Chapter 536 Excavation Site
Looking at Yin who seemed to have grown up all of a sudden, Shiro rubbed her eyes just to make sure she was seeing things right. If the previous Yin looked like a kid version of Shiro, the current one looked like a teen. Previously, her hair was completely black but now, it held a dark purple tint.
"Mum!" Yin called out with a smile.
"Yin, what happened to you? How did you get so… big?" Shiro tilted her head.
"I'll tell you that later. But for now, where are we going?" Yin asked.
"We're going to the Shadow Temple. Apparently, they found something that might be related to you." Shiro replied as Yin nodded.
"Shadow Temple was the dungeon that you picked me up from right?"
"Yup." Shiro nodded.
"Now then, with everyone here, I shall take you to the faction building. The location is a little strange but don't question it too much ok?" Sharis smiled.
As they were following Sharis, Shiro turned to Yin.
"So how's the party doing?"
"They're doing much better than expected. After they got used to soloing dungeons, their thoughts in regard to how they used their skills had dramatically improved. If I were to say, their real level is around 180ish if we're talking about combat potential and skill usage. Though their actual level needs to catch up to their performance." Yin replied with a smile.
"I see… That's good. How's your sister then? I heard that different churches are pursuing her." Shiro smiled softly.
"Lyrica and the others have got that covered. Plus, the head priest that you met last time is actually helping her too. He's stopping the other churches from going over the line." Yin replied with a chuckle.
"So you want me to help too?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro shook her head.
"Nah, if we keep giving them help, they'll never mature." Shiro replied.
"Oh right, mum, where's aunty Keiko and Keomi? I thought they would be with you?" Yin asked since she enjoyed spending time with Keiko. She would give her all the food she wanted.
"They're going to the front lines for a bit. Keiko wanted to get Keomi's level up since she's falling behind a bit."
"Ah that's unfortunate. I wanted to go to a restaurant with them since it has been a while" Yin sighed as Shiro's smile twitched. She could still remember how she emptied out the entire pantry of one of the restaurants back when they were staying at the branch of Winter's Grace.
"If you wan- Nevermind. I'll take you to a restaurant elsewhere since the currency in this place is rather unique." Shiro replied. Initially, she wanted to say that she'd take Yin to Taura since their cake was actually much nicer than what she had anticipated. However, if Yin were to realise how nice it tasted, she was afraid that she might empty out Claud's supplies.
"Hm, ok. I'm quite curious as to what kind of food this place can offer though. It's not everyday you see such a strange sky." Yin replied while glancing up.
"We'll see how it goes. If I can get some currency from this place then we'll go for a small meal." Shiro nodded.
Following Sharis, they soon arrived in front of what seems to be a small wooden storage shack of sorts.
Opening the door, Sharis entered and gestured for the rest of them to enter as well.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro shrugged and followed along. Once everyone was inside, Sharis brought out a key card and swiped it against the light switch.
Feeling a strange feeling wash over her, Shiro glanced towards Sharis in suspicion.
{Empress, do not worry. It is nothing harmful and you're just sliding through a few dimensions right now. We're currently moving deeper into the Earth in terms of location wise.} Estrella called out as she was familiar with this feeling.
'I see… Thank you.' Shiro nodded.
After the fight, Shiro decided to allow Estrella to stay in her mana realm since it was easier to summon her should she need her assistance. However, Estrella seemed to have taken it as a form of punishment so she decided to isolate herself on the rift island, making it so that she could only sit in silence until she is needed.
Regardless, Shiro didn't try to persuade her in doing anything else. If she wanted to self isolate then Shiro would let her.
After a few short moments where the strange sensation would constantly fluctuate, Sharis eventually opened the door to reveal what seems to be a giant underground dig site of sorts.
Looking around, Shiro could see large ruins being excavated as members of the Shadow Temple worked carefully around the statues that they managed to uncover. Glancing towards a few statues, Shiro paused in surprise when she recognised a few of them.
The main one was naturally the statue of Fei Ling who had taught her the phantom pathway back in the story quest. As for the second statue she recognised, it was the Void Beast that was by her side during that quest.
Raising her eyebrows, she wondered why there were statues of them in this place.
"Hou, you can really see the resemblance huh?" Sharis raised her eyebrows when she compared Yin to the statue of Fei Ling.
While Yin did have parts of Shiro's features, the other half came from Fei Ling.
"Well I suppose that confirms who's your other mum then." Shiro laughed as they started to walk through the excavation site.
Going up a flight of stairs, Sharis knocked on a door before entering.
"I didn't even say enter yet." Lucius sighed as he looked up to see Yin, Shiro and Nan Tian who were following behind Sharis.
"Well I brought her here. As I said before, I better see my payment in my account ok?" Sharis grinned.
"Yes I know, don't worry. Now if you would be so kind as to leave us for now." Lucius nodded as Sharis left the room.
"So what's this about? You never really explain to me about why you wanted me to come here with Yin." Shiro asked while sitting down on a sofa with Yin.
"Anyways, like I had said before, while going through some old texts, I managed to find a connection between the faction and your daughter over there. The main connection was that the faction was created to guard an artefact of sorts that was supposed to be passed on to the dark phoenix. To prevent anyone from getting the artefact easily, it was broken to pieces and only the dark phoenix blood and undo the seals on these pieces. We've already uncovered quite a few pieces but it seems like there are still some missing. The site we're on right now is the 7th piece. According to the text, we got 3 more pieces left to go after this one." Lucius explained.
"So what's the artefact?" Shiro asked curiously.
"We're not sure. There weren't any explicit answers on this and all we know is that the dark phoenix MUST have it and it was a must or else a calamity will befall this place. In addition to that, there are also some records about a kingdom in the past that has the same name as your daughter. Yin." Lucius shrugged as Shiro's ears perked up.
"Yin kingdom? I know that one. Whatever happened to it?"
During the quest, she managed to turn the tides around and save the kingdom. However, she wasn't sure what kind of impact that had brought due to the fact that she had obtained Yin. When she obtained Lisandra from her quest, everyone's knowledge of her was erased and even the Light b*stard's daughter lost her body.
"Well according to the text, the Yin Kingdom managed to survive the initial onslaught of four kingdoms but soon, things started to go downhill when the ruler succ.u.mbed to an unknown disease. Without a ruler, the fire queen rebelled and took everything for herself. The site we're on now is apparently the grave of the ruler that was created after she died. Her subordinates, Fei Ling and a monster known as the Void Beast, protected those that were still loyal to the original ruler. Their end was unknown.
"In addition to this, there were also signs that the grave was more than what it seemed. We've detected that there was a large clearing of space deep down but we haven't been able to enter it yet. But I got something else to show you. During our time here, we managed to find a rather interesting mural that was carved on the outside of the grave." Lucius said as he brought out his laptop.
Bringing up a picture, silence dominated the room as Shiro paused in shock.
On the screen, there was a carving of a girl on a throne that was guarded by a woman and a beast. Naturally, Shiro recognised the girl in the picture to be what she looked like when she had first completed the quest.