This time, Ethan did not have Wood Eight and Herb Three separately escort Daji back on their own.
Instead, he personally escorted everyone back to the villa, and instructed the staff to open up a plot of land in a corner of the garden to serve as a burial ground for the fallen warriors.
When Ethan pulled the scarecrow out of the pit, the sacrificed villagers had already turned into ashes along with the mud monster, so Ethan could only make cenotaphs for them.
As for the ceremony, it would naturally be held after Ethan returned from the treasure land.
Daytime exploration time could not be wasted.
Otherwise, the number of people who died later would only keep increasing.
Bringing the white eagle and the scarecrow with him, Ethan rode the bone horse straight toward the treasure land.
Along the way, he did not encounter any more danger.
Although he did not know when the wilderness witch's sister would come for revenge, the necessary defenses still had to be prepared. Ethan planned that after returning to the villa at sunset, he would first repair the fences, and at the same time plant tentacle sunflowers to guard against intruders.
.
.
.
A journey of over ten kilometers, at the bone horse's speed, took less than half an hour.
The so-called treasure land turned out to be located in a field of jagged rocks, and at the entrance to the treasure was something resembling a statue. It was a towering gate frame, and beside it stood a stone man leaning on a sword.
But the strange thing was, this so-called treasure land gate was really just a twenty-meter-high door frame, with nothing inside it at all?
Ethan rode his horse and circled around inside the frame twice.
At the same time, he even touched the stone sword in the stone man's hand, but still nothing changed.
["Lord, look at the stone man's toenails. Aren't there some patterns on them?"]
The scarecrow was tied to the horse upside down, so it could see clearly.
Hearing this, Ethan immediately jumped off the horse.
And sure enough… The stone man's ten toenails all had different patterns carved into them.
'What the hell, is this the earliest form of nail art?'
Ethan was just about to touch them when he suddenly saw red exclamation marks appear on those toenails.
[Brat Warning, don't touch randomly.]
[Each symbol represents a corresponding threat. Among these ten symbols, only one can correctly awaken the stone man. The other patterns represent various traps. If you don't want to die, don't touch randomly.]
"..."
This prompt finally proved useful for once.
Ethan carefully examined the patterns on the stone man's feet. One of them looked like a bow and arrow. Without even thinking, he knew that represented being pierced by ten thousand arrows.
But for some reason, as Ethan scanned them, all the patterns looked like different weapons, every single one seeming dangerous.
Leading the bone horse back twenty to thirty meters, Ethan then took out a short bow and shot an arrow at one toenail that looked correct.
Whoosh!
The arrowhead struck the stone man's toenail
The next second, the stone man's massive stone sword flashed over in an instant, chopping the arrow cleanly in half.
Clatter!
The broken arrow fell to the ground.
After cutting the arrow, the stone man returned to stillness, as if it had never moved at all.
'Could it be that all ten arrows has to be tested?'
Since he was far away, Ethan didn't need to worry about the stone man attacking him.
Truly clever.
Second arrow.
Whoosh!
A jet of fire burst out of the stone man's mouth.
Even the broken arrow lying on the ground was burned into charcoal by the flames.
One could easily imagine how powerful that fire was.
Third arrow.
Whoosh!
A huge pit appeared beneath the stone man's feet, directly sucking the charred arrow fragments underground.
If Ethan had been standing there just now, he would probably have sunk in already.
Immediately after… Ethan fired the fourth arrow, the fifth arrow, the sixth arrow.
They corresponded to acid water, falling rocks, ground spikes, retractable stone pillars, ten thousand arrows piercing the heart, and spiked iron balls smashing down.
The stone man's ten toes corresponded to ten different ways to die.
"Holy shit!"
'Isn't there supposed to be one correct way to awaken the stone man?'
'Why the hell are all ten death traps?'
Ethan instantly felt his scalp go numb.
He had no choice but to take out the map again and carefully study the illustration of the treasure land on it. Then he noticed that in the picture of the treasure land, there were a few clouds drifting around from time to time.
And beneath the clouds, it seemed like some tiny patterns were hidden.
After studying it closely for a while, Ethan finally realized there were three symbols. The first was a star, the second was a moon, and the third was the sun.
The symbols were extremely simple, and the stone man's toes just happened to have these three symbols as well.
'Could it be… that all three symbols needed to be pressed at the same time?'
But Ethan remembered that the star represented death by ten thousand arrows, the moon represented death by falling rocks, and the sun represented death by spiked iron balls smashing down.
Every single one sounded miserable.
Naturally, Ethan didn't want to test it himself, so he turned his head to look at the scarecrow.
(;ﾟДﾟ)!
["You… what are you planning to do?"]
"I want…", Ethan rubbed his hands together and said with a grin, "you to help me test the password."
["Me test it?"], The scarecrow took a deep breath, ["Lord, you just saw the arrows shooting out, the fire spraying, and the rocks falling from the stone man, right? And you still want me to test it?"]
"I've already found the password. Nothing will happen, so just relax."
As Ethan spoke, he tied three arrows to the scarecrow's arm, corresponding exactly to the star, moon, and sun positions.
The scarecrow jumped around and roared, ["If nothing will happen, then why don't you test it yourself!"]
"If you test it, you won't die. If I test it, I might die at any time. Then who's going to help you find staff to weave me a new body?", Ethan coaxed patiently, "Don't you think so, Brother Scarecrow?"
["Go to hell! I ended up looking neither human nor ghost because of you in the first place!"]
"Heh! Heh! I guarantee that if you help me test it this time, I'll definitely get you the best body, the best suit, and even install a mosquito net that's insect-proof and crow-proof. How about that?"
Ethan continued to offer generous conditions.
Only then did the scarecrow snort coldly, ["I want to sleep one night in the staff room."]
"Deal!"
Ethan immediately agreed.
Only then did the scarecrow hop toward the stone man, turning back uneasily as it asked, ["You're sure it's really safe, right? The password is definitely correct? I don't want to be burned alive. If I burn, I'm really dead."]
"Don't worry, absolutely no problem," Ethan swore confidently.
["Fine. I'll trust you this once!"]
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