The Strange Underground Chamber

Zhao Xun's expression remained unchanged, his smile friendly. "I heard gunshots a little after one last night. You must have killed the Duke then, right? Why are you only leaving the Duke's Manor now?"

The Short-Haired Woman froze. "You... how did you know..."

Then, as though something had occurred to her, she asked, "You worked with Tiantian too?"

Only Tiantian knew what her main quest was, and Tiantian had created the opportunity for her ambush.

So if anyone else knew about her main quest, Tiantian must have told them.

"Yes," Zhao Xun admitted, then added, "My quest doesn't conflict with yours. Otherwise, I would have attacked you last night."

The Short-Haired Woman's expression relaxed a little.

Since Zhao Xun could pinpoint the time she had fired her gun, he must have been inside the Duke's Manor last night too.

If he hadn't attacked her last night, there was even less reason to do so today, when everything was already settled.

Recalling Zhao Xun's first question, the Short-Haired Woman gave a bitter smile. "Last night was a brutal fight for me. I won, but it left me extremely weak. With the other guards pursuing me and cutting off my escape routes, I barely managed to find a safe corner to hide in. Then I passed out. I only woke up half an hour ago."

Zhao Xun leaned forward to peer into the Duke's Manor.

The place was a wreck.

It seemed that quite a few guards and maids had fled after the Duke's death.

After a whole morning of mounting public outrage had ruined the Duke's reputation, those who remained surely couldn't stay any longer either.

The vast Duke's Manor stood empty, making it much easier to come and go.

No wonder the Short-Haired Woman had dared to stroll straight out through the front gate.

"Is everyone gone from the Duke's Manor?" Despite his suspicions, Zhao Xun still asked.

"I think so." The Short-Haired Woman rubbed between her brows wearily. "Anyway, I didn't see a single person on my way out."

"I'll go in and take a look." Zhao Xun nodded politely to the Short-Haired Woman, walked past her, and entered the Duke's Manor.

The Short-Haired Woman glanced back at Zhao Xun but asked no further questions. She turned and left.

Zhao Xun hadn't gone far when he saw Sculpture hurrying out.

His heart sank at once.

Sculpture had said she only had half an hour each day to move freely. She would never spend that brief window of freedom wandering around for no reason.

At least, she wouldn't do so before making sure Ruby was safe.

The moment Sculpture saw Zhao Xun, her eyes lit up.

She rushed over to Zhao Xun and spoke rapidly. "A Shui! Ruby was taken by a sleazy-looking middle-aged man!"

Zhao Xun frowned.

From that description, it sounded like the sleazy man.

The only player he hadn't seen since entering the game.

He hadn't expected the man to show up at a time like this...

"Do you know where they went?" That was Zhao Xun's first question.

How Ruby had been taken and why didn't matter. What mattered was finding out where she had been taken first.

Whatever the sleazy man's quest was, taking Ruby would seriously hinder Zhao Xun's own quest, so he had to get her back.

"I do." Sculpture nodded repeatedly. "Ruby and I share telepathy. I can find her."

"Tell me on the way." Zhao Xun motioned for Sculpture to hurry and lead him there.

On the way, Sculpture explained what had happened.

It turned out that Ruby had been hiding beneath Sculpture all along.

This statue of the Praying Girl really was different from ordinary statues. Her placement in a corner of the Duke's Manor, concealed by layers of bamboo, was no accident. She hadn't been discarded there; she had been deliberately placed there.

She was the mechanism that controlled the entrance to a large underground chamber.

Opening her opened the door leading to the Underground Chamber.

"I don't remember how long I've been there, but it was definitely many, many years before the current Duke's time," Sculpture told Zhao Xun as she led the way. "This enormous Underground Chamber must have been left behind long, long ago. The current Duke doesn't even know it exists."

"An enormous underground chamber?" Zhao Xun asked. "How big is it?"

Sculpture thought back carefully before answering. "The part you could actually call an 'underground chamber' is only about half the size of the entire Duke's Manor. But countless passages branch out from it in every direction. Those passages probably extend beneath all of Nairui Town."

"So you can reach anywhere in Nairui Town from the Underground Chamber?" Zhao Xun was a little surprised.

Nairui Town wasn't particularly large, but building an underground network that reached every corner would still have required an enormous amount of labor and resources.

By rights, such a major undertaking should have been recorded in the town's history.

Yet Sculpture said the current Duke knew nothing about it.

And apparently, none of the townspeople knew either. Otherwise, Sculpture's existence wouldn't have been a secret.

The people from the Public Security Office wouldn't have overlooked the Underground Chamber while searching for Ruby, either.

For the entire town to know nothing about a project this large, at least several thousand years must have passed.

Yet Sculpture showed no signs of weathering. After thousands of years outdoors, exposed to wind and sun, she was unlikely to remain so perfectly intact.

The contradiction left Zhao Xun puzzled about exactly when the Underground Chamber had been built.

"I don't think so..." Sculpture explained. "People can crawl through those passages, but there are only air holes scattered along them to keep the air circulating. There aren't any exits."

"None of the Underground Chamber's passages have an exit?" Zhao Xun was a little taken aback. "You can only enter and leave through you?"

"That's right." Sculpture nodded.

Zhao Xun couldn't understand it.

To some extent, this design did make the Underground Chamber sufficiently secure.

Having only one entrance and exit completely eliminated the possibility of someone accidentally wandering in.

If it was meant for hiding treasure, it was certainly well suited to that.

But if it was only meant for hiding treasure, there was no need to build passages stretching beneath all of Nairui Town.

It didn't quite make sense. Something was strange about it.

Still, this had nothing to do with his quest or what he needed to do right now.

He would leave it alone for now.

Zhao Xun asked about what concerned him more. "Did that sleazy man open your mechanism and go straight into the Underground Chamber to take Ruby?"

"Yes." Recalling the details, Sculpture told Zhao Xun, "He seemed to know how to open the Underground Chamber from the start, and he was certain Ruby was hiding inside. He never hesitated at all. Before I could react, he'd already opened me. When I tried to stop him, he took out a rope and tied me up."

"Was there anything special about the rope he used to tie you up?" Zhao Xun immediately asked.