When night completely shrouded the North District, the daytime bustle had already dispersed.
Outside the western wall, two figures crept forward, keeping close to the shadows.
Avoiding the guards and bypassing the empty wooden barrels stacked against the wall, the two of them quickly arrived at the side door of the western cargo area.
The four guards who had been stationed outside the main entrance during the day were nowhere to be seen. Only an oil lamp, on the verge of going out, hung in the corner.
Nolani crouched in front of the corresponding warehouse door and fished the brass key out from inside her cloak.
Inserting the brass key into the keyhole, Nolani slowly turned her wrist.
The lock cylinder caught for a moment before a soft “click” rang out.
The two exchanged a look. Nolani raised an eyebrow, her eyes clearly radiating smugness.
Celine ignored her completely and reached out to push open the wooden door.
A damp, cold draft rushed over them. No lamps were lit inside the warehouse, and the shelves stood in the darkness like rows of blurry silhouettes.
The door slowly closed behind them. Nolani raised her hand, and a soft green glimmer drifted up from her fingertips.
The light was faint, barely illuminating a few paces around them.
But the two of them quickly noticed something amiss—this place was far too empty. It didn't look like a place packed with cargo at all.
Nolani walked a lap around several rows of shelves, the relaxed expression on her face gradually fading.
“How can there be nothing?”
Celine crouched down and wiped her finger across the floor, her fingertip coming away with a layer of dampness that hadn't fully dried yet.
The floor had clearly been cleaned.
Could the Green Shade Merchant Guild have realized they were investigating and moved the cargo ahead of time?
As soon as the thought arose, she dismissed it.
If the cargo had already been moved, there was no need for Castro to continue arranging double the guards, let alone have someone inspect an empty warehouse every night.
There were also no fresh tracks of a large number of carriages and horses entering or leaving outside the warehouse.
Unless—the cargo had never left.
Celine stood up, her gaze sweeping across the entire warehouse. She then looked over at Nolani and asked, “Can you still sense those plants?”
Nolani closed her eyes and pressed her palm against a nearby wooden pillar.
Faint green natural mana spread out along the pillar, quickly merging into the walls and the floor.
After a moment, she frowned.
“I feel them.”
“Where?” Celine asked.
Nolani opened her eyes, her expression turning slightly strange as she slowly lowered her head.
“Below us. And there are a lot of them.”
Just then, the voices of guards suddenly came from outside the warehouse.
The two of them fell silent at the same time.
A light flashed past the crack in the door from outside, and footsteps came to a halt not far away.
One of them asked in confusion, “Was there a sound just now?”
Nolani quickly extinguished the faint light on her fingertips, and darkness abruptly pressed in on them.
The guards outside took a few steps closer to the side door.
Celine crouched by the door, her other hand starting to condense Soul Threads, ready to wrap them up like cocoons at any moment.
A moment later, another voice drifted over from a distance.
“Stop being paranoid. The window on the west side is broken; it rattles whenever the wind blows.”
The person outside muttered a curse, and their footsteps finally receded again.
Only when the sound had completely vanished did Nolani slowly exhale.
Celine retracted her Soul Threads and said to Nolani:
“We have to hurry. They'll be back.”
Nolani nodded and released another faint glimmer of light.
The two searched along the floor for a moment and discovered a few inconspicuous scratches behind the shelves.
The marks extended straight outward, as if something heavy was frequently pushed aside here.
Celine grabbed the edge of the shelf and pulled hard to the side. The sound of rolling casters came from the bottom of the shelf.
She slowly pushed the entire row of wooden shelves out of its original position, revealing a slightly darker stone slab behind it.
The stone slab had no handle on its edges, and its surface was only carved with a ring of grooves disguised as drainage patterns.
Nolani pressed her hand against it, and the rich aura of life below responded to her almost immediately.
“It's right below.”
Celine crouched beside the stone slab, tracing her fingertips along the seam until she finally touched a hidden metal clasp on the inner side of the drainage groove.
She pressed it lightly, and a dull sound of turning machinery echoed from deep underground.
The stone slab sank, opening a passageway leading downward.
A warm, humid draft surged out, carrying a rich scent of vegetation.
【Unregistered Hidden Area Detected】
【Area Name: Underground Cultivation Ground】
【Area Scale: Micro】
【Danger Level: Unknown】
【Current Status: Closed Cultivation in Progress】
【Special Prompt: This area is not connected to the Red Kite City-States public map system. Teleportation items may be unusable after entering】
Celine's brow twitched.
What was going on?
She had only come to check on a few crates of illegal cargo, yet she somehow managed to trigger a hidden dungeon along the way?
Then, she stared at the last line for two seconds and sneered in her heart.
She didn't have any teleportation items that could be disabled anyway, so this restriction was completely redundant.
Unaware of any of this, Nolani's face showed a rare solemnity:
“Such a rich natural aura.”
Celine dragged an empty wooden chest over to prop against the slowly resetting mechanism, but the corner of the chest quickly cracked under the pressure.
“How long can it hold?” Nolani asked.
“I don't know.” Celine glanced at the steadily deforming wooden board. “So we need to move fast.”
With that, she took the lead and stepped onto the wooden ladder extending downward.
The further down they went, the more humid and hot the air became.
Fine roots poked out from the stone crevices on both sides, gently contracting as they walked, like a swarm of insects peering from the shadows.
Nolani brought the faint light on her fingertips closer to a crevice, and one of the roots immediately retracted into the wall.
“They're all alive. They're actually cultivating plants here?”
As Nolani spoke, she quickened her pace and walked forward.
At the end of the wooden ladder, the space suddenly opened up, and a complete underground cultivation ground appeared before them.
Several copper pipes ran along the ceiling into the depths, continuously spraying water vapor from tiny nozzles.
Wooden racks, clay pots, and glass covers were neatly arranged on both sides. The faint glow emitted by the plants shone through their leaves, casting the entire cultivation ground into a world of brilliant colors.
At first glance, it was full of life, yet it was so quiet that not even the chirp of an insect could be heard.
Nolani stopped in front of the nearest glass cover. Inside grew a silver-white dwarf tree. Its branches and leaves were as thin as cicada wings, with tiny water droplets condensing on the tip of every leaf.
“Silverdew Tree?”
She quickly walked over and studied it closely through the glass for a moment.
“This kind of tree only grows beside the Glazed Spring in the northern part of the Emerald Slumber Sylvan Court. Once removed from its soil, it usually won't survive for more than a month.”
She looked at several clay pots nearby. “There are also Starwool Grass, Crimsonheart Orchid...”
The further in they went, the more plants she recognized, and the surprise in her voice gradually turned into confusion.
Some even grew only in her hometown, and elves rarely sold seeds to outsiders. For the Green Shade Merchant Guild to procure so many at once, the price they paid was probably not small.
“What on earth are they trying to do?”
Rate on N.U.
