Penned

As it turned out, as a princess, Li Qingyan's bridal carry technique was vastly superior to that block of ice Ran Qingmo's. Even after she had carried him in her arms for an entire lap, he felt not the slightest bit dizzy. If it had been the big ice block's preferred method of foot-sprinting, he probably would have been sprawled on the ground dry-heaving by now. With that thought, Xu Yuan smiled faintly despite himself. He patted the woman holding him in her embrace and said softly, "Put me down first." "Mhm." Li Qingyan lowered her gaze to glance at him. Smiling, she bent forward, gently setting him down, and cautioned in a tender voice, "Careful." "......" As his toes touched the ground, Xu Yuan looked at her tall, supple silhouette—valiant yet undeniably gentle—and those crimson phoenix eyes gazing down upon him. His heart inexplicably skipped a beat. *Hiss...* *Damn it, why does it feel like I'm the princess here?* *That wicked woman really has far too many schemes in mind.* *Still, a true man knows when to yield and when to stand tall. I'll just carry her in my arms some other day.* Behind them, the corridor was as pitch-black as ink. The two of them currently stood upon a cliff that extended out from the passage's exit. Above, no cavern ceiling was in sight; below, the depths of the abyss remained unseen. The wind blowing at the tunnel's opening was chilling and biting, rustling their long hair. Li Qingyan gazed into the distance, her willow brows slightly furrowing. "Prince Consort, this cavern does not appear to have formed naturally. The marks left by spellcraft excavation are quite pronounced. "Moreover... "there doesn't seem to be any of that black death creep here." "......" Xu Yuan half-squinted, scanning the inner wall of the cavern near the cliff. Just as Li Qingyan said, the tangled, brownish-red creep came to an abrupt halt at the mouth of the tunnel. The cavern's inner rock wall was remarkably smooth, not at all natural, and completely devoid of any clinging vegetation. Looking along the smooth rock face into the distance, even with the aid of the Source Qi Li Qingyan had left in his body, Xu Yuan could not see the opposite wall of the cavern at all. All that existed was boundless, unending blackness. And nestled at the bottom of the abyss beneath the cliff, that colossal subterranean city lay hazily concealed within the dark. Observing Xu Yuan's expression, Li Qingyan spoke again. "Judging by your expression, Prince Consort, it seems your Prime Minister's Estate has no intelligence regarding this cavern and this underground city?" Xu Yuan glanced at her and uttered a single word. "We do." A brief silence followed, and he added, "Just not much." "Not much?" Li Qingyan murmured. Wasting no words, she went straight to the point. "Then do we need to go down and have a look?" "Don't rush." Xu Yuan pondered without giving an immediate answer, racking his brain to recall any relevant information about the Silent Crypt. To be honest, he had no memory of such an enormous ancient underground city existing in the crypt. Fortunately, he soon managed to match a "map" that loosely corresponded to the surrounding scenery. On the periphery of the Silent Crypt wilderness dungeon, there had also been an enormous cavern, but it had contained only a dilapidated village composed of a few ruined huts and mysterious sculptures. At this thought, Xu Yuan's expression grew rather peculiar. It wasn't that he found the difference jarring—after all, he had already seen plenty of prefectural capitals that took barely a dozen seconds to sprint across in *Cangyuan* turn into realistic, massive metropolises housing millions of people. Yet the presence of such a towering ancient city right inside an aberrant ghost's nest was utterly bizarre no matter how one looked at it. Back then, Xu Yuan hadn't paid any mind to those artificial structures, since *Cangyuan* offered no intelligence regarding aberrant ghosts. Coupled with the eerie sculptures in that village, followed by the monsters' immortal traits and disgusting tentacles, he had naturally assumed the Silent Crypt was a stronghold or even the headquarters of some evil cult. Relying on his accumulated knowledge, he had directly envisioned an entire drama of an evil cult courting its own doom—creating a horde of monsters through "sacrifices," only to play with fire and destroy its own home. Now, however, it seemed the reality was entirely different. Xu Yuan stared intently at the quiet ancient city below, his mind swiftly compiling the known intelligence. *Aberrant ghosts can build structures?* *In other words...* *did aberrant ghosts once possess a civilization as well?* "Let's go down and take a look." Amidst the absolute silence, Xu Yuan's calm voice carried clearly into Li Qingyan's ears. Without a word, Li Qingyan bent down smoothly and scooped Xu Yuan back into her arms in a bridal carry. Her phoenix eyes lowered slightly, and her voice softened. "Jump straight down?" "......" The woman's body felt remarkably soft against him. Xu Yuan suddenly realized that occasionally experiencing this irresistible gentleness was actually quite nice. *Still, how can a true man resign himself to remaining beneath someone else for long?