I saw Leopard take out his diving gear under the boat, and I cursed him under my breath as an old fox.
It was purely by chance that this guy saved me, but he had hidden his equipment beforehand.
This means that if I had really dumped him before, it would have been completely impossible for me to find this equipment when something happened.
As the leopard distributed our equipment, the cave began to shake violently, and the water in the underground river started to churn.
"Thump!"
As a huge rock landed not far from us, the waves nearly capsized the hovercraft. I saw Miao Xiaoxian almost fall in and grabbed her wrist.
Immediately afterwards, large and small stones fell like raindrops, and huge cracks appeared on the mountain walls on both sides.
"The walls of these caves have been hollowed out and filled with a large amount of clay minerals that expand when exposed to water. After the rocks on the cave ceiling melted, the water flowed deep into the mountainside, and this place is about to collapse."
Leopard reached out and grabbed the handrails on both sides of the hovercraft, shining his flashlight overhead: "After the boat capsizes, we'll need to swim a long way, so we need to conserve our energy now! Look up and watch out for falling rocks! Keep your feet on the boat and be ready to jump off at any moment. If you jump too late, Xiaoming will be done for!"
After shouting that, the leopard steered the oars to avoid falling rocks. I seized the opportunity to put on my diving mask and snorkel, and asked Miao Xiaoxian, "Can you swim?"
Miao Xiaoxian nodded: "I was able to go into the water and catch fish by myself when I was five years old. I'm a very good swimmer, so you don't need to worry about me."
Hearing her say that, I felt relieved.
As we continued drifting, the mountain began to collapse, and large amounts of mud gushed out from the cracks in the walls.
"Bang!"
With a loud crash, a large rock suddenly fell into the river ahead, tilting and blocking our path.
Seeing this, the leopard dropped the oar: "Prepare to jump boat! Swim over under that rock! Once you're in the water, you can't see what's above. If you get trapped underwater by the rock, you're doomed! Whoever gets out alive is up to fate! Ready, jump!"
I heard the leopard's shout, kicked the boat, and plunged into the icy river.
Without the leopard's flashlight, my vision was completely dark, and I could only passively swim forward with the current.
"Bang!"
A few seconds later, my body crashed into a rock, and then I groped my way to the crevice beneath the rock.
As I moved underwater, rocks kept falling into the water and hitting me. Although they weren't big, they still made my whole body ache.
"Thump!"
Just as I touched the bottom of that rock, a loud crash came from behind me, and a wave of water instantly pushed me far away. I heard the sound of water splashing down a few seconds later.
This scene made my heart tighten.
That was close!
If I had been just two or three seconds slower, I probably would have been smashed into a pile of minced meat by now and left here to feed the fish.
As I swam, I could hear the sound of stones falling into the water all around me. I felt like a fallen leaf floating on the water, drifting with the current.
In this situation, the only thing I could do was to take care of myself, so I started swimming forward as fast as I could, because every meter I swam further away from danger meant I was further away from danger.
For the rest of the time, I swam as hard as I could.
The breathing tube I was biting down on provided me with plenty of oxygen, but the icy river water was also frantically consuming my body heat, making my movements slower and slower.
As I swam, I suddenly felt something pulling at my body, but I quickly realized that I had reached the mouth of the underground river.
The presence of this suction force indicates that there is either a river leading underground or a waterfall ahead.
The thought flashed through my mind, and I grabbed the breathing tube and took a deep breath.
Immediately afterwards, my body spun in the water and began to fall.
The riverbed then changed from parallel to sloping, and the force of the current was enough to carry me out without me having to swim any further.
The river here isn't very deep; several times my feet touched the bottom, and it felt like I could reach out and stick my hand out of the water.
I thought that since this river could take us out of the mountains, it must be very long, but after swimming a distance with the current, the force pushing me suddenly decreased.
Not only that, but it seemed like there was water flowing back from the opposite direction, pushing me and rocking me back and forth in the water.
Feeling the turbulence of the water, I surfaced and found that there were no more rocks around. So I shouted, "Ah!"
"ah!!"
"ah!"
"...!"
The echoes came back from all around, and then I swam in one direction.
After swimming about twenty or thirty meters, the water around me became shallower and shallower, allowing me to stand up.
I spat out the breathing tube from my mouth, took two deep breaths, then took the tactical flashlight from my waist and turned it on.
The flashlight shone on the water, casting dappled light and shadows on the surrounding walls.
I am still in the underground riverbed, but the path ahead has been blocked by collapsed rocks, which is why the water flow has slowed down here. The recoil I just felt was because the water flow hit the wall in front of me.
This underground river is a continuous flow, but the riverbed ahead is blocked, and the water level is rising at a visible speed.
I shone my flashlight into the blocked riverbed. The mountain above hadn't completely collapsed yet; the fallen rocks looked like a five- or six-meter-high wall built in the riverbed.
There was a gap of two or three meters between the wall and the cave ceiling. I held the flashlight in my mouth and started climbing up, gripping the rocks.
The riverbed here was blocked by many large rocks, which were piled up together, providing me with many footholds for climbing.
Soon, I climbed to the top of these rocks.
Shining a flashlight forward, I saw that the cave behind had completely collapsed, and the river channel was completely blocked.
There's no way out!
"Snap!"
Just then, I heard a cracking sound above my head.
I shone my flashlight overhead, and a crack appeared directly above me, spreading to both sides.
Then, mud began to slowly flow out from it.
We're trapped!
The riverbed leading away from here has completely collapsed, and the mountain above us has reached its limit.
It will soon be filled with the gushing mud, like a dam bursting its banks.
Bury me and everything here deep underground, so that we may disappear completely from this world.
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