Xia Chiyu followed Gu Qinyan and wandered around the underground rock city of Izesli to check the regional distribution here. The underground city is basically based on natural underground caverns, and is divided into upper, downtown, and slums, with very different urban styles.

The houses in the upper city are all built separately, most of them are built of high-grade stones such as marble, and the scale and decoration of the houses are quite luxurious, to put it bluntly, it is the place where the rich live, and the royal palace is in the center of this upper city.

The inhabitants of the area are all dressed in jewels, and the dwarves resemble dragons, who love precious stones and gold, and are adorned with gold chains, gemstone necklaces, and rings set with large diamonds.

The lower town is only two flights of stairs away from the upper town, but the building environment in the lower town is obviously much worse, only a few houses are built here, and most of the others are hewn out of the rock wall.

The inhabitants of the lower city live in the shadowy caves like cavemen, and their quality of life is significantly worse than that of the upper city, wearing plain animal skins or rusty armor. Compared with the uptown residents who are just leisurely shopping, the downtown residents here are mostly laboring, planning to go out hunting or treasure hunting in groups.

On the side of Xiacheng District, Xia Chiyu heard the most about "Abyss Mine".

According to Gu Qinyan, the lives of the residents here revolve around the abyss mine. No plants grow in this underground rock city, and there are few edible animals. Therefore, the inhabitants planted some underground plants such as edible plants such as mushrooms and mosses on the outskirts of the Abyssal Mines, and hunted creatures from the Abyssal Mines to keep the city running.

Coming to the slums, this place has to go around the stairs from the lower city to the second level of the city, which can be said to be the "sewer" of the city above, which is also the development zone. There aren't even caves in this place. Most of the people live in dilapidated huts and tents, a few occupy natural caves, and are deprived of poverty and disease.

In the slums, dwarves can be seen roasting with hideous creatures such as rats or insects, and most of the inhabitants are depressed. The other part is vicious.

However, you can also see some of the rich people in the upper city here, talking about "business" with the poor.

"What are these Uptown people doing in this place?" Xia Chiyu asked Gu Qinyan.

Gu Qinyan snorted coldly, and replied with an indifferent face: "I don't know, and I'm not interested." ”

"You're boring." Xia Chiyu shook his head and said, then approached to steal the sound.

After eavesdropping on the chats of these people for a while, and then asking around for a while, Xia Chiyu basically figured out the situation in this place. The dwarves want to get rich overnight, and they rely on the abyssal mines.

In fact, the Abyssal Mine was originally part of the underground rock city of Izes. And it's the most prosperous part, and compared to the dwarven cities in the Abyss Mine, the upper town here is like a slum. But then a terrible disease called the "Plague of Corruption" swept through that thriving region.

Creatures infected by the disease will become berserk and lose their minds, attacking creatures that are not infected with the Corrupt Plague, and if their attacks do not kill the target, the target will also be infected and transformed. And there is no cure. Some are similar to Resident Evil, except that there is no way to resurrect the dead. And the weakness of the infected is not just the head.

But the terrible thing is that this plague not only infects dwarves, but even those underground, transforming them into even more terrifying creatures. Under the influence of this plague, those dwarves who were not infected had to lock down the plague area. Instead, he lived in what is now Izes. However, it is precisely because the plague mine cave was a prosperous area that a large number of treasures are hidden there.

Not only are the relics of those who didn't have time to escape, but the Abyssal Mine was originally close to the "Abyss Pit", a place rich in gems. It is rumored that the Pit of the Abyss is a treasure trove for the dwarves, from which all their rare gems are collected and excavated. At the same time, however, there is another rumor.

Reportedly. The plague of corruption was spread from the pit of the abyss, because a foolish dwarf who broke the taboo and dug deeper into the pit of the abyss and unleashed the demons.

But none of this is worth mentioning, and it doesn't matter if you investigate the reasons for it anyway.

"So, now that you're in the know, what are you going to do next?" Gu Qinyan asked with his arms crossed.

"Where are you on your mission now?" Xia Chiyu then asked, "What are you looking for?" ”

"Go to the Abyssal Caverns, help a faction find the Lava Core, and then place it in the heart of the old town of Ezes, it will provide the whole of Ezes with an inexhaustible supply of energy, which will solve all of Azes' current problems, including poverty, disease, and the coming winter." Yuxi explained.

