Ergou's family is very poor. The yard is not surrounded by earthen walls, but by a fence made of branches and sticks.
Zhou Yuan rummaged around to find a relay point, then lifted his foot and flipped in.
The entire yard was pitch black, without any lights. He approached the only decent main house in the yard and carefully lay down by the window.
"Mom, I'm cold."
"Go soak in the warm water quickly. Dad, don't go to the Dragon Palace to steal treasures again. If you go a few more times, Ergou will die."
"I don't dare go there again. Ergou almost didn't make it back today. I won't go there again."
"What? Didn't Ergou take it according to the method I gave you? Don't dare to offend the Dragon Palace guards. This is how my boss got away with it. Ergou, don't do this again."
A young woman's voice was heard, and Zhou Yuan guessed that she was Ergou's new wife Cui Niang.
"Cui Niang, tell us the entrance to our Dragon Palace. We are blessed by you, so how dare we disobey you?
It's just that people's steps are of different sizes. You said you could only take thirty-six steps, but Ergou attracted the attention of the Dragon Palace guards after taking thirty-two steps.
Fortunately, he ran fast and was not greedy, otherwise he would have been stabbed in the back."
"Well, it's also Shitou's fault for not being smart. If he had come into our house, he would have gone into trouble for Ergou.
In this village, we can trust Stone. As long as he stays as his own family, our two families can become one."
"Dad, why are you saying that? It's embarrassing.
But you are right, I only trust our family. If I went to someone else's house, I wouldn't dare to tell them about the Dragon Palace.
I was afraid they would bury me alive for those beads."
"Cui Niang, give me a hand and add some hot water to Er Gou so he can be scalded thoroughly."
“Hey, here I come…”
Zhou Yuan was stunned as he listened outside the house. He thought, "Ergou's family doesn't have a fever, right?"
There is a Dragon Palace under the Qingsha River under the stone arch bridge. Can Ergou steal things from the Dragon Palace?
"Huhu..., finally alive.
The Dragon Palace is not a place for humans to stay. It's freezing cold inside, and going there once can kill you."
“Father, mother, and wife, we have taken more than twenty beads, which makes us rich, but we cannot show it to the public.
If I come back from military service, we'll call it my trophy.
If I don't come back, and Brother Shitou comes back, you can say it's my relic."
"Bah, what nonsense are you talking about? I'll definitely be able to come back.
When you come back, we will move to the city and live a good life."
"No, Dad, if we all leave, who will mark the ground regularly?
If a heavy rain changes the river's course, future generations won't be able to find the entrance to the Dragon Palace."
"That's right. We have to leave a way out for the younger generation. When you come back, take Cui Niang into the city, and your mother and I will stay here."
After waiting for a while, Zhou Yuan heard the family's yearning for a better life, and then he tiptoed out of Ergou's yard.
“I underestimated Ergou. I didn’t expect this family to be so calculating.
I thought Ergou was genuinely sharing everything with me, but it turns out he was attracted to my helpless and easy-to-win family background."
"This Cui Niang is also a smart person, and Ergou's family has no choice.
If she were to fall into a family with many brothers, they might actually kill her for the so-called Dragon Palace."
Zhou Yuan didn't know whether the so-called Dragon Palace was real or fake, but there must be some place in the Qingsha River that produced pearls and was dangerous but controllable, so that Ergou's family could benefit from it.
He walked towards the moonlight and soon arrived under the stone arch bridge.
I saw a thick layer of algae floating on the river. The water was a little turbid, but the flow was relatively steady.
Zhou Yuan took off his clothes, held the hatchet tightly in his mouth, and dived into the river with a splash.
He originally thought that the so-called entrance to the Dragon Palace would be very secret, otherwise Ergou's family would not have said anything about marking and counting steps.
But what he didn't expect was that the entrance, which was very secretive to Ergou's family, was extremely conspicuous in his eyes.
He saw a black vortex on the riverbed covered with mud, sand and aquatic plants.
There were two lines of blood words written on it.
【Instance: General Qingsha's Lair】
【Recommended challenge level 15, recommended challenger group 5-10】
Very good, the challenge level and number of challengers are clearly marked, and the gamification vision has made new contributions.
However, there was a small problem. There was no character level mark on Zhou Yuan's attribute panel.
"Is there a bug? What the hell is challenge level?
My gamification shouldn't be a different system from this instance, so how can there be incompatibility? "
Zhou Yuan was not surprised to see the copy information. He was used to the health bars all over the streets, so it was not surprising to see a copy portal.
But he couldn't understand why the challenge level was marked on the dungeon portal, but he himself didn't have this attribute.
"Ergou said thirty-six steps is the safe zone. His legs are short, so I won't compete with him. I'll just take twenty steps."
Zhou Yuan didn't plan to back down. After all, Ergou's family had already done the experiment. It would be a shame not to take a look at such a good opportunity.
He lunged downwards and made contact with the dark portal.
The next moment, he entered a spacious passage. The length of the passage was limited, but its width was comparable to a four-lane road on Blue Star.
The most important thing is that the ground is paved with dark red coral, and pearls of various qualities are inlaid in the gaps of the coral, like a starry avenue.
On both sides of the passage stood six monsters with shrimp heads and human bodies, holding three-pronged forks and standing motionless, like solid stone statues.
Not only do they have blood bars on their heads, but they also have their identity information marked on them.
【Level 15 Cold Wave Shrimp】
The bone-chilling cold permeated the entire passage, and the water droplets on Zhou Yuan's body actually showed signs of freezing.
"There are plenty of pearls underfoot, why did Ergou insist on running to the edge of the safe zone?"
Zhou Yuan picked up a hatchet and pried it open, only then did he understand why Cui Niang's ex-husband and Er Gou approached the shrimp-headed monster.
The reason was that these pearls were inlaid very firmly and were difficult to pry off. Zhou Yuan pried them for a while and broke quite a few of them, leaving only two in good condition.
The amazing thing is that the closer you get to the cold wave shrimp soldiers, the brittler the coral ground becomes, and the chance of prying out intact pearls becomes much higher.
Fortunately, Zhou Yuan’s purpose in coming here was not to collect pearls, but to check out the Dragon Palace mentioned by Ergou and the copy in his own eyes.
So, after harvesting six pearls and taking about twenty steps, he gave up the urge to go on.
Although these shrimp soldiers look like gatekeepers based on their names and levels, they can cause temperature changes in a small area.
No matter how stubborn Zhou Yuan was, he knew he couldn't defeat the other party. There was no need to attract the other party's hatred and experience the other party's attack power personally.
The last guy was so stubborn that his wife remarried. Ergou's family has to thank that big brother very much.
However, not having any contact or attempt does not mean that Zhou Yuan cannot estimate the strength of these cold wave shrimp soldiers.
“Assuming a game rhythm, the initial character attribute is 1, and each level up gains at least one attribute value.
Then the difference in attribute value between me and the Frost Tide Shrimp Soldier is at least fifteen points, and the difference in skill is impossible to estimate."
"Of course, this assumption is just an ideal state, and the actual gap may be even more exaggerated.
With such strength, coupled with the dungeon's refreshing feature, they can truly be called immortal demons."