Chapter 126 — What on Earth Lies Buried Beneath This Land
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
"This is the entrance."
After a brief rest, Sir Byron, having recovered a few measures of his strength, led Gao Cen and the others into the woods near Gorin's Mill, where they found the tunnel mouth beneath a raised earthen bank. The opening was not large, tucked away between stones and tree roots at the base of the slope and covered over with wild vines and fallen leaves. Had Sir Byron not pointed it out, anyone passing by would surely have overlooked it without a second thought.
When Byron had left through the tunnel, he had damaged some of the plants covering the opening; though he had made a half-hearted attempt at concealing it afterward, traces of comings and goings were still visible. Pi Yun crouched before the hole, studied the interior for a moment, and pronounced: "This was never originally an exit. Most likely an earthquake or the roots of a giant tree split the earth open and connected this hollow to the tunnel below."
As he spoke, the old man added with a chuckle, offhandedly: "The south really does have no end of things buried under its soil."
Gao Yang immediately sensed a barb in the old fellow's words. "You're including me in that, aren't you!"
Pi Yun gave a dry laugh, then fished a small magic crystal from his breast. He channeled a little mana into it until it glowed with a bright, steady light, tossed it into the hole, and gestured to Gao Yang: "This is where you take the stage."
Gao Yang shrugged, blocked Sir Philip, who had meant to go down first, and jumped in himself.
He landed on a soft, damp layer of rotting leaves and broken branches, surrounded by a cramped space of earth and stone. The magic crystal on the ground cast its light around him, revealing what lay deeper: ahead stretched a winding ramp sloping downward, bearing no trace of human working—more, as the old druid had said, a natural formation that had come to connect with the artificial tunnel farther below.
He picked up the crystal, shook it twice to signal that the way below was safe, and strode forward.
A moment later Amber's presence caught up with him. The half-elf thief was plainly in her element once inside an underground space; twirling her precious dagger in high spirits, she peered about curiously. "It just keeps going down and down."
"If these really are the 'battle tunnels' dug back in the day, they'd have to be deep," Gao Yang said. "After all, mana tides leak through the surface here all the time. Without digging deep enough, the people sheltering in the tunnels would be easy prey."
The downward-sloping passage continued for a stretch, then the surroundings began to widen and dry out. Gao Yang noticed that the earth and natural rubble along the walls were gradually giving way to worked support beams, stone bricks, and sturdy walls treated with earth-element spells; farther on, the floor evened out and ceased to descend.
Yet as he took in the surroundings, Gao Yang's brow slowly furrowed.
Amber noticed the anomaly as well. She stopped fidgeting with her dagger, ran to a nearby wall to study its material and the patterns traced across it, then hurried back to Gao Yang's side, visibly unsettled. "Something's off... the style here is nothing like those tunnels we passed through when we came out of your tomb..."
"No, it isn't. These aren't the southern underground works I oversaw in my day," Gao Yang said, lifting the magic crystal to light the surrounding walls and floor. "No wonder... I thought it strange when Sir Byron mentioned tunnels beneath Tansang Town. Back then this region had no development plans whatsoever—and for a long while after my death, I'd wager, no one developed it either... Who would build tunnels here?"
Amber frowned. "If you look closely, it's actually a bit like that ruin in the Dark Mountains?"
Enlightenment struck Gao Yang at last, and he realized where that vague sense of familiarity in his memory had come from.