Volume Two: Life and Death at the Northern Frontier - Chapter 146: The Paintings on the Pillars

"Um..."

I rubbed my throbbing head and got up in the dim light.

Looking around, the faint light from the luminous pearls embedded in the stone wall slightly illuminated the darkness. Where am I? Am I on the fourth floor?

What about the other three?

It seems they scattered upon landing, but with the protection of my blood, they shouldn't be injured.

That said, since they're protected by my blood, they must have some of my blood on them. So, if I just calm down and focus on sensing my own Blood Energy, wouldn't I be able to find them?

Thinking of this, I immediately closed my eyes and began to search carefully. Sure enough, about two buildings away directly in front of me, there was the blood reaction.

Givinia should be using her projection soon, and then they'll probably notice me.

Anyway, let's get together as soon as possible.

"--!?"

My foot stopped, and I slowly turned around.

When I was searching my own Blood Energy just now, I seemed to sense some "impurities" right behind me.

The feeling was somewhat similar to a biological reaction, but not quite the same.

Behind it was a long, dimly lit stone corridor, the deepest part of which was shrouded in darkness and could not be seen clearly.

There's something at the end of the corridor.

It shouldn't be the Black Abyss Tribe. After the battle just now, they shouldn't be making a move again anytime soon.

As the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat.

Strangely enough, I couldn't suppress my curiosity about that unknown thing at all, as if some kind of gravitational force was drawing me in.

Do you want to go see it?

But... I looked in the direction of my teammates. At this point, we should regroup as soon as possible, in case something unexpected happens...

"Let's go this way..."

"Huh?"

Is someone talking?

I shook my head vigorously. For a fleeting moment, my consciousness seemed to turn into a hazy gray.

In that ambiguous gray, I seemed to see a gaunt figure.

... a human figure?

Where is there a soul? Am I just being paranoid? There's only an ambiguous gray...

Wait, gray? What gray?

What am I thinking? I really don't understand.

I scratched my head vigorously and walked into the dimly lit corridor.

"Waaaaah, this is really bad! Sirius is dented in so many places!"

"I'd say 'thankfully only a lot of places are dented,' sister... Let me do an emergency check..."

"Luckily, A Ye's blood protected us at the last moment, otherwise, fractures would have been the least of our worries."

Givinia stretched her limbs and began creating projections to search, but after a few seconds she frowned—it was too dark here, and searching would take a long time.

"I wonder how that idiot Emilia is doing."

"It seems she didn't fall down with us, sister."

"Really? That's great—oh no, it's not good at all! That big-breasted idiot breaking her leg is too good for her!"

Looking at Alice's haughty Ally, a barely perceptible shadow crossed Ailin's face.

"Sister, you really care about Emilia."

"Huh? What are you talking about? I'm only... just a little worried about that kind of person. Anyway, she's fine!"

Ailin's face grew increasingly gloomy, but Ally was completely oblivious.

"Sister, let me ask you, what would you do if I told you I like you?"

"Hmm? So what if I like her? I like Ailin too."

"No... the 'like' I'm talking about is different from the 'like' you're talking about... Ah, never mind, sister, come help me!"

"What are you talking about? You're rambling on and on. Here we go!"

The sound of dripping water was particularly jarring in the dim and empty space. After walking to the end of the stone corridor, I entered a dark and empty space, which seemed to be the product of a natural grotto that had been modified to some extent. I describe it as "dim" rather than "dark" because the entire cave was covered with a very faint light, hazy and indistinct, allowing me to barely make out the cave's structure. Strangely, no matter where I looked, I could not find a source of light.

Putting aside the somewhat eerie atmosphere, the scenery inside the cave is quite beautiful. Countless stone pillars stand tall in the huge grotto, their surfaces covered with carvings, seemingly created by processing the original natural stone pillars. The ground is covered with stripes like paving tiles, but traces of many ravines and stalagmites can still be seen, creating a kind of incongruous beauty.

The developers of this cave clearly intended to efficiently develop and utilize it while preserving its original appearance to the greatest extent possible, which is truly remarkable. If this were on Earth, it would definitely be another World Heritage Site.

But there seems to be nothing here. So what am I doing here...? Thinking this, I looked at the carvings on the stone pillar.

