Chapter 141 Underground

Facing Jason's invitation to compete, Crown readily agreed: "Okay, but please allow me to rest for a while and be in a better state to face the challenge."

This is respect for the opponent. Although he still has plenty of physical strength now, he always has to give people the feeling of giving his all.

"I'll wait," Jason smiled, nodded, and turned to leave. He walked straight to a slightly flat open space and stood there waiting.

Clown visualized the Golden Light Mantra twice and adjusted his own state to the best.

Then he drew his weapon and came close to Jason. He had just practiced the Rock Breathing Technique, so his body was still warm and he didn't need to warm up.

After carefully observing the flatness of the ground, Crown drew his sword, threw the scabbard behind him, and held up the Star Steel Sword: "Mr. Brown, please."

“Please,” Jason also bowed, then flicked his wrist and pointed the tip of his sword downwards at his opponent.

After taking two small steps forward, Crown immediately rushed forward. At the same time, he filled his right arm with the life force of the Giant Bear Breathing Technique.

His entire arm suddenly swelled up, like a unicorn's arm.

His instantaneous acceleration was so rapid that a phantom appeared on his body, and the tip of the sword stabbed straight into the opponent's wrist.

He didn't use bullet time, and he didn't plan to hold back. The priest said that the other party had already reached the pinnacle of the second-level extraordinary, and he wanted to measure his own strength and see what the so-called pinnacle would look like.

Jason shook his sword and it hit the attacking weapon. He felt a huge force and a slight numbness in his arm, and his weapon was almost knocked away.

He was shocked and retreated immediately. He did not underestimate the enemy. As a qualified warrior, he fully understood that even a lion fighting a rabbit must do its best.

But he didn't expect that the opponent's attack would be much faster than he expected.

He originally thought that even though the opponent was very fast, he was in a defensive position and only needed to swing his weapon slightly to deal with it. However, the vibration power from the opponent's weapon made him realize that the priest's words were too small.

As a Crusader warrior who has been strictly trained by the church since childhood, he is well versed in the swordsmanship inherited by the church. The fact that he can launch this kind of vibration attack shows that the opponent's cross sword level is very high, because he has also reached this level.

Many warriors have practiced the cross sword for many years but have never reached this level of understanding.

Because in order to reach this level, one needs to maintain an excellent sword-fighting competitive state for a long time.

People's states of mind always fluctuate, so few people in the church can comprehend the vibrating power of the cross sword.

Clown's sword was faster than the last, striking at the opponent head-on, simple but deadly.

He did not use any more advanced sword skills, because he did not know how to do it. But he believed that by combining speed and strength perfectly, he could cut through all the enemies in front of him with the sword in his hand.

Jason didn't expect that after his initial misjudgment, he would lose the initiative. He also used the Giant Bear Breathing Technique, and his arms turned into Kirin Arms, trying to confront the opponent head-on in order to stop the opponent's swift attack.

Once again he miscalculated, and his strength did not prevail.

The two's cross sword realms were almost the same, but there was a slight difference in strength. Without the initiative, they could only be suppressed.

Jason made one wrong step after another and had to give up the idea of ​​attacking and focus on defense.

He wanted to wait until the opponent's physical strength decreased before counterattacking, because the attacking side would consume more physical strength.

The noise of the two men's fight also attracted the attention of other team members, and the one who watched the most carefully was Mara Michelle.

As a melee knight, the breathing method she practiced was mainly to enhance speed, which was in line with her natural advantages. However, she saw that the speed she was proud of did not have much advantage compared to the two people in the duel.

The breathing method these two people were practicing was clearly the Giant Bear Breathing Method, because their arms, which were obviously much larger in size, were too conspicuous.

Although this breathing method is a very good breathing method in terms of strength, only a few crusaders of the church can practice it.

All those who practice a second breathing method are masters without exception, because they will only choose to practice another breathing method when their main breathing method reaches a bottleneck to ensure that their fighting power continues to steadily improve.

Luo Lin looked at it for a while, then rubbed her eyes with a wry smile.

The speed of the two combatants was so fast that she was dazzled. And from the whistling wind and the muffled sound of weapons colliding, she could tell that their attacks were also very heavy.

If she had gone on the field herself and faced any one of them, she would have been beaten to a pulp.

Lucas had a solemn expression on his face. His ability to control spirits provided him with very good dynamic vision. He could see the trajectories of the two men's swords, just as he could see the bullets he shot.

Compared to Lorraine, he knew better what this speed meant. It meant that bullets fired from a long distance would definitely be blocked by the opponent.

