In the silent tunnel, all the elves were frozen in place, their mouths agape as if they could swallow dragon eggs, clearly unable to believe that Qiongqi had actually abandoned them and fled.
"Damn it, I told you we should have killed him, but you all stopped me. Now look, they've all run off!" Kanggelifu yelled weakly and angrily, his heart filled with unwillingness.
As the king of the Fire Elves, he had been toyed with by two juniors, lost troops and generals, and now his life was in danger. This was simply a colossal humiliation!
"That Xilve is also an old fox. He must have sensed something was wrong beforehand, but none of us told each other. This scoundrel!" Ovexis cursed indignantly. He thought their Frost Elf tribe had some rapport with the Wind Elf tribe, but it was all bullshit!
"You're not allowed to speak about our king like that!" Xilve's royal guards, though also finding it hard to accept being abandoned, could only accept it as it was the king's decision.
"You've been sold out by him, and you're still counting the money," the elven powerhouses behind Ovexis scoffed. "Is it wrong to curse him? In thousands of years of elven history, there has never been an elven king who abandoned his subordinates and fled alone!"
"You're talking nonsense! Our king will surely return to save us after obtaining the sacred relic!" the Wind Elf powerhouses roared, their eyes red.
Seeing the escalating tension between the two sides, Haiman of the Dark Elves couldn't stand it:
"What's the point of saying all this now? Although we were abandoned, we are only two sections away from exiting the tunnel. Moreover, I've remembered most of Xilve's movements. Why don't we try to find a way out together? Are you really willing to die here?"
Haiman's words, powerful and resonant, made all the elves present briefly hold their breath.
But how long that breath would last, they themselves didn't know.
"I will impart Xilve's movements from the first half to you. As for the remaining half, I believe you all remember some of it, even just a small step," Haiman said with a sigh.
"I remember. When Xilve disappeared from here, his last move was like this." A Frost Elf stood up, stepping his left foot to the lower right in a strange motion.
"Ah, before this move, he seemed to take a straight step in a certain direction, but I can't remember exactly which one," another Fire Elf exclaimed, a spark of realization in his eyes.
"We can't remember, we'll try it later. Let's start from the beginning and piece it together bit by bit. We'll definitely find a way out!"
...
...
Leaving the tunnel, Xu Mu found himself in a void.
He looked ahead at the glowing portal that spanned the space, and then instinctively ran towards it.
As he passed through the portal, he felt a peculiar sense of detachment, as if something was being taken from his body.
Pain, despair, but not emptiness. Instead, the more pain he felt, the more his body seemed to expand, not physically, but psychologically.
Amidst the chaotic torment, Xu Mu peered through the slits of his eyes and saw several lines of boundless holy light. Under the light stood a long-bearded old man clad in a noble robe, wearing a crown, and holding a scepter aloft towards the sky.
The song he chanted was very familiar, it had appeared in his dreams countless times, but he couldn't recall its name.
At this moment, the old man's chanting reached its crescendo. Endless holy light, like nectar, poured down from the shattered sky, falling upon various parts of the world, igniting a great fire that burned the world without extinguishing it.
And the scepter held high attracted countless purest holy rays. No one could guess the energy contained within it, perhaps not even the old man himself.
At this moment, he turned his gaze towards Xu Mu.
In his gaze was a mixture of paternal affection and coldness. He held the scepter in his right hand, cradled Xu Mu in his left, and channeled the holy light into his body.
This tearing and overflowing sensation could no longer be described as pain. Xu Mu felt as if a new soul, composed of the holy light descending from the heavens, was forcibly growing within his head.
"What is happening?" Xu Mu asked in bewilderment.
Then he realized that he was not the one being held by the Pope. In the other's left hand was an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes.
And he was merely an observer.
But the pain was so clear. Was he truly an observer?
As soon as this question arose in Xu Mu's mind, the mysterious space collapsed and vanished.
The white light gradually dissipated.
