At that moment, strange noises came from the pool. He saw Delia and Roman who were approaching the pool bounced backward again and again.
Chen Rui asked, “What happened, Delia?”
Delia’s voice sounded very eager, “The secret treasure is right next to the silver box in the pool. However, there seems to be an enchantment here; I cannot pass!”
Silver box! Chen Rui’s heart was moved, and he quickly walked toward the pool.
“Slow down!” The dark smoke from Guradam’s body blocked Chen Rui, “You can take anything here, but that not that silver box!
In the silver box was the mysterious treasure that Paglio acquired after killing this rival, the blue dragon, Ranieri. For this box, he also betrayed his temporary ally, the fairy dragon, Laura. Ultimately, it attracted the eyeing of a powerhouse which caused Paglui’s strength to be sealed.
The silver box is an important token in exchange for Laura to crack the ancient runes. It’s also one of the two treasures that must be obtained this time. However, for some reason, Guradam is so nervous about the silver box. Could it be that he found out the secret in it?
“We had an agreement in advance! I already stated that there are three things I must have. Besides, you didn’t say anything about the silver box!” Chen Rui took a step forward, “Did you forget the deadly oath you made with your name? Or perhaps our agreement is ineffective now in the situation where you first broke the promise?”
Guradam tried to suppress his anger and his eyes glowed red. He retreated to the side and waved his hand. Delia suddenly felt that the blocking power disappeared, then she quickly went into the pool to pick up a strange item. It was a round object, which looked like a convex mirror as a whole. It was glittering. There was a strange symbol in the middle that looked like a deep-set eye.
Delia looked extremely excited. She was trembling while she held the “convex mirror” tightly. She couldn’t speak at once. It was Roman who held her by her shoulders and walked her out of the pool while comforting her.
When Chen Rui approached the pool and he saw that Delia family’s secret treasure was sunk at the bottom of the pool with a few other items. His sight fell onto one of the things. It was the flat silver box. He immediately walked to the pool.
By the way, this pool is actually a fountain of vitality, which is one of the two items to cure Skye’s curse. It seems that I must think of a way.
When Chen Rui was about to go down, Guradam’s voice came from behind, “Glorfin! Don’t regret it!”
“In Glorfin’s dictionary, there’s no regret!” Chen Rui replied very blackheartedly. Now, Glorfin has nothing, not to mention “dictionary”, so he certainly has no regret.
Chen Rui walked into the fountain of vitality step by step, bent down and touched the silver box. Originally, he thought the box was meta,l but when he held it in his hands, he found that the material wasn’t metal or wood. It had a dark silver luster that faintly revealed countless mysterious patterns. The entire box was covered in mystery.
I remember Paglio said that there should be a small box in this box. Although there’s a temporary peace agreement with the corpse necromancer now, our next encounter will definitely be rivals. Once I take the wrong one, will the corpse necromancer still kindly exchange?
In any case, it’s necessary to check it.
This box only has a simple lock with no special seal.
The corpse necromancer had been observing Chen Rui’s expression and he suddenly shouted, “Don’t open the box!”
Chen Rui heard the horror in the voice of the corpse necromancer. He was moved and unlocked it immediately. The moment it was opened by a bit, an indescribable breath of power emanated from the box.
Suddenly, Chen Rui felt that his lifeforce was rapidly reducing. At the same time, an “illusion” followed. It was as if he was in a vast universe while everything around him was dying and dissipating.
Life, planet, solar system, no matter if it had existed for a few or trillions of years, no matter how immortal it seemed, it still couldn’t escape from destruction. It was just like the creation of sun from the nebula in the Super System. After the heyday of the main sequence [1], it would be destroyed and returned into a nebula.
However, this kind of destruction wasn’t simply death. It was like the explosion of a supernova. It was destruction, but it was also the beginning of a new life. The cycle of survival and extinction was the universe’s unchanging principle.
Feeling the ambiguous mystery and associating with the solar system in the Super System, Chen Rui seemed to have grasped something, but it also seemed like he didn’t grasp it. Under that influence, the rotation and revolution of the solar system in the Super System seemed to become more natural and smooth while the glory of the planets had become more complex and gentle.
It was like time flew past trillions of years in the universe. These perceptions were only transient. Then, Chen Rui’s consciousness returned to Paglio’s treasure hall.
