Chapter 407 Wedding Banquet (7)

Chapter 407 Wedding Banquet (7)

"Scholar" Tarun and "Siren" quickly arrived at the entrance of the secret place according to the location left by "Rat King". Just as "Siren" was groping for the mechanism on the candlestick and preparing to open the secret entrance, "Scholar" Tarun found something strange and immediately stopped "Siren" and pulled her behind him. Judging from Tarun's solemn expression, the matter might be serious.

"what happened?"

Tarun didn't say anything, but gestured to let the "Siren" keep quiet. Knowing the seriousness of the matter, the "Siren" immediately shut up and kept quiet. Tarun slowly approached the wall of the secret passage entrance, tilted his head slightly, and stretched his ear towards the wall.

"knock."

He tapped the wall lightly with his fingers, and an echo immediately came from behind the wall. There was indeed a secret passage here, and there was nothing behind the wall. Thanks to the strong physique of the vampire, Tarun only needed to stay focused to clearly capture how far the sound had traveled.

"knock."

He knocked on the wall again, this time with a little more force in his hands. Concentrating and judging carefully, Tarun discovered that the sound made a twist after extending for more than ten meters behind the wall, indicating that the secret space behind was not a straight line. But what was strange was that the echo of the sound disappeared immediately after the twist. Although the weakening of the sound was normal, its sudden disappearance was not.

"Hide, don't make any noise, and don't leave the wall."

After Talen finished instructing the "Siren", the latter nodded and immediately leaned against the wall. He could hear the "Siren" quickly saying a spell, and then her figure disappeared immediately. However, she did not leave here, but used some magic to hide her figure. In addition to her identity as an elf, the "Siren"'s disguise is not so easy to be discovered, of course it is relatively difficult.

"Click."

Tarun carefully observed the candlestick on the wall and found the mechanism. He guessed the correct direction of rotation based on the traces of friction and gently turned the mechanism on the candlestick. The secret entrance was opened, revealing a thin stone door that was integrated with the wall. It was made of a special material and fit perfectly with the surrounding walls. In addition, the material could block energy to a certain extent, making this place very secretive and difficult to be discovered. If the "Candle Merchant" had not found the secret on the blueprint in advance, it would have taken at least ten times as long to find this place.

Unlike the spiral staircase area outside, the temperature inside the secret passage was very low, even for Taren, a vampire, it seemed a bit cold. The air was filled with dust and a turbid smell. It seemed that no one had been here for a long time before them.

There were some marks left in the dust on the ground, there were two sets of footprints, by the shape and size of the footprints, Tarun quickly identified their owners, they were the "Rat King" and the "Candle Merchant", the footprints started from the entrance and extended to the distance, through the vampire's ability to see at night, Tarun could clearly see that the footprints extended to the distant corner.

But these situations that exist in this environment are actually normal, and of course they are not the reason why Taren suddenly became so cautious. The reason why Taren was cautious was because she smelled the bloody smell coming from the secret passage at the wall at the entrance.

For ordinary people, the smell of blood is impossible to distinguish, but it can even be said to be pungent in front of Tarun. Based on the concentration of the blood smell, Tarun is almost 90% sure that either the "Rat King" and the "Candle Merchant" who were supposed to be here were slightly injured, or one of them was seriously injured.

Tarun entered the secret passage and smelled carefully. There was no remaining blood at her current location, so the source of the bloody smell should be deep in the secret passage.

"A trap? Or is there something wrong with the altar?"

Some bad situations immediately appeared in Tarun's mind. Although the "Candle Merchant" usually gave people a frivolous and unreliable feeling, he valued his life very much, so he would definitely not touch this altar that was obviously not right. The "Rat King" usually liked to joke and laugh, but he was calm and could analyze the pros and cons, so he would never do anything rash.

"If it's not them, then it means someone has ambushed here in advance... "Siren", go find "Shadow Fiend" and "Earth Dragon" and ask them to come and help immediately. We may be in trouble."

"how about you?"

"I have to confirm what happened and whether the blood I smelled has anything to do with the Rat King and the Candle Merchant. Don't worry, if something is wrong, I have a way to escape."

"be careful!"

"Ah."

The wall outside the entrance shook twice. It was the "Siren" who had hidden her body. She left here immediately and prepared to go to the underground tunnel to inform the remaining two companions. After smelling the "Siren" leaving, Tarun immediately prepared to set off and go deep into the secret passage. However, in order to avoid attracting attention, she still closed the entrance to the secret passage. But at the same time, in order to prevent the exit from being blocked and unable to escape, Tarun created a thumb-sized gap at the bottom of the secret door. It was also difficult to find, but for Tarun, it was more than enough to escape.

As the entrance closed, Tarun relied on the ability of the Immortal Seed to hide perfectly in the darkness. Even though she was moving forward at a fast speed, she did not make any sound. Soon, Tarun arrived at the corner of the secret passage and discovered a surprising situation.

Behind the corner of the secret passage was a corridor with a light source. The light source was some candles stuck to the wall with wax. The length of the candles burning and the partially solidified wax dripping on the ground could be used to infer the time when they were lit, which was around the time when the "Rat King" notified them to reunite. These candles were very special. They had no wicks, but they burned steadily, indicating that they were made by the "Candle Merchant". Approaching one of the candles, Tarun could feel the residual elven magic fluctuations on the candle, which once again confirmed that the owner of these candles was the "Candle Merchant".

These still burning candles can prove two things, that is, the "candle merchant" must be here and still alive, otherwise these flames that rely on his magic will soon go out. But this situation did not reassure Taron, but made him more alert, because the bloody smell in the secret passage became stronger, and ordinary people who were trained could detect the abnormality.

