After being reminded by the gatekeeper, Ai Lan finally had time to take a closer look at the environment of Phoenix Mountain.
Bird Paradise, as you can tell from the name, the environment here must be extremely suitable for birds to live.
Ai Lan looked around, and patches of forests, wetlands, grasslands, and hills came into view one by one.
Following the veins of the mountains, a sacred sycamore tree towering into the clouds, with its peak as far as the eye can see, stands in the center of Phoenix Mountain.
The crimson fire cloud was in the shape of a vortex, slowly rotating at the top of the sacred tree.
Looking from a distance, you can vaguely see a few phoenix birds flying around in the fire clouds.
"so far."
Ai Lan calculated the distance between the sycamore sacred tree and him, and thought it would take at least several months to walk there.
"Legion Commander, something seems to have changed in my body."
At this moment, Gray Crow suddenly interrupted Ai Lan's thinking.
"what happened?"
Gray Crow is a Crow. According to the main classification of the main world, he should be a humanoid creature.
But the rules of Phoenix Mountain are different from those of the main world. Here, he is a bird creature.
"I feel like my bones are itching."
Gray Crow scratched his head, unable to explain what changes had happened to him.
"Young crow man, it seems that the crow blood in your body is very strong." The old man guarding the gate noticed the changes in the gray crow and suddenly said.
"As a crow, you have three branches to choose from."
"I can tell you where to go, but."
The gatekeeper stretched out his hand and rubbed his thumb and index finger back and forth a few times.
Ai Lan understood this action immediately.
"This is three thousand gold coins, please accept it."
"Um."
As soon as he saw the money, the gatekeeper's original expression immediately became kind.
"The location you entered is not particularly good."
"Entering from the west, the Crow Route has more options."
"But this teleportation point also has an advantage."
When the gatekeeper said this, he suddenly paused.
"What's the benefit?"
Ai Lan took out a thousand gold coins and stuffed them directly into his hand.
"There are no too ferocious birds of prey near this teleportation point."
"You won't encounter too many dangers if you run around nearby."
Seeing Ai Lan being so polite, the gatekeeper started talking more.
"Remember, don't run too far. You must come back in three days."
"Why?"
"In three days, this door will randomly appear in another part of Phoenix Mountain."
"If you don't come back, we will be in big trouble."
If Ai Lan cannot go back through this door, they can also use other methods to leave Phoenix Mountain.
But here's the problem.
If they leave Phoenix Mountain by other methods, they may appear anywhere in the main world.
It is even possible to be thrown directly into the endless void and never find the way back.
Ai Lan carefully considered the gatekeeper's warning for a while, and slowly figured out a little bit about it.
"I understand, thank you very much."
This warning alone makes the money well spent.
"Then please tell me the route of the crow."
"The first one is the Shadow Crow Road. If you go west, you will see a shadow forest."
"With the blood of the Crow people, as long as you can pass some tests, you can get the gift of the Shadow Crow."
Ai Lan and Renn may not have much use for the gifts here, but if they are given to Gray Crow, they will definitely allow him to achieve great growth.
In addition, the shadow beast that has been hiding in Ai Lan's shadow may also gain a lot of benefits from Shadow Crow's route.
"What about the second one?"
"The second one is three hours' walk from the east. After seeing a river, go all the way down and enter a wetland."
"Every once in a while in the wetland, a large number of birds will pass by. If you are lucky, you may encounter a lot of crows."
This is completely a matter of luck. What you encounter and what you get depends entirely on your appearance.
Ai Lan's luck has always been mediocre, and this road was passed by him.
"Go straight south on the third one. There is an underground passage there."
"There is a stone statue at the entrance of the passage. Buy a map with it and enter the underground world to find the magic-eyed crow."
"Magic-Eyed Crow??"
"What kind of rare species is this?"
I’ve never heard of a military unit, but the name sounds like it’s awesome.
"This is really a rare breed."
"The magic-eyed crow is a special creature created by the union of a beholder and a crow. Their eyes can shoot out all kinds of strange magic rays."
