Volume One: The World of the Hell-Class Lord Chapter 53: The Underground Passage

Hearing Allen’s shout, Chen Gu hurried over. As he rounded the back of the fifth stone coffin, he caught sight of what Allen had discovered.

It was a floor tile that had sprung up on its own, but what truly astonished Chen Gu was the passageway beneath it. It yawned, dark and mysterious, leading to who knew where.

“How did you find this?” he asked.

“When I came over, I saw the queen’s emblem placed in a bouquet of flowers. I reached for it, and that’s when the mechanism was triggered,” Allen replied.

Chen Gu leaned forward to peer inside. A faint breeze wafted from the passage.

“The tunnel’s open. It’s likely the very route the queen used to escape back then. Allen, take the queen’s emblem to the island and see if you can secure the Flowing Water Altar. I’ll head in and investigate.”

“Sir, should I go with you?”

“No need. We have no idea what lies beneath. You don’t know the Earthwalking Technique—if there’s a collapse, you won’t be able to get through. I brought the Vine Carriage with me; even if trouble arises, I can climb out. Once you secure the Flowing Water Altar, come down and find me. If you can’t take the altar, that’s fine. Do not engage the water elementals under any circumstances. They’ll be crucial for our future battles against Black Castle.”

“Understood,” Allen replied swiftly.

With their plan set, the two paid no more heed to the deeper recesses of the palace. They quickly returned to the plaza. Allen began learning how to operate the Holy Scale Submarine, while Chen Gu hauled his troops and the Vine Carriage out from within it.

Leaping onto the Vine Carriage, Chen Gu took several troops and headed back toward the palace interior. As for Allen, he guided the Holy Scale Submarine swiftly away.

Sitting on the driver’s seat, Chen Gu noticed that as soon as the Holy Scale Submarine departed, the waterless plaza was again submerged by lakewater. The water surged after them, following all the way to the palace gates.

Only when the Vine Carriage dashed into the palace did the water halt. Chen Gu finally understood why the Elven Queen had remained hidden for so many years—the defensive system was always at work. Unless one approached on the surface or found the little plaza and earned acceptance, entry to the palace was impossible.

The strength of the elves was truly formidable. To think that the Scourge could annihilate both the elven kingdom and a human realm of equal standing—what manner of power was that?

But no matter how fearsome the enemy, there is always a sliver of hope. Chen Gu reassured himself with these words.

Meanwhile, the Vine Carriage began to transform, elongating and narrowing until it could squeeze into a passage just wide enough for a single person.

The Vine Carriage carried Chen Gu from the driver’s seat to the interior cabin. Following behind were over a dozen Fire Spirit Crows, five Bloodshadow Wolves, nine Corpse-Eating Vines, and five Straw Golem Killers. Once inside the passage, they followed the Vine Carriage at speed.

The tunnel was pitch black, the path ahead invisible, but this did not bother Chen Gu. There was only one way forward, so the Vine Carriage barreled ahead without pause.

At first, Chen Gu thought to slow down and take a look, to see how many years had passed since anyone had walked this path. Soon, however, he abandoned even the thought of reducing speed.

The Vine Carriage accelerated, moving faster and faster, well beyond its normal limits. This made Chen Gu realize there must be other forces at work in the passage; he could not stop even if he wished.

All he could do was stay in contact with his followers. Fortunately, they kept up behind the Vine Carriage. In fact, the Fire Spirit Crows complained that Chen Gu was moving too slowly; if not for the carriage blocking the way, they would have flown ahead already.

Chen Gu could only smile at their comments. His mind was busy, calculating the carriage’s speed and the time elapsed—a skill he’d learned in elementary school.

He discovered that in just this short burst, the Vine Carriage had already covered nearly a hundred kilometers. Comparing his starting point at the center of the Holy Lake, Chen Gu realized he might have exited the bounds of the Elven Sacred City.

This revelation startled him. After so much effort to reach the Sacred City, had he accomplished nothing, only to be flung out again?

Just as he fretted over this, the Vine Carriage finally slowed down, and faint lights began to appear in the darkness.

Chen Gu looked out and saw the carriage had emerged from the tunnel. They were now traversing a dense forest. Though even moonlight could not pierce the canopy, clusters of glowing fruits hung between the leaves, illuminating the entire woodland.

Bathed in this radiance, Chen Gu saw that the leaves were a tender green—the freshest, most natural hue he’d seen since entering this lord’s world.

Even in Silverpine Valley, the plants he’d encountered had never looked quite like this.

With a nimble motion, Chen Gu resumed his place on the driver’s seat. The woodlands before him brimmed with the aura of nature. As the Vine Carriage rolled through, blossoms sprouted along its sides, and before long, the whole carriage was nearly wreathed in flowers.

The same transformation affected the Fire Spirit Crows and Bloodshadow Wolves following behind. Exposed to the natural energy, their forms gradually returned to those of ordinary animals.

This astonished Chen Gu. He quickly speculated about what he was witnessing. Could it be that the Elven Queen was not truly dead? Or perhaps something was hidden here?

It was possible. The murals in the tomb had never specified where the elves entered this lord’s world from. They depicted only matters of the Sacred City.

So, before the Sacred City, where had the elves come from? He’d never considered this question, but now a thought arose: could this be the ancestral land of the elves?

If so, might he harness the power of this place to resist the undead?

As these thoughts raced through his mind, the Vine Carriage gradually came to a halt. Chen Gu realized he’d reached the heart of the forest.

Before the carriage lay a small pool formed from a jumble of rocks. It was not large—about the size of a wellhead—and only seventy or eighty centimeters deep.

The pool held water to about halfway, and a light, pale and silvery as moonlight, shone from its depths, beaming upward to the leafy canopy above.