A dark abyss of unfathomable depths. Judging from the duration of how long the lizard took to reach its bottom, one could easily expect that the fall was easily precipitous enough to kill even an Immortal-Level lord.
That served as a fitting wake-up call for the company to remain constantly vigilant, even the ever-so rambunctious and clumsy Flaming Qilin included.
They moved faster down the chain and at the five-thousand-meter mark, Chu Xun felt his feet touching the hard ground.
Apparently, a huge boulder protruded out of the cliffs, providing a natural flat landing of sorts.
Everyone came down quickly. To be able to feel solid ground beneath their feet again filled them once more with ease.
Especially after that little episode earlier with that monster lizard.
Strange skeletal trees grew upon the plateau which spanned almost the size of half a football field.
“Her Grace the Queen is kept here,” said Su Lianyi.
But everyone knew that already. A natural cave yawned open right before them, dark and cavernous like the gaping pit of a huge monster’s mouth.
“What caused the Queen to be kept here?” asked Gao Mohan curiously. No one would hardly come to a place like this and get themselves imprisoned for no reason.
“Strange, brilliant lights came out from here once. Thinking that it could be some rare Relic, Her Grace came here herself, only to realize that it was a trap. Since then, she has been imprisoned here,” explained Su Lianyi.
“Strange, brilliant lights?!”
Everyone peered into the cave and found nothing but darkness. “How could strange, brilliant lights ever be possible in a place like this?!”
Chu Xun stepped closer to the cave. The ten-meter-tall and five-meter-wide entrance looked every bit as natural as he could find with zero signs of chiseling or any other man-made marks.
Even so, Chu Xun was frowning. His senses picked up nothing magical at all, not even the traces of a Forbidden Area Installation or any enchantment.
“The Forbidden Area Installation’s not here,” explained Su Lianyi, reading his thoughts as she took out a huge luminous pearl the size of a crystal ball and led the way.
The glow of the luminous pearl easily dispelled all darkness that wished to encroach. Everyone filed in the long and narrow passage behind her. At some junctures, the walls became so cramped that they needed to shuffle forward sideways.
To everyone’s relief, no mishaps nor were there any forks or intersections all the way, but only a long winding passage leading deeper inside.
They traveled for almost another hour until Su Lianyi stopped where she hurled the luminous pearl into the darkness ahead.
The pearl’s light tore through the black void for some distance until it hit something solid with a loud thud and sank halfway into the rock.
Su Lianyi took out another dozen of luminous peals. She hurled them around, embedding them into the walls of the cavern around them.
That filled the whole cavern with lights. They had exited the passage without knowing it, only to find themselves inside a subterranean hall as large as a football field.
Right at the center of the cavernous space was a lithe figure lying motionless on the cold and hard ground.
Gao Mohan and the others braced with pity. How could such a delicate lady lie on such coarse and hard ground, to say nothing of the dampness and moss?
Noticing them at last, the woman lazily stretched herself and opened her alluring eyes that formed a gorgeous smile.
“Teacher,” Su Wei’er called with tears welling in her eyes.
“Su Lianyi, here to see you, Your Grace,” Su Lianyi knelt down before her.
Gao Mohan and the others understood at last. They have found the Queen of Elves.
But Chu Xun stared at the Queen blankly as if he was in a trance, for she looked exactly the same as Hong Ling.
The Queen stood up and surveyed the company with interest. “I see we have guests,” she observed with a chuckle.
“Teacher…” Su Wei’er moaned again before she hastily introduced everyone to her and she told her teacher about Di Yanjing’s collusion with the Fifth Fiend Lord and his treachery.
The Queen listened to her apprentice quietly until the very end, and her brows raised with amusement. “I knew Di Yanjing was only biding his time to rebel the moment I took the throne. What a pity that I was trapped here when it happened and I couldn’t stop him myself.”
She looked at Chu Xun and his companions and smiled at them, not even trying to disguise her charms and beauty. “Thank you all for quelling this little rebellion.”
“Say nothing of it, Your Grace. There was no way we could stand by and watch without helping,” squeaked Gao Mohan, feeling flattered by the Queen’s presence and attention.
But deep inside, Gao Mohan was gasping with disbelief. “What’s going on?! I’m an Immortal-Level lord and yet I feel subdued by her?!”
He looked around and realized that everyone was looking the same: that they felt gratified and proud to hear the Queen’s simple words of acknowledgment and thanks like a great honor.
Only Chu Xun looked different; he looked like he was seeing a ghost.
“What’s wrong, Chu?” he asked Chu Xun.
Chu Xun jerked himself awake from his stupor and shook his head, his heart still galloping like a stallion in the wild. “How is this possible?! How could she share every bit of her semblance?! No, she even behaved exactly as she did! Not even twins could do that!”
Every bit of the Queen: her figure, her face, and her idiosyncrasies and disposition mimicked Hong Ling in every way.
“We’re here to free you, Teacher,” said Su Wei’er.
“Free me?” the Queen looked positively surprised before she quickly put on a weak smile. “That’s easier said than done.”
Su Wei’er referred to Chu Xun, “This human Chu Xun is extremely adept in the magic of enchantments, Teacher. He may be able to break the spell and free you.”
The Queen peered at Chu Xun and beamed at him.
That left Chu Xun stupefied and mesmerized. “She really looks like her.”
“What’s wrong with you, Chu the Devil?! Haven’t you met any charming ladies before?!” the Flaming Qilin heckled when he saw Chu Xun behaving strangely and thought that he was captivated by her beauty.
“Oh, shut up, you,” scowled Chu Xun before he asked the Queen, “If I may, Your Grace, may I know your name?”
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The Queen stared at him before she broke into fits of giggles. “You’re not here to save me, are you, boy? You’re here to look for a wife.”
