Chapter 780: The Mystery of the Dark Demon and the Temple 6k
“It seems we have arrived.”
Just as Dak was about to examine closely, he saw Lily wave her hand, sending twelve “ice beads” in a line towards the temple gate.
The blue light emitted by the “ice beads” made the dim and dilapidated temple gate appear even more eerie.
Unlike the temple in the front hall, half of this temple was embedded into the stone wall. The fire lion statue exposed had even half of its head corroded, showing no sign of divinity at all.
The ice wolf statue on the right side was even worse, with only its paws remaining.
The main gate, guarded by the two statues, hung loosely, as if it could collapse with a slight push.
One “ice bead” cautiously entered, dispelling some of the gloom that had long filled the hall. But as it illuminated, the pale bones brought more coldness.
“Heartful Eyes.”
Dak tightly stared at the huge bones standing inside the hall, asking the [Goddess of Heartful Eyes] with an inquiring tone.
The [Goddess of Heartful Eyes] whispered, “There is no divine aura flowing within these bones.”
Dak slightly relaxed but hurriedly tried to grab Lily. However, after observing for just two seconds, Lily followed the “ice beads” and entered the door.
The pale bones moved instantly the moment she entered!
“Bad!” Dak immediately grasped his sword hilt.
As a Magus, he should have reached for his mana card deck first, but behind him floated the [Soul of the Moon Goddess], which could allow him to instantly evolve into the [Moon Goddess].
Therefore, he needed only to swing his sword within three seconds before evolving to block the incoming attack, allowing him to participate in battle as the [Moon Goddess].
But he didn’t need to do anything; Angrey and Olivia had already positioned themselves to protect him and Aurora.
The tiny night bird sitting on the large backpack was startled, but it had the protection of the [Toy Chick], so it wasn’t in much danger.
At this point, Professor Lily had already rushed into the hall. Even though the pale bones suddenly moved, she showed no fear and slapped them with her palms. The twelve “ice beads” immediately transformed into weapons, shattering the bone claws!
Dak felt heartache.
This huge skeleton standing in the hall was their first encounter since entering the temple. It was unclear whether it was a guardian or left by an enemy.
If they could dismantle and retrieve it, it would be highly valuable for research.
Who knew that before he could examine it, the bone claws were shattered!
The scattered bone fragments, seemingly without any special power supporting them, were finally consumed by millennia of time, turning to dust before hitting the ground.
Dak wanted to shout “Spare the bones,” but considering the danger of holding back, he held himself back.
Indeed, those bones were not so simple.
After being shattered, they became even fiercer. Dark green light flickered in the empty left eye socket, like snake eyes.
A thick spine stood upright, and the bone tail whipped the ground forcefully, causing the earth to tremble.
Black lines crawled out from the dark green snake eyes, spreading over the bones, quickly drawing strange black patterns, making the skeleton even more eerie and terrifying.
And its body was no longer fragile; when it collided with the “ice beads,” it made a metallic sound.
Dak focused intently and noticed that the skeleton was mostly human-shaped but had a tailbone and six claws arranged on both sides of the body.
Now, with one claw broken, there were still five claws.
Those five claws swung like wind, and the skeleton roared like thunder, ashes raining down.
Professor Lily seemed increasingly excited. The twelve “ice beads” formed a magical chain, continuously used as whips to strike the skeleton.
Every part struck by the “ice beads” froze instantly, with even more chilling air.
The skeleton’s roar grew more vicious, with black gas emanating from its body, surging like waves, eroding everything.
But Professor Lily simply stuck a mana card on herself, summoning a pink shield to isolate the black gas.
She did not summon a golem but dodged and evaded under the five bone claws, laughter echoing.
The skeleton, hit repeatedly by the “ice beads” whip, initially had only a few parts frozen, then the frozen areas connected, forming large-scale freezing, until half of its body was frozen, slowing its movements, and finally… it was completely frozen!
…
After confirming that the skeleton could not break free from the ice on its own, Dak and the others cautiously stepped over the threshold and entered the dilapidated hall.
He took out a practice mana card, summoned several large orbs of light, and let the [Mana Book] assist in recording, then walked inside.
Compared to the front hall, this left hall was actually much larger, at least three times bigger.
If the front hall was the facade, then this left hall was the foundation.
According to symmetry principles, compared to the unexplored right hall, it also had the same scale.
This left hall had six stone pillars, but only one was intact.
The ceiling above was entirely destroyed, with only rocks hanging down unevenly.
Walking further in, one could see at the bottom of the hall a stone platform similar to the one in the front hall, with statues of the Sun God and Moon Goddess squatting on top.