He saw that the entire hall started to tremble as if it was going to collapse. Countless dust fell from the top and the water of the fountain of vitality was also rolling. Roman and Delia fell to the ground together with a very uncomfortable expression on their faces. Guradam had already hidden somewhere with his black smoke converged.
“Master! I feel like my life is reducing! It’s too terrifying!” Dodo jumped out of Roman’s backpack and his terrified voice sounded, but he didn’t look as uncomfortable as Delia and Roman.
“It’s not just my lifeforce.” Roman shouted, “My strength is completely suppressed. Close the box!”
Chen Rui also felt that the losing of lifeforce wasn’t an illusion, but his strength wasn’t lost. He had seen what was in the box. Certainly, as Paglio said, there was a smaller box inside. However, merely a hint of breath leaked from the small box had caused such strong fluctuations.
Regardless of the description of Paglio or the strange power, this must be the silver box!
Chen Rui recalled the corpse necromancer’s reaction just now and understood that he fell into the trap. He thought quickly, then he pretended to look uncomfortable and lost his strength. He fell into the fountain of vitality while the box in his hand was closed and fell into the water.
After the box entered the fountain of vitality, the tremor stopped gradually. Watching Chen Rui and the others falling down exhaustedly, Guradam’s black smoke made a compulsive laughter.
“Foolish guy, you actually opened the silver box!” The corpse necromancer laughed wildly for a while. Seeing the shivering Dodo, he nodded, “Let me tell you. This silver box can not only devour life force, but it also has a strong suppression on the royal families! Within 2 hours, your strength and ability to move will be greatly weakened. However, unfortunately, I’ve turned into an undead, so its effect on me isn’t huge.”
Chen Rui looked strenuous and shouted furiously, “So you who deliberately baited me to open it? Did you forget your oath?”
“As a corpse necromancer who can even abandon life and body, why would I care about my last or first name?!” The corpse necromancer sneered, “As compensation for breaking the oath, I’ll tell you something before you die.”
More than 2000 years ago, Guradam discovered this cave with a fountain of vitality, killed the original owner and used it as his secret training place. Soon after, a fiercer master came. It was a very powerful dragon. In front of him, Guradam, who had always been proud, had no chance to retaliate and was easily killed. Fortunately, Guradam was proficient in dark magic and necromancy. At the critical moment, he used a kind of secret art of soul transfer to secretly hide his soul in the fountain of vitality, then he could be resurrected. This secret method would cost a certain lifespan as a price. Besides, it had a considerable time limit. If it took too long, his soul would disappear even if the fountain of vitality had a special effect.
Fortunately, the scary dragon seemed to be in a hurry and didn’t think of completely destroying his body. Instead, the dragon just simply kicked him to a corner. After leaving the mouth-watering treasure, he left hurriedly (the main traps were set on the upper level and the forest).
At that time, only then Guradam who faked dead dared to come out and relied on his secret art to resurrect luckily. Seeing the huge amount of treasure piled like a mountain, he was extremely excited. However, this place had been sealed by the special power of the dragon, so he couldn’t find the exit at once.
Guradam was helpless and became frustrated again. The fountain of vitality could replenish energy and magic, but it couldn’t be eaten as a meal. Even if he was proficient in magic, he couldn’t sustain it. Guradam set his eyes on a silver box placed by the dragon in the fountain of vitality. From the caution of the dragon just now, it should be an important treasure. Perhaps, he could find a way to escape.
The moment Guradam opened the silver box, the box sent out a strange and terrifying power, which not only suppressing him from being able to move, but also almost draining all his lifeforce.
Guradam’s initial lifespan was already low. Along with the use of secret art, he almost died on the spot. He was scared out of his wits. He only recovered half a day later after closing the silver box.
In desperation, Guradam had no choice but to take the risk and chose the path of as a corpse necromancer. After a great danger, he finally successfully transformed his body into an undead monster. After becoming a corpse necromancer, Guradam was temporarily free from food and lifespan concerns, so he began to think about how to leave the place.
For 2000 years, he had been continuously training and researching while trying various methods, and even taking great risks by experimenting with the silver box. The silver box not only could devour life, but sometimes it also would emit terrifying destructive power. Guradam’s body which was converted into undead was destroyed by that terrifying power, leaving only pure spiritual body. The small box inside was even scarier. Guradam was still unsure what was inside until now.