Even if it is a close-range shooting, as long as the opponent is prepared, there is a high probability of being intercepted. Unless you use a new shotgun and shoot at their face, it depends on whether the opponent gives you a chance.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but get anxious. Why can others be so strong without paying a small price, while he has to bear more risks of losing control as a spirit controller but is still a scumbag.

The opponent's attack was still fierce, but Jason was the first to feel his physical strength begin to decline. He felt the soreness and pain in his arm and knew that he had to do something now, otherwise he would be the first to lose his physical strength.

He took two quick steps back to avoid his opponent's attack, taking a deep breath and exhaling it immediately.

As he exhaled, his arm and the sword light turned into a shadow. He used the secret sword technique he had mastered: Slashing the Wind.

Cut the wind and deal high-frequency strikes to the enemy at an extremely fast speed in a short period of time. Once the enemy is unable to defend, he will be overwhelmed by the continuous and swift attacks.

The disadvantage is that it will consume a lot of physical strength and life source. If this round of attack fails to defeat the opponent, he can only admit defeat.

"I've seen your attack. Now, let me see your defense."

Jason laughed, a look of determination on his face, and swung his sword.

The opponent's speed suddenly increased, and Crown immediately felt a lot of pressure.

But his face remained calm, and he could attack at such a speed that he could release bullets in time.

His sword moves turned to defense, but not just defense. He would occasionally counterattack when the opponent was catching his breath, interrupting his opponent's torrential attack.

The opponent's sword was faster, leaving some wounds on his body, but the wounds were very shallow, only about two or three millimeters at most.

After five minutes, Jason was panting and stopped attacking. On the other hand, although Crown was also breathing rapidly, he still maintained a regular rhythm.

"I lost," Jason used his sword to support his weak body and gave a bitter smile. He hadn't felt defeated in such a way for a long time.

The last time he was defeated like this was two years ago when he faced his swordsmanship teacher, Lord Cavendish. At that time, the teacher had said that his swordsmanship was unmatched among the second-level transcendents.

He looked carefully at his opponent's arms which were also shaking constantly, and he felt less upset. I thought my cross sword shock force technique was of little use to you!

"Snap, snap, snap"

Nick clapped his hands and shouted, "Great! Thank you both for letting us see a duel between sword masters."

"Stop talking. We are still far from being masters. We haven't learned many advanced techniques yet." Jason waved his hand. "I want to go back and rest. The battle just now made me feel more tired than yesterday."

"I have some useful ointments, do you need them?" Crown asked. His swordsmanship was very similar to his opponent's. Both were very simple, and he incorporated the vibration force of the cross sword into his attacks. He knew that his opponent's arm must be in pain.

"Thank you. I have prepared some medicines and other things. A qualified investigator must make as many preparations as possible. Those who are careless have already died on the way to the mission." Jason declined the kindness and turned to leave.

As he left, Crown and his companions also left one after another.

Only a few members of Liya's team were left near the venue.

"Mara, how long do you think you could last against one of them?"

Leah didn't ask if there was any chance of winning, because she knew that Mara had no chance of winning.

The female knight showed a bitter smile on her face. "I don't know exactly how strong they are without a formal fight, but judging from the wind of my sword, I'm afraid I can't hold out for five minutes. My strongest speed doesn't give me much of an advantage."

She was feeling a little depressed. Although she and they were both second-level transcendents, the gap between them was too big. What's more, the main breathing method of the church's crusaders must be the breath of fire.

Luo Lin noticed her companion's low mood and consoled him, "The church's warriors are trained from childhood, but we are all latecomers and only started training in our teens. We have missed many years of hard study and practice. Isn't the gap obvious?"

"Yes, yes. You have just become a second-level extraordinary person. The other two have advanced for at least several years." Liya patted her teammate on the shoulder. "Knowing the gap between ourselves and the masters can help us set goals and catch up."

By the time Crown returned to his tent, the bleeding had stopped.

He touched the skin near the wound and nodded thankfully.

Fortunately, the Rock Breathing Technique has been advanced to the second level, otherwise, he would be more seriously injured.

When Jason's weapon pierced his skin, he could clearly feel the defensive bonus provided by the skin.

. . . .

Everyone slept very soundly at night, only a few hungry and deformed wild beasts rushed out, but they were killed by the night patrol before they could get close to the campfire.

The next day, the team set out early and headed for Bran Castle.

Nick left Del in the camp and replaced him with Nelson, and replaced Lucas with Geo in Leah's team.

In view of the unknown mental shock, Crown left the two pets in the camp. These two guys were familiar with Del and would not run around.

This time we were better prepared, and by one o'clock in the afternoon, everyone had basically searched all the ground buildings in the castle.

During this period, only a few weak evil spirits were eliminated, and no further resistance was encountered.