But the strange thing is that the direction where the bloody smell came from was not the other end of the secret passage, but behind the wall near one of the candles. However, in an inconspicuous position on this wall, Tarun saw some small marks similar to those left by chalk. Those were the handwriting of the "Rat King", but the marks pointed to the other side of the secret passage where there was no smell of blood.

This mark has two meanings, representing two words, one is "end" and the other is "nothing". Taron has been with these people for many years, so he immediately understood the meaning of the mark left by the "Rat King". He used this mark to tell other companions that there was no mechanism on the wall, and the mechanism was at the end of the secret passage.

Observing from this position, in order to reach the end, one needs to pass at least one corner, so the distance of the mechanism should be far. If it were normal, Tarun could use his blood magic to directly create a circuit with blood on the wall to remotely open the mechanism, but it is not possible now. The material of the wall of the secret passage is the same as that of the castle, and magic energy cannot act directly on it. The magic of the "Candle Merchant" is still effective because there are candles as carriers, and they are not made by magic. Tarun estimates that the way to open the mechanism should be that the "Rat King" controls some mice, because she found several rows of small mouse footprints in the corner of the wall.

Through observation, the two rows of footprints on the secret passage should have led to the end of the passage, but for some reason, the two men turned back. After a little thought, Tarun believed that the mechanism to open the second secret entrance may have special restrictions. The most likely possibility is that after a certain period of time, the mechanism will automatically close.

This was not a problem for the Rat King. He could leave some rats at the mechanism to open it for him, and then let him and the Candle Merchant enter the second secret entrance smoothly. So Talen observed carefully and found some artificial holes on the wall of the second secret entrance where the bloody smell came from. They should have made holes so that their magic could be maintained normally and would not be disturbed by the materials that counteracted magic. If this was the case, then there should be some rats at the location of the mechanism.

Although Taren cannot directly control living creatures with magic, as a vampire, she can control these "offspring" by transferring her blood to other creatures through the pressure of her ethnic group and class. Although Taren can also directly use blood magic to complete this task, it will waste a lot of blood. Unless it is absolutely necessary, Taren is not allowed to do so. Therefore, the best way at the moment is to go to the location of the mechanism and see if she can find the rats left there by the "Rat King".

After finalizing the plan, Tarun immediately took action. He first relied on the shadows around the candlelight to move. After walking for more than ten minutes, turning several corners, and going up a flight of stairs, Tarun found a closed metal gate. It was rusty and no one had moved it for a long time. However, at a position close to the wall, Tarun found a deformed gap with some candle fragments on it. The metal gate would not block magic, and it was not seriously damaged, so it should be that the "Candle Merchant" used his magic to create a deformed gap. On some candle fragments stuck in the gap, Tarun found some traces. Those were the footprints of rats. At that time, the "Rat King" and the "Candle Merchant" should have arrived at this location together.

Looking through the gap, it was an empty room with some rotten wooden furniture, some completely soaked and rotten metal book corners with only severe rust marks, and some covers that were not exposed to the water. There was a layer of water on the floor of the room, not deep, only a dozen centimeters. After careful observation and listening, a faint sound of flow could be heard, and there was no unpleasant smell on the water surface, proving that the water inside could flow.

"Squeak!"

Somewhere inside the room, Tarun heard rustling sounds and the cries of mice. Looking in the direction of the sounds, he saw several mice squatting on a piece of building debris exposed above the water, combing their hair. Their eyes were glowing green, indicating that the "Rat King" was still controlling them, but the action of combing their hair showed that the "Rat King" did not have complete control over them, which had never happened before.

Tarun stretched out his left index finger and scratched the palm of his right hand with his fingernail. After the blood flowed out, Tarun threw the blood towards the deformed gap on the metal gate. The blood that spilled out of Tarun immediately turned into a long blood whip. Under Tarun's control, it wrapped around one of the mice in the corner of the room and pulled it out.

After letting the rat suck a few drops of his blood, the light in the rat's eyes turned from green to red. Taran successfully controlled the rat and used the blood whip to send the rat back again. Taran hid in the shadows by the door and began to use the perspective of the controlled rat to observe the situation in the room.

Originally this should have been a small study room, but it was abandoned a long time ago. On one of the walls, there are some materials that were obviously added later. They are some small stone bricks that should have been of the best quality. They seal off a location, which should have been the exit of another room. They are very thick and cannot be opened now.

There was nothing special inside the room, except for a candlestick hanging on the wall. There were some signs of contraction on one of the forks, which should be a pressure mechanism. The mouse controlled by Tarun could easily jump up from the bulge of nearby garbage and use the mouse to dive into the water. Tarun found some fragments, which should be bone fragments damaged by stagnant water. Under some rotten wooden furniture, Tarun found some incomplete remains. A simple analysis showed that they should belong to at least two people. Judging from the preservation state of the bones, they had been dead for a long time.

Apart from this, there was no other useful information in the room. There was no water stain on the mechanism or inside the metal gate, indicating that neither the "Rat King" nor the "Candle Merchant" had personally entered the room. They should have returned to the second secret entrance immediately after discovering the mechanism.

Tarun immediately returned along the same route and came to the second secret entrance. Just as she was about to control the mouse to open the mechanism, she suddenly heard some noises. It was a faint friction sound. The source of the sound was not the second secret entrance that had not yet been opened, but the location of the return journey. Someone had opened the outermost secret entrance. For safety reasons, Tarun immediately hid in the shadows on both sides of the candlelight, waiting, ready to explore clearly before deciding whether to open the second entrance.