Chapter 238: Chapter 221: Anomaly

The tunnel was deep and dark, like a giant python hibernating deep underground, winding its way into the endless blackness.

The Dark Banner Team formed two columns and advanced steadily along the center of the tunnel.

The Elf soldiers were fully armed, their gazes warily scanning the side passages and cracks on either side. Their hands never left their sword hilts, ready to strike at a moment’s notice.

Flanking the columns were over a hundred members of the Ghost Scale Race.

From time to time, they would press their palms against the rock walls, close their eyes, and focus, using their scales to sense any disturbances deep within the rock.

Further ahead, the Catman scouts were active.

They kept low to the ground, their steps silent. Their vertical pupils glowed faintly in the gloom, their hawk-like eyes sweeping over every crevice and corner ahead.

Their pointed ears twitched, catching the slightest unusual sound in the air.

The tunnel forked ahead, and the Catman scouts suddenly stopped.

A few of the Catman scouts gathered and exchanged a few whispered words. Then, one of them turned and hurried back to the main group.

A moment later, an Elf soldier jogged up to Romance.

"Lord Roman, the Catman scouts found traces of underground creatures up ahead."

"What kind of underground creatures?" Romance slowed her pace.

"The tracks are mixed, so they can’t tell," the Elf soldier replied. "But there are a lot of them, and the tracks are recent—less than a day old."

Romance raised an eyebrow and looked at Laine.

He understood. He held up two fingers, and a flash of Spiritual Light flickered at his fingertips before vanishing.

A moment later, a Rock-Piercing Weasel tunneled up from the ground at his feet.

Laine knelt and communicated with the little creature for a moment, then stood and nodded to Romance. "There’s definitely an ambush ahead. A large one."

"Can you pinpoint their exact location?" Romance asked.

Laine shook his head. "The Rock-Piercing Weasel can only sense abnormalities in the earth’s spiritual ley lines. It can’t pinpoint the ambushers’ exact positions."

Romance wasn’t disappointed by this. Her gaze swept over the tunnel ahead, and after a moment of thought, she gave an order.

"Send in a team of Yellow Turban Warriors. Find where those creatures are hiding."

Immediately, a disciple from Taichu City took golden beans from the Dimensional Bag at his waist and tossed them forward.

Over a hundred golden beans traced a dense web of golden arcs through the air, falling into the tunnel ahead like a meteor shower.

DING DING DING!

The sound of the beans hitting the ground was as dense as rainfall, a cascade of crisp impacts.

The next moment, dazzling golden light erupted, rapidly coalescing into humanoid figures about three meters tall.

A few of the Catmen watched these solid-gold steel giants materialize and subconsciously swallowed.

They knew that these Alchemy Puppets, called Yellow Turban Warriors, each possessed combat strength comparable to a mid-rank Silver Warrior—far stronger than the elite warriors of their own tribe.

At Romance’s command, the hundred Yellow Turban Warriors advanced with heavy steps.

The sound of their footsteps merged into a dull roar, shaking the rubble on the ground and causing moss to fall from the tunnel walls.

The Yellow Turban Warriors marched to the spot where the Catman scouts had found the tracks, then stopped. They raised their Golden Melon Hammers high and began smashing them violently against the ground and the surrounding rock walls.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Dull impacts exploded through the tunnel, sending stone fragments flying like shrapnel.

The ground spiderwebbed with cracks. The moss and fungal carpets on the walls were blasted away by the shockwaves, revealing the grayish-white rock beneath.

Stalactites on the ceiling fractured from the continuous impacts and crashed to the ground with heavy thuds.

The tunnel trembled violently, as if the entire passage was shuddering under the Yellow Turban Warriors’ relentless bombardment.

Under this brutish assault, the hidden ambushers could no longer remain concealed.

Large patches of the fungal carpet buckled and shattered as strange figures burst out from beneath.

They were Mushroom-men.

They ranged from half a meter to two meters in height. Their skin was grayish-white and covered in fine wrinkles, like the dried bark of an old tree.

Their torsos were like massively scaled-up mushroom stems, topped with huge caps. Fine mycelial threads hung from the edges of the caps, trembling slightly in the air.

These Mushroom-men had no distinct facial features, only two long slits where their eyes should have been, which glowed with a faint, eerie green light in the darkness.

In addition to the Mushroom-men, large numbers of Corpse Rot Demons poured out from the cracks in the rock walls.

These creatures, which looked like oversized goblins, were a sickly gray-green color. Their skin was covered in rotting sores and pustules that oozed a yellowish-green pus.

Their eyes were cloudy and white, and thick saliva dripped constantly from the corners of their mouths, making a SIZZLING sound as it corroded the ground.

Most terrifying of all were their claws. Each was as long as an adult’s finger, curved like a hook, and gleamed with a cold, sharp light like a dagger’s edge.

"So it’s Mushroom-men and Corpse Rot Demons." A flash of understanding crossed Darian’s eyes.

Mushroom-men are naturally able to blend their aura with their surroundings.

When standing on a fungal carpet, everything from their scent to their energy fluctuations becomes indistinguishable from the carpet itself, making them nearly impossible for even the most acute senses to detect.

