Chapter 150: The Land of Shadows (Part 1)

  The Queen Mother's words made me feel very uncomfortable, but I also knew that this was the Queen Mother's test for me, and I had to complete this task. August 1st.

  So I looked at Li Yingying and said: "You stay here now, I'll go find Ying'er."

  Li Ying shook her head and said in a low voice, "You can't leave now, you have to wait at least six more hours. Six hours later, which is twelve hours after the surgery, Wang Mu will be truly out of danger."

  "I said anxiously: 'This matter of finding Ying'er can't be delayed either.'"

  "Rest assured, Ying'er will be fine."

  I was taken aback, then glanced at Queen Mother who was staring at me, suddenly understanding something, smiled and slowly sat down.

  Li Yingying asked me to take care of Wang Mu, so I stayed by her side with Li Yingying.

  Twelve hours later, Wang Mu finally completely escaped danger. So I took a step ahead and left, returning to Xia Lin's residence, which was the small room on the first floor of the high-rise building.

  When Xia Lin saw me, she almost immediately asked: "Where have you been? Have you heard about the injury of Queen Mother?"

  I smiled and said: "I was just by Queen Mother's side until just now. Don't worry, Queen Mother is out of danger now, nothing to worry about."

  Xia Lin smiled: "That's good, some people wanted to harm Queen Mother, but unexpectedly Queen Mother had a noble person in her fate, and heaven sent you here to save Queen Mother's life."

  I smiled and said: "The one who really made an effort to save Queen Mother was Dr. Li, I just made a little bit of effort."

  Xia Lin said clearly, "Don't lie to me, you must have used your own true energy to save Wang Mu. Dr. Li's medical skills are high, but dealing with that special bullet coated with deadly poison, I think she wouldn't have any good solution either."

  I nodded slightly: "What you said is right, I also count as having made an effort. But this time Li Doctor really did exhaust all his strength to save Wang Mu. You don't know, at that time I was just beside him, Li Doctor's surgery was done with a lot of sweat, his face was pale... That look, more tired than someone who has been through a great war."

  Xia Lin said with some emotion: "I didn't expect Dr. Li to be so hardworking... no wonder she wanted 50,000 yuan at the time, it turns out that this money isn't easy to earn either."

  I laughed: "Now it's 100,000, Dongfang Yonghao personally promised, can't go back on his word."

  Standing beside him, Dongfang Yonghao immediately said: "Don't worry, I won't lose the trust of Dr. Li for just 50,000 yuan."

  I smiled and looked at Xia Lin, saying: "How does it feel? You've arranged so many soldiers here. Are you worried that someone will take advantage of the situation to harm you?"

  Xia Lin said: "Actually, what I'm most worried about is not myself, but Gao Tower."

  I was taken aback: "High tower? What's there to worry about?"

  Xia Lin hesitated for a moment before saying: "Actually, this is the case. The high tower here is the last passageway to enter our base and also the last line of defense."

  "I was a bit surprised: 'How did you say that? How could I not see that there is still a door here? Is it underground?'"

  Xia Lin nodded slightly: "The area you see now is also the base of our goddess organization. However, apart from here, we have another very secret base, which we call the Dark Shadow Land. It means that after entering, even one's own shadow cannot be seen, it's extremely dark."

  I found it even stranger: "Isn't there any lighting inside? Or haven't you had a chance to install the lights yet?"

  Xia Lin smiled and said: "It's not like that, wait until I'm better, I'll take you there myself, and you'll understand what I mean."

  I smiled and said, "That's great, I'm looking forward to you getting better soon."

  Dongfang Yonghao immediately said: "If you want to go and take a look, I can take you there right now."

  I shook my head: "Let's wait until Xia Lin is better before we go, now we still have things to do."

  "What do you want to do?"

  The queen's daughter, your princess, has gone missing. The queen sent someone to summon the princess yesterday, but so far, even the person who went to find the princess has vanished without a trace.

