The beloved baby has a space

Chapter 785 Underground Ancient City
Late at night, the government office was brightly lit, but the backyard where Ayu and other officials were staying was quiet and still.

At this time, the moon was bright and the stars were few. Several figures rushed out of Qin Huai's room and scattered to the surroundings.

After another masked man left, Ayu opened her eyes.

"Elves, have they left?"

They've walked about a mile already.

[Your ability to conceal your presence is getting better and better, so I won't buy you any more items to hide your aura. They're too expensive and not worth it.]

"it is good."

Ayu sat up in bed, pulled off the blanket, and there was a night outfit underneath.

She had rested well in the space long ago and was now full of energy.

Ah-you's brother must have sent someone to investigate secretly, but she felt that this matter was not so easy.

The reward was too tempting; she didn't want to fail.

Qin Huai must have found some clues by sending people out.

There's no need to expose him; he'll tell us the next day anyway.

Now, she's going to another place.

Ayu used her lightness skill to quickly dart out in a direction that the others hadn't gone.

The guards on duty suddenly felt a gentle breeze and scratched the back of their heads.

"What's wrong?" asked the constable standing nearby.

"It seems like someone just passed by," the constable said uncertainly, "but there was no sound around, and I didn't see anyone."

He gripped the spear tightly, wanting to follow his senses to investigate, but was stopped by another person.

"Don't go there. Our duty is to guard this place. Don't explore anything else. It might just be a cat, or maybe just a normal night breeze."

What if it is—

“There’s no ‘what if’,” the constable said seriously. “What if it really is some powerful expert who can come and go without anyone noticing? What can we two do with our skills? We might as well stay here.”

While following the rules might not earn you merit, it also prevents you from making serious mistakes or losing your life.

This is a principle passed down from the old yamen runners.

So the two constables tacitly shut their mouths.

As they were talking, Ayu had already left Fengming City and arrived at the riverbank.

The opposite bank was brightly lit, and a campsite could be seen from afar.

"Such blatant blatantness, I wonder if they are fearless or completely without any strategy." Ayu naturally leaned towards the latter; Tuanzi, this cheating device, naturally had a complete view of the situation on that side.

They planned to pretend to fight General Hua's men in several battles early the next morning, and then surrender when they were outnumbered.

The third prince is dead, and their leader has quietly slipped away. What else is there to do but surrender?
Ayu arrived at a deserted place, took a deep breath, and then plunged into the river.

The river was so dark at night that you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. Before Ayu could even activate her inner energy to warm herself, Tuanzi had already skillfully put the warming gear on her.

He also gave her directions.

About ten meters ahead, there's a stone lion. Move it aside, and you'll see the entrance behind it.

Upon hearing this, Ayu swam over, channeled her inner strength, and forcefully moved the stone lion aside, her hand reaching the entrance of the cave.

She swam into the cave, only to find it was much longer than she had imagined.

When she felt oxygen-deprived, Tuanzi had already bought her an oxygen therapy device.

After taking several deep breaths, Ayu threw the oxygen device into her spatial storage space, and with another burst of energy, finally reached her destination.

Ayu went back into her space first, changed into a set of dry clothes, and then came out again to carefully look around.

It was an underground city with hundreds of steps, most of which was submerged in water, with only a small portion remaining in dry areas.

Wait, don't light the fire.

[There is flammable gas here; it could explode if ignited.] Tuanzi rummaged through Ayu's stash and found a fist-sized luminous pearl.

"...Don't you have any smaller ones?" The luminous pearl was heavier than a stone, and Ayu sighed helplessly.

"It's too small and doesn't emit enough light. If you can't lift it, I'll get you a lighter, luminous meteorite."

"No, this is fine." Ayu didn't want it to cause any more trouble, so she took the large luminous pearl and went inside.

This is an underground ancient city. Since it is now a ruin, most of it has collapsed, but the various stone carvings and buildings around it all show that this place was once extraordinary.

"When I looked at the map during the day, I felt that the layout here was a bit strange, wasting a lot of land. I never thought that if we hadn't had the experience of going to the underground ancient city before, we would never have thought of this." Ayu said to Tuanzi as they walked.

Despite not being that old, it's understandable to feel apprehensive walking alone in this open and dark place.

Tuanzi: [When you entered here just now, a new quest clue, "The Secrets of the Ancient City," was added. This place should be related to those students.]

"Could the students be imprisoned here?" Ayu guessed. "But the route I came in from before, unless you're an exceptionally good swimmer, it would be difficult to get in alive."

Most students are too weak to even kill a chicken, let alone hold their breath and dive for so long. Wouldn't they just end up as corpses if they swam over?
Upon realizing this, Ayu immediately understood.

"There must be other entrances and exits."

There must be other entrances and exits!

Ayu and Tuanzi said in unison, and then they both laughed.

The place was so empty that it took Ayu nearly half an hour to finally find some new marks.

There were still candle flames there, clearly recently lit, but they had already burned out.

Further on, she discovered a corpse.

The body had been dead for about half a month. Because the air was not circulating and there was no sunlight, the body was not in a particularly bad state of decomposition, and its general appearance could still be clearly seen.

He was wearing a long robe, a style often favored by students, and held a shard of porcelain in his hand. There were also cut marks on his neck, and dark bloodstains stained his robe.

Ayu didn't dare to get close enough to take a closer look.

"Are these students from Fengming City?"

Seeing that Ayu was scared, Tuanzi told her to go further away and scanned the information on the corpse for her.

He had a wooden plaque hanging from his waist, the design of which was from an academy in Fengming City; he must have been a student there.

Judging from the manner of his death, it appears to be suicide, but there are fracture marks on his wrist, so it's also possible that the suicide was staged.

“No one outside saw him here, and it looks like no one will collect his body. There’s no need to fake a suicide.” Ayu shook her head and continued walking without lingering. As she walked, she said, “Judging from the footprints on the ground, there shouldn’t be more than one person here. Let’s go check other places first.”

She'd seen plenty of dead people, so she wasn't exactly scared, but she still felt a little uncomfortable, and it was better to stay away.

After walking for about 45 minutes, Ayu heard a deafening snoring sound.

The snoring sound seemed to come from a deep valley, coming in waves, which was very annoying.

"Xie Changyuan, can you please stop snoring? How are other people supposed to sleep?!" A voice as loud as thunder rang out, and the snoring stopped abruptly.

Then, more voices rose up.

There was also a terrified voice.

"Oh no, you've summoned the Black Beast!"

The next moment, Ayu heard a rustling sound, as if a large number of animals were rapidly approaching.

"What are you standing there for? Run!"

"Help!"

"Someone can save you! Run!"

A jumble of sounds gradually arose.

"Shh!"

Ayu took out a long whip from her spatial storage.

(End of this chapter)