Chapter 67

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Chapter 67: The Queen’s Inheritance (VI)

[Player Qi Leren has started the task: The Queen’s Inheritance]

[Task background: Hundreds of years ago, the first generation of demon queens gnawed the gap between the two worlds by virtue of their talent and established their own kingdom in a huge underground cave. After that, the most powerful queen killed her competitors and became the sole Queen. Since then, every Queen has inherited this field in the same mysterious and unknown way. Now, an accident has happened. The Dragon Ant Queen is dying, but the chosen heir has been assassinated. The symbolic flame that exists in the field is about to be extinguished, but there is still a chance before everything becomes irreversible.]

[The first step of the Queen’s Inheritance task: Find the Dragon Ant Queen.]

[Data synchronization countdown, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, synchronization complete. 】

&&&

Qi Leren opened his eyes and nervously looked for Ning Zhou. Fortunately, Ning Zhou had not been transported to somewhere else, but stood beside him. The two people who hadn’t been separated held hands, relieved in their hearts.

Just yesterday in the middle of the night, the Trials Court of the Village of Dusk sent its executive Miao Li to the Underground Ant City with the Prophet’s letter, which was entrusted to Qi Leren and Ning Zhou. At dawn the next day, they set off for the Dragon Ant Queen’s palace.

The Dragon Ant Queen’s palace was located at the border of the Underground Ant City. The Queen had set up a special transport point, which can directly transported people into the palace. After all, this was her field. She had extraordinary control over this land.

The one who guarded this transport point was a Flame Virgin, wearing a priestess’s uniform and a black blindfold over her eyes, as if she was born without sight. According to legend, the Holy Flame Virgins guarded the Holy Flame that symbolized the existence of the Underground Ant City. They followed strict precepts. They would not have contact with the opposite sex for almost all their lives, nor would they hurt each other, let alone take off their blindfolds, otherwise they would be severely punished.

This group of Holy Flame Virgins enjoyed a lofty status in the Underground Ant City, and the Queen had given them power, but the price was that they were not free for their entire lives.

The Flame Virgin examined the Prophet’s letter with her hand, and kindly reminded them that no one had ever come out of the field since the beginning of the Dragon Ant Queen’s inheritance ceremony.

“This is unusual,” the Flame Virgin said meaningfully. “You may be in danger after you go in.”

Although the kind Holy Flame Virgin warned them, they still insisted on entering, so she gave them a pass order, sent someone to open the transport array, and told them the orientation of the palace—always heading west, in the westernmost part of the huge underground mausoleum, near the seam where the Holy Flame was burning, was the Queen’s palace.

After a burst of white light, Qi Leren and Ning Zhou received the new task information. This seemed to be a task with several parts, but thinking about the second step of the main task triggered when entering Purgatory, [Sacrifice of the Devil King]… This [Queen’s Inheritance] was not terrible.

First of all… Find the Dragon Ant Queen.

But at present, they were in a city shrouded in fog, with oil lamps on the corners of streets and lanes, and dim lights looming in the deep mist. Looking up to the west, they could see the light of the Holy Flame as the Flame Virgin had said.

“Is that the Dragon Ant Queen’s royal palace?” Qi Leren asked in wonder. It was completely different from his imagination.

“It’s also her mausoleum,” Ning Zhou said.

Qi Leren remembered that the Dragon Ant Queens of past dynasties had been building tombs for themselves since they began to reign, and she spent more than 20 years turning her palace into a huge tomb. She was here to exercise her power, and she would stay here forever.

[1113.]

A digital prompt suddenly appeared. Qi Leren paused and looked at Ning Zhou. Ning Zhou nodded and motioned for him to receive it.

“There is…” Qi Leren just wanted to say that there was something strange here, when the talking eagle released by Ning Zhou had already called out: “Enemy attack, enemy attack!”

Not far away in the fog, a strange creature creeped along.

Qi Leren held his breath, and his right hand clenched the gun that Chen Baiqi had given him.

With a strange tearing sound, the monster hiding in the shadows suddenly jumped out as fast as lightning and rushed at Qi Leren! Ning Zhou thrusted Qi Leren behind him, and with a wave of his hand, the sharp blade of the Sword of Judgement instantly split the pouncing monster in half.

Two piles of soft mud fell to the ground, gurgling out dirty blood.

“What is this? A demon?” Qi Leren glanced at the soft mud on the ground, which was a little disgusting.

“…It’s a demon,” Ning Zhou said.

Demons. Ordinary people could easily confuse demons with devils, but they were not the same kind of creatures. The main base of demons laid in the other side of the gap between the two worlds, but the origin of devils could not be resolved even still. The history of their existence was much shorter than that of demons, and most of them were concentrated in the area of Underground Ant City. Devils were mostly rational, but demons had little ability for cognitive behaviour, and even didn’t have human-like bodies. They were creatures completely dominated by desires, and killing and eating were the meaning of their lives.

An endless stream of demons attacked the Underground Ant City once a month, which caused a lot of trouble for the governing officials. Even the Dragon Ant Queen had no choice but to organize the subjects and the army’s soldiers to ignite the flames and jointly resist the invasion of this group of demons.

In the fog, this tomb belonging to the current Dragon Ant Queen was full of hidden demons. Qi Leren was sure that the Dragon Ant Queen was probably in great trouble, otherwise it was impossible that she would let demons run rampant in her mausoleum.

Where had these demons come from? No one knew.

There was no map of the Dragon Ant Queen’s royal palace. It was said that this was the royal palace here, but it was actually more like a huge underground city. It was rarely inhabited during the periods when the Queen was in health, but it was constantly expanding, as if to build a complete world after the death of the Queen.