  Xia Lin furrowed her brow and said, "The princess has always had many guards following her, how could she have disappeared without a reason? This matter is suspicious, I think we need to consider it carefully and can't rashly go out to search for the princess."

  I was somewhat impressed with Xia Lin and asked: "What do you think is the problem? Let's discuss it together."

  Xia Lin pondered for a moment: "I think the princess isn't missing, but hiding. Maybe there's an enemy who wants to harm her, so she found a place to hide. Wait, this place must be unknown to others, and it must have food and water... I know, it should be the Dark Shadow Land."

  I must say that I am truly impressed by this girl, and from the bottom of my heart, I said: "You are the smartest girl I have ever seen! As a matter of fact, I thought so too. Judging from Queen Mother's calm expression, I had already determined that Miss Ying'er was not in the enemy's hands and must have hidden herself somewhere. When I heard you mention the Dark Shadow Land just now, my first reaction was that Miss Ying'er had gone into hiding there. But what I didn't expect was that Summer Lin, you only heard a few words from me and immediately knew where Miss Ying'er might be hiding, making me unable to help but admire you!"

  Xia Lin smiled and said, "With your praise, I feel very happy. Brother, you should go to the Dark Shadow Land with Dongfang Yonghao now, and you should be able to find the princess. However, there is one thing you must remember, don't let anyone else know about this trip, otherwise the enemy will discover your goal and secretly follow you, harming the princess."

  Dongfang Yonghao said: "Alright, miss, don't worry, we will find the princess soon."

  I raised my hand to stop Dongfang Yonghao from continuing: "You can't leave here, for Xia Lin's safety, you have to stay here."

  "You don't know where the Shadow Land is, how can one person go find the princess?"

  I feel a bit embarrassed about this, but there's no other way, so I said: "You tell me the way to enter the Dark Shadow Land, and I'll go find Miss Ying myself. You stay here to protect Xia Lin and Queen Wang, absolutely no mistakes can be made."

  Dongfang Yonghao looked at Xia Lin and said with difficulty: "What you said is also right, but now I don't know how to enter the Dark Shadow Land either. It must be after we arrive there that I will know how to enter the Dark Shadow Land."

  I'm surprised: "Is this still about time? I feel like it's very mysterious."

  Xia Lin said: "Dongfang Yonghao is right. The way to enter the Shadow Land, every time period is different. We have to go there and try one by one."

  "I said: 'Then you send me in first, then you come back to protect Xia Lin and Queen Mother, I'll go find the princess alone.'"

  Dongfang Yonghao said: "It can only be like this now, we outsiders cannot easily trust each other... Come with me."

  I followed Shang Dongfang Yonghao, and saw that he didn't plan to leave the tower, but instead circled around in this room, then squatted down, reached out and lifted up a wooden board from the ground.

  I saw a hole under the wooden board, about the size of a face plate, and it was pitch black inside, with no idea how deep it was.

  Dongfang Yonghao took out two flashlights and handed one to me, saying: "Follow me, don't fall behind, it's easy to get lost."

  I saw him jump directly into the cave, knowing it wouldn't be very deep. I shone my flashlight and indeed it wasn't deep, just about three meters or so. But because it was pitch black inside before, it looked like you couldn't tell how deep it actually was.

  With my and Dongfang Yonghao's skills, this height was still easy to handle, so we just jumped down directly.

  The bottom of the cave was many times larger than the entrance, and it was as big as the room above.

  I stood still and saw Yonghao Dong open a door. An iron door, a very solid iron door.

  Behind the door was another pitch black, black as if nothing existed. Dongfang Yonghao carefully examined the darkness behind the door for a moment, and finally said: "Follow me." Then he walked in.

  I followed him closely, knowing this place was too dark and it's easy to get lost, can't be too far away from him.

  I followed him for a full ten minutes of twists and turns before he finally stopped. I asked in surprise, "What's going on?"

  "Dongfang Yonghao said: 'Almost took a wrong turn, we should be heading left now, follow me closely.'"