"Sounds like a lot of fun." Zhang Zinuo said with a slight smile.

Xia Chiyu stretched out his hand and gently tapped on Zhang Zinuo's forehead, and reprimanded: "You are too naïve. ”

"Why?" Zhang Zinuo covered his head and asked aggrievedly, that look was particularly cute.

"Didn't you notice what the rich people said before?" Xia Chiyu asked with a smile.

The reason why the rich people of the upper city came to this place to talk to the poor people here was because the abyss mines were too dangerous, and the expedition needed some "bait" to attract the attention of dangerous monsters when they encountered them, and then they could retreat safely.

"It's cruel......," Pepe said with some reluctance, glancing over the poor people on the side of the road, "Anyway, can we give them food?" These people are so pitiful, they still have children. ”

"It can be...... Gu Qinyan let out a cold snort through his nose, "but whether there is a good result is uncertain." ”

"Then let's give them food, or give them a little money, anyway, you can buy things directly here, and you don't need to survive in the wild." Liu Yiyu said innocently, and then took out a few gold coins from her bag and handed them to the mother and son in front of her, but when the mother and son were grateful to Dade, a lot of greedy light flashed around.

As they passed the next corner, they were surrounded by a dozen or so ruffians.

"Look. That's what I mean. Gu Qinyan shrugged his shoulders and said.

However, these ruffians are only humanoid monsters of level forty or fifty, and there is nothing to fear for them at all, Liu Yiyu and Pepe can easily deal with them. After dealing with these people, Xia Chiyu sighed: "So it's useless to treat the symptoms but not the root cause." Only when the problem is fundamentally solved will this situation not occur again. ”

"Then should we now negotiate with one of the three forces?" Liu Yiyu asked curiously.

"No," Xia Chiyu flicked his index finger on Liu Yiyu's head. "We should go straight to the Abyss Mine now to find the Heart of Lava." And then...... Let's go to the people of these three forces. ”

Gu Qinyan narrowed his eyes and said suddenly, "You mean, using the Heart of Lava as a bargaining chip?" ”

"That's right, if you want to negotiate business with others, of course you have to have chips in your hands, otherwise it will be others who make the offer, and you can't do anything about them sitting on the ground. And once we have the chips, it's up to us to make the offer. Xia Chiyu said in a good way.

"Oh...... No wonder. Yuxi said suddenly. When we talked to them before, they were very polite and said that they would not form an alliance with humans until we helped them. ”

"Well, and now, if we get the Lava Heart first, we can say that I'll give this thing back to you when you're in alliance with humans." Xia Chiyu nodded.

But. In fact, Xia Chiyu just said it casually, but he didn't expect that this kind of task setting really existed in this task system.

The Abyss Mine is directly behind the gates of the slums. The gate was guarded by heavily armed guards, but they were only responsible for checking who could enter, and did not care about those who were going out. When a team goes out, they will simply let it go, but when someone wants to come in, it is not so easy.

The gate is two-tiered. There is a quarantine room in the middle, and when the returning party enters through the outside gate, they are questioned by the soldiers at the gate to make sure that they are not infected with the Corrupt Plague before they are allowed to enter.

Once one person in the party shows even the slightest sign of infection, they will either be expelled. Either be killed directly on the spot. When Xia Chiyu and the others went out, they could see several soldiers in this "isolation room" throwing some bloody corpses into the magma moat on the side.

"I'm so excited, I'm out on an adventure." Nadya clenched her fists and smiled excitedly, "I think the mission mode of AO is very interesting, and the mission on the elf side was also interesting before. ”

"That's what I thought too, so I changed the line. They don't want to do tasks, I do. Xia Chiyu echoed.

Gu Qinyan snorted coldly and did not reply, everyone walked along the road outside the slums, and some yellow-green crystals began to gradually appear on the surrounding grottoes, but after continuing to walk forward, a long staircase began to appear.

The staircase is overhanging, leading downward, flanked by boiling magma. The staircase is about 100 meters wide, and there are thousands of steps as far as the eye can see. Compared to this majestic staircase, the previous staircase in the upper town was almost like a village.

"I've heard before that the current Ezes is just a vestibule of the former Ezes, which only occupies 40% of the area of Ezes. The old town below is the former royal city, and I don't know what it will be. Yuxi said with a smile.

