Chapter 4: Chapter 002: Sent into the Underground Palace

"Ah—!" With a startled scream, Cen Xue snapped her eyes open and bolted upright in bed, her arms crossing tightly to clutch her body. Her forehead was covered in a dense layer of thin sweat; it turned out that just now was merely a dream. ┏_ ┓

She looked around anxiously. Heavens! What on earth had happened to her? Just a moment ago, she was in a gloomy and terrifying underground palace, and now she was in an antique-style side room. Of all the things before her eyes, which one was real?

Cen Xue remembered very clearly that in 2012, the Mayan prophecy became a reality. Floods, tsunamis, and earthquakes surged toward humanity all at once. It was a rare natural disaster in human history; almost all life was lost in this catastrophe, swallowed whole by the floods and tsunamis...

Because she possessed the professional mantle of a biologist, she had been honored with the privilege of boarding Noah's Ark. Noah's Ark was humanity's last hope, but unfortunately, the Ark she was on suffered a temporary malfunction. Before all the defense programs could be fully activated, it was swallowed and destroyed by the floods and tsunamis, and she, too, had been added to the death list of this disaster!

Just as she was lost in confusion, there seemed to be movement outside the door. As soon as the thought crossed her mind, the door was opened from the outside. Several men dressed as eunuchs entered first, followed by an older eunuch. Judging by the clothing he wore, he was likely of higher status.

A pair of dark eyes scrutinized Cen Xue from head to toe, making her entire body tense with dread. Who exactly were these people?

"It's her. Take her away!" A thin, shrill voice rang out in the room. As soon as the words were spoken, the nearby eunuchs swarmed toward her. One eunuch pressed a pre-prepared handkerchief over her nose and mouth; the cloth had already been treated with knockout drugs. Cen Xue felt her vision grow increasingly blurred, a wave of dizziness and disorientation swept over her, and then, with her vision turning black, she lost consciousness.

"Boom—" A dull roll of thunder echoed in the night sky, as if foretelling this unusual night.

In her coma, Cen Xue felt as if she were trapped in a pitch-black space. Upon suddenly hearing that massive roar, it was as if she had found a sliver of light in the darkness, and she rushed toward the direction where the thunder had sounded...

A miracle occurred. A door indeed appeared ahead. After she opened it with great hope, a piercing beam of light shone from the other side, causing Cen Xue to snap awake from her unconsciousness instantly.

The jolting beneath her told her that she was currently being carried high on someone's shoulder. The dim and cold visual field allowed her chaotic brain to gradually return to reality.

Looking at everything before her, Cen Xue asked herself repeatedly in her heart: where had she seen this scene before? The long corridor in the darkness, and those night pearls that guided the way... Heavens, she remembered! That's right, this was the underground palace she had experienced in her dream!

"What are you doing? Put me down, quickly!" Cen Xue clearly remembered that there was a mummified corpse wearing dragon robes in there—a corpse that was still moving. For a moment, that dream seemed to be happening right before her eyes, scaring her so much that she struggled to get up.

"Yo, young lady, you're awake. Stop shouting; we're only a few steps away. The King is waiting for you inside!" The old eunuch led the way with a torch in hand. Several young eunuchs carried Cen Xue closely behind him. Hearing the cries from behind, they looked back at her in surprise. How could this girl wake up so quickly? But fortunately, they had already brought her into the underground palace.

With her shoulders bare, Cen Xue's body was tightly wrapped in a large piece of bright red silk, making it impossible for her to move at all. She could only twist desperately, attempting to struggle free from the restraint.

"What King? Inside is clearly just a living dead person—a person who is dead yet can still move!" Cen Xue continued to struggle with all her might. She did not want to be sent to that corpse's side. She was a scientist from the biology department; she studied plants, not corpses.

"Shut up! Don't be ungrateful. To be able to serve the King is a blessing you've cultivated through many lifetimes!" The old eunuch shot her a warning glare and then ignored her struggling and clamor entirely.

Reaching the deepest part of the underground palace, they arrived before a stone door. The old eunuch extinguished the torch in his hand and reported respectfully to the person inside the stone door: "This old servant greets the King. The person has been delivered!"

As soon as his voice fell, the tightly closed stone door suddenly began to open slowly. A gust of sinister wind drifted out from within, causing the old eunuch standing in front to shudder involuntarily.

The young eunuchs carried Cen Xue inside. It was pitch black within, without a single trace of light. Following a familiar pattern, the eunuchs walked fifteen steps straight from the stone door, set Cen Xue down, and then walked back out the same way.

"Don't go! Don't leave me here alone! It's so dark, I want to go out... I want to go out..." Cen Xue could no longer suppress the panic in her heart. Her screams echoed in the stone chamber. Once the young eunuchs stepped out of the chamber, the stone door immediately began to close slowly on its own. Watching the slowly closing stone door, her hope sank bit by bit to rock bottom.

"Mmph, mmph... Big Brother Ghost, I beg you, please let me go. Actually, I am also someone who has died once. Since we share the same fate, let's not hurt each other anymore, okay?" Large tears fell as Cen Xue wept and pleaded. She remembered that the mummified corpse had opened blood-red eyes at that time and reached out to grab her; he definitely intended to suck her blood dry. It had to be that.

The room remained silent, with only Cen Xue's voice to be heard. However, in this dark space, a pair of blood-red eyes was staring intently at her. From the moment she entered the stone chamber, his gaze had never left her.