Chapter 193

Chapter 165 The Mountain of Corpses

Following the sound, I ran over and pressed my hands against the cold bluish bricks on the wall. I tilted my head and pressed my ear against it, waiting quietly for a moment…

Boom!

The heavy, muffled rumble, vaguely mixed with the resonance of metal hitting a hard object, was unusually clear to my ears.

The source of the sound… seemed close.

Realizing this, I hurriedly felt around the walls, peering here and there, and poking and tapping along the edges of the bricks. Soon, I discovered a square gap in the wall, shaped like a door.

How should I open it… by smashing it?

After hesitating for a moment, I brought my nose close to the gap and sniffed… It smelled a bit fishy.

…I don’t know what’s inside.

Let’s not smash it yet, there must be a mechanism…

Thinking this, I raised my head and looked up at the candle holder above the wall, standing on tiptoe and reaching out to touch the wick… It felt sticky. There was oil, so it could be lit.

But I have no fire… Wait, below the candle holder, that… is a sliding track?

It can be pulled down!

I grabbed the candle holder tightly, using my body weight to pull it down—

Click.

A soft sound, the candle holder was pulled away from its original position, moving down ten centimeters. Immediately after, the sound of gears turning echoed from within the wall.

Click click… Bam—!

The originally relatively flat wall suddenly caved in significantly, without warning. The loud noise stirred up a cloud of dust, which was carried by a gentle breeze and reached me in an instant.

Whoosh—

I hurriedly closed my mouth and stepped back.

“…Phew—, phew phew! Cough, cough!”

Even so, I still choked a little. Dust had entered my mouth, the gritty sensation was very unpleasant.

Rumbling…

The ground trembled slightly.

After spitting out most of the dirt in my mouth, I lifted my head again.

The wall in front of me was slowly opening. Behind the wall, a narrow, dimly lit passage stretched through the suffocating darkness into an unseen end.

It was like a terrifying monster, roaring loudly.

Boom-bang—!

Bang… bang… bang…

The echoes of the loud noise reverberated back and forth in the small cellar, lingering for a long time.

This time, I heard it clearly and distinctly.

That was the sound of some indestructible, sharp blade, carrying immense force to cut through flesh, break bones, and deeply embed itself into rock, sparking—this is the sound I could imagine.

As if to verify my guess, after a short while, a strong stench hit my face, filling my nostrils.

This smell… I am quite familiar with it.

I know, it’s the smell of death, a mixture of the stench of corpses and blood.

The feeling of danger spread throughout my body, my heart raced. My expression turned serious as I silently unstrapped Captain Gray from my back, brushed off the black cloth covering it, and casually threw it aside.

I gripped the scythe handle tightly with my right hand.

I took a deep breath, and swung it down.

Clang! Click click click!

Zing—

A huge, dark, deadly weapon had taken shape.

Then I raised my foot and stepped into the dark passage.

The passage was very long, long enough that I felt like I could walk for a century, but I knew this was just my mind playing tricks on me.

That strange dull sound had stopped. I think, whoever or whatever made that sound… probably heard the commotion on this side, knowing that the secret door has been opened. At this moment… they might be lying in wait in the darkness, silently waiting for their prey to arrive.

That’s what I guessed.

So, who or what is hiding in this place… could it be something even more terrifying than them…

…and Teresa, are you here?

The ceiling above seemed to have vanished… I appeared to have walked into an empty underground hall.

I was immediately drawn to the enormous stone statue standing right in the center of the hall.

It seemed to be a human figure sculpture, about five meters tall. I had to tilt my head back just to see its top… but the overall craftsmanship was exquisite, and I could make out some details from the contours.

However, it was too dark around me, so dark that I couldn’t even tell the gender of the statue. I didn’t dare use my Order power to illuminate the surroundings, as that would expose my location completely. I could only explore in the dark, observing changes in the environment while being wary of potential enemies lurking in the shadows.

The air was foul and unbearable.

Apart from the smell of blood, there was another more nauseating odor—the stench of rotting animals.

This frightened me, and my heart beat faster and faster, almost leaping out of my throat.

But I had to stay calm and continue moving forward.

“Huu—”

I quietly exhaled.

Clack—clack—

The sound of my leather boots hitting the stone floor echoed loudly in my ears, but I thought I had been as quiet as possible.

… The enemy shouldn’t be able to hear me, right?

Okay… let’s go check ahead.

I left the statue’s position and walked further into the darker area.

The foul smell in the air had become so intense that it was starting to irritate my eyes.

I raised my hand to rub them, then at the end of the hall, I saw a faint glimmer of firelight in the distance… something was over there!

What… uh!

Suddenly, I kicked something.

!!

I was so scared that I felt my soul might leave my body. My entire body tensed up, and I jumped back two steps. After steadying myself, I held the Captain’s saber tightly, closed my eyes, and listened carefully.

Zzz—zzz—

I only heard the buzzing sound of flying insects.

Apart from that, I detected no abnormalities.

… What did I kick just now? It felt soft…

Suddenly, I heard a light rustling sound ahead.

Immediately after, two long tongues of flame rushed toward me from the far end, twisting like snakes along the walls, and in an instant, they were beside me, whistling past.

And along the path where the flames flowed, one lantern after another suddenly lit up, driving away the darkness instantly, and everything became bright.

… It’s so blinding!

My eyes involuntarily squinted.

Then, I bent down, widened my stance, and raised the scythe over my head. At this moment, my reaction was unprecedentedly swift, and I braced myself for an attack.

But there was no attack.

Only a loud boom in my ears.

In an instant, swarms of flies filled the entire space.

Zzzz—zzzz—

“Uu!”

I cried out in fright and quickly shut my mouth.

What happened!

Where did all these flies come from… go away!

These flies should have been quite still. But the sudden burst of firelight startled them, causing them to fly aimlessly, some colliding with my head and arms. I quickly stepped back two paces. After my eyes gradually adjusted to the light, I realized what I had kicked.

A female corpse sitting against the wall, her chest split open.

The corpse looked up with her mouth open, her face pale and purple, her lifeless eyes staring upward, her blood congealed into brown patches on her body—she hadn’t been dead for long.

After a few seconds, I recognized the corpse.

She was Tainis, the deputy captain of the Sword of Canri.

Behind her, there were countless skeletons piled together like a small mountain.

There, I saw several familiar faces. Some with the sword emblem on their shoulders… others wearing the robes of church priests… I recognized those who had helped intercept the goods in the alley alongside Teresa.

Flies crawled onto their blueish-purple faces, dark brown blood dried on their bodies, and their clothes had hardened… and some of the corpses further inside had rotted beyond recognition or had already turned to bones.

“… Ugh—!”

Unable to hold back, I turned my head and vomited.