“The Queen’s residence is in the west, in that direction.” Qi Leren pulled Ning Zhou, who was heading south, and pointed in the opposite direction.

The eagle on Ning Zhou’s shoulder made a snicker, and Ning Zhou pushed it to explore the road.

Qi Leren looked at Ning Zhou’s expressionlessness, and his heart burst into laughter. It was not the first time he had found that Ning Zhou was bad with directions. He had gotten lost during the Witchcraft Sacrifice task. However, this shortcoming was really adorable to Qi Leren who was wearing rose-tinted glasses.

There are demons hidden in the fog all the way to the west. If Qi Leren had come alone, it was possible that he would have fallen into a huge crisis at this time, because these demons had strange abilities: some can become invisible, some could shapeshift, and some could be disguised as plants. There were even many demon nests, which looked like collapsed deep wells, and demons constantly emerged from them.

Ning Zhou’s combat experience was much richer than Qi Leren’s. With him as guard, the two men walked forward smoothly, but the puzzling number had dropped from 1113 to 1109.

“This should be the number of people.” After a long silence, Qi Leren spoke the guess that both of them had made.

Ning Zhou nodded his head.

This declining number was telling them of the plight faced by human beings—and perhaps devils. In this underground tomb was a crisis that had been wiping them out with the endless and increasing number of demons.

As the two people walked amid this crisis all the way to the west, time transitioned from morning to afternoon, and then night. Although the difference between day and night couldn’t be judged while underground, after 8:00 p.m., the demons entered a state of excitement, and the number was far greater than that in the morning.

Qi Leren was tired, and the palace was still hidden in the fog. They didn’t know how long it would take, so Ning Zhou proposed that they rest. The two people walked into a house on the street at random, and Ning Zhou cast an enchantment, hiding their figures so they could avoid being harassed by demons.

“In fact, I’m not sure what the difference is between enchantments. Before, the enchantment you set up in the Garden of the Holy Tomb seemed to be one-way, since it didn’t prohibit me from going out. However, the enchantment used by Mrs Kathleen in the underground casino was two-way, and we couldn’t go in or out?” Qi Leren asked casually, remembering Mrs Kathleen.

“Well, there is a difference.” Ning Zhou asked, “Do you want to listen?”

“…Is it long?” Qi Leren was keenly aware that this is a big issue.

“I studied in the Holy See for about a month,” Ning Zhou said.

“Forget it, let’s talk about something else.” Qi Leren refused to waste his time learning knowledge. He wanted to spend his time talking to Ning Zhou.

“Alright,” Ning Zhou said.

Qi Leren pursed his lips, was quiet for a long time, and said, “Are you hungry?”

“Hmm.”

“Then I’ll cook something to eat.”

“Alright.”

Qi Leren felt that his infatuated brain wasn’t working properly. He took out the cooking materials from his item bar and began to cook. They weren’t short on time, so he slowly fried the steak for Ning Zhou. He had never cooked western food before, and it failed. He quickly pulled the fried steak to the plate in front of him: “I’ll fry another one for you!”

“I’ll do it.” Ning Zhou probably couldn’t stand it anymore, so he took the pan himself.

Qi Leren studied silently and watched Ning Zhou fry steak until it was just right. He also fried two eggs, one for each person. Before Qi Leren picked up the fried one in front of him, Ning Zhou had already moved the medium-rare steak towards him, and took the overcooked one for himself.

“That one is burned,” Qi Leren said, trying to take it back.

“I want to eat it.”

“But it’s not good.”

Ning Zhou shook his head. “I want to eat everything you make.”

At this moment, a firework exploded in Qi Leren’s heart, and he couldn’t wait to rush out of the enchantment and run to the foggy street, shouting “I love the best man” to the whole world, even if the audience was a group of demons who couldn’t wait to suck his brains dry.

This kind of Qi Leren who was brainwashed by love hormones was smiling the whole while as they ate, with a kind of mushiness that people in love don’t even notice. He even felt that it wasn’t bad to sleep outside, because here, they could naturally sleep under the same blanket.

The talking eagle, who had been on the lookout outside, also flew back, and passed through the enchantment without hindrance. He reported the situation outside to Ning Zhou. When he found that the two had finished dinner and hadn’t left him half a fried steak, the eagle screamed angrily and chased Qi Leren for rations. Ning Zhou gave him ordinary bird food, and he refused proudly: “Don’t eat junk food!”

In the end, the eagle didn’t eat anything, and was too busy harassing the two people around him until Ning Zhou gave it a hard look, and it finally died down and squatted in the corner to eat bird food, staring with bitter eyes at the little couple having a warm conversation.

I’m so angry that I have to eat bird food, I’ll throw water on them!

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The author has something to say:

The archetype for the Flame Virgins are the Vestal Virgins in Rome (it has also been suspected that the archetype of fire maiden in the Dark Souls series is the Vestal Virgins), and they were responsible for guarding the flame. If the flame was extinguished, it meant that the polis was in danger. Vestal Virgins didn’t have to be blindfolded, but the blindfolds are a requirement of the plot.

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Editor’s Notes:

If you have any interest in Roman history, the Vestal Virgins are super interesting to read about! Due to their role as protectors of the city, they had very high status and were afforded much more freedom than the average Roman woman, but if they broke their vow of chastity or let the flame go out, they would be punished by being sealed in a cave and left to die. Also, unlike the Flame Virgins here, they were only required to hold their position for thirty years. (The humble editor is a classical history major.)

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