Lin Fan’s group walked along the hidden corridor for several minutes before finally coming to a set of stairs.
These stairs led right into the ground and brought to them a lower level than the one that they had been on previously.
When they came to the bottom of the stairs, they found that they had been brought out to a giant room…Well, giant room really wasn’t the best way to describe this place because it wasn’t just a room.
It was a large space that was filled with trees, making it seem like a forest.
If they didn’t know any better, they would have thought that they had suddenly left the ruins and had stepped outside.
But they knew that this place was still inside of the ruins since they could tell from the ceiling that they were still underground. Even if the ceiling tried to imitate the sky, it couldn’t imitate the real thing.
It was clear that the sun above them was nothing more than a light attached to the ceiling, though they didn’t know how this light was made.
But there were more important things for them to care about right now.
Such as where was the exit to this floor?
They looked at the sky above them and they couldn’t see an end to it. Even when they climbed up onto a tree, they couldn’t see the wall on the other side. There was only endless forest that stretched out in front of them.
However when they stopped to think about it, it was impossible that there was only forest here.
The more likely scenario was that there was a wall on the other side that had an illusion printed on it that made it seem like the forest spread much further than it actually did. Unless they approached it, they wouldn’t be able to properly judge how far the forest actually spread.
But that also didn’t mean that the exit to this floor was on the other side of this space.
If it was the same as the first floor, the exit to this floor should be a set of stairs leading down, so it could be anywhere on this floor. The only thing that they could really do was look for it.
Lin Fan could have used the Gale Sparrow to look for the exit, but he decided against it in the end.
First, he didn’t want to expose his ability to control the Gale Sparrow to scout areas for him. This was an abilitywas an ability that no one else in this world was able to use and if he were to expose this, he had no doubt that people would come looking for him. Even if he trusted Tian Tian, that didn’t mean that he trusted everyone else here since it was his second day since they met.
Second, he didn’t want to use it because he didn’t know what kind of dangers were hidden in this forest. Instead of sending the Gale Sparrow out into danger, it was better to slowly scout out the area.
So he said, “Let’s spread out in groups of two and scout out the surrounding area.” He then pointed at a large tree in the distance and said, “We’ll gather at that tree in around an hour. Anyone have a problem with that?”
Everyone shook their heads and agreed to Lin Fan’s plan.
They didn’t have a problem with Lin Fan’s plan since this was the best plan for the current situation.
All of them were active mercenaries, so they were very familiar with this kind of work. After all, they would need to search for spirit beasts when they went out hunting for them.
So the teams were made and they set off into the forest in different directions.
Since there wasn’t an even split, one of the teams had an extra member, but it wasn’t Lin Fan’s team.
Lin Fan formed a team with Tian Tian.
The two of them headed off to the south, which they knew since compasses still worked in this place.
They didn’t even get far before Lin Fan noticed something.
It wasn’t anything bad, rather it was actually something quite good.
Tian Tian was about to continue forward when she suddenly saw Lin Fan kneel down to the side. She came over with a concerned look and asked, “What’s going on?”
Lin Fan raised the thing in his hand and said, “I found this.”
Tian Tian was confused why Lin Fan was showing her a random plant, but then when she looked at it carefully, she found that it was a plant that she recognized. Not only that, it wasn’t just a normal plant, but rather it was a very rare herb that couldn’t be found normally.
This was an herb that was used to refine a very powerful pill, so normally it would almost never show up on the market!
But Lin Fan was just holding it so casually now.
Not to mention that when she looked down, she found that it wasn’t just this single herb that he was holding, but rather there was a field covered in them.
She couldn’t believe how many of these herbs there were gathered here. But then she also thought of something else.
These were ruins that had been recently discovered, so things like this should be normal. In fact, this entire floor should be the medicinal gardens of the past owners of these ruins, which was why they were covered in these herbs.
As for the forest, it should be because of it being left unattended for so long that it became this overgrown.
Lin Fan on the other hand had something else on his mind.
He pointed at the herb in his hand and asked, “How are we dividing this?”
Since the ruins were controlled by the Mercenary Guild, it was expected that they would take a cut out of all the items that were found in these ruins. These herbs would naturally be included among those items.
But the Mercenary Guild was also technically hiring the team to scout out these ruins and with what kind of organization the Mercenary Guild was, it was expected that there would be different rules.
Tian Tian wasn’t unfamiliar with this concept, so she just casually said, “You can keep all the herbs and stuff that you find in this place. The Mercenary Guild only wants the important things like artifacts and such.”
Lin Fan gave a nod since he already expected this, but it was better to ask just to make sure.
So without any hesitation, he started gathering the herbs that were in front of him.
Seeing how fast he was going, Tian Tian couldn’t help revealing a bitter smile.
Was her charm less than the herbs that he completely ignored her?
Yes, it wasn’t a coincidence that Tian Tian was in the same group as Lin Fan. They had divided groups in a draw and she had manipulated it so that she would be in the same group as him.
Ever since he came back from Inferno City, she found that her eyes couldn’t help being attracted whenever she met him. It was as if he had somehow come back even more handsome compared to before.
No, it wasn’t “as if”, he really did come back more handsome compared to before.
Tian Tian could see it with his skin, it was much brighter and smoother compared to before…
She didn’t know what had happened to him, but he had changed so much in just a little over a week.
She had seen him before he headed off, but after he came back, she couldn’t recognize him at all.
But that wasn’t a bad thing…
Still, even if she was a bit unhappy about how Lin Fan was acting, that didn’t stop her from gathering the herbs as well.
These were rare herbs and even she couldn’t resist harvesting them.
After taking a few minutes to harvest these herbs, they continued scouting out the forest. However, in the end, there wasn’t much for them to find.
They had only found a few more herbs and some small animals running around, no traces of the exit at all.
When an hour had gone by, they had no choice but to give up on scouting and started heading to the large tree that they had designated as the meeting area.
But when they came close to the large tree, both of them suddenly stopped as they could feel something coming from in front of them. It wasn’t a strong aura, but it was a dense one, which was made up of many different auras.
It seemed like there was a large group of something ahead of them and it seemed like they were at the tree that they had designated as the meeting area.
Tian Tian knitted her brows and said, “This is…”
Lin Fan shook his head and said, “Let’s not jump to conclusions. Let’s go and scout it out first before we decide what to do.”
Tian Tian paused for a second before responding with a nod.
The two of them slowly and silently made their way forward atop the trees, making sure that they weren’t found while also scouting ahead to see what was in front of them.
It was a good thing that they didn’t see any traces of the other members of their group, which meant that they should have also felt the aura coming from the tree and didn’t rush in without any caution.
As they came closer and closer to the tree, Lin Fan and Tian Tian finally saw the true appearance of the beings that these auras belonged to.
As soon as he saw them, Lin Fan’s eyes couldn’t help popping out and his jaw couldn’t help dropping as he said, “This…It can’t be!”