Becoming a wet nurse is not the end of the story.

"Did I say something wrong...?"

"No, you're absolutely right. It's great. You've taught me a lot of things I should have known but were kept from me. It's also helped me see through some people and understand some of them."

Shaking her head with a wry smile, Lin Xueyin changed the subject, "You said you were taken to a strange place, so can you still find that place?"

"this...."

Looking at Lin Xueyin with surprise and uncertainty, Kono seemed unsure of what to do, hesitating to speak.

"Think about it carefully. You also want to rescue everyone inside, right? I hope you can help us. They might be in mortal danger right now."

Seeing that Cono looked somewhat disbelieving, Lin Xueyin spoke up again, "Think about it, you've already come here, which proves that they've been exposed. At this point, the simplest and safest way is to kill all the slaves and then have them move away as soon as possible."

As if a word had awakened him from a dream, Kono trembled with fear and quickly said, "You, Yukine, you must go and save them. I'll take you there right away."

"Okay, let's go now." As she spoke, Lin Xueyin had already sent someone to report what she knew to Queen Merlo.

"Leaving already? I think it's better to make more preparations."

With a furrowed brow, Besna unexpectedly called out to Lin Xueyin, who was about to leave. Her safety was paramount at this moment; she couldn't afford to take unnecessary risks.

"Bessna, you should know that saving lives is as urgent as putting out a fire..."

"Your Highness, please extinguish the thunderous fire for now. If something happens to you here, it won't just be a matter of a few human slaves, but whether this Litianya can still exist."

"you....."

"Your Highness, if that time really comes, it will be a catastrophe for the entire Eagle Clan. Do you really want millions of Eagle Clan members to be displaced and millions of innocent civilians to suffer because of you?"

Lin Xueyin fell silent. She knew that she was in a good position and she was willing to gamble that she would be fine. But would others dare to gamble? At the very least, if she were to get hurt, the first one to suffer would be Besna, the one who had spoken up.

After that, the entire Litianya region will be affected, and it might even cause Nana to take her anger out on the entire Eagle Clan. This is not what Lin Xueyin wants to see, much less what she hopes will happen. However, human lives are at stake, so what should she do in this situation?

“Your Highness, we can have Queen Melo send troops to surround the area, and then you can go in once we confirm it is safe. We only hope that you are safe, and we hope you can understand.”

In fact, Lin Xueyin knew that what the other party meant was to tell her to behave herself and not to be willful anymore, because her every move already affected the fate of too many people.

She let out a long sigh, knowing she had been persuaded. Reason had prevailed over emotion, and she understood what the best course of action was at this moment.

“Let’s go to Her Majesty Melo. I think she also hopes to get rid of those rats as soon as possible.”

"OK..."

As Lin Xueyin spoke, she led Cono toward Melo, but before they even reached the palace where Queen Melo was, they saw her hurrying towards them.

"Pastor Lin, you've come at the right time! Quick, something's happened."

"Something happened? What happened?"

Seeing Melo rushing around, Lin Xueyin suddenly felt uneasy. It was a vague inspiration that she could hardly grasp.

"Time waits for no one, let's talk when we get there."

Upon seeing Lin Xueyin's arrival, Melo seemed to feel a sense of relief, and immediately grabbed Lin Xueyin's hand and rushed outside.

"Your Majesty, what exactly happened?"

"We found a basement in a house, and inside we discovered a large number of human women who had been brutally murdered. The situation inside is very strange, and we hope you can go and take a look."

"I'll help you investigate? I don't know how to investigate cases. Have you come to the wrong person?"

Lin Xueyin stared blankly at the anxious Eagle Queen, but found nothing suspicious.

“You’ll understand once you come with me. The situation there is far too complicated. After reading their message to me, I realized that perhaps His Highness, as a holy priest, might be able to find some clues.”

Here's the key point: as a holy priest, this matter seems to be related to holy priests. Even if it's not holy energy, it might be connected to this kind of energy.

With a large army leading the way, Lin Xueyin and her group quickly arrived at the place indicated by Queen Melo. The strong smell of blood filled the air, causing Lin Xueyin to involuntarily frown.

