Chapter 1 When the Door Fell

"The moment this door falls, all guards will be withdrawn," Vivian pointed to the last line of the runes. "This sentence is also written in runes, which is a bit strange."

This was the first time Hao Ren had come into contact with something so ancient and mysterious. He was completely immersed in a Hollywood blockbuster-like state, and his mind was still a little dazed. Hearing this, he subconsciously asked, "What's so abnormal about that? Maybe the person who wrote it had OCD. It would be uncomfortable for him to insert a line of English under a large section of runes, and you wouldn't understand it even if he wrote in English."

Vivian rolled her eyes at Hao Ren. "Do you think the notice posted on your door reminding you to pay your water and electricity bills would be written in ancient Latin? Who would understand it? Leta runes are complex and changeable, and even during the learning process, they can impact the learner's spirit. Ordinary people can't master them. Only demon hunters and those ascetics who have hardened their nerves like rocks because of their faith in gods can withstand it. It is said that Leta runes are the language written to the spirits of heaven and earth and the gods of another space, so under normal circumstances, no one would write these runes for ordinary people to see, let alone use them as ordinary words to write messages."

"Aren't the guards ordinary people?" Lily suddenly interjected.

Vivian looked at the wolf girl in surprise. "Hey, big dog, you have a broad mind!"

When Hao Ren heard the words "the guards are not ordinary people," he felt a little chills down his spine. He nervously looked around the tunnel and swallowed hard. "Using demon hunters as guards? This castle isn't the headquarters of the demon hunters back then, is it?"

"Demon hunters don't have a headquarters. They are freely distributed around the world, and their internal communication methods have always been a mystery, but this Jofold territory must have gathered a large number of demon hunters," Vivian said as she floated lightly into the air, studying the runes and patterns on the stone wall more carefully. "Looking at these纹路(wénlù - lines), they are engraved in a very rigorous and complex way, using the writing order and arrangement to make three sets of runes take effect at the same time. It's a very clever technique. This Jofold lord must not be an ordinary noble, most likely... simply a demon hunter who has integrated into humanity. I've seen this kind of thing before."

Lily, despite being a "different kind," had about the same knowledge as Hao Ren. At this time, she was also full of question marks. She stepped forward and scratched the hard stone wall with an impatient look. "Old woman, stop showing off those old, rotten things, okay? Just tell me what this is for."

Vivian's voice instantly increased eight degrees, and a cold wind with a bloody scent suddenly struck. "Who are you calling an old woman?!"

Hao Ren quickly dragged the wolf girl, who didn't think before she spoke, to the side. "Don't be like her. You are the forever seventeen-year-old vampire beauty, okay? Let's get down to business."

"You always protect her," Vivian snorted disdainfully and slowly landed beside Hao Ren. "The runes are all suppressing phrases. There's nothing offensive. It should be a simple defense layer. The third column of runes states that the underground part of the castle must eternally suppress a 'source of all evil.' Without the Jofold bloodline power, this wall cannot be opened, otherwise, it will suffer the curse of a certain evil spirit in the dungeon, and..."

Vivian was only halfway through her sentence when a low rumbling sound suddenly came from an unknown source and echoed throughout the dungeon. Then, the ground beneath their feet began to tremble, and the shaking grew stronger and stronger. The surrounding stone walls made terrifying creaking sounds, and dust and gravel fell from the ceiling of the dungeon. Hao Ren swayed in the increasingly violent tremor, and the first thing that came to his mind was: an earthquake! He was standing in a seriously dilapidated dungeon and was likely to die!

The rumbling sound from an unknown source grew stronger and stronger, and after only a few seconds, it reached an unbearable level, like muffled thunder. But just as Hao Ren was about to close his eyes and recall his life, everything suddenly stopped.

