Chapter Eleven: A Hundred Yards Beneath the Ground (II)

In his past life, Jiang Zhe’s impression of werewolves remained based on movies. This nocturnal race appeared no different from ordinary people at first glance, but during full moon nights, they transformed into wolf-like human creatures with physical strength and power far surpassing that of ordinary humans, along with beast-like senses and an extraordinary ability to recover. These traits made them objects of fear among ordinary people.
There is a saying in the West: “Even a pure-hearted person, one who does not forget to pray at night, may still transform into a wolf on a full moon night when the wolfsbane blooms.”
In many movies, werewolves are not purely villainous characters. On the contrary, those watching the films feel pity and sympathy for their tragic stories.
Just like Jiang Zhe, he once had a favorable view of this nocturnal race. But that was in the past. Now, when he encountered real werewolves in this world, he couldn’t feel even a hint of goodwill toward them.
A philosopher once defined the difference between humans and beasts, saying that humans are far more dangerous than beasts. Unlike beasts, which only hunt when hungry or harm other animals or humans when threatened, they never harm their own kind without reason. Humans, however, often harm others for their own desires.
Of course, Jiang Zhe didn’t entirely agree with this generalization. But…
These villagers, who were once innocent, had now become soulless zombies after being attacked by werewolves…
Unlike the werewolves in past movies, in this world, werewolves were still, after all, humans transformed through a special kind of transformation magic. Perhaps it originated from demons, as this magic could induce madness and brutality.
But the key point was… Werewolves first appeared during chaotic times hundreds of years ago. Over those centuries, they had long disappeared from human history. Even this special transformation magic was strictly banned and prohibited from being recorded or spread by the empire. So how could werewolves appear to attack villagers hundreds of years later?
Could it be that some werewolves who had been asleep for centuries had awakened?
Come on, werewolves aren’t vampires. Even if they have long lifespans, they can’t possibly live until hundreds of years later!
Therefore, Jiang Zhe preferred another explanation…

Perhaps there are other people in this place besides that real werewolf—someone who somehow brought the werewolves from history back to this world!
“Boom!” The last werewolf puppet was reduced to ashes.
“Sigh!” Letting out a soft breath, Lavia raised her hand and wiped the sweat from her forehead with her white glove. Then, as if remembering something, she glanced secretly at the boy beside her. Seeing that he wasn’t paying attention, she breathed a sigh of relief—after all, for a girl, wiping sweat with a glove was simply too rude.
Meanwhile, Jiang Zhe was staring intently at the piles of ash that resembled coke on the ground. He showed the least amount of disrespect possible toward these innocent villagers.
“Sos?” Lavia asked softly, with a hint of confusion. “What are you thinking?” As if recalling what had just happened, she said irritably, “Sos, you were too reckless just now. We’re a hundred yards underground right now. If we blow up this cave…”
“Heh,” Jiang Zhe smiled faintly and replied calmly, “I know my limits!”
Unusually, Lavia didn’t retort right away. After hesitating for a moment, she said softly, “It seems these werewolves are guarding this place…”
“Hmm, maybe the owner of this place doesn’t want us to get too close,” Jiang Zhe nodded. With the light from the five fireballs floating around them, he pointed to an entrance to a tunnel ahead. “What do you think’s down there?”
Lavia shook her head and said thoughtfully, “I don’t know what’s down there, but one thing I’m sure of… the deeper we go, the more werewolf puppets there will be…”
“Heh, exactly!”
“Huh? What?” Lavia clearly didn’t understand Jiang Zhe’s words.
Smiling and shaking his head, Jiang Zhe headed toward the tunnel ahead. Having come this far, wouldn’t it be a shame not to see what was down there?
But to their surprise, as they went deeper underground, they encountered few werewolf puppets. Along the way, they hardly saw any more.
This puzzled them greatly. They were sure there must be no less than four or five hundred werewolf puppets in this mine, so why hadn’t they seen many?

Suddenly, the scene in the tunnel ahead caught Jiang Zhe’s attention. He quickened his pace and walked over, only to be shocked to find the tunnel filled with the corpses of werewolf puppets… Though calling them corpses might not be entirely accurate, as these villagers were already dead, at least the werewolf puppets before them were now unable to move.

“Ugh…” Lavia instinctively covered her mouth, feeling extremely disgusted.

No wonder—these werewolf puppets seemed to have been burned by fire. The charred limbs weren’t the worst part, but the strong smell of meat filling the tunnel made Lavia feel nauseous.

Although Lavia had experienced something similar before, it was only with over thirty werewolf puppets. But the number of corpses at their feet now was well over a hundred or two!

Jiang Zhe, on the other hand, was more resilient. He didn’t feel too uncomfortable and crouched down to examine the charred bodies.