“And your name is?” Chu Xun pressed, ignoring her jibe. “You really look like someone I know.”
The Queen stifled her laughter and pointed a slender finger at him. “That’s an awfully old trick in the book, boy.”
Even Gao Mohan and the others were blushing madly. “So this is how Chu Xun woo girls?! How unoriginal!?” What was more, Chu Xun was only a lad barely thirty years old while the Queen was at least several thousand years old.
“So that’s his taste in women!? Such exquisite, if not unusual tastes!”
“And so your name?” Chu Xun insisted again for the third time. He looked like he really needed to know her name.
The Queen giggled again. “All right. If my name is what you want, then free me. You’re good in enchantments, aren’t you? Prove it. Free me and I’ll tell you my name. If you’re remarkable enough, I might consider you as a candidate to be my consort.”
That came like a hammer to everyone present. “Did she have to be so direct?!”
“I’ll pass on the offer to be your consort. But if I can save you, you’ll tell me your name,” said Chu Xun solemnly.
That seemed to hurt her. She looked pained as she groaned, “Aww… That’s too bad. So the little boy has no interest in an old hag like me.”
Even so, the Queen’s damsel-in-distress histrionics made everyone’s hearts skipped several beats.
Yet even with her astonishingly old age, no man, least of all warriors, could hardly deny her charms. Compared to most people, the passage of time felt shorter to Immortal-Level lords; one simple bout of solitary meditation alone could take decades. Nevermind the fact that the Queen looked barely twenty with her ravishing looks and innocent youth-like exuberance.
“Good Heavens, she’s no Elf. She’s a succubus. A creature with the most irresistible allure,” muttered Weng Xiong quietly.
“Are you giving in to the Queen’s charms as well, my friend? Would you be competing with Chu for her?” teased Shi Yifei.
“Give me a break. I merely speak in jest. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, remember?” scowled Weng Xiong jokingly.
Meanwhile, Chu Xun persisted, “If I can save you, I only want your name.”
“All right, my dear. As you wish,” said the Queen, winking coquettishly at him.
Chu Xun could feel his cheeks burning. Every move she made and every word she said resembled Hong Ling in every way possible!
The first time when they met at the antique market, this was how she had teased him too!
“Please, Chu Xun. Please save my teacher,” Su Wei’er begged.
“I’ll do my best,” said Chu Xun.
He threw a glance at the Flaming Qilin. The bumbling oaf had turned silent since coming inside like a timid future son-in-law in his first encounter with his future mother-in-law.
Something made him turn in Chu Xun’s direction and their eyes locked for a second. He took a deep breath and said, “Do what you can, Chu the Devil. Save the Queen and I’ll be glad to call you my father-in-law.”
Bang!
Irate, Chu Xun gave him a kick into his backside.
He motioned for everyone to retreat.
Chu Xun was going to try saving the Queen. At the same time, everyone was wondering about the very same question: “Where is the enchantment?”
But even Chu Xun himself didn’t know the answer to that quandary. Since he came in, he had been scanning the area with his divine sense but he found not even the slightest vestiges of any enchantments around.
Out of nowhere, the Queen had produced a little black rock in her hand and she was fiddling with it like a toy. She waved at Chu Xun. “Come here. Don’t worry, I don’t bite.”
Warily, Chu Xun approached her. Yet even as he reached within five meters of her, he could still feel nothing.
The Queen beamed at him and said, grinning, “Truth be told, I’m not in trouble at all.”
“What?!” Chu Xun was shocked to hear that.
Gao Mohan and the others were all stunned as well.
Even Su Wei’er and Su Lianyi could not believe what was going on.
Chu Xun was a little more than two to three meters from the Queen.
“You’re not in trouble, Teacher?!” Su Wei’er gasped hesitantly. She had felt the presence of a Forbidden Area Installation the last time Su Lianyi came here with her.
“My dear child,” the Queen shook her head with an adoring smile, “who on earth could have trapped me here?”
“But why?!” Su Wei’er uttered incredulously, voicing out the very question that loomed in everyone’s minds.
“Because....” the Queen peered at Chu Xun before she said with a blushing face, “Because I needed to choose a consort good enough to serve our race–a worthy husband for myself.”
That left everyone gawking with bewilderment.
“So you went through all the trouble because you were choosing a consort?!” gasped Gao Mohan, hardly able to stomach all that at all.
“Indeed. This is a tradition of our race. Every Queen would retreat into seclusion at some point. We seal ourselves as a form of test. The man who could free me shall be my husband, although I didn’t expect to find an outsider,” the Queen winked at Chu Xun again. “Well, you are not an Elf, but since you’re handsome enough for me, we can conduct a ceremony after this to just formally induct you.”
Even Chu Xun himself could not quite believe his ears.
She stared at Chu Xun, who was perplexed, and giggled coyly. Suddenly, she reached out to hand Chu Xun the black stone, saying softly, “Hold this for me, honey. I need to tidy myself up.”
Chu Xun reached out his hand before he even knew what he was doing. The tip of his finger barely grazed the surface of the stone when he came to his senses, his face squirming with horror as he threw himself backward. But it was too late. He had touched it.
Rumble!
A huge burst of energy, glimmering obsidian-black, pulsed from inside the stone, sweeping across the rock chamber and destroying every rock and stone into dust. The entire cavern shook as if the ceilings were about to give way as several boulders came loose and crashed down.
Everything had happened too quickly. The sudden burst tossed the Queen into the air. Even Gao Mohan and the others who were some distance away were knocked off their feet and slammed into the walls of the chamber.
“I’m free! I’m free! HAHAHAHA!” the Queen let loose a maniacal peal of laughter.