Chapter 2682 Luring the Target <TOC>
Translator: SumTLMan
Angel actually had some faint suspicions in his mind, but all those suspicions hinged on one overarching premise.
Namely, that everything was indeed orchestrated behind the scenes by the Wood Spirit.
Although Angel was inclined to believe it was the Wood Spirit, he couldn’t rule out other possibilities, like that blond woman from the painting earlier.
Unfortunately, based on the clues at hand, Angel couldn’t confirm who exactly was pulling the strings behind the scenes.
Still, uncovering the truth wasn’t his current task. In many cases, as long as the goal is reached, not knowing the truth doesn’t really matter.
Just like in this matter: Angel’s objective was to find the Wood Spirit, which had no direct link to knowing or not knowing the truth. As for the Wood Spirit’s location, based on the current information, the scope had already been narrowed down.
If nothing unexpected happened, the Wood Spirit should be on the second floor.
…
After leaving the fork in the road, Angel and the others had walked for about a minute when they spotted the first set of drifting remains from a room near the void path.
Angel took a quick look and discovered nothing, so he continued on.
Soon, they found the second and then a third set of room debris. It might sound as if three separate rooms had turned up along this right-side route, but that wasn’t strictly accurate. Although the three scattered remains each looked different, Angel had once been to Nightfall City’s Hanging Prison Stairs back when it was intact. From his memories, the furniture styles on these scattered fragments all came from one and the same room.
In other words, these three fragments likely originated from a single large room that had broken apart; they had once been pieces of a whole.
Probably because they had belonged to a single entity, they were similarly barren. The second and third fragments likewise provided no leads.
Once they finished passing through this drifting cluster of wreckage, they kept going.
They hadn’t gone much farther before Angel suddenly heard a faint whisper at his ear. Turning around, he saw Vai had somehow sidled up beside him.
The moment Vai noticed Angel looking, he began frantically signaling with his eyes, motioning for him to look behind.
Angel did so and immediately saw that, at some point, the Sovereign of Wisdom had dropped to the very rear of the group. He was walking with his head down, as though lost in thought, and even the third eye on his forehead was narrowed into a slit.
Leaning in, Vai lowered his voice on purpose: “He’s been acting like that for a while. Who knows what scheme he’s plotting deep down. My lord, you must be careful.”
Angel hadn’t expected Vai to come all this way just to say that. This little apprentice certainly had his heart in the right place, but,
“Lowering your voice doesn’t help. He can still hear you.”
Vai’s expression instantly froze.
Angel went on: “However, with the Sovereign of Wisdom like this, his mind has only stepped away from the illusion for a short time.”
Vai brightened: “So…he might not have heard what I just said?”
Angel gave a slight shrug: “I’m not sure. But rather than worrying about that, maybe you should be more concerned about whatever’s happening on your side.”
Angel paused and signaled for Vai to look over at the Black Count and Daus.
Only then did Vai notice that his ancestor was lying on the ground, motionless, while Daus’ posture was identical to the Sovereign of Wisdom’s, head down, expression blank, clearly with his mind also out of the illusion.
Two formal wizards leaving the illusion at once strongly hinted that something unknown was happening on the outside.
“Don’t tell me…the Sovereign of Wisdom took advantage of our distraction to attack our true bodies?” Vai’s face filled with alarm.
Angel shook his head: “Relax, he didn’t.”
The external illusion Angel had set up, as well as Eremy who was lurking in the shadows, could both feed him information. At the moment, neither the illusion nor Eremy had come under attack, which showed the Sovereign of Wisdom hadn’t made any hostile moves.
Even so, both of them stepping away simultaneously was unusual.
After thinking a moment, Angel lifted the barrier he had placed on their mental connection and quickly contacted the Black Count and Daus.
“At long last you decided to reach out. I’ve been calling you forever,” came Daus’ somewhat resentful voice over the mental connection.
Right then, the Black Count also responded: “Just now, the Sovereign of Wisdom suddenly withdrew from the illusion. I noticed something off and came out to look, only to find he was gone.”
“He left?!” Vai said: “So does that mean we don’t have to carry out any bonus conditions or mandatory requirements now?”
