In the darkness, everyone slowly groped their way to the depths of the ruins of the city.
Judging from the terrain and the distribution of building debris, this is already in the area north of the center. Captains Chen Lun and Hamilton each gave orders to the first and second team members to search for the remaining information of the ruins.
Ten minutes later.
"Captain Hamilton! We found half of the stone tablet!"
A young male member of the second team came to the meeting point and said to the captain.
In the dim light, Chen Lun and Hamilton looked at each other and nodded in tacit understanding.
"Where is it? Take us there."
Hamilton said in a deep voice.
"Yes, Captain, please follow me!"
This team member led the way, with Chen Lun and Hamilton following closely behind.
After turning many corners in the dark, Chen Lun felt that the surrounding environment seemed to become more spacious, because he had not encountered any building debris after walking for a long time.
“This seems to be another square.”
Hamilton whispered.
"Yes, it is very similar to the area where we fought just now. This symmetrical planning and design reminds me of the human city-states in the Second Era."
Chen Lun thought of something and spoke slowly.
Hamilton and other team members were a little surprised. They didn't expect Captain Jack to be so knowledgeable that he even knew such an old secret.
Chen Lun secretly sighed that these were just some information he had dug out when he was completing side quests in his previous life.
Soon, everyone came to the half stone tablet mentioned by Hamilton's subordinates.
The stone tablet stands in the center of the square. Its base is a trapezoidal cylindrical stone pier, which is polished very smoothly and carries a square stone tablet. However, due to its age and some unknown factors, a large piece of the stone tablet is missing, leaving only one-third connected to the base.
"Laiya, come and take a look at what is engraved on this monument?"
Hamilton immediately called over the female team member from before.
The latter hurried forward and carefully examined the strange tadpole-shaped characters on it under the illumination of a rice-grain-sized light spot. At the same time, she stretched out her fingers and gently touched the dent to confirm its original appearance.
"… The Anita royal family finally succeeded in communicating with the starry sky. The king and his descendants obtained extraordinary powers such as elves, giants, monsters and dragons. The kingdom is about to rise, and humans are no longer slaves and inferior races... Great gods 'Lord of Destiny', 'World Tree', 'Star of Enlightenment', 'Dragon of Light' and 'King of Giants', please forgive us for being greedy and believing in the new gods from the starry sky. The sun, moon and stars shine, making humans shine..."
Female team member Lai Ya stumbled over the translation. She looked up at the people around her and said softly:
"Some of the characters are too blurry for me to recognize..."
"It's done, Laiya. Thank you for your hard work."
Hamilton nodded appreciatively and whispered.
Laiya smiled slightly and returned to the team.
At this time, Hamilton turned to look at Chen Lun again, casting a questioning look:
"What do you think, Jack?"
"Through the inscriptions on the monument, I can roughly confirm the age of the ruins..."
Chen Lun looked thoughtful and spoke slowly.
"This should be the hundreds of years of transition between the second era, the 'Fairy Tale Era', and the third era, the 'Starry Sky Era'."
In the dim light, he noticed some doubts on everyone's faces, and explained with a chuckle:
"In fact, I don't know much, but according to legend, during the 'Fairy Tale Era', humans had a hard time surviving on this continent because there were no extraordinary people at that time, and various extraordinary creatures were rampant. Even if humans established a kingdom and united, they could not resist the frequent attacks... The content recorded in this monument should be the period when the 'Starry Sky Era' just began, that is, the period when the faith in the Sun God, Moon God and Star God was born. They gave humans extraordinary powers, allowing humans to survive in that extremely harsh environment."
Everyone frowned slightly and looked at each other.
"Did the faith of the Sun, Moon and Stars originate in the Third Era?"
Hamilton thought.
Chen Lun then continued:
"But I didn't expect that humans in the ancient times actually believed in gods of fate, nature, and magic very early on... They are much older than we imagined."
"The 'Lord of Destiny', 'World Tree' and 'Star of Enlightenment' recorded on the monument..."
Hamilton muttered.
"What about the 'Dragon of Light' and the 'King of Giants'?"
"I don't know. I have never heard of these two gods."
Chen Lun shook his head.
