This chapter was brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and Yeenie.
Elves of the past
Time: 10:30am
I absolutely don’t remember how I got out of that tunnel.
Since my legs turned into jelly, I think it was Chifuyu who forcefully dragged me all the way out. All the way to the exit, senior kept on snickering.
I suspected he would become evil due to sleep deprivation? Especially when I’d heard he hadn’t slept in the past three days.
“Next we need to go down.” Miao Miao was standing beside the hole leading to the underground, “I wonder how deep is the Ghost King’s tomb was when it was built, maybe we might need to walk for quite a long time.”
I suddenly remembered another matter. If we were to continue walking for a long time, then we won’t have to attend our afternoon classes?
“Don’t worry, if the practical class takes too long, the second class will be adjusted, so we won’t need to attend it.” Senior, who was squatting beside the hole, took out something that looked like a thin rope and made a knot with it. He then tied it to a pillar near the entrance of the hole, “I’ll go down first, then Chu, Mikayla, and lastly Chifuyu.” He let go of his hand, throwing the rest of the rope into the hole.
“Okay.”
After he nodded his head, senior slid down the rope and went down the hole. In just a moment, he disappeared inside what appeared to be a dark bottomless crypt.
Will this thing break? I looked at the thin rope feeling rather nervous.
“Yang Yang, it’s your turn.” Miao Miao said while urged me on.
Forget it, don’t care about it. In any case, following them down would definitely be the right thing to do!
I took a deep breath, and with shivering hands, I pulled at the rope, bit the bullet and climbed down.
As soon as I reached the bottom of the crypt, maybe it was because senior was the first to reach the bottom, it had already been illuminated. I could clearly see that we climbed down from a hole in the ceiling of a hall. The bottom was wide open, and there were only some white unknown objects.
Senior was already standing on the ground some distance away.
The ceiling was really high, probably about two to three times the height of a typical house, I desperately clutched onto the rope and slowly climbed down bit by bit.
“Looks like someone had already been here.” Senior bent his body, and knocked on the floor twice, there were a few shoeprints on the dust that had collected after a long period of time, “But they didn’t inspect carefully.”
I jumped onto the floor, and then at the top, Miao Miao followed me down. The last one was Chifuyu.
“This seems to be the third hall, which was once used as an entertainment room by the Ghost King.” Chifuyu said while rubbing off the dust on the floor.
There were some patterns vaguely drawn on the floor.
“The year when the Elfin army stormed into the Ghost King’s city, which is this place, they sealed the Ghost King at the lowest point, and sunk the whole city underground to be buried together with him. These are the remains that were left here from that year.” Senior continued his storytelling of the history, and took out a white charm, “This is a charm made of wind element, Wind Eddy.” He let go of his hand, the second the white charm fell on the floor, something like a small typhoon appeared, and the dust on the floor was blown away.
This was even better than a universal vacuum cleaner! With a “smack” sound, Senior shot a tiger palm strike behind my head, “Vacuum, yourself!”
I knew it, I should have stayed further away from him. Holding onto my head, I shifted closer to Chifuyu.
In just a few seconds, the dust completely covering the floor, were all blown away, the floor was actually transparent. The walls were emitting light reflected by the surface of floor, causing it to be shining brightly looking like crystals.
“So beautiful.” Miao Miao was also stunned by this sight, under the transparent floor there seemed to to be water flowing, looking twisted and distorted.
“Water Flower, this is a high-grade magic crystal. I never thought the Ghost King would use this kind of thing as a floor.” Chifuyu looked at the floor and said, “There are words on top of it.”
I noticed them even if he didn’t mention it, there were some shallow marks on the floor. It looked like small worms wriggling here and there, I couldn’t read those things.
“This doesn’t seem to be the universal writing we are currently using now.” Miao Miao squatted on the floor, and inspected the floor. Those worm-like words were written on a wide range, filling up almost half of the floorings. And due to the water flow, we couldn’t clearly see the words.
Yeah? The universal writing we are currently using now? Why was it that I don’t know there was such a thing?
“After you’ve study here for a year, you’ll start learning it, since universal writing is a compulsory course.” Senior stood behind me, and said coolly, “The world is currently sharing one type of writing… which is mixed with other languages.”
Somewhat similar to English, Mandarin, or Japanese type of thing?
Then I’m so going to die, because I remembered my English was really terrible, so terrible that my teacher wanted to suicide. This means my language was not something that could be improved, and now there is another additional damn universal writing. This is terrible!
“Nn, this should be some kind of writing of some race?” Chifuyu also squatted and looked at the writings.
There was finally something Chifuyu didn’t know. To be honest, I’ve always felt he was like a mini library or an intelligence-gathering center, but seems like there were also things he didn’t know.
