Elven cultivators

"Could it be that those underground races had internal strife, resulting in heavy casualties, forcing them to give up?" Roman speculated.

"That's possible," Darian said thoughtfully. "But in any case, now that we're here, we can't leave empty-handed."

Roman nodded.

Regardless of whether those underground races are fighting amongst themselves or have given up, the Blood Soul Crystal Cluster is right in front of us, and there's no reason not to take it.

"Advance, proceed with caution," Roman ordered. "Cat-people scouts, go out and reconnoiter; Darkscale Clan, be alert for any rock tremors; Elven soldiers, remain on guard."

The team began to enter the basin in an orderly manner.

However, just as the group was halfway through their journey, a commotion suddenly broke out in the cat-man scouts' quarters.

"What's wrong?" Roman turned to look.

Soon, Moonscar, the leader of the cat-people tribe, came over, followed by a slender cat-people girl.

"Lord Roman, my people have discovered something amiss," Yuehen said respectfully, bowing slightly.

Roman's gaze fell on the cat-woman girl.

The latter seemed a little nervous, its ears slightly tucked back, and its tail swaying nervously behind it.

Ryan, who was standing to the side, was slightly surprised when he saw that familiar face. He stepped forward and whispered to Roman, "Lord Roman, her name is Nightsight. She has very keen senses. She was the one who discovered the Deep Rock Ratman hiding in the crevice last time."

Roman nodded knowingly, his gaze returning to Ye Tong, his tone softening slightly.

"What did you discover?"

Night Eyes hesitated for a moment, as if considering her words, before speaking: "Lord Roman, I can't quite put my finger on what's wrong, it's just... a gut feeling."

The surrounding elven soldiers exchanged bewildered glances, their expressions strange.

intuition?

Can you really judge something like this based on intuition?

Roman did not immediately raise any objections.

She is the type who trusts her intuition a lot.

Over the years, during my explorations of the Underdark, I have avoided traps more than once by relying on my intuition.

Moreover, the current situation is indeed quite strange.

More importantly, if it were just based on intuition, Yuehen would not have brought this cat-woman girl to him.

Given her composed personality, she wouldn't joke about something like this.

Sure enough, Ye Tong then pointed to the dome above the basin and said, "And that place is abnormal too."

Everyone looked in the direction she was pointing.

What comes into view is a dense array of white and purple spider silk, like some kind of giant spider web, spreading outwards from the center of the dome, so dense that it almost completely covers the dome.

Because of the blood-red light, they didn't notice the spider silk at first.

The scarlet light dyed everything red, and the color of the spider silk blended almost into the rock wall, making it impossible to distinguish without careful observation.

It wasn't until Ye Tong pointed it out that they suddenly realized that the entire basin was almost entirely covered by spider silk, like an inverted giant purple-white bowl.

"What's wrong with those spider silks?" Mia asked, puzzled. "The Underdark is full of spider creatures, spider silk is very common."

Nightshade shook her head: "That's not ordinary spider silk, but the silk of a stealth spider. I encountered a stealth spider not long ago, and their silk is this color."

Darian and the other disciples of the Primordial City all changed their expressions.

Roman keenly noticed the change in their expressions and asked, "Is there anything special about the silk of the stealth spider?"

Darian explained, "The stealth spider is a rare magical spider whose silk has a very special property: it can absorb the energy waves detected by magic."

"Any detection spells, magical items, or even the perception of certain laws will be absorbed and dissipated when they touch the stealth spider silk, and cannot be penetrated."

Roman immediately understood.

The dome was covered with a web woven from the silk of the stealth spiders, so all the detection spells they had just cast were naturally unable to detect what was above the web.

After that, Darian seemed to remember something else, looked around, and his gaze quickly fell on the gray-blue moss on the ground and rock walls around him.

Although much of it was destroyed by the Yellow Turban Warriors' rampage, a lot of gray-blue moss still remained, almost covering the entire basin and the surrounding rock walls.

Darian bent down and picked up some grayish-blue moss from the ground, examined it closely, and his expression quickly became serious.

"This is Whispering Moss." Darian's voice was deep. "This type of moss also has the properties of blocking auras and shielding perception and detection. Large areas of Whispering Moss will form a natural 'perception silence zone.' Creatures in this area will have their auras absorbed and blocked by the moss, and they will also be unable to perceive the auras of creatures outside."

The elves present changed their expressions and all looked behind them, releasing their senses.

Sure enough, even though there were still elven soldiers outside the basin, they couldn't sense any presence from them.

The moss, like an invisible barrier, separated the inside and outside of the cave into two separate worlds.

Even Flora's Insightful Eyes had their effects greatly weakened.

By this time, even the most oblivious elf realized something was wrong.

The spider silk of the elusive spider, the whispering moss, the silent perception zone... it's obvious that all of this has been carefully arranged.

Roman made a decisive order.

"Everyone, immediately use your Lightness Talisman and Vajra Talisman to exit the basin in an orderly manner, watching your step and head!"

