Chapter 130: The Ruins

It felt as if all his organs were about to burst out of his mouth, with Xeila’s body inflicting a second wave of pain before the first had even subsided.

Her leg, however, crashed heavily to the ground, snapping in two. Sacker cried out in shock, but Nina was quicker, reaching them first to press a light orb into Xeila’s body.

Xeila finally let out a moan, showing signs of a normal human reaction. Sacker, at a loss over her injured leg, watched as Nina quickly realigned it before she could react. Then, releasing the silver light of the moon once more, the orb fused into the break in her leg. In just a few seconds, the leg was as good as new, and with that, the silver moonlight around Nina flashed one last time before completely vanishing.

They were plunged into total darkness.

‘That was close,’ Wu Qingsong thought to himself as pain sapped all his strength, leaving him to just sprawl out and lie on the ground.

“Wu?” Ling’s voice called out.

“I’m okay.”

In the pitch black, Xeila seemed to realize something, hastily crawling off him, while Ling also found her way to his side.

“Just now…” Xeila’s voice was low, lacking her previous indifference and detachment.

“No need to apologize or thank me,” Wu Qingsong said. “Just let me rest for a while.”

Ling sat down, allowing Wu Qingsong to rest his head on her lap, which significantly lightened his spirits.

Sacker fumbled to light a torch in the darkness, finally bringing light back to their group. He profusely thanked Wu Qingsong and Nina. Xeila first expressed her gratitude to Nina, then approached Wu Qingsong after Sacker had moved away, quietly offering her apologies.

“I understand you weren’t targeting me specifically,” Wu Qingsong responded. “Let’s move past it.”

“But…” Xeila hesitated, shaking her head. “I don’t like being in debt. I will make sure to repay this favor.”

“In that case, you can kill someone for me someday,” Wu Qingsong said in jest.

“Agreed,” Xeila responded earnestly.

Though the immediate danger had passed, the underlying issue remained unresolved. Luckily, Ling’s powers were still active. Under Wu Qingsong’s guidance, she fashioned the silver substance into a rapidly spinning drill bit, beginning to carve footholds and handholds into a pillar.

These massive stones were presumably tough sandstone and granite. Carving these notches with just swords and knives would have taken ages, but the method Wu Qingsong instructed Ling to use accomplished this nearly impossible task with remarkable efficiency.

“Thank god you didn’t also cut the rope here,” Wu Qingsong joked, but Xeila just lowered her head, silent.

Exhausted, the group trudged back to camp. The somber task of informing the others about the death of their two companions naturally fell to Nina and Sacker. All Wu Qingsong wanted was to drink water, eat something, and then fall asleep.

But Nina quickly spotted a problem.

“Where are those two badgermen?” she asked Sacker.

Sacker’s expression turned slightly awkward, “Right, where are they? Saeed, what happened?”

The catman stood, “Sir, I killed them.”

“What did you say!” Nina and Wu Qingsong exclaimed in unison.

“They were no longer of any use. Letting them leave was out of the question, keeping them was a waste of water and food, plus we had to keep an eye on them, so I took it upon myself to kill them on their way back,” the catman, perhaps perceiving the shift in relationships among Sacker, Xeila, and others, spoke respectfully yet with a nonchalant air. “Lord Hangman, I understand you had promised their safety, but these people were completely untrustworthy. Letting them go, they wouldn’t keep our secret. To keep this secret, this was our only option.”

Wu Qingsong glared at him in anger, but it was apparent the catman didn’t think he had done anything wrong, even seeming to find Wu Qingsong’s reaction ridiculous.

“Tagraedi, with things as they stand, there’s no way to bring them back,” Sacker quickly stepped in. “I’ll take the blame for this, it was my mistake for not making things clear. Saeed is a longstanding subordinate of mine, and he meant well, albeit misguided in his actions. Please, as a favor to me, let’s consider this another debt I owe you and agree to move past this incident, alright?”

Wu Qingsong struggled to quell his anger. Perhaps they had once killed the owner of the Moroto Mine to protect a secret, but that half-elf was hardly a saint, with countless slaves’ deaths on his hands, whereas these two badgermen had committed no wrongs. They weren’t even privy to their secret, much less their true identities.

Leaving aside the question of whether those who wished to leave halfway would even dare to return, as they said, finding this site again in such a desert would be nearly impossible even if they tried.

To kill them just for being an inconvenience or to save on provisions?

He could not accept such actions.

This caused the developing bond that had been forming between them to freeze over once again, making it clear to Wu Qingsong that he could never truly be allies with these desert thieves.

The expedition pressed on the next day, this time without the subordinates who had proven almost useless in such an environment.

“Nina?”

The Moon Maiden gave a soft nod.

Her power was awakened once more, with the silver moonlight once again illuminating the entire area. Leading the charge, they ventured back into the depths of the underground temple.

They were met with a lengthy subterranean corridor, though considerably less tall than the temple above, standing at just under five meters high. Yet, the engravings and sculptures adorning the walls were even more exquisite and complex. The Batiz people had invested efforts in this place that rivaled those bestowed upon the temple above.

Lining both sides were numerous chambers, around thirty to forty, which seemed to be tombs intended for important figures. However, almost all were empty, leaving only empty sarcophagi. The beautifully carved stone lids, which should depict the visages of the deceased, were either carelessly tossed aside or outright shattered. The sarcophagi themselves were empty, devoid of any contents.

Here and there, jewels were strewn about the floor, evidently not magical in nature. At first, they gathered these gems, but their interest dwindled as they pressed on, opting instead to continue their advance.

At last, they arrived at the end of the underground palace.

They found themselves before a room of such magnitude it could be deemed colossal for being underground.

In the corridor in front of the room, there was a huge circular pit, and the surrounding walls were covered with holes as thick as fingers, created by something unknown.

A collapsed wall exposed the hollow sarcophagi within, their stones scattered across a considerable distance from this spot.

Many pillars were shattered, with half of the room collapsed, allowing a lot of mud and sand to spill in, obscuring much of the area. The ground and walls were marred by enormous cracks as if struck by a formidable force.

Scattered across the floor were bone fragments and ashes, bearing clear signs of exposure to intense heat. A massive slash on one wall, and similarly deep and wide grooves on the ceiling, instantly reminded Wu Qingsong of Marquis Osaga’s explosive attack against the antpeople.

“This must have been where the final battle took place,” Nina observed. “After killing the guardians, maybe the elves took all the dead and their burial goods away.”

Sacker pounded the wall in a mix of anger and frustration. Torn between the sight of his ancestors’ battlefield defeat and the inability to accept that after all the resources expended, it might all amount to naught.

Wu Qingsong, too, found this hard to stomach. Collecting the scattered jewels on the ground would surely yield a substantial treasure, perhaps even an unfathomable fortune, but that wasn’t his mission here.

No treasure could replace power, for in this world, power was everything.

“Let’s search further,” he proposed.