Chapter 6: A New Watcher, My Lord?

Although the stone pillar had lit up, no light membrane appeared. Aisk circled the pillar a few times, but nothing unusual showed up. Deeply disappointed, he let out a long sigh, popped the crystals he had installed back off, and the stone pillar dimmed once more.

Seeing Ange watched from afar. Seeing Aisk's futile efforts, Seeing Ange lowered his head to glance at his own wrist. The light membrane had ultimately transformed into this leather ornament on his wrist—did one need the leather ornament to open the teleportation passage?

Seeing Aisk pop the crystals off and the stone pillar dim again, Seeing Ange knew that the key to his going home likely lay in those crystals.

The popped-off crystals had shrunk a ring compared to when they were first installed. Aisk blew on them heartache-stricken, then put them back into his satchel.

Returning the way they came, when he brushed past Seeing Ange, Aisk shrugged and said with a bitter expression: "It failed, still can't open it. Looks like we'll have to learn your way of survival ahead of time."

My way of survival? Growing vegetables? Seeing Ange tilted his head, then lifted his foot and followed along again.

Noticing Seeing Ange was still following behind, Aisk laughed and said: "Why are you still following? Planning to come back to the underground city with me? But that's fine too, the wilderness is too dangerous—next time I come I might not see you again. If you're willing to follow, then follow."

Seeing Ange tilted his head. He felt Aisk had misunderstood. Go to the underground city? Did the underground city have blue crystals?

Almost back at the den, from afar he saw a zombie sprawled in front of Seeing Ange's den, wailing loudly.

When the little zombie woke up and found Seeing Ange gone, it immediately stopped going out, just stayed outside the den wailing. Perhaps it figured that as long as it called loud enough, Seeing Ange would appear.

Sure enough, after calling for half a day, Seeing Ange appeared. The little zombie excitedly jumped up, wailing as it ran toward Seeing Ange, and then refused to leave no matter what.

So Aisk kept walking, Seeing Ange kept following too, except now there was an extra little tail behind them—the little zombie followed step for step behind Seeing Ange.

One person and one bone horse, one skeleton and one zombie—a strange group. They walked up along the hillside, all the way to the very top. Once they crossed over, an endless wasteland stretched out before them: flat, desolate, no end in sight.

Walking forward in one direction, from morning until evening, almost time for the Wind of Rest to rise, suddenly the seemingly flat ground ahead abruptly revealed a "trench."

Just as if the earth had been sliced open with a crack, sunken down. Seeing this "trench," Aisk beamed, excitedly saying: "I thought we wouldn't make it in time and would have to spend another night outside. Hurry, we've reached the underground city."

Just as Seeing Ange's group entered the "trench's" range, the wind on the wasteland gradually grew stronger, but it was blocked by the edges, so once inside the "trench" the wind was much weaker, providing a wind-blocking effect like that of a den.

Seeing Ange looked up, feeling the biting wind whistling past overhead—the chill felt even more intense than in the den. Drawing in that cold aura here should be more efficient than in the den, right?

Aisk glanced back at Seeing Ange and said: "Walk faster, careful this evil wind blows you away."

After the warning, Aisk's habit of talking to himself flared up again. He muttered: "This used to be a great river. The river water flowed here, hit the lava geology, and seeped underground, carving out a vast underground space. Our underground city is built in that underground space. Thanks to these underground spaces, otherwise our people would have long been blown to death by the evil wind."

Aisk muttered on, not requiring any response. Just as he said, walking the wasteland all day without even a single person to talk to had cultivated his habit of talking himself through anything.

In the past he always talked to his bone horse, so talking to a skeleton now wasn't anything strange. Besides, he had a feeling that this little skeleton Seeing Ange seemed to understand what he said—at least understood more than his silly bone horse.

Seeing Ange listened silently, observing his surroundings as he went. Perhaps because the Wind of Rest was blocked outside, the environment inside the trench was much better than outside. There were even shrubs in the corners, moss growing on the shaded sides of stones, and insects could be seen moving about from time to time.

In the shrubs ahead, a stone caught Seeing Ange's attention. He saw black smoke invisible to the naked eye coiling around that stone. Seeing Seeing Ange looking over, the smoke stirred and slowly condensed into a human face.

"That's Black Face, a wraith, the old lich Filin's pet. Black Face, this is the little friend I brought back, don't scare him." Aisk introduced, then turned and said something to the wraith.

The human face formed by the smoke revealed two hollows where the eyes should be, lingering deeply on Seeing Ange and the little zombie for a moment, then dissolving back into a ball of smoke and coiling around the stone.

Continuing downward, on the side of the trench's bottom there was a fissure—over ten meters wide and four or five meters tall—the entrance to the underground city.

At this moment, at the entrance, a person holding an exquisite staff stood there, craning his neck to peer in the direction coming down the trench.

This was a scrawny, scrawny "person." The skin exposed outside his clothes had no luster at all, all wrinkled, the muscles shriveled as if they'd lost moisture, with not a trace of elasticity. His eye sockets were sunken, cheekbones jutted high—he looked just like a dried corpse.

And indeed this was a dried corpse. Seeing this "person," Aisk called out a greeting from afar: "Hey, Filin, what are you doing here? Couldn't be here to welcome me, could you? That's too grand."

It was precisely the master of that wraith just now—the old lich Filin.

Filin gave a slight smile, showing a very affable expression: "Black Face saw you coming back and came over to take a look. How did it go? Any gains?"

The old lich asked very tactfully, but Aisk knew what he wanted to ask—he just didn't want to put too much pressure on Aisk.

Aisk forced a smile onto his face and shook his head: "No, they're short on food too, won't sell."

Filin nodded somewhat disappointed: "That's normal, places that can grow food are fewer and fewer. No one's household isn't short on food. If they sold to us, they'd have to let some of their own starve. Don't take it to heart, it's not your fault."

Aisk gave an awkward chuckle and said: "Anyway, couldn't buy food, so I went to the Sea of the Reborn for a trip, but the teleportation passage still won't open. The magic crystal shrunk a ring though."

Filin listened without concern, rather showing some disappointment: "Still won't open? That's normal too, it's been a thousand years. I don't know how the Palace of Rest is doing, hope Your Majesty is at peace. The magic crystal shrinking is what it is—can't buy food, keeping the magic crystal won't let us eat either. Don't worry about it. You're tired too, go rest."

Filin's gentle consolation instead made Aisk's eyes redden. He sniffed, and only after passing by Filin's side did he manage a smile: "Ran into a quiet skeleton at the Sea of the Reborn, it followed me back on its own. Heh, I suspect it can understand what I say, like it has intelligence."

Aisk's words made Filin shift his gaze over, casually sizing Seeing Ange up once, until his gaze landed on Seeing Ange's wrist, at which point he suddenly shuddered all over and stared wide-eyed in disbelief.

Aisk had already walked into the entrance and didn't see Filin's strange state. Filin stumbled up to Seeing Ange, tossed the exquisite staff carelessly to the ground, trembling hand reaching forward, wanting to grasp Seeing Ange's hand, but halfway there realized something was off and quickly pulled back, looking all at sixes and sevens.

If Aisk hadn't gone in, seeing the usually composed old lich in such a state, he'd probably have his eyes popping out of his head.

After being excited for a while, Filin finally looked at Ange with eyes full of hope and asked: "You, are you the new Watcher, my lord?"