Chapter Thirty-One: Zhang San’s Unusual Encounter, Part Two (Please Vote for Your Recommendation)

“Huh?!” Just as Zhang San was about to leave, that inexplicable feeling of attraction surfaced once more.

“This… This isn’t a dream?!” He shuddered, a chill running down his spine. Such strange events were happening to him. The more one knows, the more tragic the death; the less one knows, the more fatal the outcome. This was wisdom passed down by ancestors, paid for in blood.

“Your Majesty… I fear I can no longer serve you…” Zhang San had never read in any book about something that could exert such an alluring pull. This must be another horror, he thought. The thing that drew him seemed to lurk somewhere deep within the tunnel ahead, relentlessly provoking his fragile nerves.

“An uncanny event ahead, a skeleton lurking behind…” Zhang San was caught in a dilemma.

“If only I hadn’t run down this tunnel—now even the way back is gone!” No need to deliberate: without extraordinary skills, turning back meant certain death; pressing forward, he might meet an even more painful end.

“Yet another damned choice!” he cursed under his breath.

“What did I ever do to deserve this…” After much inner turmoil, Zhang San decided to keep going. He’d come this far; retreat was impossible, and standing still was not an option. To explore the unknown was in the nature of the Block People. Before he died, he would at least discover what terrifying thing was drawing him, satisfy his curiosity, and die without regret.

“Gulp!” Zhang San swallowed a nonexistent lump in his throat and moved forward.

The uneven stone floor continued to cut painfully at his feet. Don’t ask why he didn’t put on leather boots—by now, he had no energy to care about such things. His attention was fully consumed by the mysterious presence ahead.

Strangely, the long tunnel hadn’t spawned a single monster.

“Here it is!” The tunnel ended in a spacious chamber, clearly another small underground mine connected to the large cavern from before. Inside, Zhang San found iron, coal, copper, and a yellow mineral he couldn’t identify, along with naturally formed stalagmites and granite columns.

“It’s not here!” He pressed deeper into the mine, following the pull.

There, he discovered a downward tunnel; whatever was attracting him lay further below.

In recorded history, books described the underground world with mixed opinions. Some praised its gifts—minerals that changed human society and ushered in a new era. Others warned that the underground was a realm of darkness and monsters; whenever a monster tide erupted, caves leading below would spew forth terrifying creatures. Folklore claimed the deeper one ventured, the stranger, more dangerous, and powerful the monsters became. Legends spoke of horrifying beings, varied in form and bizarre in ability, known as “peculiar types.”

After much searching, Zhang San found only one downward tunnel in the mine; again, he had no choice but to press on.

Along the way, he discovered several more mines of differing shapes and sizes, but each shared a common feature: only one tunnel led deeper underground. Thus, Zhang San kept moving downward.

Had Mo Fangyuan been here, he would have shouted with excitement—this vast network of mines reached at least a hundred layers below the surface, offering gold, lapis lazuli, rubies, emeralds, and most coveted of all, redstone. If they could turn this into a proper mine, the Block Kingdom would develop anew, and after a few years of gathering strength, crushing the Skeleton King and Zombie King would no longer be a dream.

Zhang San knew all this, but he vowed to wait until he made it out alive before considering any such plans.

He didn’t know how much time had passed. Hungry, he ate a few more loaves of bread. For this journey, he’d brought half a stack of bread and a stack of baked potatoes—enough to fill two inventory slots, but sufficient for long-term survival.

He glanced back at the pitch-black tunnel behind him; he knew there was no turning back now.

The deeper he went, the more labored his breathing became, and the heavier the sense of oppression. He didn’t know the cause, but it was decidedly unpleasant.

“Should I go back, or keep moving forward?” Zhang San hesitated; with this negative effect draining him, his stamina would dwindle rapidly, and the time his food could sustain him would be greatly reduced.

“Hm? Is that light?” Looking ahead, Zhang San was startled to see a faint red glow in the distance. It was subtle, but unmistakably light.

He felt no joy or excitement—only terror. Light appearing at such depths? Impossible, he thought. Whatever was down there was almost certainly something bizarre.

Zhang San wanted to retreat, but the pull grew stronger, preventing him from turning back.

“I’m really out of options now…” He took out paper and pen from his inventory.

“On the tenth day of the seventh month, in the thirty-second year of the Block Kingdom, its most loyal subject, Zhang San, dies here…”

He finished his will and pressed it beneath a small stone block. Trembling, he walked on, as if heading toward his final resting place.

“Thump! Thump!” Reaching the entrance, a wave of scorching air hit him.

He hadn’t seen such intense light in ages; his eyes were overwhelmed, and he almost collapsed. After a moment to adjust, he looked down—and what he saw defied description.

It was an impossibly vast space, rivaling the total area of the Block Kingdom. Five or six blocks below the entrance, thick red liquid churned and bubbled. In the red viscous sea, bubbles formed and burst continuously.

In the underground lake of red liquid, a long stone pillar stood at its center, as if supporting the entire subterranean world.

“Could this be the legendary magma?” Zhang San had only read about magma in mythic tomes. It was said to appear only below the 150th layer, burning hot enough to destroy anything that fell in, forever denying resurrection.

“I dare not approach these things!” In such heat, lingering too long could mean heatstroke—a dangerous fate indeed.

As he tried to retreat, the irresistible pull seized him once more.

“What the hell? Does it want me to go down?” Zhang San panicked, struggling to control his body.

“Brother, this is no joke—down there is the legendary magma! If I jump, I’ll die!”

“No! Don’t! I don’t want even my experience orbs to vanish!” His body was manipulated by some strange energy, or perhaps a will. He couldn’t move, only watch himself step by step toward the edge.

“This time, not even my experience orbs will remain…” Zhang San shut his eyes, but felt no pain.

“What’s going on?” He tried to open his eyes, but thought better of it—he’d already fallen into the magma lake; how could he still be alive? Surely some strange creature had caught him.

“Don’t open your eyes, absolutely don’t open your eyes!” He muttered, clenching his eyelids even tighter.

“Gulp! Gulp!” Bubbles in the magma lake kept bursting, and Zhang San’s heart grew ever colder. What sort of monster could drag him out of a magma lake?

“Hey, you’ve played dead long enough—time to open your eyes!” A clear voice echoed in Zhang San’s mind.

Lost in his wild imaginings, Zhang San was jolted awake. The voice was pure, yet carried a hint of seduction; aloof, yet tinged with wildness…

Zhang San could already picture the owner of this celestial voice.