  I took a glance at the channel on the right which was obviously wider and couldn't help but ask, "Is the channel on the right dangerous now?"

  Dongfang Yonghao said: "If you go from the right side, you will turn back to the original place and never find the way to the Shadow Land."

  I nodded slightly and thought to myself: "It seems that this place is like a ancient maze, it's easy to get lost and be sent back."

  Dongfang Yonghao said, "Actually, being sent back isn't a big deal, what's scary is that after we take a wrong turn, we might enter the Snake Pit, Arrow Array, or places like the Ice Water Pool, Rotten Mud Swamp and so on. If that happens, we'll definitely be dead."

  I frowned and said: "This place is so dangerous, why would the princess choose to take refuge here? Do you all have your own methods to avoid the dangers here?"

  Dongfang Yonghao nodded: "After years of exploration and experimentation, we finally uncovered the secret here. It's actually an ancient formation used to confuse invading enemies. It's very mysterious, although we know how to navigate inside, but as for its principle, we still can't figure it out. Jin Cang, do you know why this scenic area was sealed off by the country?"

  "Could it be because of this grand formation?"

  Dongfang Yonghao smiled and said, "You guessed it. When this large formation was first set up, many people died, including some of your government troops who were killed while carrying out reconnaissance missions here."

  Zou Mei said: "This should be top secret, how did you know?"

  "Dongfang Yonghao sneered, 'My father was one of those soldiers. If he hadn't met Miss's father, the young master of our household in the previous generation, my father would have died here long ago, and there wouldn't be a Dongfang Yonghao in this world.'"

  I was taken aback: "Your father is also a soldier? And he was sent here to carry out reconnaissance missions? When did all this happen? Why haven't I ever heard of it? What happened afterwards?"

  "My father was a soldier, and after coming here, he accidentally entered the arrow array and almost got killed. Luckily, he was saved by the father of the miss who came to tour here at that time. At that time, this place was a very famous scenic spot, and many people came to play. It was also my father's fate that he was saved by someone. From then on, our whole family followed Miss's family and protected them."

  I finally understood why Dongfang Yonghao followed Xia Lin and called her "Miss". So I said, "Did your father also tell Xia Lin's father the secret of this place?"

  Dongfang Yonghao nodded: "Father, in order to show gratitude, told Miss and her family everything here. At that time, Miss's family was very rich and powerful. So after discussion, they decided to take this place as the base, expand their own army and power. After decades of hard work, they succeeded, having their own army and this base."

  But I have a question: "This was originally a scenic area, how could the country allow you to come here to show off your strength? This..."

  "This is why I said that Miss's family has great power. At the time, we found some local villagers and paid them to spread the rumors we fabricated. I heard from my father that what we made up was that there were gods living on this mountain, and in order not to disturb the gods, no ordinary people could live here, otherwise someone would die for no reason, and it might even bring disaster to the country. Originally, nobody would have believed it, but after we intentionally caught a few local people and scared them several times, surprisingly, some people actually believed it."

  "I angrily said: 'What are you people doing? You're completely devoid of conscience, deceiving the common people and even using armed force to harm the people here.'"

  Dongfang Yonghao paused for a moment before continuing, "We didn't really harm them, we just scared them a few times. But the subsequent results were beyond our expectations. The local government almost immediately ordered everyone in the area to relocate and move away from here. Even the scenic spots here were closed down on some pretext. So, we smoothly occupied this place, expanding our own influence, and gradually developed into what you see today."

  "I continued: 'However, in order to avoid being discovered by outsiders, you deliberately don't manage the roads and houses here, and even intentionally live in those houses in the scenic area. Right?' "

  Dongfang Yonghao nodded: "You're really smart, you get it right away. You're right, in order to prevent outsiders from finding us, we live in these scenic area houses and even deliberately don't repair the roads here. Sometimes when we see outsiders coming over unintentionally, we'll even dress up as ghosts to scare them... Hehe... Those people were scared by us and went back to spread the word that this place is haunted. As a result, now there's not a single person who dares to come here."

