From Black Earl’s words, it was clear that the flue area was the first scent location point.
Further ahead, there would be a Magical Energy Array blocking the path. Angel couldn’t even sneak past there, let alone Black Earl’s scent bypassing it, Angel didn’t believe it.
Therefore, if Black Earl truly had another location point, it would certainly be on the path beyond the flue.
As for where exactly, Angel had a few places in mind, but there was no need to delve deeper. If something new emerged at that point, Black Earl would naturally speak up.
...
The path continued, growing more narrow and steep.
Along the way, they did gain something. Apart from previously discovering traces of the Ghosteye Witch, they later found several corpses.
These were all humans, with some residual traces of transcendence. Upon inspection, it seemed they had been dead for a long time, at least over five hundred years, and their strength was likely at the peak of an apprentice.
There were roughly two causes of death: one was being killed by other humans, and the other was being killed by magical creatures.
And the detection by the Pheromone Amplifier revealed that the magical creature was still the Ghosteye Witch, but its aura was even more complex than the one found by the centaur statue before.
This meant that this apprentice was beaten to death by a group. In other words, there was more than one Ghosteye Witch.
This seemed to further confirm that Angel’s information was not groundless.
As for the "relics" of these skeletons.
There were indeed some undamaged Spatial Capsules, containing some miscellaneous items of varying value. Angel allocated all these to Kaier.
After all, speaking of which, Kaier was the true owner of the key and was also considered as the initiator of the adventure.
Angel, as the leader, deprived Kaier of his interest in researching history, so he could only compensate him in other ways. Therefore, as long as something was not particularly dangerous or unknown, Angel would firstly consider Kaier.
After walking for a few more minutes, they saw the second narrow opening in the distance.
The second narrow opening was more exaggerated than the first, directly intercepting the road to leave only half the width, and looking inside from here, it continued to narrow.
"Will it finally be just the size of an alley?" Dox muttered.
"It’s not possible, it’s certain," said Angel. "The short stretch of road we walked before was abnormal."
That could be considered an intentional psychological pressure from the officials, a kind of deterrent that was now gradually returning to normal.
After all, alleyways are the norm in the Underground Labyrinth. It’s important to note that when Angel was in the Underground Labyrinth within the Nightmare Realm, he mostly walked narrow paths, including the place where the wall was located, which was also a narrow alley.
"Notice the statue in front; it seems to have life traces," said the voice of the Black Earl.
Their hearts tightened, and they looked ahead in the direction of the Black Earl’s voice.
Like the first narrow opening, there was a statue on each side, but instead of "front-facing" centaurs, there were two extremely common gargoyles.
Centaur statues were true stone statues that admonished outsiders against entering without invitation.
Gargoyles, on the other hand, were half stone, half magical creature; entering without an invitation would result in facing the gargoyle’s attack.
However, these two gargoyles appeared heavily coated with patina.
Even with the Black Earl’s reminder that the gargoyles still seemed to have life traces, Angel, no matter how much he used his spiritual power to perceive, could not detect any abnormalities in the gargoyles. Nor were there any signs of them shedding their stone shells to transform into a magical creature.
Out of curiosity, Angel walked up to the gargoyle.
This time, he observed the gargoyle more "deeply" because he directly broke off one of its fingers.
Still, there was no reaction.
At this moment, the stone slab containing the Black Earl floated over, hovering directly on the gargoyle’s forehead.
After a while, the Black Earl said, "These are two already sleep-dead gargoyles."
"Sleep-dead?"
The Black Earl explained, "Though gargoyles often sleep for decades, millennia are still too long, long enough that even a magical creature like a gargoyle has reached a state of sleep-death."
"Are they still alive then?" Vay asked curiously.
Black Earl replied, "They’re alive but indistinguishable from dead, as they can no longer awaken. Even if you cut off their heads, they would simply die, rather than be startled awake, since these are just ordinary little demon gargoyles... If they were dark-gold gargoyles, they might be revived through sustained burning. "
What the Black Earl talked about was another blind spot of knowledge for everyone. Though not useful for the current situation, it didn’t stop the group from silently noting it.
It turns out a magical creature known for sleep, such as a gargoyle, could also completely sleep to death as long as the scale of time was extended long enough...
"So, since they’re sleep-dead, should we cut them down?" Dox already had his hand on the sword at his waist.
Angel looked at the two fierce-looking gargoyles, which actually posed no threat, and sighed softly: "Let them continue sleeping. In fact, sleep-death might be a good way to die."
As he said this, Angel extended his finger and gently tapped the gargoyle’s forehead.
The group faintly sensed a wave of magic power.
The Black Earl chuckled lightly, "You’re interesting, actually giving them more of a Dream Entering Technique. Are you worried they aren’t sleeping soundly enough?"
Angel spread his hands. "Since they can’t wake up, let’s grant them one final beautiful dream."
With that, Angel turned directly and headed deeper into the narrow path.
Dox furrowed his brow, "Isn’t his behavior a bit odd?"
Vay glared angrily, "What do you know, this is the romance of Lord Chaowei. Bestowing beautiful dreams upon sleeping gargoyles sounds like a fairytale."
Dox, interrupted by Vay, forgot where he initially felt it was odd, and retorted, "If you replace the gargoyle with a beauty’s name, I would find it romantic. Bestowing beautiful dreams upon gargoyles? How is that romantic? It’s more like having a screw loose."
Vay: "Since the renowned Lord Red Sword views Lord Chaowei in this manner, why don’t you just tell him directly, or should I tell Lord Chaowei for you?"
Dox quickly grabbed Vay, "Only good friends would talk like this, what do you know. Don’t think about ruining my relationship with Angel, just give up, you’re not going to interfere."
The back-and-forth of the two fools didn’t affect the group’s progress in exploration.
After passing the second narrow opening, it wasn’t long before they arrived at the fourth narrow opening.
This might be the last narrow opening, as the road inside the fourth one had returned to a passageway wide enough for three to four people side by side.
Moreover, the fourth narrow opening was no longer sloping downwards; it had returned to a flat, Right Path.
Previously at the third narrow opening, gargoyles had already appeared.
The fourth narrow opening naturally also had corresponding guards, but these guards were completely different from those before.
At each end of this narrow opening, there was a wall-mounted candlestick, emitting a pale blue flame.
Though called a flame, everyone could feel that this flame didn’t exist in the Material Realm, as it was a mimicked fire.
It was a fire mimicked by another non-material realm entity. As for which type of non-material realm entity it was, the Official Wizard present had a pretty clear idea in mind.