A massive, abnormally large hand covered in dull metal gauntlets slammed onto the edge of the Eternal Silence King's Sarcophagus with a loud thud.
Its fingers tightened, and the hard Deep-sea Obsidian material of the coffin's rim actually developed fine cracks under the pressure.
Then, Grand Duke Tisolus’s massive frame slowly sat up.
Like a giant who had just awakened, his presence squeezed the surroundings, causing even the air to let out an overburdened whine.
He flexed his right arm joint, producing a grinding sound of long-unused friction.
His pitch-black, vortex-like eyes swept across the empty tomb, finally landing on Bai Xuan, who was barely standing, supported by his iron rod.
The Grand Duke raised his right hand, a faint lingering aura of Tessa’s life force seemingly remaining on his fingertips.
He brought it close to where a nose would be, then waved it away in disgust.
“Low-quality fuel,” a deep, raspy voice echoed directly through the space.
“Impurities full of fear and weakness, fit only to light the initial spark.”
He turned fully, his massive body casting a shadow that nearly enveloped Bai Xuan.
Those inhuman eyes appraised the blood-stained, trembling Bai Xuan with interest.
“Your light, though faint, is much more interesting than that one.”
The Grand Duke spoke, his voice carrying the calm of someone evaluating an object. “Not an ordinary cleric... an interesting soul, a resilient vessel.”
“Fragile life forms will eventually return to dust; why struggle in vain? Offer your loyalty, accept the eternal gift, and you shall obtain a form and power that transcends the mundane.”
“This is an honor bestowed upon you, human.”
Bai Xuan breathed heavily, burning pain radiating from his chest and back, but his mind was racing.
Although the Grand Duke had broken free and sat up with a terrifying aura, he had never once left the stone coffin.
The death energy surrounding him swirled like a storm, yet it was unstable, fluctuating in intensity.
It seemed more like he was struggling to regroup and adapt to this body that had just been unsealed.
Most importantly, the Duke could clearly perceive the strong suppression Bai Xuan’s holy attribute held over him.
Yet he didn't immediately use overwhelming force to eliminate this obvious threat, instead choosing to speak and recruit...
He’s stalling for time!
Or, his current state is far from as overwhelming as it appears.
He might still be recovering, or he’s distracted by something else!
This realization ignited a faint spark of hope in Bai Xuan’s cold heart.
He lowered the iron rod in his hand, letting the bent tip touch the ground.
His body seemed to slouch slightly from injury and despair as he looked up, meeting the Grand Duke’s light-swallowing black eyes.
His voice was raspy and dry: “...I... don't want to die.”
These words carried the wavering and fear of someone on the verge of submission.
The corner of the Grand Duke’s mouth seemed to twitch upward ever so slightly.
It wasn't a smile, but a curve that suggested everything was under control.
“A wise choice,” he said deeply.
Meanwhile, at the stump of his left arm hidden in the coffin's shadows and around his massive torso, death energy imperceptible to the naked eye was quietly constructing the threads of a complex spell.
It was a spell to track the traces of the demi-human who had left.
He didn't know what item that demi-human had used to erase her traces at the rule level.
Fortunately, he had broken the seal just before the traces were completely gone.
However, the tracking spell required extreme precision to follow traces erased at the rule level.
It was now at the final stage and must not be interrupted; if broken, the trail would be lost forever.
“Come forward, offer your loyalty, and I shall grant you my protection,” the Grand Duke summoned Bai Xuan.
Bai Xuan slowly shuffled his feet forward, each step appearing difficult, as if he were struggling under heavy injury.
His left hand quietly hung by his side, his fingers tightening slightly.
The 【Sealing Scroll】 was already firmly held in his sweat-dampened palm.
With his mind highly focused, all his senses were locked onto the Grand Duke, searching for any tiny opening.
As Bai Xuan approached, the Grand Duke felt the aura he detested so much become even clearer.
It was like getting close to a small flame—not fatal, but instinctively making him feel uncomfortable and threatened.
An inkling of impatience rose within him as the tracking spell neared completion.
The moment Bai Xuan stepped within a certain critical distance, the black light in the Grand Duke’s eyes suddenly intensified!
The death magic he had been secretly weaving against Bai Xuan reached its final structure!
Dozens of pitch-black 【Soul-Draining Arrows】 instantly erupted from the void in front of him.
These arrows were not physical objects; they were direct thefts of life and soul.
They were enough to instantly drain all the vitality from an ordinary Practitioner Rank adventurer.
