Yun Yao and Xu Qian looked at each other. This woman seemed a bit strange.
Clearly everyone had saved her, yet she showed no gratitude whatsoever.
“Let’s divide up the ‘Dao.'” Yan Zhichun said. “One man left, there are still forty-eight on the field. Each of us can get twelve.”
“Alright, let’s divide them.” Xu Qian also said. “Though it was a bit dangerous, the rewards aren’t bad.”
“You all divide them first…” Chen Junnan said. “Big star, hold onto my share for me first.”
After speaking, he moved his almost completely broken body and gradually walked toward the other side.
“Where are you going?” Yun Yao asked unhappily. “Don’t you know what condition you’re in?”
“This young master still can’t collapse here…” Chen Junnan said weakly. “I still need to save people…”
“Save people…?” Yun Yao didn’t understand Chen Junnan’s words. The only survivors left here were them. Who else needed saving?
After walking three steps, Chen Junnan bent down in place to rest for a moment. He felt like his condition really should die first, otherwise it was truly too torturous.
But he still couldn’t leave this building. There were people in danger here.
“I can’t stand much longer…” Chen Junnan turned back to Yun Yao and Xu Qian and said, “Ladies, there are women and children imprisoned here that Earth-Snake captured… since we killed Earth-Snake, let’s release them too.”
“Is that necessary?” Yun Yao frowned and said. “They’ll be reborn after they die. You should understand this principle better than me.”
“But that’s not right. We’re people from the real world, not ghosts wandering in the ‘Land of Terminus.'” Chen Junnan sighed. “If you won’t save them, I will…”
Yun Yao could only shake her head helplessly. Through this encounter, she had generally understood Chen Junnan’s personality. Although this man was very forceful in certain aspects, he had the most obvious weak spot.
She and Xu Qian looked at each other, and the two began searching for other rooms all around.
Yan Zhichun collected her “Dao” and watched the group with great interest.
Before long, Xu Qian discovered a hidden door leading to the basement under the desk of the central podium.
“Over here!” Xu Qian called out, and Yun Yao and Chen Junnan all walked over.
After the three approached the hidden door, they discovered the situation seemed rather bad. A bizarre stench was wafting out from the hidden door.
“Is there… anyone down there?” Yun Yao asked incredulously. After all, this kind of smell didn’t seem like living people at all.
Chen Junnan looked at the large iron lock on the hidden door. He pulled at it with his hand and discovered he no longer had the strength: “Can you help me open it…”
After hearing this, Xu Qian immediately turned and went to Earth-Snake’s corpse. She felt around the countless severed limbs and found a completely broken key.
This key had been cut into many pieces along with the corpse and was completely unusable.
“No need to go through so much trouble.” Yun Yao said while extending her hand. “This lock looks very old. Most of the parts inside should already be broken.”
After speaking, she grasped the iron lock. The iron lock instantly became covered with rust. Then she yanked it backward forcefully, and the iron lock crumbled into fragments like loose charcoal with a crackling sound.
“You really have a way…” Chen Junnan smiled weakly, then reached out to grab the hidden door and lifted it open directly.
An irresistible stench rushed out from the hidden door. Yun Yao covered her mouth and nose, turned back, and dry heaved repeatedly. Even Chen Junnan frowned.
How could this possibly be the smell of living people?
It was only the second day. Who exactly had Earth-Snake captured? And what had he done to them?
“I’ll go down and look.” Chen Junnan pulled Yun Yao behind him, then walked down the stairs. His entire body was trembling, and he felt some bad memories surging up in his mind. “I don’t know what the situation is down there. You two don’t come yet.”
Yun Yao and Xu Qian looked at each other. Chen Junnan looked like he couldn’t even stand steadily, so why did he have to play this hero?
“I’ll go down too.” Xu Qian said. “If it’s to save people, I can also contribute…”
Hearing that Chen Junnan had already lost his voice in the depths of the stairway, Xu Qian also slowly walked down. Yun Yao thought briefly and also followed behind the two down the stairs.
Yan Zhichun slowly walked to the side of the hidden door. She neither went down nor made any other movements, only silently pondering something.
This staircase looked very long—not like an ordinary basement. It had approximately the depth of a second underground floor.
In complete darkness, the three people walked down one after another. That soul-stirring stench became increasingly intense, making all three feel difficulty breathing.
The three didn’t walk quickly. After about a minute or so, they finally saw glimmers of light.
This basement seemed to have firelight.
Chen Junnan was the first to reach the hidden space below. He looked around and then froze in place.
Dark, damp, foul-smelling, bloody, absurd.
This place was hell itself.
Along both sides of the walls stood dozens of women. They were completely naked, all chained around their necks, and at this moment stood with lifeless eyes in place. It was impossible to tell if they were dead or alive.
Without exception, they were emaciated beyond human form, their shriveled bodies showing every rib clearly.
“What the hell…?”
Chen Junnan’s eyes moved slightly. Braving the stench, he walked forward a few steps and discovered that some girls were already dead. Even after death, they were still pulled by the iron chains around their necks, hanging there like mops. The flesh on their bodies had begun to rot and fall off, their whole bodies crawling with maggots.
“Earth-Snake… you bastard…” Chen Junnan forgot about his injuries all over his body and clenched his fists tightly. “What the hell are you doing…? Did you forget you were once human?”
Yun Yao and Xu Qian also arrived at the room one after another and were so frightened they instantly froze in place, not daring to move at all.
The ground here was full of excrement and white bones, and those women all seemed abnormal. They… were natives?!
Chen Junnan walked forward step by step. The girls on both sides stood dumbly like sculptures, completely expressionless.
This rectangular room was about ten-some meters in total, but because the lighting was very dim, Chen Junnan felt there was something at the far end.
“Chen, Chen Junnan…” Yun Yao called out softly. “Be careful…”
Chen Junnan seemed completely unable to hear any sound. He moved his heavy steps and continued forward.
Finally, he stopped at the other side of the room.
Yun Yao and Xu Qian looked at Chen Junnan’s back from afar, not knowing what he had seen. They could only quietly move their steps and follow.
After ten steps, a huge throne appeared in their field of vision. This throne appeared to be made of stone but had a layer of rotting, blackened human skin spread over it. A massive stench slowly emanated from the throne, preventing anyone from advancing half a step.
A girl with a well-proportioned figure was sitting on the ground beside the throne at this moment, seemingly waiting for someone.
Yun Yao’s pupils trembled slightly. She stepped forward to examine this woman.
She didn’t look emaciated and seemed to have only recently become a “native,” but she was covered in injuries all over, and her pupils had gradually become unfocused.
Her disheveled hair bore a crown bent from wire. On her chest were carved four bloody characters—
“My Queen Consort.”
These carved marks had clearly only been carved a few days ago. The characters were crooked and twisted, the wounds were just beginning to scab over, and at this moment all the characters were slightly raised, on the verge of becoming infected.
Before Yun Yao could speak, the girl raised her head and grinned, revealing a mouth full of blood and the few remaining teeth: “Has master returned…?”
This scene made all the hair on Yun Yao and Chen Junnan’s bodies stand on end. Then they called out in unison:
“Xiao Ran…?”