Chapter 503: Underground Chamber
"Ondo!"
When Qiao An chanted the incantation, the "Crimson Tears" inlaid on the top of the ceramic rod shone slightly, and a surge of magic power surged out, directly digging a stone door on the thick wall, and shaping a stone door along the way. door handle.
"Sister Hull! Is this okay?!" Clark saw Joan holding the doorknob, easily pulling open the stone door embedded in the wall, and walked in calmly, his eyeballs almost popped out of their sockets, repeatedly Admired: "Sure enough, there are many ways for a mage! There is only the unexpected, and there is nothing impossible."
Joan turned back and waved at him: "Stop dawdling, come in quickly."
Clark bent sideways, barely squeezed through the stone door, and closed the secret door created by magic. Looking back to observe the scene in the room, he found that he and Qiao An were in a corridor of stone steps that spiraled to the depths of the ground.
A bull's-eye lantern hung on an iron nail on one side of the corridor wall, emitting a faint light. Fortunately, the giants were born with "low-light vision", and a lantern was enough for him to see the slippery steps covered with moss under his feet, so that he would not stumble and fall when walking.
"It seems that we were lucky. We directly dug a door leading to the cellar corridor, so we don't need to dig the tunnel ourselves." Joan nodded in satisfaction and walked down the stairs.
The big manor owners in the Alfheim area are mostly proud of drinking and hospitality. They usually set up wineries in their manors and dig cellars specially used for wine storage. According to the traditional customs of the southern country gentry, whenever distinguished guests come to the door, the master will order the servants to go to his wine cellar to fetch a barrel of old wine to entertain the guests.
The size of a wine cellar in a manor is often directly proportional to the wealth and hospitality of its owner. In order to show wealth and generosity, some large manor owners do not hesitate to spend huge sums of money to build their wine cellars like underground palaces, which are enough to accommodate tens of thousands of oak wines. bucket!
Old man Pym was a typical southern manor owner who advocated booze during his lifetime. Of course, a high-grade underground wine cellar is indispensable in his house.
Joan and Clark went deep underground along the stairs, and they could still see traces of the wine cellar.
The new owner of Pym Manor, Henry Baldwin, didn’t seem to have much interest in wine storage. Soon after he moved into the manor, he redecorated the underground wine cellar and removed most of the wooden racks used to hold wine barrels to make room for the construction of wine. An underground stable was erected for a total of fifty horses.
Joan saw the horses chewing hay in the stalls that were divided into small grids, and couldn't help but wonder: "What is the purpose of Baldwin keeping these horses in the cellar that is not seen from the sky?"
"Brother Joan, look over there, it seems that someone is arguing." Clark pointed to the row of stone huts opposite the stables.
There are a total of eight rooms in the townhouse. There are no windows, and the doors are all equipped with iron bars. There are guards with swords in livery standing in front of the door. At first glance, it looks like a dormitory, but on closer inspection, it looks like a prison.
Joan vaguely heard roars coming from the house, so he gestured to Clark. Under the protection of "invisibility", the two quietly walked around the stables and came to the row of stone houses that looked like prisons.
Joan leaned against the wall to listen, and soon heard the prisoners in the room yelling curses in Elvish. If he hadn't heard it with his own ears, it would be hard for him to imagine that someone could pick out so many insulting words from Elvish language and concatenate them into a variety of swear words.
The elves who pride themselves on being elegant may not be able to utter such vulgar and straightforward swear words, and the elves are far from the only ones who use elves.
Joan was very curious about who was in the prison, and why they all held such resentment against Henry Baldwin that they used the most vicious words to insult the most popular rancher in House Town today. Every swear word reveals endless hatred.
Just when Joan was wondering, Clark patted him on the shoulder and whispered, "There are people coming over there, one of them looks like Baldwin!"
Joan looked in the direction of Clark's finger, and sure enough, he saw Henry Baldwin walking through the tunnel opposite the stable, accompanied by a man in a black velvet cloak.
Baldwin introduced the various facilities in the cellar to the man in black while walking, and his words showed a mentality of deliberately flattering the man in black, as if he was accompanying his superior to inspect and visit.
"Master Special Envoy, since I was ordered to run the ranch in House Town, I have been so busy this year that I have hardly had a good night's sleep!"
"Take this underground test site as an example. It was originally an old wine cellar. After I took over, I removed all the obstructing facilities, hired workers to expand it, and dug a tunnel. Through this secret passage, you can reach one mile directly. The pasture beyond—the road we just came from the pasture."
"That's very good, Mr. Baldwin. Use a tunnel to connect the underground testing ground with the pasture, and transfer the pregnant mares to the pasture at any time, so as not to attract the attention and suspicion of outsiders." The man in black nodded in approval.
"It's my great honor to appreciate the compliment from the Envoy. It would be even better if the Envoy would give me some kind words in front of the Pope." Baldwin rubbed his hands and smiled flatteringly.
The man in black laughed lightly, and said lightly: "As long as you do your best, I will report the truth to my superiors. We are not outsiders, so you don't need to be so polite, just call me Shaman."
"Hey~ Mr. Sharman is the special envoy from the headquarters of the religious order. General Hooker sent a special letter yesterday telling me to prepare for your inspection. I dare not neglect you in the slightest." Baldwin humbly accompanied his smiling face.
"Come on, save a few compliments and show me your results." The man in black said impatiently.
"Okay, okay!" Baldwin hurriedly led the way and walked towards the stables, "Master Sharman, please look, "There are a total of fifty horses raised here, forty of which were sent from the pasture yesterday. , healthy fillies waiting to be bred, and ten newly weaned foals, which are the mixed-bred thoroughbreds I mentioned to you earlier, will be sent to the public auction next week as a living signboard for the reputation of our ranch '. "
The man in black walked up to the corral, slowly raised his left arm, the wide sleeve of the cloak slid down, and the elbow-broken arm was impressively connected to a twisted and wriggling black snake. He turned his head and bit the man in black's cloak and pulled the hood to the back of his neck, revealing a thin and pale face with flickering cold gray eyes.
Clark was deeply surprised by the strange image of the man in black, and whispered in Joan's ear, "Have you seen that weird man—he actually transplanted a live snake on his severed arm, it's really perverted!"
Joan felt familiar when he saw the man in black robe for the first time. Seeing him showing the black snake attached to his left arm, he immediately remembered that he had seen this man in the Algonquin Valley. The senior deacon, known as "Snake Hand" Sharman.