Tombsward Catacombs

You're kidding!

How could Xia Tong be so heartless as to send his Spirit Ashes brothers in to test the blades?

He stayed close behind the Stray Wolves, keeping a safe distance.

Sure enough, relying on their keen sense of smell and hearing, the Stray Wolves immediately let out loud howls the instant they stepped through the fog gate.

They lunged and bit fiercely to the side, triggering the ambush that had originally been set for intruders.

The corner of Xia Tong's mouth slowly curled upward. Everything was going exactly as I expected.

After swiftly dealing with the three Skeleton Soldiers behind the white fog gate's seal, Xia Tong finally found a roll of parchment in the corner.

Nomadic Warrior's Cookbook [9].

It recorded the crafting method for a Rancor Pot.

Having dealt with this wave of enemies, Xia Tong led his Spirit Ashes army deeper down.

Ahead, he found a stone gate locked by a mechanism, with a Marika's Stake beside it.

Xia Tong did not stop and chose to keep turning right.

Following the stone steps downward, two Skeleton Soldiers suddenly appeared in the darkness.

They pulled out two battered red clay jars, lit the fuses, and hurled them viciously at Xia Tong.

Xia Tong's eyes narrowed. This thing looked a little familiar.

He immediately ordered his Spirit Ashes to retreat while swiftly raising the Shield of the Guilty to protect his face.

"Crash—!"

The crisp sound of shattering pottery was especially piercing in the silent catacombs.

Then came a roaring whoosh as murky burning oil splattered everywhere from the jars.

A mass of orange-red flames exploded across the floor in an instant. A scorching heat wave, mixed with the pungent black smoke of burning grease, rushed straight at Xia Tong.

"So you're playing with fire, huh!"

Just as Xia Tong was about to be scorched by the flames, a soft body blocked his way.

It was Kulala the jellyfish.

Kulala's enormous, water-filled gelatinous body perfectly blocked the flames.

As expected of my little darling. Xia Tong was so moved that he nearly teared up.

With the flames blocked, Xia Tong stepped forward and struck twice, cutting the Skeleton Soldier down before finishing it off.

The remaining one was quickly taken down by the Spirit Ashes as well.

Continuing downward, they arrived at a two-tiered platform.

At that moment, several arrows shot out from the shadows.

They came from three Skeleton Soldiers wielding longbows.

Xia Tong swept his right hand forward, and three Stray Wolves lunged fiercely at the archers.

The wolf pack moved with agility, and the clumsy arrows of those Skeleton Soldiers could not hit them at all.

The Fanged Imps were even more brutal. Screeching, they charged forward, and the forked hand axes in their hands soon chopped several Skeletal Militiamen in half.

Xia Tong followed after them, finishing each one off.

"Wait, what's that?"

By the firelight, Xia Tong could see four or five Grave Gloveworts growing in the corner, along with one especially eye-catching Ghost Glovewort.

The Ghost Glovewort was prettier than ordinary ones, its entire body emitting a cold, ghostly blue glow.

Its stalks and leaves were not emerald green either, but instead a grayish black.

Strings of tiny flower buds drooped from a curved stem.

The petals had a translucent texture, as though they would turn into smoke and disperse with the slightest touch.

The ordinary Grave Gloveworts, meanwhile, still had pure white petals and dark green stalks and leaves, reflecting only an extremely faint pallid sheen.

He carefully picked them and tucked them into his clothes.

Aside from that, some Whiteflesh Mushrooms grew on the damp ground.

They were all excellent ingredients for stew, so Xia Tong picked them one by one and put them into the pack on his back.

After gathering the spoils, Xia Tong looked upward and saw a demon statue facing down at them.

"Normally, you'd have to take a ladder around to the top to activate the mechanism, but I don't need to do that."

Xia Tong chuckled.

He then ordered two sturdy Godrick Soldiers over and had them form a simple human ladder.

Xia Tong stepped onto the soldiers' shoulders and made a light jump, easily reaching the high platform.

He had barely raised his eyes to survey his surroundings when a gust of cold wind rushed toward his face.

Already accustomed to such situations, Xia Tong reacted swiftly, twisting aside and rolling out of the way.

