Chapter 199: The Seventh month

The Seventh Month

Zhao Meiyun walked alongside Lothe, whose left hand remained firmly entwined with Seana’s as they navigated the exit corridor of the Nine-Lock Prison.

Seana glanced sideways at their new companion before looking back toward the road ahead, shaking her head inwardly.

What is it with this world producing ridiculously good-looking men by the dozen?

Zhao Meiyun was undeniably striking. His features were sharp yet delicate, and his spotless, bone-white silk robes gave him an ethereal elegance that seemed wildly out of place in this damp, necrotic cavern.

Yet standing directly beside Lothe, whose long, dark tinted hair and cold, chiseled features carried an untamed, sovereign presence, Zhao Meiyun’s refined charm felt distinctly overshadowed.

Seana stole another glance at her boyfriend.

Tsk. What exactly did this lazy fox possess that kept drawing eccentric, dangerous people into their orbit?

"Did you say something, love?" Lothe turned toward her, his dark eyes carrying a note of quiet concern.

He had caught the slight shift in her breathing and immediately worried whether the Nine-Lock Prison’s residual suppression had left deeper internal fractures in her meridians.

Without hesitation, Lothe halted in mid-stride.

His [Spatial Perception] and [Qi Sight] flared simultaneously, a soft, invisible ripple passing over Seana’s body from crown to heel as he scrutinized her blood circulation and stability.

Because Lothe abruptly stopped, the entire group behind them ground to an awkward halt.

Darian sighed, and several irritated expressions flared. Lothe ignored them completely.

Zhao Meiyun lifted an amused brow, watching the young man’s undisguised attentiveness. For a brief second, a flicker of genuine respect crossed the alchemist’s usually mocking eyes.

Since the apocalypse happened, Zhao Meiyun had seen countless people abandon their companions, betray their comrades in the most critical moments. Cynicism had become second nature to him.

Seeing two capable cultivators who still unhesitatingly prioritized each other was an increasingly rare sight in the now rotten world.

The soft look vanished from Zhao’s eyes just as quickly as it had appeared.

"I’m completely fine, Little Fox," Seana said, turning to face him. She narrowed her eyes slightly. "In fact, I should be the one interrogating you."

Lothe blinked. "Me?"

"You absorbed two unpurified Level Five beast cores with your Core sealed," she stated, crossing her arms. "The moment we get out of this gods-forsaken ditch, I am giving you a thorough, full-body inspection."

Behind them, Caelan and Darian abruptly cleared their throats and looked anywhere else.

Elder Rowan froze mid-step, his weather-beaten face flushing with profound discomfort. He shook his head vigorously, his white beard twitching in dismay. "How... how brazen! Young lady, have the virtues of propriety vanished entirely with the pre-cataclysm world?"

Nyren turned her gaze toward the ceiling with an expression of stoic indifference, while Oren clenched his fists inside his wide sleeves, pretending to study the masonry.

Even Zhao Meiyun, who prided himself on his shamelessness, blinked once and touched his own nose in mild embarrassment.

Lothe, however, didn’t flinch. In fact, his lips curled into a slow, thoroughly unrepentant smirk.

Seana looked around at the sudden, suffocating awkwardness, completely bewildered. "What did I say wrong? I’m an alchemist! His meridians almost reversed their—"

"Don’t worry, love," Lothe cut in smoothly, his voice dropping into a low, amused purr. "The moment we finish our business here, you can conduct as thorough an inspection as you like. Just make sure you don’t take your words back when the time comes."

"Lothe! I’m being serious here!"

"Naturally. So was I." Lothe nodded with utter solemnity, though the glint in his dark eyes made it obvious he was enjoying every second.

Zhao Meiyun let out a dry, pointed cough that cut through the corridor like a blade. "Pardon the intrusion upon your profound domestic bliss, but shouldn’t we proceed before the rest of the prison guards realize their vanguard is currently decorating my boots as ash?"

He had reached his limit. Even for an observer of human curiosities, being subjected to their unabashed flirting in an active dungeon was testing his sanity.

"Right," Seana muttered, her ears reddening slightly as she turned forward. "Let’s move."

——————————

They crossed the final threshold and emerged into the open air.

The sight that greeted them stole the breath straight from their lungs.

