Chapter 185: The Chaos of Battle Is About to Begin

Although the Dark Regions have a smaller population compared to the surface world, they are home to numerous races and serve as a decent place for worship. With their isolated environment and poor transportation, as long as one can hold a territory firmly and block external exits, invasions by other true god forces are rare.

Thus, this place has been regarded as a sacred domain by several true gods who face difficulties in the main world, who firmly control the beliefs of several major intelligent races there.

The true gods with significant worship bases in the Dark Regions are basically just a handful, and they are all evil gods. The most famous among them is the Spider Queen Flora. This wicked goddess holds the beliefs of most of the Dark Elves, the most powerful race in the Dark Regions.

Donald doesn’t know much about other true god forces, but his teacher, Messel, traveled to various countries on the continent when he was young and knows something about the situation there.

“The Spider Queen is capricious and only accepts women as priests, so her followers are confined within the Dark Elf tribes. As for the one worshipped by the gray dwarves, he is a rare evil-aligned dwarf true god who was exiled from the dwarf pantheon, hence his title ‘The Exiled One.’ He is the guardian of the gray dwarves and also a master craftsman, one of the few true gods skilled in forging. Many mortal craftsmen also worship him.”

“Another god worth mentioning is the Mire Monster God, also known as the Eye of Ancient Times, the lord of caves. He is a god whose actions cannot be predicted by ordinary logic. Even more unpredictable than the Spider Queen, he hates all other true gods and sometimes eats the priests who offer sacrifices to him. Thus, few beings worship him devoutly. He is the least concerning god in the Dark Regions. It is said that he was once a powerful ancient true god, but due to his capricious nature, he imposed divine punishment on himself by taking away the wisdom of his most devout followers, which greatly weakened his power. He slept for countless years until he awakened about a thousand years ago. His followers are mostly weaker races like ratmen and werewolves, and he has the weakest influence in the Dark Regions.”

“Another major deity in the Dark Lands is the God of Liches. He was once Archmage Gadré, who defected after being caught experimenting with forbidden evil spells and had to flee Gadré to join the forces of darkness. He later became a lich himself and gained great power with the help of the evil gods. He calls himself the God of Liches, but strictly speaking, he has not succeeded in seizing a throne; he is still merely a demi-god. However, most of his forces are located in the corrupted areas of Thalind in the surface world, so we need not worry about encountering his powerful necromancers and undead liches.”

“The last true deity faction in the Dark Lands is the Lady of Shadows, who wishes to ally with the Spider Queen. Although her followers are mainly concentrated in the Shadow Demon City she created, she has pawns hidden in many places in the main world. There are also some dark elves and other races in the Dark Lands who disapprove of the Spider Queen’s brutality and worship this dark goddess. Although they do not actively participate in the struggle for religious dominance in the Dark Lands, no one dares to provoke this most powerful and ancient dark true deity.”

“Compared to other evil true deities, the Dark Goddess tends to be more neutral. She is very generous to her followers, especially those who are mages. Whenever a high-level mage cannot resist the temptation to abandon their original path and turn to studying the powers of darkness and shadows, this goddess bestows upon them powerful and abundant divine blessings! However, the Dark Goddess loves secrecy and prefers to observe from the shadows. Thus, her priests, under her guidance, have formed one of the most renowned secret churches in the main world, with many people unaware of its existence. Even those who have heard of it or had contact with it usually do not know its exact location.” After hearing all this, Donald gained an understanding of the upper powers in the Dark Lands, and he became even less optimistic about the mission of those three from the Agricultural Goddess Church.

The scorpion flower is a beautiful and delicate blossom, but its toxicity is extremely severe. Just from its name, derived from the scorpion’s tail, it is clear that it is not a harmless plant. The more beautiful something is, the more dangerous it often is. A city named after the scorpion flower must surely be a powerful and dangerous place, as one can easily deduce.

In a dark elf city of this scale, aside from other professions, there must be quite a number of priests who worship the Spider Queen alone—at least one or two of the golden rank. Add to that other powerful dark elf warriors, and three silver-ranked humans who infiltrate such a place would likely not even get a chance to fight back if discovered.

This time, it was the forces under two powerful goddesses who decided to form an alliance. Besides the dark elves of Scorpion Flower City, there must also be followers of the Lady of Shadows. Naturally, those acting as negotiators would not be weaklings.

