The Queen of Scrolls never admits defeat

Moran and the others followed the trail until they arrived at Star Tear Waterfall.

A massive curtain of water, like an inverted Milky Way, crashed down from the top of the cliff with a roar, creating a bottomless lake below.

On both sides are towering cliffs, sheer and precipitous, with slippery, moss-covered rock walls that stretch endlessly into the distance.

The roar of the waterfall was deafening, and the spray hit our faces.

The trail eventually disappeared completely on the rocky beach beside the waterfall pool, a place perpetually shrouded in mist and sparsely vegetated.

Kelly reverted to his elven form, his face grim as he looked around.

He carefully examined the nearest high cliff face, especially the areas covered in moss. "The moss on the cliff face is intact, with no signs of climbing, trampling, or rough repair. It's almost impossible to have climbed over here in a short time. So the only possibility is that they escaped along the base of the cliff!"

"Which side is it?" Lila also returned to human form, her brows furrowed, pacing on the rocky beach, trying to find some clue.

Moran's expression was equally grave; even her Origin Tracing Technique was finding it difficult to obtain effective information here.

There wasn't a single weed in the rocky beach, only moss everywhere.

Although moss is a living, lower plant, the traceable fragments of its memory are extremely short and broken, like looking through a thick layer of water mist, making it impossible to see the specific figure or whereabouts.

She could only vaguely confirm from the memories of the trees around the rocky beach that the group of people had not left after entering the rocky area.

Moran then used divination techniques to predict "the best direction to follow next".

The results showed that the best direction for exploration was towards the lake below the waterfall.

They went underwater?

This result was unexpected, but upon closer examination, it made perfect sense.

Moran didn't hesitate any longer. She turned to Lila and Kelly and said quickly, "We can't see anything on the ground or the rock walls here. I'll go check the lake. If it's not in the water either, we'll track it to both sides."

"Underwater?" Lila and Kelly were both taken aback, but they couldn't just let the underwater area go.

Lila handed her a bottle of cheek pouch potion: "Be careful! The current in the waterfall impact area is turbulent and chaotic, and there may be undercurrents! The potion is only effective for one hour, so don't dive too deep. Come back immediately if you find anything!"

"Understood!" Moran drank the potion in one gulp, and fish-like gill sacs grew on his cheeks. He then leaped into the water.

She avoided the terrifying undercurrents and whirlpools directly below the waterfall, and carefully searched the area around the lake edge and near the rock face.

The lake water is clear with good visibility, and you can see swaying aquatic plants, swimming fish, and pebbles piled up on the lake bottom.

At first, she didn't find anything. But when she swam to a spot on the lakebed near the base of the right cliff, shrouded in the shadow of a huge, protruding rock, her gaze froze. The aquatic plants there showed signs of being extensively disturbed, and there were several wide drag marks on the fine sand and silt at the bottom of the lake, clearly not formed naturally.

Moran immediately swam to the vicinity, and upon getting closer, he discovered a dark, irregularly shaped hole about two meters in diameter behind the dense aquatic plants!

She approached cautiously, and at the same time activated the Source Tracing Technique again, this time targeting a few small fish swimming near the cave entrance and swaying water plants.

Clearer fragments of images flooded her senses.

Not long ago, the slave hunters brought the unconscious Polly and Celine through here!
It really is here!
The situation inside the cave was unknown. Moran reviewed all the memories of the source targets he could find nearby before realizing that the cave entrance was actually an underground waterway that ran through the entire mountain range.

The slave-trafficking group dug many caves inside the mountain, which appeared to be a small outpost.

Instead of rushing into the cave, Moran quickly turned around, swam upstream, and returned to the rocky beach.

"How is it?" Lila and Kelly immediately surrounded them.

Moran wiped the water off his face and said quickly and clearly, "I found a hidden underwater cave entrance under the cliff on the right side of the lake! There are many traces left around the aquatic plants at the entrance. They must have taken Polly and Celine there. Based on the characteristics and scale of the water flow near the entrance, it is likely an underground waterway leading into the interior of the mountain, and it may be quite long."

"Underground sewers?" Lila and Kelly gasped, their expressions instantly turning extremely serious.

This perfectly explains why the other party went to great lengths and spared no expense to cover up any traces of the route to this place.

The secret waterway beneath Star Tear Waterfall, unknown to anyone, is a "shortcut" to quickly and secretly leave the Emerald Forest by avoiding the usual forest paths!
"These people must have discovered a shortcut in the lake to leave the forest, which is why they went to such lengths to run towards Startears Falls. If the waterway is clear and they have enough underwater breathing potions or magical items, they can quickly pass through the mountainside and reach the other side of the forest or even directly enter human territory! We must chase after them immediately!" Kelly said urgently.

"Wait!" Lila said more calmly. "There's a high-level mage in their group. They've likely set up warnings or traps in the waterway, and we know nothing about what's inside. It's too dangerous to rush in blindly. Elder Lyndall's main force should be arriving soon. It's too risky for us to go in first. We should hide here and wait to regroup. We'll have a better chance of success if we go in after we've gathered our strength."

Moran then spoke up, "Lady Lila is right..."

She carefully chose her words, combining the insights from the divination of fortune and misfortune with the information about the strongholds discovered through the tracing of origins into a reasonable deduction:
"After they entered the waterway, they seemed to relax their vigilance and no longer tried to conceal their whereabouts, which suggests that they probably thought they were safe once they entered the waterway."

The Emerald Forest is home to many humanoid tribes that are close to nature, and they may also be targets of slave-hunting groups.

This underground waterway is very well hidden. If it can really penetrate the mountain and lead directly to the outside of the forest, they will likely station people to guard it.

If we rush in now, we might alert them. It would be better to wait for Elder Ryandor and the others to arrive. Then we'll have enough strength to infiltrate and have a better chance of rescuing Polly and Celine.

The divination method also suggests that waiting a while will yield better results.

“Okay!” Kelly was persuaded and decided to wait a little longer: “I’ll go to the fork in the forest path and change the markings so they all come this way!”

After Kelly left, Moran found a secluded crevice near the rocky beach that offered both a good view of the lake and adequate cover. He hid there, preparing the cheek pouch potion for Lila while anxiously awaiting reinforcements. (End of Chapter)