Siheyuan: tomb robbing? I am serious about hunting.

Chapter 1014 Not only

Elena looked up and saw a young woman swooping down on a giant eagle, her brown curls flowing in the wind. The silver hairpin she held in her hand glowed red. "Leo is in trouble on the Holy Mountain!" The rose on the hairpin had turned blood red. Elena's heart tightened suddenly. She could feel the connection between her and Leo grow faint, like a candle flickering in the wind. Vine wings flapped violently behind her, stirring up the ash on the ground, forming a swirling black vortex. "Guard the tunnel for me," Elena called to Blackstone. As the giant eagle carried her into the air, she saw barbarian warriors carrying the old man into the tunnel. Blackstone stood guard at the entrance, wielding a stone axe, its tusks gleaming in the sunlight. As they soared toward the Holy Mountain, the red glow of the silver hairpin grew brighter. Elena could sense Leo's fear, spreading like cold water along the bond of their souls. As she swooped over Moonlight Canyon, she saw half of the twenty altars ablaze with black flames—a sign that the barbarian warriors had successfully captured them. "Faster," Elana whispered, the giant eagle shrieking, its wings beating ever faster. Below, the Blackwater River lay like a silver ribbon, its surface littered with the corpses of the Paladins, their armor tangled in vines, their helmets tumbling down, revealing faces young and old. The outline of the Holy Mountain grew clearer through the clouds. This highest peak in the wasteland, capped with perpetual snow, the totem pole halfway up shone red, like a torch pierced into the earth. Elana noticed traces of fighting in the snow around the totem pole, as well as scattered fragments of silver armor—a paladin of the Inquisition. "Leo!" Elana leaped from the giant eagle's back, the vines weaving a cushioning web before landing. She dashed into the clearing where the totem pole stood, her flight tracing a graceful arc against the azure sky. "The sewer entrance is just ahead," Ella pointed to a thicket at the base of the city wall, where thorns grew so thick they concealed a loose stone slab. "I found it last year while scouting. We've buried torches and ropes in it." Elena landed her giant eagle atop a nearby bell tower. Vines crawled through the cracks between the bricks, weaving a hidden web across the ground. She carried Leo on her back, his cheek against her neck. His warm breath reminded her of the days when she'd taken him picking wild berries as a child—a time when the castle gardens didn't smell of blood, only of honey and berries. The moment she pushed open the stone slab, the damp, musty smell hit her face. Elena lit a vine torch, its pale blue light illuminating the moss on the steps. The green vegetation glowed eerily in the light, like countless eyes watching them from the darkness. "Watch your step," Elena warned, her vines exploring the path ahead. When they touched a loose brick, they instantly tightened. "There's a trap here." She wrapped her vines around the brick and gently pulled. Suddenly, the sound of gears turning filled the wall, revealing a secret doorway barely wide enough for one person. The passageway beyond the secret door was wider than expected. The wall still bore the Morning Star family's emblem—a rose inlaid in obsidian, gleaming coldly in the torchlight. Leo reached out to touch the pattern, and the jade pendant in his fingertips suddenly felt warm. The roses on the wall began to slowly turn, revealing a hidden compartment hidden behind the bricks. "It's my mother's diary!" Leo pulled a leather-bound notebook from the secret compartment. The pages were yellowed, yet remarkably well-preserved. The first page, in delicate handwriting, depicted a woman holding a baby, with the inscription: "My son, Leo, was born when the stars first rose." Elena flipped to the middle chapter and came across the secrets of the Inquisition her mother had recorded: "The Bishop is truly a descendant of the Northern Di royal family. He seeks the Forgotten Lands to resurrect his sealed ancestors." Attached to the back was a simple map marking the entrance to the Forgotten Lands—unbelievably, it lay in the deepest dungeons of the city-state's imperial palace. "No wonder the Inquisition wants to massacre the Morning Star family," Elena's voice was as cold as ice, the light from the vine torches dancing in her eyes. "We not only guard the power of Chaos, but also hold the secrets of the Northern Di royal family." She recalled the Northern Di war reports in her father's study, which documented the deliberately concealed intermarriage three hundred years earlier. Faint footsteps reached the end of the passage. Elena extinguished the torch and hid Leo in a hidden compartment, woven vines around him like a protective net. "No matter what you hear, don't come out." She touched the boy's head, the protective spell on her fingertips emitting a pale blue light. "Sister will be back soon." Ella had already drawn her bow and arrow, tipped with a barbarian paralyzing poison. She nodded to Elaina, her brown eyes gleaming like amber in the darkness. "Leave the left to me." Before she'd finished her words, she had vanished into the shadows, leaving only the gentle trembling of her bowstring. Footsteps approached, mingled with the crisp clink of metal against metal. Elaina recognized the clatter of armored Inquisition guards. Their boots dragged harshly across the stone slabs, clearly unfamiliar with the sewers. Her vines climbed along the walls, weaving a hidden web overhead, waiting for her prey to fall into the trap. "The bishop said we must find the witch," a gruff voice echoed, its tongue curling characteristic of the Nordic accent. "The holy text says only the bloodline of the Morning Star family can open the gate to the Forgotten Land." Another voice chimed in, "I heard a traitor from the Paladin Order has arrived with his men. We must quickly find a clue, or our credit will be snatched away." Their footsteps stopped not far from the secret compartment, and Elana could smell the scent of holy oil on them—the same bottle that had burned her mother to death. Suddenly, Ella's arrow shot out from the shadows, piercing the speaker's throat with pinpoint accuracy. Another guard was about to call for help when vines swung by Elana entangled their mouths and noses, dragging them into the darkness. The barbarian girl quickly advanced to examine the bodies, pulling a bunch of keys from one of the men's waists. "It's the key to the palace dungeon! It has the Nordic totem on it!" The metal handle of the key was engraved with an eagle with outstretched wings, an exact replica of the Nordic royal emblem found in her mother's diary. As Elena put the key away, she felt a sudden sharp pain in her fingertips - the sharp spikes on the key scratched her skin, and blood dripped onto the metal, revealing complex patterns that resonated with the crystal in her palm. "This is made from the bones of the Northern Di royal family." Elena's voice was cold. She thought of the skeletons on the altar of the Tribunal. The same totemic marks were also on those broken skeletons. "They not only want to resurrect their ancestors, but also use the blood of living people to strengthen bone tools." Leo crawled out of the secret compartment, his face pale but his eyes firm: "We must stop them." He stuffed his mother's diary into Elena's arms, picked up the dagger on the ground, and awkwardly assumed a defensive posture, "Just like my father taught me." Elena looked at her brother's trembling hands that refused to put down the weapon.