I Became the Alchemy Master by Picking Up Trash-Chapter 227 - 225: Underground Lake

The unexpected truth came to light, making Chu Yunyi amused yet helpless. He said to the three, "No matter who is causing trouble in the dark, his target is Team Tian Yi. You were just collateral damage. I sincerely apologize!"

Chu Yunyi knew well that the person who went to pull the flag after Team Tian Yi landed on the island is most likely himself. Coupled with the Enchantment Array on the race flag that attacks the Spirit Sea, it was practically a trap custom-made for him. So the mastermind’s target was actually only him.

If it weren’t for Cui Tianxiao, this color-blind friend, making a blunder, the three people from the Defiant Team who touched the flag simultaneously with him, sharing more than half of the Enchantment Array’s damage, Chu Yunyi’s Spirit Sea would have surely collapsed.

"Brother Chu, have you made any enemies? Or is there anyone who wishes you dead?"

Li Xing was not foolish. Although Chu Yunyi did not explicitly say it, she also knew that all these means were likely targeted at him alone.

"I haven’t made enemies, but many people want me dead. For example, the Chu Family’s business competitors, or my father’s illegitimate children. But I don’t think they have the ability to extend their claws into the military school’s competition arena."

The person capable of replacing the race flag with a Teleportation Key must be a member of the event’s team, but with one person’s power alone, it is not enough to succeed.

Conservatively speaking, at every stage of the event’s team, dozens of important positions have been infiltrated by the mastermind. That’s why the fake race flag went through multiple inspections without being discovered.

Chu Baili would surely figure this out too, and has probably already sent people to investigate.

If Chu Yunyi’s prediction is accurate, everyone involved in this matter, at the moment they were successfully teleported, had already become discarded pawns. The clues would perfectly end at the pawns, and even if uncovered, they wouldn’t affect the real mastermind.

After years of nurturing and investment, being discarded after one use shows that the mastermind’s strength is extraordinarily vast, far beyond what those few business families or his incompetent half-siblings could achieve.

Across the entire Qianyuan Continent, only the Zhuxian Sect is capable of such feats.

Chu Yunyi couldn’t help but suspect that his identity had been exposed, prompting the Zhuxian Sect to sacrifice several high-ranking and powerful pawns, risking the attention of the Elder Council, to eliminate him, their biggest threat.

Unfortunately, the Zhuxian Sect’s meticulous plans didn’t foresee the presence of three additional variables.

Ye Qingting said, "We’ve been in here for a long time and, other than some small Star Beasts, haven’t run into any danger. Maybe that person saw we were a formidable group and left."

Cui Tianxiao looked adorably at Chu Yunyi and hesitated, "You mean to say, I shielded the Chu God from disaster?"

Chu Yunyi chuckled, "That’s right. Without you, I might have been dead by now."

Ye Qingting gave Cui Tianxiao a heavy slap on the back, jolting him: "Ah Xiao, your luck was poor throughout the race; turns out it was all building up to become a koi. Impressive, impressive!"

Praised by Qingtian, Cui Tianxiao immediately forgot about the cloud of misfortune hanging over his head and felt competent again.

At this moment, the metal can heated up once more, displaying text. Chu Yunyi glanced at it and told everyone:

"Baili Ancestor advises us to head in the direction where the air flows, which matches with our current plan. If, at the next junction, we find airflow in other passages, we abandon this route and take another. If not, we continue downward."

No one had objections. Ye Qingting and Cui Tianxiao adjusted their mindsets, and the four of them advanced in a wedge formation.

The squad passed through over a dozen branching paths without feeling any signs of airflow, forcing them to follow the original route downward.

On the journey, they cut through obstacles, warding off several waves of blind Star Beasts, and finally reached a gigantic underground cavern. Massive stalactites hung from above, and below was a lake spanning several thousand meters squared.

Whether it’s due to the insufficient brightness of the Fluorite or the depth of the water, the lake appeared pitch black, giving off an oppressive aura. The surface was unusually calm, occasionally disturbed by droplets from the stalactites, forming ripples.

Chu Yunyi surveyed the surroundings, surprised to find this enormous cavern had over a hundred passage exits, some towering dozens of meters high, others barely large enough for a person to squeeze through. This cavern was like a super transportation hub, stretching out in all directions.

With so many passages, determining the direction to advance was a meticulous task. Chu Yunyi expanded his Primordial Spirit and examined each passage one by one.

While Chu Yunyi was determining the passages, the other three wandered leisurely around the cavern.

This cavern must have been a massive sinkhole millions of years ago, filled by underground water, forming the lake. The lake sat in the cavern’s center, surrounded by a ring of dry land forming a levee.

Despite being close to a water source, there were virtually no plants in the cavern. The ground was littered with gray insect eggs, densely packed together, leaving no room to step.

Most of these eggs remained intact, but a few were cracked at the tip, proving that something had hatched from them.

Cui Tianxiao accidentally stepped on a cracked eggshell, which collapsed into dust upon impact. After thousands of years, these eggshells had long since weathered.

Cui Tianxiao clicked his tongue: "These eggs wouldn’t be sand snake eggs, would they?"

Ye Qingting broke a whole insect egg open with his bare hands, revealing the fossilized creature inside.

The insect, akin to an oversized silkworm, curled up within the egg, stretching between two to two and a half meters long upon estimation.

Cui Tianxiao exclaimed, "There’s really something inside! But...it doesn’t look like a sand snake!" A bit cute.

Ye Qingting replied, "The larvae of sand snakes and the adult forms are vastly different. The larvae are chubby and resemble silkworms, but grow disfigured later."

"The renowned Ruoye Silk is actually produced by them, which is why sand snake larvae are also known as ’sand caterpillars.’"

Li Xing gazed at the ground full of insect eggs, puzzled: "Since sand snakes lay so many eggs and aren’t short on food, they shouldn’t be extinct."

Ye Qingting explained, "It’s said that the genes of sand snakes suddenly collapsed, preventing the majority of eggs from hatching properly. The few sand caterpillars that do hatch rarely reach adulthood."

Li Xing remained silent. Generally, ancient species have stable genes, so why did they suddenly collapse? It was puzzling.

The three strolled along the lakeshore, with Cui Tianxiao poking at the sand caterpillar eggs, lagging behind.

Suddenly, with a ’splash,’ a silvery white thread shot out from the water, quickly wrapping around Cui Tianxiao’s waist.

The incident occurred so suddenly that, caught unprepared, Cui Tianxiao was yanked down by the silver thread, his body swiftly being pulled toward the lake.

Just as Cui Tianxiao was about to drop into the lake, Ye Qingting leapt and grabbed his hand, while Li Xing caught hold of Ye Qingting, the two exerting their strength to finally halt Cui Tianxiao’s backward slide.

By this point, Cui Tianxiao had recovered from his daze, pulling out his Thunderbolt Bow and converting it to close-range mode, fiercely cutting at the silver thread. To his surprise, the thread, as thin as a hair, was incredibly strong, the sharp edge of the Thunderbolt Stick unable to slice through it.

"What the heck is this?" He thought he had turned his luck around, but it turned out he was still so unlucky!

While Cui Tianxiao wrestled with the silver thread, another ’splash’ was heard, and a massive creature emerged from the lake water.