by Zhuang Bifan
Of course, even the Dark Blade didn't know the Darkness Shrine and Brilliance Shrine used to be one. Only the High Priest of the Darkness Shrine had the right to know that. However, many of the old texts and resources in the Darkness Shrine were passed down from the Eternal Shrine.
Necromancer Tedya, who had participated in the Time Consignment Store's auction, was the one tasked to borrow and study the relevant information from the Darkness Shrine. Obviously, Tedya's status was too low to know about the matter of the Immortal King's treasure. He was merely tasked to read about the Haiga Mountain Range.
"However, for us to save more time by avoiding repetition, can Master Cheyenne please tell us what you already know?" Borg wasn't anxious to reveal the information he had. He asked what Cheyenne knew first, and came up with a very reasonable excuse for that. If he said what they knew, but the rest had already known that, wouldn't it be a waste of time? It was better for Cheyenne to say what he knew first. Then, Borg would tell them what they didn't know.
This was a reasonable request, but Cheyenne was rather annoyed to hear it. Wasn't it implying that the Malfa Family knew less than the Dark Blade? However, Cheyenne wasn't so petty. If they wanted to hear from him, he would tell them something they didn't know. The treasure map was copied from Lin Li, and was unfortunately spilled to their nemesis, the Dark Blade. If Cheyenne couldn't come up with something valuable, he would be too embarrassed to talk about collaboration.
After all, the Dark Blade was just a group of bandits. No matter how strong they were, they weren't popular in the Breezy Plains. On the other hand, the Malfa Family was different. Hence, even though the Malfa Family didn't have a strong support like the age-old Darkness Shrine, it wasn't too difficult for the Malfa Family to get hold of some old texts given its influence and connections in the Breezy Plains.
"This treasure map isn't a secret now. I think everyone knows what information we can get from it. However, I have indeed found something beyond the treasure map during my research. Since we are collaborating, I will share it with you for your consideration. If it happens to overlap with what you know, that just shows that the information is correct." Cheyenne was talking about overlapping information, but looked very proud and confident in the information he had.
Upon seeing Cheyenne's confidence, everyone leaned forward to listen to him attentively, be it Lin Li or Cheyenne's old rivals, the three Legendary leaders from the Dark Blade. After all, they had all agreed to collaborate, and had the same goal: to find the Immortal King's treasure.
"Everyone here should be familiar with Highlord Osric. Although we weren't born in that era, and hadn't witnessed Butcher Osric's brutality, Osric's name wasn't forgotten even after the Dark Age. Even now, we are still researching and discovering the marls Osric had left on the Anril Continent." Cheyenne was very pleased that the others didn't know about what he knew judging from their expressions.
"Osric?"
The people here naturally weren't unfamiliar with Butcher Osric. Even Lin Li, who had space-time-traveled to Anril a year ago, had heard this name so many times. Back in the Dragon Mountains, Lin Li had explored an underground palace built by Osric. In it lay two pieces of the debris of the stars—Raging Flames and Polar Snow—as well as a naturally occurring Magical Domain waiting for his claim.
The problem was, why would Cheyenne mention Osric when they were discussing the Immortal King's treasure? Not to mention Lin Li, even Borg who thought that only he had obtained information others didn't know was surprised. They were stunned for a while after hearing Cheyenne's words. Evidently, they had never thought about it.
However, it wasn't impossible for the two to be somehow connected if they thought about it carefully. After all, Osric had gotten so powerful because he had inherited some of the Immortal King's abilities. If the treasure held the secret to this inheritance, was it even necessary to find the treasure now? With Osric's personality, he wouldn't leave anything for others. If they wanted to find something, they would need to go to Osric's tomb.
"Seems like you've thought about something. However, let me tell you that it isn't what you think. You all know that Osric had become the Highlord, who only royals could become, when he was just a common High Elf. But how much do you know about what he was like before he became the Highlord?" Although Legendary powerhouses could control their emotions well, Cheyenne still couldn't help being pleased with himself, since his old nemeses were sitting opposite.
