Conan Rick's Investigator

"It seems like this is it."

Qin Zhibo's inner intuition was very certain that this was the entrance to the underground world - Kunyang.

Koizumi Hongzi reached out and touched the carvings on the sandstone, her eyes thoughtful.

The two of them finally checked their equipment and made sure it was enough for a week of adventure in the underground world before stepping into the ominous entrance.

Compared to the narrowness of the cave entrance, the passage inside is slightly wider than the cave entrance itself.

After walking through a natural path made of pristine sandstone, the cave transforms into a man-made tunnel paved with stone slabs.

After countless years, these stone slabs have been severely corroded in the humid air, and when you step on them, they make a sound of friction between the stones.

On the walls on both sides of the cobblestone road and on the ceiling are some disgusting and grotesque patterns, most of which have been preserved.

Using the light from the searchlight, the two discovered that the themes of these patterns were a snake-like lizard man and a monster with an octopus head.

Qin Zhibo looked at the monster with an octopus head. Its bloated figure was squatting on the base with ill intentions, and he immediately remembered what it was.

Cthulhu.

Are there Cthulhu followers in this place too?

Qin Zhibo couldn't quite believe it. Could it be that those people from Innsmouth were below?

Koizumi Hongzi recognized the origin of the image of the snake-headed lizard man next to it.

"This should be Yin Ge, the father of snakes."

"This is a very evil god. According to legend, it once cursed those half-snake people who did not believe in it."

From here on, the two of them gradually began to feel the evil and weirdness of this place.

The tunnel in the darkness continued to extend endlessly downward in a certain direction, somewhat similar to the stairs in a dreamland, except that there were no steps here, only slopes.

If you accidentally fall, you are likely to slide down the slope.

Therefore, the leader Qin Zhibo was very cautious and was not in a hurry to catch up with the progress.

Mr. Clock said that if someone was waiting for him in front of him, he would definitely wait for him.

After all, they are "friends"...

……

After walking down for more than three hours, Qin Zhibo finally felt some changes in the air quality around him.

Although I didn't have any difficulty breathing on the journey just now, I could smell a rotten smell in the air, even in the huge cave I passed by.

But gradually, the deeper underground he went, where carbon dioxide should have been deposited, the more Qin Zhibo felt an unprecedented fresh smell in the air.

It was at this time that the tunnel finally took a turn, changing from a downhill road to an uphill staircase.

Qin Zhibo and Koizumi Hongzi walked over the roughly carved stone steps, and the light of the powerful searchlight became dim.

At the top of the stairs, there is a huge stone door.

After passing through the stone gate, the view suddenly opens up.

Behind the stone gate was an endless plain!

Chapter 990 Underground Exploration

"Here is..."

"Kunyang..."

Qin Zhibo and Koizumi Hongzi murmured, both shocked by the underground scene before them.

This is a bizarre world, with countless peaks hanging upside down in the sky, like stalactites in a cave, but a hundred times larger.

What illuminates all of this is the light like a pale blue arc floating in the air, as gorgeous as the aurora, yet strangely flickering.

Under such a brilliant sky, searchlights seemed useless.

At the foot of the mountain where the two were standing was a plain shrouded in light blue clouds.

Qin Zhibo looked at this scene and vaguely remembered the "Xin's Tomb Group" in the dreamland he had visited before. There were many similarities between here and there.

For example, there is no "sky" that never alternates between day and night, except that the Xin Tombs are green and Kunyang is light blue.

……

Qin Zhibo and Koizumi Hongzi did not rush down, but first observed the situation on the hillside.

Due to the light blue clouds, the telescope cannot see what is inside the clouds, and can only see what is on the nearby plains.

Soon, Qin Zhibo found a group of livestock wandering on the dark fields of the plain.

These four-legged beasts looked neither like horses nor like bison, but rather like evil monsters with ugly, flat faces on their heads.

On the furry backs of these livestock, you can see some bronze-crafted saddles, as if they were some kind of riding tools.

But within the range of vision, Qin Zhibo had not yet found where the owner who was guarding them was, and it seemed that they were grazing freely.

Qin Zhibo checked the electronic map of the navigator again, but unfortunately, this place was regarded as a whole by the electronic map and collectively called "Sato".

Except for the uncertainty in the light blue clouds, the rest of the plain is mostly deserted.

Qin Zhibo took out the real Panester fragment again, but the fragment did not react at all and remained the same as on the ground.

"It seems the only way forward is to move forward..."

While Qin Zhibo was observing, Koizumi Hongzi also took out the crystal ball and did some divination.

The crystal ball, which always knows everything, played the game of silence at this time and did not answer any questions asked by Koizumi Hongzi.

"Hey! Tell us how to go next?"

The crystal ball was silent.

"If you don't speak up I'll smash you!"

Koizumi Hongzi raised the crystal ball high and was about to smash it on the ground. The crystal ball then quickly spoke in a shrill voice to save its life.

"Lord Hongzi! Please wait a moment!"

"It's not that I won't tell you, it's that I really don't know... Just think about it, how many wizards have ever been to that place since ancient times? I'm not the crystal ball of the great wizard Ebony, so how could I possibly know how to get to Enkai?"

