Vivian had evaluated the historical heritage of the short-lived species from the perspective of the long-lived species many times, and these evaluations were always profound and accurate. Just like the story of the witch passed down in the Andrea Family, just 300 years of family inheritance could cause such a huge deviation in the truth of that year, not to mention the 10,000-year historical record of the Plane of Dreams — there were several twists and turns and interruptions in the middle, so it was understandable that the legend that had been passed down to this day had such a big error.
Now even the relatively long-lived species in the Plane of Dreams could not figure out what the truth of that year was.
People had always thought that the research of taboo technology by the ancient Magic Empire had angered the Goddess. The artificial miracles built by the mage emperors were symbols of blasphemy. The three wonders, including the Volcano of Dusk, had long been regarded as evidence of deviance. But who would have thought that these things were actually used to suppress the First Born?
Although the suppression effect of these things was probably quite limited.
At the foot of the Volcano of Dusk was a vast expanse of stone wilderness. The land was paved with layers of huge black rocks that extended to the eastern coastline. In the middle of the stone wilderness and the limestone fortress was a small mound that seemed to be abandoned, and there was an ancient monastery that seemed to be abandoned.
This monastery was the last facility of the Disciples of Glory in the east of the kingdom, and only a few old ascetics were taking care of it.
The mottled and peeling walls of the church were covered with thorns, and the monastery was surrounded by large pieces of gravel and a few sparse clusters of salt-tolerant shrubs. Just from the outside, no one would have thought that this was the Guardian Church of the second sacred cavern. Hao Ren and the others did not waste time in the limestone fortress. After a simple handover with the fortress garrison, Ophra led the team directly to the dilapidated monastery. The entrance to the sacred cavern was under the monastery.
Lily looked at the dilapidated appearance of the ancient monastery and said with some emotion, "This place is really dilapidated... A fortress, an old monastery, can they really guard such an important place like the Volcano of Dusk?"
"Don't underestimate these ancient facilities," Cardinal Orben shook his head, "The three ancient ruins have their own respective Holy Churches. The Beinz Diocese's Lake Church, the Volcano of Dusk's Old Monastery, and the Giant Tree of Life's Little Sanctuary. These three facilities are the oldest and most powerful divine nodes. The entire kingdom's church system provides energy to these three nodes. Even though they look run-down, even an army would find it difficult to break through their defenses."
"The church in the middle of the Beinz Blood Lake was destroyed in an instant. After the investigation, we found that the First Born had completely cut off the operation of the divine power in the chapel." Ophra shrugged. "It turns out that the power of the First Born is far beyond our understanding. Even the Ancient Magic Empire could not fight against it. Our current divine system is just a broken chapter, even less useful."
Cardinal Orben shook his head and did not speak. The friars opened the entrance to the underground. The entrance was located in the backyard of the chapel. From the outside, it looked like an ordinary tombstone. Hao Ren guessed that the church in the middle of the Beinz Blood Lake also had such an entrance, leading to the underground storage of the Divine Sarcophagus. But before he could find the entrance, the entire chapel was swallowed up by the whirlpool.
The three sacred caverns that sealed the First Born actually had the same structure: the First Born slept in a huge underground cavern, surrounded by a maze-like cave system. Above this system was a layer of artificial rock shell (built by the ancient mage-emperors), which supported the upper surface, and right above the entire system was a chapel (built by the first pope of the Disciples of Glory). Under the chapel, there was a safety device that constantly "hypnotized" the First Born, the Divine Sarcophagus.
The whole structure was like a silver nail on the coffin to prevent the resurrection of evil spirits — the world had spent 10,000 years under the protection of this fragile safety device.
Walking down a steep rock passageway, one could reach the basement of the chapel. This was a medium-sized underground palace. It was very spacious, but the structure was simple and there were no decorations. It was a completely practical facility.
Hao Ren followed Cardinal Orben out of the corridor and saw a spacious rock hall illuminated by magic glows. In the middle of the rock hall was a stone platform. The stone platform was empty, but the slight depression in the center seemed to prove that something had been stored here. And around the hall, there were many gray robed friars meditating — gray robes were the attire of the ascetics.
"These are the ascetics sent from the King's City," Ophra explained in a low voice. "The Church and the King's City have sent a lot of people to monitor the movements in the two sacred caverns. But because ordinary people will be mind-controlled if they get too close to the tentacles, most of them can only guard the Limestone Fortress. Only these ascetics and some high-ranking knights can go underground. The high-ranking knights are in the other crypts. "
Hao Ren nodded. He knew that the place where the First Born slept was like a huge underground labyrinth. There should be countless crisscrossing corridors and huge crypts nearby. The knights and monks from the royal city should have gone to the crypts, and the ascetics here should be responsible for guarding the entrance.
