Chapter 2498: Vista Woodland and the Tree Hole

Xia De's voice fell, and white mist surged from all directions, completely covering this circular space. The Ancient God statue disappeared in front, and a small path appeared in the thick white mist in front, with 10 old wooden signposts on the path.

【Outsider, you have stepped into the "Spatial Labyrinth".】

【Message from the Ancient God "Original Crack":】

【Existing spatial landmarks: 10.】

"Home, Cold Water Port, Xikar Mountain, White River Valley Vineyard, Lighthouse of the Great Swamp, Church of the Forgotten, Temple of Night, Green Lake Hotel, Green Lake Lighthouse, Moon Bay Dragon Nest."

Xia De scanned those signposts, drank the soy milk that was actually milk, and then held up the white stone crystal in the mist:

"Offer a sacrifice to the Spatial Labyrinth."

The crystal melted into the mist, and at the same time "She" prompted:

【Obtained new information: can search for new spatial landmarks. Please choose a direction.】

"Southeast."

As the voice fell, the small path in the thick fog extended a new distance into the distance, which made the originally short small path now have a length of fifty meters. And in the new area of the small path, a rotten old signpost that seemed to have been ravaged by time for a hundred years gradually appeared.

Confirming that he was carrying sufficient items, Xia De stepped forward and touched the new signpost.

【Original Crack will guide you.】

"She" gentle voice fell, and the white mist around quickly scattered in all directions, and the light also disappeared quickly.

The brand-new dark space was dry but not stuffy at all. When Xia De's eyes looked at the Ancient God statue in front, the two-headed statue was lit up and illuminated the surroundings.

It was still a circular space identical to other cities, but this time there were scattered sundries by the wall.

Because this hidden space leading to the "Spatial Labyrinth" was not time-frozen, most of the things in it had rotted away. It looked like they had been placed here hundreds of years ago.

Xia De simply tidied up. There were no relics among them, and the only things that could still be used were two items.

One was a lantern, but it was not the kerosene lamp in the style of a storm lantern that could hold fire seeds that he harvested from the Sin Mansion, but an exquisite Elvish-style lantern.

The craftsmanship of the excellent Elvish artisan made the lantern very well-sealed, so there was even quite a bit of oil left inside.

The other was a holy emblem made of wood, and the pattern of the holy emblem was a large tree painted with white lacquer.

Xia De recognized this immediately:

"The holy emblem of the Oak God, the God of Luck - the Ancient God 【White Holy Tree】? I remember that the organization that still believes in this god is the 【Hermit Group in the Forest】."

Xia De was no stranger to this small Ringed Shushi organization. They had a good friendship with Old John, and the 【Oak's Luck Potion】 and the relic derivative 【Empty Bottle Fruit】 that Xia De had used were provided by this organization.

The wooden holy emblem did not rot, naturally because it contained miracle elements itself. But although it contained power, the power it contained was not strong enough, so it could not be sacrificed to the 【Holy White Hall】:

"Have members of the 【Hermit Group in the Forest】 come here? I remember Old John said that the place where the 【Hermit Group in the Forest】 is located is a certain forest area in the middle of the Old Continent, so it shouldn't be here."

He carefully checked the holy emblem and the lantern but didn't take them away, but left them in place. Then the Ring of Fate emerged from the steam mist behind him, and the 【Space-Time】 spiritual rune flickered with spiritual light, illuminating the wall in the direction pointed by the statue.

The melted wall revealed a hidden passage, and Xia De carefully walked out with his sword.

Outside the passage, as expected, it was pitch black, but now Xia De's "Dark Vision" could see the surroundings completely clearly.

Taking a deep breath, the nose was filled with the smell of mud. Scanning the surroundings, this was a narrow space the size of a vestibule.

The floor, surroundings, and ceiling were all paved with identical gray-white short rectangular stone bricks. A torch was hanging on the wall on the right hand side, so Xia De threw a flame to light it.

The bright yellow flame jumped and illuminated the place completely, so Xia De also confirmed that this extremely narrow space really had nothing.

Behind was the brick wall where the hidden passage was located, and not far in front were the stone steps spiraling upward. The stairs were also paved with that kind of gray-white rectangular stone brick:

"The end of the stairs is so small, it can't be used as a storage room. Therefore, this staircase and this narrow space were built entirely to lead to the hidden passage behind the wall."

【Echoes of the Past】 could not hear any sound, and 【Powerful Spatial Perception】 told Xia De that his current position was underground.

Combining the Old Continent map and the Vista Woodland map he had prepared to locate, he finally determined that this was his destination. The specific location was in the vast forest sea outside the town of Vista City/Creekwood Town.

"Could this be the basement of a lumberjack's cabin? Or the basement of an ancient ruin in the forest?"

