The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 353

Chapter 353: Searching in the Mountain

 

According to Gelton and Ophra, this bizarre mountain path could sense approaching outsiders as if it was conscious of its surroundings. Even if only one knight stepped on the mountain road, it could cause the road to collapse. Plus, the spot where it collapsed was very accurate: only the stones below the outsider’s foot would collapse. According to the soldiers fleeing back, a landslide like this was as strange and unnatural as the appearance of the Sky Road. It was as though the mountain rock was consciously shaking insects and ants off its body, so the soldiers were terrified. The whole Sky Road kept changing shape, therefore the locals were unable to figure out the collapse as well as the bizarre miasma that filled the air in the area. These were the reasons why the knights had not been able to capture the place. Although there was no “enemy” stationed there, it was more impregnable than any pass.

Faced with the power left by the Ancient Magic Empire, the modern natives of The Plane of Dreams were powerless against the great forces of nature.

Of course, the knights could have tried to blow up the “bridge”, but it was apparently a stupid idea: Dragonspine Ridge could rebuild the Sky Road countless times, and it would not stop until the whole mountain was flattened.

However, another questionable issue was on Hao Ren’s mind after he heard these things: why was there only one “bridge” in the south of Dragonspine Ridge? If the whole mountain was really active, the power it displayed on the south side alone could engulf the entire of Beinz, and the knights would not have been able to do anything to stop it. But at the moment, there was only one entry that could be broken through in the entire mountain, and up until then, there were only four mountains that could produce rock monsters.

Hao Ren speculated that perhaps the “ancient power” in Dragonspine Ridge had not fully awakened yet, or maybe there was only very little power left after it got suppressed for so many years. Or perhaps, the person behind it was not able to control everything. Anyway, Hao Ren sensed the disturbing smell caused by the changes in the mountain for the past two months. He felt that there were more formidable forces hidden in the depths of the mountain, which had yet to manifest.

He was going to test the quirks of this place himself, and let the MDT monitor the energy readings around them to find out the source of the various bizarre changes in Dragonspine Ridge.

First, he threw some stones on the path in front of him. But of course, it did not work. Then, he walked cautiously onto the Sky Road. At this moment, he suddenly remembered that it would be wise to let Vivian come with him: she could fly…

But, he did not want to think too much at the moment. After embarking on the Sky Road, the road did not collapse as he had expected. The surrounding scene was still quiet, and the ground was not shaking.

“Nothing’s happening.” Hao Ren walked a few steps forward, then ran back and forth and said, “Did the soldiers make it all up to scare people?”

“Impossible,” said the MDT while it floated around Hao Ren. “They are elite troops. How can they joke with their superior? Besides, many soldiers died in the landslide. I think this place has some kind of surveillance system and it’s asleep at the moment…”

Hao Ren stared at the MDT and said, “Your reason doesn’t even make sense!”

Anyway, there was nothing unusual happening across the ground. Nangong Wuyue was looking into the distance nervously. She had coiled herself on a big rock next to her, feeling uneasy. Since she saw that nothing happened, she slowly slithered towards Hao Ren and asked, “Nothing’s happening?”

“For some reason… It seems that we aren’t able to ‘alert’ the mountain.” Hao Ren had regarded the unusual changes on the Sky Road as a conscious act, so he unconsciously treated it as a human. “According to the information Lily heard from the soldiers in town, if anyone should stand here for more than a few seconds, this place would collapse. The stones on the ground would turn over, or even suddenly bounce up and throw people down the cliff. There have been no exceptions expect for now.”

Nangong Wuyue tapped the ground with the tip of her tail, trying to find some empty space beneath the ground, but she did not find anything. “Does this mountain only respond to ‘locals’? It may have a detection mechanism, but it isn’t operated manually. This automatic detection mechanism only senses the locals as ‘people’.”

Hao Ren stroked his chin, nodded and said, “Probably. Anyway, let’s go back to the mountain to see the situation there.”

As he spoke, he turned around and walked back. Nangong Wuyue moved her serpentine body and followed him from behind. However, after a few steps, they heard a loud “bang” coming from afar!

Nangong Wuyue was immediately startled and shouted, “Alas! It collapsed…”

Nonetheless, nothing happened to the ground beneath her feet. The loud bang was coming from somewhere else. Hao Ren turned around to comfort the timid siren. “Don’t be too sensitive. It happened somewhere else… Umm, do you have to do this?”

Actually, Nangong Wuyue coiled her tail the moment she heard the loud bang earlier. The speed in which she tied herself into a knot was super fast. Hao Ren turned his head and saw a familiar snake ball swaying on the ground. Nangong Wuyue was flailing her arms, trying to keep her balance.

Hao Ren smacked his forehead and asked, “…Do you need to coil yourself into a big snake ball every time you hear a little sound?”

Nangong Wuyue untied herself and muttered, “So, this is what you meant by the big snake ball…”

The loud bang was coming from the east—in the depths of the mountain, around where Hao Ren was, but a little distance away. Hao Ren suspected that a new rock monster had collapsed from the mountain. He quickly pulled Nangong Wuyue along, rushing to see the situation there. They bolted across the bumpy mountain road and a moment later, they were approaching the site of the loud bang. Suddenly, Nangong Wuyue stopped Hao Ren and whispered, “I smell blood.”

“How come your nose is more sensitive than mine?” Hao Ren immediately slowed down his pace and muttered.