The prison structure they had just escaped was perched atop an immense plateau of carved obsidian, towering over the landscape like a jagged promontory. The archway behind them was shaped into the gaping, hollow maw of a colossal stone skull.

Spread out below them was an impossible subterranean metropolis.

It was not a gleaming palace of jade or an imperial stronghold. It resembled an ancient, forgotten mortal city preserved beneath thousands of feet of solid earth.

Miles of traditional gray-brick pavilions and black-tiled roofs stretched across the vast cavern floor. Wooden balconies, enclosed courtyards, and narrow alleyways formed intricate districts that coiled around winding stone avenues. Some structures were carved directly into the cavern’s sheer bedrock walls, their tiers rising toward the stalactites above like stone hives.

Weathered lanterns hung beneath the wooden eaves. Pale-yellow and sickly-blue flames flickered inside them, casting long, distorted shadows across the wet cobblestones.

Deep, man-made canals cut through the districts, carrying murky water that reflected the dim embers overhead. Arched bridges linked the neighborhoods, and elevated aqueducts connected the larger administrative halls.

Yet there was no sound of commerce, no lively shouts of peddlers, and no human laughter.

The streets were filled with figures cloaked in dark, heavy fabric.

Some drifted aimlessly like wandering ghosts. Others stood entirely motionless beneath the rotting eaves, staring into the dark. Patrols of masked zombies marched in precise, rhythmic cadences through the primary thoroughfares, led by figures radiating heavy Yin Qi.

Every few moments, a low, guttural shriek echoed from deep within the alleyways, muffled by the sheer scale of the city.

A suffocating, stagnant pressure of corpse-mire and death blanketed every inch of the air.

Seana’s hand tightened in Lothe’s grasp. "So this is..."

"The Underground Zombie City," Zhao Meiyun murmured, his eyes sweeping across the sprawling roofs. "Quite the subterranean wonder, wouldn’t you say?"

Nobody answered him.

They had suspected an organized outpost existed beneath Country B, but witnessing a fully functional, self-sustaining society of cultivating corpses was entirely different. The sheer population living down here numbered in hundreds.

"Wait. Look over there!" Oren suddenly hissed, pointing his finger toward the city center.

Far beyond the residential districts, rising high above the dilapidated rooftops, an ethereal blue pillar of light pierced the darkness.

It wasn’t ordinary spiritual illumination.

Dense, shimmering azure motes drifted around the beam like falling stardust, pulsing with a slow, hypnotic cadence. From this distance, the celestial glow looked almost holy.

Yet a chilling sense of dread washed over everyone present.

Nyren’s silver hair caught the faint glow as her hand dropped to the hilt of Frostveil. "The children. That light has to be connected to them."

She took an aggressive step forward, ready to descend the cliffs.

"Hold," Elder Rowan ordered, extending his staff to block her path. "Do not act rashly."

Nyren turned, her jaw set. "Elder?"

"We are standing in the heart of an enemy domain," Rowan said gravely, his eyes locked onto the distant blue pillar. "We don’t know the layout of their defenses, nor do we know the nature of that array. Rushing down into thousands of corpses will only get the children executed before we reach them."

He raised his right hand. A surge of clear, icy Qi gathered at the tip of his index finger.

With deliberate strokes, Rowan traced an intricate line of seal-script into the open air. The characters flared with azure radiance before compressing into a crystalline spiritual message-talisman no larger than a sparrow.

Rowan flicked his sleeve.

The talisman broke the sound barrier with a faint whistle, shooting skyward into an upper exhaust fissure that led toward the surface.

"That will reach the other three Great Sects’ command tents," Rowan said, lowering his hand. "Now we proceed carefully while knowing what we’re dealing with along the way."

"Agreed," Caelan said, letting out a measured breath. "Charging blindly into an unknown ritual is suicide."

"Actually," Zhao Meiyun spoke up, leaning casually against a stone pillar with an amused smirk playing on his lips, "you all have gathered quite a few puzzle pieces, yet you’ve missed the most glaring detail of this entire abduction."

Oren turned around. "What detail?"

Zhao Meiyun’s gaze drifted from the distant pillar of light to Lothe.

"Every single child taken across the villages," Zhao Meiyun said slowly, "shares a single specific birth trait."

He paused, letting the silence settle.

"They were all born in the seventh month."?