Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Fang Fang was entirely stunned as she stared with disbelief at everything before her. Even Lonemoon and Yi Qing had surprise flashing through their eyes, this place was filled with demon beasts and spirit herbs. In a world with totally no Spirit Qi, where did they come from?
“How is it, what do you think of my Precious Creature Garden?” The City Lord said with some intention of flaunting.
“It indeed leaves quite an impression.” Lonemoon continued the conversation politely.
“These are still the little things.” He continued, “Follow me inside!”
With that he continued to walk forward, the deeper they went, the more they saw. Lonemoon looked around carefully, even the surrounding spirit herbs had subsequently become fourth and fifth-level ones, compared to the initial first and second-level ones, they could be considered as intermediate spirit herbs, but not one bit of Spirit Qi could be felt.
Lonemoon suppressed the surprise in his heart and followed the City Lord right into a cave. The spirit herbs were no longer seen and the cave wasn’t dark either, colorless little flowers covered the entire wall of rock on the side, though the flowers were transparent, they radiated a faint white light.
Fang Fang seemed to have never seen such a unique flower and instinctively reached out to the left to touch them, in the next second, a terrifying roar of a beast sounded from the wall and something charged from between the rocks and snapped at her.
Fortunately Shen Ying who was by her side reached out and pulled her back, that she managed to dodge it. Fang Fang was startled, her face turned white like snow instantly as she panted heavily, half her body was lying limp on Shen Ying, looking like she got quite the shock.
“Hahaha, I forgot to remind everyone, a rock beast lives in this rock wall, it is bad-tempered and these flowers are guarded by it, no one is allowed to touch it.” The City Lord reminded rather insincerely before continuing to move forward.
Fang Fang was so frightened that there wasn’t a trace of blood in her face, she only stood up, looking still in shock after Shen Ying held her up and murmured a soft word of thanks after a moment.
Shen Ying looked back at her with surprise then crunched down on her fruit before nodding and responding. “Mm.”
The group headed towards the interior of the cave. Moments later, the surrounding began to warm up, the City Lord stopped before a huge metal gate and introduced rather excitedly, “This is the most peculiar beast in my Precious Creatures Garden, even I do not know exactly what it is. It took a great deal of effort to capture it.”
With that, he shifted the gear by the side, a wave of blazing heat came surging immediately. There was another metal mesh inside and through the crevices in the middle, one could see that there was scorching fire everywhere and in the midst of the fire, laid a huge beast the size of three humans stacked together.
This was… a seventh-level fire beast!
Lonemoon quickly turned to look towards Yi Qing beside him, seeing him nod, he then concealed the surprise in his eyes. A seventh-level demon beast but no Spirit Qi present, interesting!
“How about it?” The City Lord looked towards them again and said, “I was even able to capture such a creature, this is proof of the capabilities of my city, have you changed your mind and decided to stay behind to render your services to me?”
“City Lord is naturally exceptionally capable of great feats.” Lonemoon said with a smile, “But our ambition does not lie here, we cannot stay for long in the city, We can only disappoint your kind offer.”
The City Lord’s expression instantly fell, a guard by his side shouted directly. “All of you are so unappreciative of favors! It’s really too…”
Before he could finish, the City Lord stopped him with a raised hand, his eyes dark as he said with a small smile. “Alright, since you are unwilling to stay behind, then I shall not force you against your will, take your leave.”
“Thank you City Lord!” Lonemoon shot a look towards Chef, then turned and walked outwards. But the City Lord and his guard behind them did not follow, as if really intending on watching them leave.
Yet they’d barely taken a few steps out when they heard a creak, the ground beneath their feet weighed down, the initially flat ground had disappeared. All four of them fell down together, they could faintly catch the curses of a certain City Lord from the top.
“Unappreciative fools, all of you deserve to become the food for the monsters!”
The most alarmed person amongst the four of them was Fang Fang, she screamed out loud directly. Whereas Lonemoon and Yi Qing were prepared long beforehand, Chef reached out and pulled Shen Ying into his arms and Lonemoon lifted the terrified Fang Fang.
They landed within seconds, the sound of rushing water sounded by their ears.
Lonemoon brought out a pearl and shook it, their surroundings then lit up at once. It was then that they had a clear view that they were standing on a protruded rock, a dark river several meters wide was below it, filled with sinister looking monster fish that would leap out of the water from time to time, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth.
Fang Fang’s expression became graver, she instantly broke free of Lonemoon’s hand and hid, seeming habitually, behind Shen Ying. “What… what is this place?”
No one answered. Instead Yi Qing glanced her hand that was grabbing his Master tightly and frowned before pointing to the right. “Father Niu, it’s there!”
“Wh… What’s there?” Fang Fang still wore a look of fear and bewilderedness. “Why did the City Lord suddenly trap us in here?”
“He did not think of letting us live from the start.” Lonemoon explained, “He must not want any outsiders to know that he had gotten the merman. So, for people like us in the know, we either become his subordinates or dead people who cannot speak!”
Fang Fang’s eyes widened abruptly, disbelief written all over her face, as if not expecting that a dignified City Lord would do such a despicable thing. Lonemoon had long guessed that the City Lord was no good thing, otherwise why would that innkeeper dare to open an illegal inn so brazenly in the city.
The reason why they came over here was because he had checked out the entire city last night, just not the City Lord Abode, so he made use of the opportunity to do so. Only, he did not expect to really make a discovery, a place without Spirit Qi could have spirit herbs growing and high level demon beasts, he had to admit that this was really odd. Moreover, both Chef and him had detected a trace of Spirit Qi when they saw the seventh-level demon beast earlier.
Originally, they could pretend to accept the City Lord’s offer and slowly investigate thereafter. But it was too troublesome, and they would not be able to investigate openly, not to mention it being a definite waste of time, it’d be better if they just fall out with him
But he did not expect that this trace of Spirit Qi just happened to appear in this underground river, it could be considered an accidental find. Pity that Spirit Qi was too weak and this place was weird, they could not use their spells and naturally could not use their divine perception to search for it, it was very troublesome.
However, as long as they find the source of the trace of Spirit Qi, they would surely be able to figure out what was up with this place. Only this girl named Fang Fang… would be experiencing an unexpected calamity.
“Master, let’s go!” Yi Qing said and lifted Shen Ying directly, leaping and ending strength from the protruding rocks on the banks of the river, he moved forward in the direction of the river flow.
