Chapter 229: The Retrograde Remnant Light

"Father, someone from above just came by."

"When?" Green turned his neck; resting on the coffin lid for a long time had made the back of his neck sore, though still bearable.

The cultivator relit the lantern used to watch the map for him. In the dim yellow light, another passage could be seen marked. "Just now, it rained again up there."

"Was the rain heavy?"

"Not really, same as before, so I didn't wake you."

Pressing an ear to the water sound on the other side of the rock fissure, the water flow from the ground converged into streams here. Perhaps his hearing was extra sharp just after waking, the water seemed slightly stronger than before, scouring the silt and emitting a rhythm like dry, shriveled veins.

"Wake me directly next time, no matter the situation, do not wait." Green instructed, "How many rains has this been recently?"

"Maybe three or four times?" After a moment of recollection and thought, the cultivator gave the answer.

Summer has plenty of such unseasonable showers; they come fast and go fast, barely soaking the soil layer, let alone seeping underground, merely raising the water layer inside the tunnel slightly.

The impact on the search was not as great as imagined; as long as it didn't reach the ankles, it wouldn't hinder walking.

Only when converging into that great hall could the increase in water volume be felt significantly, the waterfall overflowing the cracks on the stone steps, flooding the black-green moss, covering everything under the distorted light and shadow on the water surface.

And that hexagonal deep well still insatiably devoured the terrifying volume of water, below seeming to lead to a fearsome endless void, never to be filled.

Only the cultivators on watch in the hall reported that the sound of falling water seemed to be getting louder, and also deeper and muddier, making one think of a giant cauldron gradually being filled.

The team continued to rotate going out; the cultivators holding the right to wield violence given by the Heavenly Father inevitably began to feel anxious, as they still hadn't found a place where they could properly exert their abilities.

That light discovered earlier was like bait thrown into water, luring them, yet when deliberately sought, it was nowhere to be found.

"How long have our people been out?" Green looked around the stone chamber; the boots of the team currently stationed and resting still had water marks not fully dried, and Brother Wading was among them. It seemed a rotation had just occurred not long ago.

"A while."

"Can you call them back?"

"Probably too late; they should have already passed the hall." The cultivator sat down beside Green, extending his hand to warm it by the lamp flame; places near waterways always had a dampness.

"You are worrying too much; it's just a light rain, much like before. No need to stop the search for this; we also want to find that group of damn heretics quickly and leave this place sooner."

Of course, it wasn't questioning this young priest's caution, but summer light rains were too frequent; sometimes they stopped before the outgoing team returned, making it seem not worth it to specially call back a team that had just left.

Green fell silent for a while, tapping the map lightly. Based on a few experiences, this was not without reason; forcibly interrupting the search would also aggravate the anxious mood.

But some words were like a thorn stuck in the skin, occasionally sending a small, sharp warning whenever one wanted to take action.

"Go up and check again in a while; if the rain hasn't stopped, first call back the people we have guarding the hall, and the returning teams should not go out again for now."

"Of course, as you wish."

Silence fell inside the stone chamber; church personnel were naturally adapted to this quiet atmosphere, consistent with the solemn church environment requiring low voices.

The priest studied the incomplete map alone under the lamp, trying to discover some hidden pattern; this was how the past few days had been spent.

Abandon anxiety. He silently recited the teachings of the scripture; if this was a trial, he would not disappoint the Lord.

Suppressing the irritability in his heart, Green continued to check the branches spreading out like roots one by one; new passages had been drawn on the map, still mostly dead ends with a few having no end in sight.

His fingertips traced those dashed or transverse lines, and he began to form a guess—whether these branches whose ends had not been reached were actually blocked somewhere further upstream, thus limiting the magnitude of water flow changes in the channels after the showers.

Who exactly came underground specifically to collapse them?

That might have been a very long time ago; otherwise, it wouldn't be described as "chisel marks similar to those on relics from the era of the Kingdom's birth."

It was hard to imagine that in that ancient era, someone would expend huge manpower and time on destroying these even older tunnels.

But why would they do such a thing?

Green was immersed in groundless speculations until the cultivators gradually finished resting and began to quietly perform their daily prayers.

A message was passed to his ear—the rain hadn't stopped yet.

"Brother Wading, come here." Green closed the map, realizing he had overlooked a small thing all along; in a place where time couldn't be estimated by the sky, one should bring a large hourglass for timing.

"Any orders? We are about to depart soon."

"No, wait for now; it has been raining up there for quite a while." Green pressed down on his shoulder, also suppressing a flicker of anxious unease rising in his heart, trying hard not to let it show on his face, "You take people to call back the sentries in the hall."

"I'll go right away."

Brother Wading nodded and left, immediately taking several people to climb over the fissure.

A moment later, a slightly muffled sound came through the narrow crack, "Green, the water flow has increased a bit, but it's no big problem; they can definitely make it back in time now."

"I understand." Supporting himself on the ground, the priest stood up and walked to the rock fissure; the sound of stepping on water quickly faded away.

Brother Wading didn't make him wait long. Very soon, several cultivators, soaked and shivering, followed back into the stone chamber.

One of them, somewhat embarrassed, proposed shortening the shift time; the humidity in the hall seemed to have reached a point where it could no longer be overcome by faith.

The priest coughed dryly a few times, nodded in agreement, his calm demeanor unchanged. But as his right-hand man and the one who knew him best, Brother Wading sensed his mind was not here at all.

Like a fierce beast trapped in a cage, Green walked from one end of the room to the other, glancing subconsciously at the rock fissure leading to the waterway each time he passed. He finally couldn't hold back and asked the sentries stationed in the hall to confirm the passage time of the two teams outside.

However, the darkness blurred the sense of time too severely; after receiving an uncertain answer, his pacing speed noticeably increased.

"Damn it, I ordered that once a change in water flow is noticed, they must return; why didn't they take it seriously."

At least half of those present lowered their heads; after the initial caution, most had actually developed some degree of contempt.

If it were them encountering a not-too-large change in water flow, they would probably think to hurry and clear the side passages first before returning, to avoid making an extra trip.

"Brother Wading, you took people..." It was a bit too long; an unreasoned premonition appeared in his heart, like a chill seeping through the skin, flowing backward, and drilling into the heart, causing the life-sustaining beat to skip a pulse.

He trusted his intuition and regarded it as a revelation, "No, I'll go myself; Brother Wading, you stay here; make decisions on my behalf if anything happens."

Gathering items at the fastest speed and hanging his sword on his belt, Priest Green led the rested cultivators through the rock fissure, lit torches, and headed for the hall without concealing their tracks.

Going down along the waterway, approaching the tunnel exit, Green was surprised that this stretch of road was walked with exceptional ease; even though the flame flickered, it did not affect a layer of stable light dancing on the water surface.

Rushing forward a distance, he realized belatedly that it wasn't the light from the torch in his hand, but a dim light coming from the great hall below, refracting through layers of water mist and traveling backward up from the cave mouth.

Like the residual light of some dying celestial body.

Oh my god!