The passage slanted downward the entire way. After walking for who knew how long, the space ahead suddenly opened up.
It was a small cavern with a low ceiling. Its walls were pitted with claw marks, and a large stretch of earth had been hollowed out.
In the center of the cavern stood a Bronze Pillar thick enough that two or three people would need to wrap their arms around it.
Only a section of the pillar was exposed, and the dirt on its cross-section was still fresh. The Ghouls had only recently dug it out from underground.
Lu Yuan immediately understood how caverns like this had formed.
The Bronze Pillar had been buried underground, usually with only its tip exposed. To gnaw at the bronze, the Ghouls dug downward around the pillar bit by bit. As they dug, a hollow like this formed around every pillar, densely packed like a Hive.
That Red Shadow stood at the other end of the cavern, on the passage that continued downward, looking back as it waited for them.
But it was not waiting empty-handed.
Something was coiled around the Bronze Pillar.
A grayish-green body spiraled upward around the pillar. At first glance, it looked much like a Serpentine Chimera, but upon closer inspection, Lu Yuan recognized it. It was a Forest Seed—a gigantic Forest Seed.
Its root-like body had burrowed into the pillar's patterns, inching inward. The Inscription light on the pillar flickered as it was corroded.
The Red Shadow swayed and retreated deeper inside.
The Forest Seed wrapped around the pillar withdrew as well. Its gray-green body slid down the pillar to the ground and burrowed deep into the soil.
Everyone understood at once.
It was provoking them.
Right in front of them all, it had demonstrated that it could command