Corpse Rot Demons are also adept at stealth.

They have an extremely low metabolism. Their heartbeats are as slow as a hibernating snake’s, and their body temperature is almost identical to their surroundings.

It would be difficult to notice their presence even if you walked right past them.

These two species—one relying on environmental camouflage, the other on extremely low life signs—had worked together to create this elaborate ambush.

This was why neither the Catman scouts nor the Ghost Scale Race had been able to detect them in advance.

Both of these subterranean species were masters of stealth.

If the Yellow Turban Warriors hadn’t destroyed the surrounding environment with their brutish assault, the ambush might very well have succeeded.

"Charge!"

With the Mushroom-men and Corpse Rot Demons in disarray, Romance gave the order, and the Elf army surged forward like a tide.

A storm of arrows and Magic instantly engulfed the ambushers.

Neither the Mushroom-men nor the Corpse Rot Demons were known for their combat prowess in the Dark Nether Realm. They relied more on numbers and ambushes to kill their prey. The outcome was rarely good for them in a direct confrontation.

This was especially true when facing the well-equipped and highly trained Dark Banner Team of the Silver Moon Legion.

In just a quarter of an hour, the battle was over.

The bodies of Mushroom-men and Corpse Rot Demons lay strewn about the tunnel. The fungal carpet was soaked in blood, and the air was thick with the stench of gore and rot.

Only a few Mushroom-men and Corpse Rot Demons managed to escape into the depths of a side passage, disappearing into the darkness.

The Elf soldiers did not give chase.

In the Dark Nether Realm, chasing down fleeing enemies was not always a wise move.

No one ever knew if another trap—or an even more powerful predator—lay in wait.

The team regrouped.

The Catman scouts went ahead to scout again, the Ghost Scale Race resumed monitoring rock vibrations, and the Elf soldiers checked their equipment, replenished their Talismans, and distributed potions. Everything proceeded in an orderly fashion.

"According to the map, we’re less than five hundred meters from the cave with the Blood Soul Crystal cluster."

Romance turned her head to look at Darian beside her.

"Judging from that ambush, the subterranean races anticipated our arrival. It seems they’ve even joined forces."

Darian nodded slightly, agreeing with Romance’s assessment.

The fact that two races with such different habits, the Mushroom-men and the Corpse Rot Demons, had teamed up was telling.

"We are from the surface, after all. It’s not surprising that the natives would team up against us. In the eyes of these subterranean races, ’outsiders’ like us are probably more despised than their own ancestral enemies."

Darian paused, looking into the dark tunnel ahead.

"Besides, if they’ve really joined forces, that last ambush was likely just an appetizer. The real trap is probably still waiting for us up ahead."

Romance wasn’t concerned. She clapped the War Axe on her back and laughed. "Then we’ll just take care of them all at once. They’ve caused us enough trouble these past few days. If they’re going to serve themselves up on a platter, it saves us the trouble of hunting them down one by one."

Darian was long accustomed to the Elf Maiden’s warlike nature. He just smiled faintly at her words and said no more.

With their team’s strength, as long as they didn’t run into an army on the level of the Black Iron Legion or face multiple Golden Peak enemies at once, they had nothing to fear.

A few moments later, the team set off again, continuing their steady advance.

After walking for about ten minutes, the view ahead suddenly opened up.

A vast basin appeared before them.

The basin was over a kilometer in diameter by visual estimation, surrounded by steep rock walls. The ceiling was at least one or two hundred meters above the ground.

At the far end of the basin, the entrance to a huge cave came into view.

A rich, blood-red light shone from the depths of the cave, bathing the entire basin in an eerie crimson glow.

"It seems that’s the cave where the Blood Soul Crystal cluster is growing."

Darian raised his Magic Staff. The Gemstone at its tip glowed with a faint blue light, and an invisible ripple of detection spread out from him in all directions.

After a moment, he frowned. He had found nothing.

At the same time, the Catman scouts who had gone ahead returned one by one, all reporting the same thing: no trace of any creatures had been found in the basin.

Even Laine’s Rock-Piercing Weasel had detected no abnormalities in the spiritual ley lines.

Romance and Darian exchanged a look, both with surprised expressions on their faces.

’No ambush at all?’

’That can’t be right.’

’Could those subterranean races have been scared off by them?’

’Unlikely.’

’Those subterranean races have been fighting to the death over the Blood Soul Crystal cluster for days and have lost who knows how many of their own. Why would they give up on their goal without a fight?’

The two of them grew wary. They decided to use the same trick again, sending the Yellow Turban Warriors into the basin.

However, this time, even after the Yellow Turban Warriors went on a rampage, no creatures emerged from the shadows.

Romance pondered for a moment, then sent a small team of Elves into the basin.

After a thorough search, the Elf team found nothing. They then turned and entered the cave.

Before long, the Elf team returned.

"Lord Roman, we found a large amount of Blood Soul Crystals inside the cave. Other than that, we found no signs of any living creatures."

Romance and Darian grew even more suspicious and uncertain.

’Have the subterranean races really given up on the Blood Soul Crystal cluster?’

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