Finally, by chance, Guradam successfully cast a part of his spirit onto the ground in the form of projection. The projection and his actual body were in a complementary relationship, so it couldn’t be too far away from his actual body. Unfortunately, the projection couldn’t open the exit from the outside. Therefore, he had another idea, which was projection conversion.
This projection only needed to absorb enough living souls to complete the conversion into his actual body. At that time, the body at the underground treasure hall would become a projection that could be discarded.
After using countless dead corpses as sacrifice, Guradam also gradually figured out some principles in the dragon’s traps. After the projection accumulated enough power, he laid a magic territory to lure treasure hunters.
The strangeness of the plants along the way that Chen Rui saw when he arrived was exactly due to the influence of territory. The gold crystal that the corpse puppet, Hart used to lure Chen Rui’s team came from the previous treasure hunter.
The power of Paglio’s Dragon Inscription wasn’t a small matter. Every 3 years, the pseudo-territory mixed with a trace of silver box’s power that was accumulated by Guradam could weaken the effectiveness of inscription to a certain extent.
In that way, Guradam continued to suppress the dragon inscription and use corpse puppet to lure treasure hunters in. Then, he absorbed the soul of the deceased to enhance the projection. Due to the limited control distance of the corpse puppet and remote location of Silent Night Wetland, so far, he hadn’t accumulated enough soul to convert into his projection. As for when he said he only needed 6 souls in the hall, it was clearly a bluff. The purpose was to use this method to let everyone kill each other while he could easily benefit from it.
Chen Rui used the artifact to swallow the Guradam’s territory power that he accumulated for 3 years and he didn’t fall for the trap of internal fight. Instead, he destroyed Gurdam’s projection. Guradam’s 2,000 years of hard work was in vain and wasted, so the hatred in his heart was inexhaustible.
However, the development was always unexpected. This guy actually broke the seal of the dragon and opened the door to the treasure! It was also equivalent to opening the life path that Guradam had been trying to obtain with a lot of effort! He not only could escape from this damn place that he was trapped for 2000 years, but he could also take away those shocking treasures!
Unexpectedly, this damn enemy, “Glorfin” actually had the power of territory. He almost devoured his essence of the soul. Guradam was forced to make a temporary compromise on the surface, but in his heart, he was scheming on how to kill all these people to hog the treasure. Not only the treasures but also that silver box. The breath of destruction from the silver box was mysterious and terrifying, and it could restrain the royal family. As long as he could understand the mystery, all the royal families in the Demon Realm would subdue under his feet.
In this way, “Glorfin” stepped into the trap under his playing hard to get guidance. When Glorfin opened the silver box, the key to victory was in the hands of Guradam again!
After listening to Guradam’s words, Chen Rui clenched his teeth and said, “Don’t be too proud of yourself! I have the power of territory, so your spiritual body’s devouring method can’t hurt me!”
Guradam laughed wildly, “Don’t forget, the fountain of vitality is under your feet. With the power of the fountain water, my magic power and spirit can recover quickly. 2 hours is enough for me to recover my magic. As long as I can use magic, it’s a piece of cake to kill weaklings like you!” Spirit was equivalent to a bullet; while magic power was equivalent to a gun. Without a gun, bullets could only be used to smash people, which was Guradam’s move to use his spirit body to devour flesh. Once he recovered his magic power, there would be countless ways to put these three people to death.
Guradam’s proud laughter stopped abruptly as the fountain of vitality began to decrease rapidly at a rate visible to the naked eye.
“Fountain of vitality…” Guradam screamed. For 2000 years, the fountain of vitality had never dried up. His sight fell onto the faint mist, which came from Chen Rui’s hands.
After a second of distraction, the fountain of vitality had disappeared without a trace. The recovery of his magic suddenly slowed down.
Then, in Guradam’s unbelievable eyes, Chen Rui, who had gathered the mist, stood up with his strength reinvigorated. He didn’t seem like unable like before. Delia and Roman were also stunned. Only Dodo cheered and jumped up onto Chen Rui’s shoulder.
“This story tells us that the one who rides the white horse isn’t necessarily the prince, but it might be Tang Sanzang [2].” Chen Rui smiled slightly, “Perhaps I should say that the masked one isn’t necessarily a Beelzebub Royal Family. Your trick has failed, Guradam.”