School Transmigration: I, Chosen as the Saint by Dragons at the Start-Chapter 132 --Anomaly Detected

Jonathan clapped his hands, interrupting Monkey’s words, "Alright, let’s summarize our findings and see what progress we’ve made."

Willow stepped forward, speaking clearly, "This place is likely the nest created by the River Crossing Demon.

What we know so far is that Owen encountered one of these demons.

According to historical records, three River Crossing Demon offspring were discovered in Coiled Dragon City, after which the demons seemed to vanish.

Now, in this cave, there should be six River Crossing Demons, one of which is the Devourer."

Owen, standing with his arms crossed, added, "Correct, this must be the flesh fortress. I initially thought it was just bloody, but it turns out the fortress is alive. When I slashed it with my sword, I could feel it suddenly contract, as if in pain."

Despite being in an illusion, everyone showed a look of unease on their faces.

Monkey exclaimed, "You all aren’t thinking the same thing as I am, are you?"

Willow replied with slight irritation, "These River Crossing Demons are newborns. Where else could they be as comfortable as they are here, if not in a womb?"

The entire flesh fortress was essentially a gigantic human body, and their current location was— the womb.

Brawny’s face darkened, and he turned to move forward, "Let’s just finish our mission. Kill those little monsters. This place is no place for humans."

Another team member then suggested, "If this is indeed a human body and so vital to the River Crossing Demons, wouldn’t they reveal themselves if we started causing significant destruction?"

Owen’s eyes lit up with realization.

Indeed, they didn’t need to worry about death; they were merely souls now, with their sole purpose being to kill the River Crossing Demon offspring.

Destroying the womb of the flesh fortress should be no problem.

Brawny nodded in agreement, "Good idea."

He pulled out an axe carried by the sentinels and swung it at the cave wall four or five times.

Blood gushed from the stone, and he too felt the sensation Owen described – the wall contracting in pain.

The entire tunnel then began to shake as if on the verge of collapse.

"Let’s go, quickly!" Willow pushed Brawny.

"Don’t get crushed here."

The tunnel started to contract and roll, worse than collapsing.

If they stood in the wrong place, they would be crushed to death.

The nine of them sprinted desperately, encountering several instances where the tunnel constricted.

Brawny, the tallest and strongest, nearly got trapped several times.

It took the combined effort of Owen and the others to drag him out.

Otherwise, his soul would have been squeezed into oblivion, prematurely ending his assessment.

Willow glared at him, "Good idea, huh?"

Brawny scratched his head, sheepishly smiling without saying a word.

Fortunately, the exit was just ahead.

As Owen rushed to the mouth of the cave, he suddenly felt the ground give way beneath him, his body plummeting.

What a trap! An unexpected chasm lay beneath.

Luckily, his agile body reacted quickly.

With a powerful flex of his waist and legs, he managed to stop his forward momentum.

Lowering the glowworm, he peered down to see a vast open space, so wide that its boundaries were beyond the light’s reach.

"Hold onto the blood vessels... I mean the vines, and go down slowly," Owen instructed, extending his hand to slide down, but he quickly retracted it, "Put on gloves, the vines have an irritating liquid on them."

The stone walls had changed since their earlier encounter.

Upon contact, skin immediately felt a searing pain, akin to being scorched, accompanied by a numbing sensation, and the palms were coated in a sticky mucus.

Owen furrowed his brows, examining his hand.

Astonishingly, this mysterious liquid had corroded his skin grotesquely.

Willow hurried over, channeling arcanergy to summon a greenish glow, which she directed into Owen’s hand, alleviating the pain slightly.

"This liquid contains acidic toxins. Try not to touch it," Owen said, his eyebrows tightly knit.

"Why would the River Crossing Demon create a human body and fill it with such substances?"

Fortunately, the sentinels’ pack contained gloves, which were now put to good use.

The team slid down the wall for over three meters before discovering a vast cavern below, its floor featuring a murky, viscous pool.

The pool occasionally released bubbles, surrounded by wisps of green smoke, which were irritating even to smell.

Willow suddenly instructed, "Look into the pool."

She extended the glowworm as far as possible, casting light over the area.

Only then did the group see that the water was not still; something was continuously churning beneath.

It was an object, white with a hint of red.

A moment later, something surfaced, allowing them a closer look.

It was a person – or rather, the upper half of a corpse, severed at the chest.

The skin was peeled back, barely covering the exposed bones.

Half of the face had dissolved away, while the other half still clung to flesh, the mouth twisted into a bizarre grin as if smiling at them.

