The Prison Cells in the Basement

In the pitch-black passageway, Shien slowly advanced in secret, making his way alone toward the deepest part of this space.

This time, no one was guiding him, and he had no way to use his previous search method to determine other people's locations or the terrain.

Here, if Shien blatantly released his magic power, the High Priest would definitely notice.

Therefore, Shien could only rely on the information detected by the Outer Perception of Heaven to find his destination.

The direction of the airflow.

The texture of magic power.

The vibrations created by all sorts of movement.

Subtle, unusual sounds.

Such things became the basis Shien used to gather information about this space. Deep in thought, he maintained the concealment provided by the Inner Perception of Heaven and proceeded along the passageway. Though his steps were slow, he pressed forward with unwavering resolve.

Along the way, Shien did not encounter any patrolling knights.

Perhaps because this was a relatively important area and unauthorized personnel were not allowed near it, Shien found no trace of anyone patrolling.

But the absence of patrols did not mean there were no "other presences" guarding this place.

Shien stopped at the end of a passageway. Looking at the sight before him, he was speechless for several seconds.

"..."

A rather terrifying pressure permeated the area.

The source of that pressure was a gigantic creature lying on the ground.

Shien was quite familiar with such a creature.

Because he had one at home too.

It was—

"A dragon?"

The colossal creature sprawled at the end of the passageway was indeed a dragon.

No, more accurately, it was not a living dragon, but a "dead dragon."

It had a pair of tattered dragon wings. The membranes were badly torn, much of its flesh had vanished, and its