The heartbeat at the cave entrance grew louder and louder.
The sound was muffled and rhythmic, like the beating heart of some massive creature; every pulse caused the ground beneath their feet to tremble slightly.
Lu Yuan stood at the entrance, staring into the darkness ahead.
Rusted iron rails extended from deep within the mine, clearly unused for a very long time.
Large sections of the wooden support structures had rotted away, covered in tentacles of varying thickness that spread across the rock walls like veins.
The sunlight from outside could only penetrate a few meters.
Beyond that lay absolute darkness.
The air was damp, heavy with a scent that mixed rot with the brine of the sea.
"Light them up," Marcus ordered.
A Descendant took an alchemical lamp from his robe and twisted the valve; a ghostly blue flame flared to life, illuminating the area for a dozen meters ahead.
Wherever the light reached, the tentacles seemed startled, slowly writhing as they retreated into the depths of the darkness.
They appeared to be avoiding the light source, but it felt more like they were stepping aside to allow the guests at the entrance to enter.
"I'll go first."
Marcus did not care about such things at all as he took the lead into the cave.
Red light flickered within his mechanical eyes, and the sound of rotating gears was exceptionally clear in the silence; steam hissed from the gaps in his body, condensing into a white mist at the entrance.
The Descendants followed close behind, their black robes silent and their crow-beak masks glinting coldly in the blue firelight.
The Arbiter had officially activated, the joints of its armor shimmering with a faint light as it carried its heavy frame forward.
Philip pressed the holy emblem on his chest and recited a prayer in a low voice; a pale golden light covered him, forming a faint barrier, with two deacons following him while holding holy water, their expressions solemn.
Alice gripped her warhammer and moved to Lu Yuan's side, her eyes alertly scanning the surroundings.
"Are you two done talking? If so, stay close to me," Alice said in a low voice.
"If things go wrong later, remember not to look back—just retreat immediately. I might not be able to look after you, but with Timekeeper, you should have no problem protecting yourself."
Lu Yuan nodded, his hand already reaching for Timekeeper in his coat.
Gray silently moved to Lu Yuan's side, his hand resting on the palm-sized dagger at his waist, while Ed and Leonard walked on the flanks of the team, wary of any potential threats.
【Environmental Perception: High-scale pollution source detected. Continued advancement will lead to Sanity damage...】
As the greyish-white text surfaced before his eyes, Lu Yuan's brow furrowed slightly.
This time, the prompt did not say Sanity would decrease, but rather that it would be damaged; it seemed they were nearing the source of the Strange Dreams.
The team advanced along the rails; this was indeed a mine shaft.
Or rather, it used to be.
A few pieces of ore were scattered across the walls of the cave.
That familiar Deep Blue glowed with a ghostly shimmer under the light of the alchemical lamps, looking like a cluster of twinkling stars.
Lu Yuan recognized this ore—the Deep Blue brought back by the Iron Whale was a secretion of some Eerie, but looking at it now, 'It' might have already transcended the level of the Eerie...
And now, they were walking through a passage formed by 'Its' secretions.
"Continue."
Marcus's voice came from the front.
The team did not stop.
After descending several hundred meters further into the mine, the ore on the surrounding rock walls began to increase.
From the initial scattered pieces, they grew into clusters of three to five, and then into dense, crowded patches.
Under the reflection of the ghostly blue flames, they looked like a continuous starry sky.
The blue light grew brighter and brighter, eventually becoming almost dazzling.
"Extinguish the lamps," Marcus ordered upon seeing this.
The Descendant put away the alchemical lamp, but the light in the mine did not dim; instead, everything became even clearer.
The blue light emitted by the ore enveloped everything, dyeing everyone's faces in an eerie hue.
Half of Marcus's mechanical face glinted coldly in the blue light, while his human eye shimmered with an indescribable brilliance.
Was it greed? Or was it fanaticism?
Lu Yuan could not see through Marcus's intentions, nor did he know what the Ascension Society's goal was in going to such great lengths.
But it definitely had something to do with the source of the Strange Dreams.
As they delved deeper, the tentacles hidden beneath the rock walls also became thicker.
From the initial thickness of a finger, they were now as thick as an adult's arm.
They crept out from the cracks in the ore, clinging to the walls and extending further into the depths like the blood vessels of some gargantuan organism; some tentacles were even interwoven with the ore, making it impossible to tell what was hidden within the cave.
The heartbeat grew even louder.
It wasn't just a sound.
Lu Yuan could feel the clear vibrations beneath his feet.
With every "thump," the ground would tremble slightly, as if the entire mine shaft was breathing in time with that rhythm.
No.
It wasn't just 'as if.'
It really was breathing.
This mine shaft was alive.
【Sanity: -1... -1... 58/70】
As the amount of Deep Blue increased, his Sanity dropped even faster, with dense greyish-white warning text constantly surfacing.
Lu Yuan took a deep breath, suppressing the unease in his heart and ignoring the text.
Furthermore, his headache had returned, and images from the Strange Dreams flashed through his mind, forcing him to drink another bottle of intermediate holy water.
【Sanity: +7... 65/70】
A sense of clarity washed over his heart, and Lu Yuan finally felt a bit better.
"The reserves far exceed expectations," Marcus's voice suddenly rang out.
Lu Yuan looked up and saw Marcus had stopped ahead, the red light in his mechanical eye flickering wildly.
On that half of his face that was still human, a hint of irrepressible excitement surfaced.
"It seems the intelligence was accurate," Marcus said in a low voice, his tone trembling with suppressed emotion.
Alice's brow furrowed, her voice heavy. "Something is very wrong here."
"From the moment we entered until now, my sixth sense hasn't stopped screaming," Alice said, pausing as she looked at the glowing Deep Blue around them. "Danger. It's everywhere."
Philip, positioned at the very rear, had been silent, his hand pressed against his holy emblem and his lips moving slightly.
Only then did he speak:
"The Angel's gaze... still cannot reach this place."
His voice was calm, but Lu Yuan could hear the gravity within it.
As a priest of the Church, Philip shared some connection with the Angel.
But here, that connection seemed to have been severed.
A place where even the Angel could not peer into.
Just what was hidden here?
Yet Marcus, leading the way, did not stop, and none of the others had any intention of turning back; everyone here had already made their final mental preparations on the Abyssal Hunter.
The team continued to delve deeper—three hundred meters, four hundred meters—they lost track of how long they had been advancing through this dreamlike and grotesque place as discomfort began to set in for everyone; during this time, the Church deacons even consumed two bottles of holy water.
Finally, the mine shaft began to widen.
From initially only being wide enough for three or four people to walk abreast, it now allowed the Arbiter to pass through without any obstruction.
Further ahead, the space continued to expand.
Lu Yuan looked up; the ceiling had vanished.
Above them was only endless darkness that the blue light could not reach, as if it were an entrance to the void.
The ground beneath their feet had also changed; it was no longer rough rock but was instead completely covered by ore, and a faint pulsation could be felt when stepping on it.
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