The underground passage appears to be deeper than the entrance suggests.
Lin Yuan walked ahead, the tip of the Nameless Sword occasionally brushing against the ground, leaving thin, elongated marks. Mira hammered iron nails into the rock wall at each corner. The two marks were of different heights, and even if the crystal could replicate sound, it could not change the marks left behind out of thin air.
The previously rescued mage has returned to the surface alone.
The two had walked less than a hundred meters downhill when they heard his voice behind them.
"Wait for me!"
The sound grew closer, but the footsteps were unusually light.
Mira didn't turn around, but tapped the rock wall beside her.
This was the signal they agreed upon before coming in. One tap meant continue, two taps meant stop, and only three taps required them to turn around and confirm.
She only knocked once.
Lin Yuan continued forward.
The voice followed for a moment, then suddenly changed to Mira's voice. " Lin Yuan, you've gone the wrong way."
Immediately afterwards, Lin Yuan's own reply came from ahead, "This is the exit."
The underground echoes piled up in layers, as if another version of them stood in every fork in the road.
The two only looked at the sword marks on the ground and the iron nails on the rock wall.
Lin Yuan stopped at the first fork in the road. His senses expanded to both sides; to the right, the road ended at a completely enclosed rock layer, while to the left, there were more than ten silhouettes of living people.
He raised his hand and pointed to the left.
Mira pulled out the nail she had just driven in and left it at the left entrance. Neither of them responded to any sound.
After turning two corners, a patch of grayish-white crystalline light appeared in the darkness.
A dozen or so people were trapped side by side inside the rock wall. There were caravan guards and ordinary drivers. One of them was still in the posture of reaching out to tap the crystal layer. Countless crystal threads extended from behind them, passed through the rock wall, and merged into the deeper underground.
Just as Lin Yuan was about to step forward, the "guard" on the far left suddenly opened his eyes.
It emerged from the crystal layer without leaving a single gap in its body.
Then came the second, and the third.
In just a few breaths, six guard-like dummies appeared in front of the prisoner. They drew weapons made of crystal, their movements exactly matching the records left by the real guards.
"I stopped them," Mira said.
Lin Yuan didn't offer any other arrangements, only replying, "Don't let the fragments touch the people behind you."
Dark red magic surged forth.
Mira completed Take Over the Satan Soul, her black wings unfurling in the narrow passage. Instead of unleashing a wide-ranging burst of magic forward, she skimmed along the ground and plunged into the mannequins.
She caught the first longsword with her bare hands, and the crystal blade shattered. She then flung the dummy at the other two, while simultaneously folding her wings to block the spear thrusting from the side.
The shards hit the wings and bounced off into the deserted passageway.
Lin Yuan slipped through the gap she had created.
The crystalline threads surrounding the trapped person appear chaotic, but only a few are actually connected to the body. The rest are embedded in the outer crystalline shell, and any slight vibration will transmit power into it.
" Nameless " fell close to the first person's shoulder.
One of the crystal wires broke.
Lin Yuan flicked his wrist, the sword not retracting, but sliding directly along the seam of the outer shell towards the second sword. Each time, the blade stopped a very short distance in front of the skin, neither touching the trapped person nor causing large-scale shattering of the crystal layer.
On the other side, the dummies were repeatedly smashed by Mira, only to reappear from the rock wall. They couldn't truly harm her, but they could repeatedly regenerate thanks to the crystal veins.
Mira kicked two spears in half and glanced back.
Lin Yuan had already severed the crystal threads on the fifth person.
There's no need to rush or ask.
She withdrew her gaze, took several steps forward, and positioned all the mannequins away from the prisoners.
When the last crystal filament broke, the entire crystal wall simultaneously darkened.
A dozen or so people lost their support and fell forward. Lin Yuan held his sword across the scabbard to catch the two at the front, and Mira also stepped back at the same moment, spreading her wings to catch the rest of them.
With the crystal vein supply cut off, the mannequin in the passage suddenly stopped moving.
Mira turned and threw a punch.
The six crystalline bodies shattered simultaneously, never to reform.
The rescued caravan members gradually regained consciousness. They were severely depleted of magic, but their bodies showed no obvious injuries. Mira distributed water to everyone and had the guards who could still walk carry the unconscious ones.
"Follow the signs back," she pointed to the road behind her. "Don't stop if you hear anyone calling you, and don't follow any acquaintances who suddenly appear."
An elderly coachman, leaning against the rock face, asked, "Where are the others?"
"Let's keep searching."
The coachman shook his head and pointed to the ground below. "It's not just this level. Before I was brought in, I saw those things take two other caravans down there. There were also several mages there."
Lin Yuan's senses had already extended beyond this point of confinement.
Deeper inside, the crystal veins are far denser, with all the tiny branches converging on the same Great Hollow. There, the remaining humanoid silhouettes are gathered, along with a vast source of magical power that cannot be concealed by ordinary rock strata.
Mira disconnected from the Take Over and walked to his side.
"Have you found the source?"
"Under."
Upon hearing this, the coachman instinctively looked into the depths of the passage. Two pairs of greyish-white eyes quickly lit up in the darkness, and two guards who had accompanied him for many years emerged from around the corner.
He was about to speak when he suddenly remembered Mira's earlier reminder, picked up his companion, and turned to leave.
Don't follow acquaintances.