Chapter 225

Though also an elder, he was different from the Flora Tribe’s elder. Or rather, he was different from all underground humans—he actually had an eye on his forehead, like Erlang Shen!

This eye was no different from a human eye, only larger, taking up half his forehead. It was clearly capable of sight, as its pupil intently fixed on Su Bei, who had just entered.

Su Bei quickly reacted, first pointing to the earpiece in his hand, confident the elder knew what it was.

Indeed, the elder nodded kindly, gesturing for him to put it on. Convinced that the elder possessed the ability to block earpiece eavesdropping, Su Bei put on the earpiece and smiled, easing the atmosphere: “I thought living underground for so long would cause eyes to degenerate. I never expected to see such beautiful eyes.”

“You’re quite a sweet-talker, child.” Hearing his words, a faint smile appeared in the Chief’s unique eye. “Did you come looking for them because you know why they’re here to see me?”

“No, I came to find them because I think what they’re about to do should be very interesting.” The Chief’s words sounded a bit like a tongue-twister, but Su Bei understood. However, he genuinely didn’t know why these two had come to see the Chief.

If it were anyone else, they might be here to learn about the history of the underground humans, or to find a way back to the surface. But if they were from the Black Flash Organization, Su Bei suspected they had another agenda.

Cyril wore an innocent expression, shaking his head. “You seem to have some misunderstanding about us. We merely wish to pay our respects to the Chief.”

“If I believed you, then I’d truly be misunderstanding you, wouldn’t I?” Su Bei found a chair and sat down, making himself at home, replying with a scoff.

Perhaps because he knew they were all comic characters, he never showed any wariness or aversion when facing members of the Black Flash Organization. Similarly, he wouldn’t display excessive respect towards the prominent figures of the ‘good guys.’

Cyril neither confirmed nor denied his words, but also showed no intention of driving him away. He turned back to the Chief. “What do you think of my proposal just now?”

“Not good at all. Change will ultimately lead to demise,” the Chief refused without hesitation. “You should leave and not return.”

“How can you say that? I’m sincerely inviting you,” Cyril complained, feigning displeasure. “You might not know me, but I’m the type who won’t stop until I achieve my goal.”

Uttering threats with an innocent face, Su Bei’s gaze settled on Cyril’s face, wondering what exactly he had invited the Chief to do.

Suddenly, he felt a gaze. He turned his head and saw Li Xiang beside him. Li Xiang’s calm, red eyes gave him a faint glance before returning her gaze to the Chief. “Some matters might not be up to you.”

Threatened by two people in quick succession, even the Chief’s excellent self-control couldn’t prevent his face from darkening. “If I’m not mistaken, this is my territory, isn’t it? How dare you threaten me on my own ground?”

“Because you can’t do anything to us, of course~” At this moment, Cyril finally fully revealed his malicious nature. “We already know how to enter this place.”

Regarding this, Su Bei had already guessed a thing or two. If Cyril hadn’t lied before, meaning these people had indeed arrived in the underground world after an earthquake, then there was one commonality between their entry into this space and how the underground humans discovered it—ground tremors.

When the ground experienced violent tremors akin to an earthquake, falling from the arena stage could lead one into the underground world.

This threat proved effective. The Spirit-Communicator Tribe Chief remained silent for a moment before speaking. “Let me think about it some more. Please return for now.”

After successfully making the other party concede, Cyril didn’t press further but instead took a step back. “Then I shall await your good news.”

With that, he looked at Su Bei and tilted his head. “Are you coming with us?”

“Grandpa Chief and I hit it off immediately; we have much more to discuss.” Su Bei said, making things up.

Although Cyril clearly knew he was talking nonsense, he couldn’t be bothered with him and left the room with Li Xiang. Only after confirming with his Mental Energy that they had completely departed did Su Bei get straight to the point. “They want you to join the Black Flash Organization?”

The old Chief sighed, not intending to hide the matter. “To be precise, they want me to bring my entire tribe to join his organization.”

“Then what’s the reason for your strong resistance?” Su Bei asked, curious. If they could return to the surface, it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. Cyril certainly wouldn’t tell him that his organization was a villainous group despised by all on the surface. If the Chief only thought it was a research organization trying to recruit him, he shouldn’t be so troubled, right?

Hearing the question, the Chief hesitated for a while, watching him. Just as Su Bei was about to rephrase his question, he finally spoke, dejectedly. “There’s no point in hiding it now; I’ll tell you directly. A long time ago, we received a Prophecy: we must never let anyone who falls from the surface leave, or we will face utter destruction.”

So that’s it! Hearing this, Su Bei finally understood why the people here had decided to make them stay and started their act the moment they saw them. There had been a Prophecy all along.