Unfortunately, both statues were damaged to varying degrees.
The sun lion statue on the left was missing its front half, while the moon wolf statue on the right was relatively intact, at least retaining half of its head.
Dak approached, but he did not sense much divine aura.
It was clear that these two statues no longer contained divine power.
Naturally, it was unlikely that there was any residual divine essence that could be absorbed.
Dak exchanged a glance with the [Soul of the Moon Goddess] floating beside him, knowing his guess was correct.
Then, the [Goddess of Heartful Eyes] slowly came over, releasing light from her third eye to scan the two statues.
Dak patiently waited nearby.
…
Meanwhile, the [Mana Book] was scanning everything in the hall.
Aurora stood in front of the ice block formed by the skeleton, carefully observing.
Olivia and Angrey separated to check, eliminating all possible dangers.
Professor Lily flew around with a bunch of small things, but after failing to find any items like treasure chests, she quieted down.
After a moment, the [Goddess of Heartful Eyes] seemed to “see” something and walked toward the statues.
When she reached the statues, she stood in thought for a moment, then suddenly reached out and rummaged inside the sun lion statue for a while, finally pulling out a spherical jade.
“Here.”
The [Goddess of Heartful Eyes] turned around and tossed the jade to Dak.
Dak quickly caught it and examined it closely, noticing cracks on the jade.
, but without any damage, one can faintly perceive a hint of weak divinity upon careful perception.
With just this trace of divinity, even with his perception, he would be unable to catch it at such a great distance.
However, the 【Goddess of Heartful Eyes】 can precisely pick it out.
After observing for a moment, he said, “Is this the eye of the sun god’s statue?”
The 【Goddess of Heartful Eyes】 shook her head, saying, “I don’t know.”
But Dark already had a definitive conclusion in mind.
He summoned his Flame Sun Elemental from between his hair strands, placing it on his fingertip and extending it towards the jade stone.
The Flame Sun Elemental fluttered over to the jade stone, rubbing against it.
Within that jade, a faint glow gradually emerged. The originally almost extinguished divine aura was slightly stirred.
“Excellent materials!”
Dark’s heart stirred; he knew he had finally found the best materials needed for the creation of the 【Crown Beast】.
He quickly took out his bag, sealing the jade stone within, then asked, “Are there other sources of divine aura within this temple?”
The answer came from the shaking head of the 【Goddess of Heartful Eyes】.
He couldn’t help feeling deeply regretful.
…
Immediately afterward, Dark returned to the vicinity of the frozen bone block, informing the others about his findings.
Aurora also shared her observations: “If my judgment is correct, this skeleton in life should have belonged to an ancient race known as the ‘Divine Guardians,’ who had both giant and dragon bloodlines, possessing six arms and two legs, capable of wielding bow, sword, and shield simultaneously. They were naturally powerful combatants. Legend states that during a certain period, the role of ‘Divine Guardians’ as temple guardians was very popular among the gods.”
Dark frowned and asked, “So, it was a guardian, not an invader?”
Aurora shook her head, saying, “More like a guardian corrupted by invaders.”
She raised her hand, pointing to the left eye socket of the skeleton: “That snake eye has eroded its will, even posthumously.”
Dark replied, “Another snake eye? Could it be that this temple was invaded by the forces behind these snake eyes, leading to its burial underground? Something that could stand against the Sun God and Moon Goddess should also be a deity. Could it be a snake deity?”
“There are too few clues,” Aurora said. “If only we could bring this skeleton out.”
Professor Lily flew down, stating, “The bones themselves aren’t significant. Taking the snake eye out will suffice for research.”
Aurora nodded, “Then let’s first separate the snake eye, and keep the bones for later transport.”
Professor Lily immediately rolled up her sleeves, saying, “Leave it to me!”
She took off again, drawing a Magic Card to summon a small knife, slicing around the snake eye embedded in the ice block, separating the entire chunk of ice containing the eye.
The snake eye still maintained its force-diffusing state, the whole ice block roughly the size of a volleyball.
Dark promptly retrieved a transparent bag, sealing it inside.
Lily then carried the bag, stuffing it into Aurora’s massive backpack, and added a barrier around it to suppress any aura.
“Alright! Let’s move on to the next temple!”
From within the decaying and dilapidated temple, the spirited voice of an Imp echoed.
…
Two hours later.
Dark and company reached the right temple, which was symmetrically opposite to the left temple, traveling at a speed faster than before, overcoming numerous dangerous areas.
Unexpectedly, this right temple was much better preserved compared to the left one.
From the exterior, apart from the two stone statues guarding the entrance being reduced to mere pedestals, there were no signs of destruction.
