Chapter 553: Chapter 280: Ember Teaching Staff
The heavy metal flail whistled through the air, but never landed a hit. Instead, it was the seemingly more cumbersome giant sword that consistently left marks on the bulky iron plates.
After barely a dozen rounds, the knight opposite was caught off guard by “me.” At the same time as dodging the attack, I smashed the sword handle hard on the fat knight’s helmet at the back of his head.
“Thunk!”
The massive, corpulent body swayed and staggered back, blood seeping from the seam of the iron helmet.
With an unstable center of gravity, his heel struck the edge of the pool, and he fell backward like a collapsing iron mountain, crashing into the fountain pool.
“I” silently sheathed the sword.
Without even a glance at the body in the pool, my cold gaze swept across the crowd on both sides of the square, stepping over the stone edge ahead and continuing onward towards the town’s exit.
After passing through the last narrow alley, the air seemed a bit fresher. Although the pervasive sense of decay hadn’t dissipated, the vast open wilderness beyond the low wall slightly relieved the oppressive feeling that had been stifling “me” in the town.
With my left hand gently brushing the magic wand at my waist, “I” took a step, attempting to cross the simple wooden fence by the stone wall and leave this place.
Carrying the “fire spark” spoken of by the Priest, heading to the Royal City in search of the last sliver of hope.
Perhaps because of the impending departure, Xia Nan could feel the tension in “my” nerves relax for a moment.
Instinctively, my gaze lifted, looking towards the town entrance.
My body suddenly stiffened.
Right by the edge of the low wall, on a low stone base, stood a tall and sacred figure in silence.
The cold sunlight quietly shone down, illuminating its flawless white body, clearly outlining that familiar silhouette—the graceful, gentle posture, the stone gauze skirt swaying in the wind, and those compassionate yellow snake eyes.
Xia Nan didn’t understand what was happening.
Nor could he fathom what kind of experience “I” was having at the moment, or what kind of stimulus was received.
From his perspective, all he could see was “me” freezing my actions at the instant I saw the statue.
Turning around, suddenly shouting loudly, and then charging straight at the statue, swinging the giant sword in hand.
Exerting full power, the sharp blade split the entire statue at the waist, causing it to collapse while the body seemed to undergo some kind of transformation.
The originally bright vision gradually darkened, with a blood-red hue spreading from the edges.
Finally, with a strange snake’s hiss that seemed to echo inside the skull like it was close to the ear, the entire consciousness was lost, falling backward to the ground.
“Thunk!”
The back of the head violently collided with the ground, the cold and hard texture of brick and stone, and the slight pain that burst forth instantly woke Xia Nan.
Opened eyes to find a stone sculpture with weathered, time-ravaged legs, its bare toes lightly touching the base, and a faint glimpse of its thigh’s contour within the billowing stone skirt.
But from the waist upward, there was only emptiness, as if it had been severed at the waist.
Xia Nan sat up, slightly dazed for a few seconds, before finally realizing he had regained control of his body, having exited the Secret Realm.
“Did I… return to the entrance of the Grey Valley ruins?”
As if remembering something.
Suddenly turned around!
What met his eyes was the swirling mist, visibly dissipating with the fierce wind rushing through the valley, allowing visibility to gradually improve and revealing the dispersing town ruins in the depths of the valley.
But the most complete and magnificent towering church had vanished without a trace.
“Hmm!?”
Feeling a shock in his heart, Xia Nan instinctively wanted to rush towards the ruins.
Leaving aside the loot on those three adventurers, the biggest gain from this action, the magic wand known as the “fire spark” in Secret Realm memory, was still inside the church.
If the church disappeared, then he…
His mind was thus occupied, but just as he took a step, an inexplicable hard sensation at his side waist made him instinctively lower his head, looking down.
The next second, the burning embers’ glow was reflected in his dark pupils.
Unbeknownst to him, the fire spark wand was already tied tight at his waist, just like “me” in the Secret Realm.
Reaching out to take it down, feeling the faint warmth emanating from the wooden staff’s surface in his palm, Xia Nan focused his attention, his gaze fixed on the wand in his hand.
Immediately, the semi-transparent characters symbolizing the attribute panel appeared in the empty air before his eyes:
…
[Ember Teaching Staff]
Type: Consumables/Tool
Level: /
Introduction:
The Flame Crystal at the top of the staff records some ancient inheritance from the Zaret Ash Church. Break it to comprehend its mysteries.
Note:
“The flame will eventually extinguish, but human hope will not.”
——Royal Magic Research Room, East Side Experiment Room Wall Admonition Engraving
…
The encounter in the Secret Realm quickly faded from consciousness like last night’s dream, making the details of the strange little town especially fuzzy and hard to recall.
But through those few critical points: the decapitated and left-armed Priest, the fat Knight dead in the fountain, and the severed goddess statue.
Xia Nan could confirm that the buildings and enemies in the Grey Valley were those he had seen within the Secret Realm.
However, due to some unknown reason, a bizarre change occurred, causing the buildings to decay and collapse, while some living people were also transformed into highly aggressive dried corpses.
Perhaps the Secret Realm was triggered by himself.
The church, along with a few adventurers’ bodies, had disappeared from its original location.
And Xia Nan’s spoils, apart from the Iron Stomach Flail hidden in a secret spot in the depths of the ruins beforehand, only included the Ember Teaching Staff.
Unexpectedly, given its appearance, he originally thought it was a casting equipment exclusive to mages.
Unexpectedly, it turned out to be a consumable tool used for teaching inheritance.
This thing was so bizarre that, in the past, Xia Nan certainly wouldn’t dare to use it heedlessly.
Fortunately, the attribute panel’s Golden Finger directly pointed out its usage method, indicating that it wasn’t a curse hiding inside but a genuine Exotic Realm inheritance.
Lifting his head, he spread his perception, scanning the surroundings, and seeing no danger, Xia Nan didn’t waste any more time.
Five fingers clutched the shimmering ember-like orange-red Crystal Stone at the end of the staff.
Applying slight force.
“Crack.”
A clear sound like an eggshell breaking was heard.
A fiery crack emerged from the stone surface near his fingertips, like a breach in a dam, dazzling light and scorching heat burst forth from the stone, transforming into a large mass of orange-red flame that engulfed Xia Nan’s entire body.
It seemed to sense a few key items on him, and the flame quietly split into three parts.
The largest part of the flame, almost half of it, formed a rapidly contracting orange-red vortex, absorbed by Xia Nan’s right hand’s ring finger, the silver ring made from the Dream Weaving Corridor’s terminal, its surface glistening.
A third of the orange-red flame, carrying the complete inheritance within the Crystal Stone, entered Xia Nan’s head.
Text, sound, images… a massive amount of information surged in his mind.
The time was brief, too fleeting for detailed analysis.
But judging from the knowledge digested in those hasty few breaths, this “fire spark” from a remote Exotic Realm town seemed to be a ——
Battle Skill!?
Besides this, the remaining few wisps of flame in the air flowed along Xia Nan’s Beheading Longsword, directly into the depths of his backpack.
Merging with the loot from the encounter with the knight in Melted Scale Town, under Count of Sticky Tree’s Knight Captain Terry William, after whom he acquired a polished silver ingot.
With its originally flawless silver-white exterior, now tinged with an ember-like peculiar hue, it emitted a warm glow from deep within the backpack.