Vivian had always evaluated the history passed down by short-lived species from the perspective of a long-lived species. These evaluations were always profound and accurate. When looking back at the story of the witch in the Andrea Family, the truth of the family legend had such a huge distortion in just 300 years. One could only imagine the historical record of the Plane of Dreams for the past 10,000 years—there were several twists and interruptions in the middle. Therefore, it was understandable that there were so many errors in the legends, which had been circulating until the present.
At this point, even the long-lived species in the Plane of Dreams had no idea what the truth was.
People always thought it was the study of taboo technology by the Ancient Magical Empire that offended the goddess, and the artificial miracles built by the mage-emperors were a sign of blasphemy. The three wonders, including the Volcano of Dusk had long been seen as an indication of heresy. But, who would have thought that these things were actually used to suppress the First Borns?
Nonetheless, the effect of the suppression was quite limited.
At the foot of the Volcano of Dusk was a vast wilderness. It was paved with layers of huge black rocks, which stretched to the eastern coastline. On a small mound in the midst of the wilderness and Limestone Fortress stood an ancient monastery. It appeared to be almost abandoned.
It was one of the last monasteries belonging to the Disciples of Glory on the eastern side of the kingdom. There were only a few old ascetics inside.
The mottled walls of the monastery were covered in thistles and thorns. The monastery was surrounded by pieces of stones and sparse salt-tolerant bushes. From the outside, probably no one could imagine that this was the second sacred cavern, the Church of the Watch. They did not delay any longer in Limestone Fortress. After a simple conversation with the guards, Ophra led them directly to the shabby monastery. The entrance to the sacred cave was just below the monastery.
Lily looked at the dilapidated the ancient monastery with a certain kind of feeling. "This place is really shabby... A fortress, and an old monastery, could they really protect such an important place?"
"Don't underestimate these ancient facilities," Orben said and shook his head. "The three ancient ruins have a corresponding sacred cavern; the chapel in Beinz Blood Lake, the old monastery of the Volcano of Dusk, and the chapel of the Giant Tree of Life. These three facilities are the oldest and most powerful of the divine nodes. The network of churches in the entire kingdom are providing energy to these three nodes. Although they look dilapidated, even an army can hardly break through their defenses."
"The chapel in Beinz Blood Lake was ruined in just a moment. After our investigation, we found that the First Born had completely cut off the divine operation of the chapel," Ophra shrugged and said, "It turns out that the First Born's power is far beyond our understanding. Even the Ancient Magic Empire couldn't fight it. Our present system is even more useless."
Orben shook his head and did not speak again. The ascetics of the small monastery opened the entrance that led underground. The entrance was located in the backyard of the monastery. From the outside, it was just a big, ordinary tombstone. Hao Ren guessed that the chapel in Beinz Blood Lake also had such an entrance to the Divine Sarcophagus. However, before he could find the entrance, the whole chapel had been engulfed in the whirlpool.
The three sacred caverns had the same structure. The First Born slept in a huge underground cave surrounded by a maze-like cavern system. Above this system, there was a layer of man-made rock shells (the builders were those ancient mage-emperors), which supported the upper surface. Just right above the system, a chapel was built (the creator was the first pope of the Disciples of Glory). Under the chapel, there was a security device that constantly "hypnotized" the First Born. It was the Divine Sarcophagus.
The whole structure was like nailing a silver nail into a coffin to prevent the evil spirit from being resurrected. The world had been under the protection of this fragile safety device for 10,000 years.
They walked down a steep rock corridor and finally got undergroud. It was a medium-sized underground palace; very spacious, but the structure was simple. There were no decorations, just a plain practical facility.
Hao Ren walked behind Orben. When he came out of the corridor, he saw a spacious hall illuminated by a magical glowing stone. A stone altar was placed in the center of the hall. The stone altar was empty, but the slight sunken surface in its center seemed to prove that something had been placed there. And around the hall, there were many gray-robed ascetics who were meditating.
"This is the group of ascetics sent from the capital," Ophra explained in a low voice. "The Church and the king sent a lot of men to monitor the movement of the two sacred caverns. But because the minds of ordinary people would be controlled if they got too close to the tentacles, most of them can only stay in Limestone Fortress. Only these ascetics and a few high-ranking knights have entered the ground. Those knights are in the other crypts."
Hao Ren nodded. He knew that the First Born's sleeping place was like a huge underground maze. There would be numerous criss-crossing corridors and huge crypts around. The knights and ascetics from the capital had probably gone to every crypt, while the ascetics there were most likely responsible for guarding the entrance.