Cheyenne's question had stunned Borg and his companions. Osric was remembered by people till now because of his powerful abilities and the massacres he had conducted after becoming the Highlord, which made him infamous. However, what had happened before Osric became the Highlord wasn't clearly recorded in history, including how he had inherited the Immortal King's abilities. That remained a mystery to many people.
Cheyenne paused and sipped his tea. He then continued, "I've specially collected large amounts of old texts in order to decipher the High Elves Print written on this treasure map. I've focused on finding texts with two languages side by side."
Chapter 580 - Ruins of the Titans
"I've coincidentally chanced upon a notebook from the Dark Age. It was originally written in High Elves Print, but some anonymous person has translated it. From my research, this notebook was Osric's personal adventure diary from before he had gotten famous. Perhaps very few know that Osric was an adventurer who had gone to almost every corner of the Anril Continent before he became the Highlord.
"Although part of the notebook was damaged, the part recording his adventures in the Haiga Mountain Range was preserved in perfect condition—"
Laughing, Gold-maned Lion King Baldela abruptly cut in. "My old friend! How ancient is this notebook? Not to mention when Osric became the Highlord, it's still more than 1000 years from now counting from the end of the Dark Age. How do you know if the hill he mentioned hasn't smoothened out, or if the pond he mentioned hasn't dried up? It will be like finding treasures according to the clouds in the sky if we rely on this outdated information to find the Immortal King's treasure."
Although the others didn't say anything, they had the same thoughts as Baldela. Even Lin Li found Cheyenne's information from the notebook too unreliable. 1000 years was enough to change much of the landscape, even if Anril was a magical world.
However, Cheyenne wasn't angry that he was cut off. Instead, he looked at Baldela with some contempt and smiled. "Did I say anything about Haiga Mountain Range's geography? Baldela, your tendency to make assumptions didn't change at all!"
"Oh? Then tell us what made you so confident." Although Baldela was a Warrior by profession, that didn't mean he was rash. Otherwise, it would've been impossible for him to reach the Legendary-realm. So, he wasn't bothered by Cheyenne's sarcasm.
Cheyenne smiled and shook his head. He unhurriedly said, "The Haiga Mountain Range is dangerous even for Legendary powerhouses like us because of those prehistoric magical beasts. Even Legendary magical beasts aren't few there, not mentioning the herds of level-17 or 18 magical beasts. This is the first challenge we will face. If we cannot get past this obstacle, we shouldn't talk about the Immortal King's treasure at all."
"Right. If not, we wouldn't have invested all our elite power into this." Borg and his companions agreed with Cheyenne's words. After all, Legendary powerhouses weren't gods. If they had wasted too much effort on the way, how could they defend themselves from the dangers at the location of the Immortal King's treasure? Hence, both factions had made a big move, and concentrated almost all their elite power here.
"If you think that this power is enough, then you are wrong. I've thought so earlier as well, but I realized after reading Osric's adventure diary that even the combination of the power of our three factions isn't enough to overcome the dangers we will be facing. Also, these kids are the most outstanding talents each of us has. I think all of you also don't want to be the only ones reaching the destination." Cheyenne looked around, sweeping his glance past
everyone, and eventually focused on Lin Li.
Cheyenne couldn't help feeling a sense of injustice when he saw Lin Li sitting there calmly. What he had just said was only relevant to the Dark Blade and himself. It was meaningless to this Master Felic, since he had cunningly brought along only one attendant.
The three leaders of the Dark Blade noticed Cheyenne looking at Lin Li and looked over too. What they were thinking was surprisingly similar.
Lin Li seemed to be oblivious to everyone's stares, and earnestly said, "Oh, please continue, Master Cheyenne."
Cheyenne gritted his teeth, and felt a sense of helplessness. After all, the original copy of the treasure map belonged to Master Felic, so he couldn't be petty over the fact that he didn't contribute much manpower for this collaboration. Thus, Cheyenne continued, "This adventure diary of Osric contains detailed descriptions of the majority of the Legendary magical beasts in the Haiga Mountain Range as well as their weaknesses. Although they might have changed after all these years, we can still reduce much danger with this information."