"But the habits of creatures like beholders are extremely weird, and the evil-eyed crows infected with the blood of beholders also have very weird personalities."
"If you want to choose this path, you'd better take your time."
"Extremely weird?"
Ai Lan's understanding of beholders is limited to their huge eyeballs, ferocious tentacles and terrifying magic rays.
"Can you give me more details?"
"It seems that you have become interested in this route."
"A little." Ai Lan took another thousand gold coins and stuffed them into the gatekeeper's hand.
"Not enough."
"Um?"
"If you want to know the secret between the beholder and the evil-eyed crow, one thousand gold coins is not enough."
"Oh, how many do you need?"
Money is a small problem, Ai Lan has never been a stingy person.
"No, no, no, what I need is not money."
"If you want to go to the underground world to find the magic-eyed crow, I would like to ask you to help me catch one."
"If you don't want to go, then you don't need to know this knowledge, do you?"
"Ding, the gatekeeper has issued a mission to you: capture crows."
Ai Lan didn't expect that he would suddenly receive a strange mission here.
Also, why does this gatekeeper seem a little coy when talking about the magic-eyed crow?
It's really strange.
"I accepted this mission. If you can give me a little help, I will help you catch a magic-eyed crow."
Anyway, there are three days, which is enough for Ai Lan to visit many places.
And he felt that after taking over the task, this greedy gatekeeper might be able to give him some other help.
"Of course, I will give you a little help."
Next, the gatekeeper gave Ai Lan a detailed introduction to the origins and habits of the beholder race.
The ancestor of the beholder was a primitive existence comparable to a god.
He had no name, and His descendants did not think He needed one.
The Great Mistress is Her only external title in the multiverse.
Note: There is no evidence to prove that the Great Mistress is female.
The beholder's appearance and body structure are very simple, just a large floating eyeball with ten small tentacles.
Almost every beholder feels that he is the one with the most perfect image among all the descendants of the Great Mistress.
Other similar products with similar appearance are all fake and inferior imitations.
So almost every beholder is an extremely narcissistic narcissist.
Small differences in the shape or skin texture of two beholders' eye stalks can be enough to make the other beholder believe that the other is a defective individual and must be eliminated.
Therefore, most beholders live alone.
Note: The beholders here refer to urban residents who are above the elite level or possess intelligence.
So the question is, how do races with such weird personalities reproduce?
They even breed with other races and give birth to many strange creatures.
The gatekeeper's next words cleared up this doubt for Ai Lan.
The beholder possesses a magical power known as the ability to make nightmares come true.
When beholders have nightmares, a mysterious force causes their surrounding environment to distort reality as the dream changes.
When a beholder dreams about another beholder or another creature, their dreams begin to distort reality.
Note: The objects of the beholder’s nightmares are male and female, and can even be dead objects.
Then, something weird and magical happened.
This beholder will intersect with this distorted reality in the nightmare, giving birth to a brand new beholder or a new species.
For example, a beholder suddenly had a nightmare. It dreamed of a large flock of crows.
So, when it woke up, the Magic Eye Crow was born.
This kind of power that makes nightmares come true sometimes also works on the beholder himself.
As a beholder ages, he becomes more and more worried about the moment when he will end his life.
This beholder's nightmare will develop in a strange direction.
If it dreamed about continuing to live after death.
Then when this beholder wakes up from its dream, a dead-eye tyrant is born.
"Sure enough, it is a very magical race, so does the magic-eyed crow also possess the characteristics of the beholder?"
"Yes, speaking of it, we shouldn't call them magic-eyed crows."
"The Crow's Demonic Eye is a more accurate name for this creature."
The magic eye in the form of a crow is very interesting just thinking about it.
"So what does this guy want to do specifically to ask me for a magic-eyed crow?"
Ai Lan glanced at the gatekeeper with the head of a harpy, and for some reason, a strange scene suddenly occurred to him.
This guy doesn't have such a heavy appetite.
