So-Called Demigods

There were no winners in this deadly battle for survival in Stormveil Castle.

Both adventurers and soldiers suffered immense physical and mental torment.

Adventurers are constantly worried about being caught by monsters, and if they are caught, they will definitely be torn to pieces.

The monsters were outmaneuvered by the adventurers' agile movements, sometimes getting half-killed by a sudden slash. Moreover, there were many of them, and the floor inside Stormveil Castle was full of holes, so they could easily fall in and have to start over. They suffered even more torment than the adventurers.

Unfortunately, monsters don't emit Spirit Power, otherwise the Zane Dungeon could make a fortune from them.

The person who designed this place probably never imagined so many people would be wandering around here at the same time; if it were a computer Yugi, it would probably crash right now.

"Quick, quick, come up here!"

Fortunately, the routes in the early stages of Stormveil Castle were not particularly winding, and people did not rush around like headless flies. At least there was a clear way out in sight.

As they ran, they found a large elevator leading to the upper level and boarded it before their pursuers could catch up.

"Rumble rumble rumble"

The elevator made a rumbling sound, sounding as if it were old and might fall at any moment. But instead of the panic that would have caused people to feel scared, the sound gave them a sense of security.

At least their presence on the elevator means that they don't need to worry about pursuers for the time being.

"We're safe for now."

You Fei was panting heavily, clutching her knees, and the others were even more exhausted. Te Pi looked like he was about to collapse from exhaustion. Fortunately, Aide Jia cast Group Heal in time, which restored some of their mobility.

When the elevator took them to the upper floor, everyone quickly ran down.

The pursuers below also pulled the lever of the elevator, and the elevator slowly descended. Judging from this, it seems that the ladder that saved the adventurers will soon bring the pursuers up.

Te Pi was about to cut the elevator ropes, but You Fei stopped him immediately, saying, "Wait a minute, wait a little longer."

Once the pursuers had all boarded the elevator and it had slowly risen to a certain height, You Fei finally used her strength to cut the ropes supporting the elevator.

All that could be heard were the panicked voices of the pursuers and the heavy thud of the elevator crashing to the ground, which was severely overloaded with monsters!

The adventurers immediately felt a great deal of golden runes flowing into their bodies, bringing them a very pleasant sensation.

"Now the threat should be temporarily eliminated, right?" Te Pi asked, still feeling uneasy.

"It should be fine, probably." Aide Jia kept bombarding the lower levels with various spells. The fall just now could take the lives of the soldiers, but it could not kill the more powerful Exiled Knight.

Fortunately, even if they didn't fall to their deaths, they couldn't find a way back up for the time being, and the fat, ominous Omen Child had even less of a chance.

"Alright, alright, they can't get up here."

You Fei, soaked in sweat, stopped Aide Jia from wasting his magic and then collapsed to the ground with a sigh of relief.

Having been in the Zane Dungeon for so long, this was the first time she had felt so thrilled; it truly felt like dancing on the edge of a knife.

This trip alone has exhausted the group's Spirit Power for the next few days, leaving them physically and mentally drained.

"Did you hear the bells of the underground city just now?" Fan En asked, lying on the ground without regard for his image, while closing his eyes to rest.

"I think I heard it, but I didn't pay much attention." Yi Sha looked completely exhausted.

"According to my timing, it shouldn't be time to close yet," Aide Jia said confidently.

You Fei took out her pocket watch, looked at it, and said, "No, it is indeed about to close. We have less than half an hour left."

Aide Jia paused for a moment, then sighed, "Human strength is indeed limited."

"What are you talking about? How did this come about?" Fan En retorted seriously.

People lay exhausted on the ground, wishing they could just lie there and never come out of the dungeon. Someone started by saying, "No wonder it's the city of demigods; these soldiers are all so powerful."

So everyone started talking and complaining about the pursuers they had just encountered.

"That Exiled Knight is incredibly tough; I can't budge him no matter how hard I try." Te Pi rubbed his sore and numb arm.

"That's because you haven't learned any truly useful magic. To fight guys in full armor like this, you should use spells like [Shockwave], not your outdated Weapon Skill." Aide Jia was always pushing his magic-centric philosophy.

"That White-Maned Lion that couldn't catch up also seemed very strong. I have a feeling that encountering it, whether in an open or narrow place, will definitely be a fierce battle." After transforming into a beast, Fan En became much more sensitive to wild beast enemies.

"My pistol has a hard time penetrating their armor," Yi Sha said, looking somewhat depressed.

You Fei, on the other hand, kept her eyes closed and rested as much as possible. Only after people had finished complaining did she say, "Let's go, let's go and see other places."

"Should we continue exploring?" This time, even Fan En was unusually exhausted.

"We made a big commotion just now, and there are still a large number of enemies loitering near the elevator. Do you know what that means?" You Fei asked.

Fan En understood her meaning after a moment's thought.

