Earth Dissolving Cave

Plague Rat's eyes widened as he listened.

"That's it?"

Jing Hui nodded. "That was it."

"Then, he really didn't fight for it."

"He gave the Golden Buddha to me and just stood to the side, watching."

"He watched from beginning to end, without moving an inch."

Chen Zhou raised an eyebrow. "You didn't find that strange?"

Jing Hui gave a bitter smile. "Of course I found it strange."

"I thought at the time that this person must have another purpose."

"Hiding in Tianchi Province for ten thousand years without even me, the provincial lord, noticing... how could he just be there to watch the fun?"

"But I had no choice."

His voice grew low.

"The situation in Tianchi Province was already terrible back then."

"The plague was rampant, the people were suffering, and I was being tormented by death qi to the point where I could barely hold on."

"The purification ability of the Golden Buddha was too great a temptation for me."

"Even knowing it was a trap, I had no choice."

"I could only grit my teeth and jump in."

"By taking a gamble, there might have been a slim chance of survival."

Chen Zhou nodded and looked at Plague Rat.

"You lived in Tianchi Province for three hundred years. Have you never heard of someone named Wan Xiu?"

Plague Rat shook his head.

"Nope."

"I was born in the Earth Dissolving Cave. I never saw my parents growing up."

"Everyone says Tianchi Province looks like this hellhole because of some old beast named Jing Hui from a thousand years ago."

Plague Rat glanced at Jing Hui before adding.

"No one ever mentioned a thing called Wan Xiu."

Chen Zhou asked, "What happened later?"

Plague Rat thought for a moment.

"Later, I went to the ruins of the royal city."

"That place was later occupied by the Plague-Eating Stove and became its nest."

Plague Rat curled his lip.

"Based on what I know about that filthy thing, it definitely didn't know about Wan Xiu's existence either."

"If it knew there was a more terrifying existence in Tianchi Province that could take down Jing Hui, it wouldn't have dared to build a nest in the royal city and spread human-face sores everywhere even if you killed it."

Chen Zhou nodded.

In that case, this creation of Qing Lu had gone back into hiding after Jing Hui died.

Why?

Tianchi Province was essentially already in his pocket.

According to Jing Hui's description, there was nothing left that could threaten him.

Yet he remained so low-profile.

Chen Zhou looked toward the horizon.

The gray-green clouds hung low, obscuring the sun and the distance.

If he wasn't wary of something, then perhaps he was seeking something.

The group of false gods in the Central Province wouldn't do something without a reason.

Out of all the places in the outer provinces, they chose Tianchi Province to place their creation and hid it for ten thousand years.

There had to be a reason.

As they walked, Chen Zhou voiced his thoughts.

After hearing them, Jing Hui remained silent for a while.

"What the Lord says makes sense."

"But as a former lord of the province, I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable about Tianchi Province."

"This land, riddled with plague, can be considered barren."

"It is far inferior to Gloomlight Province."

"Natural treasures struggle to grow here, let alone anything truly good."

Chen Zhou shook his head.

"There definitely is something."

"You just don't know about it."

Plague Rat patted Jing Hui on the shoulder.

"Old man, don't worry."

"If the Lord says it exists, then it definitely exists."

"All land under heaven belongs to the King, and all people within its borders are his subjects."

"The good things in Tianchi Province naturally belong to our City of the Wrongfully Dead."

He puffed out his chest with a look of pride.

"You don't need to worry too much. If we want to truly liberate the hundred corpse patchwork, we have to find the root cause behind it."

"We'll kill two birds with one stone."

"Isn't that exactly why we came back?"

Jing Hui looked at him. No expression could be seen on his paper face.

But Plague Rat felt as though the old man had just smiled.

The group continued north.

After traveling about three hundred miles, Plague Rat suddenly stopped.

"We're here."

Chen Zhou looked up.

Ahead was a wasteland no different from the one they had been walking on—gray-green earth covered in giant sores.

The only difference was a massive crack in the ground.

The crack was dozens of yards wide, stretching from east to west until it vanished from sight.

The edges were curled back as if torn open from the inside by something. The depths of the crack were pitch black, and the bottom was invisible.

Plague Rat walked to the edge of the crack and peered down.

"Lord, the Earth Dissolving Cave is down there."

"It's one of the few places in Tianchi Province where people can still live."

He took a deep breath, smelling the scent wafting from the crack, a nostalgic expression appearing on his face.

"This smell is still as pungent as ever."

"I smelled it for three hundred years and got used to it. Now, it actually smells quite familiar."

Chen Zhou also looked down.

It was pitch black, and nothing could be seen, but he could feel that there were things down there—many, many things.

Plague Rat rubbed his hands together.

"Lord, should I go down first to clear the way?"

Chen Zhou nodded.

Plague Rat leaped into the crack.

A moment later, his voice drifted up from below.

"Come on down! It's safe!"

Chen Zhou looked at Wu Gou.

Wu Gou sighed.

"Fine, I knew a great Buddha like you wouldn't crawl through a rat hole."

He summoned Diting.

The giant meat worm burrowed out of the ground, its paper shell still intact, making it look like a massive paper cocoon.

Wu Gou patted its head.

"Sweetheart, I'll have to trouble you."

"You don't need to cross realms, just burrow through the ground."

"This should be quite easy for you."

Diting wiggled its body and opened its mouth, spitting out yellow bubbles that enveloped everyone.

Then Diting swallowed the bubbles in one gulp and dived into the earth.

It was pitch black underground. Since Diting had no eyes to begin with, it wasn't affected much.

The surrounding soil was gray-green and appeared toxic.

However, Plague Rat was clearing the way ahead. His plague Ghost Domain expanded, isolating all the toxins in the soil and allowing Diting to follow behind him without obstruction.

After about fifteen minutes, the surroundings suddenly opened up.

Diting stopped and opened its mouth, spitting out the bubbles from its stomach.

The bubbles popped, and Chen Zhou's feet touched the ground.

This was a massive underground space. Above them was a thick layer of rock, and the sky was nowhere to be seen. The surrounding stone walls were filled with holes of various sizes, looking somewhat like a honeycomb.

The ground was hard rock, its surface covered in a layer of gray-green moss.

The moss emitted a faint glow, illuminating the entire space with an eerie light.

The air was thick with a strange scent.

It was rotten and moldy, with a faint, lingering smell of blood.

Faint, indistinct clamoring could be heard in the distance.

Plague Rat ran back from the front, looking excited.

"Lord, we're here, we're here! This was my old home!"

He spread his arms and took a deep breath.

"Lord Rat has returned!"

Chen Zhou nodded and gestured for him to lead the way.

Plague Rat ran forward eagerly.

The group followed him through a narrow passage, and their vision suddenly opened up to reveal an even larger cavern.

It was as large as a dozen football fields.

Countless stalactites hung from the ceiling, dripping water that gathered into small puddles on the ground.