But the eyes were gone, leaving behind two gaping holes.

A student, unable to contain himself any longer, vomited.

The sight of Mike’s corpse hadn’t triggered such a reaction, but now, he couldn’t hold back.

At least Mike’s corpse was clean.

The River Crossing Demon seemingly cherished its hard-earned feast, consuming its prey with a certain quality, not leaving it in a state of disarray.

However, the corpse before them was a stark contrast – a gruesome sight of flesh and blood melded together, skin and bones separated, provoking a surge of stomach acid in anyone who beheld it.

Limbs and flesh lay scattered, dismembered and disjointed across the bottom of the pool.

Jonathan, pale-faced and gasping for breath, remarked, "The academy really went to great lengths to test our mental strength!"

Clearly, the human captives of the River Crossing Demon offspring were brought here for digestion.

The nature of this part of the human body was self-evident.

From the group’s perspective, it was a scene of grotesque and evil, reminiscent of the legendary blood pools of hell.

Brawny muttered to himself, "How many people has this thing eaten?"

Willow, her face twitching as she fought back nausea, said, "For a Devourer to fully grow, it needs a population of over a hundred thousand, the entirety of a small city."

Owen seemed unfazed.

Within the heritage of dragons’ bloodlines, he had witnessed far more horrific scenes of carnage and bloodbaths.

These sights were not enough to shake him.

"No wonder even demigods struggle against the Devourer’s flesh fortress.

This thing’s growth is truly twisted," he commented nonchalantly.

Jonathan shook his head, "I’ve killed many man-eating spellbeasts, but none have fed so voraciously as this one."

The young sentinel continued to vomit uncontrollably, unable to stop.

Brawny was about to remind him not to bend over too much when suddenly, something flashed past behind them on the stone wall.

"Watch out!" Brawny bellowed with all his might.

But it was too late.

The team member, standing in a lower position, was violently pushed by the creature and fell.

Instinctively grabbing hold of whatever had pushed him, he dragged the perpetrator down with him.

It was the same River Crossing Demon offspring they had encountered earlier.

"Haha, I’ll take one down with me before I die!" he shouted, but before his voice faded, there was a splash as both plunged into the water.

The pressure in the pool was intense, and the liquid was exceedingly viscous.

The student didn’t perish immediately but struggled in the pool, wailing loudly.

Owen had felt his hand being eroded just by touching the rock wall; the pain for someone fully submerged would be tenfold worse.

When the student surfaced, his head and clothes emitted white smoke.

The River Crossing Demon offspring, having fallen into the water with the student, quickly separated and sunk to the bottom, vanishing in an instant.

This was its domain, and even the corrosive liquid seemed to benefit it rather than cause harm.

The student’s screams were heart-wrenching, yet Jonathan couldn’t help but let out a snort of laughter: "Why the ghostly screams? He’ll be gone soon."

Owen, frowning, asked, "Aren’t we going to save him?"

Jonathan shook his head.

"Even if we pulled him out, he’d be incapacitated for combat. It’s better to let him return and report the current situation to the teachers."

But after a couple of seconds, Willow suddenly realized something was amiss: "Wait, Captain, he’s not dead yet."

Brawny acted decisively, throwing a rope down, but the student, whose eyes had been invaded by the acidic water, saw nothing but a blinding white haze and couldn’t discern the rope’s location.

The excruciating pain had rendered him utterly disoriented.

Jonathan, too, realized the gravity of the situation.

Willow waved her hand, her arcanergy surging forth, pulling the student, now drenched in acidic water, back onto the ground.

She hurriedly cast a healing spell on the young student.

Listening to his agonizing cries, Jonathan raised his voice, "Are you addicted to this torment? Why don’t you just shatter your own soul?"

They had entered this realm as mere fragments of their souls, capable of shattering themselves at will to escape death.

This mechanism was a safeguard against being trapped in the illusion, as everything within it felt real.

It was to prevent them from being captured by monsters who might not kill them but keep them as pets instead.

The young student’s mouth seemed almost dissolved, his words barely intelligible, "Captain, I can’t do it... I feel that if I even think about it, my soul will truly shatter, and I’ll actually die..."

A chill ran down the spines of the remaining eight members and Owen.

In his mind, Owen silently began to recite, "Shatter the s..."

But he couldn’t bring himself to utter the complete phrase.

Even attempting to say those three words triggered a violent red glow in his sea of consciousness, as if issuing a warning.

If he fully articulated the phrase, his soul would indeed shatter.