The two teams reunited in a room on the top floor of a tower to discuss their next plan.

Clown looked down at the castle courtyard and said, "The evil shadow spirit I saw before did not appear. It must be at the second level. I wonder where it is hiding."

Liya said nonchalantly: "If the evil spirit is determined to hide, it will be difficult for us to find it. We must mobilize more people to search. For this mission, we only need to investigate and record the situation here and hand it over to the bureau. Let them worry about the rest."

"We still have to be careful. If the second-level evil spirit wants to ambush us, it is likely to cause casualties," Nick reminded. "Next, we need to find the hidden secret room. The intelligence confirms that there are vampires lurking here, but we can't find any traces of vampires."

"Then let's search the secret room where Luo Lin and the other two fell yesterday to see if there are any clues." Leah waved her arms, "Let's go down."

After everyone left, Crown took one last look at the castle's courtyard and left at the end of the group.

Shortly after the few people left, a black shadow appeared in the shadow of the room on the top floor of the tower opposite to this tower.

The shadow stood there for a while, then dissipated into a black mist and merged into the darkness.

. . . .

Everyone came to the secret room on the second floor of the castle. Nick and Jason stayed at the door of the secret room, while the others went down to explore.

With strength in numbers, they quickly explored the room but did not find any mechanisms.

The investigation reached a deadlock and everyone gathered together again.

Leah asked, "What should we do now? There are no other clues."

Nick shook his head. There was nothing he could do.

Luo Lin leaned against the wall, lost in thought. In her mind, chaotic images kept flashing like movie scenes.

She thought of the demon altar in the courtyard and the blood feast in the hall, and felt that she had overlooked some clue.

"From what I know about the construction of this type of castle, there must be a place to store wine and grain, if not inside the castle building, then somewhere in the courtyard," said Crown.

"That's exactly what I'm wondering. How could those ancient noble lords not have secret wine cellars?" Leah took out a cigarette and lit it elegantly.

"Huh," she exhaled a long puff of smoke, tilted her head to look at Lorraine who was leaning against the wall thinking, her whole face shrouded in mist.

"I remember something," Lorraine suddenly stood up and said, "In a certain fragment of the past I saw, a bloody party was held in the hall downstairs, and servants were carrying things out from the inner end of the hall. There must be a secret entrance and exit there."

"Are you sure?" Nick asked in surprise.

"I am sure that what happened in the past will not deceive my eyes."

"Then let's go. Lorraine's abilities have helped us many times," Leah said with a smile.

There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!

Everyone quickly came down from the second floor and arrived at the innermost end of the hall.

The oil lamps in everyone's hands illuminated the place as brightly as day.

Luo Lin pointed at the wall and said, "In the clips I saw, servants kept coming in and out from here. There should be a hidden door."

Nick waved his hand and said, "Everyone, look for it separately. Be careful of the distance between you and don't be too far away from each other."

The crowd spread out, searching the area carefully and touching anything suspicious.

More than ten minutes passed, and the switch to open the door was still not found.

Jason's tone became a little skeptical: "Ms. Lorraine, we have searched all the places nearby. Is the scene you saw somewhere else?"

"There's nothing wrong with Lorraine's abilities," Leah responded, "maybe we haven't found the right place yet."

Luo Lin frowned and began to walk back and forth, muttering to herself, "I can't be wrong, there are indeed servants coming in and out of this place."

She looked at the wall from time to time, and stopped from time to time to look at the nearby walls and pillars.

Crown's eyes kept searching, including the lamp holders on the pillars, the picture frames on the walls that had long been corroded, and other places that were most likely to be mechanisms.

"Snap"

The noise startled everyone, and Nick clapped his hands and said, "Everyone, is it possible that the mechanism is underground?"

He pointed at the ground and said, "Since Ms. Lorraine is trustworthy, then there must be something wrong with the direction of our search. We have been searching the walls, and there may be hidden mechanisms under the floor."

"Yes, it could be under the floor, or in the lamp holder on the pillar on the second floor," Leah threw the cigarette butt on the ground and crushed it hard with her foot.

"Then Jason and I will go to the second floor to take a look," said Crown.

"Okay, be careful, don't separate the two of you," Nick shouted, "The rest of you search for any movable floors nearby."

With a clear division of labor, everyone took action immediately and the hall was suddenly filled with smoke.

"We should find a warlock teammate who can cast water spells to sprinkle some water here."

"How could the honorable blood sorcerers help others do such a job? They are only willing to turn water into ice and shoot it into the enemy's head or freeze creatures in ice and take them to the laboratory for dissection."

Leah covered her mouth and nose with her hands, and stomped her feet hard every time she stepped on a piece of floor, feeling whether the vibration under her feet was different.

