The two of them had just entered the fourth layer when Bran suddenly heard Qian softly say, "Lord."
"What is it?"
"Let try going down." The girl's voice was almost inaudible.
Bran looked down and found that the divine envoy's constitution was indeed remarkable. Although she had lost her strength, her body's ability to recover was much better than the average person's. Bran saw that the wound on Qian's thigh had already stopped bleeding and had scabbed over.
He hesitated for a mont and asked, "Are you okay with it?"
But with the girl's insistence, Bran finally helped her down. When Qian's feet touched the ground, she winced slightly, but after swaying a little, she stood steadily. Although she moved a bit slowly, with the support of the Thunder Gun, she could barely walk on her own.
Seeing this, Qian seed sowhat pleased. She looked up at Bran and smiled happily, "Lord!" Bran had rarely seen such an earnest smile from Qian before and couldn't help being slightly stunned.
But she quickly realized her lapse and turned her head away.
Bran thought the red-haired girl looked really pretty when she smiled, but of course, he would never say it out loud. They continued in silence through the low tunnel. After a while, Bran suddenly noticed a white object faintly ahead in the darkness and let out a soft "Hmm."
"What's wrong?" Qian asked from behind.
"It looks like sothing's there," Bran explained quietly. He knew that Qian's vision was now comparable to an ordinary person's, making it difficult to see far in this environnt, and the light from the Lighting Crystal was inadequate at best.
With one hand, he drew his sword and walked slowly onward with Qian. He finally saw that what lay on the ground was a person. They looked like a miner, and upon closer inspection, he found no obvious wounds on them.
"Not dead yet," Qian glanced at the person and imdiately judged.
Bran also saw the faint rise and fall of the miner's chest; it seed they had rely passed out. He nodded and tried calling out, but they did not wake. He then took the stopper off his water bottle and sprinkled so water on the miner's forehead.
Considering they didn't know how long they would be trapped underground, and their supply of fresh water was limited, Bran instinctively did this sparingly.
Fortunately, his thod soon proved effective, and the miner, who appeared uninjured, quickly blinked and ca to.
But as soon as the miner's eyes t theirs, he instinctively shrank back, hitting the cold rock behind him. Seeing his anxiety, Bran quickly said, "We're people from here too, you don't have to be afraid."
The miner paused before realizing. He took a deep breath, looking carefully at the two before calming down and asking, "Are you managers? Overseers? Or part of the guard team...?" He noticed Bran's sword and Qian's war-hamr—in this mining area, only overseers and soldiers carried weapons. However, Bran and Qian didn't wear guard team uniforms, resembling the latter more.
"We are from the guard team," Bran answered, knowing these miners likely knew every supervisor, so he responded accordingly.
The man's relief was evident, but he quickly tensed up again, "Did you encounter the monsters too?" He saw the bloodstains on Qian.
"Monsters?" Bran turned back to exchange a glance with Qian.
The monsters he referred to were likely the Wind Spirit Spiders he had summoned, but he felt there was more to the situation. "What kind of monsters?" Bran had used Wind Spirit Spiders to explore the third layer, but he instinctively felt it wasn't that simple.
"Statues, monsters like statues, by Martha!"
"Statue-like monsters?" Qian squatted beside Bran and quietly asked.
Statues? Bran thought of the various rock-form creatures of Vorn; the typical ones were the Stone Statue sentries and War Puppets crafted by Bujia's craftsman wizards. But considering the environnt, Stone Elents seed more likely.
Bran thought for a mont and reassured, "Don't be afraid, we're here. Try to rember their form. Were they humanoid? Or beast-shaped?"
The miner took a heavy breath, "They were beast-shaped, but made entirely of rock. Sir, I swear I wouldn't mistake it!"
"Beast-shaped? Did they have wings?"
"No!" The miner answered firmly.
User Comments
0 comments from readers