Guessing in his heart, he walked up along the spiral stone steps. The narrower stairwell was suffocatingly oppressive. Fortunately, he reached the very top after turning a circle. Sensing the space again, the height at this time was equivalent to standing on the ground.

The end of the stone steps was also a brick wall, but after touching it a few times, Xia De found that this wall was actually a door, which needed to be opened in a specific way. It could be a key, or it could be a spell.

"Looks like a variant of an Elvish rune lock."

Although Xia De didn't have a key, this rune lock was far less strong than the Elvish ruins in the "Vulture Mountain Creek" area of the Moon Bay region, so he held 【Night Watcher】 with both hands and placed the sword tip against the wall:

"【Key of the Gate】!"

Turning the long sword bit by bit with force from his wrist, amidst the clicking sounds, a pale green ritual array appeared bit by bit, centered on the position where the sword tip contacted the wall. And as the long sword turned further, those ritual array runes that seemed to be engraved on the surface of the brick wall also wandered and changed positions until all the emerald green runes left the outermost line of the ritual array.

"Whew~"

Xia De retracted his long sword and watched as 4x12 stone bricks on the brick wall in front of him disappeared, revealing a rectangular exit leading outward.

Moonlight had already spilled in from the outside at this time. Xia De reached out to catch the moonlight, couldn't help but reveal a smile, and then lowered his head and turned his body to walk out from the narrow exit.

Under his feet were the ruins' floor tiles almost covered by mud. Looking forward, it was the forest in the moonlight. Moonlight spilled down from the gaps in the still lush tree crowns of early autumn, leaving mottled moon shadows on the edge of this ruin with only half a wall left and a small amount of stone brick ground.

Although the forest at night was quiet, it was not absolutely quiet. The sound of insects and the rustling of the wind blowing through the treetops and grass tips constituted a perfect melody.

Turning to look behind him, a tall giant tree stood alone in the center of this ruin with only the last traces left. This tree was very thick. Xia De felt that even five of himself couldn't hug it together. But apart from standing alone in this small open space, it was not conspicuous in this forest, because there were quite a few such tall and thick trees in the forest outside the ruins:

"I finally know why the wood in Vista Woodland is so famous."

Xia De reached out and touched the rough bark of the giant tree he walked out from, and didn't feel any elemental reaction. But after using "Key of the Gate" with 【Night Watcher】 again, he could still open the spiral staircase leading to the underground:

"So this is a tree hole? This time the location is underground in the tree hole, it's really ingenious."

Although he would choose to throw the crystal shoes to go home later, he still took a few steps back and firmly remembered the forest clearing where this tree was located, the stone bricks on the clearing, and the position of the half wall.

Then he simply checked the vicinity and confirmed that this ruin with only floor tiles and half a wall left had no investigation value at all.

"Then, let's set off."

Unlike the Moon Bay region with extremely complex terrain, the terrain near the "City of Music" was relatively flat. Although there were a few small peaks, the ups and downs of the terrain were not large overall.

Therefore, after turning into a butterfly swarm from the ground and flying to the top of the giant tree with the hidden tree hole, standing at the highest point of the tree crown and looking towards the southwest, he could see the city lights at the end of the forest sea.

The name "Creekwood Town" was no longer suitable for this "City of a Thousand Trees" and "City of Music" that became an important node of the water network after the invention of the steamship arrived in the steam age. Even if he only saw the distant view of the city lights, Xia De understood that although this place was not as good as Moon Bay, it was also a genuine modern city of the steam age.

At least this place was much more prosperous than the backward area like Green Lake City.

The night was deep. After estimating the distance, Xia De didn't think about walking to the city, but turned into a butterfly swarm at the treetop again, and then flew straight towards the city.

Although the distance from here to the urban area was quite far, flying in a straight line in the air, Xia De estimated that he could approach the edge of the city in no more than half an hour.

Because almost the entire city was surrounded by forest, there were no large tracts of farmland around Creekwood Town. Reaching the edge of the city was equivalent to entering the urban area. After all, this place was originally just a small town where lumberjacks gathered.

It was just that he thought he only needed to consume some time to enter the city, but as he flew, Xia De felt that the distant lights had no intention of approaching him at all.

He initially thought this was because his brain had problems after maintaining the "butterfly swarm" state for too long, but after turning back into human form and resting on the treetop for a while and continuing to set off, he still felt that the distance between the distant lights and himself had not changed at all.

Confirming that this was not his illusion, he stopped on the treetop and looked up at the moon above his head, roughly understanding that he had encountered trouble as soon as he arrived.

"Now is the duration of the lucky soy milk, why did I become unlucky?" ===== CHAPTER 2499 =====