forms.

Just a simple pair of hands, human-like arms constantly delivering the most basic physical blows among the animals.

Lebeite assumed a perfect form, a true fusion of appearance and inner self.

And this form seemed more stable, more threatening... it seemed to be a gain from the videotape incident.

One finger penetrating long,

one palm shattering flesh,

one punch destroying structure,

seemingly simple continuous strikes, each move could bring about a wide-ranging killing effect, as this dense zoo in front of him was gradually being cleared by him alone. _{free.webn\ove(l)(.)c(o)m}

"Divine Hand..."

Yu Ze started sweating at his forehead as he viewed the scene, a helpless smile at the corner of his mouth. Although he had heard Luo Di’s description, he did not expect it to be this exaggerated.

Immediately,

Luo Di and Hua Yuan quickly joined in, clearing the area together.

In less than ten minutes,

the "wild zoo" here was completely cleared.

Although the various brains scattered on the ground were very unfortunate, the eyes of the team members had already focused on the special clearing ahead.

Ten meters away, there was an area of earth with no plant growth.

In the center of the clearing embedded a [manhole cover] immensely out of place with the back hill.

The surface of the manhole cover was marked with the irregular symbol of the Invisible Manor, prohibiting entry without permission.

"Is this the entrance?"

Lebeite, having returned to his usual blonde image, stepped on the manhole cover and found that perception could not penetrate, and the inner monster could not pass through.

The manhole cover itself should be a masterpiece of his mother, impossible to force open without unlocking it.

Luo Di also approached the manhole and concluded, "It’s not the entrance... The true dungeon entrance should be deeper below.

My plant pot obtained from the dungeon can confirm this, should we continue going down?"

Lebeite became interested as well, "We came this far, let’s take a look below! As long as we don’t enter the dungeon, it’s fine. I just finished warming up."

"Yu Ze, what do you think?"

Luo Di habitually sought his opinion.

"We can go down."

"Alright."

Luo Di crouched down and placed his palm on the manhole cover, trying to open it through an asymmetrical understanding. However... Bang!

The moment his hand touched it, it was bounced off, the entire arm became fragmented and asymmetrically distorted, bones, nails, and blood vessels randomly pieced together.

"This... the complexity of the manhole cover far exceeds the backdoor, I can’t open it normally. It seems our journey ends here tonight."

"Let me try!"

Lebeite instantaneously entered a semi-fusion state, allowing only one arm to blend with the inner monster, presenting an albino state.

He exerted all his strength to forcibly open the cover.

However,

Just as his hand touched it, it was similar to Luo Di’s situation.

Even a perfect arm was invaded asymmetrically with a massive rebound force.

Pa!

The more force Lebeite used, the greater the rebound effect.

It just so happened that Luo Di was standing there as well.

The rebounded arm had equal lethality, and the unreactive Luo Di was cleaved in half at the waist.

The huge force also blasted Luo Di’s lower body flying, hanging on a tree branch more than ten meters away.

The rebound wasn’t over,

the bloodied hand rushed towards Lebeite’s head,

Pa!

His head exploded,

the blood-dyed blonde hair scattered.

The entire process happened in an instant, two main members of the squad, one was bisected, the other decapitated,

leaving Yu Ze and Hua Yuan dumbfounded, unable to grasp what occurred.

Yu Ze reacted first, calculating at the shallowest level.

Even though he only calculated at a very shallow level, it still caused all his nails to shatter, blood oozing. Luckily, Yu Ze managed to find a crucial clue.

"Danger! Do not move, don’t take any action."

The warning came just a bit late.

Hua Yuan instinctively took a step back, resulting in stepping on an animal’s leg bone and slipping.

Strangely,

by Hua Yuan’s bodily characteristics, she shouldn’t fall from such a situation, whether in terms of physical balance or the flower pistil within, she should remain standing.

But...

She simply couldn’t stand firm, simply slid over.

It seemed that stepping on the bone already determined the inevitable result of [sliding], and even the flower pistil within couldn’t grow.

The whole body fell backward, coincidentally, a rib was standing upright there.

Swish!

It penetrated the back of the head and protruded from the mouth...