The tunnel sloped downward, and after walking for an unknown amount of time, the space ahead suddenly opened up.
It was a small void with a low ceiling. The four walls were pitted with claw marks where a large amount of soil had been excavated.
In the center of the void stood a bronze pillar, so thick it would take two or three people to encircle it.
Only a section of the pillar was exposed. The mud on the cross-section was still fresh, having been recently unearthed from the ground by the ghouls.
Lu Yuan understood at a glance how these voids were formed.
The bronze pillars were buried underground, often with only their tips showing. To gnaw on the bronze, the ghouls would dig around the pillars bit by bit. As they dug, a void like this would form around each pillar, creating a dense network that looked like a beehive.
The red silhouette stood at the other end of the void, on the path that continued further down, waiting for them.
However, it wasn't waiting empty-handed.
Something was wrapped around that bronze pillar.
A greyish-green trunk coiled around the pillar's body, layer upon layer. At first glance, it looked like a Serpentine Amalgamation, but Lu Yuan looked closer and recognized it as a Forest Seed—a massive Forest Seed.
The root-like trunk was burrowed into the patterns of the bronze pillar, pressing inward inch by inch. The light from the inscriptions on the pillar flickered as it was being eroded.
The red silhouette flickered and retreated deeper into the darkness.
The Forest Seed coiling around the pillar followed suit, its greyish-green trunk sliding down the pillar back to the ground and burrowing deep into the soil.
Everyone understood the message instantly.
It was provoking them.
It had shown its hand right in front of them, demonstrating that it could command these things and make them accelerate the erosion of the bronze pillars.
If this pillar collapsed, what about the next? There were so many pillars beneath Bronze City; if they were dismantled one by one...
It was forcing them to follow.
Lu Yuan glanced at the pillar. Once the special individual left, the massive roots retreated back underground. After a short while, the light from the inscriptions on the bronze pillar stabilized and returned to its original state.
However, the Great Ascendant quickly noticed that the signs of battle that should have been here, along with the piles of greater ghoul corpses, had all vanished.
“They even clean up the corpses of their own kind?” The Great Ascendant’s curiosity grew as he watched the special individual leading them forward.
Did this thing already possess a structure resembling a human society?
“Just how did they evolve?”
The team’s pace gradually quickened.
The special individual’s intentions were no longer hidden. Clearly, it was preparing to lead them to a place where it could fight.
At this moment, all the other branching paths were congested with a massive number of ghouls and root systems formed by the Forest Seed. The only path available was the direction in which the red silhouette had vanished.
It was a winding path that sloped downward, black and seemingly endless—a place they hadn't explored during the last mission.
Kraus watched the direction where the red silhouette had vanished and turned to the group.
“It’s basically certain now that it has other companions.”
The Great Ascendant narrowed his eyes and asked, “In that case, should we change our battle plan?”
Kraus shook his head.
“We can't. Their intelligence is already quite high. If we don't walk into the trap they’ve set this time, what will they do next?”
Having experienced it firsthand, the Great Ascendant knew the combat strength of that silhouette; in a one-on-one fight, no one here would be its match. If there were more of these things and they swarmed Bronze City, it would be a disaster of cataclysmic proportions. They wouldn't even need to worry about the collapse; the city would be completely slaughtered.
The Archbishop spoke up then. “I have no objections, since we’re already here. Besides, the Angel has given me a decree.”
As he spoke, he narrowed his eyes slightly, putting on a display of piety.
The attendant said nothing. Clearly, Margaret and Lu Yuan felt the same; Kraus’s opinion was their opinion.
Kraus wasted no more words and was the first to step inside.
After entering this tunnel, the surrounding path became significantly wider.
Walking at the very back, Lu Yuan saw another phantom silently detach from behind Kraus and sink into the soil near the bronze pillar.
One of the four phantoms was gone, leaving Kraus with three.
This tunnel was much wider than the previous one, and the surrounding ghouls curled up and made way at a visible speed. A strange, foul stench hung in the air, growing stronger with every step they took. At the same time, the slope beneath their feet grew steeper; they were clearly heading toward the true Abyss. However, none of them seemed affected except for Lu Yuan.
Finally, after traversing this long, sloping tunnel, the group arrived at another void excavated around a bronze pillar. They were currently at the upper slope of the void.
This void was almost a carbon copy of the previous one, and there were no signs of ghouls here.
Lu Yuan slightly activated the connection between his fragments. The third fragment was not on the bronze pillar in front of them.
Margaret walked beside Lu Yuan, constantly sketching something on paper—she was clearly mapping out the Abyss.
They didn't stay long, as the special individual continued to lead them further down.
