"It? Who?"
Fu Zhu immediately opened his minimap, even zooming it out to its maximum range, but after a careful scan, he couldn't see anything nearby that could have startled Herta and the others.
"There's no boss around. Herta, what exactly scared you all?"
Herta raised her hand and pointed toward the Eye of Ender in mid-air. Just then, the Eye of Ender shattered with a soft pop. But Fu Zhu still caught the gesture, which left him a bit puzzled.
"The Eye of Ender is what scared you?"
Herta and the others nodded in unison. The moment Fu Zhu had thrown that Eye of Ender, they had all felt a gaze from an extremely terrifying entity directed at them through the eye.
That chilling presence had almost made them unable to maintain flight. Fortunately, it only lasted for a brief two seconds.
"Could it be the Ender Dragon?"
Fu Zhu looked at the shattered remains of the Eye of Ender. The only thing he could think of was the Ender Dragon. And in this world, the only thing that could possibly frighten Herta's group was the Ender Dragon.
Silver Wolf patted her chest, her heart still pounding as she took deep, ragged breaths. Among everyone present, she was the weakest, and the fear she had felt was the most intense.
"The Ender Dragon... has it gotten stronger again? Or was it because its real body was watching us?"
The others remained silent, their eyes all turning to Fu Zhu. He was the one who understood the Ender Dragon best.
Hearing Silver Wolf's words, Fu Zhu couldn't help but pause. He had installed the Apotheosis mod earlier... Did that mean the Ender Dragon had become even stronger?
Hiss... He was suddenly starting to regret installing that mod so early.
But what was done was done, and there was no room for regret. Besides, it was just a stronger Ender Dragon; it wasn't like he hadn't killed one before. At worst, he'd just have to die a few more times.
"The Ender Dragon has probably gotten stronger, but that's not a big deal. Let's get to the Stronghold first."
"Okay." x4
The group set off once more towards the Stronghold's location. Along the way, Fu Zhu took the opportunity to explain some of the properties of the Eye of Ender to them.
After hearing his explanation, they were even more certain that the entity that had been watching them through the Eye of Ender was, in fact, the Ender Dragon.
A couple of minutes later, the group arrived at a vast grassland eight thousand meters away. Herta looked down, but all she saw was a prairie overgrown with weeds, with no trace of any buildings.
"Fu Zhu, where's the Stronghold? I don't see it on the ground or in the sky. Is it underground?"
"That's right. Strongholds are almost always deep underground. Let's go down."
As the group followed Fu Zhu's instructions and began to slowly descend, Fu Zhu himself let go of Herta's waist and jumped off the staff.
"Don't come down just yet, or I won't be responsible if you sprain your ankle."
The group: "?"
Before the others could ask why, Fu Zhu had already pulled out a pickaxe and activated Vein Miner on the ground. With one swing, the earth beneath his feet was instantly cleared out, creating a massive pit over a dozen meters wide. Fu Zhu plummeted straight down.
Floating in mid-air, Herta and the others watched with fascination, but they didn't forget to slowly lower their altitude. Now they understood why Fu Zhu had warned them they might sprain an ankle.
For a pit over ten meters deep to suddenly appear beneath one's feet... even though they were powerful, an ordinary person or a common Pathstrider would probably lose half their life from such a fall.
Fu Zhu continued to tunnel downwards with his pickaxe, gradually reaching the deep regions where Deepslate was found. Then, with another swing, he saw the tell-tale stone bricks of a Stronghold appear in the cross-section of the chasm wall.
Before he could get excited, Fu Zhu was surprised to find that the pit he had dug was unnaturally deep. It wasn't because of his Vein Miner, but because he had dug straight into another special area in MC—an Ancient City!
As he fell rapidly, Fu Zhu immediately pulled a water bucket from his inventory. At this height, a hard landing would kill him instantly. He had to use water to break his fall.
But before he could land, a purple figure shot to his side and wrapped an arm around his waist.
Fu Zhu turned his head to see it was Herta. He gave her a grateful nod, then shifted to sit on her staff as they descended slowly, eventually touching the ground.
Screwllum and the others landed one by one. Looking at the surrounding ruins and the deep blue veins covering the ground, none of them looked pleased.
The feeling this area gave them was simply too unsettling.
Ruan Mei looked around, frowning as she asked Fu Zhu, "Mr. Fu Zhu, is this the Stronghold?"
The moment she spoke, Fu Zhu immediately raised a finger to his lips to shush her, but it was too late.
After Ruan Mei finished speaking, a piercing shriek echoed through the area, followed by the faint, muffled sound of a heartbeat in their ears.
The eerie scene put everyone on high alert.
---o---
Fu Zhu glanced at a Sculk Shrieker not far away and whispered an explanation to the group. "This isn't the Stronghold. It's something else—an Ancient City where you're forbidden from making any sound. Any noise made in this city will attract a Warden to attack us. You all should carefully fly up. The Stronghold is directly above this Ancient City. Go wait for me there."
Since he was already here, Fu Zhu planned to take a risk and check the chests in the Ancient City. Generally, the loot in Ancient Cities was never bad; he might just find a couple of useful pieces of equipment or some high-level gems.
"An Ancient City where sound is forbidden? Interesting."
Herta's interest was piqued, and the others also wore curious expressions.
Seeing their reactions, Fu Zhu knew he couldn't talk them out of it. He decided not to even try to persuade them to leave. Their strength was formidable; even if a Warden tried to kill them, it would probably take a good long while.
That would be more than enough time for him to loot all the chests in the Ancient City.
"Fine, if you don't want to leave, then suit yourselves."
Hearing that Fu Zhu was no longer trying to make them leave, Herta immediately hopped off her staff. The crisp click-clack of her high heels on the floor immediately triggered another shriek in the surroundings.
At the same time, the group heard the sound of some creature burrowing out of the ground. In that same instant, everyone's world went dark. Their vision was almost completely stolen, with their field of view shrinking to less than a meter.
This bizarre turn of events startled them all.
"Fu Zhu, where are you?" Silver Wolf asked, looking around nervously. She reached out a hand, fumbling in the direction she remembered Fu Zhu being.
The next second, her hand touched a hard object. Squinting, she looked up and saw a creature, entirely dark cyan in color, with horns atop its head and a face devoid of features, looking down at her.
"Huh?"