Chapter 713 — Plant

Once out of that room, filled with mysterious runes and housing the Eternal Sleeper's magical apparatus, there were two paths.

One was the route by which Bard had descended—a sloping ramp connecting the upper tier to the middle tier—while the other stretched onward, extending all the way into the dark chaos of the lower-middle depths.

Standing before the corridor that led deeper still, Gao Yi focused his mind and sensed the distribution of magic in his surroundings.

That subtle energy field shrouding the whole of Solin Castle still persisted here: an endless stream of vitality seeping from the roots of the great tree, as though someone were casting an unceasing healing spell. Every living thing within range was affected by this field—even Gao Yang felt his spirits lift a little.

And apart from this energy field, he sensed no other threatening presence.

The squad that had come down with him assembled behind Gao Yang, and the squad commander swiftly issued orders: "Five to a group, advance in a one-two-two exploration formation. Proceed with caution."

The fully armed magic-energy combat soldiers moved at once. Split into several teams—each with one vanguard shield guard, two observers, and two firepower specialists—they began their advance down the deep, endless corridor. The magic vision afforded by their integrated tactical goggles let them see the distribution of magic in the underground palace clearly and directly, while the runic glow from the magitech gear on their bodies soothed every taut nerve.

In the underground palace, nothing remained but the orderly rhythm of footsteps.

Amber advanced at Gao Yang's side, her eyes wide the whole way. The dim environment of the underground palace had no effect on her, born as she was in the Shadow Realm—she could see as distinctly as in broad daylight—yet she still activated her additional shadow vision, for what she looked at here was not only what ordinary eyes could see, but also... certain things visible only through shadow vision.

A golden layer slowly rose in her eyes, and a faint shadow mist swirled up around her. In this form she somewhat resembled her "shadow sprite" state in the Shadow Realm, but it was clearly under deliberate control, ensuring that while maintaining maximum shadow affinity she kept herself anchored in the material world.

Gao Yang noticed the "half-elf's" behavior and asked in a low voice, "What do you see?"

"Nothing at all—but this way I look more professional..."

Gao Yang: "..."

"All right, I'm joking," Amber said. Noticing that hard-looking stone walls surrounded them on every side—walls that, if she were slapped against them, would likely be very hard to peel off—she quickly reined in her ill-timed jest. "There really are some 'things' here. Shadow dwellers... everywhere, more numerous than anywhere else."

"Shadow dwellers?" Gao Yang's brow furrowed at once, and he instinctively glanced around—though with his human vision he certainly could not see the creatures hidden in the crevices of shadow. "What are they doing? Are they a threat?"

"Probably not a threat. They're all on the shadow side; they don't seem to pay us visitors from the material world any mind," Amber blinked. "They wander this corridor... they seem very interested in this underground palace, but beyond that they do nothing more."

As she spoke, she kept watching those "scenes" visible only to herself.

In the deep, dark corridor of the underground palace, the world gradually resolved into black and white. In that faded world, humanoid wraiths wrapped in rune-bandages drifted in groups of three or five, passing Gao Yang and the others by, utterly ignoring the visitors from the material world. Only when they passed beside Amber did a shadow dweller occasionally pause, giving a slight nod or a grunt by way of greeting.

Amber shrank her neck. Suddenly, toward these creatures who had always been rather friendly to her, she felt a faint chill of dread.

She withdrew part of her shadow power, pulling herself back from the Shadow Realm, anchoring herself more firmly to the real world.

She belonged to this side; she did not want to return to that world.

Meanwhile, the squad had traversed the long corridor, and after passing through a collapsed, cracked doorway, Gao Yang found himself entering a great hall.

The hall was vast, its ceiling high overhead. On the stone—or some stone-like artificial material—walls and floor could be seen runes already extinguished and mana-conducting metal already cooled. This place must once have been solemn and important, but now it was a scene of utter ruin: the long banquet tables shattered, chairs toppled every which way upon the floor, and vast numbers of roots burrowing out from the ceiling and the ground had all but completely claimed the space, crisscrossing through the hall like a jungle.

In fact, had these ubiquitous roots not entwined and enveloped nearly the whole underground palace, this vast subterranean ruin would likely have collapsed long ago. After all, when that artificial god burrowed out, it had severely damaged the geological structure beneath Solin Castle, and afterward a plant even larger than the castle itself had erupted from the ground here. That this underground palace could remain stable after such upheaval could only be credited to these roots.

Plant roots can hold soil and water in place—that saying really was no lie (thick fog).

Gao Yang swept his gaze across the hall, vaguely recognizing certain features, and then realized that he had "seen" this place before.

This was the "council hall" that had appeared in the dream into which Bard had fallen—except that what he had seen in that same dream had been this hall as it was when whole.

"Seems I've only truly walked into the council hall now..." Bard recognized the place as well. He muttered with some feeling, his gaze sweeping over the ruined tables and chairs and the jungle of roots filling the hall.

No Hierarch Council holding session, no bright magic-crystal lamps—here there was only ruin, and a faint rustling sound coming from deep within the plant roots.

A faint rustling sound?

Gao Yang and Bard heard those strange noises at the same time. The former immediately raised his head and warily eyed a dark corner deep in the hall.

The soldiers reacted as well, every kind of weapon swinging to point at the nearby spot, and in an instant the faint clicks of safeties being disengaged rang out in a chorus.

"Stay alert, mind your triggers," Gao Yang warned in a low voice, then took up the Pathfinder's longsword in one hand and advanced, every sense on guard.

In the scattered beams of their personal lighting, a tangled, writhing mass of roots—or vines—in the corner of the hall slowly began to stir. Gao Yang pressed a hand backward, signaling the soldiers not to fire rashly, then watched quietly as the vines turned over and reshaped. In a stream of pale green light, a woman's figure slowly emerged from among the plants.

Beiyila Augustus—the one in the real world.

Her eyes were half closed. Her features were still as Gao Yang remembered them, but her body seemed to have fused with the plants. She was covered in a "garment" that looked like a mixture of plant cuticle and leaves, and from her back, her legs, her cervical vertebrae, and other places, roots and flowering vines had grown out to connect with the mass of roots in the hall. This eerie posture—one would sooner say that...

Her present body was part of this giant tree; part of the giant tree's structure had mimicked Beiyila—or else... she had become the Solin Giant Tree.

Gao Heng knew which of these it truly was; all he could judge was that this "Beiyila" before him was not conscious.