They actually found it?

Chen Qi’s mouth opened slightly in disbelief. This was, after all, a legendary treasure.

Little Crow also looked confused.

But in the Rift, the captain’s word was absolute.

Besides, they had to run now—at full speed!

“Run!”

Little Crow called to Chen Qi. This new assistant was braver than she’d expected.

Under the guide’s lead, Chen Qi and the others moved faster than ever, rushing across slick rock walls and dangerous tunnels…

During this, more and more monsters in the darkness noticed new prey and started closing in.

It was both a treasure hunt and a desperate escape!

Many perished in the waves of monsters due to sheer exhaustion.

Chen Qi sprinted with all his might, losing any clear sense of time.

“I can’t go on, Captain!”

“Captain, how much farther?!”

Some pirates shouted, clearly struggling to breathe.

Chen Qi was also gasping. If not for the Yellow Needle, he would’ve already run out of stamina.

After who knew how long, the group finally began to slow.

Those at the front instinctively eased their pace.

They had arrived!

Chen Qi’s eyes widened as he, too, slowed down.

What appeared before them was a massive stone door riddled with cracks.

Its weathered appearance resembled a long-buried temple deep within the cavern, worn by countless years.

Chen Qi peeked inside and could vaguely see a crumbling stone staircase and an enormous wall.

Despite the monsters still on their heels, Captain Blackeye came to a halt.

“We’re finally here…”

He chuckled, then suddenly grabbed the guide by the collar and stared him dead in the eyes!

Before stepping through that door, he had to be sure of some things.

Deep sea monsters brought not just fear, but madness.

By checking someone’s eyes, you could roughly judge whether they were mentally sound—or being controlled by something strange.

The captain glared like a demon and asked:

“You went in already? Is it safe? Oh, and that gold I gave you yesterday—were you satisfied?”

The guide raised his head and grinned:

“I lingered near the entrance, didn’t see any danger. And Captain, I didn’t get my promised reward yesterday!

In fact, you still owe me five gold coins!”

This captain is pretty cautious… Chen Qi thought.

Still, with monsters chasing from behind, they probably had no choice but to enter the room behind the door.

There were no other options.

“You’re right, I do owe you some money.”

Captain Blackeye grinned, set the guide down, gripped his black blade, and stepped through the stone door.

Chen Qi followed behind Little Crow, passing through the door into a new cavern.

The stone door was enormous, with a handle and a sliding latch mechanism.

Once inside, Chen Qi immediately turned and joined the pirates in using brute strength to shut the door—blocking the monsters behind.

Boom! Boom!

Just in time—no sooner had it closed than monsters began slamming against it from outside.

“They won’t get through right away. We’ve got a bit of time.”

Chen Qi studied the door.

Although it was covered in cracks, its material seemed special—likely able to hold out for a while.

But only for a while…

Chen Qi brushed the dust off his hands. Even through the cracks, he could feel the hot breath of the sea beasts outside.

With the door sealed, panic and chatter broke out among the pirates.

“My hand! It’s bleeding!”

“I’ve made enough money. Once we finish this job, I’m heading back to town to buy my woman back from those gangsters.”

“D**n it… I wanna lay on a big sister’s lap. And chest.”

“I’m alive! I made it! I’m still alive!”

“Bunch of cowards! Can’t believe the new guy the ship medic brought has more guts than you lot.”

In this brief window of safety, the panting pirates sat down, celebrating their survival.

Though short, what they’d just endured was undeniably a desperate, life-and-death sprint.

Chased nonstop by monsters—even these seasoned pirates were emotionally frayed.

Some glanced at Chen Qi. His composure had surpassed even the veterans.

Little Crow shot him a glance and calmly said:

“Cry if you want. Complain if you have to. But wait till we’re back on the ship—got it?”

Got it… Chen Qi stretched out his limbs, his clothes soaked with sweat.

What a brutal marathon!

Unlike the others, he didn’t feel fear.

He actually felt a bit of excitement—and the physical rush from all that running.

After all, those sea beasts didn’t see him as prey.

“Don’t be afraid. We’re safe—for now.”

Little Crow tried to calm everyone, shaking her head. Even for someone obsessed with the deep sea like her, the primal fear in her body still lingered.

“Mm…”

Chen Qi nodded and lifted his head, beginning to carefully examine the area.

This place was less a temple and more like an altar.

Ahead of them was a grand staircase leading upward.

Near the base of the stairs was a large, conspicuous fissure—clearly man-made.

The staircase rose about twenty meters, and at its peak stood a massive wall.

On the wall were countless engraved marks, all resembling wave-like “ones.”

And beneath that wall—

Chen Qi’s pupils contracted sharply.

A weathered Turquoise Chest, ancient in hue, sat just below the wall.

There was no doubt—this was the treasure from his vision. The true goal of their journey!

The Deep Sea Hunter’s Treasure!

Everyone looked up, drawn by the sight of that turquoise prize.