Nangong Wuyue crept down and wriggled slowly along the mountain path. In a low voice, she said, “Everybody has something they specialise in. According to your words, compared to Lily’s nose, our noses are pretty much useless.”

Nangong Wuyue was approaching a huge mountain rock. She hid behind the rock, coiled herself and slowly lifted herself to take peek. Hao Ren found that this girl could do more than he imagined: she was a jack, though he did not know how much weight she could handle.

The siren stretched her head out to have a further look. She then immediately cried out in a low voice to beckon Hao Ren forward. Hao Ren immediately deployed his shield and ran in front of her: Nangong Wuyue could not fight. If there was an enemy, he had to be in front of her.

However, there were no rock monsters on the scene. Under the dim moonlight, there were only a few soldiers lying across the small, rocky flat ground. Strictly speaking, the soldiers were dead. They died a miserable death, apparently in the hands of the rock monsters.

“They just died a while ago.” Nangong Wuyue quickly wriggled to one of the soldiers and said, “The blood is still warm. How terrible…”

Nangong Wuyue sighed. She had seen a lot of life and death during her time on Earth, so she had no aversion toward the dead. However, the death at the hands of rock monsters was often extremely agonising that even an unusual creature like her found it a little uneasy.

Most of the soldiers who were killed had their limbs broken, and some were even crushed to the ground together with their armour. There were also several mages on the scene, but apparently, they were killed before they even had time to cast gravity spells on the rock monsters: they did not have the chance to take out their wands.

Relating this incident to the loud bang just now, it was easy to guess what had happened there: These soldiers were most likely members of the Royal Knights in Dragonspine Ridge. Based on how the situation looked, they were probably just resting for a while. But as the soldiers let their guard down, the cliff on top of them suddenly cracked and the rock monsters fell from the mountain. This did not give the soldiers enough time to react. Some of them were probably killed on the spot.

Hao Ren looked up at the rock and found a dent, which was probably left by a rock monster.

This was a small probability event, yet it was unfortunate and very likely to happen again in Dragonspine Ridge. The soldiers and mercenaries, who patrolled the mountain every day were going to be most afraid of stone giants falling from the sky and smashing them now, despite the fact that a case like this did not happen very often.

“The monster should have gone down the hill.” Nangong Wuyue rose a little and looked into the distance. The traces left behind by the rock monster were easy to spot on the road. “Want to give chase?”

Just a single rock monster had little value to Hao Ren. There were many trolls like that wandering around the west side of the mountain. Therefore, he shook his head and said, “No, we’ll go to the main peak over there. The MDT is detecting a potential energy active point there.”

The two of them stood in silent tribute to the soldiers who encountered an unexpected tragedy. Nangong Wuyue left a layer of enchantment around the bodies to prevent the wild beasts from gnawing on the bodies of the soldiers. The next day, another patrol unit would be able to find the missing soldiers and bring them back.

Then, they left.

But not long after they left the place, Nangong Wuyue’s expression suddenly changed and she said, “We need to go back! Something’s happening there!”

Chapter 354: The Discovery

 

Nangong Wuyue left a protective enchantment around the knights who died in a violent way. This was to ensure that their bodies would be shielded from the attacks of beasts in the mountains while they waited for the rest of the troop to look for the missing knights in the morning. Nangong Wuyue and Hao Ren did not report it to any of the outposts in the mountains, because it was difficult to explain why two unregistered, foreign mercenaries, who had not filed for patrol appeared in the vicinity of where the Royal Army were deployed at night. Everybody in Leyton town was in a panic at that time, and the Royal Knights as well as the Church Knights were on high alert. Therefore, they did not want to cause any trouble.

But shortly after they left the spot, Wuyue suddenly sensed that the enchantment she left behind had been touched by some sort of uncanny energy. An incredible change had occurred around the area where the enchantment was created. She immediately stopped Hao Ren and said, “Let’s turn back! Something’s happening there!”

Hao Ren had no idea what was going on, but he immediately followed Nangong Wuyue and went back to the aforementioned spot. Both of them held their breath as they approached the place. By the time they got back to the little clearing, they saw an incredible scene: The bodies of the dead were gradually being swallowed by the earth!

The rugged, rocky ground sprung up and wriggled silently as it swiftly swallowed the knights’ bodies into the ground. It was as if it had softened into mud. The scene looked like living swamp—strange and eerie. Many of the knights’ bodies had disappeared, leaving only a small amount of blood and its lingering smell at that point. The remaining bodies were also almost completely swallowed up. When Hao Ren and Nangong Wuyue arrived, they could only see a few pieces of armour sinking into the swamp at an astonishing speed!

“What’s going on?!” Hao Ren exclaimed loudly when he saw the strange scene. He was not good at holding his breath. Now that he found no enemies at the scene, he let his guard down. But at the moment he shouted, the devouring “mud” suddenly paused as though it sensed something. Then, it suddenly sped up and sputtered out more than 10 “mud” thorns, aiming to stab Hao Ren as well as Nangong Wuyue.

The “mud” quickly hardened and turned into sharp, stone thorns in the air.

Nangong Wuyue’s serpentine body was huge, so she was unable to dodge. She could only coil her tail to resist the force. Hao Ren reacted quickly and rushed forward to block all the stones. Those sharp and unusually strong stones burst upon hitting his shield. They jangled loudly as they shattered into pieces and scattered themselves across the ground.

Hao Ren and Nangong Wuyue were temporarily hampered by this unexpected situation. By the time they reacted, it was over: all the bodies in the little clearing had disappeared, leaving only a little blood and a few scattered pieces of weaponry. The soft ground had also gone back to its original state. When Hao Ren stepped on it, he could feel that it was solid stone.

