Chapter 782: The Secrets Underground Part 1
Qianye observed the area and saw that the cave was in disarray. A large number of rocks had collapsed, and there were broken limbs poking out from the mud. How could the goons survive when even the leader had been blasted to death?
Qianye flipped the man’s body over. His armor had been shattered, so the most valuable thing left on him was a grade-seven gun. The weapon was made in an elegant, classic design and there were gems and crystals embedded in its handle. Despite the seeming extravagance, one could see that its barrel was large and its structure was quite simple—the style of the neutral lands.
Numerous patterns on the handle formed the two words: Spring Rain.
The name was interesting, but when Qianye introduced some origin power into the gun and activated its origin arrays, he found that its performance was nothing to write home about. The array itself wasn’t as complicated as Cui Yuanhai’s, and its limited functions contained an unbearably weak defensive barrier.
Instead of protecting the holder, this weak defensive barrier would better serve to shine a halo around them. To be frank, the sole purpose of this component was to look cool and it had no other functional purpose than to waste a slot in the array.
This magnificent but useless gun was only worth its materials to Qianye. Naturally, just the decorations embedded in the weapon were enough to buy a good grade-seven gun. The gun itself could be considered a bonus that came along with them.
He tossed this Spring Rain into Andruil’s Space and flipped through some other miscellaneous stuff. The man carried a large number of perfumes and decorative items on him, but the only thing remotely useful was his physical origin bullets. However, a shining metallic emblem suddenly caught Qianye’s attention.
This fairly heavy emblem was made of an unknown material. There was a sinister-looking creature on its front side that even Qianye couldn’t recognize, as well as a row of small words on its backside that said: 2nd White Demon Corps Captain, Hu An.
Who would’ve thought that this impractical fellow’s status was actually that important? The White Demon Corps was one of the two main legions of the Moonlight Demons, and Mask was its commander. This fellow was probably quite capable to be able to lead a combat squad of his own. Unfortunately, he was probably a speed-type fighter with relatively weak defenses and fell promptly under the barrage of origin grenades.
From a certain perspective, it could be said that this Hu An didn’t suffer any injustice. In order to restrain him in place, Qianye himself also remained immobile and suffered the same amount of damage as the latter. It was just that Hu An was dead and Qianye was perfectly fine—and that was the difference.
Qianye fiddled with the emblem but found nothing special about it. Just as he was about to throw it away, however, an electric light rushed out from the insignia and hovered in the air. The radiance gradually intensified to form the outline of a man with his face hidden under the hood of his long cloak.
It was just an illusory projection, yet it filled the beholder with the imposingness of the deep seas.
The image seemed alive—those eyes under the hood shot out beams of dark red light as they stared at Qianye. “I’m the vice-commander of the White Demon Corps, Kimberly. You dare kill my men, quite bold I say.”
At this moment, Qianye felt as though he had been targeted by a venomous snake. He quickly understood that this image wasn’t a lifeless object but a means of communication with the insignia as the medium. Such a brilliant method was rare even in the elite corps of the empire.
The projection’s gaze almost seemed tangible as it landed on Qianye’s face. “Wait a minute, there’s another face under your mask. You think you can trick me, the great Kimberly, with such a simple facade? I’ll give you two choices right now, you’ll get a swift death if you kill yourself before me. That, or you’ll suffer endless torment when I catch you personally...”
“Senseless threats.” Qianye crushed the insignia into a piece of scrap metal.
A giant camp had risen dozens of kilometers outside of Port City, one capable of accommodating tens of thousands of troops. At this moment, arcs of strong electricity shot out from a certain large tent. The lightning quickly transformed into flames which effectively reduced the tent to cinders.
A cloaked man appeared as the blaze receded, and he was that Kimberly person who had spoken to Qianye a while ago. His body was shrouded in an electric glow and spewing out bolts of lightning and fire from time to time. Apparently, that was the culprit behind the tent’s destruction—it was just that the chair below him and the desk in front of him were perfectly intact.
“Bastard!” Kimberly stood up while banging the table.
“Please calm yourself, sir!” A young girl in grey armor tried to soothe him.
“If I don’t kill that Zhao Ye, people will think I can’t handle him!” Kimberly’s eyes were overflowing with electricity.
The young warrior frowned. “Sir, it’s not suitable for a person of your cultivation to enter the Earth Dragon’s lair.”
Kimberly sneered, “This seat is a divine champion, how can my power-control be inferior to those useless people?”
The girl wouldn’t give in. She blocked Kimberly’s path, saying, “I have no doubt about your ability, I’m just warning you about the risks. Other people who attract the Earth Dragon’s attention might be overlooked, but that is not the case for you. Once the dragon finds a divine champion level being close by, it’ll immediately wake up from its dormant state. At that time, our many years of preparation will go down the drain. Sire Mask won’t let you off, either.”
