Chapter 21 : Chapter 21
Chapter 21: Underground Palace
The underground cavern beneath the collapsed Unit 1 building.
It was hot and humid.
The three moved forward in a triangular formation, cautiously probing deeper underground.
Before long, they finally reached the bottom.
The light down there was extremely dim, and the wreckage of the collapsed building obstructed their view.
“That Rat King is really clever. It actually pulled a feint on us.”
Zhou Hong’s surprise was understandable. It was common knowledge among cultivators that humans excelled in intellect while demons excelled in strength.
But this was the first time he had ever seen a Demon Beast whose intelligence was in no way inferior to a human’s.
“What do we do now? We can’t possibly smash apart all the rubble around us, can we?”
Chen Qing swept his flashlight around, but found no trace of any tunnel.
“No. This cave should have been designed by the Rat King.”
“I already thought something was strange. If a cave this large collapsed, the affected area definitely wouldn’t be limited to just this one building.”
“But in reality, the entire Unit 1 building collapsed straight downward.”
“Even if we smash through the first layer, the rubble from the second layer will cave in on top of it. If that happens, all our earlier effort will go to waste.”
Lu Zhan casually rejected Chen Qing’s suggestion.
“The Rat King is really that intelligent? That’s smarter than a lot of people, isn’t it?”
Zhou Hong found it hard to believe.
The first realm of Demon Beast cultivation was the stage of awakening intelligence, while the third was the shape-shifting realm.
He found it hard to imagine just how terrifying and troublesome a Demon Beast at the shape-shifting realm would be.
A chill ran through everyone’s hearts.
Lu Zhan merely sneered.
“Intelligent? Well, I suppose it’s a little smarter than Wang Meng and his muscle-filled brain.”
Wang Meng?
Who was that?
Chen Qing and the others exchanged looks and shook their heads.
“He should be the person in charge of the jurisdiction over Mengren Street. I heard he has an older brother named Wang Lie. But I also heard that yesterday, some fierce newcomer... dealt with him.”
Zhou Hong’s voice grew softer and softer, and his pupils dilated as he quickly realized something.
“Damn! Brother Lu, that newcomer who dealt with him... that wasn’t you, was it?”
Lu Zhan shrugged, unconcerned.
“He wanted to lecture me about rules. I had no choice but to wake him up with two punches.”
Two punches?
Wang Lie’s miserable state had been nothing like the casual way Brother Lu described it. Even so, Zhou Hong still raised a thumb and exclaimed in admiration,
“Impressive!”
Chen Qing could not help joining in.
“I think Wang Meng should just rename himself Brute. He actually dared provoke Brother Lu.”
“That makes sense!”
The group searched through the rubble for the opening the Rat King had left behind.
It was no easy task.
Suddenly, Lu Zhan spoke.
“Found it.”
Zhou Hong and the others were a little stunned.
“Brother Lu, how did you find the tunnel the Rat King left behind?”
Could it be that Brother Lu was the kind of person for whom heaven opened not only a window, but a door as well?
Lu Zhan did not answer. He simply slashed three times in quick succession to the left.
Saber qi shot out and swept everything in its path.
Very quickly, a passage wide enough for one person to pass through took shape.
Foul-smelling gusts laced with a fishy stench blew through the passage and rushed at them.
Seeing this, Zhou Hong slapped the back of his head in sudden realization.
“The wind!”
Lu Zhan nodded.
“That’s right. The wind. That Rat King is a little clever, but not clever enough.”
Zhou Hong and the others were embarrassed.
Brother Lu really was quick-witted. Given enough time, Zhou Hong might have thought of the same method himself, but his reaction speed was nowhere near Lu Zhan’s.
“Let’s go!”
The six of them entered the tunnel one after another.
The tunnel was not wide, barely enough for two people to walk abreast.
After walking for half an hour, the stench of rotting corpses grew stronger and stronger.
Jingle, jingle, jingle!