But since everyone was squatting, if I didn’t squat, it would feel rather strange, so I followed suit and squatted.
“I’ve heard that Water Flower Magic Crystal contains magical energy, perhaps the ghost king was using it to absorb energy, that’s why it’s such a huge piece.” Chifuyu glanced at me, and pushed his glasses, making this conclusion.
Basically, I totally couldn’t understand the whatchamacallit Crystal, regardless of whether it’s Slippery Floor or Water Flower*, I felt this place was very weird, and I didn’t want to continue staying here.
[T/N: These are a play on words in Chinese, which doesn’t makes sense when translated.]
“This is Elfin wording.” Senior stepped on the crawling worm words on the floor, completely without any sense of morality of cherishing the hard-won historical site, “Elfin common writing, so only those from the Elfin clan should know how to read this.”
Then why was do you know of it!?
Senior looked at me with an expression full of contempt.
Alright, I know it’s because you are senior, you are an almighty God, so just pretend I was overthinking this.
“Things related to the Ghost King are documented on top, you want to waste time listening over here?” Senior seemed to be very satisfied with my answer, curved up an icy smile and asked.
“I want to listen!” Miao Miao bounced up, raising her hand.
“If I may, I would like to know, too.” Chifuyu, the mini intelligence collecting center, pushed his glasses and stood up, issuing a glaring reflection.
I don’t really want to listen… I want to quickly reach the destination and then go back… But it was very obvious no one cared about my opinion.
I resentfully climbed up from the floor, because I felt that if I continue squatting, senior will use me as a footstool.
Senior walked a few steps, he narrowed his red eyes, and swept his sight across the words on floor.
He stopped walking and started his storytelling. “This occurred in fall, on the second year the Elfin king of the Abyss of the Wind succeeded the throne.”
* * *
It was the second year the Elfin king of the Abyss of the Wind succeeded the throne, during autumn when the golden maple shed its leaves, we received such shocking and terrifying news.
Ghost King Yelu appeared in the Western area, breaking the time’s ban and setting up a city in the West Hills. However, the neighbouring Elves had yet to escape from there. When everyone received the message, it was only the first of the bad news to come.
The West Hills’ songs were no more, only a few Elves sent to inform this matter were spared.
My dad, brothers, and I discussed our views, but the Ghost King’s forces were really huge, so they thought the Elfin clan didn’t have the power to go against such an evil force, and only passively resisted. But I thought we shouldn’t allow the situation to continue, First it’s West Hills, and when winter arrived, there were sad news gradually coming from the border of North Snow.
So when I had reached an agreement with many Elfin nobles, I brought elfin troops to the West Hills.
It’s fortunate that there were many Elfin clans who joined this great undertaking, and so when we reached the West Hills, the numbers of Elves had already overwhelmingly exceeded the congregation of the Ghost Tribe.
The army fought for two days at the outer perimeter, and finally broke into the first hall. Furthermore, they obtained the third hall on the fourth day, it was estimated it won’t be long until they would be triumphant against Ghost King Yelu.
Signing out at the third hall.
* * *
“This is the translation of everything that’s written.” Quickly translating the words for us, senior paused for a moment, “At the end there is no name written, but I think it should be written by the Third Prince of the Ice Fang Clan, who started this attack. Probably it’s for the secretary behind to record it.”
I don’t know why, I kept feeling senior had a very strange expression while translating this thing, as if… he was thinking about something?
Miao Miao made an action of clasping her hands in front of her chest and then slightly bent down. It looked like she was blessing or praying, that sort of thing.
“So this is actually just a record.” Chifuyu should have memorised it without missing a word, and then he nodded, “Looks like the other halls should have similar writings.”
“But we don’t have the time to look at them one by one.” As soon as she’d finished, Miao Miao shook her head, “The time is limited.”
“I know.” Chifuyu snorted, with a very regretful expression.
If there was no time limit, you planned to look for them one by one, right?
From the bottom of my heart, I thought Chifuyu should be the type of person who, after graduation, would explore graves daily.
“These are things recorded by the Elves, you should be able to find the items related to this in the new history. You can take a look in the library when you get back later.” Senior clapped his hands, and the surrounding became even brighter. All the water under the floor was emitting light, “If this is the third hall, then according to what was written, we should probably reach the place where the Ghost King was defeated, pretty soon.”
I suddenly felt like I was currently in a sightseeing tour; then please allow us to visit the crime scene where the Ghost King was annihilated that year, and the like.
Red eyes glanced at me, I unconsciously protected my head immediately, but I was not smacked at all, senior turned his sight away.
