Chapter 795 - The Thousand Shapes Painting and the Jaded Forest Wrap
Chapter 795: The Thousand Shapes Painting and the Jaded Forest Wrap
“Look! There’s light ahead!” Oro, who was looking forward, urgently called.
Sure enough, there was a bright light in front of them; the passageway was also becoming more spacious. The sounds of explosion behind him persisted, and due to Xia Fei’s indiscriminate act of destruction, not just this long passageway, even the entire island was beginning to collapse!
*Whoosh*
Xia Fei darted into the room at the end of the passageway.
*Boom*
The heavy broken Dragonstone collapsed deafeningly, and everywhere became quiet. It was apparent that this room was independent from the existence of the passageway.
“I believe that this is a burial chamber,” Xia Fei stabilized his footing as the demon lord solemnly stated.
Xia Fei was stunned. He turned around and carefully observed his surroundings. He spotted eight corridors, leading to eight different directions. The room was spacious beyond belief, and hundreds of crystal lamps hanging high in the ceiling bathed the room up in incandescent, white lights.
Furthermore, three stone coffins could be found inside the room, all of which were made of Yellow Dragon Jadeite. Each looked just like the others. Several sculptures were all around, creating a majestic view of dragons flying in the sky.
“A burial chamber for three?” Xia Fei was slightly surprised as he muttered to himself.
Huo Yutong’s instructions about the place had led him to a treasure room, but the former had simply not mentioned how long the passageway could go and that the so-called treasure room was actually a burial chamber.
“Only one is the master of this crypt, and the reason why there are three exactly identical coffins is to prevent grave robbers from absconding with the treasures. Two of the coffins are fake, and only one is real. If you open the wrong coffin, you’ll most likely suffer the same fate similar to what you encountered in that passageway,” the old demon lord solemnly explained. “In the Law Realm, there are often people who will design such puzzles, given how popular the grave robbing profession has been since ancient times.”
Xia Fei nodded. He came around and circled the three stone coffins, closely examining them.
“I understand now. The traps outside are preventive measures, same as these three coffins. It’s just that these three coffins are the last line of defense for this crypt, and if we decipher it, we can obtain the treasures buried here,” Xia Fei said. “I never thought Huo Yutong would get me to do something like grave robbing.”
With how things were, there was no point in complaining any longer. Xia Fei was prepared to crack these three coffins and obtain what Huo Yutong needed to get the latter started on his work for the Celestial Zerohammer as soon as possible.
It was just that the three coffins were identical, so it was difficult for Xia Fei to differentiate just which was the true one.
From the secret passageway previously, which was fraught with dangers, the master of this crypt must be very exceptionally vicious, having created such a long passageway of death. If he opened the wrong coffin, the consequences would definitely be dire, so Xia Fei must proceed with utmost caution toward this end.
Xia Fei was a speed type warrior and not some grave robber. He was truly uncertain if he could determine just which of these coffins was the real one.
“Ocular Cognition!”
His two eyes shone. He hoped that he could use the power of the Beast Spirit Codex’s Ocular Cognition in order to see the differences between the three stone coffins.
“What skill. These three stone coffins are exactly alike, and I really can’t tell them apart,” Xia Fei said.
Not only were they perfect recreations of one another, even the material used for the stone coffin was the Yellow Dragon Jadeite, a rock that was fairly dense, so much so that Xia Fei’s Ocular Cognition could not penetrate through and see what was within each of them.
Seconds passed, and Xia Fei still had no idea what to do.
Suddenly, a series of tinkering sounds could be heard from outside a piece of the broken Dragonstone, almost as if someone was trying to dig their way into the crypt!
There were eight different passageways leading into this chamber, and the one where these sounds of digging came was the direction diametrically opposite of where Xia Fei had come from. These people seemed to have come in from a different direction, but their ultimate destination was the same.
Slightly stunned, Xia Fei carefully listened to this sound, which was very similar to an electric drill. This was a rhythmic thumping. Broken Dragonstone had the effect of neutralizing law, so these people coming must be very clever to use automated tools.
Sincerity could wear down even gold, and this method would of course be more awkward than Xia Fei’s method of bombardment with his Law of Primal Chaos, but it was also the only option for anyone who did not know the Law of Primal Chaos.
“Could they be those metal guards that had been imbued with law force?” Oro asked, hesitant.
Xia Fei shook his head. “Not possible. Why would the guards dare to barge into their master’s crypt? Besides, with how cautious the master of the crypt was, if any of the guards wanted to enter, there would surely be another approach, rather than opting for such a stupid method.”
Gritting his teeth, Xia Fei continued. “We’ll know who they are once they come in.”
*Whoosh*
Erasing every bit of his presence, he nimbly leaped and situated himself on the ceiling. The hooks on his armor extended, allowing Xia Fei to stick to the stone wall like a gecko.
Hundreds of crystal lamps were shining so brightly that they were glaring. A person entering the chamber would not look up under any normal circumstances. Besides, Xia Fei had his Breath Control to help him hide while clinging onto the ceiling, so he had no problems at all.
It must be mentioned that using automated tools to bore through broken Dragonstone was very foolish. Xia Fei waited for over twenty minutes before that piece of broken Dragonstone fragmented even more.
*Kaboom!*
Two individuals in black swiftly entered the chamber. They hid in two different corners and carefully observed everything for a while, before getting up, looking visibly annoyed.
For some reason, these two looked very weary. The fatter one even had a wound on his head, and a bandage was wrapped around this wound. Unfortunately, fresh blood was still flowing out unceasingly. From the facial structure of these two individuals, neither was human. Rather, they were another type of sapient lifeform that very closely resembled humans.
