Translator: CinderTL
A dense rustling, like the tide of death, surged from all directions, rapidly surrounding Roland.
His eyes narrowed, instantly locking onto the sound's source.
It wasn't from the crumbling ruins, but from the desert-blasted earth beneath his feet.
Countless tiny mounds were rapidly shifting beneath the surface, converging on him.
Hiding underground?
Roland narrowed his eyes. Instead of retreating, his right hand shot out like lightning, grasping the hilt of his sword.
Clang!
The Radiant Moon Longsword sprang from its sheath.
But he didn't slash at the air. Instead, he reversed his grip and, with overwhelming force, plunged the blade straight into the ground.
Boom!
Crimson Battle Qi erupted like a long-suppressed volcano, surging violently down the blade and into the earth.
The ground within a dozen-meter radius violently trembled and heaved before exploding in a deafening blast that sent a storm of sand and dust into the air.
Countless dark figures, hidden beneath the soil, were forced from their burrows by the brute force, like ants scattered from a nest doused in boiling water.
They were flung into the air, then crashed back to the ground with clattering thuds.
In an instant, Roland was surrounded by hundreds of bizarre creatures.
They were the size of hounds, their bodies covered in thick, dark carapaces that seemed forged from molten rock and metal. Their forms were grotesque, and they possessed multiple pairs of sharp, segmented limbs.
Most striking were the countless fine, crimson patterns that crisscrossed their hard shells, throbbing like blood vessels and emitting an ominous aura brimming with restless energy.
The moment the arthropod monster appeared, they let out piercing shrieks and charged fearlessly from all directions.
Roland's expression remained calm. With a slight flick of his wrist, the Radiant Moon Longsword cut through the air in a cold arc, sweeping toward the first few attackers.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The expected shattering of carapaces never came.
The blade struck the dark shells, producing a series of metallic clangs and even sparking blinding sparks.
Although deep gouges remained and the creatures were sent flying, within moments, the injured arthropod monster sprang back to their feet and resumed their counterattack.
"Oh? Surprisingly tough." Roland raised an eyebrow slightly.
The monsters' defenses were indeed beyond his expectations.
But that was all.
He no longer held back, and a condensed, surging wave of blood-colored battle qi erupted like a tangible flame.
With a blur of motion, he transformed into a crimson afterimage, charging into the monster swarm.
The battle's style abruptly shifted.
Roland abandoned wide, sweeping slashes, instead focusing his strength into the tip of his sword.
The Radiant Moon Longsword in his hand seemed to come alive.
Each thrust precisely targeted the gaps between the armored plates or followed the previous slashes into the monsters' bodies.
With muffled thud-thud sounds, the rigid carapaces were skillfully pried open and pierced. The battle qi, like venomous snakes, burrowed into the monsters' bodies, instantly extinguishing their life force.
Roland's figure darted through the swarm, his sword light weaving a dance of death.
At times, a horizontal sweep bisected three or four monsters at the waist like stalks of wheat.
At others, a flick of his wrist sent the sword tip darting out like a dragon from its lair, shattering the head joints of several monsters in an instant.
At times, he used his terrifying strength to kick the charging monsters mid-air, sending them exploding in a shower of dark ichor and chitinous fragments.
His killing was as efficient as harvesting wheat in autumn.
The once dense swarm of monsters dwindled to a fraction in just a dozen breaths, scattering like leaves in a gale. The ground was littered with shattered carapaces and grotesque limbs.
Yet, just as Roland was about to finish off the remaining arthropod monster, a sudden change occurred.
The crimson patterns on the carapaces of the dying and recently slain monsters erupted in blinding, flickering light, flashing at an erratic, frenetic pace.
A heart-stopping, violent surge of energy, like a volcano on the verge of eruption, instantly filled the battlefield.
Energy overload? A final death throes? Or—
Several possibilities flashed through Roland's mind like lightning.
He couldn't immediately determine the exact situation, but the rapidly escalating sense of danger was undeniable.
In such a dense formation, confronting any of these scenarios head-on would be foolish.
Better to be cautious than reckless.
With his mind made up, Roland moved without hesitation.
His toes gently pushed off the ground as his Source Law Engine roared to life at full speed. The blood-colored battle qi, instead of attacking, instantly enveloped his entire body like a loyal guard, generating a powerful reverse thrust.
Whoosh!
His figure seemed to defy gravity, transforming into a streak of crimson light that shot skyward. In the blink of an eye, he soared dozens of meters above the ground, hovering steadily in place.
Almost the instant he left the ground...
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Below, a pyrotechnic display of destruction unfolded.
The corpses of over a hundred arthropod monster, along with those still barely alive, exploded in a chain reaction like barrels of gunpowder ignited simultaneously.
Blistering shockwaves of flame and chaotic energy fragments surged outward like crimson tides, instantly engulfing the battlefield.
The area transformed into a zone of absolute death, a raging inferno where energy currents ran wild.
The force of the explosions was staggering, each blast rivaling the power of a complete mid-circle spell.
Even at such a high altitude, Roland could feel his skin prickle from the scorching heat and the destructive energy waves.
He gazed down at the churning sea of flames below and couldn't help but click his tongue in awe.
The power of each self-detonation is so immense—if I had remained on the ground, caught in the center of such a dense barrage of explosions...