“What the hell was that?” Nangong Wuyue wriggled forward, a little scared. She leaned down to touch the stone and examined their surroundings with the tip of her tail.

The MDT flickered and floated towards Hao Ren as it said, “I just detected a magic reaction, but as soon as we got closed in, it quickly shifted. According to the sensitivity of the shift and the counter-attack just now, someone should be watching this place. I just wonder where this person is. There’s no one in my radar’s range.”

“Were the bodies swallowed underground?” Hao Ren was thinking about another problem. He had just witnessed the knights’ bodies being swallowed up by the earth. The scene was so strange, but he could relate it to the suspicious camp he had seen at the outpost by the lake: It was also a scene after a fierce battle with traces of blood and its smell, but there were no corpses. “Dig down!”

He released a self-regulatory machine from his Dimensional Pocket. The robotic octopus was initially surprised by its surroundings before it received instructions from Hao Ren. It then placed its tentacles under its body to form a ring-shaped drill. It emitted a bright, blue light from the tip of its tentacles as its whole body rotated rapidly and dug down.

The excavation point selected by Hao Ren was where one of the bodies had disappeared. He felt that if the body had been swallowed up by the earth, it would have at least left something behind. However, after the robotic octopus drilled more than 10 m all the way down, it only brought him some stones and gravels.

“Gone?” Hao Ren was surprised. “Was it absorbed by Dragonspine Ridge?”

“Absorbed” was the word that popped up in his mind, but that reminded Nangong Wuyue of something else. The siren immediately held her breath and put her body against the ground, trying to sense something. Hao Ren was a little curious and asked, “What are you looking for?”

“Water; the moisture I left and the moisture in the knights’ bodies.” Nangong Wuyue frowned and searched carefully. “I remember the water that I’ve just touched. I can feel it no matter where it goes, even if it turns into steam or gets absorbed by the mountain… I can feel the water moving deep underground. It’s moving fast.”

Hao Ren immediately stopped talking and allowed Nangong Wuyue to slowly sense it. Nangong Wuyue’s talent was completely inspired. Her consciousness was spreading rapidly through the water in the atmosphere and the soil. The shape of Dragonspine Ridge was slowly being sketched out in her mind, with varying concentrations of water as lines and colours depicting a three-dimensional image that was vaguely similar to the real world. Dragonspine Ridge was a dry, unpleasant grey in this image. Farther down the image, only a few rivers in the mountain’s culvert showed a crisp blue colour. Amid these peculiar shades, a shimmering hue was moving rapidly beneath the earth, and it was about to leave her sensing range.

Nangong Wuyue immediately raised her body, hissing as she quickly slithered and gave chase. “Over there! Quick!”

Hao Ren did not have time to ask about what was happening and just followed her.

They ran at top speed across the mountain road and soon, left the normal path into a primitive, mountainous area where ordinary people would find difficult to reach. Strange rocks, high slopes and steep roads; it was almost impossible to walk on the path. Nangong Wuyue followed the shortest route she could sense. She did not care if the path was a difficult one. Despite its difficulty, it was not a problem for them: Hao Ren jumped easily between the rocks like he was walking on flat ground. Nangong Wuyue was even more relaxed. She raised her upper body and her tail glided swiftly and smoothly across the rugged terrain.

“You’re really steady.” Hao Ren still had time to joke in such a situation.

Nangong Wuyue smiled and said, “Look up ‘The Most Stable Mountain Parkour Video’ on the internet. I uploaded it. I hold the record for taking a DV while travelling at top speed from the top of the mountain, all the way down. I didn’t even use electronic image stabilisation during the entire process. Only two frames look blurry. Those majors in shooting will never be able to grasp my level of video shooting.”

“What’s the point of doing something like that?” asked Hao Ren.

Nangong Wuyue proudly showed off her image stabilisation skills and she said, “To get people to click!”

Hao Ren found the daily lives of these unusual creatures simply too interesting. How bored were they to come up with such an idea?

They were trying to catch up with the water vapours. After some time, they reached a place in the mountain where no one had ever set foot on before. The mountain rocks on both sides formed an encirclement and there was a winding road that extended down. The place in front of them seemed to be a deep valley. If you looked at it from afar, it would be covered by layers of rocks.

Nangong Wuyue sensed that the water in the depths of the ground had stopped moving so fast. Instead, it was slowly moving into the valley, spreading and gradually rising up at the same time. It appeared to have reached its destination and it was making some kind of bizarre transformation.

“Right in front of us.” Nangong Wuyue lowered her voice as well as her body and said, “Be careful, I smell a strange odour. It’s making me uncomfortable. The water element here is restless. Looks like, it’s being forced into some kind of transformation.”

While Nangong Wuyue and Hao Ren finally found some clues, Vivian and Lily had also reached the lakeside outpost. The both of them sneaked into the tunnel that they found on their previous visit.

They were moving in the opposite direction from the last time and the tunnel was stretching right before their eyes…

All the way to a place underground.

Chapter 355: Underground Encounter

 

The smell of blood still pervaded the creepy underground tunnel under the lakeside outpost as Vivian and Lily was moved forward cautiously.

They had yet to meet Big Beardy and his company, so they did not know that the four ascetics had already informed Gelton and Ophra about the tunnel. But, they did expect that news of the tunnel must have reached the person in charge of the diocese. So, the two of them carefully scanned their surroundings when they arrived at the outpost earlier for fear that investigators from the church may have set up camp there. However, luck was on their side as Gelton had postponed the investigation to another day. Vivian and Lily did not see anyone there and there were no traces that showed strangers had been in the tunnel too.