"It seems a lot of people must have died here. Let's hurry inside."

Sensing something was wrong, Lin Xueyin didn't notice that Cono was trembling with fear behind her. She ignored Queen Melo's attempts to stop her and quickly walked inside.

Following closely behind was Aria, who had always been with her as a guardian knight. Fortunately, she had come with her this time.

Upon entering the house, Lin Xueyin immediately noticed that a section of the wall had been opened, presumably leading to a secret passage to the basement. Just as she was about to go in, Ailiya grabbed her arm, glared at her fiercely, and then led the way inside.

Lin Xueyin shook her head helplessly and raised her hand to give her a shield, so that even if something went wrong, she would have time to react.

The dim yellow light emanated from the torches lit on both sides of the wall. As they gradually reached the end of the narrow staircase, the basement slowly revealed its true appearance to Lin Xueyin and the others.

"Ugh..." Before she could even see the whole thing, Lin Xueyin felt a wave of nausea. But thinking about what was inside, she persevered and, with Ailiya's help, continued to venture deeper.

When the entire basement came into view, Lin Xueyin could no longer bear the nausea churning within her. Even those who had been on the battlefield were far better off than this. If the battlefield was hell on earth, then this was hell within hell.

Bizarre patterns drawn with blood, various cruel instruments of torture, and an overwhelming, almost tangible, stench of blood. Statues of various shapes, yet all utterly malevolent.

The woman died with her eyes wide open, seemingly devoured by something. The mangled limbs chilled Lin Xueyin to the bone, and after that chill came endless rage.

The various postures of the corpses made Lin Xueyin clench her hands tightly. She could revive people, but did these people really need her to revive them?

Even if they were resurrected, it would only mean that they would live forever in this horrific memory.

She bit her pale lower lip tightly, trying not to let out a mournful sound, but the sobbing made Aria feel very sorry for her friend in her arms.

"Dust to dust, ashes to ashes, they can leave now. But I will absolutely seek revenge on those people for this injustice and this hatred. No matter who they are, I will spare no effort to make them receive the punishment they deserve..."

Volume 9 The Demon Clan's Journey: Chapter 18 Exploring the Underground Palace

Despite her physical discomfort, Lin Xueyin carefully examined the underground palace. Yes, it was an underground palace.

To call it just a basement would be an understatement. Led by Queen Melo and numerous soldiers, Lin Xueyin and Ailiya ventured deep into this vast underground palace.

The equipment area, storage area, magic area, food area, rest area, entertainment area, and of course, the detention area are all clearly divided, indicating that this underground palace has been under construction for quite some time.

However, the fact that such a massive underground palace could be built inside this mountain, especially since it was located in an area where the Eagle Clan originally lived, made Lin Xueyin somewhat suspicious of the Eagle Clan's situation.

“Xueyin, I think there are also enemies infiltrating our Eagle Clan, and their positions are not low.”

Before Lin Xueyin could speak, Queen Melo had already realized that the situation was very serious. Such a huge underground palace contained a large number of people, and they lived and even built it here, yet she had not received a single piece of information. Was this reasonable?

Given these inconsistencies, it's natural that someone would be covering for them. As for who it is, we don't know yet, but what we can confirm is that the person covering for them is definitely not of low status.

Even her own confidants might be among them. With this in mind, Queen Melo had already carefully reviewed all the suspects in her mind, hoping to find the most suspicious people.

"Indeed, such a massive underground palace could not have been built in a day. Since it wasn't built in a day, someone must have helped them cover it up. But, with such a large underground palace, there must be quite a few stones, right? How did they manage to send these stones away without anyone noticing?"

"Girl, you don't understand, do you? Our Eagle Clan's main business is rock mining. Every year, we mine a large amount of rock, firstly to expand our living space, and secondly to enrich the national treasury through foreign trade... Hmm?"

As if she had thought of something, Queen Melo glanced at Lin Xueyin, who was smiling, and said, "Summon Finance Minister Dormag. I think he should have some information that can help us."

"Your Majesty, should we bring him here now?"

“That’s right, let him come here. I want to ask, where exactly can all these stones go?”