The moment the words left his mouth, the elven soldier immediately took out a talisman from the leather box at his waist, activated it, and slapped it onto his body.

The Scale Clan and the Cat People hurriedly took out the prepared talismans and activated them with the sensing spirit stones.

A pale blue halo and a pale gold light shield lit up almost simultaneously, enveloping everyone in them.

Following closely behind, the group began to retreat in an orderly manner.

Realizing that their prey had noticed something was wrong, the ambushers, who had been lying in wait, could no longer wait and launched their attack.

The next moment, the rock layers and spider silk on the surface of the dome suddenly collapsed and tore apart, revealing a dense network of caves behind it.

Hundreds of spherical figures burst forth from it, like a swarm of bees pouring out of its nest, rushing towards the elves below.

At the same time, the ground suddenly cracked open, and hundreds of burrowing worms burst out of the ground, opening their mouths full of sharp teeth to bite the nearest elven soldier.

And from the dark passage they left behind, countless figures emerged.

Deeprock ratmen, earth giants, rotting corpse demons, mushroom people, Dilo dwarves, rock beast ghosts... countless subterranean creatures rushed towards the elven army.

The entire basin turned into a giant trap at that moment.

Darian's expression changed slightly.

Although he had expected it, he still felt a chill when he actually saw these subterranean races join forces and set up a trap.

Fortunately, thanks to Ye Tong's reminder, they noticed something was wrong in time and took precautions, thus avoiding falling completely into the trap.

Looking back now, the ambush and rout of the mushroom people and the corpse demons were mostly intended to lure them here, but they didn't fall for it.

"A cunning fellow."

Darian felt a chill run down his spine.

In the Darklands, a place where the strong prey on the weak, none of the forces that have survived to this day are exactly easy to deal with.

At the same time, the elven army displayed an astonishing speed of response to the sudden attack.

The pre-activated Vajra Talisman blocked most of the ranged attacks for them, preventing them from falling into chaos in the first encounter.

The lightness charms made their bodies exceptionally light, allowing them to nimbly evade attacks from the burrowing worms that emerged from the ground.

Before the burrowing worms could even close their mouthparts, their target had already disappeared from sight.

Immediately afterwards, the runic longsword, wreathed in a chilling light, slashed down.

The moment the sword blade pierced the gap in the burrowing worm's carapace, the runes lit up, and the blade easily tore open the thick chitinous shell, gushing out dark green fluid.

The piercing screech echoed through the basin, only to be quickly drowned out by the clanging of metal striking metal.

Arrows, spells, and longswords rained down like a dense storm.

In a short while, all of the hundreds of burrowing worms were killed, their huge bodies lying on the ground, turning the rubble a dark green.

At the same time, hundreds of Yellow Turban warriors stomped their feet on the ground, their steel-cast bodies shooting into the sky like cannonballs, brazenly meeting the magical rays descending from the heavens.

Chi Chi Chi!

The long-prepared ray attack by the Eye Demons failed to hit its target and was instead blocked by the steel wall formed by the Yellow Turban Warriors.

They were then horrified to discover that their ray attacks had failed to destroy the alchemical golems.

Apart from a few unlucky ones who were hit by too many rays and whose bodies disintegrated on the spot, the remaining alchemical golems only suffered damage to their bodies.

"What is this?"

"The magic ray didn't even kill them?"

"Damn it! It's a Silver-rank puppet!"

Before the Eye Demons could react, the Yellow Turban Warrior, still in mid-air, suddenly swung his golden mace, which crashed heavily into the Eye Demon horde with a dull whistling sound.

Bang!Bang!

The twenty-odd beheadings at the front were instantly crushed by the heavy golden mace, their bodies collapsing and viscous fluids splattering everywhere.

In the blink of an eye, the Eye Demon's side lost more than twenty members.

A spherical corpse fell from the dome, crashing into the chaotic crowd below, eliciting gasps and curses.

The basin has descended into full-scale chaos.

The elven army clashed fiercely with numerous underground creatures.

Compared to the rabble and disorganized underground creatures, the elves' formations were more organized and flexible.

They worked in small teams and cooperated seamlessly with each other.

The shield warriors stood at the forefront, using their rune-patterned shields to block attacks from all directions.

The swordsman followed closely behind, thrusting a fatal blow through a gap in the shield.

Archers and spellcasters provided fire support from the rear, raining arrows and spells down on the enemy ranks.

The elves were already far stronger than these subterranean creatures, not to mention they had the added advantage of superior equipment and talismans.

Weak creatures like Deeprock Ratmen, Mushroom Men, and Corpse Demons were quickly routed and fled in panic.

Only the strongest Dilo dwarves, rock goblins, and bewitching demons could withstand the elven army's offensive.

The ambush attackers, who should have been in a position of strength and advantage, have instead found themselves on the defensive.

The balance of power on the battlefield is tilting at an irreversible rate.