79: The world behind the waterfall

The shadow of death loomed over the two of them with an unprecedented sense of reality.

The sight before them was even more despair-inducing than facing the prehistoric Emperor Crocodile. It was pure, irresistible power—the raw might of nature itself.

The Golden Ship was hurtling toward the edge of the underground waterfall at an extreme speed. The precipice was close at hand; they could even feel the hull beneath their feet beginning to tremble slightly due to the acceleration of the current. The mist kicked up by the waterfall lashed at them like a torrential downpour, instantly soaking the two of them to the bone.

"It's over! It's over! This time we're really finished!" Wang Dalong closed his eyes and let out a howl like a slaughtered pig. "I shouldn't have come to this hellhole with you! I'm still young! I haven't even married a wife yet! I haven't seen the films I shot become a global sensation!"

He was delivering his final last words.

Lin Feng also gripped the gunwale tightly, his heart leaping into his throat.

His brain was working frantically. No! The murals didn't mark this place as a dead end! The Golden Ship is the only means of transport; its route should be absolutely safe!

Could it be that the 'Guardian Token' is incomplete, causing a system error? Or is this itself a trial? A final test of courage?

Just as the bow of the Golden Ship was less than ten meters away from the edge of the bottomless abyss!

Another sudden change occurred!

The Golden Ship, which had been moving steadily, suddenly tilted its hull and performed an extreme drift comparable to a stunt speedboat!

The hull carved a graceful golden arc across the water's surface. Without slowing down in the slightest, it swerved at an incredible angle, grazing the edge of the waterfall and plunging into a narrow tributary hidden within the rock wall beside the fall!

"Holy crap!"

Wang Dalong felt like he had been thrown into a tumble dryer; the massive centrifugal force pinned him firmly against the deck. He only had time to let out a distorted cry of alarm. When he opened his eyes again, he found they had rushed into a narrow waterway that could only accommodate a single ship.

And to their right was that thundering, roaring giant waterfall, looking like the Milky Way pouring down from the heavens!

“Whoosh— Rumble, rumble—”

The deafening roar of water felt as if it would tear their eardrums apart. The massive volume of water rushed down almost brushing against their gunwale, and the splashing droplets formed a thick, impenetrable white mist that shrouded the entire world.

They seemed to be sailing on the edge of the world: on one side was the deep, silent ancient waterway, and on the other was the violent abyss that destroyed everything.

This double impact on his visual and sensory perceptions caused Wang Dalong's brain to crash directly; his mouth hung open, but he could no longer make a sound.

The Golden Ship sailed steadily through this tributary. It seemed to be circling the base of the waterfall, heading toward the area behind it.

After sailing for another few minutes, as the vessel turned a massive bend, the sight ahead made the two of them hold their breath once more.

They had arrived behind the waterfall.

A massive curtain of water, hundreds of meters wide, poured down from the cliff above them like a giant, crystal-clear screen, completely isolating this place from the outside world.

Sunlight (perhaps the light from crystals) penetrated the water curtain and was refracted into billions of brilliant rainbows, casting mottled shadows of light within this enormous cavern behind the falls.

Behind the water curtain, a whole new world awaited.

Here was a massive, mist-shrouded circular lake. The lake water was crystal clear, a stark contrast to the pitch-black subterranean river outside. In the center of the lake was a small island covered in lush green trees and teeming with life, looking nothing like it was deep underground.

"This... is this the damn Water Curtain Cave?" Wang Dalong looked at the spectacular curtain of water above his head and stammered, "Brother Feng, do you think a monkey lives on that island, holding a Golden Cudgel?"

Lin Feng ignored his glib talk; his gaze was firmly captured by the sight on the opposite shore of the lake.

At the other end of the lake, there was a pier even more grand and imposing than the previous one.

That pier was built entirely of a stone as black as ink and as polished as a mirror, resembling obsidian. On both sides of the pier's steps stood rows of tall, strangely shaped statues. The style of those statues was no longer the traditional Mayan Feathered Serpent God or Rain God, but rather images Lin Feng had never seen before, closer to alien beings from a science fiction movie.

At the end of the pier was a wide road paved with the same black stone slabs, leading toward an even more massive complex of buildings that radiated an aura of ancient, primordial vastness.

The Golden Ship crossed the lake and slowly, precisely docked beside that obsidian pier.

"We've... reached the station?" Wang Dalong was still somewhat dazed.

Lin Feng nodded. He was the first to jump off the boat, stepping onto the cold, hard obsidian ground.

The moment his feet touched the ground, his heart stirred. He turned back, reached into the notch in the center of the Golden Ship, and retrieved the 'Guardian Token'.

The moment the token was removed, the golden light flowing over the ship rapidly faded, and the red glow in the eyes of the Feathered Serpent God at the bow also extinguished.

The entire ship turned back into a lifeless object once more.

Then, an invisible force pushed it, causing it to slowly and automatically detach from the pier, as if it wanted to turn around and return to the route it came from.

"Don't let it get away!" Lin Feng barked in a low voice.

He immediately pulled out the tough rope he had used in the jungle from his backpack. Wang Dalong also reacted; together, the two of them quickly looped one end of the rope over the Feathered Serpent God statue on the bow and tied the other end tightly to a massive, mushroom-shaped stone bollard by the pier.

The Golden Ship swayed a few times but was ultimately fixed firmly to the side of the pier by the rope.

"Brother Feng, why didn't you let it go back?" Wang Dalong asked, puzzled.

"To cut off their path." Lin Feng looked at the deep waterway, his eyes cold. "We don't know what dangers lie ahead. By keeping this ship, if we need to retreat, it will be our only way out. But for any pursuers, this becomes a dead end. If they can't cross, we'll be safe."

Wang Dalong listened, stunned, and then gave Lin Feng a thumbs-up.

"Brilliant! Brother Feng, that's truly brilliant! This 'burning the bridges' move is absolutely ruthless!"

Having resolved their worries about the rear, the two of them finally turned their gazes back toward the road at the end of the pier that led to the unknown depths.

That was the ultimate destination of their journey.

The true 'El Dorado' was just ahead!