I created the myth of the Great Old Ones.

The group extinguished their torches, leaving only the flickering light, and continued onward.

Xia used her detection spell to check her surroundings from time to time, but found nothing unusual.

Lu Ban thought of the pyramids. He had previously watched a documentary about a group of people exploring the pyramids. At the end of the story, most of these explorers died due to various accidents, adding a lot of mystery to the tombs of the pharaohs.

Thinking about this, Lu Ban suddenly felt that everyone's footsteps were no longer so chaotic.

"Wait a moment."

He said something, turned around, saw Sia, faceless, and nothing seemed amiss. He turned back and continued forward.

"wrong."

Lu Ban spoke again, causing Iron Fist to stop as well.

"what happened?"

Iron Fist turned around and saw Lu Ban and Faceless. He was somewhat puzzled.

"Something feels off; it's too quiet."

Lu Ban muttered to himself.

"You should leave now."

Faceless urged Lu Ban from behind, and Lu Ban could only continue forward, following behind Flash.

"Tell me, at what age did you start doing this?"

Lu Ban then struck up a conversation.

"Twelve years old."

Flash replied.

"That's very early, it must be very tiring."

Lu Ban suddenly felt that the surroundings had darkened.

Who are you talking to?

The faceless figure behind him asked.

"Of course I'm talking to you."

Lu Ban answered as a matter of course.

He didn't say anything more, but took two steps forward.

"Speaking of which..."

In the darkness, according to Lu Ban's [True Vision], there was no one else in the dimly lit passageway except for him.

"...Is that so?"

Without his knowledge, his teammates had all disappeared, but they were completely unaware.

"Is it the influence of the extraordinary power of this underground city? Or the power of the saint's remains?"

Lu Ban remained calm. He picked up a crowbar and tapped on the wall.

Several muffled thuds sounded; the wall seemed to be real.

He then took out the "Last Words," switched to ultrasonic mode, and probed ahead.

"A straight path, about two hundred meters long, diagonally downwards, leading to a room?"

Lu Ban roughly figured out the situation.

Just as he was about to walk forward, he saw the white-robed, black-haired "remains of a saint" standing in front of him, his eyes, devoid of white, staring straight at him.

Chapter 186 Do you want to eat?

With teammates disappearing one after another, the sudden appearance of the saint's remains in the dark and gloomy underground labyrinth is rather eerie.

It just stared at Lu Ban, motionless, like a cat observing its prey.

After a moment of silence, Lu Ban felt that they couldn't keep dragging this on.

He reached into his backpack and pulled out an energy bar.

Do you want some?

The remains of the saint stared intently at Lu Ban's hand, or rather, there were no eyes in them, only the head following the movement, like an owl.

It did not answer.

Lu Ban disassembled the energy bar and carefully approached the other party, holding the energy bar, which was exuding the aroma of oil and nuts, close to the saint's remains.

It tilted its head, as if it didn't understand what Lu Ban had done.

"Looks like she's not going to eat..."

Lu Ban had initially thought that since it hadn't seen anyone for over a hundred years and there didn't seem to be any food around, it might be very hungry, but now it seemed that it had no interest in food.

Does this mean that people stop feeling hungry after they die?

Lu Ban felt he had made a groundbreaking discovery worthy of a Nobel Prize.

Looking at the energy bar in his hand, Lu Ban thought for a moment. If he just put it back like this, it would definitely be crushed in his bag if he did any strenuous exercise later, which would be a hassle to clean up.

So he ate it himself.

Click, click, click—

The sound of chewing echoed through the ancient passageway.

The saint's remains also mimicked Lu Ban, crunching and munching on the air in his hands.

"You've lived here for so long, do you know where my companions are?"

Lu Ban asked a question.

"$@#&^%"

The remains of a saint answered.

"I see. Then can you help me find them?"

"@$&^#%"

The remains of the saint answered again.

"So, if you help me find my teammates, I'll treat you to pumpkin, a really delicious pumpkin."

Lu Ban persisted relentlessly.

"$#%&"

The remains of the saint tilted their head.

Then, it disappeared from its original position, as if it had been erased by something.

Then, the white figure appeared in the deeper passage, as if waiting for Lu Ban to pass by.

"Then I have no choice but to keep moving forward..."

As Lu Ban moved forward, the paintings on the wall gradually became clearer in the [True Vision], perhaps because the closer one got to the depths, the less interference from the outside world there was.

He couldn't help but admire the paintings.

Lu Ban had probably read about the different stages of human painting in some casual book. The paintings on this wall had a strong religious overtone, and the figures had formed a fixed pattern with obvious symbolic features. Simply put, they used several symbols to indicate that the thing was a person, rather than the style of primitive paintings that relied purely on lines and depicted things as they were.

Therefore, such paintings can reveal certain stories.

The story itself isn't particularly remarkable; it's simply a collection of fragments about monarchs' conquests, development, and governance. However, due to the emergence of crystallization disease, these individuals all have varying degrees of crystallization within them.

Lu Ban noticed that there were no depictions of crystals on the king and priests, which meant that they might not have the symptoms of crystallization disease.

He thought of the saint's remains; indeed, no crystals could be found on the outside.

Perhaps the sage found a way to suppress his own crystalline nucleus disease, which is why he was able to live for so many years.

As Lu Ban continued down, he saw the painting begin to change, with an altar appearing frequently and scenes of sacrifice emerging in the painting.

First, the passage to the underworld must be opened. Then, the sacrificial offerings are driven into the passage. Next, Hades, who is hiding in the underworld, will awaken. He will wander in his kingdom, searching for the sacrificial offerings, and after satisfying them, he will leave and bestow treasures upon the people.

These are very primitive belief stories. In ancient societies, people often personified natural phenomena, turning them into various kinds of gods, with death being particularly prominent.

When deities with abstract concepts appeared later, it was already the period of religious belief.

"Is this the realm of Hades?"

"Could it be that you are Hades?"

Lu Ban glanced at the remains of the saint standing by the wall.

The murals had come to an end; those rather primitive and utterly cruel scenes ended in complete darkness.

Lu Ban arrived at the end of the passage and saw a circular hall.

He walked into the hall and saw a person standing not far away.

It's Iron Fist.

His clothes were somewhat tattered, and his right fist had crystallized into an arm guard that extended to his shoulder, making him look like a powerful warrior.

Iron Fist looked like he had been in a fight, and there was some blood of an unknown creature on his body.

Beside Iron Fist was Faceless, whose cheeks were scarred and covered half of his face with uneven, crystalline edges.

Everyone else, including Echo and Flash, entered the rotunda.

Except for Sia.

Lu Ban glanced around and saw that the circular hall connected ten paths, while the other paths were dark and seemed deserted.

"I was halfway there when you disappeared, and then a bug appeared. It took me a little while to deal with it."

The crystal on Iron Fist's hand gradually shrank back, returning to the shape of a normal fist.

It seems that the superhumans in the wasteland spread the crystals on their bodies when they use their abilities, which is probably why the crystal nucleus disease is aggravated.

Me too.

The faceless man said something.