Legacy of Hatred-Chapter 77: Underground

Randall and the others threw a glance at Liam, but quickly dismissed him to refocus on the word-carved boulders. Only Melissa lingered in her inspection a bit longer, but Liam’s cold look soon met her green eyes, making her divert her gaze.

’This cell only has enough resources for ten seeds,’ Liam recalled the white-masked man’s words as he looked deep into the collapsed entrance. ’How big is the Divine Cult?’

In hindsight, it made sense for the Divine Cult to have multiple locations and a long history. After all, the hooded jailers had intercepted the Guild’s caravan and had a place ready to mold the kidnapped kids into mindless weapons.

Such a ploy required extensive preparations, and Liam couldn’t know whether he had been part of the first batch of kidnapped children even if he limited his reasoning to the structure that had kept him caged for months.

Actually, the reason pointed in the opposite direction. According to the white-masked man, the Divine Cult’s target was the Dragon Kingdom, which wasn’t something a young and small force could hope to defeat.

’How many of these locations exist in the Kingdom?’ Liam wondered. ’Are they in the Inner Circles, too? For how long have they been active? Are people aware of the Divine Cult’s existence?’

Liam had no straight answers to his many doubts, but no hesitation arose. One of his enemies had just gained a far greater, monstrous shape, but only resolve filled his mind. Liam was now utterly convinced that he had to benefit as much as possible from the place.

"Let’s go," Neil eventually whispered, stepping ahead so that the group could follow him toward the entrance. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

The collapse had sealed the entrance, but not entirely. A narrow passage existed on its right, forcing the group to crawl and squeeze through it to cross it.

Luckily, after a few minutes, the passage expanded into a proper tunnel that allowed the group of six to stand. Yet, a crossroads also arrived, splitting that straightforward path into three different corridors.

Neil promptly went for the upper corridor, which soon split again. Multiple twists and turns followed, which Liam committed to memory while studying additional details, many of which only he could recognize.

Despite delving deeper underground, the area didn’t grow any darker. It actually brightened due to the hovering glowing dust that filled those tunnels with a dim yellowish halo.

Only the Qi could explain that magical feature, and Liam’s experience and everything he knew about the place pushed his understanding even further. That dust probably came from the very mineral the group was looking for, which the Sect’s collapse had spread everywhere.

Still, there was something else, something far more concerning. The place sounded silent and abandoned on the surface, but Liam felt and heard vibrations echoing all around him, often coming from the very rocks he was stepping onto.

Much was alive down there, and the occasional instances of utter silence indicated that the former had already spotted the group and was probably considering what to do with it.

’The snakes and bats might ignore us,’ Liam considered, ’But I can’t imagine the rats letting us go freely.’

If the underground structure truly had an ecosystem with three different packs, the winter didn’t necessarily work in the group’s favor, not completely, at least.

’With the snakes and bats in hibernation and hiding,’ Liam calculated, ’The rats should be more desperate for food.’

Obviously, Liam didn’t take that conclusion for granted. His experience with the level one wolf had taught him that magical beasts didn’t always stick to their original programming. As far as he knew, all his predictions could be wrong.

Still, the advance remained uneventful. Even after half an hour had passed and tens of tunnels had gone by, the group had yet to meet any resistance, delving deeper underground unhindered.

Of course, a revolutionary change was right around the corner, and quite literally at that.

Neil turned a sharp corner, which featured a slightly brighter version of the yellowish halo, and Liam couldn’t help but hesitate when it was his turn to look at its source.

The tunnel abruptly ended in a cliff, which turned out to be the wall of a vast underground chamber. The place was also man-made. Smooth surfaces stretched everywhere, disrupted by cracks of different sizes, fallen boulders, and protruding rocks.

The chamber’s original appearance had probably been no different than the Divine Cult’s hall where Liam had trained, only bigger. The collapse had ruined it, making it lose its formerly rectangular shape, the fate of its remaining structural integrity in the hands of the six cracked pillars that connected the floor to the tall ceiling.

The partially collapsed hall had a stone passage on the other side, but something more concerning rested on its ceiling, which, jumping down to the floor, revealed in its entirety.

Many holes littered the upper walls, and probably more of those existed on the ceiling. Still, the latter were impossible to inspect because a sea of black figures covered it, hanging upside down while curled behind leathery wings.

Of the three packs the underground structure held, the group had stumbled on the bats first.

’One, two, three,’ Liam calculated, his eyes glued to the ceiling. ’Six level one magical beasts?’

Unlike the huge black wolf, the bats were more limited in size, even those that felt like foundation experts. The biggest among them looked to be slightly over half a meter, making Liam look down on their individual prowess.

The issue was with the number. The pack featured around thirty bats, which was quite concerning. If the swarm rained down on the six cultivators, injuries would be unavoidable, but the group’s arrival at the collapsed hall didn’t cause any reaction.

Naturally, everyone had looked up, wary and ready to jump back into the tunnel. Still, the motionless pack eventually brought everyone’s eyes down, exchanging silent glances that culminated in a mutual understanding.

Now that the group had reached the ruined Sect, they had to delve deeper into it to find its remaining precious resources. Heading toward its center might also bring the cultivators closer to the alleged mine, and the path at the end of the hall was the only way ahead.

Sadly, the smooth sailing also ended there.

"Prepare for battle," Liam casually muttered, half-turning toward one of the walls, wanting to face the tunnels in that direction without showing his back to his companions.

Liam’s order claimed everyone’s attention, but the red cultivators soon focused on Milo, who had already closed his eyes and summoned his Qi, only for a gasp to immediately escape his mouth.

"They are coming," Milo exclaimed, his whisper unable to hide his slight fear. "The rats. There are dozens of them."

As if to confirm Milo’s statement, light rumblings took control of the floor and walls. Pebbles and dust also fell from the ceiling’s exposed areas while rattling noises invaded the hall and replaced its tense silence.