Deep Within the Mine

After glancing at the three Destiny Rings ahead, Shade surveyed the surroundings again.

The elevator platform had descended into the middle of a mine shaft. The tunnels, seemingly abandoned for many years, stretched out in both directions, with no end in sight.

Bones, stones, pickaxes, glass shards, and all manner of clutter lay scattered across the ground. At intervals, thick wooden supports stood in the middle of the tunnels, bracing the ceiling to prevent the mine from collapsing completely.

The mine was even colder and more sinister than the Desolate Village aboveground. The undead wandering nearby had become numerous enough for ordinary people to see with the naked eye. Yet the evil spirits drawn by the battle between The Truth Society's Ring Arcanists still did not attack Shade or the Black Skirt Girl, and even deliberately circled around them.

Those evil spirits were not merely incorporeal entities. When The Truth Society's Ring Arcanists destroyed them, remnants of bones and flesh actually dropped from their shattered souls.

Because the black mist in the mine was denser, Shade tried inhaling a breath of the extremely diluted mist filtered by the Red Butterflies. Through this, he learned that the black mist could inflict undead curses, flesh aberrations, and soul distortion.

This mountain village had not originated from Sikar Mountain, nor was it even a village from the Fifth Epoch's Central Continent. Yet in this era, it matched the disaster currently unfolding in Miburg perfectly. If the relic lost control and the evil spirits entrenched in this Desolate Village escaped, The Church's Sealing Ritual would likely be delayed for a long time.

"Professor, do these disgusting things really have any research value? We still preserve samples from the Fifth Epoch's Undead Calamity. Aren't those samples far more valuable than this rotten flesh?"

The young