A Core Ship From The Start
Chapter 1630 - 1088: Deep Underground_2

Chapter 1630: Chapter 1088: Deep Underground_2

"Really, can’t even handle small fry like this... It seems the strength of Lut Gholein is limited."

Duanmu Huai glanced around and shook his head. At the same time, he was puzzled. From what he’d seen so far, Lut Gholein was definitely not a match for these demons. If they wanted to completely destroy or occupy this city, the guards up there couldn’t stop them. Plus, with the Demon King here, this place should have been turned into a dead city long ago, shouldn’t it?

And most importantly... where is the Demon King?

Duanmu Huai didn’t detect any strong spiritual energy like Andariel’s here, which means the Demon King isn’t underneath the palace?

So what’s going on? Where did so many demons come from?

Forget it, a look around will reveal everything.

For Duanmu Huai, finding the core coordinate point wasn’t difficult. He just needed to use the Bird Divination Tool to locate the place with the strongest subspace reaction, then break through the floor and jump down...

"Oh, found it."

Accompanied by a "boom," Duanmu Huai, who fell from the ceiling like a demon god, looked up. Before him was an open teleportation portal, surrounded by blood and a bizarre magic array. This portal was likely the culprit behind the demons appearing in the palace.

But why was this magic array in the palace?

Going in to check will provide answers.

Duanmu Huai didn’t bother thinking too much. He gripped his war hammer and strode into the dark red teleportation portal before him.

"Whoosh—————!"

The next moment, a storm mixed with yellow sand struck Duanmu Huai’s helmet again.

"What kind of damn place is this?"

Staring at the scene in front of him, Duanmu Huai couldn’t help but be stunned. He originally thought this would be a place similar to Hell or some Demon King’s palace. But upon closer inspection, it seemed more like a canyon in a gobi desert. Moreover, there was no sign of demons or the Demon King around.

Could he have gone to the wrong place?

Duanmu Huai scratched his helmet, looking confusedly around. It was only then that he noticed tall, tomb-like stone doors standing around the canyon.

"Halt right there!"

At that moment, a hoarse voice suddenly echoed. Duanmu Huai turned towards the source of the sound. He saw an old mage, dirty with long hair and beard, looking like he hadn’t bathed in decades, standing behind him somehow, glaring fiercely while holding a magic wand.

"Leave this place! I will never allow you to find Tal Rasha’s tomb! The Demon God must not be released! This world is doomed!"

"Who is Tal Rasha? And what about the tomb? Plus, this world is already close to destruction... Can you speak more clearly?"

Facing the raving old mage, Duanmu Huai also questioned him. However, it seemed the latter had completely lost his sanity. Raising his magic wand, he instantly summoned dozens of ghosts and undead creatures, surrounding Duanmu Huai.

"You can’t find Tal Rasha’s tomb! There are seven tombs, only one is real, and I won’t tell you which... Die!"

As he spoke, the old mage raised his wand again, and spells flew towards Duanmu Huai.

"You don’t need to tell me; I’ll find it myself."

However, the old mage’s spells had no effect. Duanmu Huai reached out suddenly, penetrating the spells and grabbing the old mage’s head. A dazzling flash followed. The next moment, the headless corpse collapsed, and the undead creatures summoned by the old mage also disappeared.

"The man’s completely mad; it’s pointless asking him anything, let’s ask the shadow."

Looking at the fallen old mage’s corpse, Duanmu Huai shook his head, snapped his fingers, and then his shadow began to writhe. Soon, a figure identical to the old mage appeared before Duanmu Huai.

"Master."

"Alright, tell me everything you know."

"Yes."

Compared to the mad old mage, the shadow’s mind was still intact. It told Duanmu Huai the whole story---but speaking of which, the old mage’s identity truly surprised Duanmu Huai.

When Duanmu Huai fought Leoric previously, Deckard Cain had mentioned that Leoric had gone mad under the Demon God’s influence, and the Demon God resurrected through the body of Leoric’s second son, and it was his eldest son, Aidan, who gathered adventurers to delve underground, defeat the Demon God, and seal it again.

And this old mage was one of those adventurers!

After Aidan sealed the Demon God, everyone parted ways, and this old mage kept investigating matters regarding demons and the Demon God’s seal.

But as the saying goes, when you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you. The old mage, through his adventures, discovered the demons’ plan.

"The Dark Soulstone is a lie! A lie of the Demon God! It’s a lie they spread to remain in this world! We believed the Dark Soulstone could seal the Demon God, but that also meant we left it in our world! Aidan was wrong! We were all wrong!"

Furthermore, from the shadow of the old mage, Duanmu Huai learned another piece of news that left him speechless.

That after Prince Aidan defeated the Demon God and sealed it again in the Dark Soulstone, he didn’t find a place to store it. Instead, he directly embedded it into his forehead!

Upon hearing this, Duanmu Huai was bewildered.

Is this prince out of his mind? What kind of operation is this?

But this operation wasn’t invented by him. Hundreds of years ago, someone else did the same!

That was the Archmage Tal Rasha!

At that time, to seal one of the Three Great Demon Gods, Bhaal, Tal Rasha offered his body, embedding the sealing Dark Soulstone into his chest. He then sealed himself in his tomb. To prevent any jailbreak attempts, Tal Rasha even built six fake tombs, using his body as the prison to completely imprison Bhaal.

Prince Aidan got inspired by this story, and then... but why embed it in your head?

The body has so many places to put it, why the head?

Even Tal Rasha didn’t embed it in his head.

Upon learning this, the old mage hurried to find Prince Aidan, but by then, Aidan had already left Tristram. And the old mage’s condition wasn’t much better off. Though he learned of the demons’ plan, his mind suffered a severe shock, gradually crumbling and shattering. He could only stumble; driven by the deepest impressions in his mind, he headed to Lut Gholein—to prevent others from finding Tal Rasha’s tomb and releasing Bhaal, intending to block them before anyone else.

Subsequently, even the shadow couldn’t clarify matters. By then, the old mage’s mind was utterly broken, having completely descended into madness.

In summary, what the shadow knew was that out of the seven tombs of Tal Rasha, only one was genuine; the others were fake.

To open the real tomb, one must find the Horadric Staff, and to reassemble it requires the Horadric Cube... Hearing this, Duanmu Huai turned green.

Damn, you’re messing with me, right? Do you think I have the patience to search for this and that?

"Alright, I get it."

After listening to the shadow’s report, Duanmu Huai motioned for it to retreat and then looked around.

Hmm, seven gates, seven tombs, meaning one of them is real, right.

Searching one by one is too troublesome...

Thinking of this, Duanmu Huai reached in his pocket and silently pulled out a thermite bomb.

Better to just blow them up.