“So why are you telling me this?” Su Bei frowned. Logically, unless they all decided to stay, such a Prophecy should absolutely not be revealed to them.

The Chief gave a bitter smile. “Those two, do you think I can stop them? As long as one of them leaves, the Prophecy will be broken. Telling you or not telling you makes no difference.”

That was true. Cyril and Li Xiang couldn’t possibly be trapped here. Even though Abilities were sealed and Ability items unusable in the underground world, Su Bei inexplicably had a hunch that even without resurrection items, Cyril and Li Xiang wouldn’t fear the people here at all.

“Since you think you can’t stop them anyway, why not just let all of us go back up?” he said lazily. “As you said, ‘many fleas don’t itch, many debts don’t bother.’”

That was a complete attempt to gain something for nothing. The old Chief’s forehead eye rolled dramatically. “I told you this Prophecy because I want you to help us think of a solution, not to exploit loopholes with me.”

They clearly had no other methods themselves; if they could have thought of a solution, they would have done so years ago. Why else would they be on high alert every time outsiders appeared?

“Why are you telling me specifically?” Su Bei suddenly grew a little wary. He wasn’t part of the protagonist group; how could he possibly deserve such a crucial piece of information?

Hearing this question, the old man rolled his eye again. “Because you were first.”

Su Bei: “…”

Alright, he’d flattered himself. Su Bei pouted and stood up. “You should tell this to the others. They might be more interested.”

Compared to him, a supporting character, the protagonist group had a much higher chance of resolving this matter. Since the need and conditions for leaving were now apparent, this story wouldn’t likely last much longer. He just didn’t know what twists and turns lay ahead, so he needed to find a safe place to take refuge.

“Oh, right, a reminder.” Just as he reached the doorway, Su Bei suddenly turned back, his purple eyes seeming to see through everything. “That ‘Black Flash’ is a cult organization hated by everyone. Don’t trust them too much, okay?”

Stepping out the door, he suddenly scoffed. As if he hadn’t noticed! Even though the old man had righteously rejected Cyril while trying to buy time, Su Bei was certain that his resolve to reject the Black Flash Organization wasn’t as firm as it appeared.

Since the Chief had told him that truth just now, he would surely tell Cyril and Li Xiang as well. After all, the current situation was that he had to solve this problem, or all underground humans would undoubtedly perish.

And after learning of this, Cyril would inevitably promise to help them solve the problem. Thus, the Chief would surely be swayed. However, he couldn’t possibly immediately trust the ‘big pie’ Cyril drew, which was why he temporarily refused and then told Su Bei the news.

It primarily came down to not putting all his eggs in one basket.

This was originally unexceptionable, but the other party he was placing his hopes on was the Black Flash Organization, which made things a bit delicate.

Su Bei wasn’t entirely sure what the ‘utter destruction’ mentioned in the Prophecy referred to, but he intuitively felt that it was inextricably linked to the Black Flash Organization. For such a villainous organization, if they couldn’t turn the underground humans to their own use, could they really allow them to join the government and become their adversaries? It seemed highly unlikely, no matter how he thought about it.

Because he himself was a Destiny-type Ability user, and he also had a good friend with Prophecy Abilities, Su Bei often consulted relevant materials and was quite knowledgeable about Prophecies.

The crisis in the Prophecy wouldn’t appear out of thin air; there had to be some normal logic behind it. It wasn’t possible for them to leave and suddenly be killed by a nuclear bomb explosion. Logically, their utter destruction was likely related to those who were allowed to leave.

Of the twelve people who had fallen in this time, they could be divided into two groups. The two from the Black Flash Organization formed one group, dubbed the Villain Group. The remaining people formed another group, dubbed the Protagonist Group.

From this, three possibilities for the utter destruction of the underground humans could be derived: The first was that the righteous government, representing the surface world, couldn’t tolerate them and secretly killed these ‘aberrations.’ The second was that the villainous Black Flash Organization was interested in something belonging to the underground humans and extensively researched them, leading to their extinction. The third was that the two factions engaged in mutual strife, causing innocent bystanders to suffer.

Among these, the first conjecture was absolutely impossible, because this was a comic world. From his impression of ‘King of Abilities,’ the government was quite righteous, and thus wouldn’t do such a thing.

The latter two possibilities were both related to the Black Flash Organization.

So, out of gratitude for the old Chief at least sharing crucial information, Su Bei gave him a heads-up. Whether the other party would believe it or not wasn’t his concern; after all, it wouldn’t be his tribe facing extinction.

There was still some time until lunch, so Su Bei decided to walk around a bit more.

As he walked, he pondered. He hadn’t asked how to leave this place earlier, as even if he had, the other party definitely wouldn’t have answered. But from his probing, it was clear that these people absolutely knew a way for them to leave.