Hamilton discussed with the team members for a while, then he looked up and said to Chen Lun:
"Unfortunately, while this information is valuable, it does not help us in our investigation mission... So far, no clues have been found as to the source of the contamination."
"Keep going deeper, you will find the answer eventually."
Chen Lun said something to comfort her.
Unexpectedly, Hamilton sighed and shook his head slightly.
"I plan to return with the team and report the situation to the Chief Judge... The danger of the dark world is far beyond imagination. Not only did the second group lose two members, but the remaining people are also very tired..."
He raised his head, patted Chen Lun on the shoulder, and a rare smile appeared on his cold face:
"Thank you again, Jack. I believe you can go further than us or even other investigation teams and find the source and truth of the pollution... I'll leave the Empire's mission to you."
Chen Lun was stunned at first, then nodded.
Hamilton did not stay any longer. He called his teammates and chose to return to the third level of the spiritual world, and then return to the human world along the original route.
The dark world cannot be directly connected to the real world, which is one of the reasons why it is listed as a mysterious forbidden area. Because once you encounter an irresistible danger, there will be no way out.
After Hamilton and others left, Chen Lun also led the team to continue on the road.
The darkness was boundless, and everyone seemed to have merged with the environment, moving forward silently.
*
*
*
Time flies and three days have passed.
During the three days, the seven members of the investigation team followed the captain Jack's footsteps and traveled through the dark world. They were attacked by Didak insects more than a dozen times. During the most dangerous one, they almost faced the danger of being wiped out.
At that time, they were blocked from the front and back by forty or fifty insect men in a narrow pit. If Captain Jack had not stepped forward and transformed himself into a knight in pale armor, blasting all the insect men in front away and leading everyone to escape, the consequences would have been disastrous.
Right now.
Everyone has reached the top of a steep slope similar to a mountain.
Under the dim light, a huge square bronze door stood here, about thirty meters high, and the front volume was equivalent to that of a high-rise building.
It only had a door frame on the outside, covered with all kinds of strange animal and plant patterns, as well as some difficult-to-recognize characters. In the middle was a dark, twisted vortex, with black mist constantly wafting out of it, preventing even light from entering.
“What a stunning spectacle… Who could have built this?”
Rahn looked up at the bronze door in front of him and exclaimed in amazement.
“Maybe it wasn’t built by humans.”
Wells said in a deep voice.
When the others heard this, they were suddenly startled.
Was it another race or civilization from the ancient times? Or was it... the work of gods
have no idea…
The truth of all this is unknown, as it has long been obscured by the passage of time.
Chen Lun stood quietly aside, looking at the upright bronze door, and secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He followed the guidance of divination and referred to the contents of Mr. Byers's notebook, and finally arrived in front of the door.
As long as you walk in here, you can reach the deeper space of the dark world.
However, he was not prepared to do so at the moment.
Because the team members were already exhausted physically and mentally after three days of exploration, and the deep space behind the door would only be more dangerous, what they needed now was rest rather than advancing recklessly.
And there is another reason.
'Mr. Byers said in his notes that there is a special area near the first gate, from which one can return directly to the real world... However, one will enter the underground of the Sun Continent.'
Chen Lun thought to himself.
He planned to go there alone to explore, perhaps he would find something.
"team leader?"
Rahn whispered cautiously.
Chen Lun came back to his senses and nodded at him.
Just now the team members were asking him about his next move, and Chen Lun heard it by trying to multitask.
"I plan not to go into details for now. Let's return to the real world and rest for two days."
He said slowly.
"team leader… "
Rahn and others were very surprised.
Although they were tired and understood the captain's intention, going back now would mean that all their efforts of the past few days would be wasted... When they returned to the spirit world next time, they would have to start all over again.
"We can still hold on, Captain. Let's keep going."
Wells also spoke up.
Everyone was unwilling to give up and tried to persuade the captain.
Chen Lun looked at the nervous expressions of his team members and couldn't help but shake his head and chuckle.
"Don't worry, once everyone has rested, I can take you back to this door in a short time..."
As he spoke, he took out the second spiritual anchor and threw it on the ground.
winter!
The palm-sized metal anchor smashed into the sandy and gravelly surface, with only a section of the handle exposed.