While speaking, Donald had already switched the view to inside Scorpion Flower City. Aside from its architecture, which was vastly different from that of the surface world, the residences, streets, and bustling commercial areas were similar to those in cities on the surface. However, aside from the dark-skinned elves, the residents and passersby were all strange-looking aliens. Indeed, the dark elves held dominion over this city—everyone else had to bow respectfully first when encountering them, especially female dark elves.

Given that the dark elves, like their counterparts on the surface, lived in a matriarchal society where women held a higher status than men, and their deity was also a goddess, this situation was only natural.

After admiring the beautifully designed city in the dark elf style, Donald turned his attention to the city’s key areas. Yet the core region of Scorpion Flower City was covered in mist, and even powerful tools like crystal balls could not see through it.

“It must be the temple of that goddess. With divine protection, it’s normal for ordinary reconnaissance methods to fail!”

Thinking this, Donald summoned several owls and controlled them to fly quietly toward Scorpion Flower City.

These past two days, Scorpion Flower City had been bustling. Once the glow of the Nabondel Pillars illuminated the entire city, the chefs of the Banri family, who got up early, had already prepared breakfast for their noble guests.

Underground, there were no changes in seasons or day and night. Most of the dark regions were in perpetual darkness, inhabited by creatures unaccustomed to real light. As compensation, they had evolved night vision or enhanced senses long ago.

But for intelligent beings like the dark elves with poor vision, even though glowing rocks, luminescent crystals, and phosphorescent mosses, lichens, and fungi provided some light, it was still not enough for them to adapt—after all, most of them were races that had migrated from the surface world.

Hundreds of years ago, a great mage named Nabondel invented this stone pillar that served both as a timekeeper and a light source. At the beginning of each day, the mages in Scorpionflower City would infuse magic into the pillar, causing it to emit light similar to that of the sun, though not as intense as daylight. This light was ideal for the vision of creatures like dark elves and gray dwarves, and even humans like Donald could see clearly in the city.

The light from Nabondel’s pillar lasted exactly one full day, in sync with time on the surface. When only the lowest layer of light remained, it signified that dusk had arrived. At that point, the pillar would reverse its operation, emitting a faint light akin to moonlight, creating a beautiful scene in this deep underground world.

The Banry family was the strongest of the four major families in Scorpionflower City. At its peak, its strength was nearly twice that of the other three families combined. Even though it had declined somewhat now, it was still beyond the reach of the other three.

Although Scorpionflower City was ruled by dark elves, there were four major factions among them. Besides the four major families, there were also mercenary groups composed of various elements and foreign merchant guilds.

The Blood Battle Mercenaries numbered around a hundred, led by a powerful human warrior with half-abyssal blood. They gathered warriors from various races such as minotaur fighters, orc bandits, wandering stone giants, and familyless male dark elves. They usually worked for commissions from various factions in Scorpionflower City to make a living, occasionally taking on the lucrative profession of bandits as well.

As for the forces behind the foreign merchant guilds, they were the Heart Stealers from Orlington City, who dealt in the three most popular goods in this dark region: slaves, food, and magical items.

If the most powerful race in the dark region was the dark elves, then the most dangerous and eerie ones were likely the Heart Stealers, also known as Soul Suckers. These creatures were notorious for feeding on the brains of intelligent beings.

Legends claimed they were evil creatures left behind when the abyss invaded the main world, but many powerful spellcasters believed this theory didn’t align with history or logic. They speculated that these orderly yet evil parasitic creatures originated from some unknown outer dimension.

Spirit-sucking monsters generally choose humanoid creatures as their hosts, such as humans, elves, werewolves, goblins, and orcs. However, anthropomorphic beings like halflings, dwarves, gray dwarves, gnomes, centaurs, giants, and merfolk are not suitable. Some speculate that this is related to the structure of their brains.
As for those soul-dealing demons skilled at manipulating souls, their ability to train slaves surpasses even that of the dark elves who enjoy torturing others!
Yet these past couple of days, all factions in Scorpion Flower City have been highly tense, as a group of outsiders arrived in the city and took residence in the manor of the first family, the Banry family.
The city’s elite were informed that this was a delegation representing the Dark Goddess Elsa, sent to discuss cooperation with the dark elf families under the Spider Queen.
Although Scorpion Flower City is nominally under the control of the dark elves, their natural tendencies and the teachings of the Spider Queen have led to poor relations among the four major families, who are more like mortal enemies, always seeking to kill each other at the first opportunity.
Even when the other three major families form alliances, it is merely to counter the first family. Once they see an opportunity to harm them, their alliances are as worthless as toilet paper, easily discarded.