Ye Fan originally thought that the underground palace might be an ancient structure like Atlantis, possibly only ruins left, but when he felt the grand scene of the underground kingdom, his heart was still shocked.

Just this one underground city has a population of over tens of thousands, and not a single one has the power of a cultivator, which means they are just ordinary humans.

"Ooh la la..." The humans underground have their own language, and after hearing that strange music, they headed towards the palace, chanting the same phrase all the way.

It was as if it were a phrase in a religious belief, similar to "Amitabha" or "Praise be to Allah", something like that. Ye Fan and his companions followed among the crowd towards the palace.

"Junior Brother, I feel there are cultivators inside the palace, and surprisingly, among them, there are some at the Nascent Soul Stage or above," Wu Ding said, observing the dimly glowing palace in the distance.

Ye Fan nodded; he had felt it before, indicating that there were indeed cultivators in the underground kingdom. These cultivators should be the ruling class of the underground kingdom, controlling the people with religious rituals.

Li Zhaojun said, "This is the underground world, dim and lightless; they can't grow crops, and food from the surface can't be brought down. What do they rely on to survive?"

Ye Fan said, "This can only be investigated slowly."

The crowd continued to move towards the palace. Finally, they arrived before the palace, where the light was brighter, but still resembled the darkroom of an old photo studio, with just enough light to see the road ahead.

The tall palace was several tens of meters high on the flat ground. Suddenly, a group of people with cultivation walked out from above, and the underground residents watching below suddenly cheered, then prostrated themselves in worship, chanting "Ooh la la...".

Ye Fan and his companions did not kneel down, as the scene was already chaotic, with so many people, no one noticed them amidst the crowd.

"Ka la..." A woman emerged from above, waved her hand, and the underground residents stood up from the ground, starting to cheer towards the platform at the top of the palace.

The woman dressed similarly to those below, wrapped in a sheet, her face shrouded in cloth, hiding her visage, making it impossible to see her features. Beside her stood a few men with Golden Core Stage cultivation. The woman began to speak, speaking fervently, and Ye Fan noted that the woman's cultivation hadn't even reached the Golden Core Stage, only late Foundation Establishment. Wu Ding smiled and asked, "Junior Brother, do you think she is the underground saintess or empress?"

Ye Fan shook his head, indicating he didn't know.

After the woman spoke a sentence, the underground residents below suddenly cheered, and from within walked out a graceful young woman, completely igniting the residents' enthusiasm.

Qing Xu said, "I don't understand what they are saying, Senior Brother and Senior Sister, let's go up and take a look."

"Junior Sister, don't act rashly. We're not here to make enemies," Ye Fan reminded, "See what they're going to do, then we'll slip out from the crowd and look elsewhere..."

Ye Fan gazed at the top of the palace platform.

He could sense that the girl's cultivation had reached the initial Golden Core Stage, half a level higher than that of the woman, yet the girl had no absolute authority and was being escorted to walk.

The graceful girl stepped over a brazier, and a few ordinary girls without cultivation came over, wrapping her up in a huge blanket, then lifting her up and carrying her into the palace.

"Ooh la la..." The underground residents became a boiling ocean.

Ye Fan estimated that gathered around the palace were about hundreds of thousands of residents; an underground kingdom had so many residents, which was beyond Ye Fan's expectations.

"Let's go." Seeing the people on the palace platform had gone back inside, Ye Fan called out, leading Wu Ding and Li Zhaojun through the crowd, approaching the palace below.

The religious ritual ended, the people began to disperse, but Ye Fan had to find a way to slip into the palace.

The palace was like an imperial palace, surrounded by walls, but they were earthen walls, with guards at the gate.

Ye Fan suddenly raised his hand, forming an enclosed spiritual energy field, completely concealing them within, effectively turning them "invisible." This way, as they smoothly passed through the gate, no one would notice them.

Inside the palace were corridors leading to unknown destinations.

Ye Fan closed his eyes, feeling the direction in which those with cultivation had moved earlier. He led the way to a very large hall, and only then did they hear voices coming from within.

This time, the dialogue was entirely in the language of Huaxia, indicating that the people inside were of Huaxia descent, just relocated underground.

"...Mother, why sacrifice me? Is my life worth less than a mere animal?" came a soft female voice from inside, belonging to the graceful girl earlier wrapped in a blanket on the palace platform.

The woman's voice came, "Mother is not sacrificing you; you are an offering to earn the gods' protection. Now, even the gods despise us. If this continues, our kingdom will perish. Do you want to watch your people kill each other over food?"

The girl sobbed, "But there are no real gods; this is all something you made up."

"No, the energy source is real, granted to us by the gods. But now the gods have taken it back; our sacred item is gone. The underground lacks energy and will soon decline to the point of unlivability!"

The woman spoke as if she had already made a resolute decision, "Take her out, offer her to the heavens before our people!"

Ye Fan hadn't fully understood the mother and daughter's conversation, but he speculated that the "gods" they referred to should be Lan Jing's mother, and the sacred item that could endow the underground kingdom with energy was the large blue crystal that Lan Jing had been guarding. But since the blue crystal was destroyed two days ago, the underground kingdom had lost its energy source, leading to a food shortage, which is why they were holding a live sacrifice today to reawaken the gods, hoping for a new sacred item.

Isn't this nonsense?

The large blue crystal had completely melted, and Lan Jing's mother was nowhere to be found. Simply killing a person as a sacrifice wouldn't bring back the energy source.

Wu Ding said, "Junior Brother, it seems we're here at the wrong time."

"Whether or not it's the right time, we can't let them persist in their mistake; that girl is innocent," Ye Fan said.

Wu Ding smiled, "I didn't realize Junior Brother wanted to play the hero and save her? Or does Brother want to be the emperor of this underground kingdom, or perhaps their revered god?"

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