Chapter 2178 - 2171: Someone Wants to Be the Backstabber

Zelans had no idea that somewhere in the world, a country called Huaxia had just canceled a public holiday for one of its traditional festivals; the only thing they cared about was whether Zhang Menglong’s body could keep holding out after going without rest for so long.

Even though they were only in the area around 300,000 meters, still a long way from the limit of what their bodies could endure, even a Top-level Explorer would slowly go into overload if they stayed at that depth too long, until they finally collapsed from exhaustion.

This kind of situation had happened before: a Top-level Explorer once kept exploring for two hours straight in Area B. When he finally felt his body reach its limit and wanted to return to the shore immediately, going from that depth back to the surface wasn’t something that could be done in an instant. In that process, he realized he was completely drained and couldn’t keep ascending.

In the end, that Top-level Explorer stayed in the Blood Pond forever.

After that incident, the Explorers’ community slowly formed a habit: no matter how strong you were, no matter how confident you were in your own abilities, after one hour of exploration you had to take a break to let your body and stamina recover. Absolutely no reckless tough-guy acts.

"Menglong, get up here, now!"

The team shared all members’ physical data. That way, once anyone’s body started showing abnormal signs, the others could step in and help at the first moment. This was the most important reason for a team to exist.

Right now, Zhang Menglong’s body metrics were still totally normal, but that didn’t mean there was no danger.

"It’s fine, you guys don’t need to worry about me!"

At that moment, Zhang Menglong had just found a spot where Supreme Crystals were packed extremely densely. He wanted to collect every Supreme Crystal in this entire area before leaving.

In fact, back when Zhang Menglong was taking his license exam, his body had already slowly completed its evolution, fully adapting to the environment of the Blood Pond. His microscopic bodily structure had even mutated to grow many tiny organs specifically for functioning in this environment.

So don’t even talk about just an hour—so long as life could exist here for a long time, Zhang Menglong would only adapt even better than the others. Even if he stayed in the depths of the Blood Pond forever, for him it was no different at all from being on the surface.

"Menglong, maybe you don’t realize this—no one can stay exposed to the Blood Pond environment for too long. Even Top-level Explorers’ bodies will slowly enter a fatigued state. By the time you actually feel that fatigue, it’ll already be too late."

Zelans’s voice clearly sounded a bit anxious.

"Captain, relax. I’m not quite the same as other people. Even if I stay in the Blood Pond the whole time, I won’t run into that kind of situation."

"But..."

Zelans wanted to say more, but Zhang Menglong cut the comm right off—because he had suddenly discovered an area overflowing with blue light!

It was an undersea cave deep in a coastline, basically a blind spot in their field of view. Only one person could pass through, and you had to go down a passage dozens of meters long to reach it. If you didn’t scan this whole region inch by inch, there was no way you’d ever discover this place.

If not for Gou Dan’s reminder, Zhang Menglong would’ve missed it entirely.

"Holy shit!" Zhang Menglong’s eyes went wide.

The area was roughly a space one to two thousand meters long, and inside that space there was actually a thick layer of blue Supreme Crystals piled up, probably in the hundreds of millions!

"Damn, is this really naturally formed and not something someone collected and piled up?" Zhang Menglong even started doubting that.

"We’re rich!"

These were all blue Supreme Crystals. In terms of value, they were equivalent to tens of billions, even hundreds of billions of ordinary Supreme Crystals!

Zhang Menglong immediately started sweeping them up like a storm, stuffing all these Supreme Crystals into his bag.

"Shit, how long is it gonna take me to mine all this by myself?" All these Supreme Crystals were almost grown together with the ground; separating them took quite a bit of effort. He couldn’t do what he used to and just use one All-Encompassing Heavenly Attraction to collect them all in one go.

"Forget it, if I’m eating the meat, I should at least leave people some soup, right?" Zhang Menglong directly sent the image data of this place to Zelans and the others.

...

"That brat actually hung up on me!" Zelans let out a wry smile. Zhang Menglong’s Gifts were indeed insanely overpowered, but the guy was really hard to manage, which gave him a major headache.

But right after that, he suddenly received a picture from Zhang Menglong.

The moment he saw the image, his pupils couldn’t help but dilate a full circle.

It was a mountain of Supreme Crystals, seemingly a hidden area that had never been discovered by anyone!

"This..."

Zelans’s heart was pounding wildly. The number of Supreme Crystals in this spot was even greater than everything he’d seen in his entire life.

"No more rest, we’re getting back to work!" Zelans hurriedly shouted to his teammates.

"Huh?"

"Boss, we’ve only been resting for less than five minutes."

"Yeah, boss, even capitalists have to let people eat, drink, and rest enough before they can keep squeezing out surplus value, right?"

"If you guys rest one more minute, there’ll be someone regretting it later!" Zelans shared the photo with everyone.

"Holy crap! All of that is Supreme Crystals?"

"Menglong found this? No wonder he’s acting like he doesn’t care about his life. If it were me, I’d die here without any complaints!"

"Quit yapping and move out!"

They couldn’t be bothered with resting. It had only been five minutes, and high-tier Transcenders had strong bodily regulation capabilities. Not to mention they’d only burned some stamina and Energy and weren’t injured—they’d already recovered a bit.

They couldn’t say for sure they could keep working for another hour, but staying in the Blood Pond for another thirty or forty minutes shouldn’t be a problem.

"Move it! Move it!"

They wished they could grow a pair of wings and dive straight down to the bottom of the Blood Pond, but going to that depth would take three to five minutes of descent no matter what.

Following the coordinate signal Zhang Menglong had sent, they quickly found the area. Faced with this massive quantity of Supreme Crystals, they were all a little dazed.

"We’re hitting the jackpot today!"

"Don’t just stand there—get to work!" After ten minutes of effort on his own, Zhang Menglong had already collected about one-tenth of the whole pile.

Only then did the others snap out of it and immediately start mining.

"Menglong, you’re solid. You’d actually share a treasure cave like this with us!"

"Yeah, if it were me, I’d definitely memorize this place in secret and slowly haul it out on my own."

"From today on, you’re my brother, life and death together!"

"Hahaha, enough chit-chat, get moving. We’re all riding Menglong’s coattails today. Everyone better keep it in mind how we treat him from now on!"

The few of them kept joking around, but their hands didn’t slow down one bit.

Right at that moment, Zhang Menglong suddenly felt a surge of killing intent coming at him from the side.

His body instinctively flickered sideways, and a weapon like a harpoon stabbed into the spot he’d just been occupying.

Zhang Menglong’s eyes narrowed to slits.

Someone wanted to swoop in and steal the prize like a backstabbing rat!