Chapter 1 Vivian's Perspective

Vivian often assessed the historical legacy of short-lived races from the perspective of a long-lived being, and these assessments were always profound and accurate. Just like the witch stories passed down in the Andre family, a mere three hundred years of family history could cause such enormous deviations from the truth of the past. So how much more could one expect errors in the historical records of the Dream Plane, which stretched back ten thousand years—with several twists, turns, and interruptions in between? It was understandable that legends passed down to the present day would have significant inaccuracies.

Nowadays, even the relatively long-lived races of the Dream Plane couldn't figure out what the truth of the past was.

People had always believed that the ancient magical empire's research into forbidden technologies had angered the goddess, and that the artificial miracles built by the magical emperors were symbols of blasphemy. The three wonders, including Sunset Volcano, had long been regarded as evidence of heresy. But who would have thought that these things were actually used to suppress the First Born?

Although the suppressive effect of these things was probably quite limited.

At the foot of Sunset Volcano lay a vast wilderness of stone, where layers upon layers of huge black rocks stretched all the way to the eastern coastline. And on a small mound between this stony wilderness and the Grayrock Fortress stood an ancient monastery that looked almost abandoned.

This monastery was the last facility of the Radiant Church on the eastern side of the kingdom, and only a few elderly anchorites maintained it.

The mottled and peeling outer walls of the church were covered in thorns, and the monastery was surrounded by large patches of gravel and a few sparsely growing salt-tolerant shrubs. Judging by its appearance alone, no one would have thought that this was the watch-church of the second Sacred Cave. Hao Ren and the others didn't waste any time at Grayrock Fortress; after Ofra briefly handed over command to the fortress guards, she led the team directly to this dilapidated monastery. The entrance to the Sacred Cave was located beneath the monastery.

Looking at the dilapidated state of the ancient monastery, Lily was a bit sentimental. "This place is really run-down... A fortress and an old monastery—can they really guard such an important place as Sunset Volcano?"

"Don't underestimate these ancient facilities," Archbishop Auberon shook his head. "Each of the three ancient relics is guarded by a corresponding chapel. The Lakeheart Chapel in the Diocese of Beinz, the old monastery at Sunset Volcano, and the small shrine at the Great Tree of Life—these three facilities are the oldest and most powerful divine nodes. The entire kingdom's church system provides energy to these three nodes. Although they look dilapidated, even an army would find it difficult to break through their defenses."

"The Lakeheart Chapel at Lake Beinz was destroyed in an instant. Subsequent investigations revealed that the First Born completely cut off the chapel's divine power," Ofra shrugged. "Facts prove that the First Born's power far exceeds our understanding. Even the ancient magical empire couldn't resist it. Our current divine system is just fragments of incomplete chapters, and it's even less useful."

Archbishop Auberon shook his head and said nothing more. The monks of the small monastery opened the entrance to the underground: this entrance was located in the small chapel's back garden, and from the outside, it looked like an ordinary large tombstone. Hao Ren guessed that the Lakeheart Chapel at Lake Beinz must have had a similar entrance, leading to the "Holy Coffin" storage point beneath the chapel. But he hadn't had time to find that entrance when the entire chapel was swallowed by the vortex.

The three Sacred Caves that sealed the First Born actually had the same structure: the First Born slumbered in a huge underground cavity, surrounded by a maze-like system of tunnels. Above this system was a layer of artificial rock shell (built by the ancient magical emperors), which supported the upper layer of ground. And directly above the entire system was a small chapel (built by the first pope of the Radiant Church). Beneath the chapel was a security device that constantly applied "hypnosis" to the First Born, namely the Holy Coffin.

The entire structure was like driving a silver nail into a coffin to prevent an evil spirit from resurrecting—and the world had survived for ten thousand years under the protection of this fragile security device.

Advancing down a steep rock passage, one could reach the underground part of the small chapel. This was a medium-sized underground palace, quite spacious, but with a simple structure and no decorations at all. It was a thoroughly practical facility.

Hao Ren followed Archbishop Auberon out of the passage and saw a spacious rock hall illuminated by magical glowstones. In the center of the hall was a stone platform, empty, but with a slight depression in the center that seemed to indicate that something had once been stored there. Around the hall were many gray-robed monks meditating—gray robes being the garb of ascetics.

"These are the ascetic orders sent from the royal capital," Ofra explained in a low voice. "The church and the royal capital have sent many people to monitor the movements of the two Sacred Caves, but because ordinary people would be mind-controlled if they got too close to the tentacles, most people can only guard Grayrock Fortress. Only these ascetics and some high-ranking knights have entered the underground. The high-ranking knights are in other caves."

Hao Ren nodded. He knew that the place where the First Born slumbered was like a vast underground maze, and that there should be countless intersecting tunnels and huge caves nearby. The knights and monks from the royal capital should have already gone to the various caves; the ascetics here were probably responsible for guarding the entrance.