“Could it be the professor?”

He could tell these corpses had been roasted in an instant. To achieve this, the temperature of the fire was crucial. The kind of fire Lavia used couldn’t reach such levels…

Sure enough, in the following dozen minutes, Jiang Zhe and Lavia had to step over those charred corpses. Clearly, those werewolves had tried to block the “intruders” here.

“It’s the professor!” Jiang Zhe declared firmly.

“The pro… professor is ahead?” Carefully stepping over the corpses, Lavia tried not to look at the gruesome sight beneath her feet, but even so, the sense of suffocation in her chest didn’t ease.

“Yeah, the professor is ahead!” Jiang Zhe let out a small sigh of relief as he spoke.

After all, in such a mysterious and unknown environment, having a powerful mentor by his side gave him comfort, even though he wasn’t afraid at all.

In his memory, Professor Hod was not only an excellent mentor but also a highly skilled magician. At least, with all of Jiang Zhe’s abilities combined, he couldn’t cause any harm to Professor Hod.

Indeed, Jiang Zhe’s guess was correct. Professor Hod was indeed ahead, and those werewolf puppet corpses were indeed his work. If not for him taking care of most of the werewolf puppets first, Jiang Zhe and Lavia wouldn’t have it so easy now.

Of course, Professor Hod had no idea that his two favorite apprentices were in the tunnel behind him. He walked thoughtfully through the dark passage.

A mere torch was far from enough to illuminate the tunnel, but Professor Hodde didn’t use fireballs for lighting like Jiang Zhe, as he lacked the extraordinary talent of his apprentice. Professor Hodde had reached his near-Grand Mage level purely through his own efforts. Unfortunately, while hard work can help you surpass most people, it cannot help you surpass everyone… In the world of magic, innate talent cannot be replaced by sheer effort! Without any special methods, Professor Hodde might have remained at this stage his entire life—close to being a Grand Mage, but just close…

“Hm? Have I reached the end?” Lost in thought, Professor Hodde realized he had arrived at the end of the mine shaft, which surprised him greatly. Along the way, aside from encountering those werewolf puppets, he hadn’t seen the culprit at all. Had he taken the wrong path?

The professor shook his head with a wry smile and was about to turn back when he suddenly sensed something odd about the right wall. Pondering, he slowly reached out his hand toward the wall. As expected, his right hand passed straight through it and disappeared.

“A barrier?” The professor shook his head and chuckled lightly, but his expression turned serious as the wall began to twist strangely before revealing its true form—a cave about two or three yards wide. What he saw inside the cave left him astonished. Inside was an ancient and peculiar “room.” After carefully passing through the cave and entering this “room,” he realized that the so-called “entrance” was merely a hole in the wall, not the real entrance to this “room”…

And moreover…

Relying on the light of the torch, the professor frowned as he examined the surroundings. He found that the walls were all made of bluestone—a very hard rock that was difficult to extract, usually used for building castles and city walls. Yet here it was…

The professor touched the wall and was surprised to find that its surface, though hard, was weathered. What did this mean? It meant this structure was at least over a hundred years old, maybe even older!

The room was filled with various bookshelves and long tables. The bookshelves were cluttered with books and documents, while the long tables were stacked with various alchemical equipment, along with scrolls scattered about, covered in strange symbols. Although Professor Hodde didn’t fully understand them, it didn’t stop him from recognizing their origin—these were the common symbols used by alchemists over the centuries to record recipes.
Could this be the alchemical workshop of alchemists from hundreds of years ago?
The professor was surprised.
One had to realize how valuable these items were to magicians! Well… their collectible value, after all. Alchemy, which was not yet developed hundreds of years ago, couldn’t compare to modern orthodox magic.
Even so, Professor Hodde was still very interested in these scrolls. But as he reached out to unfold one, his gaze accidentally fell on the long table before him…
Compared to this dirty, dusty alchemy room, this table was clearly too clean…
There was also a barrier used to conceal the room…
Someone!
No, a magician!
There was at least one magician here!
“Hm?” A slight sound of surprise caught Professor Hodde’s attention.
“Who?” The professor instinctively turned around and saw a man coming in through that hole, staring at him warily.
With his pale skin, black coat, and messy hair, his seemingly disheveled appearance couldn’t hide the sharpness in his eyes for a moment—like a sharp knife.
But more than that man, what caught Professor Hodde’s attention even more was a seemingly transparent object floating beside him.
It was…
A ghost!
Playing with souls?!
Hmph!
Professor Hodde slowly put down the scroll in his hand and stared intently at the man before him. This seemingly unremarkable man made the professor feel threatened—a sense of unease coming from his soul.
To be able to get close without him even noticing…
This guy…
Tch!