CHAPTER 284: CHAPTER 246: AN ASTONISHING FINALE (4,000 WORDS!)

Ji Chaoyang immediately pulled out another crossbow from his backpack, aimed it at the mouth of a piranha leaping towards him, and fired.

Xu Xin directly grabbed his long spear and thrust it at another blood-red fish that was lunging towards him!

The Silver King beside Xu Xin suddenly sprang up, pouncing on the third fish from the side!

"Boom!"

Ji Chaoyang’s explosive bolt accurately hit the piranha’s mouth, and the entire fish was instantly blown to bits!

"Crunch!"

Xu Xin’s long spear also pierced through the entire piranha, and with a lateral sweep, the spear burst through the fish’s abdomen, skewering some of its internal organs on the spear tip!

Meanwhile, the Silver King directly brought a piranha down to the ground, its giant wolf fangs deeply penetrating the fish’s body, then with a shake of its wolf head, it eviscerated the piranha!

[Kill giant mutant piranhas*2, gain points: 160 points.]

At this moment, the river had already started to bubble up, but no more piranhas were jumping out.

These fish, just like the ones Xu Xin saw in the lake near the treehouse, began to gather together, crazily devouring the initially injured piranha that the two had blasted into the water!

The river water churned, gradually turning red. Blood splattered onto the shore, onto the two men’s bodies and faces, but they didn’t care, watching the underwater situation intently, bodies tense, ready to attack at any moment.

The river calmed down with no more piranhas jumping out until it eventually returned to tranquility.

The red in the river slowly faded away with the gentle current until it became clear again, with no piranha emerging.

"Have they already swum away?" Ji Chaoyang asked in a deep voice, his crossbow still aimed at the river.

His long spear, broken while trying to prevent a hole from closing, was half-embedded in the cave wall. The short sword was too small to fend off this group of fish, so he only had the crossbow to deal with them.

Fortunately, he had made several spare green-level crossbows. The explosive bolts didn’t require much from the crossbows themselves, so he loaded each crossbow with an explosive bolt, effectively having a continuous firing crossbow.

"Not yet." Xu Xin did not dare to relax his vigilance. Although the river had returned to calm, the red dots on the map were still distributed in the river before them, seemingly lurking, ready to jump out and ambush them if they approached the water to check.

"Hmm." Keke also perched on Xu Xin’s shoulder, softly hummed, signaling there’s something in the river, not to get close.

The Silver King had already started feasting on the piranha it had killed. Having run all day, it was famished.

Although the piranha’s scales were red, its meat was indeed tender white, looking very appetizing, making Xu Xin’s throat move. The medicinal meal he had at noon wasn’t satisfying, it was too unpalatable. He was feeling a bit hungry now.

They stayed in place for about two minutes before the river showed signs of activity, rippling.

"Those piranhas have started to swim back!" Seeing the red dots on the map shifting back, Xu Xin breathed a sigh of relief.

The sheer number of fish would have been too overwhelming had they all jumped out to bite them.

"That’s good." Hearing this, Ji Chaoyang also relaxed his expression.

They waited for another dozen seconds.

"They’ve already moved away. I really want to see where they’re swimming to." Xu Xin concentrated on the map.

"Alright, you watch the map, I’ll deal with these two big piranhas." Ji Chaoyang pulled out a boning knife, starting to work on the two fish they had killed.

Xu Xin observed the retreat of this school of piranhas.

Their current location was still within this circle of hills, and they were approaching the "Giant Skull." Xu Xin had previously suspected they were underground rather than inside a mountain, but now it was confirmed.

The map only shows enemy units near the surface. If they were deep below the surface, he wouldn’t be able to see these piranha’s red dots.

This means this area is actually inside the hillside, the entire cave wall is essentially those hills.

They had circled back from inside these hills.

And those piranhas were swimming towards the position of the Giant Skull!

Under Xu Xin’s gaze, the red dots had already swum near the Giant Skull.

But surprisingly, they didn’t actually swim past it, they suddenly turned around as they got close.

On the map, the red dots which had formed a straight line in the river collectively turned at a location before the mine cave, advancing towards the interior of the Hilly Resource Zone.

"...?" Xu Xin squinted at the moving red dots.

The brightness of the dots grew dimmer until they completely faded away after moving several hundred meters.

Xu Xin pondered thoughtfully.

These fish should have swum along the underground river of the Hilly Resource Zone. Since they went underground, the map couldn’t see them anymore.

From the direction, they should be heading towards that lake in the Hilly Resource Zone.

Seems like that lake is unsafe too!

However, this at least indicates one thing following this river should lead to the interior of the skull!