Chapter 343: Strange
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Not pagans." Hao Ren could almost guess what had caused the destruction just by looking at the damage. "It was most likely the rock monsters."
"Rock monsters?" Big Beardy was baffled. "What's that?"
Becky came up to them. She realised that since the Orb of the Holy Synod went missing months ago, the four ascetics must have been clueless about what had happened to their hometown. She said, "It all happened during your disappearance. About two months ago, we came face-to-face with some rock monsters when we scaled Dragonspine Ridge..."
Becky briefly described the rock monsters, and the state of chaos in the Kingdom of Holetta after the Orb went missing. Big Beardy's face was becoming more animated now. He frowned and inadvertently rested his hand on the pouch that was hanging around his waist. "Monsters appeared in Dragonspine Ridge and tried to go to the sacred lake? Could it be related to the disappearance of the Orb of the Holy Synod?"
Hao Ren dropped a piece of wood he had picked up earlier from the ground. He looked up at Big Beardy and said, "In the beginning , I suspected that the Orb of the Holy Synod was used to suppress something in town. When the Orb left The Plane of Dreams, the monsters in Dragonspine Ridge were resurrected. But now, things don't seem to add up..."
The MDT chimed in quietly, "Because that thing is just a data vault."
They began to worry about the situation in Leyton. Leyton sat between Dragonspine Ridge and the Beinz Blood Lake; considering that the outpost was already destroyed days ago, it was too late to go to Leyton now, because it may have met the same fate. So, Hao Ren decided to stay where he was a little while longer. He wanted to see if he could scour the area for clues, which may be useful someday.
Lily's natural instincts were instantly triggered. When she heard that, she began to lower her head on the ground and sniff around. Hao Ren knew Lily was the best at this, so he let her be. After a while of digging and sniffing around nearby buildings, she lay on the ground. She continued to listen hard and smell before she finally locked on to a spot. Wielding her claws and digging, she soon found herself almost buried in the hole. Vivian looked at her and said scornfully, "We're asking you to find clues, not bury a bone..."
"Shut up, man. I'm looking for clues," Lily said from within the hole. Her tail was visibly sticking out, wagging as she continued to dig. "You found blood, but no bodies right? Judging from the scene of the destruction, I don't think the guards would have made it out—even the walls were crushed. They were outright defeated."
Hao Ren thought Lily was just messing around at first. He did not expect the maiden to be so observant. He started to take a second look at the scene and agreed with her. "That's right... Where are the bodies? And by the way, what are you looking for?"
Lily replied without looking up, "I heard something down here." Her voice indicated that she even deeper in the hole now.
The husky was no slouch at digging holes. Hao Ren could see that the maiden was digging at a speed discernable to the naked eye. He stood there looking as broken stones were thrown out and beginning to pile up to his knees. He looked down and wondered. "...This high ground is a rock?"
But, Vivian had another thought on her mind—a kind of evil thought. "What do you say if I summon a storm and bury her in there?"
Hao Ren said, "Can't you two just call a truce?"
While they were talking, suddenly Lily let out a scream in the hole.
Shortly after, the sound of falling rocks and objects were heard from below. They looked down, but Lily had disappeared into the black hole. Hao Ren poked his head inside, feeling nervous. "Lily, what's happening?"
Light suddenly shone from the bottom of the hole as Lily called up, "There's a cave down here! It's a tunnel!"
Everyone hurried to the hole, marvelling at Lily's digging skills before they turned their sights to Becky almost simultaneously. Nangong Wuyue pointed down at the hole and asked, "There's a cellar under the outpost?"
Becky shrugged. "How would I know? I'm just a mercenary, not a soldier here. But thinking about it, there aren't supposed to be any bunkers or tunnels down here. It's just a small outpost, plus the shore is unstable. Who would want to dig a tunnel down here?"
Becky stomped the ground and said, "And let's not forget that beneath the outpost is a piece of rock."