To ensure total success against this peculiar human who was only at the Awakened Rank, he had used a portion of the power that should have been reserved for maintaining the tracking spell.
The cost of this strike was far beyond what should have been necessary for such an ant.
Bai Xuan had kept his nerves taut and his perception highly focused.
Almost at the same instant the black light in the Grand Duke’s eyes changed, he reacted.
I knew it! This old zombie never intended to let me live.
He mobilized all his strength, pouring it without reservation into the bent iron rod.
Facing the rain of deathly arrows, he took half a step forward, twisted his waist, and swung his arm.
He unleashed the strongest 【Redemption Strike】 he had ever performed!
Vwoom—!
Brilliant golden light erupted from the rod, violently colliding with the oncoming rain of black arrows.
Holy light and death energy annihilated each other, producing an unpleasant sizzling sound.
Most of the 【Soul-Draining Arrows】 were deflected and scattered by the neutralizing light.
However, three or four black arrows still pierced through the thinning golden glow.
They slammed into Bai Xuan’s left shoulder, right abdomen, and thigh.
There were no physical wounds, but a bone-chilling cold and a soul-piercing sense of weakness and pain instantly swept through him.
He felt his vitality and something even more fundamental being frantically torn away.
His vision went dark instantly, and his ears were filled with nothing but the frantic drumming of his heart and the rushing sound of blood.
He spat out a large mouthful of blood, his body flying backward uncontrollably before crashing heavily onto the cold floor.
The iron rod in his right hand fell with a clang and rolled away.
The tightly held 【Sealing Scroll】 also slipped from his limp fingers, landing on the stone slab not far from his side.
Agony drowned his consciousness as the world spun and darkened.
Bai Xuan lay there half-propped up, blood foam constantly bubbling from the corner of his mouth.
His vision was blurred as he looked at the towering and terrifying figure on the stone coffin in the distance.
Bai Xuan used his last bit of mana to activate 【Holy Light Catalyst】 for slow recovery.
Atop the stone coffin, Grand Duke Tisolus let out a muffled grunt of surprise and obvious displeasure.
He hadn't expected that his strike, sufficient to insta-kill an ordinary Practitioner Rank, would only leave this Awakened Rank human heavily injured and dying rather than dead on the spot.
That annoying holy attribute had negated too much power, and the resilience of this human vessel had exceeded his estimates.
This unexpected result made his strength—already taxed by maintaining the tracking spell and the recent strike—even more strained.
His pitch-black gaze swept over the weakly breathing Bai Xuan lying on the ground.
He then glanced at the tracking spell that was about to be completed and locked onto a certain direction; a flicker of irritation crossed his mind.
This troublesome human apparently needed one more strike to be completely silenced.
He slowly raised his remaining right arm, and death energy began to gather once more.
This time, he would ensure the other party had no chance of survival.
Bai Xuan’s mind reached into his Space Ring, anxiously searching for any item that could turn the tide.
Just as Bai Xuan opened the passage to his Space Ring...
A cold aura, so chilling it felt as if it could freeze the soul, leaked out from the ring’s storage space.
【Evil God Inverse Scale: An inverse scale that fell off when Claudia Eternal Silence forcibly broke free from the “God-Binding Shackles” and over-extracted her source power. Its essence is lost, leaving only an extremely hard material structure. Retains a trace amount of Eternal Silence aura.】
Grand Duke Tisolus, who was preparing to deliver the final blow, froze entirely.
The black vortices in his eye sockets stopped spinning instantly.
Then...
The vortices began to tremble and contract violently, revealing a shock that looked as if his deepest nightmare had been touched.
His towering body, maintained by pure death energy, actually recoiled.
He slammed heavily against the inner wall of the Eternal Silence King's Sarcophagus with a loud crash.
The massive hand gripping the coffin's edge subconsciously let go.
An uncontrollable, terrified raspy voice escaped him: “This... is? This... this is impossible... it’s the one that... swallowed the Empire...”
The mere leak of a tiny, imperceptible remnant of that aura made him think of the root cause of the Glay Empire’s destruction.
The tremor deeply rooted in his soul instantly overwhelmed him.
Although heavily injured, Bai Xuan’s instinctive sharp perception of his environment allowed him to catch the Grand Duke’s change.
He noticed the Duke’s chaotic mana and his stiff, retreating movements.
A risky thought—perhaps his only chance at survival—appeared in his mind.
He communicated with the Space Ring.
