Chapter 16 : Chapter 16
Chapter 16: Ancient Underground Palace
This string of bizarre attacks claimed the lives of two warriors in an instant.
What frightened Kline even more was that he had not even seen clearly what that streak of light actually was.
“Sir, please show yourself! I am Kline, a knight of Gerson City. I mean no harm!”
Knight Kline looked into the darkness around him. The excitement he had felt earlier had long since been washed away, replaced by a deep, bone-chilling dread.
This was already a power beyond anything he could handle. But no matter what, whatever price he had to pay, he had to survive!
Kline stared into the darkness around him. The kerosene lamp in his hand had become his only source of security.
He had even forgotten to draw his Knight’s Sword to defend himself.
Another fierce flash of sword light appeared out of the darkness and shot toward his chest!
As his pupils contracted violently, he suddenly dragged the only remaining warrior beside him in front of himself as a shield. In the next instant, the longsword pierced straight through that warrior’s chest.
Only then did he finally see clearly that the thing within that gleam of light was actually a strangely shaped sword.
“Damn you, Kline! Damn you! You should be the one going to hell!!”
The warrior who had been dragged over to block the sword cursed furiously, but with the blade lodged in his chest, that icy chill made his life drain away at a terrifying speed.
Kline remained unmoved. He did not even let go of him, and merely continued staring tensely into the surrounding darkness.
“Sir, I only want to live! Behind me is the Underground Palace of the ancient Archmage Isno. The treasures inside are beyond counting! You can take all of them!”
Knight Kline spoke while gasping heavily, his heart tense to the limit.
Then he saw the sword embedded in the warrior’s chest suddenly move, before shooting back toward somewhere in the darkness.
Under the dim yellow glow of the kerosene lamp, the sound of footsteps gradually came from the darkness.
Knight Kline swallowed nervously, then saw Jiang Lin slowly walk over.
He stared at Jiang Lin with wide eyes, utterly incredulous as he looked at this “Demi-human.” He had considered countless possibilities before, but he had never imagined that it would actually be Jiang Lin.
Seeing the extraordinarily vivid look on his face, Jiang Lin stood there with his sword resting across his back and said with a faint smile,
“Long time no see, Knight Kline.”
“Y-yes, it has been a long time...” Kline stammered. With a thud, he collapsed to the ground, his voice trembling. He understood everything now. Mage Orr had been killed by this man.
“Sir, for the sake of my helping you in the tavern earlier, please spare my life.
“I will never say a word about you. After I leave this place, I will immediately take my aunt and leave. I swear it!”
Jiang Lin shook his head and looked at him calmly.
“I will ask. You will answer.”
Hearing those words, Knight Kline seemed to see hope at once and immediately nodded.
“I absolutely will not deceive you, sir!”
“Is the one behind you the lord of Gerson City? And how many people like you does that lord have?”
Jiang Lin asked the question flatly.
“Yes. We all work for the Gerson City Lord. In Gerson City, besides me, there are ten more First-Tier Knights like me. Above us, there is only one Third-Tier Knight, who serves as the Gerson City Lord’s personal guard.”
Knight Kline spoke rapidly, then hurriedly added,
“There are also mages. Gerson City still has two mages, both of them first-tier.
“There are also three hundred soldiers, and twenty warriors disguised as a Mercenary Band, working together with those knights for the Gerson City Lord.”
After hearing the answer he wanted, Jiang Lin nodded.
“You may go.”
Knight Kline was instantly overjoyed, and he even felt fortunate for what he had done earlier. But at the very moment he rose to his feet, a longsword flashing with icy, razor-sharp light instantly pierced his throat.
He did not even have the chance to speak words of thanks before extreme terror and confusion filled his eyes.
Then Jiang Lin’s calm voice drifted over.
“Do not think I do not know your plan. You wanted to capture me and take me back for a reward, yet it seems none of you ever bothered to ask for my opinion...”