Yet, even Professor Lily became solemn upon reaching here.
Just a door away, the temple’s interior emitted an extremely perilous aura!
Professor Lily halted about twenty meters from the entrance, lifting her slender right arm slightly to stop Dark and the others from advancing further.
The festive atmosphere instantly froze.
There was no sound within a hundred-meter radius.
Behind Professor Lily, Dark held his breath, fully perceiving, and faintly heard the sound of very light breathing.
That sound initially had no effect, but once noticed, it suddenly reverberated like thunder, piercing through his eardrums, causing his brain to ring endlessly.
Dark covered his ears, his face turning pale.
In that instant, his spirit had been severely wounded!
Looking around him.
Aurora’s senses were not as acute as his and showed no immediate reaction.
The 【Goddess of Heartful Eyes】 momentarily blurred, nearly vanishing.
Angrey suddenly stepped forward, releasing a Magic Card that emitted a watery light, spreading a layer of water curtain that isolated the inside from the outside.
The ringing in Dark’s head abruptly ceased, and his expression rapidly improved.
Next, a circle of white light appeared, illuminating everything in sight with a pillar of light reaching the sky.
Olivia floated in mid-air, already wearing the 【White Aries Sacred Robe】, resembling an arrow of light, charging towards the temple ahead.
Professor Lily furrowed her brows, also beginning to summon the 【Illusion Faerie Dragon】.
But when she prepared the offering, Olivia was already holding a war hammer, forcefully breaking open the temple’s gate wall!
“Rumble!”
As the gate wall crumbled in an instant, the enormous creature hiding within the temple revealed itself.
It was a pitch-black serpent even larger than Wit Gold’s 【Bloody Great Serpent】.
This serpent coiled within the temple, filling most of its internal space, unknown how it managed to enter in the first place.
Its head hung at the door, eyes closed, breathing faintly, its body smooth and shiny, as if black light flowed over it.
Underneath, the ground had turned into a dark mud pool, black oil rippling with each breath.
Even with Olivia breaking the gate wall, it did not awaken.
Stone fragments striking its serpent body seemed to dissolve in oil, losing all strength and sliding down into the mud pit.
Olivia hovered in the air, frowning, raising her war hammer high, gathering white light at the tip to form a light sword.
This time, when the light sword reached ten meters, she stopped, twisting her wrist to strike the giant serpent fiercely.
“Puff!”
The light sword struck the serpent’s head, clearly embedding into its skull, but from the wound, black oil gushed forth, extremely repulsive.
The light sword, upon touching the oil, was corroded and emitted a foul stench.
Olivia seemed to sense something, immediately severing the sword blade, retracting the hammer and retreating.
“Miaow—”
Professor Lily’s 【Illusion Faerie Dragon】 appeared, emitting a clingy meow.
As Olivia passed by, she whispered, “Continue deploying Magic Golems to fight, it’s an 【Oil Snake】!”
“【Oil Snake】!”
】? Where could there be such a huge 【Oil Snake】?” Professor Lily was initially startled, but half a second later, she was filled with delight.
— Could there be anything more delightful than discovering an unknown creature during an adventure?
Thus, her eyes darted around, and she chuckled as she flew towards that 【Oil Snake]: “Such a huge 【Oil Snake】, if I could catch it and bring it back…”
…
“What is a 【Oil Snake】?” The imp beast landed on Dark’s shoulder, curiously asking.
Dark replied, “It’s a snake-like creature that secretes black oil from its body. But ordinary oil snakes can only grow to about two fingers thick and one meter long. The black oil they secrete has beautifying effects. Many women use it on their faces for beauty, and some nobles fill their bathtubs with snake oil for a snake oil bath.”
The imp beast muttered, “Isn’t that great?”
Dark warned seriously, “It is, if they were only that small…”
The reason the black oil from oil snakes could beautify was because it could precisely corrode the skin’s keratin layer, making the skin smoother and reducing melanin.
But an ordinary oil snake could only secrete a small spoonful in a short time.
Yet, this giant snake could easily fill a lake.
Quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes.
Its black oil could even corrode the light-type energy on a light sword.
Seeing how Aurora decisively retreated, it was clear that the black oil from this 【Oil Snake】 could likely corrode the mana or spirit of the person holding the sword through the light sword’s energy.
Engaging in close combat with such an opponent would inevitably result in damage.
Moreover, this 【Black Snake】 could withstand the force of that sword almost unscathed, indicating that the black oil could also “dissipate force.”
This was probably the type of opponent Aurora disliked the most.
Fighting such an opponent in an unknown environment was extremely irrational.
Therefore, Aurora decisively withdrew, leaving the 【Oil Snake】 to Professor Lily.