Since there was a way to leave, Jiang Tianming and the others should be able to find it, so he didn’t need to worry too much. If he happened to encounter them, that would be ideal; if not, it was fine too, as they would eventually get out. Su Bei’s only concern now was that Cyril and Li Xiang hadn’t completely let them go and might still try to stir up trouble, even in the underground world.

Or perhaps they would deliver a fatal blow just as they managed to escape.

Although their previous behavior didn’t suggest they would attack Su Bei, sometimes harm wasn’t only caused by direct targeting. What if Su Bei became an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire when Cyril and the old Chief had their ‘contest of power’?

Thinking of this, Su Bei glanced at his Destiny Compass, then raised an eyebrow, an expression of surprise on his face. His Major Destiny Pointer seemed fine, but his Minor Destiny Pointer was surprisingly far to the left!

In other words, his luck was uncommonly good right now!

Su Bei realized why he’d just happened to catch a crucial plot point; it was due to his luck. With such rare good fortune, he decided he should definitely take this opportunity to explore properly. With this kind of luck, it felt like he could trigger an event just by walking around.

Just as Su Bei was thinking this, he ran into Lan Subing and her group. At this moment, the two of them, plus Zheng Caige, were heading towards the Spirit-Communicator Tribe’s main hall. The two parties met head-on in the corridor.

“Su Bei, what are you doing here?” Wu Mingbai asked, somewhat surprised.

Looking at the two of them, Su Bei thought for a moment before replying, “I was just chatting with the Spirit-Communicator Tribe Chief. He’s a very interesting old man; I suggest you talk to him too.”

Wasn’t that considerate enough? He was practically spoon-feeding them the clue. If they still couldn’t understand, it wasn’t his fault. After speaking, Su Bei didn’t wait for their reactions. He gave Caige a polite nod and then left first.

Unfortunately, his good luck seemed to only extend to encountering Cyril and the old Chief’s conversation. Afterward, he didn’t encounter anything else. But in a sense, who could say that wasn’t a good thing?

Wandering until noon, everyone gathered in the dining hall. Surprisingly, however, Huangfu Mingzhe and Zu Zong hadn’t returned. Both of them had phones, so it was unlikely they’d missed the time. Something must have happened.

But truthfully, no one was too worried about them. For one, Huangfu Mingzhe’s strength was evident to all. For another, Zu Zong had secretly revealed to them that even though this underground world restricted their Abilities, he could still manage to use his Ability once.

In other words, should they encounter danger, he could fully activate his [Arena Ability] to bring both himself and Huangfu Mingzhe inside, making them virtually 100% safe. Their current disappearance might mean they had encountered danger and were hiding, and with no other clues, no one was in a rush to search for them.

Jiang Tianming motioned for everyone to remove their earpieces and place them in the adjacent room. He then returned to lead the meeting. “We’ll set Zu Zong and the others aside for now. I’ll start by sharing my findings: the method to leave the underground world should only be known by the chiefs of the various tribes. However, we might not need to get the answer directly from them. We’re not the only ones in the underground world who want to find an exit; a group of young people also desperately want to return to the surface.”

“Furthermore, we found a living surface human who fell down here during an earthquake over a decade ago,” Si Zhaohua added, revealing another discovery. “At first, she wanted to return to the surface, facing the same situation as Qiao Mu and the others, but ultimately had to choose to become an underground human and live here permanently.”

Hearing this piece of information, everyone’s spirits lifted. A former surface human who had lived here for over a decade should possess a lot of intelligence. If she was willing to speak, she might even directly help them find an exit.

Seeing everyone’s expectant gazes, Jiang Tianming didn’t hesitate to shatter their illusions. “But she only said that we absolutely cannot go up, and told us to live well here. She said nothing else. Even with Wu Jin’s help, she merely warned us that if we wanted to live, we should tell those people that we wanted to stay, but she ultimately didn’t tell us why.”

“We might know about this,” Lan Subing said weakly, raising her hand. Wu Mingbai, beside her, helped explain, “We learned from the Spirit-Communicator Tribe’s Chief that they once had a Prophecy: once someone who came to the underground world returns to the surface, the entire underground world will suffer utter destruction.”

Afterward, he looked at Su Bei. “Su Bei should already know about this matter.”

Su Bei didn’t deny it, nodding and providing another piece of information. “Cyril and his group should also know. Additionally, they’ve invited the Spirit-Communicator Tribe Chief to lead his tribe in joining the Black Flash Organization.”

Hearing this, Si Zhaohua said proudly, “Then we can just invite him too, can’t we? My family can negotiate with the government to take them in, and even if the government disagrees, our family can still afford to support a few people.”

“Here, does ‘tribe’ refer to the Spirit-Communicator Tribe, or all people in the entire underground world?” Jiang Tianming noticed a peculiar detail.

