Chapter 58

"Is... it safe now?"

Hao Ren finally caught his breath after panting for a while, then looked at the quiet rock hall with some disbelief. The passage they had run through was completely blocked by the explosion triggered by the lightning strike, and the pursuing undead knights were all trapped on the other side. Although the knight armor was incredibly strong, it wasn't as powerful as Lily, who could split rocks with her bare hands. Moreover, the armor was made of metal with limited strength, so it was unlikely they could dig through the debris—certainly not in the short term.

It seemed they could take a moment to catch their breath and assess the situation.

"Probably... not yet," Vivian closed her eyes slightly, sensing the energy flow throughout the tomb. "The aura of the undead is everywhere, but for some reason, they are temporarily inactive. The ones that chased us were just a small part of them..."

"Damn, a small part?!" Hao Ren was startled. "What did the lord of this place plan to do back then?"

At this moment, Lily was rummaging through the pile of completely shattered armor pieces, her curiosity as a canine animal leading her to search for things that interested her. Suddenly, she found something strange on a deformed piece of breastplate: "Hey, Bat, come and take a look at this. Is it also a Leta rune?"

The big dog and the bat seemed to have no intention of ever calling each other by their proper names.

Vivian kicked Lily's leg in protest, then bent down to pick up the breastplate fragment. Indeed, there were curved patterns on the surface of the silver-white metal plate, but the rune was incomplete due to the severe damage: "Look for other fragments with runes. These things... should be decipherable."

"I'll help too," Hao Ren called out and started searching through the scattered armor debris with Lily. Most of the fragments had been shattered by Vivian's sub-zero cold blast, so it was hard to find any intact metal pieces. However, after a while, Hao Ren noticed something: it seemed that every undead knight had runes on their armor.

And all the runes were carved in the same place, with no difference in size or form, suggesting that all the knight armors were mass-produced.

"I found one!" The first to find a complete piece was Lily. The wolf girl handed a square metal plate to Vivian, who immediately began translating the runes: "... Warden of the Demon Chamber, guardian, sleepless warrior... bound by covenant to guard the demon's power, to repel intruders... entry into the Demon Chamber is forbidden... This is a rune that activates both the covenant and the demon's power."

Hao Ren felt a headache coming on: "What does that mean?"

"It seems we made a mistake," Vivian's expression became subtle. "We initially thought the sealing system in the tomb was to suppress the undead below, assuming these knight spirits were the ones being suppressed. But the situation is completely opposite: these knights are also part of the tomb's defense system. They are the guardians here, and the true target of the suppression is something else."

Hao Ren looked down at the metal fragment in his hand. He had already guessed this: the armor buried in the tomb was clearly arranged with great care, with a full range of troops and excellent equipment. They didn't look like the targets of suppression at all. If these undead were not the targets, then what the tomb was truly suppressing...

"Demons?" Hao Ren recalled the word Vivian mentioned when translating the runes. "This... this isn't good! Don't tell me this place is suppressing demons—do such creatures really exist on Earth?"

"Even vampires like me and werewolves like Lily exist, so why can't demons exist?" Vivian casually threw the armor fragment to the ground, corroding it with blood mist, her voice sounding somewhat serious. "However, there are many errors in human myths and legends, categorizing many powerful and violent beings as 'demons.' So I'm not sure if the 'demons' mentioned in these runes are true demons or something else. If they are fake, it's not a big deal, but if they are real... we have a big problem."

After a moment of thought, Vivian added: "Based on the professionalism of the runes on the stone walls, the person who set up the tomb is most likely a demon hunter. Demon hunters are experts and wouldn't make classification mistakes... so it's highly likely that the tomb is suppressing real demons."

Hao Ren's face twitched: "You really shouldn't have added that last part!"

Vivian ignored Hao Ren's complaint and continued searching the armor fragments more carefully, hoping to determine the nature of the evil being they were suppressing through these guardians. Lily, on the other hand, was worried: "We just fought the guardians that were supposed to suppress the demons in the tomb. Doesn't that mean we've released the demons? Did we... do something wrong?"

Having a kind-hearted werewolf girl like Lily was a great blessing for the world. Hao Ren patted Lily's shoulder: "Don't worry, the data terminal said the tomb's seal has long expired. The remaining bits of metal can't hold the fort. We're just helping the bad guys a little..."

"It's not necessarily the demon itself, the runes mention the Demon Stone," Vivian picked up another armor fragment. "It's a leg plate, with another part of the rune. It mentions a place in the tomb called the 'Demon Chamber,' where the Demon Stone is stored, not the demon itself. If it's just a stone, the situation won't be as bad."

Hao Ren felt like he was listening to a foreign language: "What is the Demon Stone?"

"Demons are skilled in spatial powers. The Demon Stone is their teleportation beacon and also a remote medium for corrupting the human world, acting like a manifestation of demon power. The material of the Demon Stone is very special, even demon hunters find it hard to destroy them, so the usual method is to suppress them. After a few hundred years of suppression, they are generally safe."

"Oh, so after a few hundred years, the Demon Stone's power is exhausted, right?" Hao Ren said matter-of-factly.

"No, it's just that after a few hundred years without contact, demons usually switch to a new one—like if your phone is lost for two months and you can't reach it, wouldn't you get a new one?"

Hao Ren: "..." This explanation made sense, but why did he feel like he had a thorn in his throat that he couldn't spit out!

"In other words, the Demon Stone in this tomb is still there and functional," Lily swallowed hard. She was a bit silly, but not stupid. "We can only hope that the demon it's connected to has already switched to a new one. If the commotion in the tomb stimulates the Demon Stone..."

Vivian thought for a moment: "It's highly likely that the demon will come to check the situation. Even if it's a number you haven't used for two years, you'd still remember it if you suddenly received a message. Demons have excellent memories."

Hao Ren pressed his temples: "The most important point: can you two fight a demon?"

"I don't know," Vivian's expression was a bit awkward. "Theoretically, we are on the same level as 'aberrations,' and there are demons with low combat strength. But you know, I'm a pacifist and rarely fight. The largest battle I ever participated in was when I was nearly broke and helped the Trojans fight the Greeks for five years, then helped the Greeks fight the Trojans for another five years..."

Hao Ren: "..." In this situation, he didn't have the energy to comment on Vivian's tumultuous history.

At this moment, Lily's mind finally clicked. She suddenly realized something: "Right, Bat, you said the runes mentioned that the guardians cannot enter the Demon Chamber. What does that mean?"

"Although the undead guardians are useful, the techniques they use come from demons, so they can only guard the periphery of the tomb and cannot get too close to the chamber where the Demon Stone is stored."

"Then, have you noticed that this hall... has no guardians at all?"

Lily's words hung in the air, and the hall fell silent.

All three felt a cold draft coming from all directions. Hao Ren carefully looked around the stone chamber and asked with a grim face: "Vivian, what does the Demon Stone look like?"

The vampire girl recalled: "It's usually an irregular, elongated black crystal, ranging from half a meter to a meter in length. It looks like smoked glass, with a slightly red tip..."

Hao Ren was almost in tears: "... Is it the one hanging from the ceiling?"

(We finally took the lead in the Three Rivers. Persisting until the last day is victory, yes, theoretically.)

Page flip, AD starts

Page flip, AD ends