Chapter 16 Is It Safe?

Hao Ren panted for a long time, finally catching his breath. He looked in disbelief at the quiet stone hall. The passage they had run through was completely blocked by the explosion caused by the lightning strike. The undead knights who had chased them all the way were trapped on the other side. Although the knights' armor was incredibly strong, it wasn't strong enough for someone like Lily to split mountains and crack rocks with her bare hands. Plus, the armor itself was made of metal with limited strength, so they probably couldn't dig through the rubble—at least not in the short term.

It seemed like he could finally catch his breath and sort out the current situation.

"Maybe... not yet," Vivian said, her eyes closed as she sensed the energy flow throughout the entire underground palace. "The aura of death is everywhere, but for some reason, there's no movement for now. The ones chasing us just now were only a small part..."

"Holy crap, a small part?!" Hao Ren was startled. "What exactly was the lord of this place planning to do back then?"

Lily was currently lying next to the pile of completely shattered armor fragments, rummaging through them with the vigorous curiosity befitting a canine. Suddenly, she found something strange on a piece of deformed breastplate: "Hey, Bat, come take a look at this! Is this also a Leta Rune?"

Dog and Bat—it seemed these two never planned to call each other by their proper names.

Vivian kicked Lily's leg in protest before bending down to pick up the breastplate fragment. Sure enough, she found curved纹路(wén lù, lines/patterns) on the surface of the silvery-white metal plate. However, the breastplate was severely damaged, and the runes on it were incomplete: "Look for other fragments with runes. These things... we should be able to decipher them."

"I'll help too." Hao Ren called out from the side and began searching through the wreckage of armor with Lily. Most of these fragments had been frozen and shattered by Vivian's sub-zero cold shock, so it was almost impossible to find any complete pieces of metal. But after searching for a while, Hao Ren noticed something: it seemed every undead knight had runes on them.

Moreover, all the runes were engraved in the same place, with the same size and form. It seemed all the knight armor was mass-produced.

"I found it!" Lily was the first to find a complete piece of armor. The wolf-girl handed a foot-square metal plate to Vivian, who immediately began to translate the runes on it: "... Jailer of the Demon Chamber, keeper, sleepless warrior... Vowed to guard the power of the demon, drive out intruders... Do not enter the Demon Chamber... A rune of contract and enchantment taking effect simultaneously."

Hao Ren felt a headache coming on: "What does that mean?"

"It seems we were mistaken about something," Vivian's expression became subtle. "We initially thought the sealing system in the underground palace was to suppress the undead here, thinking these knight wraiths were the ones being suppressed. But the situation is completely the opposite: these knights are also part of the underground palace's defense system. They are the guards here, and something else is being suppressed."

Hao Ren looked down at a metal fragment in his hand. He had already guessed this much: the armor buried in the underground palace was clearly carefully arranged, with complete troop types and well-equipped armor. They didn't seem like the ones being suppressed. It made perfect sense that they were the guards of the underground palace. And since these undead were not the ones being suppressed, then what was this underground palace really suppressing...

"Demons?" Hao Ren heard Vivian mention this word when she deciphered the runes earlier. "This... this isn't good! Don't tell me this place is suppressing demons—do such creatures really exist on Earth?"

"Even a bloodkin like me and a... uh, werewolf like Lily exist, why can't there be demons?" Vivian casually threw the armor fragment to the ground, corroding it with blood mist. Her voice sounded somewhat serious. "It's just that your human myths and legends have many errors and omissions, classifying many powerful and violent异类(yìlèi, different kinds) as 'demons.' So I'm not sure if the 'demons' mentioned in these runes are true demons or something else. If it's a fake, that's fine, but if it's the real deal... we're in big trouble."

After a moment of thought, Vivian added, "Based on the professionalism of the runes on the stone walls earlier, the one who arranged the underground palace was most likely a demon hunter. Demon hunters are experts, they wouldn't misclassify things... This place is most likely suppressing the real deal."

Hao Ren's face twitched: "You really shouldn't have added that last sentence!"

Vivian didn't pay attention to Hao Ren's吐槽(tù cáo, complain/ roast). She was carefully searching for the remaining runes on the armor fragments, hoping to use these guards to determine the situation of the evil they were suppressing. Lily, on the other hand, was a little worried: "We just beat up the guards in the underground palace who were used to suppress demons? Doesn't that mean we released the demons? Did we... do something bad?"

Having such a kind-hearted wolf-girl was a great blessing to the world. Hao Ren patted Lily on the shoulder: "It's okay. The data terminal said earlier that the underground palace's seal has long expired, and the remaining tin cans can't hold the fort. At most, we're helping the evildoers..."

"It's not necessarily the demon's本体(běntǐ,main body), the runes mentioned the Demon Stone," Vivian picked up another armor fragment. "Leg armor, with another part of the runes on it, mentioning a place called the 'Demon Chamber' in the underground palace. The Demon Chamber contains the Demon Stone, not the demon's main body. If it's just a stone, the situation won't be so bad."

Hao Ren felt like he was listening to a heavenly book: "What is a Demon Stone?"

"Demons are good at spatial power. The Demon Stone is their locator for teleportation, and also the remote medium they use to corrupt the mortal world, like a clone of demonic power. The material of the Demon Stone is very special, even demon hunters find it difficult to destroy. So the usual way to deal with them is to suppress them, suppressing them for hundreds of years, and basically it's safe."

"Oh, after hundreds of years, the power of the Demon Stone will be exhausted, right?" Hao Ren said matter-of-factly.

"No, it's just that after hundreds of years of no contact, demons usually replace them with new ones—if you lose your phone for two months and can't get through, wouldn't you just get a new one?"

Hao Ren: "..." That explanation made perfect sense, but why did he feel like he had a吐槽(tù cáo, complain/ roast) stuck in his throat, unable to go up or down!

"That means the Demon Stone is still in this underground palace, and it's still usable," Lily swallowed. She was a little slow, but not stupid. "We can only hope that the demon behind it has already changed its number. Then if the commotion in the underground palace stimulates the Demon Stone..."

Vivian thought for a moment: "Most likely they will come to check the situation. Even if it's a phone number you lost two years ago, if you suddenly get a text message, you should have some impression, right? Demons have a very good memory."

Hao Ren pressed hard on his temples: "The most important point: can you two beat a demon?"

"I don't know," Vivian's expression was a little awkward. "In theory, we are all considered '异类(yìlèi, different kinds)' of the same level, and there are demons with weak combat power, but you know, I've always been a pacifist, rarely fighting with people. The largest-scale battles I participated in were when I was about to go broke, so I helped the Trojans fight the Greeks for five years, and then helped the Greeks fight the Trojans for five years..."

Hao Ren: "..." In this situation, he didn't have the strength to complain about Vivian's magnificent black history.

At this time, Lily finally had a flash of inspiration. She suddenly realized something: "Right, Bat, you just said the runes said: guards cannot enter the Demon Chamber, what does that mean?"

"Although the undead guards are useful, the techniques used are derived from demons, so they can only be used to guard the periphery of the underground palace, and cannot be too close to the chamber where the Demon Stone is stored."

"Then don't you think this hall... doesn't have any guards?"

As Lily's voice fell, the hall was silent.

The three of them felt a cold air blowing from all directions. Hao Ren carefully looked around the entire stone chamber and asked with a bitter face, "Vivian, what does the Demon Stone look like?"

The vampire girl recalled: "They are basically irregular slender black crystals, half a meter to a meter long, looking like smoked glass, with the tips a little red..."

Hao Ren's tears were about to fall: "... Is it the one hanging from the ceiling?"