Chapter 982 – Underground World

The nearest entrance to the Underground World from the City of Eternal Radiance lay deep within the Twilight Hills, at the Rift’s Throat.

Zhizhi traveled at full speed, and it still took three days before they found themselves outside the Rift’s Throat.

Before them gaped a massive, downward-slanting fissure. The rocks along its rim were riddled with eerie pores, and from the bottomless darkness below, only faint air currents carried up winds bearing the Underground’s distinctive blend of mold and mineral scent.

Zhizhi cross-referenced the map: “Master, this is it—the Rift’s Throat, one of the seven main paths leading to the Gloom Corridor on the third layer of the Underground World!”

Mo Lan gestured for Sentai to set her down.

“You all go back into the mirror space. I’ll enter the Underground World alone.”

Her current strength placed her among the very top in the Seran world, and there were few existences that could threaten her.

But Zhizhi, Sentai, and Clack were different.

The Underground World of the Seran world was a paradise for dark races. Mo Lan couldn’t guarantee she could watch over all of them while covering every angle.

Zhizhi had also studied the map Viola provided and knew how dangerous this place was. She obediently nodded and reminded her:

“Master, be careful on the road!”

Mo Lan nodded.

The Rift’s Throat was among the most hostile of the Underground World’s many entrances.

The passage was not only pitch-black, but riddled with rock fissures that would unpredictably spew toxic gas or ooze acidic fluid. On top of that, there were massive colonies of petrification lizards—any light source or sound would alert them.

If not for her Vampire dark vision, which allowed her to disregard the darkness and avoid danger, combined with her ability to maintain a constant Silencing spell, she wouldn’t dare claim she could pass through easily either.

Once Zhizhi and the others had entered the mirror space, Mo Lan changed into a set of black leather armor suited for agile movement, fastened a cufflink enchanted with a permanent Silencing spell, grabbed the vines hanging from the fissure’s edge, and slipped lightly into the darkness.

The descent lasted nearly half an hour.

The fissure wasn’t vertical but spiraled downward, its rock walls covered with protrusions and narrow platforms suitable for climbing.

Her Vampire dark vision allowed her to clearly distinguish between shed skin fragments from petrification lizards and actual petrification lizards disguised as rocks. She could also avoid the rock crevices seeping with yellow-green liquid that were prone to spewing toxic gas.

The deeper she went, the more humid and stifling the air became.

Mo Lan didn’t dare relax for a moment. Only when her feet finally touched down on a relatively flat surface covered in fine gravel did she ease her tension.

This marked her official entry into the third layer of the Underground World.

Compared to the pitch-black Rift’s Throat, visibility here was much better.

Various mosses, fungi, and lichens emitting faint bioluminescence grew along the cave walls.

Some luminous spores suspended in mid-air drifted slowly, giving off a blue-white glow.

From the distance came the muffled sound of an underground river flowing, along with the faint skittering of some arthropod crawling across rock.

Mo Lan followed the map’s directions and chose the second fork on the left.

The path was narrow—sometimes requiring her to turn sideways to pass through, other times demanding climbing or jumping.

With the silencing cufflink, she made no sound whatsoever.

After roughly two hours of travel, the passage ahead was blocked by a vast stone forest of stalagmites and stalactites of varying heights.

From deep within the stone forest came a low, rhythmic breathing. The air was thick with a sickeningly sweet fragrance.

Mo Lan recognized it immediately—this was the spore scent released by mature Bewilderment Mushrooms. It could disrupt a creature’s sense of direction and judgment.

According to the Underground World map Viola had provided, this was a naturally formed psychic disruption field. At its center dwelled a pair of adult Shadow Shamblers—massive creatures, congenitally blind, that relied entirely on vibration sensing and smell to navigate.

Shadow Shamblers possessed the ability to regenerate their flesh. Unless every last scrap of their tissue was burned to ash, they could recover rapidly.

Most people who reached this point would choose to take a detour.

But Mo Lan’s psychic power was formidable. The Bewilderment Mushroom spores couldn’t even make her mind haze over for an instant.

And with her dual classes of level 18 ranger and level 18 Shadow Assassin—both agility-focused transcendent classes—even without the silencing cufflink, it wouldn’t be difficult for her to pass through without disturbing the Shadow Shamblers.

Mo Lan adjusted her breathing to its faintest possible state and slid into the stone forest like a true shadow. Every step landed precisely on the thickest patches of fungal carpet or the most stable sections of rock, avoiding any unnecessary vibration.

Her psychic power stood firm guard over her mental sea, keeping her will sharp and clear.

Everything went smoothly—until she reached the center of the stone forest.

There lay a relatively open clearing, and at its center was a murky little pool bubbling with gas.

Beside the pool, two enormous creatures lay curled up together, resting.

They resembled eyeless hybrids of lizard and beetle scaled up dozens of times over, covered in Obsidian-like carapace, their thick tails tipped with bony hammers.

They looked exactly like the Shadow Shamblers depicted in the reference texts.

Mo Lan held her breath and prepared to slip through the narrowest gap along the clearing’s edge.

At that precise moment, without any warning, a “splash” erupted from the pool as a completely transparent fish—its internal organs clearly visible—leaped out of the water!

It seemed to have been startled by some underground tremor. After breaking the surface, it thrashed wildly, producing loud slapping sounds.

Both Shadow Shamblers snapped awake instantly. Low, threatening hisses rumbled from their throats.

One of the massive creatures had already half-risen to its feet, its bone-hammer tail swinging dangerously.

Mo Lan didn’t linger. Her entire form blurred into a faint afterimage as she sprinted toward the exit on the far side of the stone forest.

Behind her, the fish’s thrashing abruptly ceased, followed by a bone-chilling crunching sound.

The fish had been eaten.

Fortunately, they hadn’t detected Mo Lan’s presence.

She had already slipped into a rock crevice so narrow that only one person could pass through at a time.

Treacherous environments like this were everywhere in the Underground World.

Over the days that followed, Mo Lan encountered a colony of Stinging Sac Fungi that actively launched paralyzing toxic spines—she went in and harvested some intact specimens as material for the Book of Cards. She skirted around a Devouring Fungal Marsh where the ground appeared solid but was actually riddled with deadly acid traps. She weathered a massive Shadow Bat migration—those fist-sized, sharp-toothed creatures posed little individual threat, but when tens of thousands of them swept past like a black storm, she had no choice but to duck into a narrow rock crevice and raise a shield to endure several hours before they all passed.

Still, Mo Lan considered the hazardous environment merely an appetizer of the Underground World. The intelligent beings that lived down here were far more dangerous than the environment itself.

Along the way, she came across numerous skeletal remains of intelligent beings. Judging by the marks, some had died to the claws and fangs of fierce beasts, or to the deadly toxins of magical plants—but far more had clearly been the result of their own kind killing each other.