At the same time, Kulala slowly floated upward and reached the high platform as well.

Kulala's tentacles lashed out, tightly wrapping around the ambushing Skeletal Militiaman before whipping it hard.

Before long, the entire skeleton had been beaten apart.

Two Fanged Imps were also sent up onto the high platform by the sheer arm strength of two Godrick Soldiers.

Xia Tong glanced at the statue on his left.

It was a tall, holy, and solemn female figure, like a high-ranking nun at prayer.

A lever switch stood before the statue.

Xia Tong gripped the handle with his left hand and yanked it downward.

With a clatter-clatter of gears, the heavy mechanism activated.

Xia Tong was naturally quite familiar with all this.

However, after activating the mechanism, he did not immediately jump down. Instead, he continued exploring forward from the high platform.

Before long, he found another dried corpse in a hidden chamber, with a Prattling Pate resting on it.

It was the one that said, "Thank you."

Afterward, Xia Tong motioned for Kulala to stay where she was while he led the Fanged Imps onward.

Just as he expected, the sound of roaring flames came from ahead.

It was a mechanism stone pillar that breathed fire.

He directed the Stray Wolves to squeeze forward into a safe space at the side.

During the gap after the flames had finished spewing once more, he charged forward, passed through the corridor, and slashed the mechanism pillar, causing it to lower.

Behind it, he found several Grave Violets.

Once everything was done, Xia Tong returned the way he came and slowly headed toward the gate he had just opened.

The stone gate stood wide open.

The moment Xia Tong stepped through the fog gate, he saw a shadow deeper than darkness slowly writhing in the center of the area.

It slowly rose to its feet, revealing an extremely slender, twisted black silhouette.

It seemed to be formed from thick ink or endlessly churning black smoke.

Only two beams of light shone from its face, emanating from its eyes.

It slowly approached Xia Tong, and as the distance closed, Xia Tong saw it more clearly.

Insect-like antennae protruded from its head. Its body was incredibly slender and shriveled, while its limbs were disproportionately long, making it look like an upright humanoid mantis.

Moreover, those two beams of light were not simple eye shapes. They consisted of countless tiny dots emitting a faint, pallid glow, like the compound eyes of an insect.

It held two exceedingly thin, black double-edged mantis-arm blades. They were the Cemetery Shade's exclusive weapons.

Xia Tong had long prepared a plan for dealing with the Cemetery Shade's attacks.

He whistled.

All the Spirit Ashes immediately clustered around him, standing back to back in a tight defensive formation.

No matter which direction came under attack, the others could react swiftly.

It seemed to recognize Xia Tong as the leader.

The Cemetery Shade's mantis-arm blades gave off a faint hum.

Without a single footstep, it merely flickered like black mist and instantly appeared before Xia Tong.

Its sharp mantis-arm blade slashed directly toward Xia Tong's throat.

Having expected it, Xia Tong relied on his exceptional reflexes. With a slight lift of his shield-bearing left arm, he blocked the swift and vicious strike.

At the same time, Kulala's tentacles wound wildly toward the Cemetery Shade like vines.

But it was useless.

The Cemetery Shade seemed to have no physical body and suddenly dissipated like smoke.

Kulala's tentacles wrapped around nothing.

When it appeared again, it had already teleported behind the two Godrick Soldiers.

"Slash, slash!"

The two heavily armored Godrick Soldiers were immediately struck down to one knee.

Fortunately, they had been close by to begin with.

As it swung its blade at the second Godrick Soldier, Xia Tong's Lordsworn's Straight Sword suddenly thrust forward—Thrust!

This attack was so fast that Xia Tong's longsword seemed to stab into thick paste, with no real sensation of impact.

This time, the Cemetery Shade did not evade.

Instead, it slowly turned around and allowed Xia Tong's longsword to pierce its smoke-like black body.

Then it raised both hands to shield those pallid compound eyes and violently sprayed a mass of glowing dark green mucus forward.

The mucus suddenly spread open in midair like an instantly unfurling web of deadly poison, binding the slow-to-evade Xia Tong tightly.

"Damn it."

Xia Tong's heart instantly sank halfway.