Soon, Meng Chao scanned the main channel of the underground river, as he could see through the nine layers of rocks. The river was reminiscent of a crouching flood dragon.

“I’ve figured out the location of the underground river!

“Based on the subtle sound of the water, the amount of runoff in this section of the river is high. The width of the channel is wide enough for an adult to sneak in!

“Next, I just need to find a crack that can lead me to the underground river!”

The earthquake that had just passed had torn a lot of cracks in the rocks above the underground river.

Although most of the cracks were so narrow that it was difficult for even a finger to go through them, his hard work paid off.

After more than half an hour of scanning, Meng Chao found a crack that was the most severe and closest to the underground river.

The size of this fissure was still not enough to accommodate an adult as a route to the underground river.

Nevertheless, as long as there was enough space to exert force, the rest would be easy to handle.

Meng Chao inserted his entire right arm, which was wrapped in a spirit magnet, into the fissure.

With the eruption of spirit energy, a raging hurricane surged deep in the fissure. Soon, it burned the indestructible rock into lumps of magma that looked like mud.

Without waiting for the magma to cool down, Meng Chao crawled into the expanding crack with his totem armor on.

He squeezed through layers of rocks and magma, and when he reached a depth of about twenty to thirty meters, Meng Chao suddenly felt light.

The underground space abruptly opened up, and the sound of rushing water entered his ears.

He could vaguely see that in the dark underground world under his feet, a dragon was slowly wriggling, with a layer of scarlet scales.

It was the underground river that was rich in pollutants and where Blood Flowers grew freely.

The thick foam in the river and the piercing smell that caused one’s eyes to hurt sent warnings to any intruder—it was definitely not a world that ordinary carbon-based creatures could enter.

The only outcome for ordinary people or even low-level monsters that sneaked into this blood-colored river was being corroded until they were riddled with holes. Their intestines would be pierced through, and in just a few short hours, they would even turn into crispy skeletons.

However, Meng Chao did not hesitate and jumped into the dark blood river with a plop.

He immediately felt as if he was in a furnace of molten iron, a basin of charcoal, a lump of magma, and a burning wind that could destroy everything in its path.

However, he had already experienced similar sensations countless times in the depths of the Holy Mountain Temple.

He had already tasted such experience and pleasure.

In addition, his totem armor condensed from the spirit magnet covered every strand of his hair and every inch of his skin.

It did not matter how strong the corrosive nature of the underground river water, which contained extremely strong radiation and extremely high pollution substances, was. Even if it could corrode the reaction armor of a main battle tank until it was covered in rust within a few minutes, it would not be able to do anything to him.

Meng Chao used both his hands and feet to tread on flat ground in the depths of the underground river, going against the rapid flow of the river towards its source.

Along the way, he stirred up the water and woke up countless unusual creatures that were lurking in the abyss.

Due to the various waste materials from the Blood Flower experiment, the excrement of the high-level monsters used in the experiment, the deformed and twisted flesh of the monsters, and the monster cells that were as messy as mud, all of them were unscrupulously discharged into the underground river.

This dark blood-colored river that never saw the light of day had long formed its own system, a miniature ecosystem that made one’s hair stand on end.

The Blood Flower’s mycelium was like the hair of a water ghost.

It had gathered the flesh of innumerable deformed monsters, like mutated cells that were magnified numerous times. It was a mollusk that had tentacles, and it was waving its flagellum.

The edges of its carapace were extremely sharp, so sharp that even rocks could be crushed against it. Besides, there were arthropods with ghostly faces on the carapace.

Such arthropods could even devour piranhas in a few seconds.

All kinds of monsters that would only appear in one’s nightmares rushed toward Meng Chao.

Meng Chao did not turn any of them away.

His totem armor gave off a killing intent that was almost tangible.

The killing intent disturbed the river water, producing blood-colored vortexes.

It tore the mutated creatures into pieces, breaking them down into the most basic cells.

Meng Chao controlled his spirit magnet again, extending and opening a huge metal membrane from the end of his finger.

He collected a large number of mutated cells, carefully analyzing their structure and activity.

Sure enough, these monsters had clearly been smashed into pieces.

However, their remaining cells still maintained a high level of activity. They were jumping in Meng Chao’s palm like excited tadpoles.

If it were not for the metal membrane’s protection in Meng Chao’s palm, these tadpoles might have even penetrated his skin, seeped into his flesh, and invaded his central nervous system.

“The activity of these Blood Flower spores is much stronger than that of the pure natural species that I came into contact with before.

“Judging from their tenacious struggle and omnipresent appearance, they can survive for more than twenty-four hours even without a host.

“It shouldn’t be a natural species but a man-made ‘weapon’ bred in the biochemical laboratory through gene knockout and clipping.

“What the hell is Horizon? Has it mastered the technology to weaponize the Blood Flowers?”

Meng Chao narrowed his eyes, and a dark, cold flame shot out of his palm.

In the depths of the blood river, the Blood Flower spores were completely burned.

Then, he went against the current and continued to search in the darkness for more than half an hour. Finally, he heard the hum of a machine coming from the front. Through the turbid river, he saw a faint light.

When Meng Chao, who was covered in dark red mud, quietly emerged from the water, he found that the source of the underground river was an underground cave that was half the size of a football field.

The walls of the cave were still covered in the remnants of the explosion at the Red Radiance Jade vein from several years ago. Marks of melting, squeezing, kneading, and tearing were stacked on top of each other as a result of the shock wave.

In the southwestern corner of the cave, there were seventeen to eighteen huge metal tanks, on which ferocious skulls had been painted. There were also warning signs such as “flammable”, “explosive”, “highly toxic”, “radioactive”, “biochemical pollution,” and so on.

The metal tanks were connected to each other by dozens of flexible tubes that were as thick as pythons.

Two-thirds of the metal tanks were vibrating violently and emitting low rumbling sounds.

That was because the place was a hundred meters underground.

The monster farm above also had all kinds of heavy equipment that were active twenty-four hours a day to cause sight and sound disruption.

Hence, no one had discovered the place before.

When Meng Chao approached the metal tanks, he could immediately tell from their shape, the frequency of the vibrations, the smell they emitted, and the traces of corrosion that seeped out from the joints that they were all super-powerful special large-capacity sewage treatment tanks.