However, many of the corpses of corrupted dwarves can be seen on these stairs. Their bodies were somewhat similar to those of the previous Flesh Curse, melting into red slime, behind which Sensen's bones could be seen.

The staircase was littered with the remains of these corpses, at least thousands, of them, staggering through the red meat sauce formed by the decayed flesh, the slimy touch under their feet chilling. And it seems to be the setting of the game, they can see some hallucinations from time to time, they can see the tragic situation of these people when they die, and hear their wails before they die.

"It's terrifying......" Zhang Zinuo couldn't help but shudder and covered his ears, "I can't stand it anymore......"

The road was indeed creepy, but soon the special effect disappeared, and although the road behind was also covered with the corrupted corpses, it was clear that the dead had been some years old, and the melted bodies had dried up.

The red slime had long since solidified into a thick layer of dark red dirt, which made the steps below uneven. And when they get there, they won't hear the screams they used to do anymore, and they won't see hallucinations.

"That atmosphere was really ......," Pepe sighed, patting his chest. It was so depressing that I almost threw up......"

"yes, the atmosphere is fantastic!" Nadya also gasped.

They descended the stairs and saw a platform in front of them, on which stood three statues of dwarves, different from the statue of the king at the gate of Ezes. Presumably a statue of the city's founder or hero.

These three statues are about 100 meters high, magnificent and majestic, but now it seems that there is no such majestic feeling, because there are a large number of bones deposited under the statues, and some wandering black shadows can be seen, which cannot be seen clearly under the reflection of lava.

"Those are supposed to be the 'wanderers' infected by the Corrupt Plague, right?" Gu Qinyan said, pressing his hand on the hilt of the sword at his waist, and then took the lead and approached the front.

However, when they got closer. It was discovered that it was not a prowler, but a normal dwarf, and a rudimentary barracks had been set up in front of the statue, separated by metal horses in front of it, leaving only a small gap.

There are about a hundred dwarves in this camp, who fight the prowlers who come close to it, but if they are infected, they will be immediately terminated on the spot.

Leading the small number of troops here is an eighty-level dwarven general named "General Agufus", a one-eyed dwarf with an eye patch. He has a beard tied into a braid and carries a huge obsidian double-edged axe behind his back.

"Hmph. Mankind? That's a rarity. General Agufos snorted coldly after seeing Xia Chiyu and the others, "Before that, I would have cut off your heads directly, but I heard that you helped the dwarves solve a lot of troubles......

Speaking of this, Aguforus narrowed his eyes, "Besides, I heard that you taught those arrogant guys a hard lesson in the arena. Although it was cheating, it was still very pleasant. Tell me, what are your intentions here? ”

Below his dialogue, three options appear, A is "Find Lava Hearts to help Ezes regain power", and B is "Just go and see if you can find any treasure for money". Option C is "Investigate the source of the Corrupted Plague".

After thinking about it, Xia Chiyu replied: "We want to investigate the source of the corrupt plague and see if we can solve this problem, so that the dwarves may be able to return to the old city of Ezes to live." ”

"Hah! Humans, do they want to help the dwarves restore their former prosperity? Agufos scoffed, "If it weren't for you humans, why would we need to block the entrance to Ezes and be forced to rely on the flora and fauna of the Abyssal Mines for their livelihood? With that, Agufos rebuked, "Before I raise my axe, tell me, what is your true intention!?" ”

"Damn, a dwarf of level eighty, what is arrogant." Gu Qinyan took a sip and said, and was ready to step forward to fight.

"Oh, Qin Yan shut up and let the fish eat it out." Yuxi reprimanded in a low voice, dragging Gu Qinyan.

Immediately, three more options appeared below the dwarf, option A was "just to make up for the mistakes of the year", option B was "I hope to eradicate this plague", and option C was "The corrupt plague may be related to the demons".

Xia Chiyu thought for a while, turned his head to Yuxi and asked, "What was the situation of your previous mission?" How did you get here? ”

"We played a quest before, defeated the Guardians there, and then obtained the Platinum Disc to open the way to the city, otherwise we wouldn't have found this place at all. In order to avoid conflict with humans, the dwarves used their dwarven magic on the entrance to the earth......" Yuxi explained in a whisper.

