Chapter 716.

Chapter 716 The Entrance
After passing through a long ramp and a town that no longer had any living people, leaving only many humanoid rough billets set into the ground and mountain walls, the exploring party entered a valley strewn with strange black stones.

The entrance to this valley was hidden in a large expanse of thorny “plant” debris, but the information in Shirley’s “memories” clearly pointed out the exact location of the entrance.

The black rocks in the valley were hideous and jagged, presenting a disturbingly strange and complex appearance. They did not seem to be the result of natural weathering, but they were obviously not the product of artificial sculpture either.

They were more like a number of deformed freaks struggling to be “born” from the earth and cliffs, and then suddenly turned into stone at the last step of their growth, and on some of these black rocks you could even see almost differentiated claws, tentacles, and even eyeballs and mouth and nose structures…. -After noticing these details, even a veteran judge like Vanna couldn’t help but frown, and the weird and frightening feeling seemed to penetrate into the marrow of her bones, causing her to be extra vigilant.

The flowing mist was pervasive and permeated the quiet valley.

“These stones give me the feeling as if they are alive ……” a marine wearing a black smock and the triangular holy emblem of the God of Death muttered in a low voice, “some kind of living thing, blocked in these black shells …… I always feel like they’re going to move at any moment.”

“Control your imagination, don’t just conjure up that impression in your mind.” That Shinigami Magus from the No Rest in Peace, who had barely spoken since boarding the island, immediately interrupted the mutterings of the soldiers under his command.

Duncan glanced at the silent Death God Magus – he was a tall, bald man clad in a black hooded robe, while all the exposed skin was covered with intricate and dense black runic tattoos, and those dense runes even went all the way up to his eyelids, which made the Magus look strange, gloomy and Scary.

Probably due to the fact that there was still a share of awkwardness between the Church of Death and the Lost Country, this leading Magus didn’t really interact with Duncan on the way, but after noticing the sight cast by the latter, this bald man with an odd appearance still turned his face and politely nodded, “What is it that you wish to ask?”

“I remember that your name is Norm,” Duncan said with a nod, “When the Frost Incident was over, a large number of samples of the ‘primordials’ taken from the Frost Pipeline System were sent to the headquarters of the Church of the Dead, do you know anything about this? ”

“I’ve been up close and personal with those samples,” Norm replied casually, “and was impressed.”

“What do you think of these ‘traces’ on this island?”

“…… The same source, but it doesn’t give me the same feeling,” Norm thought for a moment, and although his expression was slightly unnatural as he answered Duncan’s question, he still spoke seriously, “The ones that were sent over from Frost ‘samples’ are a disgusting and cold substance, they completely show a ‘stagnant’ state and no longer have any changes occurring, but here …… “

He paused for a moment, casually picking up a small stone from the ground next to him.

“Others may not be able to tell from the surface, but I can feel …… that it is still ‘functioning’ internally, and that slow ‘shifts’ are still occurring. This feeling is hard to describe, it is a ‘feeling’ that only we, the followers of the God of Death, can produce. If I have to say …… it’s like this Ms. Shirley said, this whole island is ‘alive’, even if it has been quieted down again now, every part of it is still ‘alive’. , just living in a state of near-death.”

Duncan nodded softly, not speaking for a moment.

According to the information available, this entire island was created by the power of the Profound Lord, and according to the information Sherry had seen from those “visions”, it could even be regarded as a piece of “flesh and blood” detached from the Profound Lord. -If it was really the flesh and blood of an ancient god, then it was not inconceivable that it would still be active after thousands of years of being detached from its own body.

The only thing that is unbelievable is …… that it would have evolved into this shape on the border of reality – trees, rocks, dirt, streams flowing through mountain streams, and all sorts of resources and minerals that could be collected on the island.

Those Annihilationists even used the resources on the island to build towns and docks.

This makes Duncan can not help but think – the so-called “profound holy lord”…… exactly what kind of “individual”? Before becoming the “Ancient God” of the Deep Sea Era, what was the nature of this “Pilot One” with the number LH-01?
And what about the “God of Wisdom Rahm” who also had the LH number and should be called “Pilot II”? He looks very different from the Profound Holy Lord in terms of both power and “form”……. What is the essence of this difference? Why is there such a difference between LH-01 and LH-02?
For some reason, Duncan always felt that he had overlooked something, in addition to the two numbers LH-01 and LH-02, he seemed to have another problem that he had never paid attention to ……

But his thoughts didn’t last.

Shirley, who was leading the way, suddenly slowed down her pace.

