176: Chapter 176 The New World

Was she actually wearing a white veil on her face?

"A veil? Arab? No way, right? Am I still on Earth? But this language is clearly not Arabic." Chu Ge began to doubt reality.

The next second,

"Take off the veil!"

Chu Ge blurted it out instinctively. He regretted it as soon as he said it. According to Arab tradition, a veil is not easily removed, especially in front of a strange man.

The person before him might not be of Arab descent, but this veil surely held some significance.

The woman seemed hesitant, her eyes glancing toward an elder in front. Chu Ge understood the meaning in her eyes; it was a plea for help.

He turned to look at the elders in front. They had just been craning their necks to watch, but upon seeing Chu Ge's gaze, they quickly withdrew their eyes and lowered their heads, looking like old stewards from a feudal society.

Chu Ge turned back, preparing to retract his somewhat abrupt words, but he swallowed them back. The woman before him had already removed her veil.

A stunningly beautiful face appeared before Chu Ge—fair skin, a high bridge of the nose, and lips like a touch of cherry red.

Chu Ge was stunned. Such looks would be a calamity in his world.

However, he confirmed one thing: her genetic traits shared many similarities with humans, though she looked more like a person of mixed descent—a blend of Eastern and Western features.

The woman's lips trembled, and Chu Ge finally snapped back to reality.

"Sorry, that was a bit abrupt just now. You can put it back on. I would like to ask you a few questions, may I?"

The woman obediently put the veil back on, stared at Chu Ge, blinked her blue eyes a few times, and nodded.

"Are there mountains, rivers, and oceans here? I guess this hall must be underground. Can you take me to the surface to take a look? I want to determine the orientation of the celestial bodies."

Chu Ge asked directly after a moment of hesitation. In the short term, he just wanted to figure out where exactly he was.

"There are underground rivers. What is an ocean? The main hall is indeed underground. To be precise, we have always lived underground. We rarely go to the surface; the environment there is too harsh and not suitable for our survival."

The masked woman replied obediently, her voice soft and pleasant. Chu Ge didn't have time to compliment her, because he had gathered several pieces of information from her answer.

This was indeed not Earth. There was water here, and the surface environment was harsh! They rarely went there, which meant the surface was accessible. Chu Ge decided to go out and see for himself.

Having obtained the information he wanted, Chu Ge turned to look at the elders behind him.

"Can I go to the surface to take a look?"

"Lord, you may go wherever you wish. Everything here belongs to you!"

A hunched elder replied. Chu Ge nodded and was about to follow them to the passage leading to the surface, but his eyes caught the shuffling steps of the elders. It was clear they were quite old.

"Um, you elders don't need to come. It's not convenient for you to move around. Please just arrange for a young person to take me there!"

"Yes, Lord. Ayi Lan, take the Lord to the surface. Watch the time, and do not let the Lord get hurt!"

The elder commanded with a stern attitude.

"Yes!"

Only then did Chu Ge realize that the one named Ayi Lan was the woman who had just removed her veil.

After speaking, the woman turned and led the way, walking into the depths of the hall, with Chu Ge following closely behind.

They passed by the kneeling crowd, who automatically made a path. Chu Ge frowned. Was the hierarchy here so strict?

Forget it, now was not the time to dwell on such things. Having figured that out, Chu Ge quickly caught up to the woman in front.

The two of them walked for a long time. Chu Ge observed the hall as he walked. With the light from the fluctuations of the Energy Ball, some of the scenes within the hall gradually came into Chu Ge's view.

There were clear signs of artificial processing here. It was possible that some original natural caves had been utilized, so the hall presented a peculiar landscape where artificial modifications were mixed with natural caverns.

The light was very dim. Chu Ge walked the whole way without finding any sources of illumination. Perhaps there was no fire here? Or maybe there was insufficient oxygen? But if oxygen was insufficient, why hadn't he shown any symptoms of hypoxia?

Chu Ge sniffed hard. A faint smell of rust drifted into his nostrils, but there was nothing else unusual. "What the hell," Chu Ge thought.

The floor of the hall was paved very flatly. On both sides near the edges, there were some huge stone sculptures. Chu Ge paused to watch for a while. The carving technique of the sculptures was quite delicate, but Chu Ge could not understand the figures depicted.

It was quite chaotic, with fierce beasts and warriors holding weapons. The common point was the size of the sculptures; Chu Ge estimated them to be over 5 meters tall.

Seeing Chu Ge stop, the masked woman also stopped, staying behind Chu Ge, her hands crossed over her chest again, her head slightly lowered.

"Did you carve these sculptures? Are the images of these beasts copied from life, or are they imagined out of thin air?"

"The sculptures were passed down from ancient times. As for the beasts you mentioned, I am sorry, Lord, we have never seen them either, so I cannot answer your latter question."

Chu Ge nodded, and the two continued to walk forward. The masked woman led Chu Ge to the foot of a flight of stairs, and Chu Ge looked up.

The stairs were very long, and the light above flickered, making it hard to see. Seeing the masked woman walking up the stairs, Chu Ge followed.

After walking for about ten minutes, they finally arrived at a flat open space. On both sides of the open space stood two rows of armored soldiers holding weapons.

Chu Ge looked thoughtfully at the weapons in their hands. They looked like ironware. The age of cold weapons?

"Saintess!" the armored soldiers shouted in unison as they knelt on one knee.

Chu Ge looked at the masked woman leading the way. She was a Saintess?

The title of Saintess did not seem very common on Earth, especially in China. Chu Ge vaguely remembered that it seemed only some ethnic minorities used this title.

In West Asia, South Asia, and some Western countries, one could find a lot of information about Saintesses...

"He is our Lord. Open the door."

"Yes!" the armored soldiers replied respectfully, then stood up to open the door.

Chu Ge clearly felt their momentary astonishment when they heard the woman say "Lord." He still hadn't figured out the meaning of this "Lord."

"Click, click, click." The sound of heavy machinery operating interrupted Chu Ge's thoughts, and he looked up.

The metal door was tall and large, with a golden-yellow color throughout. Chu Ge could not distinguish the specific material, but looking at the luster, he associated it with gold.

A gold door? Was it that extravagant? On second thought, perhaps that "gold" stuff was everywhere here.

The metal door was nearly 10 meters high. On the platforms on both sides of the door, there were small turntables, each with 6 metal columns inserted horizontally. The soldiers, in groups of 6, were struggling to push those metal columns.

There might be a transmission mechanism underneath. As the turntable rotated, the metal door slowly opened. A long-lost beam of light shot in, and the platform suddenly became as bright as day.

The soldiers did not continue to rotate the turntable and hid to the side; they seemed to fear the light.

Chu Ge squeezed through the crack of the door and ran out.

"Lord, be careful! Outside..."

The Saintess's anxious cry came from behind, but Chu Ge ignored it and ran out in a few steps.

The next second, Chu Ge deeply experienced what was meant by "pain that cuts to the bone." His exposed skin cracked rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye, and then burst open.

Chu Ge felt as if he had been thrown into a large furnace; his body withered and decayed before it could even react.

"Damn it, why didn't you say so earlier!"

Before falling, Chu Ge took a look at this outside world.

The sky was an eerie pink. Looking out, the entire land was desolate—red deserts, ochre gravel, solidified lava flows...

A huge, round celestial body hung in the sky, bright and spectacular. It seemed to be very, very close to this planet.

"What a huge moon!" Chu Ge muttered to himself before his consciousness gradually blurred. He closed his eyes in exhaustion and fell into a deep sleep!