I Forged the Myth of the Ancient Overlords
Chapter 187 - 187 186. Do you want to eat_1

Chapter 187: 186. Do you want to eat?_1 Chapter 187: 186. Do you want to eat?_1 As one teammate after another disappeared in the dim, pitch-black underground labyrinth, the sudden appearance of the Remains of the Sage was indeed eerily unsettling.

It merely stared at Lu Ban, unmoving, like a cat observing its prey.

After a moment of silence, Lu Ban felt that he couldn’t continue to waste time like this.

He reached into his backpack and pulled out an Energy Bar.

“Do you want to eat this?”

The Remains of the Sage kept its gaze fixed on Lu Ban’s hand, unblinking, well, without any eyes to blink, only its head rotating like an owl’s.

It didn’t respond.

Lu Ban unwrapped the Energy Bar and cautiously approached, bringing the grease and nut-scented energy bar up to the Remains of the Sage.

It tilted its head, seemed not to understand what Lu Ban was doing.

“Looks like you don’t eat, huh…”

Lu Ban had thought that, having not seen a human for over a hundred years and with the place not looking like it had any food, it might be very hungry, but now it seemed to have no interest in food.

Does that mean that once people die, they no longer feel hungry?

Lu Ban felt that he had stumbled upon a discovery worthy of a Nobel Prize.

Looking at the Energy Bar in his hand, Lu Ban thought about it and decided against just putting it back into his backpack – if there were any intense movements later, it would definitely get crushed inside and be a hassle to clean up.

So he ate it himself.

Crunch, crunch, crunch—

The sound of chewing echoed through the ancient passageway.

The Remains of the Sage mimicked Lu Ban, crunching on the air in its hand.

“Having lived here for so long, do you know where my companions are?”

Lu Ban asked.

“******”

The Remains of the Sage replied.

“I see, can you help me find them?”

“*****”

The Remains of the Sage answered again.

“Alright, if you help me find my teammates, I’ll treat you to pumpkin, very delicious pumpkin.”

Lu Ban persisted.

“****”

The Remains of the Sage tilted its head.

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

Subsequently, the white figure appeared farther down the passage, as if waiting for Lu Ban to follow.

“Then I guess I can only move forward…”

As Lu Ban moved on, the paintings on the walls became clearer in his True Sight, perhaps because the closer to the depths he got, the less interference there was from the outside world.

He couldn’t help but admire these paintings.

Lu Ban had probably read about the different stages of human painting in some book, and the paintings on these walls had a strong religious tint, with characters already following a fixed template and symbolic features being prominent. Simply put, they used a few symbols to signify that this was a human, unlike the primal paintings that relied purely on lines where what you saw was what it was.

As such, these paintings told a certain story.

The story itself wasn’t particularly remarkable, featuring fragments of kings waging wars, expansion, and governance, all beset by the appearance of Crystal Disease, with most people depicted having various crystals on their bodies.

Lu Ban noticed that neither kings nor priests were depicted with crystals, which meant they might not show signs of Crystal Disease?

He thought of the Remains of the Sage, which indeed showed no signs of crystallization on the surface.

Perhaps the Saint had found some way to suppress his own Crystal Disease, allowing him to live such a long life.

As Lu Ban continued further down, he noticed that the paintings started to change, and an altar appeared frequently, with scenes of rituals emerging.

First, a path to the Underworld needed to be opened, then the sacrificial offerings were driven into the passage, followed by the awakening of the Underworld King who resided hidden in the Underworld. He would roam his domain in search of sacrificial offerings and, once satiated, would depart, granting people treasures.

It was a very primitive religious tale, where in ancient societies, people often personified natural phenomena into various gods, especially with death being a prominent theme.

By the time more abstract gods appeared later on, it was already the era of religious faith.

“Is this the domain of the Underworld King?”

“Could it be that you are the Underworld King?”

Lu Ban glanced at the Remains of the Sage standing by the wall.

The murals had come to an end, the primitively cruel images reaching their conclusion in the darkness.

Lu Ban arrived at the end of the passageway, where he could see a circular hall.

As he walked into the hall, he saw a person standing not far away.

It was Iron Fist.

His clothes were a bit tattered, and the crystallization on his right fist formed an arm guard that extended to his shoulder, like that of a powerful warrior.

It seemed that Iron Fist had been through a fight, as there was some unidentifiable creature’s blood on him.

Beside Iron Fist was No-Face, with a scar on his cheek, and the crystal on the side of his face had sharp, uneven edges.

Including Echo and Flash, the others had also arrived in this circular hall.

Except for Shia.

Lu Ban glanced around, noting that the circular hall was connected by ten paths, with a few that were dark and seemingly untraveled.

“I had just gotten halfway when you all disappeared, then a bug appeared, so it took me a little time to deal with it,” Iron Fist explained.

The crystals on Iron Fist’s hand gradually retracted, and his fist returned to its normal appearance.

It appeared that the Transcendents of the Wasteland likely spread the crystals over their bodies when using their abilities, which was also why the crystal core disease worsened.

“I encountered the same issue,” No-Face added.

The other two nodded in agreement.

“Where’s your companion?” Iron Fist asked, implying that Shia might have died in an attack by those insects.

“She should be fine,” Lu Ban responded.

He believed Shia’s combat ability was surely stronger than his own, and even if she encountered a swarm of bugs, he figured that she could escape unscathed.

The only concern was that she might overexert her power and blow up the entire underground passage.

Boom—

As soon as he finished speaking, they heard the sound of an explosion from one of the adjacent passages, followed by a cloud of dust, and then Shia ran out.

Upon seeing people, before even making out who they were, she rolled over, her hand instinctively rising as if to strike, wearing steel gloves. Only then did she see it was Lu Ban.

“Are you real?” Shia asked.

“Three shakes of a hand,” Lu Ban casually replied, and with that, she relaxed.

“I just ran into several bugs and was wary that my magic might be too powerful and collapse this place, so it took me a bit of effort to deal with them,” Shia explained.

Shia’s armor was smeared with the slimy filth of the bugs, but her face was spotlessly clean, creating an eerily beautiful contrast.

“Where are we?” Shia inquired.

“This is the altar,” Lu Ban pointed to the center and clarified.

“The real altar.”

In the center of the circular room, a giant pool brimmed with fresh blood, coming from a funnel-like object on the ceiling which constantly oozed blood.

“Where is all this blood coming from?” No-Face asked, puzzled.

Boom—

At that moment, a sound of heavy impact echoed from the pathways, and they hurriedly looked back to see that the routes had been blocked by Stone.

“These paths are the ones originally taken by the sacrifices. They must have come here, then were detained, and eventually offered up to the deity,” Lu Ban revealed the content he observed in the murals.

“A deity? What deity?” Shia inquired.

“It’s in the pool,” Lu Ban pointed out, and everyone saw that with the sound of mechanisms turning, a small platform began to rise from the blood-filled pool. On the platform, there were several round objects.

They were eggs.