“So m*th*rf*ck*ng unlucky!” The fat one looked around as he began to complain incessantly. “Just who exactly did this? We had this planned for such a long time, yet the passageway into the crypt collapsed in the end! How sad that my poor sect sister failed to escape this calamity!”
Xia Fei was dumbfounded. He was the one who had caused the collapse these intruders were talking about, though Xia Fei had no idea that there was actually another team challenging that long passageway of death.
The skinny individual pursed his lips as he gravely noted, “Enough feeling distressed over your younger sect sister. There are plenty of fish in the sea; as long as we accomplish this task of retrieving the Thousand Shapes Painting and the Jaded Forest Wrap that master has given us, there won’t be any problem wanting as many girls as you can think of.”
The two brothers spoke in hoarse voices, sounding like ducks. Their voices were grating to the ears, but Xia Fei was even more interested in the Thousand Shapes Painting and the Jaded Forest Wrap that they mentioned. The latter was what Huo Yutong sought, but he did not mention a word about the former.
With that conversation over, the two split up and acted separately, pulling out tools and equipment from their spatial rings that either of them would use for grave digging. These two worked in tandem over the three Yellow Dragon Jadeite coffins, drilling out a nearly imperceptible hole before they stuck a microscopic camera inside to take a look.
Oro smacked his lips as he said in surprise, “Look at how they conduct the grave robbery; they’re far more professional than you do.”
Xia Fei chuckled as his lips formed a sneer. He then somewhat sinisterly remarked, “I’m indeed no grave robber but I can kill these grave robbers.”
…….
The inside of the crypt was very humid, and the fat robber in black had removed his chest armor, inadvertently revealing his throat as a result. Xia Fei saw a very obvious green tattoo on his neck, and it was an image of an alloy door ajar.
“Malevolent Squall Bandits!” Oro saw the tattoo and panicked. “No wonder they work so professionally. These are Malevolent Squall Bandits; that tattoo of the ajar door is the insignia of the Malevolent Squall Bandits!”
Xia Fei was quite surprised to learn this. He had encountered the Malevolent Squall Bandits in his search for the Law of Time, though these two grave robbers were not his goal, having merely been used by others as scapegoats. Truly, he had not expected to run into them again here on this mysterious island. This was quite possibly a chance for Xia Fei.
The loss of the Law of Time had been a huge blow to the God Race. Xia Fei felt deeply unresigned to the fact that he had no way of acquiring this powerful law, and in order to get his hands on it, he was not about to let even the slightest clue slip away!
“I got it. The stone coffin on the right is the one with the real master,” the skinny robber solemnly announced after examining all three coffins.
*Crack*
After a good period of busy work, these two robbers worked together to lift the coffin lid, only to find no corpse inside. Instead, there were only some scraps of clothes. The moment air rushed in, the clothing instantly disintegrated into ash in the wind.
The two robbers first did a very strange prayer before they gingerly scooped out a jade box and a scroll enclosed in metal.
“The Malevolent Squall Bandits have always been the number-one grave robbers of the Law Realm since ancient times. That prayer they just did was to show respect to the dead spirit. After all, even bandits have their own code, and as an old-fashioned grave robbing organization like them, they of course follow their rules very strictly.
“As for that jade box and that scroll, those should be the Thousand Shapes Painting and the Jaded Forest Wrap,” Oro said. He could more or less be a hundred percent certain by now that the two robbers dressed in black were Malevolent Squall Bandits.
Xia Fei did not say a word and merely remained on the ceiling, quietly waiting.
“Haha! It’s just as the master said! This crypt on Lizard Island is definitely the resting place of the super artificer, Thousand Mountains! We’ve gotten hold of the Thousand Shapes Painting and the Jaded Forest Wrap!” The two robbers became animated.
The fat one pouted. “Speaking of him being a super artificer, Thousand Mountains was always discreet and vicious in his methods. There shouldn’t be any tricks inside, right?”
“No. While Thousand Mountains set up that passageway of death, the crypt was created by his descendants. They shouldn’t have as many tricks as Thousand Mountains,” replied the skinny robber with a firm gaze.
“That’s good. Let’s return and complete our assignment then. We left with a large party of one hundred twenty-eight, only to return with just us two. This trip has really been tough.”
Xia Fei smiled. Two left after one hundred twenty-eight died? To think his attempt at sifting the grass to catch a rabbit had killed off a bunch of rats along the way.
*Whoosh*
Xia Fei dismounted off the ceiling and, like a lithe loach, arrived beside the skinny robber in a blink of an eye. The Blood Crystal flashed crimson as it stabbed right into the skinny robber’s throat! At the same time, Peacock Blue grabbed hold of the fat robber and lifted him in the air, while Furball, who was right in front, gave that lone survivor a death stare!
*Roar*
The already upgraded Blood Crystal needed only an instant to suck its target dry, and that 1.8-meter tall robber was quickly reduced into a desiccated corpse. Xia Fei stomped on the corpse, reducing it into dust.
The fat robber watched this with his own two eyes, his face pale like a ghost. Xia Fei’s speed and methods had shook him to the core, and seeing how the Blood Crystal had turned a living being into a desiccated corpse only further added to the shock!
He really wanted to scream, but it was unfortunate that Peacock Blue was already constricting his neck so tightly that even the slightest movement could tear into his skin and flesh.
After taking both the Thousand Shapes Painting and the Jaded Forest Wrap, Xia Fei raised his head and asked with a smile, “Are you guys Malevolent Squall Bandits?”