60: The cross behind the waterfall

Under the precise guidance of the star chart, the team marched laboriously for another day.

Everyone's stamina was heavily depleted; even the toughest, Juan, had beads of sweat covering his forehead. Wang Dalong felt as if he had lost ten pounds; his legs felt like they were filled with lead, and every step required immense courage.

However, as they crested a steep mountain ridge, everyone's spirits were lifted.

A deafening roar echoed from ahead, piercing through the dense forest and carrying a damp mist toward them.

"It's the sound of water!" Wang Dalong's eyes instantly lit up. "A waterfall! There's a waterfall ahead!"

The team quickened their pace, hacking through the final green barrier of vines. The sight before them made everyone stop in their tracks.

A short distance ahead, a wide river surged past. Upstream, a massive waterfall cascaded down from a cliff dozens of meters high, looking like the Milky Way hanging upside down. The rising mist even formed a brilliant rainbow under the sunlight.

Beside the waterfall, near the riverbank, stood an incredibly massive ancient tree. Its trunk would take at least a dozen people to encircle, and its gnarled roots rose like small hills, filled with a primitive and powerful vitality.

River, waterfall, giant tree... Lin Feng immediately took out the replica adventure journal and turned to one of the pages. That page had no map, only a riddle that read like a poem:

"When the guidance of the stars reaches its end, you will hear the roar of the dragon. At the source of the roar, beneath the Divine Tree, seek the Eternal Cross; it shall mark the far shore for your crossing."

The roar of the dragon undoubtedly referred to the thunderous sound of the waterfall. The Divine Tree was the towering ancient tree before them.

So, where was the "Eternal Cross"?

Lin Feng's gaze swept the surroundings. He walked around the giant tree and then to the riverbank, carefully examining the rocks along the shore, but found no markings resembling a cross.

"Brother Feng, did you find it?" Wang Dalong also looked around, but saw nothing except rocks and trees.

Lin Feng didn't answer. He stood by the riverbank, staring at the massive waterfall. The water fell from a great height, crashing into the pool below and kicking up a cloud of mist.

His gaze pierced through the hazy mist, landing on the large, smooth rock wall behind the waterfall.

Suddenly, his pupils constricted.

On that black rock wall, worn exceptionally smooth by the rushing water, he saw something. It wasn't man-made, but naturally formed.

Two massive white quartzite veins crossed each other on the black rock wall, forming a perfect, giant, and crystal-clear cross!

Because it was obscured by the waterfall year-round, this mark was extremely well-hidden. It could only be caught through the gaps in the mist from a specific angle.

"Found it." Lin Feng pointed behind the waterfall. "The 'Eternal Cross' is right behind the waterfall."

Everyone looked in the direction he pointed, squinting for a long time before finally catching a glimpse of the giant white cross through the swaying curtain of water.

"My god... you actually found it?" Wang Dalong exclaimed in awe. "This was hidden so deep. If it weren't for you, we'd just be staring blankly even if we made it here."

Juan and Carlos also showed looks of admiration. The designer of this riddle had a level of meticulousness that was simply inconceivable.

With the riddle solved, the next step was crossing the river.

The river before them was about fifty meters wide, with a rapid current. Swimming across was impossible; the only way was to build a raft.

Juan checked the surrounding trees and soon found a type of balsa wood that was light yet tough. Under his direction, the team began to divide the labor: felling trees, stripping leaves, and binding the logs together with sturdy vines.

After two full hours of work, a simple raft large enough to carry five or six people was finally completed.

Looking at the somewhat flimsy-looking raft floating by the water's edge, Wang Dalong's heart began to thump again. "Is this thing... reliable? The current is so fast; I hope it doesn't fall apart halfway across."

"It's the only way," Carlos said. "We must cross before dark. Things in the river are even more dangerous at night."

Juan decided to split the team into two groups for the crossing. He, Carlos, and three support staff would go first, taking some essential supplies to establish a support point on the far shore, then row the raft back for the second group.