At the mention of Mask, the electricity around Kimberly wavered for a moment. He said with a snort, “Must I allow that brat to keep acting so arrogantly?”
The young warrior replied, “Of course not, I’ll go and deal with him personally. As for the Highbeard girl, I’ll let her live a while longer since we need her to lead the way.”
Kimberly was surprised. “You’re going to enter the lair?”
“Why not?”
“This… how will I explain things to Mask if something happens to you?”
“He can’t take care of me forever. Besides, me and my mother have been wandering the world for so many years, I’m still fine, am I not?”
Kimberly wasn’t willing to discuss this matter further. He hesitated for a moment before finally giving the nod. “Fine then. But you must be cautious, that brat is very crafty and has a lot of grenades on him.”
The girl replied, “Have you forgotten my ability? Beast hordes, squads, puppets, he can’t deal with so many troops even if has fifty origin grenades on him. Besides, can he even carry fifty origin grenades?”
Kimberly nodded. “Makes sense, but you must be careful nonetheless. He’s also quite strong in the combat arts in addition to scheming.”
The young girl said expressionlessly, “Speaking of combat arts, I stayed in the underground arena for five years, I don’t think he can be stronger than me.”
Kimberly’s electric flames flickered for a moment. He let out a long sigh, saying, “All in all, just be careful about everything.”
The warrior girl left with a nod. There was actually a hole within the base which connected to the tomb. She jumped right in and vanished into the vast underground maze.
Kimberly’s anger hadn’t subsided even after the girl’s departure. “A group of useless scum wanting to touch my Earth Dragon’s blood? But that brat is crafty and ruthless, not an easy person to deal with. Men, bring me a brush and some paper!”
After the stationary had arrived, Kimberly unfurled a sheet of white paper on the table and began drawing upon it. In just a few strokes, he actually outlined a lifelike portrait of Qianye’s original appearance!
Kimberly handed the paper to his follower. “Issue a bounty for this person, fifty thousand gold coins.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Wait a minute, let’s wait until the end of this operation before announcing the bounty.” Kimberly remembered that his efforts would be wasted if the brat were to die soon afterward. Yet, he felt an inexplicable uneasiness about ignoring this person.
Kimberly made up his mind after some thought. He wrote a short letter, sealed it well, and summoned his men. “Deliver this letter to the Thunderfrost Palace and hand it to that sire.”
The subordinate’s expression was filled with apprehension. “Which sire?”
“The Thunderous Whip, of course! Go, make haste!”
After the subordinate left to complete his mission, Kimberly returned to his seat with a cold smile. “I want to see how you’ll survive after killing her most beloved brother. If there’s a divine champion who can approach the Earth Dragon, it would be her.”
Back underground, Qianye was heading into the depths of the lair after clearing up the spoils. It was hard to discern the direction underground, but Hu An’s appearance happened to give Qianye a sense of direction—where he had come from was where the lair stood.
After winding through the cave for an unknown length of time, Qianye’s field of view expanded abruptly as a large opening appeared before him. From this point on, the underground cavern began widening rapidly as the ground stretched downward, and even Qianye’s superior vision couldn’t see where the end was. What he did see was that this underground world was over a thousand meters from ground to ceiling and supported by giant pillars hundreds of meters wide.
The ground was uneven with steep cliffs, towering heights, and caves of all shapes and sizes scattered about—no one knew where they would lead. There were specks of luminescence floating in the air. Despite their size, these spore-like objects glowed like a trail of stars, their eerie light filling the underground world with a deep mystique.
In front of Qianye, there were over a dozen tunnels worth investigating. They were divided into three layers: top, middle, and bottom, each of them spreading out in five or six different directions. He was at a momentary loss about how to proceed under such circumstances.
But his journey to the underground world this time was actually just to relieve his depression; he really didn’t care about the rewards here. Moreover, he had already reaped great profits from the giant rhinoceros, so his trip wasn’t wasted even if he left now.
After scanning all the passages, Qianye’s eyes finally landed on the smallest tunnel in the middle layer. The traces of battle left behind outside the entrance made it clear that the Spider Emperor’s men had gone through it. Additionally, this tunnel was only ten or so meters wide and only big enough for pegmatite crocodiles at most. Creatures like the giant rhinoceros probably wouldn’t appear.
Qianye started walking toward the tunnel, but after a couple of steps, he thought, “Why must I follow the forces of the Spider Emperor and Moonlight Demon?” Their large numbers made it easier for them to be discovered by the Earth Dragon. On the other hand, Qianye traveling alone with his Bloodline Concealment would probably have a better chance of sneaking into the core of the lair. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t escape from creatures like the giant rhinoceros if he wanted to. Even if he couldn’t flee, his strength had increased sharply—Life Plunder was already usable, and the Shot of Inception was ready. Under such circumstances, it wouldn’t be too hard for him to achieve yet another victory.