Chapter 677 The King Stoneworm Is Here (1/2)

After some discussion, only Shao Xuan, Ao and Ta would go underground. Not too many together or it would be difficult to move.

A rope was lowered into the hole in the short hill. The rope slid downwards. It was not very long, instead was pieces of short straw rope tied together. It only touched the ground after almost a hundred metres. That meant the king stoneworm moved upwards, peek its head out, retreated back down this tunnel, then changed direction.

“Which direction should we head towards？“ Ao looked at the two tunnels, unable to make a decision. One was the tunnel made by the king stoneworm travelling towards this direction, the other was made when it left.

Shao Xuan studied the patterns on the stone walls and touched it. He pointed in one direction. “It travelled this way but let’s take the other path.”

He wanted to check if the king stoneworm had come from its mountain or it had passed through bat mountain first. If it did, then there was a reasonable explanation to the bat leader’s sudden appearance.

Understanding his thought process, Ao and Ta did not object, walking down the tunnel made by the worm coming towards them.

Although they were underground, Shao Xuan had memorised the entrance and carried a universal eye in his hand.

“It can still pinpoint directions without the sun or moon?” Ta was surprised.

“Yeah,” said Shao Xuan. When he spoke to the Ya tribe, they said they used it underground too. However, only leaders of the tribe had a universal eye. It was rare and the Jing tribe rarely gave them out as gifts.

As if to prove his words, under the glow of the water moon stone, the universal eye opened a slit like the eye of a beast. As the slit grew, the direction it pointed at grew clearer.

Ao and Ta had a strong sense of direction. As long as they knew the rough direction of the sun and had an estimate of the time, they could confirm the direction of bat mountain.

They continued ahead.

“It came from that way!” confirmed Ta.

They grew more sure as they travelled. This tunnel extended from bat mountain.

They accelerated and soon arrived at bat mountain.

How did they know they were at bat mountain?

Other than based on their own estimates, there was a tunnel extending upwards. However, the tunnel did not break through the surface, merely extending twenty metres up.

“Do you think the king stoneworm noticed the bat leader’s presence when it came here? Hence it decided to head upwards? But then the bat leader reacted so quickly that it ran the moment the king stoneworm approached. Do you think it’s possible?” Ao told them his guesses.

“That is indeed possible,” agreed Ta.

“Maybe the king stoneworm wants to change its nest location?”

“Let’s go check it out.”

The three of them travelled towards where the king stoneworm came from in a tunnel a hundred metres deep underground.

The air was thin here as they travelled farther from the short hill. Since they were not close to the king stoneworm’s nest, there were not enough tunnels for ventilation. At least all three were more resistant towards thinning air. Any low or middle-ranked totemic warriors might not be able to bear it for long.

Ao and Ta also wanted to know why the king stoneworm left the nest. However, they quickly found the reason why the king stoneworm never returned.

There was a dead end not far from bat mountain.

The tunnel had been cut off here. Then, there were signs of the king stoneworm changing direction.

“This must have happened some time ago. The natural disaster is the only event that can cause such a major change underground,” said Ao.

“So this means that the king stoneworm was startled last year during the natural disaster and left its nest, heading in this direction amidst the chaos. But then due to the underground movements, it could not find the tunnel it came from so…” Ta was not sure whether to laugh or not. “Even if the king stoneworm can’t trace its original path, it can always take another route. Why would it continue to stay away from its nest?”

“What if… it can’t sense directions?” offered Shao Xuan.

Ao and Ta fell silent. A king beast with no sense of direction? Weren’t high-level beasts all very smart?

“I guess… that’s a possibility.” That was all Ao could say.

Shao Xuan sensed the area. “The stone walls here are much thicker than other places. Maybe the king stoneworm stopped here for a long time.”

The longer the worm stopped in a place, the thicker the solidification of its surroundings. Shao Xuan could sense that the tunnels were made of the special rock caused by the king stoneworm and were not the naturally-occuring kind.

“Maybe the king stoneworm left its nest and ran here to escape the natural disaster. It stopped for a long time, maybe it fell asleep. When it woke up, its original path had been cut off due to the ground movements, so it decided to continue moving somewhere else?”

Shao Xuan did not want to make the king stoneworm seem so stupid either but this might be the most likely explanation.

If that was true, all three of them had one thought: its intelligence was just…

“No matter what, let’s continue searching the area?”

Since this path had been cut off, then they had to travel along the path where the king stoneworm left.

They prayed it was not travelling towards the Flaming Horn tribe.

They returned to the short hill and told the rest what they found. After some rest and a meal, all three went underground again.

A hundred metres below ground, three people ran along the tunnels.

In the middle, the three of them found another short hill similar to the previous one, proving that the king stoneworm had broken through the surface here.

“This happened during these past two days.” Shao Xuan looked at the trees in the area, whose roots had turned to rock but crowns remained bright green. The branches had not shrivelled up yet. This meant the stoneworm had been here not more than two days ago.

“Let’s carry on.” Ao had become increasingly anxious. Although they were not heading directly to Flaming Horn, they were not too far off.

‘Please, not Flaming Horn! Not Flaming Horn!’ Ao chanted in his heart.

However, the mood grew solemn the more they walked.

Shao Xuan looked at the universal eye to confirm their location.

“We’re at… Flaming River?”