Ch. 148 - Devil's Fruit

Kunlan came back. "I found a path, so do you want to keep discussing your first kisses, or come take a look?"

Ji Yu had already slung her longbow and was moving forward. After a few steps, she remarked, "This doesn't seem like a man-made cave."

Hearing this, Cang Du raised his rifle and examined the surroundings with the light attachment on his gun. This cave corridor was very different from the one they came from. The pathway here was rugged and uneven, with large variations in width.

The widest parts could fit two people side by side, while the narrowest required them to pass sideways.

Moreover, water seeped from above, likely from an underground stream, making the entire cave damp.

"This is a naturally formed cave, so if we’re lucky, we might reach the underground directly," Kunlan led the way ahead. He seemed at ease in such an environment, moving smoothly and without stopping, so much so that the three behind him nearly lost track of him.

Cang Du murmured, "Was this blue-haired guy raised underground?"

Tianyang also thought that Kunlan seemed to have a natural instinct for this cave system. It wouldn’t be surprising if he really had grown up underground.

A moment later, Kunlan stopped. There was no path ahead, but under the blue-haired boy’s feet lay a winding tunnel leading somewhere unknown.

Tianyang dropped a glow stick down. After bouncing off rocks within the tunnel, it finally came to a stop.

The cold light revealed a section of the tunnel slanting downward, about a dozen meters deep, twisting and turning like a sheep's intestine.

Kunlan volunteered, "I'll go first; just follow. Be careful and don’t go too fast. Sometimes, if you lose your footing, you might fall into a natural pit."

"And if you're really unlucky, it could be a bottomless pit. Going underground requires constant caution."

After a quick reminder, the blue-haired boy squeezed into the tunnel, moving deftly and nimbly. Like a monkey, he reached the spot with the glow stick in no time.

The next section seemed to have a turn, and as Kunlan bent forward, he disappeared into the tunnel.

The others followed down one by one.

After Ji Yu and Cang Du entered, Tianyang went last, covering the rear. They spent nearly four to five hours navigating the twists and turns of this tunnel.

At the best of times, they could walk hunched over; at the worst, they crawled like worms through tight spaces.

They stopped and rested about ten times, and finally, when Kunlan kicked away a stone blocking the way forward, a gust of cold wind blew in.

The wind was icy, indicating they had reached the underground. And this place seemed quite vast.

Kunlan tossed a glow stick into the cave, and it quickly fell to the ground. In the cold light, it was clear that they were less than three meters above the floor.

The blue-haired boy jumped down, but as soon as he landed, a red light appeared in front of him.

He immediately dropped to the ground and looked up, seeing a plant root extending across the open space.

This massive root, as thick as an oil drum, was covered in small and large pods. At this moment, all the pods on the root lit up, casting a crimson glow that tinted the entire space with a blood-red hue.

In one of the glowing pods, Kunlan saw a large clump of flesh moving. Within that mass was a half-human arm.

The arm even wore armor and gloves, suggesting it belonged to a regular soldier based on the design.

Tianyang, from within the cave, also saw the same scene. "It's these things again."

Ji Yu came up beside him, her hair brushing against his face, tickling him slightly.

"Is this the strange plant you saw underground before?"

Tianyang nodded. "That's them."

"Look ahead," Cang Du pointed into the darkness.

In the perpetual blackness ahead, lights began to appear. A cluster of red lights emerged, forming the outline of a towering tree!

It was a gigantic ancient tree; even from a distance, they could see its towering form.

Tianyang suddenly connected the roots they had seen earlier and thought, could they all belong to this tree?

If the roots alone were that thick and spread so deep, they might indeed extend throughout the entire underground system.

A tree of such enormous height, with the size of a building, no longer seemed surprising.

Kunlan called softly from below, "Are you coming with me to take a look, or staying here?"

Since they were already underground and had discovered an enormous, peculiar tree, none of them wanted to stay behind. Tianyang and the others jumped down one after another, following the thick root forward.

Before long, they saw more and more of these roots, stretching from all directions and ultimately converging in one place.

The roots all gathered around the giant tree!