“Are we still following?” the attendant asked.
They were clearly a very long distance from the surface now. If a wave of ghouls truly broke out, or if two or three special individuals blocked the exit, they would have a very hard time dealing with it.
Kraus hesitated for a moment but ultimately decided to keep following, though only as far as the next similar void. If the special individual continued to lead them further down after that, they would turn back immediately.
As the group dropped down from the void and continued along the next tunnel, they reached an unprecedented depth.
They were now at least a thousand meters below the surface.
The surrounding rock walls were no longer soil but a type of extremely hard stone. Even so, claw marks from ghouls were visible on the stone tunnel, packed densely together. Clearly, these tunnels had all been excavated by ghouls.
At that moment, the red silhouette finally stopped retreating. It stood at the entrance of a dark opening. As the group approached, it took a few more steps deeper into the darkness.
Kraus cast the green light in his hand around the tunnel, and the pitch-black entrance was suddenly illuminated.
It was another void, another excavated hole, but the difference was that there was also a bronze pillar here.
Unlike the previous ones, the patterns on this bronze pillar were extremely clear, with several dark gold glows flowing continuously along the inscriptions, as if they had never been touched by anything. Clearly, it had just been unearthed.
Lu Yuan’s heart skipped a beat. A faint, ethereal connection was emanating from this bronze pillar. The new fragment was very likely inside it, or at least very close by.
Just as Lu Yuan tucked this thought away and was considering how to get closer, he suddenly felt the ground beneath him sink.
In the tunnel behind them, the ground suddenly bulged. It wasn't a collapse; instead, countless greyish-green branches burst out from deep within the soil. One after another, they wove together into a dense net. The roots, sticky with shredded meat and mud, blocked the path completely.
The Forest Seed had sealed the way.
Lu Yuan instinctively looked back, only to see the branches flash by in the light.
The path they had come from was now completely sealed.
Their retreat was gone.
Margaret instinctively turned back and struck the woven net of roots with her fist, but it had little effect. The thing was so hard that it couldn't be broken through in a short amount of time.
“No good, we can't get through,” she said, turning to Kraus at the front.
Kraus knew Margaret’s strength well. If she said it was no good, it meant it couldn't be destroyed in the short term.
In that case, it seemed the creature’s goal had been achieved.
At the same time, Lu Yuan quickly surveyed his surroundings. Among the densely packed pollution sources he detected, no other special individuals had appeared. Clearly, even if there were others, they were still on their way.
Aside from the blocked retreat, there were several other openings in this void—about seven or eight in total, leading to other parts of the underground network. The special individual had only sealed their way back and hadn't bothered with the other paths.
It seemed this was the place for the final battle.
Lu Yuan realized this immediately, and the others at the front had noticed as well.
The purple light on the attendant began to flicker.
Margaret gave up on trying to dismantle the roots behind her. Her face was slightly flushed as she stared at the silhouette in the distance; clearly, her desire for battle had been ignited once more.
The Great Ascendant’s mechanical gaze swiveled as he searched for any other hidden special individuals.
Kraus’s expression remained unchanged as he stared fixedly at the other end of the void, where the silhouette now stood.
Lu Yuan took the opportunity to focus his gaze on it as well.
The red silhouette had no intention of continuing to hide and gradually stepped out from the shadows. Its crimson flesh took on a grotesque color under the green light emanating from Kraus. It had no skin at all; muscle bundles were exposed, wriggling in strands.
The horizontal slit across its face slowly opened. There was no eyeball inside, but rather a mass of flesh that looked like a pustule.
It raised its hand and pressed its palm against the bronze pillar beside it.
Lu Yuan saw it clearly. The moment its fingers touched the surface of the bronze pillar, a large number of greyish-green roots burst out from its arm, spreading wildly along the inscription patterns of the pillar. They were so dense that within a few breaths, the entire bronze pillar was completely encased.
The next moment, it turned its head to look at the group.
Its lipless mouth twitched several times, as if something was stuck in its throat that it couldn't spit out.
Lu Yuan stared at it, and as he realized something, a chill suddenly ran down his spine.
It was... speaking?
A moment later, a short burst of noise squeezed out from that slit-like mouth, intermittent and erratic. It was clearly searching for a vocal frequency. A creature that had never spoken before was now learning how to speak on the fly.
Then, it opened its mouth.
“Humans.”
The blood-red silhouette’s voice was raspy and broken, the syllables jumping out one by one. The human voice sounded as if it had been crushed, grating and unpleasant.
“You... die.”
The hair on Lu Yuan’s body stood on end.
“You... shall repay... our Lord’s suffering.”
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