The surface of the Volcano of Dusk did not seem to have changed, but layers of defense had been set up underground — only for psychological comfort.
Cardinal Orben pointed to the stone platform in the middle of the long hall. "This used to be used to place the Divine Sarcophagus, but after opening the outer shell of the sacred cavern, we moved the Divine Sarcophagus to a deeper place."
Then he led the team through the hall and continued down another corridor that was even more inclined. Not long after, they passed through a stone wall that looked like it had just been chiseled through, and the road ahead suddenly opened up.
"We just passed through the outer wall of the crypt of the church, which was just broken last month." Another bishop looked back at the black stone wall engraved with Letta runes. "From here on, we have entered the sphere of influence of the First Born."
Several accompanying ministers in the team immediately clenched the magic amulets in their hands. These people were ordinary people. They did not have the strong mental strength of the monks or the strong will of the high-ranking knights. It was just that the mission forced them to go deep into the territory of the First Born. Relying on those blessed amulets, they could move freely in this underground world.
"I feel a little hot," Nangong Wuyue was the first to feel the change in the surrounding environment after walking for a while. "And the air seems a little... sulphuric?"
"We are under the Volcano of Dusk," Ophra smiled. "The werewolf mage-emperor Sanur created the world's largest and most complex underground lava river. Some heat and gas will seep in from the cracks in the rocks. But don't worry, we have confirmed that there is no leakage. "
Nangong Wuyue curled her lips and created a layer of mist enchantment around her. "Tsk tsk... why do I always encounter this kind of thing? I have started to lose scales these days."
Hao Ren was speechless.
They went all the way down the underground passage, and the further they went, the more spacious it became. There were a few forks and spacious stone chambers in front of them. As Hao Ren expected, there were three to five high-ranking knights or monks stationed at each fork and stone chamber. They had built a simple camp and a line of defense in this underground world, monitoring any movement that might come from the maze-like tunnels.
And at the same time, Hao Ren finally saw what he wanted to see: the tentacles of the First Born began to appear on the surrounding cave walls.
When Cardinal Orben saw the winding and huge tentacles, his face finally lost its stone-like calmness. His mosaic even trembled a little. As a high-ranking clergyman who specialized in mental training and was very sensitive to 'lifeblood' and 'power of origin', he could clearly feel the powerful power and crazy will contained in these tentacles. "These are the outer tentacles, and only a small part of them have the ability to interfere with the mind. As long as you are careful to avoid them, you will not be affected, so this place is safe. But if we continue forward, we will enter... "
"We will enter the key 'organ' of the First Born. I know, we have been there ourselves." Hao Ren nodded. "These tunnels should still be in the outer layer of the cavern. Have you opened the outer layer of the inner layer?"
"It's right in front, but we did not open it." Cardinal Orben nodded and led them to a fork in the road. "We have been searching for a full ten days, and finally found the weak point of the barrier left by the ancient mage-emperors in this maze-like tunnel. What is disturbing is that there is a gap in it, and part of the tentacles of the First Born spread out from that gap."
After moving forward for another ten minutes, the team came to the 'barrier entrance' that Cardinal Orben mentioned. It was a huge circular cavern, and the walls around the cavern were filled with ancient and sacred texts. Those were the seals and messages left by the first pope. Hundreds of ascetics and paladins had built a fortress and a line of defense in this cavern, closely monitoring the tentacles that spread out from the west side of the cavern. Hao Ren saw the tentacles poking out from a huge crack, instead of "seeping" out from the rock like in other places. This meant that these tentacles used a more violent method to break through the barrier. They consciously expanded their access.
But it seemed that this was just a temporary "false awakening". Now the tentacles had calmed down again. Judging from the traces around the tentacles, the last time they "twitched" should have been many years ago.
"It's scary," Ophra smacked her lips. "When we don't know... how much has happened in the underground of this planet?"
Hao Ren cautiously approached the tentacles, and after confirming that they did not respond, he boldly stepped on them. He climbed along the tentacles to the crack in the stone wall and looked at the situation on the other side.
On the other side was the secret chamber where the First Born was sleeping. He saw a huge stone chamber filled with an ominous red light. Countless tentacles gathered from all directions, forming a tangled and twisted sarcoma-like organ. The organ was in a dormant state, and the faint red light on its surface was changing at a very slow speed.
"The good news is that it's sleeping soundly. The bad news is that this' tumor 'looks bigger than the one in Dragonspine Ridge." Hao Ren jumped back to the ground. "Where is the Divine Sarcophagus? I want to analyze its principle. "
Cardinal Orben pointed to a small stone house in the center of the knight's station. "Right there."
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