The first time they arrived, they were clueless about the happenings in Beinz during the past two months. Plus, they were desperate to return the Orb of the Holy Synod and check out the situation in Leyton, so they did not really check out the tunnel. Coming down from the shaft which Lily had previously dug, there were two ways they could proceed: it was either leaving the outpost by moving upwards towards the exit, which Hao Ren had done the last time, or going downwards into the depths, where Vivian and Lily were currently heading.

“It looks like it’s getting deeper and deeper… The air here is stuffy.” Lily was a melee fighter, so she was walking in front and sniffing out the smells in the air. But, the air sickened her. “I feel my hair standing on end…”

Vivian followed closely behind. From time to time, she sent out a few bats to scout the area ahead. “You’re a hairy creature, don’t you remember?”

“Right…” Lily carefully thought about it for a while and said, “You’re not entirely right. It’s my tail and ears that are hairy.”

Vivian rolled her eyes and said, “Gosh, I’m not going to discuss this with you.”

The length of the straight tunnel was unknown. They had been moving in it for more than an hour. The two monsters were not scared, but they had to keep talking with each other to keep the boredom away. There was no end in sight and it was almost as if the downward tunnel was leading them to hell. The air was stuffy enough, and the oxygen level was way below the limit in which a human could survive. Nevertheless, all these factors were not much of a problem for Vivian and Lily. Vivian could not help touching and feeling the walls with her hand. She knew that they were special walls formed by the work of magic, but she still marvelled at their solid, silky smooth surface. The inheritance of magical ability on Earth was fragmented and she was already unable to remember who among her “old friends” on Earth possessed such a unique skill.

Looking at the tunnel, which was almost perfectly round, Lily could not help but imagine things. “I feel like we’re walking into the intestine of a monster…”

Vivian smacked Lily on the tail and said, “Stop being so disgusting.”

Lily did not seemd to mind. “What is this tunnel used for?” She just raised her Flamejoy and illuminated the way. “It’s all the way down. I’m not sure if this place is man-made at all, because it’s got no lights and ventilation.”

“I’m thinking the same thing too. If it’s man-made, then it should at least have a ventilation shaft.” Vivian frowned. She thought that she would find traces of human activity, but the atmosphere got less and less human as the tunnel got deeper. She looked up at Lily’s paw, which moonlighted as a torch, asking curiously, “How does Flamejoy work? The fire just keeps burning even though there’s almost no oxygen in here. And I remember it working just as well underwater…”

Lily summoned her Frostmourne and pointed it at Vivian. “I said don’t call it that or I’ll freeze you with Frostmourne!”

Vivian twisted her mouth and retorted, “You may want to rename it to Frostjoy for copyright’s sake…”

Lily felt offended. But before she could react accordingly, she saw Vivian’s eyes affixed on something. Under the illumination of Flamejoy, Vivian scraped a black, browny substance off the wall. “What’s this?”

“Isn’t it a stone chip?” Lily’s anger only lasted three seconds before her attention was completed diverted. She moved closer with her torch. “Hmm, that doesn’t look like stone. It smells like rotten root.”

Vivian pinched some of it in her hand and it broke off easily. “It’s soft, kind of fibery. Certainly not stone. It feels like rubber to the touch.”

Lily’s ears twitched when she heard something in the tunnel. “Battie, did you hear that?”

Vivian furrowed her brows. She heard something too—the sound of rubbing coming from afar. But just as soon as it came, it disappeared. She then sent out a bat to scout it out. The bat, which had lightning shining in its body quickly disappeared into the dark end of the tunnel. A weird feeling began to engulf Lily and she could not help raising her claws to guard herself. Through the eyes of the tiny bat, Vivian carefully scanned the situation ahead of them.

Half a minute later, she was wide-eyed. She grabbed Lily by her collar and said, “Run!”

Before Lily could react, she was already lifted off. “What-what’s happening?”

Vivian wheeled and flung Lily around, hustling her to run back to where they came from. Then she shapeshifted into a swarm of bats and flew closely behind Lily. “Don’t ask! Just run!”

A creepy sound was heard coming from behind, mixed with the sound crushing rocks. The sound got closer and closer, almost like a thousand beasts in a stampede. Lily finally came to her senses. Her tail instantly puffed up like cotton candy as she barked and ran on all fours. “What’s going on?”

Lily had tucked away her Flamejoy as she was running on all fours. Some of the bats looked back but it was pitch dark. Vivian could barely see their surroundings with the illumination provided by the bats’ lightning. Suddenly, a shadow lunged out from the darkness and was on their tails!

It was a monster tentacle. Vivian could vaguely identify its features: its end had wrinkles as well as a bifurcated structure and the tentacle completely filled the tunnel. As it moved, it rubbed and scraped the rocks off the wall. The images of the browny, black fibrous tissue and the round tunnel flashed across her mind. She suddenly realised how the tunnel was formed!

She did not know if she was a match for the tentacle. Maybe, the tentacle was not as formidable as it looked. But, the wisdom of 10,000 years taught her that engaging an unknown enemy in an unknown, inhospitable place was a bad idea. She had to resist the urge to test the enemy out in the tunnel. She should escape outside where she could perform at her best. At worst, she would be fight in a place where she could move around freely.