It’s a miracle!
But Miao Miao and Chifuyu didn’t look quite right, both of them were looking around. Something happened?
“Yang Yang, get down!”
Just as Chifuyu finished shouting, the whole ground started to shake, rumbling sounds could be heard from the hole we just came down from.
“Get down quickly!” Unknown to when senior had gotten behind me, he gave me a slap causing me to fall down on the floor.
He must have done that as revenge! You are taking revenge for your own personal affair!
I saw the water under the transparent floor swirling chaotically, and there was something that drifted up.
Cockroach? It was blackish, shining and black gold, with lots of legs, doing dog paddle.
“Someone activated a huge mechanism!” Miao Miao’s voice floated from above my head.
The black gold unknown body (suspected it was a cockroach) of something in the water below were getting more numerous, drifting. I kind of wanted to tell the three people who were currently looking up at the ceiling. I felt these thing were rather familiar, seemed like I’d seen them before, somewhere.
A lump of earth fell on the side of my face, it probably fell down due to the vibration. Then, I saw a terrifying thing.
One of the black gold objects suddenly stepped on one of its companion and bounced up, sticking on to the other side of the floor. Our line of sight crossed (should be correct, but due to the insect’s eye being too small, so I wasn’t so certain). And then the palm sized black gold insect suddenly shivered twice… exposed… shark-like… and saw-like teeth!!!
“Ahhhhhh—— !!” I remember now! It was similar to the scarab in The Mummy!
* * *
I suddenly felt my neck being tightened, I was being picked up from the ground.
“Just now, that mechanism released the tomb insects.” Chifuyu pulled me while moving back, but the whole floor under the water was already fully covered by the black gold insects. They revealed their strange teeth, and started to gnaw at the bottom of the floor.
“Hurry, run!” Miao Miao promptly pushed us while running outwards, “Tomb insects have very sharp teeth, the floor will soon be worn out.”
I suddenly remembered the story in that movie. These insects love to drill into human’s skin, and then treat the human as a food reserve that can last for three thousand years; the oiled mummy, was the best example.
But Miao Miao only took two steps and then she moved back.
The only exit of the hall was already crawling with small black insects.
“Don’t ever let me find out who was the idiot who started that mechanism.” Chifuyu flared up, and was fully surrounded by cursed will-o-the-wisp.
Hissing sounds were coming from under the floor.
“Wind Eddy, materialize.”
Senior took out a white charm printed with similar totems with the one from earlier, then I felt a wind blowing past. A rather transparent spear appeared on his hands, and there were silver totems on the spear, “Can’t use explosive charm in this place, the floor will be broken.” He used the bottom of the spear to knock on the magic crystal floor, and passed one white charm to me, “The method of using the wind charm is similar to the explosive charm, but you better not think of a hair dryer or that sort of things.”
Ah, I didn’t think of a hair dryer, my first thought just now was actually an electrical fan.
“That’s also not allowed!” Senior issued an utmost warning.
I understand.
“Creature who formed a contract with me, allow the besieger to witness your form.” Miao Miao took out the yellow-green illusionary bean. I saw something that looked like the light given off by a magical girl when she transforms. The light from the bean, it suddenly stretched out and then coiled around her hand, and expanded outward, “Evening Flying Claw!”
When the light dispersed, I saw a steel looking claw on Miao Miao’s right hand, the claw was bronze in color with green totem on top. It looked really beautiful.
“Wind Eddy, materialize.” Chifuyu took out a white charm that looked similar to senior’s. What I saw in his hand was a knife similar to Ryan’s. However, his was a single knife while Ryan’s always came in a pair.
“To deal with these insects, we need to be quick.” After saying this, in the next second, I saw senior was already standing at the doorway. All around him was like a gale, rolling up a huge amount of black gold insects. All the insects were cut into half, fell on the floor, and was covered up by a new batch of insects.
He was definitely very quick… So quick that he was like a ghost chasing, chasing and chasing, materializing in a second.
Miao Miao quickly caught up, but her target was the bottom of the opening on the floor. I saw green lines appearing at the place where the claw passed through, and the insects that fell on the floor was coiled up by a green vine-like object.
Chifuyu, who was said to be not really good in fighting, was already beside senior assisting him. The huge number of insects at the doorway became less in just a moment, gradually being driven back.
I felt I was the only one who couldn’t do anything. Looking at the white charm in my hands, in this third hall, I was the only one who did nothing.
The walls around us suddenly became brighter, I didn’t know if it’s an illusion, I vaguely seemed to have seen the bottom of the water glowing, there seemed to be something beneath all those insects. Bit by bit issuing a bright light, there was like a layer of silver powder slowly drifting up.