"That's it......" Xia Chiyu thought about it and simply decided to tell the truth, so he replied: "Because the demon clan has not perished, but has fallen into a deep sleep." In recent years, they have shown signs of awakening, and there have been moles of the demons in the elves, and I suspect that the corrupt plague on the side of the dwarves may also be the ghosts of the demons, so I want to investigate. ”

......The expression on Aguforus' face became subtle after being deceived by you humans once, and after being deceived by you humans once, they will form an alliance with you again to fight against some bullshit demons, and then after being used by you, they will go back into seclusion underground and repeat the same mistakes?" Hmph, we dwarves may be very upright, but we're not stupid! ”

However, as he spoke, Agufos got out of the way: "If you want to go, go ahead, if you can really prove that the corrupted plague is related to the demons, I will truthfully report the results of your investigation to the king." But I'm not going to show you the way, you're on your own. And if you die......"

Speaking of this, a look of contempt flashed across Agufors' face, and he sneered, "Hmph, maybe I'll send someone to take away your armor and weapons." ”

"Ah, what the hell......" Xia Chiyu scolded secretly, judging from this situation, if the dialogue was chosen correctly, this general should have sent someone to help them and show them the way, but now they can only rely on themselves.

So, Xia Chiyu and the others passed in front of Agufus, crossed the city gate from the path on both sides of the statue, and came to the old city. Indeed, the old town in front of you is much more prosperous than the upper town, even if it has been silent for hundreds of years.

This underground city is almost the size of a real community, and it takes about two or three hours to walk across the entire city, and although there are some glowing fungi at the top of the city, they can only be illuminated by the torches in their hands.

They weren't the only ones entering the Old Town, they could see four or five other groups of ten people entering. After the King announced the new rules of succession, there were frequent groups entering the Old Town to find the Lava Heart.

The entrance to the Old Town was relatively safe, and the wanderers had been largely cleared, and after passing by the few corpses, they were making their way through the already somewhat decaying streets of the Old Town.

"This time we have one more mission." Xia Chiyu and the people behind him explained, "Not only do you have to find the heart of lava, but you also have to investigate the occurrence of the corrupt plague. ”

"What's that going on? Shall we just ally the dwarves with humans? Gu Qinyan frowned and said, "After getting the Lava Heart, are you still afraid that these guys won't listen to us?" ”

"Details have been revealed here, saying that the corrupt plague may be related to the demons." Xia Chiyu explained, waving torches to illuminate the dim streets on both sides to prevent creatures from sneaking up: "Then we have to investigate." ”

A black shadow flashed in front of the window of a building on the side at this time, Xia Chiyu immediately raised his hand and threw out a spotlight arrow, the black shadow let out a wail, smashed through the already decaying wooden door and fell in front of them.

The creature was smoky and looked like a dwarf in size, but half of its body had melted. This plague is not the same as the Flesh Curse, the skin of the creature that has been cursed by the Flesh and Blood will melt, and the muscles and veins below can be seen very clearly, while the body of the person who has been hit by the Corrupt Plague seems to be melting little by little.

The dwarf had a wound on his shoulder, and the melt began from this wound, and the white bones below could already be seen on the shoulder, while the prototype was barely visible in other parts. The infected dwarf struggled on the ground, completely losing his mind, and struggled to crawl towards them, trying to attack them.

Gu Qinyan simply pierced the long sword through its head, and said lightly, "Why didn't he see us?" ”

"No, it's not that they didn't see us......" Xia Chiyu frowned, "They are preparing to surround us......"

As soon as the words fell, there was a rustling sound around them, and then more than a dozen black shadows instantly surrounded them.

"You're in charge of the task, I'm in charge of fighting monsters, what do you think?" Gu Qinyan grinned, raised his hands to conjure up the two demon knives of Muramasa and Ghost Che, and put on a posture: "Dust to dust, dust to dust...... Return to the dust! ”

Gu Qinyan's body instantly erupted with a large area of demonic blood-red fighting qi, his figure flashed, and then the more than ten black shadows on the field instantly rose from the ground, and the world seemed to turn blood-red, and then the sword light continued to flash from the more than ten black shadows. About three or four seconds later, Gu Qinyan's figure reappeared in place, and slowly withdrew the two swords into their scabbards.

The sword light flashed from those black shadows, but before Gu Qinyan could take on the next skill, Nadya suddenly waved her hand, and an ice spike stabbed the first black shadow, and then spread out like a chain of lightning, penetrating the other black shadows.

"Let's move on." Nadya smirked, and then took the lead and walked forward. (To be continued.) )