Su Bei hadn’t noticed this question before and naturally hadn’t asked the Chief. Jiang Tianming’s words served as a reminder to him. Right, who exactly was the Black Flash Organization inviting?

If it was everyone in the underground world, what did they intend to do by inviting them? If it was just the Spirit-Communicator Tribe, what would happen to the other tribes?

He felt like a crucial piece of information was still missing.

Si Zhaohua wasn’t too concerned about his focus. “Regardless of who they want to invite, we just need to match their offer.”

“But the problem is, we still have to solve the Prophecy issue,” Wu Mingbai said, frowning. “As long as we leave, they will face utter destruction. This isn’t a problem that can be solved just by someone taking them in.”

“Bing, Mingbai, can you repeat the Prophecy the Chief told you?” Jiang Tianming suddenly asked.

“I’ll say it,” Wu Mingbai repeated the Prophecy word-for-word. “‘When those from the surface return to the surface, that will be the day of demise for those of the underground.’ The Chief said these were the original words of the Ancient Ancestor.”

It sounded fine, but something still felt off. However, before Jiang Tianming could figure out what exactly, chaotic footsteps suddenly echoed outside. It sounded like a large group of people rapidly approaching their location.

Soon, the group arrived at the doorway and knocked. Zheng Caige’s voice called out, “Are you in there?”

Jiang Tianming replied, “Yes,” then walked over, pushed open the door, and asked in confusion, “What’s wrong?”

Before Caige could answer, the large wave of underground humans behind her rushed in. After looking around, as if confirming something, they exchanged glances. One of them angrily demanded, “I remember twelve of you fell down, didn’t you? Why are there only a few of you here?”

“Two people are in the infirmary, two didn’t come with us from the start, and two more went missing today,” Jiang Tianming answered clearly, then repeated his earlier question, “What’s wrong?”

The ponytail man who spoke earlier scoffed. “Just now, we found two people dead in their home. They had no enemies, so only you outsiders could have killed them!”

“Where’s the evidence?” Wu Mingbai asked innocently. “On the surface, you need evidence to accuse someone. Is that not the case underground?”

If he had only asked for evidence, the ponytail man could have directly used the excuse, ‘What more evidence do you need? Only you could be the killers,’ and forcibly taken them away. But Wu Mingbai brought up a comparison of customs between the surface and underground worlds, which made it harder for them to act.

In short, they also cared about their reputation. If they acted directly now, wouldn’t it be tantamount to indirectly admitting that the laws of their underground world were not as complete as those of the surface? Although this wouldn’t cause any substantial damage, it would make everyone uncomfortable.

Therefore, Zheng Caige coughed and signaled for the ponytail man to step back, then said with difficulty, “Actually, I don’t want to suspect you, but currently, you are indeed the most suspicious. If you can find the murderer, I will have them apologize to you. But if not… I’m sorry, the victims’ families also need a result.”

This time, Wu Mingbai didn’t argue back with phrases like ‘innocent until proven guilty’ or ‘refusing to incriminate oneself.’ This was, after all, the territory of the underground humans. Knowing that they harbored significant malice towards his group, simply appealing to reason wouldn’t work.

In fact, the fact that they could still speak relatively calmly was entirely due to most of the underground humans still possessing some sense of right and wrong. Otherwise, simply based on that Prophecy, they could have killed everyone at the very beginning.

Compared to the lives of a few strangers, the lives of the entire tribe were, of course, more important.

“No problem. Please take us to see the victims first,” Jiang Tianming agreed immediately. The group followed the procession to the crime scene.

On the way, Lan Subing remembered another question. After whispering to Jiang Tianming, he helped ask, “Don’t your Spirit-Communicator Tribe members have the ability to communicate with various beings? Can you communicate with the souls of the deceased and ask who killed them?”

Hearing this, Caige shook her head, helpless and wary. “We summoned the souls of several deceased and asked them, but they knew nothing. They simply died inexplicably.”

The two deceased were a couple, found lying lifeless in the Mud Tribe’s main hall. Strangely, they had no injuries on their bodies, and members of the Flora Tribe who examined them found no signs of poisoning. It was as if they had died suddenly.

This kind of examination of the deceased fell within the expertise of Jiang Tianming and his two companions. In the first season of the comic, they frequently encountered dead bodies and conducted investigations, so they were quite familiar with the procedures.

Meanwhile, Su Bei observed the Destiny Compass above everyone’s heads. No one’s main compass seemed to have any major issues, but everyone’s Minor Destiny Pointer was biased to the right, as if the God of Bad Luck was hovering over the hall.

Normally, people’s Minor Destiny Pointers would lean to the left. For them to be biased to the right like this, there must be some hidden problem.