* Glancing at their surroundings, Xu Yuan replied evenly, "Jump straight down. The way out of this crypt should be near that city." With that, he silently reached out and hooked his arm around Li Qingyan's neck. In *Cangyuan*, players had fallen into the Silent Crypt through a sinkhole, and the landing spot had been an ordinary tunnel near this underground ancient city. In other words, as long as he and Li Qingyan found that tunnel, they could return to the surface through the shaft leading directly above. Silently, Li Qingyan tapped her foot against the stone, and the wind began howling past their ears once more. The abyss floor, shrouded in black mist, rapidly expanded and sharpened before their eyes. Just as they were about to hit the ground, a faint yet precise burst of Source Qi radiated from Li Qingyan. Then, those delicate feet encased in brownish-red armor stepped lightly onto the bottom of the abyss. Xu Yuan and Li Qingyan walked side by side toward the ancient city along a stone-paved path, their expressions solemn. Yes, a stone-paved path. At the bottom of this dark abyss, an artificial road of modest width had been constructed. On either side stretched vast fields cultivated for crops. Within these terraced plots grew peculiar plants arranged in neat, orderly rows like fields of rapeseed flowers. Judging by the fruit hanging from the branches, harvest seemed near. The surroundings were deathly still, broken only by the rustling footsteps of Xu Yuan and Li Qingyan. After a long while, Xu Yuan suddenly asked, "Qingyan, these crops can actually grow underground without sunlight. Do you know what they are?" While keeping watch over their surroundings, Li Qingyan replied softly, "It isn't a matter of the crops, but the soil. The ground beneath this dark abyss is Hundred-Breath Soil." "Hundred-Breath Soil?" Xu Yuan frowned. "A type of soil used to cultivate rare medicinal herbs. Quite precious." With that, Li Qingyan winked at Xu Yuan and half-jokingly said, "Just as you mentioned earlier, Prince Consort, if we manage to get out, we could make an absolute fortune off such vast expanses of Hundred-Breath Soil alone." Xu Yuan fell speechless for a second before asking in a solemn voice, "Qingyan, you must have noticed the signs of human activity here, right?" Li Qingyan glanced at him and nodded. "Without someone tending it, even Hundred-Breath Soil would be overrun with weeds over thousands of years." Xu Yuan watched the city walls draw closer and closer. Stroking his chin, he narrowed his eyes with a faint smile. "Which means there are still people—" Before he could finish his sentence— *Thwack!* *Thwack!* Two sharp twangs of bowstrings snapping taut rang out abruptly! Bolstered by the Black Death Armor and the Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art, Xu Yuan, despite being only a fifth-rank Soul Condensation cultivator, still managed to catch sight of the incoming black shadows. Two colossal ballista bolts fired from atop the city wall! One aimed straight for him, the other for Li Qingyan. Seeing this, Xu Yuan's eyes showed a trace of contemplation, and he made no move to evade. In the next instant, a fair, jade-like hand partially wrapped in thin, brownish-red armor appeared before his eyes. *Hum—* A resonant hum rang out. The stirred-up gust of wind whipped Xu Yuan's long hair backward, the sharp bolt tip stopping less than half a foot from between his eyebrows. The massive half-zhang-long ballista bolt was caught directly in Li Qingyan's grip, its tail vibrating incessantly from the powerful momentum. As for the other massive bolt aimed at Li Qingyan, it hit dead center, only to shatter against her graceful curves. Both heavy bolts had come from atop that ancient city. However, without the enhancement of Li Qingyan's Source Qi, the ink-black darkness prevented Xu Yuan from clearly discerning the situation on the city wall. He asked offhandedly, "Are they human?" Gripping the massive bolt, Li Qingyan looked toward the ancient city with keen interest and asked in a clear voice, "They look human. Shall I kill them?" Xu Yuan thought for a moment. "Is there any danger? If not, take me over to have a look first." Li Qingyan shook her head, crimson flames flickering in her phoenix eyes as she stared at the parapet. "None. The Source Qi fluctuations of those 'people' on the wall don't exceed the seventh rank." *More than one...* Xu Yuan frowned. "Take me over to see." At his words, Li Qingyan said nothing more. Wrapping her arm around Xu Yuan's waist, she leaped forward. A distance of several li passed in an instant. The two landed quietly atop a watchtower on the ancient city's wall. Xu Yuan immediately caught the sound of hushed, hurried shouts from below. "Those aberrant ghosts are here! Go notify Lord Chief Arbiter, and have the Blood Armor Guards prepare for battle!" "Don't stop, keep cranking the siege crossbows!" It was Great Yan speech tinged with a local dialect, yet barely intelligible. Xu Yuan looked down toward the sound. On the ramparts below, a flustered crowd of "soldiers" was scrambling through pre-battle mobilization. Their attire was rather eccentric—likely due to the scarcity of underground resources, their garments were woven almost entirely from plant fibers. Yet as military personnel, the soldiers on this