Lily looked back and saw the creepy tentacle chasing them in the dark. Her tail puffed up even more. “Battie, why did you bring that thing out?”

“I didn’t! It knew that we were coming and it just crawled out slowly!”

“Please find a way to stop that damn thing!” Lily looked back again. “It’s even closer now!”

Vivian summoned a small group of bats and thrusted a Ligthning Strike before she could charge it up.

An earth-shattering blast was heard and the tunnel became as bright as day once her Lightning Strike struck the tunnel. Lily did not see it coming. She was almost blinded by the light, but she had no time to take it out on Vivian because she was still running for dear life. “Is that thing dead?”

Vivian’s voice could be heard coming from all the bats. “Just keep running!”

It was a long chase. Minutes felt like hours to Lily as she had yet to see the exit. But just as the thought was about to sink in, there was light ahead.

The shaft—the one that she had dug!

The ruin of the lakeside outpost was engulfed in silence under the night sky. But, the thunderous rumble underground had shattered the serene atmosphere. Animals resting nearby scattered in a panic.

A silvery white shadow and a swarm of bats burst out from the shaft.

Chapter 356: Something Is Imminent

 

Rumbling could still be heard underground like rolling thunder. It sounded as if a beast from the abyss was moving through the rocks and soil. Lily carefully peeked through the shaft, her eyes glowing in the dark. But, all she saw was a faint shadow moving past her. “I think we’ve lost it. Looks like that thing can only move in a straight line.”

With a flap of her wings, Vivian shapeshifted back into her human form, then she threw one of her bats back into the shaft. Under the bat’s glowing lightning, Vivian and Lily could now clearly see the situation beneath them: a coarse, giant, brownish-black tentacle was moving swiftly. It moved so fast that even Lily’s super vision had a hard time catching a glimpse of its true face. The tentacle obviously did not realise there was a shaft there and it just kept going forward. Perhaps it was just as Lily said, the dang thing could only move in a straight line.

A moment later, the tentacle stopped. It had probably reached the end of the tunnel. After a momentary pause, the tentacle slowly backed up. As it retreated, it left behind a slightly larger, smoother tunnel.

The two of them breathed a sigh of relief. Lily threw her butt on the ground and patted herself on the chest in a self-comforting manner. “Now that was scary. I think it’s already backed up.”

She rubbed her eyes before glowering at Vivian. “Your overly bright Lightning Strike almost blinded my dog eyes.”

Vivian was confounded by her choice of words; was it an exaggeration or just a matter-of-fact statement?

“What was that thing?” Lily got to her feet. She looked at Vivian curiously as she dusted herself off. “Being as knowledgeable as you are, have you ever seen such a thing?”

Vivian shook her head. “Nope. It looks like some kind of subterrainean life form. Probably, the tentacle of some large creature. But, its wrinkled skin did not look like that of an animal’s, more like a plant’s. Unfortunately, it was too dark to have a better view. Anyway, I’ve managed to get some samples—”

She waved a large piece of black tissue in her hand. She had earlier summoned a bat to scrape it off from the tentacle as she ran out from the tunnel. Lily curiously approached Vivian, her eyes glowing under the moonlight. The black piece of tissue was wrinkled with cracks evenly distributed across its surface like the bark of a tree. The edge was a little hard in texture, but still flexible enough. Turning it over, the back of the tissue sample had peculiar lines, which were characteristic of plants.

“It looks and smells like a plant.” Lily sniffed. “This definitely does not smell of meat. Battie, what do you think?”

Vivian looked thoughtfully at the Gnarled Grove not far from her. “…Legend has it that a large part of the Gnarled Grove is actually underground. It has a root system that extends all the way to the centre of Beinz Blood Lake underneath Dragonspine Ridge. Judging by the location and the shape of the tentacle… it could very well be part of the Gnarled Grove’s root system.”

Feeling goosebumps on her body, Lily said, “Are you kidding me? I mean, how could a root chase people?”

Vivian tucked away the black plant tissue before turning around and walking towards the Gnarled Grove. “It’s just a guess, but it’s quite possible. After all, the world is a strange place with strange things. I already had a really strange feeling about this forest from the very beginning. I don’t think it’s just as simple as a plant…”

Lily followed Vivian. “What are you doing? Are you going to dig another hole in the forest just to prove it? What if the tentacle comes out again?”

Vivian shook her head and said, “Of course not. I’m not taking that risk. I’m just comparing the trees with the ‘black tissue’ to see if they match.”

She was silent for a moment. Her mind was working hard as she spoke to Lily, “Besides, don’t you find it strange? Let’s assume that the tentacle is part of the Gnarled Grove’s root system; according to legend, the root system is buried very deep underground and the locals think that it’s just a myth—they’ve been living here for thousands of years, yet they’ve never been attacked by similar tentacles. The only reported sigthing of a similar tentacle was by a group of dwarfs, who were mining underground. But, there’s no evidence to back up their claim…”

Lily was as quick-witted as she was naive. “You’re saying that those tentacles a.k.a roots only travelled to the shallow ground recently?”

Nodding solemnly, Vivian said, “The Gnarled Grove has been in existence for 10,000 years. The tentacle—regardless of whether it’s a root or not—has to be very ancient. The fact that the residents of Beinz have never seen them suggests that those things live at great depths. But, the tunnel under the outpost is just 10 m or so under the surface, so I suspect the tentacle is planning to come to the surface.”

Cold sweat trickled down Lily’s back as goosebumps sprouted all over her skin. “I think I better go home! That’s creepy!”