Cheyenne didn't take out the notebook to share with the rest. Instead, he just mentioned a few rare magical beasts, and marked the areas where these beasts might probably be on the map lying in the middle of the tent. As for the actual value of this notebook, they had to wait till the exploration to verify that.
Looking at the marked map, everyone briefly fell into silence. Nobody doubted the authenticity of Cheyenne's information. Osric's adventure diary didn't get circulated around, because people were crazy over power and strength after the end of the Dark Age. This kind of adventure diary that was unrelated to magic wasn't important to many people.
Undoubtedly, Osric's adventure diary would be crucial to this Haiga Mountain Range expedition. Although over 1000 years had passed, it was nothing to those long-lived Legendary magical beasts. The aim of this expedition wasn't hunting, but searching for the Immortal King's treasure. It would be beneficial to everyone to avoid those Legendary magical beasts.
Maybe some beasts had already migrated, and maybe some had evolved. However, the hegemons among those beasts had reached the limit of evolution long ago, and wouldn't have groundbreaking changes in merely thousands of years. If it had been so easy to evolve, Anril would've probably become the magical beasts' playground already. After all, only intelligent beings were able to evolve through learning.
Thus, no one wanted the elites in their factions to be cannon fodder, even though they were prepared to sacrifice a portion of their people when they organized this elite expedition team. It would be better if they could reduce the casualty rate.
Cheyenne was very pleased with everyone's reaction. After sitting back on his seat, he smiled, and said, "Borg, this is my little, insignificant contribution. I'm hoping to see what surprises you can bring to us as half a master of the Dark Blade."
Out of the three leaders of the Dark Blade, Legendary Bandit Lansdale didn't like to talk too much, while Sword Sage Gold-maned Lion King Baldela wasn't good at descriptions. Thus, Legendary-mage Borg did the majority of the talking.
Upon hearing Cheyenne's question, Borg's smile didn't fade, and he clapped his hands. In a calm voice, he replied, "Cheyenne, I'm indeed quite surprised that you've found Osric's adventure diary, but this is good! Since what we know doesn't seem to overlap, this means that our collaboration is very necessary. The more information we have, the higher the success rate of this mission."
"Borg, both of us aren't little kids, so stop saying this. Just tell us what you've got directly." Cheyenne sounded rather annoyed, but was actually anticipating the information the Dark Blade was going to present. After all, the Darkness Shrine behind the Dark Blade used to be a powerful faction that matched the Brilliance Shrine, and had an equally long history. He was lucky to chance upon Osric's adventure diary when collecting old texts and resources by various means. With the Darkness Shrine's rich history, Borg probably had some useful things to share.
Borg touched his beard, and suddenly asked a question that everyone knew the answer to. "Don't be anxious, Cheyenne. Can you tell me why we are collaborating this time?"
Although Cheyenne knew that Borg had some reason for asking this question, he still couldn't help feeling angry. Would Borg not know why they were here? Would three Legendary leaders and over 200 elites come here just to hunt?
"Are you so old that you've forgotten it so easily? We are here for the Immortal King's treasure! If not, do you think we are here to chit-chat and tour?" said Cheyenne in a displeased tone.
Borg smiled and shook his head. Unbothered, he replied, "Indeed! The Immortal King's treasure! However, based on our research, this term doesn't describe it accurately. More specifically, it should be the Ruins of the Titans!"
"The Ruins of the Titans?" Cheyenne frowned a little. He was indeed surprised because the High Elves Print on the treasure map only mentioned the Immortal King, but not the Ruins of the Titans.
Titans had once been the rulers of Anril. However, they existed during prehistoric times even more distant than the Dark Age. Although Titans had disappeared from Anril a long time ago, this didn't mean that they weren't as powerful as their successors.
Even the High Elves, who had once ruled over Anril and claimed themselves gods superior to all other races, never compared themselves to Titans. This was because the High Elves knew clearly that Titans were the true gods. If Titans hadn't disappeared, the High Elves wouldn't have the chance to rule over this continent.