Hao Ren could not help but think of his last tunnelling experience. He could still vividly recall the horrifying moment of being attacked by knight wraiths beneath the ruins in England. He was done with tunnels. Vivian shared his fear as her mouth twitched. "Why must all conspiratory stories have something to do with tunnels?"
Meanwhile, Lily was calling out from below. "Hello! Do you guys wanna come down or not? I'll go up if you don't. And, please don't block the hole!"
Screw it! Hao Ren thought. "Wait a second! Here I come!"
They went down to the cave through the hole without any difficulty. After all, they were all not normal human beings. Lily had made a fire inside, so they were not making blind jumps from the hole. When everyone was down in the cave, Han Ren realised how the fire came about: Lily had summoned her fire and ice claws. The flame on her claws was enough to provide illumination and it was pretty bright. Even Vivian could not help but shower praise. "Flamejoy's pretty handy, eh..."
Lily growled at her. "I'll bite you if you ever mention that name again!"
Big Beardy took a gander around and muttered as he used his hand to scrape the slippery walls. "It was bored using magic."
Hao Ren started to notice that the place, which Lily discovered was unusual: there were no supporting structures in the tunnel and the whole space seemed like a one-piece work. There were also no gaps, holes, or whatsoever on the walls as if the tunnel was carved out from a single piece of rock. If this was on Earth, he would have suspected it to be the work of a small, tunnel boring machine. But in The Plane of Dreams, what if it was truly the work of magic just as Big Beardy said?
Becky was considered part sorcerer. She touched the walls and appeared to be deep in thought. She then said, "To make a tunnel as large as this, the person has to be at least a master of magic. What's more, the tunnel itself was given a long-term cure, which requires a higher level of ability. A tunnel like this in a small outpost seems like overkill."
"I smell blood." Vivian furrowed her brows. She was sensitive to blood and her olfactory senses were just as good as Lily's. "But the weird thing is, there's no body here. Where's the stench of blood coming from?"
It was a dark and creepy tunnel, with both ends extending far out from where they stood. Hao Ren used his mind's eyes to gauge his surroundings. He could feel a breeze coming from one direction, so he pointed at it and said, "Let's go in that direction, see where it leads to."
No one objected. Lily raised her Flamejoy... Okay, let's not mention the name. Let's just say she was holding up a torch and walking in front of the group. Everyone followed the husky as they staggered along the tunnel, their nerves becoming more tense with each passing moment. Originally, Hao Ren thought that this was all simply a monster attack. But the tunnel, which had been carved with magic and wreaked with the stench of fresh flood pointed at the involvement of humans. Something was definitely wrong and his sixth sense told him that it had something to do with the Blood Lake.
If it concerned the Blood Lake, then it also concerned the goddess. The legend of the world's destruction was like a heavy rock on Hao Ren's mind. His gut told him that the peculiar relationship between The Plane of Dreams and the Surface World was not that straightforward. He could not just stop himself from thinking about it, especially when things seemed to involve both.
They kept going for a long while, but did not meet anything unusual. The path's gradient slowly slanted upwards and the tunnel came to a stop at an exit on the surface. However, it was blocked by rocks. Fresh air could be felt rushing through the gaps between the rocks. The rocks were no match against Lily's digging firepower and they soon came out in the open again, where the sky was filled with twinkling stars.
Hao Ren looked back and he could see the outpost. He figured he had probably travelled a great distance underground.
"That's it?" Lily looked a little disappointed. "I thought we would find the consipracy."
"What do you want?" Vivian gave Lily the side-eye. "Isn't it great that everyone is safe?"
Lily puffed her cheeks. "That was boring. At least if there had been some little monsters, the whole exploration would have been more exhilarating."
Before Lily's voice trailed off, Hao Ren suddenly heard loud, earth-shattering steps coming from the Gnarled Grove.
Vivian slapped Lily on the head. "Speaking of the devil!"