Chapter 090: Found at Last

Suppressing his excitement, Tang Mubai began practicing Tai Chi amidst the scattered remains of the Blue-Scaled Goo Worms.

The next moment—

[Detected Dao-infused martial art "Tai Chi." Consume 500 years of lifespan to advance it to perfection?]

The system prompt appeared once again.

"Yes!"

This time, Tang Mubai didn’t hesitate and answered in his heart.

Buzz~

His body suddenly shuddered. Tang Mubai’s mind went blank once more, his vision seeming to invert as the walls around him vanished.

All that remained in the world was a black and a white, two Taiji fish slowly revolving.

He didn’t know how long had passed before his consciousness gradually returned.

But the instant he awoke—

[Consume 100 years of lifespan to deduce "Tai Chi"?]

Huh?

Huh!!!

Tang Mubai’s eyes widened in astonishment.

Damn it! He’d just spent 500 years of his lifespan, only to obtain the ability to "deduce Tai Chi"?

Did Tai Chi even need deducing? Wasn’t it still Tai Chi in the end?

Most importantly, the lifespan he’d worked so hard to gain was now down to just 105 years after one upgrade.

If he spent another 100 years, he’d be left with just 5. At that rate, he could fall ill at any moment!

“Damn it all…”

Frustrated, Tang Mubai couldn’t help but curse, putting off the deduction for now.

If he wanted to deduce Tai Chi, he’d have to replenish his vitality!

Now that all these Blue-Scaled Goo Worms were wiped out, he would have to wait for the next swarm…

“Wait a minute!”

Tang Mubai’s gaze swept over the walls. Under the beam of his flashlight, he noticed that in several places along the tunnel walls, the clay had disappeared.

“The clay in the tunnel… the Blue-Scaled Goo Worms have nearly eaten it all?”

He’d half-expected this, but seeing it with his own eyes still left him feeling a bit regretful.

With the clay gone, there likely wouldn’t be another swarm of Blue-Scaled Goo Worms.

This was a significant loss for Tang Mubai.

After all, each wave of Blue-Scaled Goo Worms could increase his lifespan by a century or two.

Now, there would be no more.

He sighed.

“Wait, is that the passage the Blue-Scaled Goo Worms used to come here?”

Suddenly, Tang Mubai spotted a half-man-high tunnel at the far end, nestled in the dimmest corner of the underground chamber.

If one didn’t look carefully, it would be nearly impossible to notice.

“The clay’s almost gone, so the next swarm won’t appear. If I want to hunt Blue-Scaled Goo Worms and reclaim more vitality, maybe I could follow the path they left behind?”

Tang Mubai’s mind spun with possibilities.

The half-man-high passage was enough for him to squeeze through.

If luck was on his side and he found a nest of Blue-Scaled Goo Worms, it would be a great windfall.

If the tunnel narrowed, he could always turn back.

With that thought, Tang Mubai decided to try. Flashlight in hand, he stooped and crawled into the passage.

The narrow, pitch-black corridor was slick with the goo left behind by the worms.

Channeling strength into his legs, Tang Mubai pressed forward along the slippery ground, bent nearly double.

The tunnel wound this way and that—sometimes descending, sometimes rising, often splitting into branches. Tang Mubai relied on his intuition to choose which forks to take, all the while memorizing the path for his return.

Annoyingly, after all this, he hadn’t encountered a single Blue-Scaled Goo Worm.

His back was aching from being bent for so long—a sore, burning pain that even a Constitution of 20 couldn’t fully offset.

Unwilling to give up, Tang Mubai endured the discomfort and pressed on for several more minutes, but still found no trace of the worms. At last, he prepared to turn back.

Just then, voices reached his ears.

He froze and listened intently.

After a moment, Tang Mubai’s expression grew strange.

He swallowed hard, then retreated ten steps, focused his strength into his right fist, and punched through the left-hand tunnel wall.

Boom!

With a thunderous crash, nearly a meter of packed earth was blasted open, revealing a gaping hole.

Beyond the opening lay a vast, brightly lit underground chamber—ten meters high, over two hundred meters long, and more than thirty meters wide—unfolding before Tang Mubai’s eyes.

“Who’s there?!”

“It’s a human! Kill him!”

“Damn it, how did a human find us here? We’re hiding underground!”

“Could someone have leaked our location?”

“Of course! It must’ve been the Red Lake Group! I told you, humans can’t be trusted!”

"…"

A cacophony of shouts and curses erupted, echoing through the enormous chamber like a bustling marketplace.

Tang Mubai stood at the blasted entrance, looking down upon more than a hundred beastmen, all pointing and cursing at him.

That’s right—beastmen!

After searching the city for so long without finding a single beastman, he’d stumbled upon a whole nest of them deep underground.

The chamber’s design clearly showed signs of being renovated from a natural cavern.

Tables and chairs were set around the space, food was laid out, a television in the corner played a movie, and there were other amenities for indoor entertainment.

These more than a hundred beastmen were clearly hiding out here, resting and recuperating.

For the Red Lake Group to carve out such a massive underground refuge for beastmen—it was truly impressive.

Still, watching the beastmen bicker, Tang Mubai couldn’t help but laugh.

The Red Lake Group might be ambitious, but their choice of allies left much to be desired.

He hadn’t said a word, yet they’d already blurted out their identities and most of the reason for their hiding.

Until now, Tang Mubai had wondered why the beastmen he’d encountered in the city were all so cunning.

Yet, the human-collected data described most beastmen as brawny but simple-minded—concerned only with eating, killing, or breeding. While clever beastmen existed, they were rare.

Now, seeing this scene, Tang Mubai understood.

It wasn’t that all beastmen had grown smarter—rather, the clever ones were deliberately selected to operate in the city.

The rest—the brawny, simple-minded ones—were herded underground!

Tang Mubai’s accidental discovery of this place was nothing short of fortune’s favor.

“Silence! All of you, shut up! You idiots, shut up!!!”

A furious roar suddenly erupted, drowning out all other noise.

A towering beastman, more than two and a half meters tall, with bulging muscles and an enraged face, strode forth, berating and cuffing the bickering crowd.

A tremendous, savage aura rolled off him, swiftly filling every corner of the chamber.

Spurred by his presence, the beastmen fell silent, their faces twisted with anger, eyes blazing as they glared daggers at Tang Mubai.

Tang Mubai grinned, waved in greeting, and the next moment, leapt down from the opening to stand before them all.

The towering beastman arched his brow and sneered, “You’re not running?”

…

(P.S. The wind outside is howling, and the house feels like it’s shaking. Dear readers, a vote of recommendation would be comforting right about now, (ΩДΩ）)