"I understand, I will leave for the underground world immediately."
"good!"
When the gatekeeper saw Ai Lan leaving immediately, he was overjoyed.
"This is a map of the neighborhood. Here are three amulets. Take them."
"By the way, there's also this."
The gatekeeper brought another rope to Ai Lan.
Powerful restraint rope [special treasure]: can forcibly capture creatures that have lost the ability to resist.
Anti-death amulet [Special treasure]: Resist instant death magic (3/3).
As soon as he saw this amulet, Ai Lan's face became a little uncertain.
What the hell is instant death magic? Is the magic-eyed crow so dangerous?
"After you enter the underground world, you must not run around."
"Especially you." The gatekeeper looked at Ai Lan's appearance and said, "You'd better wear a robe to cover yourself."
"I'm afraid you'll be robbed by those harpies."
"That's fine."
If there is a harpy, it is indeed inappropriate for Ai Lan to show up. Being too charming is also a worry.
When we were in Wasteland Town, if it weren't for the temptation of the heart of the city, those harpies wouldn't be so easy to talk to.
"Due to its own habits, the magic-eyed crow lives alone most of the time."
"There should be no problem with your strength. I'm waiting for your good news."
"Okay, leave it to us."
"By the way, give us some acceleration magic, or you can just teleport us there."
This is all done, and Ai Lan is too lazy to run away.
It only requires a few auxiliary magic spells, but it's not too much.
"Um...."
The gatekeeper pondered for a while, then waved his hand and opened a dimensional door.
"go quickly."
"let's go."
Ai Lan waved her hand and stepped directly into the portal.
There is no need to check this portal. If the gatekeeper wants to harm them, just concealing some information is enough to kill them. There is no need for this method.
There was a familiar spin, and Ai Lan found herself in front of a huge dark cave.
The gatekeeper seems to have said that he needs to find a stone statue to buy a map.
He took a look at the map the gatekeeper gave him and found that there was no underground world on it.
"So, where is the stone statue?"
"Brother, look over there." Renn suddenly pointed to a mural on the right, which had a stone statue carved on it.
"You still have sharp eyes."
"Hello, let's buy a map."
"One thousand gold coins."
Faced with Ai Lan's inquiry, the stone sculpture suddenly quoted the price.
Ai Lan was not surprised and handed over the money directly and received a map of the underground world.
"What a huge underground world."
The passages marked on this map extend in all directions and seem to cover the entire Phoenix Mountain.
Exploring all of this place may be more difficult than exploring all of Phoenix Mountain.
Fortunately, Ai Lan's target was only the nearby magic-eyed crow.
Since the gatekeeper pointed out this path and they only had three days, they wouldn't have to go far to see the Magic Eye Crow's nest nearby.
"let's go."
Ai Lan took out three sets of robes and asked everyone to put them on before entering the underground passage directly.
The underground world was different from the underground passages he had been to before.
Huge, broad, and extending in all directions.
Forget about the tree people, there is no problem in releasing the tree people elders.
The most unfriendly thing here is that the light is too dark.
The underground world is the home of the dark system, so don’t underestimate a mere lighting problem.
In a large army battle in the underground world, if there is no light, you will be killed.
The dark system can stand out from countless races and become one of the nine major systems.
The unique environment of the underground world plays a decisive role in it.
Of course, for this reason, the Dark Department is also the camp with the lowest sense of existence among the nine major departments.
For no particularly important reason, dark-type races will almost never emerge from the ground in their lifetime.
And the races on the ground usually don't have time to wander underground.
Follow the route recorded on the map and walk all the way down from this underground passage.
They will soon encounter three forks in the road.
Two of them are dead ends, and the end of one is marked with a skull, indicating great danger.
The only way out leads to a huge underground space.
This space looks very large just from the map. If you search on it, you can even see the signs of many cities.
But the location where they are is just a very small corner on the map.
"That skeleton, it's better not to take risks."
The level of the Phoenix Mountain area is very high, and people will die if they mess around.