They were paintings, their style reminiscent of the Aztec civilization on Earth, possessing a profound sense of history. Examining them closely in the dim light, the paintings seemed to depict the history and customs of the early inhabitants of the Northern Frontier. Looking at each stone pillar, I first saw depictions of the daily lives of these early inhabitants: farming, herding, fishing, trading... finding them rather uninteresting, I skipped over them. Next came history, including the rise and fall of dynasties, economic development, and naturally, war... Hmm?

After history came the myths and religions of our ancestors. However, these paintings contain neither white-bearded old men with halos, nor immortals riding the clouds, nor fat men sitting on lotus flowers.

It's a tree.

On several stone pillars, there are carvings of countless people kneeling and worshipping a tree. In ancient murals, important and worshipped things were depicted in large sizes, and this tree occupies more than half of the picture area, which shows its importance.

"So this is... the World Crystal Tree...?"

Because it's a mural, it's difficult to discern the true appearance of the World Crystal Tree from it, but I still found something that could prove its identity—the fruit. At the top of the tree are two closely spaced spheres, and the radiating lines on the mural indicate that the spheres are glowing. Huang Huo had previously mentioned that the Crystal Realm Fruit exist in pairs, so it must be true.

A tree worshipped as a god... Is this what awaits me at the end of the continent— Crystal Island? I couldn't help but feel a little emotional.

However, the mural was not yet finished.

"Besides?"

Looking at the next stone pillar, it's another carving of the ancient people worshipping the World Crystal Tree, but this one is better preserved, so I can see the whole picture clearly. The bottom of the picture shows the worshipping people, and the top is the solemn World Crystal Tree, but there are other things painted above the World Crystal Tree.

It looked like an irregular ellipse. Because it was drawn so abstractly, I couldn't tell what it was. A fruit? A seed? An egg? A gem? Whatever it was, the fact that it was located higher than the World Crystal Tree meant that it was definitely not an ordinary thing.

It is very likely that it is a more advanced existence than the World Crystal Tree and the Crystal Realm Fruit.

What exactly is going on?

Then, I saw it.

Before I knew it, I had finished looking at the last stone pillar and arrived at the deepest part of the cave. This was a hidden little space, and I probably wouldn't have found it at all if I hadn't looked at each stone pillar one by one.

In the center of this small space stood a stone platform, from which the hazy light filling the grotto emanated. The platform's height reached just to my chest, a perfect fit. On it was an irregularly shaped, pure white ellipsoid, which seemed to be the subject of the painting. I gently reached out towards the ellipsoid; it was small enough to be easily held in my hand. Moreover, its texture was strange, neither stone nor wood; if I had to describe it, it felt like cardboard wrapped with layers of fine thread... truly bizarre.

I held the thing in my hand and played with it, trying to feel its life flow, but I got no results. It seems that this is not a living thing.

Tsk, what am I doing here? Instead of hurrying to meet up with them, I'm still playing around with ruins. This little ball is fine no matter what...

"Offer your blood, and try to devour it."

My vision suddenly distorted.

It looks like static, like when a TV signal is cut off.

Coming to my senses again--

"... ah!"

I held a handful of blood in my hands, and the strange ball was soaking in it, stained red with blood.

Strange, when--

When?

What am I thinking? I just tried it on a whim, didn't I? This thing has such a high status in ancient paintings, it must be some kind of amazing rare treasure.

"Ah, it's absorbed."

Strands of blood enveloped the small ball, which quickly dissolved under the corrosive influence of the blood and entered my body. Unlike the Crystal Emperor Fruit and the Yan Yi Ming Hua, devouring this thing was completely effortless, as easy as eating bread.

After waiting a while, nothing unusual happened.

"..."

There was no danger, and there was no gain.

Honestly, we've been delayed for so long for no reason, we have to leave now...

I quickly left the area and headed towards where my teammates were.

The ancient grottoes have returned to silence.

The dim light disappeared, and in the darkness that filled the space, a faint human figure appeared.

It is illusory and ambiguous, yet it possesses a real sense of existence.

It exists everywhere, yet it doesn't exist anywhere.

Ambiguous and unclear.

Just like humans.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The hole seems to be getting bigger and bigger... or am I just imagining things?