Roland shuddered inwardly.
Even with my current physique, if I couldn't completely evade it, I'd probably be dead or at least lose a layer of skin.
Fortunately, the Source Law Engine's enhancement of my Battle Qi allows me to easily maintain my altitude and evade.
As the flames gradually subsided, they revealed the ground below, completely reshaped and scorched black, still smoking.
So—this must be the core zone of Whispering Grove Fair, the place where adventurers and merchants traded centuries ago.
After an explosion so violent it rivaled a magical bombardment, the already dilapidated ruins had been completely leveled, leaving almost no elevated structures.
Everywhere he looked, only a scorched, hardened surface remained.
The ground, like black obsidian, still emitted wisps of blue smoke and the acrid smell of burning.
In the cracks of the scorched earth, a few flames still flickered stubbornly, casting an eerie glow upon the absolute silence and desolation.
Roland had hoped to find some special herbs or minerals among the ruins of this former settlement that might aid his body tempering and tempering techniques. But after a thorough search, he could only shake his head in disappointment.
After suppressing his Battle Qi, he slowly descended from the air, his feet landing firmly on the still-scalding, blackened earth.
Feeling the slight depletion of Battle Qi he had used to maintain his aerial suspension, Roland couldn't help but compare it to other methods.
Even with the boost of Battle Qi, while I can achieve brief bursts of leaping power and forced hovering, I'm still far from soaring freely and maneuvering with the agility of a bird.
In that regard, pure Battle Qi application is clearly inferior to auxiliary flight spell when it comes to flight.
As he made these mental comparisons, Roland began to walk.
Since I'm already here, what if I stumble upon something?
It won't cost me much time anyway.
With that thought, Roland began to search the unusually hardened, cracked earth left by the explosion. "Hmm?" he murmured.
Just as he was about to give up, convinced this exploration had yielded nothing but a hundred kill counts, his gaze suddenly sharpened.
Not far from the edge of the explosion's center, the scorched, hardened ground had collapsed downward due to the violent tremors and shockwaves, revealing a narrow, bottomless fissure of darkness.
Seeing this, Roland immediately stepped forward and crouched down.
He carefully extended his senses downward like tendrils, probing into the fissure.
As his perception deepened, his brow furrowed slowly, and a look of astonishment crossed his face.
"This... seems hollow underneath? And the space—it doesn't seem small?"
Upon sensing this, several possibilities flashed through Roland's mind.
"Could it be a laboratory left behind by an ancient spellcaster, containing dangerous experimental records or creations? Or an altar used by a secret cult for rituals, covered in forbidden runes? Or perhaps..."
"...the final hiding place of a lone powerful individual, buried with their lifelong collection and secrets?"
In this land steeped in legend, any deliberately hidden underground space inevitably conjures images of both opportunity and danger.
After carefully probing the area repeatedly with his senses and confirming the absence of any living creatures or obvious energy traps below, Roland no longer hesitated.
The tip of his Radiant Moon Longsword precisely inserted itself into the edge of the crack, and with a gentle flick, he pried it open.
Clang!
With a metallic clang, a massive iron plate, long since rusted and its edges even decaying, sprang open, revealing a downward-leading hole just large enough for a person to pass through.
The heavy lock that had once hung from the iron plate and its intricate internal mechanisms were faintly discernible, but after a millennium of decay, they had crumbled into a heap of rust-eaten scrap metal, their protective function completely lost.
A stale, musty air, thick with the scent of ancient dust and faint mold, billowed from the opening.
Roland snapped his fingers, and a stable, soft light ball materialized at his fingertip, hovering beside him like a loyal elf and dispelling the darkness at the entrance.
Without hesitation, he sprang forward, landing lightly in the darkness below.
The fall was brief, only about three to four meters. His feet landed firmly on solid ground.
The light sphere followed closely, slowly illuminating the dust-covered space.
It was a secret chamber about ten square meters in size, its walls rough but sturdy stone. Unlike the devastated ruins outside, this place seemed forgotten by time, preserved in an eerie state of "completeness."
Several tall wooden shelves stood against the walls, thick, blanket-like dust coating them. Despite the coating, their structures remained solid, and on them were neatly arranged items wrapped in oilcloth or leather, their exact forms indistinguishable.
Wooden crates were stacked neatly on the other side, their bodies intact, their seals faintly legible.
Metal weapon racks stood nearby, displaying several suits of armor and weapons.
Everything remained as if the owner had merely stepped out and would return to tidy up at any moment. Yet the uniform, thick layer of dust covering it silently spoke of the countless years this place had been sealed away.
This was clearly a small warehouse, miraculously untouched by looting or destruction.
However, Roland's gaze lingered neither on the shelves nor the wooden crates.
The instant the light orb stabilized, his attention was immediately drawn to the scene at the deepest end of the secret chamber, directly opposite the entrance.
There, against the wall, sat a skeleton clad in tattered rags, its bones remarkably intact despite the ravages of time.
The passage of years had stripped away all flesh, but the skeleton miraculously retained its complete form.
Even more striking was the object clutched tightly in its crossed, skeletal hands, half-concealed by the tattered cloth—
Something seemed to be clutched tightly in its hands.
(End of the Chapter)
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