Caged

As it turns out,

As a princess, Li Qingyan's princess carry skills were indeed much better than Ran Qingmo's, who was as cold as an ice block.

I carried him around for a while, and he didn't feel dizzy at all.

If it were Big Ice Block running on foot, he'd probably be lying on the ground retching by now.

Thinking about it, Xu Yuan smiled slightly without realizing it, patted the woman in his arms, and whispered:

"Put me down first."

"Um."

Li Qingyan glanced down at him, smiled, bent down, gently set him down, and softly instructed, "Be careful."

"."

Toes landing

Looking at her tall and graceful figure, both heroic and gentle, and those towering crimson phoenix eyes, Xu Yuan's heart skipped a beat for a moment.

hiss.

Oh no, why does he seem like a princess now?

That wicked woman is really too cunning.

But a true man can bend and stretch; we can take him back another time.

The passageway behind them was pitch black, and the two of them were standing on a cliff extending from the passageway.

The cave ceiling is not visible above, nor is the abyss below.

The wind at the entrance of the passageway was cold and biting, ruffling her long hair. Li Qingyan gazed into the distance, her delicate eyebrows slightly furrowed.

"Your Highness, this cave does not appear to have formed naturally; there are strong traces of magical excavation."

"And,

"There doesn't seem to be that Black Death Fungal Mat in this cave."

"."

Xu Yuan narrowed his eyes and scanned the inner wall of the cave near the cliff.

As Li Qingyan said, the lush, brownish-red fungal carpets stopped abruptly at the exit of the tunnel. The inner walls of the cave were very smooth, unlike those formed naturally, and there was no vegetation on them at all.

Looking along the smooth inner wall of the cave into the distance, even with the residual Source Qi from Li Qingyan within him, Xu Yuan could not see the mountain wall on the opposite side of the cave.

some,

It was just endless darkness.

The colossal underground city nestled at the bottom of the abyss beneath the cliffs was also shrouded in darkness.

Li Qingyan observed Xu Primordial Spirit and suddenly spoke again:

"Judging from your expression, Your Highness, it seems your Prime Minister's Mansion has no information about this cave and this underground city?"

Xu Yuan glanced at her and uttered:

"Have."

After saying that,

After a moment of silence, he added:

"But not many."

"Not much?"

Li Qingyan murmured, then cut to the chase without further ado. "Should we go down and take a look?"

"Don't rush."

Xu Yuan hesitated without replying, trying to recall relevant information about the Dead Silence Underground Palace in his mind.

To be honest, he didn't remember there being such a massive underground city in the Black Underground Palace.

Fortunately, he soon managed to find a "map" that matched the surrounding scenery.

On the outskirts of the Dead Silence Underground Palace, there is a huge cavern, but inside it is just a dilapidated village consisting of a few broken houses and mysterious sculptures.

Thinking of this, Xu Yuan's expression became slightly strange.

It's not that the changes are too drastic; after all, he's seen many places where a prefectural city that could be traversed in a dozen seconds in "Cangyuan" has become a giant city where millions of people gather.

The appearance of such a majestic ancient city in the lair of the Strange Ghost is incredibly eerie.

Xu Yuan didn't bother with these man-made creations at the time, since there was no information about the Strange Ghost in Cangyuan.

Combined with the eerie sculptures in the village, and the undead nature and disgusting tentacles exhibited by the monsters that followed, he assumed that this Dead Silence Underground Palace was a stronghold or even the headquarters of some cult.

Based on the knowledge in my mind, I immediately conjured up a grand drama of a cult bringing about its own demise, creating a group of monsters through "sacrifice," and then playing with fire and burning itself to death, destroying its own homeland.

But now it seems that the situation is not like that at all.

Xu Yuan stared intently at the quiet ancient city below, rapidly compiling the known information in his mind.

Do Strange Ghost build houses?

In other words,

Did the Strange Ghost ever possess a civilization?

"Then let's go down and take a look."

In the silence, Xu Yuan's calm voice clearly reached Li Qingyan's ears.

Without a word, Li Qingyan swiftly bent down and pulled Princess Xu Yuan into his arms again, his phoenix eyes slightly lowered, his voice soft:

"Just jump down?"

"."

The woman's body felt soft to the touch, Xu Yuan suddenly realized that occasionally experiencing this irresistible tenderness was actually quite nice.

But how can a true man remain subservient to others for long, feeling resentful?

Xu Yuan glanced around and replied calmly:

"Just jump! The exit from this Underground Palace should be near this city."

After saying that, he silently reached out and hooked his arm around Li Qingyan's neck.

In the previous game, Cangyuan, the player fell into this Dead Silence Underground Palace through a cave, and the landing point was an ordinary passageway near this ancient underground city.