Lin Xueyin, who was listening quietly, did not speak, but nodded, knowing that Queen Melo had indeed made the right choice in finding someone. At least, at this moment, the treasurer might indeed know something, or he himself might be an insider of this matter.

"We'll wait here for him and see what good news this finance minister has to give us."

However, Lin Xueyin had no hope for this inquiry. After all, this matter had been kept secret for so long. If it was simply a finance minister who was interfering, it would probably have been discovered long ago.

Queen Melo knew that she would not get any results this time, but as long as there was a clue, that would be enough to open a breach; otherwise, it would be very difficult to investigate this matter thoroughly.

"Your Majesty, why don't we go and look around elsewhere? I think they must have left something behind since they left in such a hurry. Perhaps they can provide us with some clues."

After a moment's thought, Melo also agreed with Lin Xueyin's idea.

"Okay, let's go take a look. They must have some things they couldn't move because they left in such a hurry."

As she spoke, Melo stood up, took Lin Xueyin's hand, and walked outside. There must be many clues here that they hadn't noticed.

"Your Majesty, perhaps we should split up. This would allow us to search a much larger area. However, I have a feeling that something is amiss here. I hope everyone will be as careful as possible during the search."

"Alright, all troops, split up and move out. When you do, remember to be careful and don't touch anything. If you find anything unusual, leave immediately and report back to us."

"yes..."

Lin Xueyin watched as the soldiers around her broke away from the ranks. "Your Majesty, let's go look around elsewhere and hopefully find some clues."

As she spoke, those strange and inexplicable statues flashed through her mind. Lin Xueyin always felt that she had seen these statues somewhere before, and she had a strong intuition that she should go back there to take a closer look.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Lin Xueyin quickly gathered Ailiya, Pandelina, and others, and urged them to follow her to the location of the previous statues.

The bizarre patterns, the inexplicable statues, and the bloody and cruel massacres, when they reappeared before Lin Xueyin's eyes, still made her stomach feel nauseous.

Why would you put something so horrific here, right where you just came down, when there are no such bloody scenes elsewhere?

"Yukine, are we really going to search this place? I feel like there's no need to search here."

"I don't know either, I just feel this place is suspicious. Please wait a moment while I take a look at these patterns."

It resembled a black six-pointed star made of blood, but these six-pointed stars combined to form an even larger pattern, leaving people completely baffled. If the elven mages were here, they might understand, since this kind of thing was beyond the reach of Lin Xueyin, an ordinary human.

"Xueyin, look at these statues. They're almost identical to the statues in the training grounds inside the Demon King's Castle."

"The statues inside the Demon King's Castle?" Lin Xueyin glanced over and, sure enough, these statues were exactly the same as those in the previous martial arts arena. If it weren't for the wrong location and the wrong arrangement, Lin Xueyin would have thought she was in the martial arts arena.

Looking at these statues, something seemed to flash through Lin Xueyin's mind, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was. She frowned slightly, watching Ailiya carefully touch one of the statues.

"Aria, be careful. If these statues come to life, you're doomed."

"Tch, these statues are so weird. And apart from this one being a gargoyle, the others aren't. Instead, they look more like tentacle monsters. I'll see what the difference is."

Arya waved to Orichils and then placed her hand on the gargoyle statue, only to hear a strange clicking sound.

"No, Aria, get out of there right now."

As she spoke, a golden shield opened up from Arya's body, and at that moment, a black claw slammed heavily into the newly erected shield, producing a dull thud.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The following is the author's note:

Thank you so much to readers @大喊、翻滚、吃瘪 for the generous donations! I'm incredibly grateful. However, it's really inconvenient that the author's notes section is currently unavailable due to maintenance.

Volume Nine: The Demon's Journey - Chapter Nineteen: Gargoyles

The sharp claws, having failed in their first strike, launched a second attack, which also failed to penetrate the target. The attacker, seeing his target escape unscathed, let out an angry roar.

Arya, who was suddenly attacked, was still in shock even though she had retreated from the enemy's attack range. Looking at the gargoyle that the huge stone statue had turned into in front of her, she drew her longsword.

"Aria..."

"Xueyin, please don't go. I've been trying my best, hoping that one day I can protect you. So please don't make a move this time."