Chapter 17 Roots

Deep underground, a booming rumble continued to echo, as if a pack of monstrous beasts from the abyss were rampaging through rock and soil. Lily lay prone near the cave entrance, cautiously peering down. Her eyes glimmered faintly, but in the profound darkness, she could only make out a blurry shadow moving rapidly. "I don't think it's following... it doesn't look like it can turn."

With a fluttering sound, Vivian's swarm of bats coalesced back into human form. She tossed a small bat into the tunnel to get a closer look. The little bat emitted a burst of electricity, and for a brief moment, Vivian and Lily both saw what was below: enormous "tendrils" still stretching forward, their rough, dark brown surface flashing past the bottom of the shaft at an incredible speed – too fast even for Lily's werewolf vision to discern any details. But the tendril seemed unable to sense anything above it, blindly pursuing its course, or perhaps, as Lily had suggested, it couldn't turn.

A moment later, the tendril finally stopped. It appeared to have reached the end of the tunnel. After a moment of hesitation, it began to slowly retract, leaving behind only a slightly widened rock tunnel that had become smooth and whole again.

The two finally breathed a sigh of relief. Lily plopped down on the ground, patting her chest. "It seems to have retreated. That was scary..."

Then she rubbed her eyes, looking at Vivian with a hint of complaint. "That lightning flash of yours was a bit too bright. I almost went blind."

Vivian wasn't sure if Lily's last statement was an exaggeration or just a plain fact...

"What in the world was that thing?" Lily sat on the ground for a while, then quickly scrambled to her feet, brushing dust off her clothes as she curiously looked at Vivian. "You're so knowledgeable, have you ever seen anything like that before?"

Vivian shook her head. "Never seen it before. At first glance, it looked like a subterranean creature, perhaps a tendril of some giant beast, but its surface didn't look like an animal's... more like a plant, all wrinkled. It's a pity things were too chaotic to see clearly. But I did manage to get a sample."

As she spoke, she raised her hand to display a large chunk of black material. It turned out that when she jumped back up, she had sent out a portion of her bats to tear off some tissue samples from the tendril's surface in the chaos. Lily immediately approached with great interest, her eyes shining brightly in the light of the two silver moons. The details of the black tissue were clearly visible in the moonlight: it had a wrinkled surface covered in uniform cracks like dry bark, with hard edges but an overall flexibility. Vivian flipped it over, and the two saw strange patterns on the back of the tissue sample, which had quite a few plant-like characteristics.

"It really does look like a plant, and it smells like one too," Lily said, sniffing. "Yeah, definitely not a meaty smell. Bat, what do you think?"

Vivian turned to look at the Twisted Woodlands not far away, deep in thought. "...It's said that the Twisted Woodlands has an even larger main body underground, a network of roots that extends to the center of the Blood Lake and the depths of the Dragon Spine Mountains... Based on this location and the shape of that tendril... could it be a root of the Twisted Woodlands?!"

Lily instantly felt a shiver run down her spine. "No way! Do tree roots chase people?"

Vivian put away the black material and turned to walk towards the Twisted Woodlands. "It's just a guess, but it's highly possible. This world is full of strange things. This forest has felt odd to me from the start. I don't believe it's just a simple forest..."

Lily quickly caught up with Vivian. "What are you going to do? You're not planning to dig a hole in the forest to verify this, are you? What if you dig out another one of those tendrils?"

Vivian shook her head. "Of course, I won't take that risk. I just want to see if those trees are made of the same material as this 'black skin' in my hand."

She paused for a moment, thinking as she spoke to Lily. "Besides, don't you find it strange? Let's assume the tendril is a root of the Twisted Woodlands, but according to local legends, these underground roots are extremely deep. The locals even think it's just a myth – they've lived here for hundreds or thousands of years and have never been attacked by such a tendril. The only sighting was when a group of dwarves were mining too deep in the mountains and encountered something that resembled a root, and even that report lacked solid evidence..."

Although Lily was a bit scatterbrained, she wasn't stupid at all. "Are you saying these tendrils or roots have only recently moved to the upper layers?"

Vivian nodded with a serious expression. "The Twisted Woodlands has been growing in this area for ten thousand years. That tendril – whether it's a root or not – should also be a very ancient creature, but the residents of Beinz have never encountered it. This suggests that it has always lived deep underground, but the tunnel under the outpost is only a few dozen meters deep... I suspect this tendril is preparing to come to the surface."

Lily broke out in a cold sweat, goosebumps erupting all over her body. "Ugh – I kind of want to go home now! This sounds so creepy!"

"You haven't seen anything creepier than this. There were plenty of monsters in the Mythological Era that defied all common sense. You'd be scared to death if you were in that time."

"Who says! Don't underestimate a werewolf's courage! I just feel a little disgusted."

"Put your tail away when you say that. How can you be so confident when you're walking with your tail between your legs..."

The two bickered as they walked away. Not long after they left, the sound of hurried hooves suddenly came from another direction.

A fully armed team of Church knights and Church mages rode their horses to the ruins of the outpost. They were the sentry forces patrolling the area at night. The warriors dismounted outside the camp and cautiously entered the ruins of the outpost. One of them spoke to the others, "The sound came from this direction..."

"It sounded like it was coming from underground... The stone monsters haven't learned how to dig tunnels, have they?"

"Goddess have mercy, I don't know if monsters can dig tunnels, but someone's definitely dug a hole in your brain!"

At that moment, a sentry in the front shouted, "There's a tunnel here!"

The warriors quickly gathered around and discovered the shaft that Lily had left behind.

The leader of this small sentry unit pondered for a moment near the shaft, then pointed out two warriors. "Jefferson, Homan, you're coming down with me."

In the sky, two cold silver moons still hung high. The blood-red spot on the main moon gazed down at the earth like a bloodshot, indifferent eye, looking down at the tiny creatures wriggling on the ground until a dark cloud floated over and covered the blood-red eye.

The moonlight dimmed. Hao Ren looked up at the sky. "The clouds are coming, it might rain."

Nangong Wuyue immediately became very happy. "Rain is good, rain is good~~"

"Shh—" Hao Ren suddenly covered Nangong Wuyue's mouth. "There's a cave ahead."

Between the stone walls not far ahead, a cave entrance cleverly hidden by the surrounding rocks appeared before them. If his observational skills hadn't been greatly enhanced, Hao Ren would have almost missed the inconsistency in the rocks. Nangong Wuyue immediately became vigilant, silently gliding on the ground as she followed Hao Ren closer to the cave entrance.

A cold, slightly fishy gust of strange wind blew intermittently from the cave. Nangong Wuyue subconsciously activated her water mist barrier to block the strange wind. "There's an evil aura inside."

Hao Ren looked at the siren in surprise. "How do you know it's an evil aura?"

"It sounds cooler that way!" Nangong Wuyue put her hands on her hips, then stuck out her tongue. "Okay, it's hereditary. Although I'm a siren, my dad at least gave me some sixth sense. I don't think there's anything good in here."

Hao Ren shrugged and took the lead. "Let's go, the progress bar can't hold on much longer."

The cave was deeper than expected. After entering, Hao Ren saw a long tunnel that seemed to stretch endlessly. The walls on both sides were neat and smooth, with obvious signs of artificial excavation.

Clearly, he had finally stumbled upon a major secret.

The cave was winding and twisting, with many turns, but fortunately, there were no confusing forks or secret passages. Hao Ren and Nangong Wuyue didn't know how long they had been walking when they suddenly saw a light ahead.

It was just a torch stuck on the rock wall, but the light was enough to prove that someone was inside.