  "I let out a sigh: 'That's your good luck. If you were to encounter someone who isn't afraid of death, they might just discover your existence.'"

  Dongfang Yonghao said: "There really are such people, but they have all become our people now. As for the methods we use, think about it."

  I immediately said: "Isn't it just money? What's so good about selling secrets?"

  Dongfang Yonghao smiled: "You're really amazing, you guessed it again! Jin Cang, now guess why with such advanced technology nowadays, there is still no evidence of our existence?"

  I thought so too, with today's satellites, it's impossible for them not to know about the lives of these people in this area. So I said: "Are you all hiding in those houses during the day and only coming out at night?"

  "You're wrong. This is just a passageway, it can't hide people. As for those houses, they now have thermal imaging technology, do you think hiding inside the house will make you not be found?"

  I knew what he said was true, so I became even more puzzled: "Then why? Could it be that you deliberately ignore them?"

  Dongfang Yonghao shook his head: "I don't know why, but I do know that no matter what kind of high-tech thing it is, once it gets here, it will lose its effect. And the more advanced something is, the less usable it becomes."

  I had a sudden movement in my heart and immediately said: "Is there a special magnetic field here that will interfere with those high-tech devices?"

  Dongfang Yonghao said: "Maybe so, but I really don't know the specific reason. However, you might as well take a look at your phone, if it's still usable, I can let you handle it as you please."

  I hastily pulled out my mobile phone, but saw that there was no signal on it. The screen was constantly flashing with strange ripples and snowflakes, rendering it completely unusable.

  "Now you know I didn't cheat you, right?"

  I nodded: "It should be a very chaotic magnetic field, interfering with all the high-tech things here..."

  Dongfang Yonghao suddenly interrupted me: "We've arrived. The underground river is up ahead, and the underground river is the Land of Dark Shadows."

  It wasn't until now that I realized, when he was talking to me, my attention was completely absorbed by his words, and I didn't even notice that we had walked a very long distance.

  Dongfang Yonghao looked at me with a regretful face and smiled: "Even if you remember the road from just now, it's useless. It will change in a while. You go find the princess now, I'll go back to protect Miss and the Queen Mother. After finding Miss, she knows how to get out and will take you out."

  I was stunned, wanting to speak, but saw Dongfang Yonghao's figure flash by, faster than ever before. In the blink of an eye, he had left. It was too dark here, and the flashlight couldn't shine far enough, so I instantly lost sight of Dongfang Yonghao.

  I knew he was deliberate, and I also knew that he never gave up the idea of killing me, so I had to say secretly: "A thousand precautions, a myriad of precautions, but still being calculated by you. Now I can only find Ying'er, because only Ying'er can take me away from here. Otherwise, I will either be killed by the mechanisms here or starved to death in this place."

  I feel a little guilty and regretful, but I know that now I can only find a way out for Ying'er, so I put aside all my distractions and observe everything here with a flashlight.

  This is the end of the passage, forming a circular space. The surroundings are all passages like I came from earlier, densely packed, with at least dozens of them. Among these passages, one stands out as being much wider than the others. I took a rough measurement and it's at least twice the size of the other passages. It seems to be the main path leading into the Dark Shadow Land.

  It's no wonder that many people get lost after entering, such a complex passage, even if it's someone who comes over frequently, they will also get lost if they are not careful.

  After looking around the passageway here for a while, I felt a little dizzy and my head was spinning. Although I'm not directionally challenged, I have an innate fear of unfamiliar environments. Plus, it's pitch black here, can't see your hand in front of your face, which adds to this fear.

  So I quickly entered the slightly wider main passage and carefully walked deeper. Along the way, I walked for about half an hour, except for the dark passages and forks in the road, there was no sign of Ying'er. To be honest, asking me to find Ying'er is simply forcing someone to do something difficult. Because I don't know where Ying'er will hide, nor am I familiar with the environment here. Wouldn't it be more suitable for someone who has been staying here for a long time to come and find her?