“How is it, Xiao Ye?”
Yi Shiyue’s voice came from behind. Ye Xingyao finally snapped out of her daze; she had been blocking the way down.
‘Xiao Ye’ was a nickname Yi Shiyue had chosen after much deliberation. After all, something like ‘Xiao Xin’ sounded quite strange.
“It’s nothing. It’s safe here for now.”
Ye Xingyao took two more steps forward, making space for the girls behind her.
“Should I say the person who did this was careless, or simply fearless?”
This place was indeed unusual, but this “unusualness” was a bit too simple.
The bloodstains on the floor were identical to those they had seen before, and they led toward a pile of vertically placed wooden boards not far away. It made one wonder if it was a trap.
“They couldn’t have let us find this on purpose…” Jin Ming muttered softly.
“It’s hard to say… and this direction — clearly — is where that monster is located.”
Ye Xingyao kicked the pile of boards aside and threw the remaining ones to the side. Her expression turned solemn as she looked at the tunnel, two people wide, that had appeared before them.
“Who on earth could dig a tunnel over 100 meters long here?” the girl complained in annoyance.
Stepping into the tunnel, which was quite spacious for her size, Ye Xingyao stood on her tiptoes and reached out to press the soil at the top.
‘Oh, it’s quite sturdy.’
“Let’s go, girls. Let’s go see that monster.”
Ye Xingyao waved them forward. She shoved one hand into the pocket of her jeans and fiddled with the magic stone inside, leading the way as leisurely as a tour guide.
As the group drew closer to the “monster,” the bloodstains on the ground became clearer. They were messy, looking like some kind of footprints. Now, they were starting to believe this was the blood of a monster. For one thing, the footprints didn’t look human. Furthermore, if this were human blood, it would have taken more than the five of them being drained dry to cover such a distance.
The straight distance of 100 meters was neither long nor short. Soon, the red dot on the Small Box was only 3 or 5 meters away from them.
The scene at the end of the tunnel unfolded before their eyes. The room was not small, but a giant wooden cross, a cage made of iron bars like a prison, and a blood-colored vat occupied most of the space.
“What is this place used for?” Ye Xingling asked curiously.
The expected traps and monsters didn’t seem to appear. Ye Xingyao looked down at the Small Box in her hand with confusion.
‘There’s no issue with it. The light is almost overlapping my position, but I don’t see any monster.’
To the left… this vat? ‘I don’t believe for a second that this vat is the monster.’
“Is there something inside?”
Seeing her staring at the vat, Yi Shiyue left the three magical girls who were observing the cross and came to her side.
“There’s… there’s only a pool of blood inside. There’s only a little bit left at the bottom…”
Ye Xingyao tapped the Small Box, but it was useless. After some fiddling, she had no choice but to turn it off and toss it into her hiking bag.
“Miss Yunque, please collect a blood sample here as well. Let’s see what this thing really is.”
After calling over the tool-user loli to help collect the sample, Ye Xingyao and Yi Shiyue joined the Frost Flower and Jin Ming duo to inspect the giant cross. It looked as though something had once been tied to it; broken iron chains still hung from its left, right, and bottom sections.
The rusty chains were covered in oxidized, blackened blood. It was only then that Ye Xingyao recalled the blood in the vat; it didn’t look like it had been sitting there for long at all. It looked more like fresh blood.
“Hey, Xiao Ye, don’t you think the material of this cross looks a bit like Elf Wood?”
While Ye Xingyao was wondering about the relationship between the blood in the vat and the monster, Yi Shiyue studied the grain of the cross for a moment. She reached out boldly to touch it and asked, her voice uncertain.
“Hmm? Elf Wood? It does look a bit like it.”
Ye Xingyao snapped out of her thoughts. She glanced at the blue and gold magical girls, who looked like they had no idea what she was talking about, and explained.
“Elf Wood is a tree species cultivated by the Elf race. Unlike ordinary trees, Elf Wood has excellent mana conductivity and is a high-grade ritual material for Elves. At the same time, in some large Elf tribes, they utilize the property of Elf Wood to adapt to Elf Grass and Wood Magic, turning them into living spaces like tree houses. That’s about all I know. Miss Yunque, is there anything you’d like to add?”
Ye Xingyao looked back at Miss Yunque, the tool-user who had efficiently completed her task.
“No, that was very thorough.”
Yunque shook her head and joined them. The five girls surrounded the giant wooden cross, as if they were performing some mysterious ritual.
The Hunter girl felt around in her pocket and found a nature-attribute magic stone. She tapped the cross with it; the turquoise magic stone lit up briefly before returning to its dim, inactive state.
“Whoa, it really is Elf Wood. However, it’s completely ‘dead.’ There’s no mana left in it at all,” Ye Xingyao remarked, covering her mouth in surprise.
Frost Flower and Jin Ming, the two most lively magical girls in The Association, could only smile awkwardly. Since they lacked the necessary knowledge, they didn’t want to disturb the Veteran loli and the girl as they pondered.
“I’m getting more and more curious about what the owner of this place was doing.”
Ye Xingyao looked toward the empty, crudely made prison surrounded by iron bars, noting the thick layer of blood that had clearly accumulated on the floor.
“Blood and monsters… is there a connection…?” she muttered under her breath.
“There shouldn’t be a connection between blood and monsters, but there is a connection between blood and Elves,” Yunque suddenly spoke up, her words carrying a hint of mystery.
Yi Shiyue raised an eyebrow. As an Elf herself, how could she not know of any connection between blood and Elves…?
“If you aren’t referring to how Elf Blood can extract mana… are you talking about those things in Xizhou?”
Ye Xingyao thought back and remembered some secrets mentioned by the Honorary Hunter when she was working with Hongye Qiu.
“Yes.”
Yunque nodded. A trace of approval appeared on her expressionless face, manifesting as a smile just a single pixel wide.
“Um… Senior Yunque, what are you two talking about?”
Frost Flower stared blankly at the two Veteran girls who were speaking in riddles and communicating with their eyes.
‘Is it appropriate to tell them about this? Shiyue is fine on my end,’ Ye Xingyao asked Yunque with her eyes. After all, Yunque was currently the “parent” of these two magical girls.
‘It’s not appropriate for them to know these things yet. We’ll wait until we get back and let Kira and Miss Hongye decide,’ Yunque signaled back, telling the Hunter girl not to say anything.
Looking at Yunque’s encouraging gaze, Ye Xingyao became even more firm in her decision. She winked at the white-haired loli. “Don’t worry! I’ll tell you everything I know!”