In other words, as long as he and Li Qingyan find that passage, they can return to the surface through the cave that leads directly to it.

Silently, Li Qingyan lightly stomped his foot, and the wind whistled past his ears once more.

Like the bottom of an abyss shrouded in black mist rapidly magnifying and becoming clearer before his eyes, just as he was about to land, a faint but precise Source Qi emanated from Li Qingyan's body.

Then, those jade-like feet, encased in brownish-red armor, gently stepped onto the bottom of the abyss.

Xu Yuan and Li Qingyan walked side by side on the stone-paved road leading to the ancient city, their faces solemn.

Yes, a stone-paved road.

A not-so-wide road has been built at the bottom of this Black Abyss, and large fields for growing crops have appeared on both sides of the road.

In the middle of these fields, some oddly shaped crops are planted, neatly arranged like rapeseed fields, and the fruits hanging from the branches seem to be almost ripe.

The surroundings were silent, save for the soft footsteps of Xu Yuan and Li Qingyan.

After a while,

Xu Yuan suddenly spoke up and asked:

"Qingyan, do you know what these crops are that can grow underground without sunlight?"

While keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings, Li Qingyan replied softly:

"It's not a problem with the crops, it's a problem with the soil. The soil beneath this Black Abyss is Hundred-Breath Soil."

"Hundred-Breath Soil?" Xu Yuan frowned.

"A type of soil suitable for growing rare medicinal herbs; it's quite precious."

As he spoke, Li Qingyan winked at Xu Yuan and said half-jokingly, "Just like you said before, if we get out, we can make a fortune just from the vast Hundred-Breath Soil beneath this Black Abyss."

Xu Yuan was speechless for a moment, then asked in a solemn voice:

"Qingyan, you should have noticed the signs of human activity here, right?"

Li Qingyan glanced at him and nodded:

"If left unattended, even Hundred-Breath Soil will become overgrown with weeds after thousands of years."

Xu Yuan looked at the city wall getting closer and closer, stroked his chin, and smiled with narrowed eyes:

In other words, there are still people here.

Before the words were finished,

"Danger!"

"Danger!"

Two sharp sounds of bowstrings snapping rang out abruptly!

With the aid of the Black Death Armor and the Blood Origin Heart-Fall Technique, Xu Yuan, even though he was only a fifth-grade Soul Condensation, was still able to detect the approaching black shadow.

Two giant crossbow bolts came from the city wall!

One arrow was shot at him, and another at Li Qingyan.

Upon seeing this, Xu Yuan's eyes revealed a thoughtful expression, without any intention of avoiding the situation.

And in an instant,

A fair, jade-like hand, partially covered by a thin, brownish-red nail polish, appeared before his eyes.

"Buzz--"

A tremor sounded.

The gust of wind whipped up Xu Yuan's long hair, and the sharp arrowhead was less than half a foot away from his brow.

The giant crossbow bolt, half a meter long, was caught directly in Li Qingyan's hand, its tail trembling continuously due to the powerful inertia.

Another giant crossbow bolt, aimed at Li Qingyan, struck her right in the heart, but was shattered by her graceful curves.

These two giant crossbows came from that ancient city.

However, without Li Qingyan's Source Qi, the pitch-black environment prevented Xu Yuan from clearly seeing the scene above the ancient city, so he casually asked:

"Is it a person?"

Holding the giant crossbow bolt, Li Qingyan looked at the ancient city with great interest and asked in a clear voice:

"He looks like a human, should we kill him?"

Xu Yuan pondered for a moment:

"Is there any danger? If not, take me there to check it out first."

Li Qingyan, his phoenix eyes flashing with crimson flames as he stared at the city wall:

"No, the Source Qi fluctuations of those 'people' on the city wall are all only at the seventh rank."

More than one.

Xu Yuan frowned:

"Take me there to have a look."

After saying that,

Without saying a word, Li Qingyan wrapped his arm around Xu Yuan's waist and leaped into the air.

Several miles were covered in an instant.

The two quietly landed on the watchtower atop the ancient city wall, and Xu Yuan immediately heard a low growl coming from below, deliberately hushed tones:

"The Strange Ghost are here! Go and inform Simin, and have the Blood Armor Guard prepare for battle."

"Don't stop, keep pulling the crossbow!"

The language was a bit Great Yan, but I could barely understand it.

Xu Yuan looked in that direction in response.

On the city tower below, a group of flustered "soldiers" were conducting a pre-battle mobilization.

Their clothing was somewhat unusual, probably because resources were scarce underground; their clothes were mostly made of woven plants.

However, as soldiers, the soldiers on the ancient city walls seem somewhat inadequate.