ancient wall seemed sorely lacking. Accustomed to elite forces like the Beifeng Army and the Black Scale Army, Xu Yuan found their clumsy preparations almost laughable. He even spotted one soldier who, overcome with terror, defied orders and curled into a trembling ball in a corner of the wall. However, their physiology appeared somewhat bizarre. Even with his crimson cultivation technique and fifth-rank Soul Condensation cultivation, Xu Yuan couldn't see clearly across several li in the dark, yet these crypt dwellers, whose Source Qi was no higher than the seventh rank, had actually spotted him. As Xu Yuan pondered, the group of "soldiers" below seemed to realize something was amiss. Their voices trembled with terror. "Commander... Commander? The two aberrant ghosts are gone!" "What?" The man addressed as commander spun around sharply. Seeing the empty stone road, he seemed to realize what had happened and hurriedly hissed, "Hold the line! Don't panic! Once Lord Chief Arbiter arrives, everything will be fine!" Despite the commander's shout, panic spread like wildfire along the city wall. Under the suffocating dread of impending death, several soldiers bearing Source Qi began losing their minds, gnashing their teeth and cursing: "Hold the line? How are we supposed to hold the line?! That kind of speed clearly belongs to the striped aberrant ghosts that turn us into monsters!" "What damn Chief Arbiter! Wouldn't it be better to just dutifully offer sacrifices to those monsters? Protect the mortals? Weren't mortals meant to be offered up in the first place? That's how it's been for generations!" "It's all because of you bastards! When Lord Priest was around, we only had to offer two hundred mortals to those monsters each year! It was that Chief Arbiter woman who killed Lord Priest!" "Two years ago, Diyang City was slaughtered by those striped aberrant ghosts! Now it's our turn! Hahaha..." "......" "......" Chaos escalated along the wall. Before even catching sight of the enemy, their morale had completely collapsed. Listening to the frantic cries below, Xu Yuan turned to look beside him. "Qingyan, what do you think?" Li Qingyan lowered her phoenix eyes and gently shook her head. "A vulnerable mob. There probably isn't a single decent commander in this entire city." Xu Yuan chuckled helplessly. If any soldiers under Li Qingyan had dared to behave like this, their heads would have rolled long ago. Shaking his head, Xu Yuan kept his voice low, raising a finger toward the crowd below. "I know. I'm referring to the societal structure of these underground cities. Don't you find it a bit strange?" Li Qingyan narrowed her eyes. "It is indeed strange. Even their physiological structures have altered; these people have likely lived down here for generations since ten thousand years ago. "Yet according to what you described, Prince Consort, the military standards they're displaying couldn't possibly allow them to survive against those aberrant ghosts. Forget a first-rank, even a single aberrant ghost comparable to the third rank could slaughter this entire city." "Indeed." Xu Yuan looked into the distance at the cavern's inner wall hidden in the dark, murmuring thoughtfully, "It is indeed strange." The current situation had entirely exceeded his known intelligence. At the very least, in the Silent Crypt of *Cangyuan*, Xu Yuan had never encountered a single living soul, nor had he seen even dry skeletons. Aside from aberrant ghosts, the only moving entity had been the player. Yet after hearing the terror-fueled outbursts of the soldiers below, combined with the tidbits Old Man Luo had shared in his previous life, he could roughly piece together the situation. First, the area covered by the Silent Crypt was immense—large enough that these underground cities and colossal caverns were far from solitary occurrences. In other words, the ruined city he had encountered in *Cangyuan* was not the one before his eyes. It might have been the "Diyang City" mentioned by that soldier, or perhaps another entirely. Second, the cultivation and armaments possessed by the "humans" residing in these underground cities were nowhere near comparable to the aberrant ghosts entrenched within the Silent Crypt. For ten thousand years, they had survived solely by offering "sacrifices" in exchange for "peace." Yet thinking along those lines presented an obvious problem. Old Man Luo had noted that although high-tier aberrant ghosts possessed sentience, it was gradually eroded over time until they were reduced to beasts that knew only slaughter and converting others into their own kind. If that were so, how had the "humans" here managed to barter for their lingering survival through sacrifices? At this thought, Xu Yuan's brow knitted tighter and tighter. He looked toward Li Qingyan. "Qingyan, I think I roughly understand what's going on here..." Li Qingyan appeared to be pondering the same question. Blinking, she met his gaze and asked, "Was this ancient city built to pen them in?" "......" Xu Yuan was slightly startled by her sharpness. Looking down at the grand, archaic city, he let out a quiet sigh. "Yes. "This crypt... "was most likely an experimental ground built by humanity ten thousand years ago to study the creatures known as aberrant ghosts."