The bronze bell at their waists finally rang.
“Hmph. Looks like Brother Lu’s slash injured the Rat King badly. It can’t even conceal its aura anymore.”
Zhou Hong sneered.
“Be careful. I have a feeling this isn’t going to be so simple.”
Tao Xiao’an felt uneasy.
“No. The Demon Aura seems even denser than before.”
Lu Zhan sprinted toward the depths of the tunnel. Along the way, they could still see many thick tree roots crisscrossing in every direction.
After Lu Zhan and the others advanced another few dozen meters, the narrow tunnel suddenly widened.
An empty palace appeared before them, and directly ahead stood a staircase leading up to a throne.
The throne, however, had been piled together from bone after bone.
Beside it stood a stone statue carved from obsidian, more than three meters tall.
Yet the statue looked extremely strange.
It looked as though it belonged at a gathering of some evil cult.
“You have to admit, this Rat King really knows how to enjoy itself. It even made the place look pretty convincing.”
Zhou Hong shone his flashlight around as he looked about, offering the comment casually.
But Chen Qing’s expression at the side was all wrong; his face had turned exceptionally ugly.
“Damn it all, that Rat King really deserves to die! It actually dug a palace this huge in my jurisdiction without making a sound. Isn’t this basically slapping me in the face?”
It was fortunate they had discovered it early. If they had waited until the Rat Tide had fully taken shape, it would have been a disaster for all of Linhai City.
In Great Xia, some creatures were individually pathetically weak, but once they formed a tide disaster, they became terrifying.
“No, wait. We just walked quite a long way. Judging from the distance and direction, this place should be... within the bounds of Peach Blossom Alley.”
As he spoke, Zhou Hong’s voice grew lower and lower.
A single phrase sprang into everyone’s mind.
Outrageously audacious!
Sure enough, a trace of frost appeared on Lu Zhan’s face.
Zhou Hong hurried to remedy it.
“Brother Lu... today’s only your first day on the job. This kind of thing happening isn’t your fault.”
Chen Qing immediately changed the subject.
“Brother Lu, where do you think that Rat King is hiding?”
The bronze bell at their waists rang incessantly, yet even after looking around the entire underground palace, they still could not find any trace of it.
[Detected an enemy nearby releasing killing intent toward the host. Scanning information...]
[Scan successful]
[Lifeform: Rat King]
[Realm: Qi-Gathering Demon Acolyte (Third Heaven)]
Lu Zhan smiled coldly, his hand unconsciously resting on the Longevity Saber.
“Still trying to hide?”
The throne in the main hall rotated, and in the next instant, a figure appeared on it from nowhere.
At the same time, a light flared within the dim underground cavern, and at once everyone’s field of vision broadened considerably.
“Humans, welcome to this king’s palace.”
The Rat King sat upright on the throne, wearing an expression of lofty superiority.
And at some unknown point, the injuries on its body had actually healed completely.
“Trying to be clever!”
Lu Zhan snorted coldly.
“You think healing your injuries means you can beat me now?”
Lu Zhan was utterly disdainful.
To be honest, he truly did not regard the Rat King as a serious threat.
Now that the Rat Tide had already been cleared out, the Rat King’s danger had dropped sharply.
Hearing this, the Rat King on the throne actually showed a very human fury.
“What shameless boasting!”
“Human, in a moment, this king will chew your bones to pieces, one bite at a time.”
In the next instant, it produced a peach from somewhere and swallowed it in one gulp.
Its aura surged at once.
Zhou Hong’s expression changed drastically.
“This is bad! Stop it now! It wants to break through to the middle stage of the Demon Acolyte realm.”
The Rat King laughed triumphantly.
“Hahaha, too late.”
“Today, all of you will become this king’s food!”
In the next instant, Lu Zhan charged straight forward.
“To tell you the truth, I’ve wanted to butcher you since just now. ‘This king, this king’ over and over—do you not know the damned Qing dynasty died long ago?”