The surface of Sunset Volcano looked unchanged, but its underground had been set up with layers of defense—defenses that only served as psychological comfort.

Archbishop Auberon pointed to the stone platform in the center of the long hall: "This was once used to place the Holy Coffin, but after opening the first layer of the Sacred Cave's outer shell, we moved the Holy Coffin to a deeper location."

Then he led the team through the hall and continued towards another, even more steeply descending passage. Before long, the group passed through a stone wall that appeared to have just been broken through, and the road ahead suddenly opened up.

"We just passed through the outer wall of the chapel's underground palace, which was broken through just last month," another bishop said, looking back at the black stone wall covered in Leta runes. "From here on, we're entering the First Born's territory."

Several accompanying ministers in the team immediately gripped the magic amulets in their hands: these people were ordinary people; they didn't possess the powerful mental strength of monks or the strong will of high-ranking knights. It was only their mission that forced them to venture deep into the First Born's domain, relying on those blessed amulets to move freely in this underground world.

"I feel a little hot," Nangong Wuyue was the first to notice the change in the surrounding environment after walking for a while. "And the air seems to have a bit of a... sulfur smell?"

"We're under Sunset Volcano, after all," Ofra smiled. "The werewolf magical emperor Sanur created the world's largest and most complex underground lava river beneath here, so some heat and gas will seep in through the cracks in the rocks. But don't worry, we've already confirmed that there are no leaks."

Nangong Wuyue curled her lips and created a layer of water mist barrier around herself: "Tsk, tsk... Why do I always run into this kind of thing? I've started losing scales these past few days."

Hao Ren: "..."

The group continued deep into the underground passage, and the further they went, the more open it became. They passed several forks in the road and relatively spacious stone chambers, and as Hao Ren had expected, each fork in the road and stone chamber was guarded by three to five high-ranking knights or monks. They had built simple camps and defenses in this underground world, monitoring any movements that might come from the maze-like tunnels.

At the same time, Hao Ren finally saw what he wanted to see: the First Born's tentacles began to appear on the surrounding cave walls.

When Archbishop Auberon saw those winding and enormous tentacles, the stone-like calm on his face finally disappeared. Even his mosaic head trembled slightly. As a high-ranking clergyman specializing in mental training and extremely sensitive to "Source Blood" and "Origin Power," he felt the powerful power and insane thoughts contained in these tentacles more clearly than others: "These are the outer tentacles, and only a small portion of them have the ability to interfere with the mind. As long as you're careful to avoid them, you won't be affected, so it's still relatively safe here. But if we continue forward, we'll enter..."

"We'll enter the First Born's key 'organs,' I know, we've been inside ourselves," Hao Ren nodded. "These tunnels should still be in the outer layer of the cave. Did you open the outer shell of the inner layer area?"

"Just ahead, but we didn't open it," Archbishop Auberon nodded and led the group towards a certain fork in the road. "We searched for ten full days and finally found the weak point in the barrier left by the ancient magical emperors in this maze-like tunnel. What's unsettling is that there's a gap in it, and part of the First Born's tentacles are spreading out from that gap."

After continuing to advance for another ten minutes, the team arrived at the "barrier entrance" that Auberon had mentioned. This was a huge circular cave, and the walls around the cave were covered with ancient and sacred texts, the seals and messages left by the first pope. Hundreds of anchorites and paladins had built fortresses and defenses in this cave, closely monitoring the several tentacles that were spreading out from the west side of the cave. Hao Ren saw the tentacles emerging from a huge crack, rather than "infiltrating" out of the rock tightly like in other places. This indicated that these tentacles had used a more violent method when breaking through the barrier; they had consciously widened the channels for their entry and exit.

But it looked like this should only be a short-term "false awakening." Now, those tentacles had become quiet again. Judging by the traces around the tentacles, their last "twitch" should have been many years ago.

"It's frightening," Ofra clicked her tongue. "While we were unaware... how much has happened beneath this planet?"

Hao Ren cautiously approached the tentacles and, after confirming that the latter were unresponsive, boldly stepped on them. He climbed along the tentacles to the crack in the stone wall, looking at the situation on the other side.

On the other side was the secret chamber where the First Born slumbered. He saw a huge stone chamber filled with ominous red light, where countless tentacles converged from all directions, forming a tangled and twisted tumor-like organ. That organ was in a dormant state, its surface's faint red light changing in brightness at an extremely slow rate.

"The good news is that it's sleeping soundly, the bad news is that this 'tumor' looks even bigger than the one in the Dragon Spine Mountains," Hao Ren jumped back to the ground. "Where's the Holy Coffin? I want to analyze its principles."

Archbishop Auberon pointed to a small stone house in the center of the knight's garrison: "It's in there."