He grasped the palm-sized, dark-purple scale in his hand.
Then, he raised his trembling arm and displayed the scale.
The moment the scale appeared, the death mana around the Grand Duke fluctuated violently again, filled with repulsion.
He stared intently at the scale, the fear in his eyes not fully receded and now mixed with a heavy dose of uncertainty.
“What... is that?!”
The Grand Duke’s voice had lost its previous deep majesty.
His voice carried a slight, barely perceptible tremor. “Where did you get that thing?!”
It was the source of that despairing aura, but the scale itself...
It didn't seem to originate from that monster’s main body?
Bai Xuan coughed up some blood foam, and seeing the Grand Duke’s intense reaction, his risky plan instantly became clear.
Enduring his injuries, he made his voice sound as if he had a powerful backing: “A token... bestowed by my Master. He said... I could take it out in times of crisis.”
The Grand Duke’s mind fell into a brief state of confusion.
The information Bai Xuan gave was too vague. Who was this “Master”?
The Grand Duke quickly forced himself to calm down.
He was a Hero Rank Undead Archon.
He had experienced the catastrophe of the Empire’s fall; how could he be scared by a mere scale?
Suppressing his fear for the moment, he began to recalculate.
Regardless of what connection this human had with that monster...
The most important thing right now was to reclaim his left hand and the medium, and to hunt down that damned cat-human!
This human...
Since he held such a related object, killing him immediately might draw the attention of whoever was behind him...
Or, perhaps he could be utilized?
In a brief moment, the Grand Duke made a decision.
He reined in most of his outward pressure, though his voice remained majestic.
However, a hint of tension and urgency was now present deep within: “...I didn't expect you to have a token related to... that one.”
He vaguely skipped over the title, as if it were a taboo that could not be mentioned.
“I once had dealings with that entity. It seems you are no ordinary intruder.”
The Grand Duke shifted his tone, appearing magnanimous: “Fine, for the sake of old ties, leave quickly. Do not hinder me from pursuing that wretched thief!”
As he spoke, his remaining right hand suddenly plunged into the massive puncture wound in his chest.
This action made Bai Xuan’s eyelids twitch.
After a skin-crawling sound of grinding flesh, he pulled out an ancient-looking red gemstone.
The moment the gemstone left his body, the entire tomb—no, the entire space—vibrated extremely slightly.
Bai Xuan couldn't describe the specific change, but his intuition told him this space had been liberated.
“Take this!” The Grand Duke tossed the gemstone toward Bai Xuan; it landed on the ground not far away, kicking up a small puff of dust.
“This is the Secondary Core that maintains the stability of this space!”
“Take it and return along the way you came to the initial Skeleton Corridor. You will see that the exit portal has appeared!”
His words were fast and hurried; he was truly desperate to get rid of Bai Xuan so he could immediately begin his pursuit.
Bai Xuan coughed weakly, his gaze sweeping over the gemstone on the ground before returning to the Grand Duke’s face.
He saw the suppressed anxiety in the Duke’s eyes and the slightly unstable energy fluctuations caused by removing the core.
More importantly...
Although the Grand Duke hid it well, the line in Bai Xuan’s vision that read 【Status: Heavily Injured, Terrified, Spell Channeling】 could not be faked.
The “Terrified” status especially exposed the other party’s bluff.
‘He’s afraid... afraid of the existence behind me. He’s trying to buy time to cast some spell.’
Bai Xuan understood clearly. ‘Once his spell is finished, or if he confirms there is no powerful existence behind me, he will likely kill me.’
‘I can't leave. The only chance is now.’
Bai Xuan’s face showed the relief and weakness of someone who had survived a disaster.
He nodded with difficulty, his voice as thin as a thread: “Many... many thanks for your... magnanimity, Grand Duke.”
He pushed off the ground with his left hand, attempting to climb up, but fell “powerlessly” back down, precisely turning his body to hide his right hand.
That hand was quietly grasping the 【Sealing Scroll】 that had fallen to the ground.
While “struggling,” he secretly poured his remaining mana and mental energy into the scroll.
Bai Xuan felt the ancient sealing structure being activated bit by bit.
As he laboriously crawled toward the gemstone, he used his peripheral vision to lock onto the Grand Duke.
The Grand Duke’s attention seemed more focused on the spell being constructed within him.
He only cast a hurried glance at Bai Xuan’s slow movement.
Now!
Bai Xuan had “just happened” to move to the side of the sarcophagus, less than five steps away from the Grand Duke.
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