The "earthquake" stopped, and the strange sounds disappeared. Only the dust in the surrounding air and the occasional gravel falling from the ceiling of the dungeon indicated that everything just now was not an illusion. Vivian had floated into the air the moment the tremor began, completely elegant and unharmed, while Lily had protected herself in the manner of a canine animal when the tremor began: lying on the ground with her hands on her head, shivering at a high frequency from the top of her head to the tip of her tail. When the tremor stopped, Lily awkwardly got up and smiled foolishly at Hao Ren and Vivian. "Was that an earthquake just now?"

Hao Ren was still in shock, but Vivian had a strange look on her face. "No... it's not an earthquake! It's something under the castle!"

"Angus said this passage was clear before!" Hao Ren wasn't stupid, and he reacted immediately. "This stone wall just appeared!"

"Most likely the seal under the castle has loosened, so this stone door was activated!" Vivian grabbed Hao Ren and ran towards the tunnel exit. "Let's get out of here quickly. This... huh?"

Behind them, there was no sign of the passage they had come from. Blocking their way was a thick stone wall, and it looked even more solid than the stone wall with the runes!

"When did this thing appear?!" Hao Ren was shocked, then ran up to the stone wall and knocked on it a few times, confirming that this thing was not an illusion. "How come there wasn't any sound?"

"It's a demon hunter's trick. They are best at setting up this kind of bastard trap!" Vivian's eyes flashed red, and her tone was full of anger. She waved her hands forward, and two blood-red shock waves in the shape of a cross slammed into the thick black stone wall. However, the blood-colored shock waves, which were strong enough to shatter any metal or stone, only left a shallow scar after touching the black stone wall, not enough to destroy the entire stone wall. "Damn it, even the stones are enchanted... we're trapped!"

Lily didn't need to be urged this time and took the initiative to try to break the stone wall, but after scratching, clawing, and even headbutting, the stone wall remained as stable as Mount Tai. The wolf girl immediately sat down on the ground. "Wuwu, I don't want to die... I haven't even had a boyfriend yet... I'm still just a little wolf cub waa..."

Hao Ren was also sweating profusely, but when he saw Lily's behavior, he couldn't care about his own nervousness. The wolf girl was simply unbearable to look at. He reached out to help Lily up, cheering her up while looking around. "Calm down, don't panic, see if we can get out from somewhere else."

At this time, another strange sound began to echo in the dungeon, a rustling sound like the collision of armor coming from the back of the tunnel walls. It seemed that there were other spaces around the tunnel. Vivian had originally wanted to try to break the walls on both sides of the tunnel, but she quickly retracted her hand at this time. "These walls on both sides are not enchanted. Do you dare to go out?"

The rustling sound of armor collision became more and more obvious, and Hao Ren clearly heard the sound of hard objects scraping against the rocks behind the wall closest to him. "Something" had sensed the three intruders in the tunnel, and they were trying to get in!

The rear was blocked by an indestructible boulder, and the walls on both sides were a dead end that was terrifying just to hear the sound. Hao Ren finally focused his gaze on the stone wall with the runes. "Can that thing be opened?"

Vivian rushed over and knocked on the stone wall, then put her ear to it and listened. "This one isn't thick, and there doesn't seem to be anything on the other side, but are you sure you really want to smash this open? It may be the last layer of seal in the dungeon."

Hearing this, Hao Ren hesitated. He really didn't want to die, but he wasn't so brainless in an emergency, and many stories told him one truth: randomly destroying seals in this kind of ancient demon-suppressing place was definitely a stupid thing to do. How many movie and TV sequels started from the moment a certain idiot broke the seal...

"This unit suggests that you break that door," the data terminal's voice suddenly sounded in Hao Ren's mind when he was hesitating. "Radar scans show that there are other passages behind that door leading to the ground. The entire dungeon is not completely closed—don't worry about breaking the seal and causing a catastrophe. This place hasn't been renovated for hundreds of years, and the seal stone doors everywhere have long been broken. The one in front of you is the only passage that has been successfully closed. You are so unlucky, this unit is truly grief-stricken..."