Daus replied: “Regrettably, he’s returned, even as we speak.”
No sooner had Daus finished speaking than Vai heard a familiar voice at his side:
“That’s correct. Sorry to disappoint, but I have already come back.”
Whipping around, Vai found himself face-to-face with the young man’s three eyes, all squinting as though smiling.
“S-so…Sovereign of Wisdom!”
The Sovereign of Wisdom regarded Vai with a meaningful expression: “Although I stepped away briefly, I never fully withdrew my mind.”
Vai forced a stiff grin: “S-Sovereign, what do you mean?”
Still smiling, the Sovereign of Wisdom replied: “I’m only pointing out that lowering your voice was pointless; I could hear everything quite clearly.”
Vai’s expression froze a second time.
Just as Vai was about to mentally collapse, a thick swirl of Nightmare Aura coalesced around Vai’s true body, spiraling tightly as if to seal him in.
With the aura’s emergence, the Sovereign of Wisdom’s gaze slid off Vai and refocused on Angel.
“I suspected earlier that your illusions could sense emotional states, but I didn’t realize they could also conceal them,” said the Sovereign of Wisdom with a quiet chuckle: “That said, even though you hid his emotions, a little information still slipped through.”
Remaining calm, Angel watched as the Sovereign of Wisdom continued slowly: “That huge surge of earth energy, he, too, is a descendant of the Noah family, isn’t he?”
Vai’s eyes nearly popped out in shock… He’d been tricked! The Sovereign of Wisdom left to disrupt them emotionally, then seized the chance to glean new info?
Angel spoke up: “No need to guess one by one, Sovereign of Wisdom. You might as well assume we’re all from the Noah family.”
Sovereign of Wisdom: “If I told you that the descendants of Noah may not come to a good end, while those who aren’t might stand a better chance of survival…would you still say that?”
At these words, Angel locked eyes with the Sovereign of Wisdom for a few moments, perplexed, then suddenly let out a light laugh.
“I assumed you were mostly an arrogant figure, Sovereign of Wisdom, but it turns out I gave you too much credit.”
Arrogance is a sin, but ignorance is the original sin.
Sovereign of Wisdom: “What is that supposed to mean?”
Angel: “Nothing special. I just recalled something my Enlightenment Mentor once taught me… Times have changed.”
With that, Angel didn’t elaborate. He simply turned and left.
Since the Black Count and Daus had both returned, he was no longer needed here. He would focus on finding the Wood Spirit now. As for the Sovereign of Wisdom’s warning, Angel dismissed it as nothing more than empty words.
So the Sovereign of Wisdom was implying that the Noah descendants might meet their doom, namely, that they might die here.
Yet if a descendant of Noah really lost their life in this place, the resulting turmoil would be more than the Sovereign of Wisdom could possibly bear, enough to drown Nightfall City.
In ancient times, Nightfall City was in its heyday, and the Noah family was merely an insignificant wizard clan there.
But after ten thousand years, Nightfall City is now a ruined wasteland, while the Noah family has grown into a towering powerhouse.
One rose as the other fell; if the Sovereign of Wisdom still treats it like it was in days past, that viewpoint is not only outdated but downright ignorant. The Noah family now commands mighty figures, resources, and alliances. Even if they forcibly took control of the thousand kilometers surrounding the ruins, the Guman King would scarcely voice an objection.
Once Nightfall City is under the Noah family’s watchful gaze, if it is a cherished red gem, perhaps they’d leave it alone. But if it’s merely a scab or a blot of mosquito blood, there’s only one possible end: eradication.
Perhaps Nightfall City does still harbor certain hidden depths or remain home to many powerful figures yet to awaken, but if it insists on clinging to a husk of rubble, ultimately it’s the city that will lose.
Obliterating Nightfall City in one strike might be impractical given its ancient heritage, but a slow, steady erosion, cooking the frog in warm water, would hardly pose a problem.
Hence Angel’s remark: Times have changed.
A measure of arrogance is tolerable, but ignorance will only invite ridicule.
…
Vai never expected Angel would confront the Sovereign of Wisdom head-on, nor that it would be triggered by him. Though he feared the Sovereign of Wisdom’s fury, he felt an even stronger surge of respect… Indeed, the Lord deserved his adulation!