"But I can feel that there is an extremely powerful force hidden under the ground of this place. It is so powerful that it is unimaginable. It is so terrifying~~"

"If you insist on going down, please put me where others can pick me up, thank you."

The last sentence in the crystal ball, about being a "traitor", made Koizumi Hongzi so angry that she raised her hand to throw it to the ground.

But Koizumi Hongzi changed her mind and put the crystal ball back into the package with a smile.

The crystal ball screamed immediately, and a ball of light blue ran wildly inside the crystal ball wall.

"Master Hongzi, please let me out! I don't want to die with you!"

"Woooooooo..."

The sound of the crystal ball disappeared into the backpack, just like the mouth was forcibly covered.

Koizumi Hongzi patted the dust off her palm and said nonchalantly, "Forget it, this guy is unreliable. We can only find the way ourselves."

Qin Zhibo nodded. He had known this would be the result.

If the crystal ball was so useful, there would be more than one great magician, Eibon, in history.

……

The two came down from the dark gray basalt hillside without vegetation and stood on the boundless plain.

The vast plains were mostly fertile black soil mixed with gravel. There was nothing distinguishable on the land except for the clouds that glowed blue and changed shape from time to time.

In order to restore their strength and reduce the weight, Qin Zhibo and Koizumi Hongzi first ate some of the food they brought with them, such as compressed biscuits, chocolate, raisins, etc.

After eating, they hid the day's supplies at the foot of the steep hillside, creating a conspicuous pile of stones to mark the location of the supplies.

After the rest, the two walked towards the area where the clouds were the densest, because according to Qin Zhibo's observation, there must be some hidden secret there.

These clouds are like those created by the Allied Forces' rift generator in Red Alert 2. They are always in a condensed state, most likely to hide something important.

Perhaps it is the legendary entrance to Enkai Abyss.

……

Qin Zhibo and Koizumi Hongzi walked on the barren plain for three hours, and it was already past 6 o'clock.

Although it is dusk outside, there is no sign of darkness here, and the blue sky above is still bright.

Fortunately, the two of them had already reached the place where Qin Zhibo had seen a group of livestock on the hillside. This location was not far from the area where the clouds were most concentrated.

At this time, the livestock had disappeared, leaving only some strange footprints.

These huge and strange footprints did not look like hooves, hands, or feet, and strictly speaking, they did not look like claws.

If you look closely, you will see that although this soil is very fertile black soil, there is no vegetation growing on it.

In other words, those four-legged livestock were not grazing, but might have been hunting some invisible small animals on the plains.

They may be carnivores.

This made Qin Zhibo feel a little alert, and he had to be careful about their presence next time.

Continuing forward, Qin Zhibo and Koizumi Hongzi found some even more incredible traces.

This is a wide road that extends straight towards the hillside leading to Kunyang, while the other end of the road extends into dense clouds and fog.

Qin Zhibo and Koizumi Hongzi looked at each other, and felt more and more that there was something weird here.

First of all, the saddles on the animals indicate that they have owners.

The second thing is this ancient road that has been artificially leveled, which is also something that only advanced civilizations would do.

All signs indicate that there really are "people" in this underground world.

At this time, Koizumi Hongzi found a shiny object half-rolled into the soil on the road.

"what is that?"

Qin Zhibo walked over when he heard the sound, dug it out with a machete, and found that it was a metal coin similar to a badge.

It was struck from an unknown metal with a darker hue, somewhere between gold and copper, and both sides of the coin were engraved with intricate and horrifying designs.

There are bloated octopus heads, fat toad bodies, giant snake heads spitting snake letters...

The image on the metal coin reminded Qin Zhibo that Running Bull mentioned that his father had an amulet, and the pattern on it might be like this.

Qin Zhibo felt that it was unlikely that he would just happen to pick up the amulet from Benniu's father.

So it is more likely that this "amulet" itself is mass-produced.

Considering the possible existence of advanced civilization here, perhaps the essential function of this "amulet" is "currency".

Generally, when a country mints currency, it will choose images that are of great significance to the country and have them engraved on the currency, such as the famous British Queen's Penny.

But this place engraved these evil images on coins with superb craftsmanship.

The madness of this place is evident from the fact that it chooses a brainwashing-like way of worship.

……

Walking along the road into the clouds, the world of desolation and deathly silence finally saw some signs of improvement.

There were some trees, bushes, and a small river surrounded by rocks in front of me.

Across the small river in front of us, the road is connected to a basalt stone bridge over the river. Behind the stone bridge, the shadow of a town can be vaguely seen in the clouds.

Qin Zhibo and Koizumi Hongzi looked at each other, neither of them said anything, but they saw the answer from each other's eyes.

Over!

After walking across the stone bridge, the town in the mist became more clearly visible.

Standing among the sparse vegetation by the river, the two carefully observed the town.

This place is not as lively and warm as Uzzah. Everything here is filled with death and a strange sense of horror.

The town was dotted with ancient and gloomy stone buildings. No living creatures could be seen moving on the foggy streets, until the checkerboard roads stretched to even more distant and invisible places.

Is this a dead city?