By now, even the Dark Age had been slowly fading out of history. Perhaps many people already couldn't imagine how powerful Titans were. However, when studying World nomological power, Legendary-mages couldn't neglect the Titans who had the abilities closest to the gods.
Lin Li, who had read the Book of Eternity, knew this more vividly than Cheyenne or Borg. This was because Geresco had recorded many spells in the Titans' language, and its every line pointed directly to the core of nomological power. Both humans and the High Elves were learning about World Laws through analyzing Titans' language.
Chapter 581 - Pantheon
For the Titans, the Titan language was their native language, and nomological power was their natural talent. This was also why the Titans were so terrifying. The High Elves only claimed that they were gods, while the Titans were the universally acknowledged gods.
"How did you come to this conclusion? If it'd really been the ruins of Titans, the High Elves would have snatched the treasure in there already!" Cheyenne asked in disbelief. After all, the ruins of the Titans were still tempting even for Legendary-mages. Not to mention if they could find any treasures inside, just obtaining some Titan writings from the ruins would be very beneficial for a Legendary-mage.
Of course, the level of difficulty would be even higher if it was really the ruins of the Titans. The mageweaths that human Inscribers used were actually derived from the Titans' writing. Hence, the Titans' written language could be considered a powerful mageweath itself. To use a brief example to ill.u.s.trate this, the word 'fire' in Titan writings was already a powerful fire element mageweath even without any core energy source.
If it was just normal mageweaths, the power of these mageweaths would decrease after tens of thousands of years due to the deterioration of core energy even if the mageweath was still intact. However, the Titans' writing applied nomological power directly, and didn't rely on any magical beasts' magical crystals for core energy. Therefore, if the Immortal King's treasure was really found in the ruins of the Titans, the dangers the team would face on the way would be far greater.
"These ruins of the Titans were already recorded in the High Elves' Print. This is enough to prove that the High Elves had discovered this place. However, the strange thing is that none of the many old texts from the Dark Age mentioned anything about any activities of the High Elves in the ruins. It's as if they have neglected this place completely." Borg was also unsure himself. After all, the ruins of the Titans were definitely a rare treasure even
for the High Elves. Thus, there was no reason why the High Elves would leave the treasure untouched like this given their long rule over Anril.
"Unless someone that the High Elves didn't dare to offend had taken over the ruins already! Although Osric had explored the Haiga Mountain Range before, writing the adventure diary, he was unlikely to be the one given his status among the High Elves then," said Cheyenne contemplatively.
"The Immortal King?" Cheyenne and Borg uttered the legendary name simultaneously with rare tacit understanding. The Immortal King's treasure and the ruins of the Titans weren't mutually exclusive. Meanwhile, the High Elves didn't dare to offend only the Immortal King during the Dark Age when Anril was ruled by the High Elves. Moreover, why would Osric leave such a detailed entry about his adventures in the Haiga Mountain Range without mentioning anything about taking the treasure away? It was definitely because of the Immortal King.
"No, Osric certainly wouldn't have left the treasure like this if he had really found this ruins. Even if he hadn't taken it away because of the Immortal King's presence, he would have done so after the Immortal King left Anril." Cheyenne couldn't help but frown. Although the pieces were coming together, Cheyenne felt less optimistic about this expedition.
Borg looked equally uneasy. He glanced at the several people in the tent, and said, "There's only one possibility, then. Osric knew the location of the treasure, but didn't take it away, because he knew that he didn't have the ability to get it."
The atmosphere in the tent was a little tense. None of them, including Lin Li, was unfamiliar with the formidable Osric who lived during the Dark Age. Before Osric had become the Highlord, he might not have had the ability to get the Immortal King's treasure. However, be it his own powers or those of his subordinates, they were all extraordinary after Osric had become the Highlord—especially the Magic Legion, which made people turn pale just by hearing its name. Its power wasn't on the same level as that of the present-day factions like the Malfa Family or the Dark Blade.