“There are scarier things than this; like monsters from the Mythological Era. That could destroy they way you see the world. Wouldn’t you be even more frightened?”

“Who told you that? Don’t underestimate me. A werewolf is brave! And, I was just feeling disgusted.”

“Then let your tail out when you speak. Don’t walk with your tail between your legs…”

The noisy pair began to leave into the distance. But as soon as they were gone, the sound of pounding hooves could be heard coming from the other direction.

A group of armed knights and mages from the church were arriving on horses. They were the sentries patrolling the area that night. The knights got down from their horses and carefully stepped into the ruins of the outpost. Some of them said, “This is where the sound came from…”

“Looks like the sound came from underground… Have those rock monsters learned to tunnel?”

“May the goddess have mercy on you. I don’t know whether the monsters have learned to burrow or not, but I’m pretty sure there’s a massive hole in your brain!”

Suddenly, a sentry shouted. “There’s a hole in here!”

The knights immediately gathered around the shaft that Lily had burrowed earlier.

The sentry commander stood near the shaft and pondered for a moment before giving orders to two of his men, “Jefferson, Hohmann, both of you follow me.”

The two silver moons still hung beautifully in the night sky. The bloody spot on the larger moon stared down like a bloody eye, monitoring the small creatures that crawled the land. Then, a cloud came by, blocking off the bloody eye.

The moonlight dimmed and Hao Ren looked up to the sky. “Dark clouds are forming. It’s probably going to rain soon.”

Nangong Wuyue was excited. “Rain is good. Rain is good…”

“Shh.” Hao Ren used his hand to muzzle Nangong Wuyue. “There’s a cave right ahead.”

Not far from them, an opening was hidden subtly in between some rocks. If it had not been for his enhanced vision, Hao Ren would not have noticed the subtle variation in the rocks. Nangong Wuyue was immediately on edge. She slithered behind Hao Ren as they came closer to the cave.

A draft of cold breeze filled with a slight stench of blood was blowing out from the cave. Nangong Wuyue instinctively summoned a mist barrier to ward off the strange breeze. “It smells evil.”

Hao Ren glanced at the siren and asked, “How do you know it’s evil?”

“I was just visualising!” With arms akimbo, she stuck her tongue out. “Okay, I admit it. It’s hereditary. Although I’m a siren, my dad left me with a sixth sense. I can feel that something’s not right in this place.”

Hao Ren shrugged and led the way. “Let’s go inside. I can’t wait.”

The cave was deeper than he thought. Hao Ren could see that it was a long and deep cave. The walls on both sides were smooth and had traces of human exploration.

He knew he had struck jackpot—this was a big secret.

Even though the cave had many twists and turns, it did not have forks or secret passages. After moving forward in the cave for an uncertain amount of time, Hao Ren and Nangong Wuyue suddenly found light ahead of them.

It was just a torch on the wall, but bright enough to suggest that humans had been there.

Chapter 357: Evil Ritual

 

Hao Ren and Nangong Wuyue scuttled forward in the cave. They had gone around several corners and gone through larger caverns. Judging from the direction they were moving in and their distance of travel, Hao Ren could roughly calculate that they were somewhere beneath the mountain at the south of Dragonspine Ridge.

There were obvious clues of human presence in the cave. Torches and lamps on the walls could be seen distance apart. But, the flickering lights did not help with poor visibility in the dark cavern. They only made the atmosphere even more creepy. Cold breeze blew out from the depths of the cavern; sometimes strong, sometimes weak, as if warning the intruders to turn back. In a previous cavern, Hao Ren and Nangong Wuyue saw some stools as well as tables made of stone, which were strewn everywhere. They looked quite ancient and had a very different style from furniture in the Kingdom of Holletta. They seem to be remnants from the unknown past.

The deeper they went, the more tense the atmosphere became. Nangong Wuyue could not help but thread the dark cavern by holding on to Hao Ren. The BOSS siren was no more. She now looked meek and scared almost like the cat back at home, Rollie…

Suddenly, Hao Ren saw an iron door that was left ajar right ahead. His steps instinctively came to a halt as a human voice was heard behind the iron door. “Wait a second, someone’s in there!” he exclaimed quietly.

Nangong Wuyue crept up to Hao Ren and took a peek behind the iron door.

What they saw surprised them as there was a large stone chamber behind the door. The stone chamber was almost as large as your typical hall. It was square, almost 10 m x 10 m and its walls were covered in the faint, red glow of crystals. Large braziers with fire illuminating from them filled the air with a depressingly dark-red light. The walls had reliefs and texts, depicting various strange creatures, which roamed the earth. In each corner, there was a statue of a black, faceless figure wielding a sword. Twisted symbols were carved on them and they looked horrific with a touch of madness. Right in the middle of the chamber was an altar, where a group of people in red and black robes were performing a religious ritual. Among them was a tall man in a black-red mask, who appeared to be the priest of this mysterious religious ceremony.

The altar was almost circular. It was bowl-shaped with curvy grooves extending down to the floor. On the floor were all kinds of strange patterns. Hao Ren observed everything carefully. He saw dark-red liquid spewing out from the patterned floor and flowing upwards into the bowl of the altar, defying the law of gravity.

Nangong Wuyue tugged on his sleeve, gesturing at the altar telling him that the dark-red liquid was the very signal which she had been tracing.

That’s right. That was the bodies of the disappeared sentries which had been dissolved into pool of blood by the evil ritual.