“…… I ‘saw’ this place,” she blinked, standing in an open, gravel-strewn clearing, looking around the misty valley around her as she recalled herself had previously seen from that tumultuous vision, “The gang of cultists were all gathered in this clearing, and when the sun went out, they gathered here and shouted wildly, thinking that they were ‘enlightened’ …… The gang of stupid X’s digging spot should be near here …… This was originally a closed place, I don’t know what made them have been afraid to approach, but when the sun went out their sanity was all out of whack and they didn’t know that they were afraid …… “

Amber, standing near Sherry, frowned slightly.

This Goddess Officer turned her head slightly and looked at Vanna, “…… I think I just heard Ms. Shirley naturally say something very rude ……”

“You just noticed?” Vanna was surprised, “She’s always like that.”

Amber: “……?”

Sherry, on the other hand, didn’t care in the slightest about the conversational voices of the people next to her, her attention seemed to be completely drawn to the fragments of memories that kept surfacing in her mind and the familiarity that this valley in front of her brought, as she took two steps forward, her eyes glowing with a blood-colored shimmering light slowly sweeping through the surrounding mist, and she soon sensed a familiar scent coming from up ahead.

A ghostly aura.

“This way,” she blinked, her eyes recovering, and immediately raised her hand to point at a narrow entrance between the crags in front of her, “This is where they dug down!” It was a rocky crevice that could probably accommodate two people side by side, and seemed to be a natural part of the canyon’s cracking itself, but traces of having been cut and enlarged by hand could be seen vaguely in its depths, and there were some digging tools scattered around the entrance, but the users of the tools had obviously been swallowed up clean by the surrounding rocks and soil – those cutting traces were the last proof that they had existed in this world.

“…… It’s narrow and unknown down there, so it’s best not to go in all the way,” Amber poked her head in and quickly withdrew, turning to the others, “I’d suggest that most of the men set up camp around the cave entrance, and a few of the elites go down and see what’s going on.”

“I’ll take the men down first,” Duncan said casually, “Alice, Shirley, Dog …… and Maurice, you guys come down with me, and Vanna, you and Amber and Norm and the others set up camp out there and keep an eye on the island .”

His arrangement had its own reasoning – first of all, one of his purposes of coming to this Holy Land Island was to confirm what connection there was between Alice and the Profound Holy Lord, so naturally, he had to bring the mannequins with him, while Shirley and Dog were the guides after going down there, and Maurice was very learned and was a secret realm explorer in his own right, and this kind of exploratory action was even more of a specialty of his.

But apparently Vanna had other ideas, “Don’t you need to bring me along? You may encounter enemies down there, you need a fighting force ……”

“You might run into enemies out there too,” Duncan said, then probed at the low, narrow space inside the rift, and turned his head to look at Vanna with a serious face, “And it’s too short to jump up.”

Vanna was stunned at the words, and after two or three seconds she reacted with a bit of embarrassment, “…… It’s not like that’s the only thing I know how to do ……”

But she only mumbled so much, and quickly nodded, “I understand then, we’ll stay here and set up camp, while briefly searching the rest of the valley.”

Duncan nodded slightly, “Well good, be careful to stay in contact and call my name immediately if you run into a situation.”

“Aye, Captain.”

Duncan then took Maurice, Alice, Shirley, and Dog and their party in stride towards the dark and dreary entrance that seemed to tilt into the very depths.

Vanna watched a few figures disappear into that darkness, and then saw a ghostly green fire appear in the depths of the passage, before she exhaled slightly, and then immediately turned her head to see that Amber was standing on the sidelines staring straight this way, with a subtle look on her face.

Vanna instantly squirmed a little, “…… Looking at me for what?”

Amber thought for a moment, but still couldn’t hold back, “…… Under normal circumstances, shouldn’t one immediately call out the name of the goddess when encountering a situation?”

Vanna’s expression was dumbfounded, “……”

Ms. Inquisitor fell into deep thought.

However, she soon reacted and looked at the young junior in front of her with a serious expression, “You can call both together.”

This time, it was Amber’s turn to have a dumbfounded expression, “Is …… okay?”

“Can.”

“…… Goddess allowed?”

Vanna looked pious, “I asked and He did not object.”

Amber continued with a dumbfounded expression, “……?”

Norm stood next to the two, expressionless the entire time (mostly because his face was painted with unseen expressions), for a long time before he reached up and silently traced the triangular emblem representing the God of Death on his chest, letting out a long, unnoticed sigh.

And at the same time, in the narrow passageway that kept tilting downward, Shirley was cautiously moving forward together with Dog.

Ghostly green flames slowly spread on the rock walls on both sides, illuminating the path forward, while Shirley was pulling on the chain connected to Dog with one hand, and holding on to the cold, smooth stones by the roadside with the other, with a tense expression on her face.

Scarlet shimmers floated slightly under her eyes.

(End of chapter)