Chapter Ninety-Five: Discovery

After Lu Shang left, Liu Zong searched the area for quite a while longer. He discovered that this was not the place where he had previously found the amber, and that the Kurast dwarves here had also departed a very long time ago.

In Lena’s words, this section of the swing had gone untouched for nearly a year.

That piece of information gave Liu Zong a thought. Was not nearly a year exactly the amount of time since they had entered this battlefield map?

Judging from the timing, it was clearly the moment when all the Kurast dwarves had retreated to the central region. Then the master of that central region was very likely to be these little creatures indeed.

At that moment, Xu Ying walked over and said, “We found something.”

At once, Liu Zong knew they had reached the key point. He followed Xu Ying swiftly around several towering trees and came to a patch of undergrowth beneath one of them.

Lena had already arrived one step ahead of them. She was looking at a pile of things while flipping through her book.

Liu Zong glanced at what they had found: a sheep’s skull, about the size of a fist, thrust upside down into the ground. Near the skull were various decorations made of leaves, clearly in the Kurast dwarves’ style.

Looking at the sheep skull before her, Lena said with certainty, “This is a door. It is the entrance to the Kurast dwarves’ dwelling. Do not be fooled by how unremarkable it looks, and by the fact that there is no wall. Whenever they enter or leave their camp, they will always go through the door.”

As she spoke, Lena traced her finger through the air above the skull. Her movement was extremely careful, but soon Liu Zong noticed something strange. As she drew with her finger, a glowing door, about half a person tall, actually appeared before everyone.

No further explanation from Lena was needed. Liu Zong and the others immediately understood. This was the door in its true state. Though the Kurast dwarves lived in the woods, they had their own settlement. That was precisely why even if one discovered their tracks, it would not necessarily be possible to wipe them out completely.

For the moment, the door had opened, but it was both too low and too small. Liu Zong and the others could not get inside to see what lay beyond, or whether there were enough clues.

By then Lena had already withdrawn her hand. Without her finger’s influence, the glowing door vanished. She then explained, “This is a Kurast dwarf custom. They like to use the spoils of their ancestors’ battles to decorate the borders of their territory, the gates of their camps, and their burial grounds. Once they settle down, they seek out objects of the same kind to further embellish them. If they leave, they will not take away things that have already been fixed in place; they will only carry off the decorations they have added over the years.”

Lena’s explanation made everything clear. Liu Zong even took out the amber he had found and remained silent.

This was indeed a Kurast dwarf dwelling, but not necessarily the original one. Perhaps it was only one branch of their settlement, and the sheep skulls and amber ornaments here had already passed through generations of changes.

And the amber in Liu Zong’s hand, even if it was not the one originally used to seal the power of the Adara insect hero, was surely related to it. It did not fit entirely with the custom Lena had described.

After pondering for only a moment, Liu Zong said to Lena, “Can you send one of your men in to take a look and see whether anything has been left behind?”

Lena nodded firmly and flipped open her book, searching for a suitable candidate.

Under Lena’s summons, an ordinary-sized hound appeared before them. It looked more like a hunter’s companion, its eyes full of intelligence. After seeing Lena, it did not even need her command; it leaped on its own into the space beyond the glowing door.

Only after the hound jumped through did Lena explain, “This is a starbound hound. It can move freely through any space-time. It has no obvious strengths, and equally no obvious weaknesses. It is not affected by different environments, nor does it possess much combat power. If attacked, it will either return or retreat on its own. It is usually a summoned creature used for scouting and mapping.”

While she was speaking, the starbound hound actually jumped back out through the glowing door. Before Lena could even ask anything, it spat out a crystal and vanished before everyone’s eyes.

Lena picked up the crystal, still wet with saliva. With a grasp of her left hand, a mass of white light was poured into the crystal, and the situation beyond the door was revealed before them.

It was a small clearing, with countless treehouses built upon the open ground. These treehouses looked somewhat like those of the fishmen, but were clearly much smaller. Even with the Kurast dwarves’ stature, each treehouse could house at most three to five people.

Between the treehouses hung numerous skulls from vines. Most were locust skulls, with a few beast skulls as well. As for sheep skulls and amber, there was not a trace of either here.

In the center of the clearing, among all the treehouses, a fire pit that had long since gone cold still remained in place. Liu Zong and the others noticed several signs that objects had been removed from beside the fire. Judging by the size of those missing items, they should have been sheep heads.

“The sheep skulls are the power of the Karia demon, and the amber is the power of the Adara insect men. These two things are their foundation. That is why they take everything with them when they leave. The piece you found may have been accidentally lost for some reason. I just do not know why it appeared in the underworld.”

After hearing this, Liu Zong nodded, then immediately shook his head and said, somewhat uncertainly, “Lena, can you find their burial grounds and graveyards?”

Lena froze for a moment, then said somewhat helplessly, “Although we were taught from childhood that this is not a game, do you believe that?”

Liu Zong gave a blank sound of surprise, not understanding why she would ask that.

“We are in a game right now. Although every race has its own character and so on, everything is governed by the rules of the game. Burial ground and graveyard are actually interchangeable. If you want to find a burial ground or a graveyard, you do not need to go through me.”

Liu Zong was just about to say something when a thought suddenly struck him. His gaze turned in one direction, where the nearest small graveyard lay.

He seemed to recall the style of that little graveyard. Aside from the strong influence of the Adara insect men, it also seemed to carry a touch of the Kurast dwarves’ style. Liu Zong clearly remembered that within the graveyard there was one mound without a name.

Before that grave, only a single crude branch had been planted. Hanging from it was a sheep skull, and in the eye sockets there were still traces left behind by amber.

At first, Liu Zong had thought this was the grave of some Adara insect man who had died in battle against a Karia demon, erected by his comrades after his death. Now that he thought about it, it should have been the entrance to the nearby Kurast dwarves’ graveyard. Even the great grave master himself had no idea that a piece of his territory had been quietly carved away by someone else.