As the ritual was coming to an end, the man in the mask raised his hands and chanted in a low but inspiring tone of voice, “Brothers and sisters! The goddess is watching us. She has listened to our devout prayer and taken comfort in our sincere offerings. We are hereby listening to her true teachings, clearing up our cloudy minds, and looking upon to the goddess from the sinful world to be one step closer to her glory…”

All the men in black robes knelt in front of the altar and looked up. They were men and women, young and old. Some had their inner clothing visible underneath their black robes which suggested they were either wealthy or of soldiers. They had their fanatical eyes affixed to the man in the mask, who was exuding a magical aura.

“What we hear, what we say, what we do, and what we believe are the will of the true goddess. We are the first borns who have awakened from ignorance; the wise and the brave who have woken up from the lies…” The hands of the man in the mask remained spread out in the air as he continued to recite some scripture or impromptu statement. “We act in accordance to the will of the goddess to save the people from the hypocrisy of the Disciples of Glory…”

“We will reclaim the power and authority of the goddess, which the wicked have stolen, and we will devote it all back to the goddess. We will punish the sinners who have deceived the goddess, and lay bare their sins to the world. We will save those who have been deceived by this illusion and lift them out of this filthy world into the kingdom of God…”

“We will redeem our debts, the sins of thousands of years with our flesh and blood to prove our devotion…”

After the man in the mask recited the crazy statements with a strange tone of voice, he took out a dagger from underneath his robe!

The black-robed men, who were still kneeling on the ground took out their own daggers and raised them in the air as they chanted, “We will redeem ourselves with our flesh and blood to prove our devotion…”

Immediately after, the cult followers stabbed themselves in the arm. Blood was splashing out, but they continued to shout, “We will redeem ourselves with our flesh and blood to prove our devotion!” It was as if they did not feel any pain.

They bowed face down and their blood flowed from their arms down onto the patterned floor before travelling up to the altar into the dark, bloody mix. The altar began to emanate a golden glow as if it was receiving the blessings of the goddess and the believers became hysterical. Some began to perform acts of self-mutilation. “Redeem with our flesh and blood! Prove our devotion!”

“The goddess has heard you! She will reward you!” The man in the mask shouted in an inspiring voice before dipping a dark-red staff into the altar. The surging blood instantly gave out a hissing sound and red mist rose from the altar, permeating the bodies of the black-robed men. Then, they bowed and thanked their goddess for her blessing before pulling up their sleeves to reveal their arms. The stab wound on their arms were miraculously gone.

The robed man in the mask nodded in satisfaction. He said, “The healing of your wound is proof of the goddess’ recognition of you, and the hypocrisy as well as lies of the Disciples of Glory. They stole the power of God and now we have taken it back. Let us offer our sacrifice with the purest flesh and blood to our Lord to purify the filth on this evil land tonight.”

When the man in the mask finished speaking, two of the followers got to their feet and took a crate out from a corner of the chamber.

The moment they opened the wooden box and reached into it, Hao Ren became wide-eyed.

It was a child, sleeping soundly in the crate!

This was the purest flesh and blood they were talking about, the offering they were going to “return” to their goddess—they were performing a human sacrifice!

The man in the mask placed the child, who barely looked four on the altar. He raised his dagger and his wand as he fervently recited, “The almighty goddess of creation: you are the origin of all lives, you are the alpha and you are the first flesh and blood of all souls! You are the purest origin of chaos! Your loyal and humble servant hereby offers you the purest flesh and blood. Your servant returns this clean being, unpolluted by the world to you! In the name of this return, please give—”

Before the dagger came down on the child, a shout was suddenly heard. “Give my foot!”

The door of the secret chamber was flung off its hinges and the distored iron door was sent flying, hitting a few cult members on its course. This was followed by a flash of blue light, sweeping through the air towards the man in the mask. The latter raised his dagger in self-defense, but the blue light manoeuvered around the dagger and smashed the cult leader in the face, sending him flying at least 10 m back!

“Meet the guided brick!” Hao Ren yanked out a giant, alloy baton—a purported construction material— from the Dimensional Pocket before swaggering forward. “So, you’re the guys who’ve been causing trouble all this while!”

Chapter 358: Spoiling the Ritual

 

Hao Ren was not entirely sure if the cult members who performed the evil ritual were the ones behind the trouble in Beinz. However, their appeareance in a troubling situation during a troubling time was enough to implicate them of the strange phenomenon in Dragonspine Ridge. Even if he disregarded this, he was not going to sit by and watch these people perform a human sacrifice.

Hao Ren had been hiding behind Nangong Wuyue’s mist barrier the entire time. The cult members were immersed in the their ceremony and did not expect them. Everyone was in a daze when Hao Ren lunged out at them. It was only when the MDT hit the man in the mask that they began to come to their senses. Someone shouted, “Heretic! A heretic is in the sacred temple!”

In an instant, the followers took out long knives, daggers, sticks and hooks out of nowhere, turning into combatants in mere seconds. Hao Ren was totally flabbergasted. He had no clue how they managed to hide those things under their robes; he could see how they hid the knives, swords and sticks, but he was totally blown away when he saw a pair of spiked flails.

Hao Ren was not going to take this fight lightly. He was worried that even with his Steel Membrane Shield, he would not be able to take on these four-dimensional “chrysanthemums” and any other weird stuff they may yank out…

It was chaotic in the beginning. The cult followers in black robes appeared to be a band of disorganised, inferior army. But, Hao Ren quickly learned that most of them had backgrounds in military training and all of them had help from magical powers. Their bodies were entwined in an unknown blackish-red air, which spread to their weapons through their hands. They looked like they had just come out of a pool filled with corpses and blood. Hao Ren wielded his alloy baton, fending off their attacks with his superhuman reflexes and strength. But, he was still hit here and there around his Steel Membrane Shield, which gave out bursts of spark.

