Chapter 537 Affecting The Past
"I… What the hell?" Shiro muttered in confusion.
"The same reaction I had. I understand that the dungeon in New York had some connections with the faction's past but I never expected for you to be engraved in our history." Lucius smiled as Shiro furrowed her brows.
"What do you know about that dungeon?" She asked.
"What do I know? I know that each of the trials you can face inside the dungeon is something to boost your stats. Plus, it is also one that puts you in a special setting within the dungeon. What I don't understand is how or what you did in order to become the ruler of the past. Or rather, a different world. I did do some research and it seems like similar things such as this is happening across the world. People doing story quests and had the records changed if their final results were earth shattering." Lucius replied.
"Oh? There were other cases such as this?" Shiro narrowed her eyes in curiosity.
"Yes, one such example was when an entire country had disappeared after one of the ex heroes had completed a story quest. The country was one that had been discovered after the system was integrated and the disappearance of said country caused quite a few people to be erased from this world. After showing some proof through the things he owned, this phenomenon was recorded by the government and everyone on the front lines knows about this since they have the biggest chance in causing this change. Though the problem with this is that it's very hard to prove that it had actually happened without any evidence." Lucius shook his head.
"Had I not known you, your skill set and your daughter having a connection with the ancestor, I would never have guessed that you managed to pull off such a feat. You've basically become the founder of this faction without even knowing it." He chuckled.
"I'll be honest with you, I don't really care if I'm the founder or not since I've got other things to deal with. Since you have this place under control, it's yours." Shiro shrugged.
"I figured as much. Anyways, do you want me to give you a map on all the pieces that we have discovered so far? Since we're unable to break the seals easily without the dark phoenix blood, we decided to make a map of their location first." Lucius asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Sure, that would be quite helpful."
Hearing her reply, Lucius reached into his inventory and brought out a holographic device of sorts that was shaped like a disk.
Placing the disk on the table, a map of their current land appeared with red dots for where the pieces are.
"In this city, there are strangely two other pieces besides the one we're currently excavating now. Whether or not that's due to the fact that this is the tomb or not, I'm not too sure but the other's shouldn't be too hard to reach. Though I do have a few people standing guard so I'll give you something for them to recognise you. After all, I don't want you to be killing my subordinates now do I?" Lucius chuckled.
"I suppose not. But do I really look like someone who would just kill people for fun?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"No. However, you look like someone who would do much much worse. Remember what you did to me at the hotel?" Lucius forced a smile as Nan Tian's ears perked up.
"Mn? What happened?" He asked curiously.
"I loosened his backdoor a bit." Shiro grinned.
"Oh my, you poor man." Nan Tian looked at Lucius with pity as well as surprise. After all, this was a man who survived the Shiro treatment and still wanted to continue business with them. Now that's what he calls courage.
"Save it. There are more important matters after all. Also, I managed to get some intel on your fight with the kidnapper of thousands of people. I must say, I'm rather surprised to see that your real identity was that of the eldest daughter of the Asakura family." Lucius smiled awkwardly.
"And that's all you need to know. If you don't mind, I'll be taking my leave. Also, are we able to explore the site a little? Since this place was where we can get an artefact, we might as well do it while we're here." Shiro asked.
"Yes of course, but before that, let me give you this. It basically makes you a trusted person with authority just below mine. It should allow you to roam the site without any problems. If there are problems, you're free to give them the 'Shiro treatment' as long as you don't kill them." Lucius said while placing an enchanted ornament on the table.
"Are you selling out your people?" Shiro 'smiled.'
"Not quite, I'm just asking you to have mercy on them if they accidentally give you a hard time." Lucius shook his head.
"Hm, you know what? Sure. I'll give them some mercy but they'll have two chances. Piss me off twice and their ass is gone, ok?" Shiro chuckled.
"That's the best I can ask for." Gesturing for them to leave the office, he sat back and started to type away at his laptop. There was more information about the past but they needed to be cleaned up and translated first.
The most questionable one he found was a carving of what seemed to be a bomb of sorts which only confused him since there was no way Shiro would have been able to create such a bomb. However, thinking of this, he guessed that perhaps the artefact was something that helped her create this but that was a little insane.
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Leaving the room, Shiro immediately walked down the steps with Yin and Nan Tian following behind her.
Walking to the entrance of the excavation site without any trouble due to the ornament, Shiro looked up at the statue of Fei Ling and sighed.
Patting the base of the statue, she closed her eyes for a moment before making her way inside the tomb.
"Paying respects for the dead?" Nan Tian asked with a soft smile.
"A little. She was the one who had taught me my current martial arts. Without this, I would have probably died in a few of the situations that I was in. All of my current martial prowess is based on what she had taught me. Plus, her help was incredible in the trial. Without it, I would have struggled for sure." Shiro replied.
"I see… Perhaps I should also pay respects since she is your benefactor." Nan Tian glanced back at the statue.
"Do it if you want but you don't need to."
"I'll do it then."
Turning around, Nan Tian took a moment to pay respect as well as thanking her for teaching Shiro her martial arts.
While this was happening, Yin did not keep her eyes off one of the walls which confused Shiro a little.
"Is there something wrong Yin?" Shiro asked.
"I think? I'm not sure if it's bad or not but I keep on getting this nagging feeling in my mind from deep within this tomb. As if there's something I need to see for myself." Yin replied with narrowed eyes.
"Well we'll see in a second won't we? If you feel uncomfortable, just tell me and we'll take a moment to rest up." Shiro nodded her head.
After Nan Tian paid his respects, the trio started to venture deeper into the site. Soon, they bumped into a few members of the faction researching the seal on what seems to be a giant set of locked doors.
Showing them the ornament, they allowed Shiro to do whatever she wanted provided that she doesn't break everything. However, Shiro wasn't going to do that so they didn't need to worry.
Walking up to the door, Shiro brushed her finger across the surface and felt a small ripple as it seemed to want to give way the moment she put a little bit of pressure.
'Ah right, after I nearly died, I received the phoenix bloodline didn't I? So technically, I'm also a phoenix now.' Shiro muttered in her mind.
However, as it was not the dark phoenix, she wasn't able to actually push open the door despite the lack of resistance from the seal, which was quite strange in Shiro's books.
Curious to see if an idea of her's worked or not, Shiro reached into her inventory and pulled out a vial of Yin's blood that she had collected before in order to purify the rebirth pills.
"Wait how do you still have my blood in a vial?" Yin asked with confusion.
"I never used all of it." Shiro shrugged before pouring a drop on the seal.
The moment the blood dropped on the seal; a ripple started to grow. From barely noticeable to large waves such, the seal eventually shattered into a faint spray of light.
"Ah… well that's good to know. Though we probably could have just had Yin push it open from the start." Shiro chuckled since she wanted to know this in case they needed other people to recover the artefacts from the other sites.
Shrugging off the idle thoughts, she placed her hand on the door and pushed it open as decades of dust started to fall.