"You mean, we've disrupted the enemy's original positions in Stormveil Castle, so this might be a good opportunity for a rapid advance?"

"That's right, this kind of opportunity doesn't come every day."

You Fei snapped her fingers, immediately instructing people to get up from the ground, leave the room where the elevator was located, and head outside.

Just as she said, the personnel deployment in Stormveil Castle was completely messed up due to the turmoil just now. Many places that should have been hiding enemies were now empty, and it was surprisingly easy to explore them.

They were now atop the inner walls of Stormveil Castle, overlooking the entire city, including the charred city gate tunnels and the deserted square—where people had come after them.

To some extent, it seems that the difficulty of exploration has indeed been reduced quite a bit, but who knows how much uncertainty has been added.

The group proceeded along the city wall, discussing for a while whether to climb the crisscrossing roof beams, but ultimately they obediently descended the wall, wandered around the winding roads for a while, and entered an unattended hall that looked like a restaurant.

It wasn't that no one was on duty; it was just that the Exiled Knight were originally patrolling here were attracted away by the commotion they were making.

"There's a treasure chest! How lucky!"

Te Pi found a treasure chest in the corner. When he opened it, he was pleasantly surprised to find purple light inside. However, when he picked it up, he discovered that it was not the powerful weapon he had imagined, but rather a veil-like object.

[Mimic Veil]

[A delicately designed, light brown veil imbued with magic, allowing the wearer to Mimicry various objects]

This is one of the many treasures that Godrick took with him when he was driven out of the Leyndell Royal Capital.

[It is said that during the Shattering, Godrick, a descendant of the Golden Clan, failed in his attempt to seize control of the Leyndell Royal Capital. He had no choice but to use this object to Mimicry as a woman and escape the Leyndell by blending in with a group of women. However, whether this is true or just a baseless rumor is unknown.]

Looking at this thing, Te Pi was silent for a moment before calling out to everyone, "Come and take a look at this."

Everyone fell silent after reading it.

"Is this something a demigod would do?" For the first time, Fan En had doubts about this title.

Regardless of the circumstances, what Godrick did was really embarrassing.

"Calm down, calm down," You Fei said. "Maybe he worked hard to become stronger after that, and eventually achieved the title of demigod?"

Although everyone was still suspicious, they had no way to verify it for the time being, so they had to give up.

However, they have more doubts about the value of the title "demigod".

After taking a longer detour, the group arrived at the lowest level and turned around to find themselves in a dimly lit hall.

Right next to the entrance to the hall was a small, unactivated elevator that they could use to climb directly to where they started at the very beginning of the city wall.

Before everyone could even marvel at the exquisite design of the city's interior, they were captivated by the view in the main hall.

The stench of blood assaulted the nostrils, and as far as the eye could see, all sorts of meat hung from the rafters, almost covering the entire ceiling; the foul smell was unbearable.

At first glance, I thought it was a kitchen, but upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a slaughterhouse.

Because the meat hanging up was clearly all human limbs! No, there were also limbs that didn't look like humans mixed in.

Long and short, fat and thin, draped in cloth and clad in armor—all sorts of arms were suspended!

Aide Jia's face immediately turned pale. He covered his mouth and made an uncomfortable sound in his throat, but the reactions of the others shocked him.

Because You Fei and the others didn't react at all; at most, they nodded.

They were used to seeing Rivers of Blood while they were in Red, so these hanging limbs and severed bodies didn't elicit a strong reaction from them.

Beneath those hellish severed arms, a giant crab lay quietly in the center of the hall, seemingly fast asleep.

Upon closer inspection, there was no giant crab at all; it was clearly Grafted Noble!

Upon seeing this familiar figure, everyone present couldn't help but draw their weapons. Every person who had entered the Sion clan felt a different emotion towards the Grafted Noble —a murderous intent.

"No, something's wrong with him."

Fan En's nose twitched, and upon closer inspection, he saw that the Grafted Noble had clearly been dead for some time.

"This"

People regretfully put away their weapons; it wasn't a good thing to desecrate a corpse, and there wasn't much to search on the body anyway, so they simply bypassed it.

Looking past the severed limbs, something caught everyone's attention.

It was a huge portrait hanging on the wall.

The portrait depicts a powerful man standing with an axe in hand, as if he has conquered everything with his might, with waves and storms beneath his feet. A white lion rests on his shoulder, presumably his close comrade-in-arms.

"Why do I feel like I've seen him somewhere before?" You Fei narrowed her eyes, the more she looked at the man in the portrait, the more familiar he seemed.

"'The First Elden Lord' Godfrey, he was the first Elden Lord, the lord of this city, and the ancestor of Godrick."

A familiar voice came from the side, and people looked in the direction of the voice to see Luo Jieer.

He clutched his chest, looking unwell, but still smiled politely at the people.

"We meet again, everyone. Your numbers have increased again."