The bullet-like stones struck Lynch's skin but bounced off harmlessly—just like they did with the Empress.
The two guards quickly activated their Armament Haki, forming a protective layer over their bodies.
A black-red aura flickered behind Lynch as he hovered in midair.
The ground beneath the temple was hollow!
Below them yawned a vast, pitch-black abyss—deep, endless, and ominous, like a beast waiting to devour them.
"No! Empress!"
The two guards, unable to use Moonwalk, plummeted into the darkness.
From this height, hitting the ground meant certain death.
Without hesitation, the Empress leaped after them.
Lynch followed immediately, adjusting his descent to control his speed.
The deeper they fell, the darker and more humid the air became. Light faded rapidly, swallowed by the abyss.
At the last possible moment—just before the guards would have been shattered by the impact—Lynch caught them.
The Empress landed right after, nearly crashing into a stone wall.
She looked up. The entrance above had disappeared into the darkness.
Beneath the temple… was a hidden, hollow world.
"Hancock, what's going on?" Lynch set the two guards down.
After murmuring their thanks, the guards quickly pulled out fire starters from their pockets.
A faint flame flickered to life, casting a dim glow around them.
Since they often guarded the temple and tended to the candles, carrying fire starters was a necessity.
Lynch could see clearly in the dark, but the others couldn't.
"I don't know," Hancock admitted. She had never heard of the temple's underground being hollow.
"Should we leave?" she leaned in and asked.
She had a feeling Lynch knew something about this place.
Drip… drip…
A faint water droplet echoed from the distance.
Lynch raised a finger to his lips. "Shh… Listen. There's water nearby."
"If there's water, there could be living creatures. Let's explore first."
"If something ancient is lurking down here, we don't want it sneaking out and attacking people."
"Then let's go~" Hancock smiled, following Lynch's lead.
The four of them moved carefully through the cave, their fire starters casting a dim glow ahead.
The darkness was overwhelming, and sharp stalagmites jutted from the ground, forcing everyone—except Lynch—to move cautiously.
"Hold on, I've got something useful," Lynch suddenly remembered.
He reached into his system space and pulled out a high-powered flashlight.
"Here, use this."
The moment he turned it on, the cave lit up as bright as daylight.
"Whoa! That's incredible! What is this?" the two guards exclaimed.
"It's a flashlight—meant for seeing in the dark."
Lynch figured flashlights might exist somewhere in this world, considering the presence of weather-controlling weapons.
But on Amazon Lily? Definitely not. The island was still semi-isolated and technologically behind.
Now that they could see clearly, they realized just how massive the cave was—far bigger than expected.
A network of intersecting tunnels stretched in every direction, forming a maze.
After 15 minutes of wandering, they shockingly ended up back where they started.
Nyonba, are you messing with me?!
Lynch rolled up his sleeves. "No need to leave—I'll handle this!"
"Fire Fist!"
Aiming toward the water source, blazing flames erupted from his fist, cutting through seven stone walls with devastating force.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The entire mountain shook violently, and chunks of rock rained down from above.
"Not good—the cave is collapsing!"
"Lady Empress! Master Lynch! We need to get out—now!" The two guards looked like startled rabbits.
"Relax."
Lynch casually raised his hand and fired several icicles, reinforcing the collapsing cave like makeshift support pillars.
The trembling stopped.
"Incredible!"
Seeing this unbelievable display, the two guards gawked in amazement before breaking into applause.
After stabilizing the cave, Lynch advanced again. A small puddle appeared before them.
"Look! What's that?!"
One of the guards pointed upward with a shaking hand.
Under the flashlight's glow, hundreds of eerie eyes blinked open in the darkness.
"Move!"
A horde of monstrous creatures came charging toward them.
Reacting instantly, Lynch pulled a massive iron pot from his system space and slammed it down, trapping the Empress and the guards inside for safety.
This wasn't just any pot—it was an explosion-proof containment pot from a special forces world.
Designed to withstand bomb blasts, its special alloy walls were as thick as two fists.
The monsters swarmed overhead—one slammed into the stone wall, embedding itself completely.
The cave's rock-hard walls, compressed by the mountain's weight, crumbled like tofu in the monster's grasp.
At Lynch's waist, the Demon Cutter Sword trembled violently.
He gripped the hilt and finally saw them—six-eared bats shrouded in ghostly energy.
They had no eyes, and each one was nearly a meter long.
"Since when do animals use ghost energy?"
This was absurd.
Bats harnessing ghostly power was as unnatural as every woman on Amazon Lily only giving birth to girls.
But no time to question it now.
Eliminating them was the priority.
"One Sword Style: Blazing Slash!"
Lynch unleashed the full force of his fifth-level peak swordsmanship.
Blazing flames erupted from his blade, illuminating the entire cave.
The power is neither too big nor too small, just enough to kill all the bats without damaging the cave.
The three women were released and looked at the corpses of monsters on the ground and gasped,
"What kind of monsters are these?!"
The Empress shuddered. "If we hadn't found them first, the entire island would've been doomed once they escaped."
Huge bats that can use ghost energy can already treat humans as hunting targets.
If they had spread outside, the entire residents of the Amazon would probably not dare to go out at night.
"It smells so good, can I have a bite?" A guard suddenly drooled as he smelled the aroma of bat corpses on the ground.
"Idiot, you are not afraid of being poisoned." Another guard slapped his companion on the head.
SMACK!
"Ouch~ It hurts. They are just talking about it."
Meanwhile, the water pools on the ground had evaporated from the flames, revealing an ominous wooden plaque beneath.
Lynch tightened his grip on the Demon Cutter Sword—he could see the twisted human faces carved into the plaque, their expressions warped with resentment.
Ghost energy… truly a strange power.
It could even turn a person into a being with three heads and six arms.
"I can't read this," Lynch frowned.
"Of course not," the Empress replied. "This is the oldest script on Amazon Lily."
She closed her eyes, rubbing her temples. "Nyonba taught me some of it a long time ago... Let me think."
After a long pause, she stammered out a few words.
Based on the context, the inscription likely read:
[Heavy ground ahead. Women, stop.]
Lynch flipped the wooden sign over and found another line of text.
This one was much simpler—not exclusive to Amazon Lily but closer to modern writing.
Lynch squinted and read it aloud:
[Treasure house ahead. No trespassing.]
Meanwhile, outside the mountain, Nyonba was dumbfounded.
"Could the legend be true? Will Amazon Lily face disaster for accepting a man?"
"What a huge hole..."
Nyonba was lying on the side of the temple pit, not daring to jump in. She turned around to find someone to rescue them.
.
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TO BE CONTINUED
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