Rowan did not reply to the child, he simply touched his shoulder and shifted the boy back to the surface a few hundred miles away, the target he had been pursuing for the past few months had finally stopped moving and he could solve this intriguing mystery, plus the dangers in this place was about to erupt, and the child would be caught in the crossfire if he was anywhere near this place.

Descending deeper into the earth, Rowan took the form of the child, and not long after he began to hear the sound of industrial activities—the sound of metal against unyielding stone. All this while he had been walking down crudely carved staircases hewn into the extremely hard rocks, and the passageway had been tight making it the perfect reason why the slight body of the child was necessary to enter into this place.

The tight passageway soon opened up into a series of rather expansive caverns where hundreds of miners with large pickaxes swinging away at the rocks, and despite their gaunt frames that showed clear signs of the harsh living conditions they were being subjected to, each time they swung their pickaxes, it released a loud clap and a large explosion of dust, this showed the great strength inside the bodies of every blood Bound, yet they could hardly cut through a few inches of rock.

They had no supervisors for they all worked to survive under the heels of the Ascendant. Tied around their waist were small satchels where any piece of essence-rich ore was found would be deposited until the end of their week-long shifts.

It was a tough job, and about twenty percent of every miner that entered the earth never returned, this number was worse for the vanguards who pushed deeper into the ground to block the unrelenting waves of Calamity erupting from the earth so the miners could have a relative safety window for them to work.

The arrival of the child caused a slight stir among their number as they wearily dropped their tools and trudged over to the smiling boy who began distributing the moldy bread to the miners, his endless cheer and bright personality made these gruff men and women smile even if they did not want to. Of the hundreds of miners here, they could only receive a single loaf, but with their powerful bodies, it was enough to sustain them.

Across the many caverns, a similar scene was taking place, and the young boy watched all of these with a slight smile on the side of his lips. It had been a long time since Rowan felt such pleasure from such a minimal task.

“Young Po… You should head back to the surface, the grunts holding back the tide of calamities below would soon be returning for a shift change, and you know you don’t want to be here when that happens, they have taken too long already.”

A woman with a kind smile rubbed the head of the child with fondness, the boy started before he smiled at her and unexpectedly collapsed into dust making the woman scream in fright. ?

Rowan appeared another thirteen miles deep into the earth before a group of Blood Bounds battling abominations. He had left the miners behind because the danger he had been expecting had unexpectedly gained momentum and he had not quickly caught it because of the barrier blocking his perception underground.

The sounds and sight of a battle were a familiar sight to him and what was happening ahead was analyzed and a conclusion gained in an instant, the vanguards here were all about to die.

All of the Blood Bounds were at least at the Legend Rank and there were at least a thousand of them in battle with multiple Deific Ranks Explorer among them, they were a cut above the Explorers on every other continent in the realm but despite all that, they were in danger for their enemies were endless and more powerful than any other Calamities in the realm.

These Calamities took the shape of gigantic multi-headed snakes, with the more powerful Calamity Beasts among their number having many more heads, some of them had up to eleven heads and were Deific Ranked Calamities.

These beasts possessed long fangs that were extremely poisonous, with toughened scales and enhanced strength, in addition, their bodies generated a great amount of heat that could melt metal after a short while.

The Blood Bounds, despite their advanced rankings, had poor equipment, their armor, if any at all, was decrepit, it was a good thing that their scales were natural armor, and their weapons, although kept in good condition, were not suited for the degree of battle they were constantly undergoing.

Their moves were fast and precise, favoring strength over elaborate techniques like a normal Ascendants would, and when their weapons were shattered just like many of them were now facing, they resorted to using their fingers as claws, tearing off the heads of the serpents in a brutal fashion while releasing haunting battle cries.

Rowan noticed that despite their high ranking, their techniques were so poor that none of them had Natal Treasures. It was a testament to how many Calamities they had killed throughout their lives that pushed them to such a high ranking. The Ascendants were not going to be giving the Blood Bound any opportunity to get strong when they could be easily replaced in a few years.

The Calamities were erupting from flaming vents beneath the earth like maggots out of a corpse in seemingly endless numbers, their bright silver eyes flashing with a coldness that was different from the normal Calamity Beasts, and they also fought in silence, using their entire body that was nothing but a long string of muscles to batter the lines of the Blood Bound.

These beasts possessed a cunning not known among Calamity Beasts and they did not seem to feed on their dead, also they were pack hunters, choosing to sacrifice themselves in order to draw out any unlucky Blood Bound deeper into their ranks so they could be slaughtered.

If these beasts were to be found in other continents then the mortal population there would be quickly driven to extinction, and despite all the disadvantages suffered by the Blood Bounds, they alone kept the mortal population of this realm safe, but if the present situation did not change, that might not be the case for long.

Perhaps it was the presence of the resistance group deep in the mines that agitated these Calamities for the defenders here were about to be overrun. The fact that he could not tell what was happening deep in the earth and the present state of these Calamities must be connected.

The Blood Bounds had been fighting for hours, and during normal times the tides of Calamities would be diminished after a few waves, giving the defenders time to retreat and refresh themselves, although this would create a situation where a few hundred Calamities would go ahead towards the surface, but they could be easily cleared away with not much problems. Individually none of these beasts were a match for a Blood Bound, their strength lying in their number and pack mentality.