‘What are those things?’ Just as I wanted to ask that question, I saw the bottom of the water vibrating. Then, the white charm in my hand broke into pieces.
* * *
All around white wind started to roll up. I didn’t know why it was white, maybe there were some fog.
The wind rolled up beside me, my eyesight was covered, I couldn’t see the others, and could only see that everywhere was white. Was this the legendary: “confused by a ghost”!?
In the white wind, I seemed to have saw a figure moving about, or maybe not. Don’t tell me I really was confused by a ghost? I was only thinking nonsense.
Suddenly a figure of a person appeared in front of me.
“Whoa!!” It was a rather transparent person, and for some reason he was smiling at me. Since I felt no malice from it, I took two steps back and calmed down.
This person gave off the same feeling as Restua, but seemed to be different too, very bright and slightly glowing.
The person kept smiling, smiling until I felt he might have had a facial disorder and cramped expression. So to say, sometimes Restua was the same as well. Thus, I started to suspect the person in front of my eyes was likely an Elf.
What’s this year’s problem, Elves having a stroll all around the world?
The person, who was suspected to be an Elf, looked down. I followed suit and looked down, below the floor, was covered with the black gold insects chaotically gnawing, and beneath the insects there was a layer of shining silver powder.
Then he stretched out his hands, and there were a lot of fragments on his hand. I noticed that those were fragments of the white charm.
I don’t know why, I naturally stretched out both my hands, as if I wanted to hold something. The person was still smiling (maybe he has no other expressions), and then slowly, he placed those fragments floating in midair into my hands.
He held on to my hands and put them together, and then he pulled it towards the floor, and using force to press on it.
At that moment, the white wind around me had suddenly disappeared, and at the same time I felt a huge shock from the entire floor. I felt completely dizzy and numbed after the shock.
It was only after a few seconds that my eyesight slowly focused itself.
As soon as I snapped out of my trance, I noticed that the other three people were standing at one place each, with an astonished expression, as though they got hit-by-a-ghost, to look at me.
“Uhh? What is it?” Shaking my head twice, I got up from the floor.
“Yang Yang, how did you do it?” Miao Miao asked.
Do it?
“Look around you.” Chifuyu was the second one who spoke.
Following his words, I looked left and right, suddenly realized the black insects that were chaotically moving around had already turned into mashed fragments of insects, unmoving in several piles all around us.
Shocked, I quickly looked down. The water beneath was also filled with fragments of insects, and was washed away by the water, leaving nothing left.
Senior came over, the spear in his hands had already disappeared. I subconsciously took a step back.
“There was a few seconds just now, when I suddenly couldn’t detect your existence.” He explained, “And then when the wind broke, you reappeared again.”
Couldn’t detect my existence? It can’t be that I was dragged away by an alien and brainwashed! You must be joking!
But senior’s expression didn’t look like he was joking, “Uhh, just now there seemed to be something in the water beneath.” I pointed down there, luckily there was still some silver powder that had yet to disperse, otherwise they might think something was wrong with my eyesight.
“This is no ordinary water.” Chifuyu was the first to speak, “This is…” He didn’t continue, but I was sure he knew the answer.
Looking at the water underneath, senior crouched down, and placed his hand on the floor. He chanted a few words I couldn’t understand, and the silver object in the water suddenly dispersed.
So it was actually not a thin layer of silver, but a very thick layer of silver. After the silver object dispersed, all of us let out a gasp.
In the deepest part of the water below, it was filled with many coffins, they’re all transparent, crystal-like coffins. The coffins were all filled with something, but they were covered up, so I couldn’t tell what was inside. However, I could vaguely make out the figure of a person.
It was only after the silver had dispersed that we found out there were also words on the floor at the bottom. However, due to the refraction, we didn’t notice it before.
“We will bury our dead companions in this place… to guard, to rest, until the Lord beckons to his children to return to his side… and I will be here, forever protecting these souls, who are deep in sleep, from being disturbed by filth.” Senior looked at those words, there were only very few words, so finished reading them really quickly, “Elfin Warrior of the Firefly Forest, Sinya, beloved Hawk of the Light.”
Under the writings was a coffin. The coffin was not covered up, and a man was lying inside. He was not longer glowing, and he looked like he was in deep sleep. Dressed in armor, holding on to a long knife, with a very serene facial expression.
I was stunned. The person was the one whom I suspected was Elf whom from moments ago. He already doesn’t exist anymore, but then still exists.
We were quiet for a long time, until senior turned around and clapped. Small winds started to appear around us, and then a thick layer of earth and dust completely covered up the floor until the transparent floor could not be seen anymore.
“Let’s move on.”