“We found it!”

“Goddess!”

“Treasure! Gold, riches, blessings!”

In that moment, after a long voyage and life-threatening battles, even hardened pirates couldn’t hold back their excitement.

Little Crow smiled too, her face filled with disbelief:

“It… it really exists…”

Captain Blackeye’s hand trembled as he held his blade:

“Yeah… it actually exists…”

In truth, Captain Blackeye had kept something very important from everyone—

The authenticity of the intel.

There were many rumored locations of the Deep Sea Hunter’s Treasure, but after being passed through time, most of them were nothing but false legends.

According to the information he got from his superior, there were as many as seventy possible places where the treasure could be buried!

This Sea Beast Cavern was just one of the possibilities.

And the Sawshark was just one of countless ships searching for the treasure—completely unremarkable.

Their expedition was nothing more than a gambler’s desperate shot in the dark.

Captain Blackeye had dragged them into this life-or-death gamble on his own.

But what he never expected… was that the treasure actually existed—and it had been found by their Sawshark!

That treasure above the stairs, the Deep Sea Treasure, radiated an irresistible power that drew everyone’s eyes.

“Ah~”

Captain Blackeye let out a breathy moan and stepped forward in a daze.

Chen Qi wasn’t drawn in. Instead, he kept scanning the surroundings.

This Rift had a distortion level of 0%, and it wasn’t even hard to find.

That meant there was a good chance that others had come here before them—but none of them had managed to take the hunter’s treasure.

There was no way this treasure could be claimed just by walking up the stairs.

Chen Qi crouched down and examined the ground.

There was a clearly visible crack line on the floor.

This line…

Chen Qi frowned. He could faintly hear a writhing, slithering sound.

He looked around at the walls and noticed tiny fragments of white bones.

Something’s not right… Chen Qi gently ran his hand across the floor:

“Sis Crow, I think this is a warning line. We’d better not cross it.”

“Hm?”

Little Crow looked down and finally noticed the clearly marked line on the floor.

It looked like it had been slashed by a blade—extremely visible.

The others, hearing Chen Qi’s words, all took a few steps back.

Right now, everyone craved the treasure atop those stairs—but no one dared to make a move.

Boom! Boom!

The sound of sea beasts pounding the stone door came from behind them again!

A pincer trap… Chen Qi thought grimly.

Clearly, they couldn’t stay in this place for long.

Captain Blackeye gripped his blade. As the highest-ranking person here, it was time for him to step up.

Though the Sawshark didn’t have many people, it had no shortage of talent.

Chen Qi hadn’t paid close attention before, but now he noticed that quite a few capable people were in this crew.

Captain Blackeye looked at a third-rate scholar in the group who had studied history and said:

“Scholar, can you decipher the symbols on that wall?”

A scholar too… Chen Qi blinked in mild surprise.

“Me?” The scholar was startled, pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, and studied the densely packed ‘one’ markings on the wall. He cleared his throat and said:

“Hmm… yes.

These symbols clearly represent waves. The density suggests ancient humans’ primal reverence toward the ocean.

Their appearance here likely serves to test our respect for the sea.”

“A test of our respect for the sea…”

Captain Blackeye scratched his head, clearly having no idea what to do.

He shot a look at the guide.

“You can handle it, right?”

These kinds of trap-clearing tasks usually fell to this particular guide.

The guide looked at the crack on the ground and smiled confidently:

“Leave it to me. I’ve got this!

I’m a professional, after all!”

Tch—hearing that, Chen Qi frowned.

The guide casually picked up a large stone and tossed it across the crack line.

The stone rolled slowly over the line—and nothing happened.

Carefully following the stone’s path, the guide tiptoed forward and stepped across the warning line.

“No ground traps—”

Two seconds after crossing, the guide smiled smugly.

Boom!

The moment he smiled, a massive tentacle burst from the wall above with unimaginable speed and gave a light smack.

Whoosh!

All Chen Qi heard was a sharp tearing sound as the guide was slammed into the wall, his body almost completely shattered—bones crushed, blood gushing—incapable of getting back up.

Just like that, he was gone… Even with mental preparation, it still shocked Chen Qi.

That guide had been a Transcendent specialized in agility—and very cautious too!

The speed of that attack was far beyond what a normal person could react to.

In the midst of crisis, there was no time to mourn. Everyone instinctively looked up.

On that enormous wall, the countless ‘one’ patterns began to move, revealing an inky scarlet color.

All those ‘ones’ slowly opened.

Only now did the pirates realize—these weren’t ancient carvings of ocean waves.

They were closed eyes.

It had awakened…

As it opened further, hundreds of giant crimson eyes revealed themselves.

A wall of blood-colored tentacles loomed high above, gazing down on everyone below.

Chen Qi involuntarily swallowed hard.

This was exactly what his vision had predicted.

Beneath the Scarlet Eye—

Lay the Deep Sea Hunter’s Treasure.