There was no change in the surface of the Volcano of Dusk, but layers of defense had been set up under it. Nevertheless, it only worked as psychological comfort.
Orben pointed at the stone altar in the center of the long hall and said, "This was used to place the Divine Sarcophagus, but after opening a layer of the sacred cavern, we moved the Divine Sarcophagus to a deeper place."
Then, he led them across the hall and into another, more downward-inclined corridor. Soon, everyone was walking through a stone wall, which looked like it had just been broken. The road ahead suddenly broadened.
"We have just passed the outer wall of the underground palace. We just broke it last month." Another bishop looked back at the black stone wall engraved with Letta runes and said, "From here on out, we have entered the First Born's sphere of influence."
Several ministers in the team immediately clenched the magic amulet in their hands. They were just ordinary men. They did not have the strong mind of the ascetics or the strong will of the knights. For the sake of the mission, they entered the First Born's territory and relied on the blessed amulet to move freely in the underground world.
"It's getting hot now," said Nangong Wuyue. She was the first one to sense the subtle change in their surroundings. "And, the air smell like… sulfur?"
"We are now under the Volcano of Dusk," Ophra explained with a smile. "The werewolf mage-emperor, Sanur created the world's largest and most complex underground lava river under the volcano. So, there is some heat and gas seeping through the cracks in the rocks. But don't worry, we have confirmed that there is no leakage."
Nangong Wuyue protected herself with a layer of mist and grumbled, "Tsk... Why so I always encounter such things. I'm starting to lose my scales."
Hao Ren was speechless.
They walked all the way down the underpass, and the farther they went, the broader it became. They passed a few forks and some spacious stone chambers. Just as Hao Ren expected, there were three to five high-ranking knights or ascetics stationed at each fork and stone chamber. They built simple and crude camps as well as defense lines underground, monitoring any movement or sound in the maze of corridors.
At the same time, Hao Ren finally saw what he wanted to see: the First Born's tentacles began to appear on the surrounding walls.
When Orben saw the huge, winding tentacles, his face finally lost its stone-like calm, and his poker face even twitched a little. As a cardinal, not only did he have a strong and firm mind, he was very sensitive to the lifeblood and Power of Origins. Hence, he could feel the powerful force and crazy thoughts in these tentacles more clearly than others. He explained to them, "These are the outer tentacles, and only a few of them have the ability to interfere with the mind. You won't be affected if you avoid them, so it's safe here. But as we go further we will enter—"
"We'll enter the First Born's key 'organ'. I know, we've gone in there before," Hao Ren said and nodded. "These tunnels should still be in the outer layer of the cavern. You've opened the outer crust of the inner zone?"
"Right in front, but it was not opened by us." Orben nodded and led them to a fork in the road. "It took us 10 days to find the weak spot of the barrier left by the ancient mage-emperor in the tunnel. Plus, it made us uneasy as we found a hole in it. Some of the First Born's tentacles had spread out of that hole."
Ten minutes later, the team came to the "barrier entrance". This was a huge round cavern. The walls around the cavern were covered with ancient and sacred writings. These were the seals and messages left by the first pope. Hundreds of ascetics and knights built forts as well as defense lines in the cave, closely monitoring the tentacles that had spread from the west side of the cavern. Hao Ren saw the tentacles coming out of a huge rift, rather than "penetrating" from the cracks like elsewhere. This indicated that the tentacles were using a more violent approach to break through the barrier, consciously expanding their access.
Despite that, it looked like this was just a short period of "false awakening". Now, the tentacles were asleep again. Judging from the traces around the tentacles, their last "convulsions" had to be many years ago.
"This is disturbing. How many things have happened underneath that we're not aware of?" said Ophra.
Hao Ren approached the tentacles gingerly. After confirming that the tentacles were unresponsive, he stepped on them and climbed along the tentacles to the hole on the wall to see the situation on the other side.
The other side was the chamber where the First Born was sleeping. He saw a huge stone chamber filled with ominous red light. Countless tentacles converged from all directions to form an organ that looked like a twisted tumor. The organ was dormant and its faint red light was flickering at a very slow rate.
"The good news is that it's sleeping very well. The bad news is, this 'tumor' looks bigger than the one in Dragonspine Ridge." Hao Ren jumped back to the ground and asked, "Where's the Divine Sarcophagus? I want to analyze how it works."
Orben pointed to a small stone house in the center of the garrison, and said, "Right there."