After a while, the four-person team stopped, hiding behind a massive rock. Looking from behind the rock, they were not far from the eerie giant tree.

From this distance, they could see that the trunk was almost as thick as a small building.

The tree was over fifty meters tall, with twisted branches radiating outward. It had no leaves, and its branches clung to the ceiling like giant arms, seemingly holding up the entire cavern.

The trunk glowed with a blood-red light that flickered, as if the tree itself was breathing.

Tianyang activated his tactical sight and zoomed in, seeing roots interwoven on the tree’s surface, with spaces between them where arms of varying lengths extended!

These arms were not dead; they moved slowly, opening and closing their fingers as if trying to grasp something.

Around this monstrous, twisted tree, groups of black-citizen corpses knelt on the ground. Whether mad dogs or wanderers, they all faced the tree, forming a worship circle.

There was no glow from the will-cage on these black citizens, but their bodies were bound by some force and showed no signs of decay or decomposition.

When Tianyang looked to the left of the giant tree, he suddenly shuddered.

Noticing his reaction, Ji Yu asked in a whisper, "What did you see?"

Tianyang didn’t respond, staring through his tactical vision at a high-backed throne!

The throne was fused with the giant tree, appearing as a single, inseparable entity. Seated on this throne formed from twisted roots was a figure.

A Black Prince!

Raven Squad had previously encountered three Black Princes in the high walls, and Tianyang clearly remembered them. However, he had never seen this one seated on the throne.

This Black Prince resembled the long-haired prince they first encountered. He wore a similar crown-like helmet, but this one was even more ornate, with complex patterns, and a purple gem embedded in the crown.

He also had long hair, but it was silvery and emitted a faint glow. When the wind blew, his hair drifted like a blaze of white flames.

His face looked more mature; if the long-haired prince they met before was a young man of seventeen or eighteen, then this one looked like a thirty-year-old.

Additionally, he wore a set of light armor with a simple design, emphasizing agility over defense.

On the forearm guard resting on the armrest, Tianyang noticed an emblem.

A diamond shape with an eye-like figure in the center, surrounded by intricate twisted lines, similar to the black tree they had seen outside the rotting building.

Beside the throne lay a sword. From the hilt to the scabbard, it was decorated in black and silver, with patterns and designs.

The long blade had a solemn, regal appearance, like a king's sword!

Kunlan clearly noticed the Black Prince as well. "Hey, that's the Black Prince, right? Looks like we hit the jackpot this time!"

Tianyang quickly said, "Don’t do anything reckless. He’s definitely beyond what we can handle. We’d better wait for the captain and the others to come."

The abilities displayed by the three Black Princes on the day they fought far exceeded those of a Level 3 danger-grade sorcerer.

Now, this Black Prince under the giant tree might have evolved again, possibly even posing a challenge for a Level 4 Ascendant.

Looking at their group of four, with Cang Du being the highest-ranked among them, victory seemed unlikely.

Kunlan chuckled. "Relax. I enjoy fighting, but I'm not dumb. That thing looks very dangerous—check out that armor and sword."

"I've never seen a black citizen like that before. My gut tells me it's very dangerous! Extremely dangerous!"

At that moment, a rustling sound came from the crown of the giant tree above, holding up the ceiling.

Even the Black Prince, who had been sitting still, looked up.

The group looked up as well, and saw a branch drooping from the top of the tree.

At the end of the branch, two delicate red leaves grew. Between the leaves, a fruit rapidly developed from small to fist-sized.

Its surface was smooth, resembling an apple, but the skin was almost transparent. Through his tactical vision, Tianyang saw clusters of crystal filaments inside the skin.

The filaments swelled, glowed, and contracted. During this process, the fruit emitted a strong energy aura.

“What is that?” Ji Yu whispered. "Is it just my imagination, or does that fruit contain an incredible amount of energy? The aura it’s emitting feels almost like that of a high-level warrior!"

Suddenly, Tianyang seemed to realize something and glanced back, his gaze landing on those thick roots.

His pupils shrank slightly, and he inhaled sharply. "That thing is practically a devil’s fruit…"

The others looked at him, not understanding what Tianyang meant.

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