Thud—
Knight Kline fell to the ground with his eyes still wide open, full of unwillingness.
He died in the very next second, while still filled with hope.
“Hah...”
Jiang Lin’s expression remained unchanged. He picked up the kerosene lamp from the ground, then slowly walked over to the bodies and began stripping them with practiced ease.
The three warriors had little on them besides the weapons in their hands and a few Copper Coins they carried with them.
That left Jiang Lin somewhat disappointed. Knight Kline, however, had not only Copper Coins on him, but Silver Coins as well.
Jiang Lin also found the remaining half of the Treasure Map. Aside from that, only the man’s armor and Knight’s Sword had any real value.
Still, that counted as a gain.
Money was still very useful in this world.
With a casual wave of his hand, a hazy glow enveloped those weapons and pieces of armor as he stored them in his Storage Ring.
Holding the kerosene lamp, Jiang Lin slowly passed through the stone stele and walked toward the entrance of the Underground Palace.
As he walked down the endlessly descending staircase, only the dim yellow glow of the kerosene lamp illuminated the darkness around him.
From what Knight Kline had said earlier, this seemed to be an Underground Palace left behind by an ancient Archmage.
Could there really be a great many Magic Crystals inside?
Still, in a place like this, there were probably mechanisms or wards of some kind.
The staircase descending below was incomparably long, and everything remained shrouded in darkness.
Jiang Lin had already extended his Divine Sense ahead of himself, probing downward, so he was in no hurry.
His Divine Sense swept below and quickly sensed the end of the staircase.
The end led directly into the Underground Palace itself. The space inside seemed enormous. Thick stone pillars stood there, along with all kinds of bizarrely shaped statues.
No one knew how many years they had existed.
This was already the absolute limit. With his current Divine Sense, this was as far as he could reach.
Some time later, Jiang Lin finally stood at the end of the staircase, with darkness stretching before him.
He did not take another step. Instead, with one hand, he formed a sword seal.
The Cangwu Sword instantly shot into the Underground Palace.
The ground began to tremble. Jiang Lin immediately looked up and saw a stone wall crashing down toward him from overhead!
He stepped back slightly and avoided the falling wall.
But once the wall dropped, it also cut off his path into the Underground Palace.
On the other side of the wall, the Cangwu Sword was still circling.
Within the range of his Divine Sense, the positions of the eyes on those strange statues gradually began to shine with the light of Magic.
As though they had sensed that someone had intruded into the Underground Palace, those golems began to shake violently.
They smashed fiercely toward the circling Cangwu Sword,
trying to destroy any intruder who entered the Underground Palace.
But—at this moment, the intruder was only a sword...
“Just as expected...” Jiang Lin’s gaze rested on the stone wall before him, but his Divine Sense remained inside the Underground Palace.
Using both hands, he rapidly formed sword seals, driving the Cangwu Sword to stab fiercely toward one of the golems!
The Cangwu Sword shot forward violently, and at the instant it struck the golem, a crisp ringing sound burst out.
Those golems were clearly extremely durable, and their defensive power was astonishingly high.
Ordinary Sword-Control Art probably would not be enough to deal with these things.
Inside the Underground Palace, the eyes of those golems flickered with dense mana fluctuations.
They had already locked onto the circling Cangwu Sword, and a beam of mana suddenly shot toward it.
On the other side of the wall, Jiang Lin continuously controlled the Cangwu Sword to dodge.
In the next instant, dense Sword Intent appeared in his eyes. The moment it emerged, it rippled like autumn waters, carrying a trace of desolation.
On the other side of the stone wall, the Cangwu Sword suddenly drew out a fierce Sword Force! It rippled like autumn waters, yet also carried a heavy sense of desolation. Sword shadows layered upon sword shadows, and as the cold gleam swept forth, they burst out like a sudden autumn rainstorm—fierce, chilling, and razor-sharp!
The first form of the Cangwu Sword Art.
“Heaven’s Autumn Rain Falls with a Mournful Cry!”