Chapter 78: Encountering the Extraordinary Monster Once Again!

Staring at the deep, jade pool before him, Lin Huang furrowed his brow. Ghost Shadow had spent over forty minutes diving to the bottom and returning, which meant the pool was exceptionally deep. Although he’d seized a piece of diving gear from Xue Jie during the reserve hunter evaluation, Lin Huang doubted he could dive that far even with the equipment. He couldn’t breathe underwater, and with his body at only the first stage of Black Iron, he wasn’t sure he could withstand the pressure.

After pondering awhile, Lin Huang finally devised a solution—using a Temporary Transformation Card to become Ghost Shadow himself. As long as he transformed into Ghost Shadow’s soul form, he could phase directly through matter and descend to the bottom without difficulty.

“I have five Temporary Transformation Cards left. Each lasts a whole day, so even if I go down and return on separate days, only two cards are needed.” Calculating that he had enough cards, Lin Huang drew one from his storage.

“Transform into Ghost Shadow.” Crushing the card, he specified the target creature. The card shattered, turning into a white streak of light that entered his body. Within seconds, his form changed into a gray-black shadowy entity, identical to the summoned Ghost Shadow.

After recalling White into his body, Lin Huang gave Ghost Shadow an order: “Lead the way. I’ll follow you down.” Watching Ghost Shadow drift toward the center of the pool and sink beneath the surface, Lin Huang, a touch apprehensive, followed.

Though he knew his current form was immune to the water’s effects, he couldn’t shake a sense of discomfort. As he submerged, he felt no resistance—only a vague chill in the surrounding environment. Following Ghost Shadow deeper, the pool presented no barrier, feeling no different from drifting through air. Lin Huang soon discovered that, in this transformed state, he didn’t need to breathe or even had a heartbeat. As the descent continued, he became increasingly adept at controlling his new body.

After more than ten minutes, Ghost Shadow led him to the pool’s bottom. Lin Huang realized then that the area beneath the surface was far larger than the pool seemed from above. Once they reached the bottom, Ghost Shadow pointed in a direction and drifted off, with Lin Huang following behind.

He trailed Ghost Shadow for another five or six minutes before finally spotting a downward-sloping underground cave, into which dark currents flowed ceaselessly.

“Let’s go in and take a look,” Lin Huang instructed Ghost Shadow.

Ghost Shadow immediately slipped inside, and Lin Huang followed. The underground cave was long and winding; it took nearly half an hour to reach the other end. Emerging from the tunnel, Lin Huang found himself in an underground river. Breaking the surface, he discovered a subterranean world.

Beside the river lay solid ground, and above his head hung countless stalactites, the ceiling rising more than ten meters overhead. This vast underground world was riddled with interconnecting caves, leaving Lin Huang unsure which path to take.

Climbing from the water onto land, Lin Huang recalled Ghost Shadow and summoned White once more. White had the longest attack range and ranked second in strength among Lin Huang’s summoned beasts, just behind Black Charcoal. Its size was ideal for accompanying him and made it the best candidate for this exploration.

Even though he knew the river’s flow had likely washed away any traces of Leng Yuexin and her group, Lin Huang activated the Bloodhunt skill again, hoping to find even the faintest clue—anything was better than nothing.

Once the skill activated, Lin Huang caught no scent of Leng Yuexin or Li Yanxing, but a strong smell of blood reached his nose. Alongside it came an unfamiliar fragrance, reminiscent of plants yet subtly unsettling. Lin Huang’s brow tightened, though his shadowy form masked his expression. That strange, uneasy feeling made him wary.

After a moment’s hesitation, he decided to investigate the source of the blood scent. For now, it was the only possible lead to Leng Yuexin.

“This way…” Lin Huang pointed in a direction. White nodded and began scouting ahead, with Lin Huang close behind.

Navigating the maze of underground caves, Lin Huang and White made seven or eight turns, traveling for nearly an hour before finally nearing their destination.

“Slow down, we’re almost there. Stay alert,” Lin Huang said to White.

White obeyed, reducing its pace. After another ten minutes, Lin Huang saw a light ahead. At a bend, he peeked out, gazing toward the source.

It was a colossal cavern, nearly a hundred meters high. In the center, a translucent, pale blue monster floated suspended in midair. The cavern’s faint blue glow emanated from its body.

The creature resembled an oversized, malformed deep-sea jellyfish. Its body was magnified many times, and its umbrella-like form was covered with countless eyes in various colors—some closed, some wide open. Where the eyes closed, colored spots dotted the surface.

Below, its tentacles drifted through the air like skirts fluttering on a summer breeze.

Lin Huang instantly recognized it as a transcendent monster; its aura was even more powerful than the Undying Serpent he’d encountered before. The unsettling scent he’d detected with Bloodhunt belonged to this creature. The bloody aroma also came from its direction.

Activating his Extreme Vision skill, Lin Huang scrutinized the area around the monster. Apart from several pools of blood on the ground, he saw no trace of Leng Yuexin and her companions.

“Could they already have been eaten?” Just as this thought crossed his mind, the transcendent monster seemed to sense something—one of its pale blue tentacles shot toward Lin Huang’s hiding spot like lightning.

Lin Huang instantly recalled White and stepped inside the rock wall.

The tentacle swept past his back, probing the cavern before withdrawing. Finding nothing, the monster assumed it was merely being overly sensitive.

Lin Huang broke into a cold sweat. Had he been a second slower, he would have been pulverized by the monster’s strike. Attacks at the transcendent level affected soul-type beings, too. He dared not look further toward the monster’s location.

“Leng Yuexin and her group should still be alive. If they were dead, Black Charcoal would have alerted me that the mission failed. The pools of blood were likely theirs, since they entered this underground world. Now, there are two possibilities: either the monster has hidden them elsewhere, or they’ve managed to escape…”

“But if they escaped, the description on the mission card wouldn’t ask me to find Leng Yuexin and bring her back to Worry-Free City. That wording suggests she’s in trouble, so the first possibility is more likely. Still, there’s another chance—they escaped the battle but were badly injured and can no longer leave Forget-Worry Forest on their own…”

Lin Huang analyzed each scenario, finally narrowing it down to the two most probable outcomes.