Chapter 713 — Plant
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
Once out of that room, filled with mysterious runes and housing the Eternal Sleeper's magical apparatus, there were two paths.
One was the route by which Bard had descended—a sloping ramp connecting the upper tier to the middle tier—while the other stretched onward, extending all the way into the dark chaos of the lower-middle depths.
Standing before the corridor that led deeper still, Gao Yi focused his mind and sensed the distribution of magic in his surroundings.
That subtle energy field shrouding the whole of Solin Castle still persisted here: an endless stream of vitality seeping from the roots of the great tree, as though someone were casting an unceasing healing spell. Every living thing within range was affected by this field—even Gao Yang felt his spirits lift a little.
And apart from this energy field, he sensed no other threatening presence.
The squad that had come down with him assembled behind Gao Yang, and the squad commander swiftly issued orders: "Five to a group, advance in a one-two-two exploration formation. Proceed with caution."
The fully armed magic-energy combat soldiers moved at once. Split into several teams—each with one vanguard shield guard, two observers, and two firepower specialists—they began their advance down the deep, endless corridor. The magic vision afforded by their integrated tactical goggles let them see the distribution of magic in the underground palace clearly and directly, while the runic glow from the magitech gear on their bodies soothed every taut nerve.
In the underground palace, nothing remained but the orderly rhythm of footsteps.
Amber advanced at Gao Yang's side, her eyes wide the whole way. The dim environment of the underground palace had no effect on her, born as she was in the Shadow Realm—she could see as distinctly as in broad daylight—yet she still activated her additional shadow vision, for what she looked at here was not only what ordinary eyes could see, but also... certain things visible only through shadow vision.
A golden layer slowly rose in her eyes, and a faint shadow mist swirled up around her. In this form she somewhat resembled her "shadow sprite" state in the Shadow Realm, but it was clearly under deliberate control, ensuring that while maintaining maximum shadow affinity she kept herself anchored in the material world.
Gao Yang noticed the "half-elf's" behavior and asked in a low voice, "What do you see?"
"Nothing at all—but this way I look more professional..."
Gao Yang: "..."
"All right, I'm joking," Amber said. Noticing that hard-looking stone walls surrounded them on every side—walls that, if she were slapped against them, would likely be very hard to peel off—she quickly reined in her ill-timed jest. "There really are some 'things' here. Shadow dwellers... everywhere, more numerous than anywhere else."
"Shadow dwellers?" Gao Yang's brow furrowed at once, and he instinctively glanced around—though with his human vision he certainly could not see the creatures hidden in the crevices of shadow. "What are they doing? Are they a threat?"
"Probably not a threat. They're all on the shadow side; they don't seem to pay us visitors from the material world any mind," Amber blinked. "They wander this corridor... they seem very interested in this underground palace, but beyond that they do nothing more."
As she spoke, she kept watching those "scenes" visible only to herself.
In the deep, dark corridor of the underground palace, the world gradually resolved into black and white. In that faded world, humanoid wraiths wrapped in rune-bandages drifted in groups of three or five, passing Gao Yang and the others by, utterly ignoring the visitors from the material world. Only when they passed beside Amber did a shadow dweller occasionally pause, giving a slight nod or a grunt by way of greeting.
Amber shrank her neck. Suddenly, toward these creatures who had always been rather friendly to her, she felt a faint chill of dread.