Who Designed This Underworld Dungeon?
Chapter 202 - 175 The Abyss’s Big Fan

Chapter 202: Chapter 175 The Abyss’s Big Fan

Today, a shocking piece of news spread from the Great Demon City.

The youngest, most belligerent, and most cold-blooded priestess, known by titles such as "Trembling White Bones," "Merciless Iron Fist," fell into a coma!

Rumors quickly circulated within the Great Demon City that Priest Onora was scared into unconsciousness!

Scared into unconsciousness? What could possibly frighten a Great Demon Priest?

Before the rumor could spread further, it was suppressed by the joint royal court formed by the rulers of several large tribes. Investigations revealed that the original spreader of the rumor was a guard of the Divine Temple. Naturally, he was executed with the highest severity.

The official statement in the end was: Onora fell into a coma due to exhaustion from her relentless communication with the Great Demon Tree day and night.

No one would believe this, for Onora had been comatose for nearly half a month—how exhausted must she have been to sleep for that long?

While people were puzzled, they dared not express their doubts, for there was no freedom of speech in the Great Demon City.

Inside the priestess’s chamber.

Onora lay quietly on the bed, her plain long dress accentuating her slender figure. Her half-month coma left her skin morbidly pale, and her hair a tangled mess. Without considering her status, one would think she was just a sickly, pitiable little girl.

She covered her eyes, her expression pained. Every time she tried to open her eyes, she felt an inexplicable resistance.

This resistance was the protection of the Great Demon Tree. While peeking into the memories of the deceased, had the Great Demon Tree not severed the connection and applied spiritual protection in time, she might have been reduced to a broken person.

She was extremely fortunate that what she saw while delving into the deceased’s memories were merely past images, not a direct view of the mysteries.

Furthermore, since childhood, her spiritual fortitude was far stronger than that of ordinary people, matching that of the High Priest at the age of fifteen. It was only by luck that she survived.

Even so, directly viewing that yellow and black existence, her spirit, and other aspects, were still affected.

Failing to open her eyes, Onora struggled to tear a piece of cloth from the hem of her dress and slowly wrapped it around her eyes.

The moment she covered her eyes, she felt significantly more comfortable.

"High Priestess Onora, are you awake?" The maid heard movement and hurried over. "How are you feeling? I’ll call for the Witch Doctor right away."

"No," Onora spoke, her voice hoarse. "Summon Priest Salman, I have something to discuss with him."

Upon hearing this, the maid’s expression suddenly became strange, hesitating for a long time without responding.

Onora couldn’t see, but not hearing footsteps prompted her to ask, "Why aren’t you going?"

"Priest Salman... he has passed away."

Her body shook, and she demanded composedly, "What happened? Was he assassinated by rebels? Or was it—"

"Neither," the maid spoke softly. "After communicating with the Great Demon Tree, Lord Salman... fell from the Divine Temple to his death."

Onora was stunned, thinking of a possibility.

"What about Priest Sedom? With such a serious incident, where is she?"

"High Priest Sedom, like you, fell into a coma after communicating with the Great Demon Tree and has yet to awaken."

"...What about Kaliman?"

"He committed suicide after communicating with the Great Demon Tree."

Onora’s mouth formed an O shape, so shocked she couldn’t maintain her poise, overwhelmed by the revelation.

You all knew communicating with the Great Demon Tree was dangerous—why did you rush to meet your demise?

"And, the High Priest?" Her voice trembled as she asked in the end.

If the High Priest also met misfortune, then all that remained of the Great Demon priests in the city would be wiped out!

The maid hastened to say, "The High Priest is well."

Onora breathed a sigh of relief and asked, "Was it she who sealed off the Great Demon Tree and erased those two deceased’s memories?"

The maid standing before her was her personal attendant, privy to all necessary information.

"No."

The maid’s expression grew even more peculiar as she said:

"The High Priest intended to inspect, but the Great Demon Tree had already erased the deceased’s memories in advance. She even threw a tantrum over it."

"Is, is that so..." Onora was at a loss for words.

She let out a faint sigh and waved the maid away, "Leave me, I need some solitude."

"The Witch Doctor—"

"Leave."

Once she was alone in the chamber, Onora fell into silence.

Her petite frame shook, and her dress slipped from her shoulders due to the trembling, revealing much skin. She covered her cheeks with her hands and murmured to herself:

"What exactly did I see..."

The wild flames in Doslepo’s memories are set aside for now, not to mention the unfathomable darkness in Ganago’s memories.

In that moment she glimpsed the Abyss, she had fallen into a daze.

There is a legend that the Demon Clan originated from the darkness, yet the darkness was scattered by the gods. The birth of the Demon King was to bring the darkness back to the world.

Becoming a priestess was originally her goal for this mission, but that was only at the beginning.