Now she was walking on a piece of floor next to a pillar.

"Dong Dong"

The touch of the floor felt a little different, so she immediately took out her dagger to separate the dust on the ground, then moved closer with the oil lamp to check what was different about the cracks in the floor.

"Huh," she blew a deep breath and quickly covered her mouth and nose again.

Leah found that there was a tiny gap where the floor was fitted together. She tried to insert the tip of the sword into it and slowly pried it up with force.

After increasing the force slightly, a larger crack appeared in the floor.

A smile appeared on her face and she reached out to move the floor away.

Under the floor, there was a shallow round hole the size of a bowl, inside which was a light brown wooden handle with wavy, curly wood grain, which glowed slightly under the light.

"Walnut handle," Leah muttered to herself, and then she shouted, "I found the mechanism."

"That's great."

Everyone gathered around, Crown and Jason looked at each other, both jumped over the railing and jumped down from the second floor.

"Bang!"

The two men landed almost at the same time, stirring up a cloud of dust.

. . . .

Leah called out, "Are you guys ready?"

Nick's armor lit up with a fire crow pattern, and the others drew their weapons.

The priest said, "It's ready. Start the mechanism."

Leah pulled the handle hard.

"Click, click", the sound of mechanical rotation continued to be heard.

A portion of the wall at the end of the hall began to recede, and then split to the sides, revealing a dark hole.

"Haha, Lorraine, you are the best," Leah stood up and put the dagger into the scabbard in her leather boots, then patted the dust off her hands.

Nick walked carefully to the edge of the wall with the oil lamp in hand and asked in a deep voice, "Who will be sent to guard the mechanism this time?"

This is a problem. If everyone goes down and the evil spirit pulls the mechanism and destroys it, everyone will be buried alive.

We don’t know what the situation is below, and the people we send down cannot be too weak, otherwise they will not be able to cope with the situation.

Liya said: "There are five second-level extraordinary people in our two teams. Leave two second-level extraordinary people behind, and the rest will go down to search. Our team will let Mara stay behind."

Nick thought for a moment and made a decision: "Our team. Jason, you stay."

"Captain, let me go down and you stay," Jason said.

He knew very well the purpose of Fanny transferring him here. If anything went wrong with Nick during this mission, he would not have a good life.

"No need. I am still quite capable as a captain. Besides, Clown and I work better together and our abilities complement each other."

"But."

The priest waved his hand, raised the round shield in his hand and said with a smile: "There must be someone down there who can protect everyone from harm, and as an exorcist priest, there is no reason for me to hide behind my teammates."

After making the arrangements, Nick picked up the oil lamp and walked into the cave first.

Crown quickly replenished himself with new Heart Purification Mantra and Vajra Body Protection, then drew out the Star Steel Sword and followed the priest.

Nelson followed closely behind, with Lorrainelia following at the end of the group.

. . . .

This is a stone passage that spirals downward. On the walls on both sides of the passage, you can see corroded black metal lamp holders.

There was a rotten smell in the air and it felt a little damp.

The passage is not long and we soon reach the bottom.

In places where the light could not reach, there were rustling sounds and the sound of mice gnawing at something.

There are several stone rooms here. Crown saw that some of the rooms were filled with several large oak barrels, but they were damaged and should be wine barrels.

Some rooms had large ceramic urns, but they were also broken.

The last room was filled with broken bones. Judging from the size of the bones, they should be those of babies.

Nick stood still holding an oil lamp, facing a large hole about two meters square on the wall of the room.

The edge of the cave entrance was very irregular, and there were deep marks on it, as if it had been dug out by the claws of some huge creature.

Black tentacles like twisted tree roots stretched out from the big hole, looking extremely terrifying.

He walked over to the priest and stood beside him: "It looks like our journey has just begun."

Others gathered around, and Nelson picked up his sword and chopped hard on the tree root.

The tree roots were very tough and were not completely cut off. Crown saw some thick green mucus flowing out of them.

Nelson seemed to be startled and stepped back hastily, saying, "What the hell is this thing? It's not hard, but rather soft."

His words aroused everyone's curiosity, and Leah also drew out her dagger and swung it hard.

She raised her sword and chopped off a section of the tree root.

"It does feel soft when I cut it," Leah stabbed the broken piece with the tip of the sword, "It feels like piercing flesh."

Crown pressed the root of the tree and found that it was indeed the case: "I can't recognize what this thing is."

Nick gripped the flail tightly and said, "Go in and find out. Follow me closely."

With that, a red glow lit up on his flail, and the priest entered the cave with his round shield raised in a defensive stance.

(End of this chapter)