This is probably the promise that the mysterious voice gave them, promising that after they return to the ground, they can be turned back into humans again.

Grain mites

But... did they succeed?

Xu Xin looked around the altar. Apart from this ring, there was nothing else related to Chang Yin Xuelan's family.

He thought of the process by which the beast statue transformed into the beast.

Blood-red patterns crawled all over the body, and then the statue cracked, a red light became brighter, and finally the statue shattered. A mid-level mutated blood-marked beast emerged from the broken stone statue, as if it had shed a layer of stone skin.

If this is also the process of Chang Yin's family becoming human...

Xu Xin took a deep breath.

The first step in transforming a statue into a living being is to spread blood-red patterns all over the statue.

If this was true, they had likely become mutated humans, just like the first survivors in the dungeon who had blood-marked hair growing all over their bodies, becoming mutated monsters.

Of course, this is just Xu Xin's guess, but this guess is not impossible, and it is even quite likely.

"Is this really going to happen..." Xu Xin was extremely worried about the Changyin family. They were his close friends. He had helped them get to the surface, and without their help, he probably wouldn't be able to get back.

He really didn't want anything to happen to the Changyin family. Not only did they have the ability to make contracts that he didn't have, but they were also partners he recognized in his heart.

While worried, he thought of what the maid had said to Xue Lan.

"Ma'am, there's no need to rush about that matter. It's useless to go now. We can wait until dark before setting off."

This is what she said when she persuaded Xue Lan to visit Xu Xin's tree house.

It's useless to go there during the day, it's only useful at night.

...Could it be that the altar at night is different from the altar during the day?

Thinking about it carefully, he had indeed never seen the altar at night. The latest was only dusk, and there was still sunset glow in the sky. It would take some time before dark. He didn't want to be outside until dark, so he hurried back to the tree house.

"...Come over and take a look tonight." Xu Xin planned to come over here fully armed tonight to take a look.

If the Changyin family really has any trouble, he can do his part to help.

Xu Xin checked the altar knife in the altar again and unexpectedly found that the altar knife was no longer in the altar. The small stone drawer was now empty.

"...was it taken away by Chang Yin and the others?" Xu Xin muttered to himself, "Could it be that they are still operating in this resource area?"

Last time, Xu Xin took the altar knife back to the tree house, which led to the appearance of the blood-veined troll. Since nothing is happening around here now, does that mean that the person with the altar knife is still nearby?

But Xu Xin had just explored almost every place around him and didn't find anything else moving.

There were no red dots on the map. Of course, the Changyin family, like Coco and the Giant Crocodile, didn't display their targets on the map. He had confirmed this after emerging from the dungeon.

No, there's one place I haven't checked.

The lakes and lake bottoms in this resource area.

"Come on, Silver King, Mimi, let's go to the lake." Xu Xin jumped onto the wolf, and Silver King immediately ran away.

When they arrived at the lake, the lake was in a completely different state from the last time Xu Xin came.

Last time, there were many wild animals drinking from the lake, and there were some red spots in the shallow water, which were crocodiles. But now, both the lakeside and the lake are very calm, and there are no red spots on the map.

Xu Xin could vaguely see a few fish swimming in the lake. They should be the only fish left in the lake.

Xu Xin patted Coco's little head, which was lying on the back of Silver King's neck, and said, "You guys wait on the shore. I'll go down and take a look."

“Ying!” “Ouch!”

He was currently wearing a purple-grade anaconda scale armor suit, which allowed him to move freely underwater. Although he had not yet consumed the newly acquired blue-grade fish bladder that could enhance his ability to resist water pressure, a short dive would not be a problem.

He didn't plan to consume all the blue-level resources here. His dining table, stove, and grill could maximize the effectiveness of the resources. It would be a waste to eat them here.

The lake here shouldn't be that deep, right? Let's go down and take a look first.

Xu Xin didn't eat any water plants either. He took a deep breath and jumped into the water.

He opened his eyes in the water and could see the entire scene in the lake.

It was a very ordinary lake. Its depth gradually increased from the lakeside to the center. It was only about six or seven meters deep in the center. Compared with the lake next to the tree house, this place was much more normal.

He wandered around under the water and found that there were no resources in the lake.

Um?

Before he swam to the center of the lake, Xu Xin found several sets of footprints on the mud at the bottom of the lake.

There were three adult footprints and one child's. The footprints were heavy and sank deep into the soil.

These are the footprints of the Changyin family!

They walked underwater!

Xu Xin quickly swam upstream, ate the water plants, dived again, and swam in the direction of the footprints.

The footprints were not heading straight in one direction, but were winding around at the bottom of the lake, as if they were looking for something.

Finally, the footprints of several people stopped near the center of the lake.

In front of the footprints, there was a deep hole as big as a well. Looking inside, it was pitch black and the bottom was completely invisible.

Come again?

Did they jump?

...Is this back underground again?!

23shu8