Xu Mu opened his eyes and saw a familiar face. It was Qiongqi.
"What just happened?" Xu Mu asked weakly, clutching his head. He instinctively tried to relieve a headache, only to find that apart from being a bit tired, it didn't hurt at all.
"Did I really have a dream?" Xu Mu murmured to himself, but the dream was too real. He could recall every detail perfectly.
"What are you talking about? Didn't we just come out of the tunnel?" Qiongqi looked at Xu Mu.
"The tunnel? Didn't you see the glowing portal and some illusions?" Xu Mu asked, utterly confused.
"There was a teleportation portal, but no illusions. I just found it too dazzling, so I closed my eyes. You were a step behind me, so you opened your eyes a second later than I did."
"Only one second later?" Xu Mu was stunned. Although his dream wasn't long, it felt like at least the time it took for an incense stick to burn. Yet, Qiongqi said only one second had passed.
Qiongqi: "Yes, only one second. Wake up, and hurry to find the sacred relic! Xilve will be right behind us!"
Xu Mu stared blankly at the bronze-colored wall, then sprang up from the ground. He had almost forgotten about the sacred relic and Xilve!
"According to the descriptions in the incomplete Fuxi scrolls, the sacred relic should be placed on a high platform resembling an altar."
Xu Mu turned and surveyed the space. It was small and sparsely furnished, with only torches at the four corners.
"Could there be a second underground palace?" Xu Mu frowned, starting to search for a mechanism leading to other chambers. However, he soon spotted a complex elven magic array in the center of this simple, ancient palace.
Qiongqi also noticed the area. He stared at it intently for a long time, then shook his head and said, "I don't understand."
"But I'm sure the item should be here. Perhaps activating this array will cause the sacred relic to appear."
"Yes, that's what I thought. But how do we activate it?" Xu Mu took out the map and began to examine it closely again.
Soon, he discovered markings of four colors: red, black, white, and green.
"These are the colors of the four great elven tribes." Xu Mu's expression was calm, and he immediately understood Fuxi's intention. He said to Qiongqi, "I know. The method to activate this array is very simple. We need to use the magical elemental energy represented by these four tribes to ignite those four torches respectively."
"East is red. You go and set the fire. I'll handle the rest!" Xu Mu was quick-witted. He instantly darted to the torch on the western altar. Following the elven tribal map, he used the eight trigrams to forcefully condense a flower of extreme cold and placed it in the torch. Indeed, upon sensing this frost energy, the torch instantly lit up.
Hum!
A dark blue flame burned, and thick frost climbed onto the ground and walls of the space. Qiongqi's side was similar, as hot as if the sun itself had descended. Even Qiongqi, who possessed the Samadhi True Fire, couldn't help but retreat several steps.
At this moment, Xu Mu, using the eight trigrams technique again, simulated wind and darkness in sequence. Once all four torches were lit, the magical energies of the four elven tribes intertwined, spreading colored threads across the ground, which finally converged at the magic array in the center.
Thus, the magic array was lit and activated. Xu Mu and Qiongqi stood alertly to the side, quietly watching the terrifying array come to life. The entire space began to tremble and shake, as if it were about to collapse.
Xu Mu swallowed. Of course, he didn't believe the place would collapse, as this was where the sacred relic was hidden.
Soon, the tremors intensified. From the vicinity of the magic array, a massive altar suddenly rose from the ground. The altar had no stairs, only a square stone pillar that rose straight up to the ceiling of the dozens of meters high underground palace before finally stopping.
"Gulp." This was the sound of Xu Mu and Qiongqi swallowing.
Because during the ascent of this structure, they clearly saw a bow and arrow placed in a transparent glass on the stone pillar.
It was an exceedingly noble longbow, its tips curved like dragon horns, its string like exquisite and holy moonlight, inscribed with intricate patterns that gave off a vibrant green aura.
What's more, what sent chills down their spines was that as the bow and arrow emerged, it seemed to giggle, smug and sinister, like a little girl from hell.
...