Lin Feng, Wang Dalong, and the remaining four support staff waited on the shore.

The arrangement was reasonable, and Lin Feng had no objections.

Juan checked the vines binding the raft, and after confirming they were secure enough, he called the four people in the first group onto the raft. Each of them held a long bamboo pole to control direction and speed.

"We'll signal once we're across," Carlos told Lin Feng, then nodded to Juan.

Juan gave a loud shout, and together with the others, he pushed the raft away from the shore.

The raft wobbled as it entered the main current, and its speed immediately increased. The rushing water pushed the raft downstream, while Juan and his companions used all their strength, bracing their poles against the riverbed, trying to steer the raft toward the opposite shore.

Lin Feng and Wang Dalong watched tensely from the shore.

The raft bobbed up and down in the rapids like a leaf that could be swallowed at any moment. But Juan's skill was indeed superb; under his command, the raft narrowly avoided several submerged rocks, inching closer to the far shore.

It looked like the raft had already passed the center of the river, with less than twenty meters left to the far shore.

Wang Dalong breathed a small sigh of relief and said to Lin Feng, "Looks like they'll make it; they're almost there."

Lin Feng didn't speak, but his brow furrowed deeply. The sense of crisis that had been present since they entered the jungle suddenly became incredibly intense at this moment, like a needle stabbing sharply into his temple.

Danger!

Extreme danger!

The source of danger wasn't from the jungle, but from... the water!

"Watch out!" Lin Feng shouted toward the middle of the river almost instinctively.

But his voice was drowned out by the thunderous roar of the waterfall; the people on the river couldn't hear him at all.

The very next second after he shouted, a sudden change occurred!

Beneath the raft, the calm water suddenly bulged upward without warning, and a colossal shadow surged out from the murky river!

Bang!

With a loud crash, the raft made of thick logs was struck from below as if by an invisible giant hammer, instantly shattering into pieces!

Logs, backpacks, and the five people on the raft were all tossed into the air by that massive force, then splashed into the rushing river like dumplings being dropped into a pot!

Everyone on the shore was stunned by this sudden turn of events, their minds going blank.

The giant creature that had overturned the raft finally revealed its true form.

It wasn't a submerged rock, nor was it a crocodile.

It was a hideous and massive snake head! The part protruding from the water alone was larger than a water buffalo's head! Its dark green scales glinted with a metallic sheen under the sun, and a pair of yellow, emotionless slit pupils coldly scanned the humans struggling in the water.

"An... anaconda..." Wang Dalong's voice trembled uncontrollably, and the color drained from his face instantly.

The giant anaconda didn't seem interested in the others; it had only one target. Its massive body twisted in the water, charging like lightning toward the nearest support staff member.

The poor man was still splashing in the water, trying to swim to shore. Before he could even let out a full scream, the gaping maw—large enough to swallow a deer—descended from above, gulping down his upper body in one bite!

A tooth-gritting crunch of shattering bone sounded clearly even over the roar of the waterfall.

Blood instantly stained a large patch of the river red.

The giant snake didn't linger. After swallowing its prey, its massive body swayed, and it actually crawled directly onto the opposite shore, dragging its dozen-meter-long, bucket-thick body as it quickly vanished into the shadows of the jungle.

Everything happened too fast; from the raft being overturned to the giant snake's disappearance, the entire process took no more than ten seconds.

On the river's surface, only broken wood and churning waves remained.

The surviving Juan, Carlos, and two other support staff swam desperately toward the far shore, finally scrambling onto land in a panic before being swept away by the current.

The four of them collapsed onto the muddy ground on the shore, soaked to the bone, their faces filled with the terror and daze of having narrowly escaped death.

Meanwhile, Lin Feng, Wang Dalong, and the remaining four companions were stranded on this side of the river, staring blankly at the blood-stained water and the now-empty opposite shore.