Chapter 372 (1/2)

The feeling of being spied on from all sides by something huge just lasted for a few seconds. Once Hao Ren reacted, the sense of being watched vanished, leaving only the hair on his back standing to remind him that it was not an illusion. Lily had a sharp sixth sense. At that point, she was already standing in front of Hao Ren. She stared at Hao Ren’s face and said, “Landlord, you got goosebumps too?”

Hao Ren thought it was impossible to communicate with the weird husky about something like this.

He dragged Lily aside, recalling the feeling earlier and how it felt when he first entered the Gnarled Grove. He finally confirmed that the two were the same thing. He looked at the huge, tangled roots in the cavern, sensing more and more that they were emitting an endless stream of thought. He recalled the legend of the dwarf miners who dug up tentacles that made them go crazy, and then he thought of Vivian’s theory… An ancient creature that detached itself from the rest of the plants and animals; maybe, it really did notice their arrival.

And it was thinking and watching, just not taking action.

“What’s wrong?” Vivian noticed Hao Ren’s reaction and looked at him with concern.

Hao Ren described how he felt just now. He then looked at them with a strange expression and asked, “Weren’t you guys aware of it?”

“No,” Becky said. She got goosebumps and scratched herself. “Don’t scare me. This place is already eerie enough.”

The exploration of a gloomy cavern, deep underground made everyone nervous. Plus, now that Hao Ren told them about a huge entity enveloping the entire cavern and spying on them, suddenly everyone felt creeped out. This also made Lily’s hair stand on end again.

The husky was also very unlucky. Since she came to The Plane of Dreams, she kept encountering scary things. She really felt that sooner or later, she was going to have a loose, fluffy, big fox tail… Hmm, that seemed like a good thing because it made her tail look bigger!

“Anyway, this place is very strange and we have to be careful,” said Big Beardy. He did not view it as a safe place just because it was the sacred cavern from which the Church originated. The more ancient and mysterious, the more dangerous the place. He knew better. However, as a devout believer, he viewed the crisis as a test from the goddess. “Everyone has a means of escaping, right? We have divine teleportation.”

“I brought the teleportation stone,” the old werewolf nodded and replied.

Hao Ren and his teammates did not worry about that. Their public identity was that of teleporting wizards and scholars, but ones with little experience…

They left the great cavern quietly. Big Beardy decided their next step according to the ancient knowledge and they led the team into a winding cave. The shadows of the giant roots could be seen everywhere in the cave. Some of them emerged from the rocks, some of them lay across the walls, and some even completely encroached on their surroundings. The entire cavern was entangled with roots.

This was an underground world completely ruled by roots. Hao Ren found himself gradually entering the heart of an ancient plant. He could almost hear some kind of throb, coming from the thick roots around him.

At this moment, a stone gate with obvious artificial traces appeared abruptly at the end of the cave.

The stone gate, which blended in seamlessly with the surroundings, looked like it was carved directly from the rock strata. This most probably resulted from the integration of the stone gate with the surrounding rocks by a sorcerer, who was excellent in earth magic. The stone gate was 5 or 6 metres tall and nearly 10 metres wide. Its frame was carved with different shades of patterns in relief. Even after thousands of years had passed, these reliefs were still there. When Hao Ren saw the patterns, it first reminded him of the Disciples of Glory’s sacred painting, which he saw in the small church. He speculated that the Disciples of Glory used this particular pattern to symbolize their goddess. The most special part of this stone gate was that it had no door. In the doorway, there was only cloudy, white fog. They could not see beyond the white fog clearly. They could just vaguely sense an unstable dimension behind the white fog.

Hao Ren had already tried different brands of teleportation devices, including those that utilised magic as well as technology, and even copycat versions. Though he was not really experienced in teleportation, he was still able to sense it. He knew that the gate was a teleportation portal. It was likely the core of the sacred cavern.

Hao Ren, his teammates and the four ascetics were not surprised but the old werewolf, who was always in the dark, could not help but exclaim, “It’s man-made? This…”

“I’m afraid we’re in a relic from the early days of the Disciples of Glory,” said the young ascetic. “This is a holy lake. So, it’s not surprising to see some ancient ruins here. The world was in turmoil when the Disciples of Glory was founded. They built underground strongholds in many places. Perhaps this is one of the abandoned ones. ”

Hao Ren was surprised that the ascetics could easily make up a reason. Do not be fooled by their appearance, you can never outspeak an ascetic…

The old werewolf did not suspect him. He just looked at the magic door, which still operated, looking worried. “It could be a teleportation device. It’s been in disrepair, and neglected for a long time. If we touch it hastily…I’m afraid we’ll be teleported to some abandoned place and won’t be able to get out.”