But that thought changed the moment she saw the Abyss.

What Ganago saw was the actual, solid Abyss, far more real and ominous than the vague and ethereal darkness of the Demon King from the legends, deeper and more mind-capturing.

Why waste time on legends that had never come true? After all, the Demon King was always defeated by the Hero, never truly bringing darkness.

So...

"Hehe," Onora let out a strange chuckle, revealing a "smile" that split to her ears and flushed cheeks between her fingers.

Turns out she wasn’t trembling with fear, but laughing.

Priest Onora actually laughed, and in such a disturbing way, that if anyone saw it they would surely comment, "The character has collapsed."

She needed to find where exactly Ganago had seen the Abyss, investigate it, find it, and then.

"Meet it."

By chance, a big fan of the Abyss was born.

——————————

Meanwhile, inside Sain Dungeon.

"Red signifies destruction, blue deception, purple is a warning, green is... me."

Within the Underground City Lord’s room, a world color map spread atop the altar, with each color’s range changing every moment; however, generally there weren’t any massive shifts, which suggested that other Dungeons were mostly stable.

But there was one troublemaking green guy, hopping all over the place.

"Bed City and several surrounding cities have completely turned my color."

A palm-sized area in the lower left center of the map had turned a steadfast green, forming an impervious alliance, where Sain reigned supreme.

And as it spread further out, green mixed and intertwined with other colors, occasionally biting off little green spots from other color territories.

Even more astonishingly, within every color, there were scattered green spots all over the map, strikingly conspicuous.

This indicated Sain Dungeon’s renown had spread far and wide, even reaching other nations!

No surprise there, if a Dungeon simultaneously hosted bonus points and reset, Magic Book Pages and Combat Skill weapons, ancient history, and hero legends, it couldn’t help but become famous.

Perhaps other Underground City Lords found the green spots an eyesore and yearned to bash him, but luckily Ganago had delivered to him three months’ worth of a ceasefire.

After those three months, it was anyone’s guess who would bash whom.

The Dungeon was thriving, its influence expanding, spiritual power income increasing daily, with a constant stream of new ideas and innovations—so many that they often had to be selectively overlooked.

At this moment, Gong Qiying felt he was at the happiest point of his life.

Of course, happiness didn’t mean there weren’t any troubles.

The day after his victory over the Evil Nest Dungeon, the Asta Alliance sent a new letter.

[Congratulations on your first victory. The doors of the Asta Alliance will open for you. Spare the formalities, I have the obligation to explain everything about the Alliance to you, our new member.]

[The Asta Alliance, consisting of twenty-one Dungeons, where every City Lord is a pure human—at least psychologically—and all diplomacy of the Alliance is handled by us, Black Guardian Dungeon. Our goal is to expel all evil foreign races.]

[To that end, our primary target is the eradication of Dungeons possessed by Demon Clan souls, here is the list:]

A lengthy list of enemies rolled out, Gong Qiying glanced at it briefly, thinking this list was even longer than the members of the Asta Alliance—weren’t they afraid of getting wiped out?

They even thoughtfully labeled each enemy Dungeon with a color, otherwise, Gong Qiying would have trouble pinpointing their locations.

At a glance, many were Dungeons on the Western Continent, but some were also within human territory.

Strange, why would Dungeons in human territory bring in the Demon Clan as City Lords?

Gong Qiying continued reading, the rest was just the perks of joining the Alliance, such as protection and assistance from other members, which looked legit, whereas the responsibility was to provide support when at war with other Dungeons.

If you didn’t feel like helping, no pressure—just leave the Alliance.

He initially contacted them merely for information, and although he now had the Knowledge Crystal obtained from Kidd, the data from Kidd hadn’t been updated for quite some time.

"This Alliance is still useful for now, and the old guys in there talk pretty nicely."

He put aside the letter. There was still plenty of time ahead for dealings with other Dungeons; no need to rush things now.

But today, there was a test regarding the Dungeon that he had long wanted to conduct.

During these days, Gong Qiying had been using the authority titled [A World Where You Can’t Leave Without Victory], or [Mini World], to craft things, and he finally created a suitable Different Space.

This Different Space was named [Wolf Knight], corresponding to Artorias’ story.

That adventurer named Dal had already found three painting fragments of the Wolf Knight, but just couldn’t loot the final one, almost driving him into depression.

That was because Gong Qiying was deliberately stalling his progress.

Today, the Different Space was finally completed, so—

Within Sain Dungeon, Dal defeated the Sub-human Swordsmen once again, his face filled with desolation.

He had lost hope for rewards, since the last painting fragment never dropped.

It was at this moment when he glanced over the reward notification, his eyes suddenly fired up with brilliance.

[Painting Fragment "Wolf Knight" · Part Four]

He, he...

He had collected all the fragments of the Wolf Knight painting!