Meanwhile, the Sovereign of Wisdom lowered his head as if deep in thought again, just like someone whose mind had withdrawn from the illusion once more.
However, this time, neither the Black Count nor Daus exited the illusion, because the Sovereign of Wisdom seemed genuinely lost in contemplation.
Angel supposed it might be due to what he had just said. If the Sovereign of Wisdom could truly figure things out and set aside his arrogance and bias, that would be great for them. Otherwise, they might need to be ready to make a quick exit.
While this was on Angel’s mind, Kael exclaimed in surprise,
“Lord, there’s a room over there?!”
Kael was so loud partly out of astonishment, partly out of excitement, because this time, the room he saw was nothing like the wreckage they’d come across before.
It wasn’t on solid ground but drifting in the void, just like the other scattered debris.
Yet this particular room remained nearly ninety percent intact.
At first glance, it hardly resembled a ruined fragment at all, more like an old house simply covered in a fine layer of dust.
Its remarkable condition explained Kael’s astonishment and…delight.
Even if the Wood Spirit wasn’t inside, finding such a well-preserved place was still a prize. It was bound to hold plentiful traces of ancient days, an absolute feast for an archaeology enthusiast.
Kael could hardly wait to go in.
Yet in the name of caution, Kael first signaled Angel. After Angel confirmed there were no overt signs of danger, Kael flew inside.
Angel didn’t enter immediately; instead, he looked to the Black Count: “This should be the last room on the second floor, right?”
The Black Count nodded: “Yes. Beyond this point, there’s no path.”
Hearing this, Angel took another moment to cross-check the resonance coordinates he’d picked up earlier and felt almost certain that this room contained a resonance point.
If the resonance point was indeed created by the Wood Spirit, even if it wasn’t actually here, it might have left some trace.
With that in mind, Angel followed inside.
…
The building had two floors. Downstairs was basically ruins, cluttered with broken objects. Nonetheless, compared to what they had seen so far, this place had many more “collectible” items.
Floor tiles, sand beds, oil lamps, ghostly flames…they all had some sort of extraordinary characteristic, counting as transcendent materials.
Individually, they wouldn’t fetch much, but if collected in bulk, the total value would be considerable.
From the covetous gleam in Daus’ eyes, it was plain how much he wanted everything in sight.
But no matter how much he craved them, for now he could only look. He was just an illusory projection here, after all. However, Daus had already set his mind: next time, it will be my turn to explore the Hanging Prison Stairs, and I’ll make sure to sweep this place clean.
To maximize his own profit, Daus even tried to talk Kael out of taking anything, so that he himself could claim it all on his future turn!
As for Angel, Daus didn’t bother discouraging him. For one, Angel was still blocking him from speaking, and two, Angel didn’t seem particularly interested in these wares to begin with.
Daus’ plan sounded splendid, except he never considered that if Angel found the Wood Spirit this trip, there might be no third expedition.
After they’d surveyed the first floor, everyone headed for the stairs.
They didn’t immediately ascend because the Black Count was hovering at the base, pointing his nose toward the banisters on either side.
Clinging to the banisters was a row of vines studded with sharp thorns.
“Are these Bloodsucking Vines?” Vai asked curiously: “Are they alive or dead?”
Kael sensed them carefully for a moment before saying: “They seem to be dead, no sign of any life at all. And yet, something about them feels wrong…but I can’t pin down what.”
At a loss, Kael turned his questioning gaze to Angel.
Angel said: “They feel wrong because…they’re fake.”
“Fake?” Kael and Vai both echoed in astonishment.
Angel nodded: “Yes, they’re fake. If you look closely, you’ll see this is actually woodcarving rather than genuine vines.”
At that, the Black Count added: “Indeed, it’s carved. When I was here earlier, I didn’t pay attention to the details, but taking a closer look now, it’s clear how perfectly it fits against the banister, almost as though it was made for it.”
“Yet the color doesn’t match at all, and the style clashes with the house. It doesn’t seem like part of the original design; more like…”
“Someone later inserted it here.”