While Dark and the imp beast were explaining, Professor Lily had already reached under the head of the 【Oil Snake】 and then, at this very close distance, activated the 【Illusion Faerie Dragon】’s ultimate skill—the 【Illusion Magic Cube】!
“Miaow!” The 【Illusion Faerie Dragon】 emitted a soft cry.
The space beneath the 【Oil Snake】 was silently sliced into nine pieces, a special field effect covering from bottom to top.
The 【井】-shaped grid formed by the spatial cracks suddenly opened downward like a pit trap, an irresistible gravitational force pressing down, swallowing the unknown giant 【Oil Snake】 that had inexplicably fallen asleep here.
“Caught it, Oil Snake!”
Professor Lily raised her right hand; the 【Illusion Magic Cube】 instantly gathered, forming a third-level magic cube in her palm.
This time, she cautiously peered into the magic cube for a while, confirming that the 【Oil Snake】 was still sleeping inside before lifting her head with a smug smile.
The breathing of this 【Oil Snake】 was like thunder, capable of injuring the spirit.
The snake oil secreted within its body could dissipate force, corrode mana, spirit, and material.
Fortunately, it remained asleep, showing no signs of waking even after being struck by Aurora’s sword.
Now enclosed in the 【Illusion Magic Cube】, it remained asleep.
Seeing it taken away, everyone cautiously entered the temple.
However, they found that the temple’s roof was missing, connected only to the surrounding stone caves from the outside, making it hard to see from afar.
Inside, all the stone pillars were gone, and the symbols on the walls were worn away, except for the innermost stone platform which remained intact, and the statues of the Sun Goddess and Moon Goddess… were undamaged!
“Could it be that this 【Oil Snake】 protected the statues?”
Everyone looked at each other, turning their gazes toward the 【Goddess of Heartful Eyes】.
The 【Magical Beast: Goddess of Heartful Eyes】 frowned at the statues, the third eye on its forehead straining to open, its purple pupil unmoving as a beam of divine light shot out, illuminating every part of the statue.
After a while, it retracted its 【Eye of the Gods】 and said, “Both statues are intact, but the divine aura within them is extremely weak, and there is no sign of any divine power. They need divine power to recover.”
Dark said, “In that case, we just need to move them to the front hall, where the divine power of the two statues there can nurture them, and they should recover.”
The 【Goddess of Heartful Eyes】 nodded slightly and smiled, “There is still some fundamental divine essence left in both statues, but once extracted, they need to be moved to the front hall as soon as possible.”
Upon hearing this, Dark was delighted.
Behind him, the 【Soul of the Moon Goddess】 hurriedly approached, carefully touching the statue of the Moon Goddess.
The statue’s power was weak, unable to manifest anomalies.
With its own strength, the 【Soul of the Moon Goddess】 guided the extraction of the fundamental divine essence from the Moon Goddess statue.
Thus, its path to reconstructing the divine core advanced another 1%.
【Moon Goddess (2%)】 → 【Moon Goddess (3%)】!
Unfortunately, it could only absorb the fundamental divine essence of the Moon Goddess and not the Sun Goddess, so it had to leave the fundamental divine essence of the Sun Goddess statue behind.
“Next…”
Dark took out his pocket watch and checked the time.
“It’s almost ten o’clock. Should we continue our actions or rest here? With the 【Oil Snake】 gone, this temple is a good place to camp.”
…
Dark usually made decisions on the spot and immediately voiced the question, seeking everyone’s opinion.
The 【Goddess of Heartful Eyes】 expressed first, “The next temple is extremely far from here. At our current speed, it will take at least three hours to reach, which will be very late, too tiring. It’s best to go tomorrow.”
But it had no voting rights.
So Lily quickly decided, “Of course we continue! Who stops halfway through a challenge? We are magi, staying awake for three to five days isn’t unusual, and with me around, there’s nothing to fear!”
Encouraged by her, everyone expressed their opinions.
Aurora whispered, “It’s better to be cautious, I agree with setting up camp here…”
Aurora: “Safety first.”
Angrey: “Agreed.”
So it was three votes against one.
Dark still did not vote.
Lily suddenly felt targeted.
She suspiciously looked around at her companions but couldn’t detect anything unusual.
Everyone laughed and set up camp on the spot.
They cleared the ground, erected tents in front of the statues, placed a lamp in the middle of the tents, and each crawled into their sleeping bags, chatting softly around the lamp.
Drowsiness slowly crept in, and the barrier outside the tent glimmered faintly.
Three elemental beings had the same dream.
…
…
[Last few hours for double activity, please cast your 【Moon Tickets】!]