The cult member wielding a pair of spiked flails attacked Hao Ren from behind. Hao Ren managed to dodge the move as the flails impacted the ground with a bam. From the corner of his eyes, Hao Ren could see the spiked flails, which were shrouded in a blackish-red air blowing a deep crater into the ground with its corrosive power!

No wonder he could feel his shield weakening at a faster rate than usual. That weapon, when coupled with magical power, could be so dangerous.

Hao Ren returned the favour by smashing his attacker with his alloy baton and the latter was flung away by the hit. Hao Ren knew, even with skin as thick as that of a werewolf, no one could have taken the strike without being dead. With his hitting hand, he could roughly gauge that the cult follower was going to suffer at least multiple bone fractures, or worse, be broken in half. However, the guy fell and lay motionless on the ground for just a moment before he got up again, looking completely fine.

The follower was now shrouded with the blackish-red air. Although his face was rotting away and peeling off as if he was being corroded by sulphuric acid, he seemed to feel no pain. His broken bones snapped back into their position and he lunged out to attack Hao Ren again.

This time, the man seemed to be even more ferocious.

The same thing happened to all the other cult believers as well; they felt no pain and healed in seconds. Hao Ren was not prepared to see this, but he was not nervous either; he believed that they were still mortals and they were not going to be able to resurrect themselves indefinitely.

On the other end of the chamber, the man in the mask who was hit by the MDT stood up. His mask had been smashed into half, revealing the face of a middle-aged man with little features. The cult leader was surprised to see that Hao Ren was able to fight multiple men at the same time. He made a decision before chanting a few incantations quietly and thrusting his staff into the ground.

As the staff came in contact with the blood-soaked patterns on the ground, a soft hum filled the chamber. The altar in the centre also began to resonate with the hum as the blood in the altar began to surge and a dark red mist began to rise. It looked like it was nurturing something.

Amid the chaos, the sleeping child who was laying unattended on the altar began to be consumed by the bloody mist. Suddenly, a shadow shrouded in a light blue mist lunged in from the outside. Nangong Wuyue seized the opportunity to save the child from the bloody mist—a move she had secretly discussed with Hao Ren earlier on.

After saving the child from the altar, Nangong Wuyue did not leave the chamber. Instead, she began to position herself in a corner. She was ready to come to Hao Ren’s assistance at any moment. She formed a mist barrier and placed the child on the floor. She curled the child up in her tail as protection while her upper body and head danced around menacingly. A few followers who came to snatch the “offering” stopped in their tracks as they saw Nangong Wuyue, the strange creature. One of them even screamed, “Forget about this lump of a snake! The mist surrounding it must be poisonous!”

So, they turned around and went for Hao Ren, leaving Nangong Wuyue dumbstruck. “Lump?”

The siren’s expression went through a series of changes, because she apparently wanted to join the fight, but was feeling reluctant at the same time. She then ducked as if she was scared. Her aversion to fighting seemed to be worse than initially thought.

Hao Ren had noticed her condition. He was always curious about her condition, but he had not really examined it. To him, she was a gentle aquatic creature, who disliked fighthing. Furthermore, he could not afford to divert his attention to take care of her at the moment.

He knew he had to finish off these cult followers as quick as possible and capture one or two alive. The fact that these people were performing mysterious rituals there had to be connected with Dragonspine Ridge. Even if there was no relation, there had to be some big revelations behind these people, their weird religious ritual, and their views on the Disciples of Glory.

As he had expected, their resurrective ability was finite. It did not matter what power they received from the strange ceremony of fresh and blood. The power could not inject the mortals indefinitely. After a few rounds of fatal attacks were unleased upon them, their bodies started to crumble.

For each injury they suffered, the corresponding part of their bodies would fester. As the injuries built up, their wounds just got bigger and spread throughout their bodies, ultimately becoming fatal. Some of the cult followers had already turned into lumps of carrion under the constant exhaustive attack. Although they were still attacking without any fear of death, their movements were visibly slower.

A stocky man, draped in a black robe, but fitted with expensive clothes underneath, was wielding a machete. He ran towards Hao Ren to attack him, however with a swing of the hand, Hao Ren flung him away. The man’s body burst mid-air and the bits fell back to the ground in a pool of black and red mud.

This was the first cult follower who was completely killed.

Realising that these guys could be killed, Hao Ren became more confident. He motioned the MDT, which was hovering in the air and sniping away. “Capture one of them alive!”

“I’m on it!” the MDT yelled back. It repeatedly hit the head of one of the cult followers, who looked more like a zombie than a ghost, trying not to kill him in the process.

With his inexhaustible strength and indestructible body shield, Hao Ren quickly finished off the rest. The chamber was filled with the disgusting corpses of these “monsters”. But, just as he thought he had finished them all, a strange sounding incantation was heard not far away.

The leader of the cult, who had been ignored all this while raised the long staff in his hand. His face was twisted in an expression of fanaticsm as he pointed the staff at Hao Ren. “Heretic! The goddess has answered my call. Be ready to face the power of goddess!”

Hao Ren was a little stunned by this. Suddenly, he felt an overwhelmingly horrific force coming from the altar.