Herag walked down the passage, noticing that the ground gradually turned into a normal earthy yellow.

In the areas near the surface, the soil layers were a dark black.

It seems the pollution didn't penetrate that deep—perhaps after seven or eight hundred meters underground, the soil is normal.

This depth should only be a reference, as the soil pollution levels can vary in different areas.

Herag examined the passage walls and the ground for signs, realizing no one had been here for a long time, nor were there traces of small animals.

"Why is this passage so long..."

Herag had been walking down the passage for a full eight hours, and it seemed he still hadn't reached the bottom.

He even wondered if the passage led directly to the center of the Earth.

Since the environment was similar everywhere, with no landmarks, he had no idea where he was located.

The passage twisted and turned with gentle slopes, not a straight line descending vertically.

So while Herag was walking downward, he was also moving forward.

Herag was now confused about his exact position; he might already be under the Land of Dawn.

The entire passage had only one path, and Herag hadn't encountered a single junction.

The more he walked, the more he felt that this passage was not simple. At this point, turning back was impossible, so he decided to keep going and see what lay at the end of the passage.

He took out some smoked meat and drinking water from his Space Ring, quickly ate and drank them as a meal, and then continued on his journey.

...

Two days later.

If not for the changes in front of him, Herag would doubt whether he had entered some kind of looped space, unable to find a way out.

For two whole days, Herag had been walking in this passage.

The passage was always silent and dark, with no other Demons encountered.

Herag was initially worried about encountering those giant worms that attacked him before, but it turned out he didn't need to.

If there were such giant worms active nearby, this passage wouldn't remain so intact and would have been destroyed long ago.

On this journey, not only did he not encounter those giant worms that could move quickly underground, but he didn't see even a single earthworm.

In Herag's mind, a red line snaked and twisted, marking the route Shenlan recorded.

The journey led generally downward and also toward the east.

It now seemed he was deep underground, and from the horizontal distance, he was far east of the Great Rift Canyon.

But this map might not be accurate; if his sense of direction was disturbed, the drawn route would be incorrect.

Herag felt that this map was likely incorrect, or that distances in this passage should not be calculated by usual feelings.

Because he had gone too far down, yet throughout the journey, the soil was almost identical, which seemed illogical.

Herag believed there was something strange about this place, and he might not be as deep underground as he thought.

But the journey was real, with no repeated or looped segments in the route.

After two days of tedious travel, the passage walls finally showed something different.

They were ancient murals, as if from unknown millennia ago, with clear signs of age.

Herag looked at the murals, feeling strangely familiar, with a sense of déjà vu.

He looked ahead; the murals were long and stretched forward endlessly.

Herag stood at the beginning of the murals, observing their contents, trying to understand their story.

The mural's lines were simple, even crude.

Yet through these simple lines, the artist accurately conveyed the story they wanted to tell.

It depicted a tribe born in the wilderness, surrounded by danger, with powerful beasts posing great threats to the tribe.

The tribe often suffered injuries and deaths from beast attacks, depleting their numbers, and faced a crisis.

Later, a Divine Messenger-like presence brought a Stone Slab to the tribe...

Seeing this, Herag finally understood why it felt so familiar.

He immediately remembered that this mural was identical to those seen in the cave at Valley Town.

At least, so far, the parts he had seen matched exactly with the ones in his memory.

"Could it be the same passage?"

Herag glanced around, recalling that inside the Valley Town cave, he also saw similar murals on cave walls.

Back then, after exiting the cave, going back, the cave had disappeared. Could it have shifted locations?

Another similarity was that both cave entrances had spiders outside, suggesting a possible connection.

But after closely comparing the surroundings, it was clear this wasn't the Valley Town cave, only the murals were identical.

Herag was puzzled as to why identical murals appeared in places so far apart.

He continued along the passage, browsing the murals on the walls.

After some distance, Herag noticed differences.

The murals here were longer.

In the Valley Town cave, only a part of the mural was drawn, describing the tribe surviving by the Power of the Stone Slab.

At the time, the story seemed to have ended.

But here, the story hadn't ended.

Following the earlier murals, there was a long continuation.

Herag slowly observed the second half of the murals, roughly understanding the storyline.

The tribe quickly grew powerful with the Stone Slab's power, becoming the strongest tribe and thriving for many generations.

Many years later, they successfully ruled the land, with peace and prosperity all around.

However, Demons descended from the sky, killing on sight.

The Demons were depicted in various terrifying forms, with the artist's style still crude, the lines simple.

But Herag could feel that the artist intended to show the Demons' great strength and frightfulness.

The Demons from beyond quickly occupied vast lands, plundering all resources.

The land's people, under the tribe's leadership, resisted the invading Demons.

But the strength gap was too large; the tribe's people suffered constant defeats, almost losing their World to the Demons.

At this moment, the Stone Slab emitted a strong light, and the tribe's people all knelt and worshipped before it.

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