"Don't forget, I am a transcendent of the Fate Faction. I will be able to directly use the sequence ability to teleport the team here based on the coordinates of the anchor."
Chen Lun said.
When everyone heard this, they immediately showed delighted expressions.
Previously, due to the captain's terrifying strength, they subconsciously ignored the faction he belonged to. Now, thinking about it... Captain Jack is not only powerful, but also quite suitable to lead the team to participate in such exploration operations.
The ability to teleport over long distances is perfect in an environment like the dark world!
"Lahn, record the progress and situation of our team when you return, and then submit a summary to Chief McCaughlin."
Chen Lun gave an order.
"No problem, Captain!"
Rahn nodded quickly in agreement.
"Um."
Chen Lun smiled.
"Go back."
"Yes, Captain!"
This time, everyone no longer resisted, but agreed happily.
*
*
*
All members of the investigation team returned to the real world along the original route.
However, after explaining some things to the team members, Chen Lun quietly avoided everyone's sight, returned to the dark world alone, and used the clouds to fly back to the bronze gate.
"It should be nearby, let's look for it."
He tentatively explored around the bronze door.
After spending more than an hour, Chen Lun finally found something unusual more than a thousand meters northwest of the bronze gate. It was a slightly concave circular stone platform, with two circles surrounded by countless tiny pebbles.
Chen Lun tried to step onto the platform and immediately had a feeling.
It is a vague connection with the real world!
Previously, no breath of the real world could be sensed in any area of the dark world... Starting from the third level of the spiritual world, the outline of the real world completely disappeared from the field of vision, which meant that the two worlds were far apart. It was impossible to directly connect the dark world to the real world.
'But what exactly is this platform? Is it a ritual formation? It can actually return to the real world directly...'
Chen Lun took a deep breath.
He felt that there were too many secrets in the dark world and the truth was hard to find.
Next second.
Chen Lun disappeared from the platform.
Buzz!
A strong pulling force attacked Chen Lun's body, and within a few seconds, he felt a tearing pain in his body. This surprised Chen Lun somewhat, after all, his physical fitness had already exceeded the limit of ordinary Sequence 5.
Open your eyes again.
Chen Lun found himself in a huge cave. There was an entrance not far away, and dim sunlight was emitted from outside.
"Is this the underground world mentioned in the notebook? Why is there sunlight...?"
He was very confused.
Chen Lun walked out of the cave slowly. After seeing the scene outside, his face changed slightly and his eyes shrank.
Because he saw that there was a dark red star floating above the sky. It looked like the setting sun, or like the sun entering its aging stage and emitting a dim blood-red light as it was dying.
The cave is extremely huge. If it were not for the rock walls and the dome, Chen Lun might have mistaken it for a rocky plain.
There are fungi of various sizes and shapes growing on the ground, some are umbrella-shaped, some are spherical, some are lace-shaped and some are irregular, some are as small as fingers and some are larger than ordinary buildings.
Under the dim light, this "fungus forest" sways without wind.
The scene before him was both spectacular and strangely beautiful, and Chen Lun was quite shocked.
'How did these come into being... and what is that huge dark red ball of light?'
Chen Lun wanted to fly up to check, but as soon as this thought came into his mind, his spiritual intuition started to warn him. He had no choice but to give up the idea, and his vigilance became even stronger.
After standing there and observing for more than ten minutes, he finally took a step and walked into the Jungu Forest. But before he went far in, he suddenly stopped.
'Hmm? Someone...'
Chen Lun frowned slightly and stood there staring ahead.
After a while, a petite figure bent over sneakily entered his sight. It was a young woman with wine-red hair tied into a ponytail and wearing a simple cotton and linen coat. She looked alert, looking left and right, and carrying a large and shriveled bag on her back, and it was unclear what she was doing.
When she saw Chen Lun, the woman was startled at first, but then she turned her surprise into joy and blurted out:
“Male… man?! How could there be a man here?!”
Her bright eyes were filled with extreme desire and excitement.
But the next second, she turned and ran.
Chen Lun watched the other party's actions quietly, but still stood there, unmoved.
Because in his perception, the young woman did not "escape", but hid behind the giant fungi around her, watching him secretly.
That look...
Just like a hunter on the hunt!