Having seen elite forces like the Beifeng Army and the Black Scale Army before, Xu Yuan found their preparations for battle rather comically unfamiliar.

He even saw some of them cowering in a corner, terrified, and defying orders.

However, the physical structure of these people seems somewhat strange.

Even he, a fifth-grade Soul Condensation who had practiced the Crimson Cultivation Method, couldn't see clearly several miles away, yet these people from the Underground Palace, whose Source Qi fluctuations were only at the seventh grade, could see him.

Xu Yuan pondered,

The group of "soldiers" below seemed to have finally realized something was wrong, their voices trembling with fear:

"Chief? The two Strange Ghost are gone."

"What?"

The man addressed as Chief turned around abruptly, saw the empty stone path, seemed to realize something, and quickly whispered:

"Hold on, don't panic, we'll be fine once Simin Ming arrives!"

As the "Commander-in-Chief's" voice rang out, panic continued to spread across the city walls.

Some soldiers, imbued with Source Qi, were gripped by the terror of impending death and gradually lost their reason, gritting their teeth and cursing:

"Hold on? How can we hold on?! This speed is clearly that of those White Strange Ghost who can turn us into monsters!"

"What kind of Simin this 'Divine Destiny'? Why not just obediently offer sacrifices to those monsters? Protect mortals? Aren't mortals just there to be offered sacrifices? That's how it's been done generation after generation."

"It's all because of you bastards! When the High Priest was alive, he only provided two hundred mortals to those monsters each year. It was that woman, the Simin, who killed the High Priest!"

"Two years ago, Earth Yang City was slaughtered by those spotted Strange Ghost. Now, it's our turn, hahaha!"

"."

"."

Chaos spread across the city walls, and morale collapsed before the enemy was even seen.

Hearing the shouts below, Xu Yuan turned to look to the side:

"Qingyan, what do you think?"

Li Qingyan lowered her phoenix eyes and gently shook her head:

"A bunch of pathetic rabble; there probably isn't a single decent commander in this city."

Xu Yuan chuckled to himself.

If Li Qingyan's soldiers dared to act like that, they would probably have been dragged out and beheaded long ago.

Shaking his head, Xu Yuan said in a low voice, gently raising his finger and pointing to the crowd below:

"I know, I'm referring to the system of this underground city. Don't you find it a bit strange?"

Li Qingyan narrowed her phoenix eyes slightly:

"It's really strange. Even their physical structure has changed. These people must have lived underground for generations since ten thousand years ago."

"But if what you say is true, Prince Consort, the level of military equipment displayed by this city could not possibly withstand the attacks of those Strange Ghost. Let alone a first-rank White Walker, even a White Strange Ghost comparable to a third-rank White Walker could slaughter this city."

"Yes."

Xu Yuan looked up at the cave walls hidden in the darkness in the distance and said softly, "This is indeed strange."

The current situation is completely beyond the intelligence Xu Yuan possesses.

At the very least,

In the Dead Silence Underground Palace of "Cangyuan", Xu Yuan never encountered a single living person, nor even saw the skeletons of the dead.

Aside from the Strange Ghost, the only other thing that can move is the player themselves.

However, after listening to the soldiers' words of fear below, and combining them with the information he had learned from chatting with Old Man Luo in his previous life, he managed to piece together the current situation.

first,

This Dead Silence Underground Palace covers a truly vast area, so vast that these underground cities and giant caves are far more than just one.

In other words,

The dilapidated city he encountered in "Cangyuan" was not the one before him.

It could be the "Earth Yang City" mentioned by the soldier earlier, or it could be something else entirely.

Secondly,

The level of cultivation and military equipment possessed by the "humans" living in these underground cities was completely incomparable to that of the Strange Ghost entrenched in the Dead Silence Underground Palace.

For thousands of years, they could only exchange "peace" through "sacrifice".

But once you think about it this way, a problem arises.

Although Old Man Luo had said that high-ranking Strange Ghost possess intelligence, it would be gradually eroded over time, eventually turning them into beasts that only knew how to kill and transform their own kind.

If that's the case, why are the "humans" here able to prolong their lives through sacrifice?

Thinking of this,

Xu Yuan's brows furrowed slightly as he looked at Li Qingyan:

"Qingyan, I think I know what's going on here."

Li Qingyan seemed to be pondering this question as well. He blinked, turned around, and asked:

"Is this ancient city for raising livestock?"

"."

Xu Yuan was slightly surprised by the other party's intelligence, but after looking at this ancient and magnificent city, he sighed softly:

"Right,

"This Underground Palace,"

"It's highly likely that it was an experimental ground built by humans ten thousand years ago to study the Strange Ghost creatures."