Chapter 277: The Keeper of the Path

  This was a house quite similar to the one Sandro had in the royal capital before, just smaller and a bit gloomier. All kinds of corpses and organs were placed in containers, two huge stone platforms were in the center of the room, and the air was filled with the smell of corpses and preservative fluid. Besides this, the only things in the house were a tattered wooden plank bed and some extremely simple living utensils and supplies. Just like Sandro's large house, it really didn't seem like a place fit for human habitation.

  Although the old man had invited them in to sit, in reality, there didn't seem to be any place to sit in the house. It seemed this was not a place accustomed to hosting guests. And even if there were, Talise and Aimee probably wouldn't have dared to sit down anyway. A white magical light glowed on Talise's body. This place looked too bizarre, and knowing the other party was a Necromancer, she instinctively cast a Holy Armor spell on herself.

  "Don't use white magic in my presence. I don't like that color." The old man squinted, as if uncomfortable with the glare from Talise's white light, and with a casual wave, the magic on Talise vanished.

  Talise's face darkened, but she did not act rashly. Just now, the old man hadn't used a white magic spell like Purification or any dispelling magic, but had instead used Necromancy to forcibly counter the impact of her white magic without harming her in the slightest. This method was like using a great axe to help someone remove a layer of clothing. This level of control over magic was already somewhat inconceivable.

  "Hmm..." The old man looked Ethan up and down, nodded, and coughed, "You're that kid who studied with Sandro, right?"

  Ethan nodded.

  "I've heard about you many times, and now I finally see you..." The old man coughed and gasped, as if muttering to himself, "Heh, the fine mess that bastard Sandro has made... For the first time in 500 years, an outsider has studied the Meditations on Truth, has studied Necromancy... and has thrown Diya Valley into complete chaos... Forget it, it was already chaotic... What's meant to come, will come..."

  "Agrael sent you to find me? What do you want with this old man who's about to die?" The old man sat down on a small bed made of wooden planks, his breathing like a broken bellows, whooshing and gasping, interspersed with coughing.

  "Auntie asked me to invite Master Valthor to show us a path. A path into the underground of Nighon," Ethan said.

  "Into the underground of Nighon? Three hundred miles to the north is the largest path, leading directly to the deepest parts of Nighon's underground. Tens of thousands of Celeste's army marched in there over a decade ago. You can naturally pass through as well," the old man Valthor coughed. Every time he spoke, it was a great effort. It was even more of an effort for the listener, as they had to piece together the meaning of his words from amidst his coughing.

  "The path we need to take is naturally the path here, Master," Ethan said, looking at the shriveled, coughing old man before him with great deference.

  Valthor glanced at Ethan, his cloudy eyes grew even cloudier, and he shook his head weakly, saying: "The path here is not for you to take. Only the acting guild master of Diya Valley has the right to take it, and it must be the current one. Even Agrael himself cannot use it."

  "I know. According to Diya Valley's rules, the path you guard is indeed only for the acting guild master, but our situation is urgent. I must ask for your flexibility, Master," Ethan said carefully, taking the jet-black gem from his robe and presenting it before the old man Valthor's eyes. "If you look at this, you will know I am not speaking nonsense."

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  "Hmm?" Valthor's cloudy eyes suddenly lit up, but then immediately dimmed again. "This thing could not have come from here. Agrael should know. I have not been derelict in my duty, and I will not let you take this path. I know where you want to go. I can tell you, other paths can also lead there."

  "Being able to lead there doesn't mean we can reach there. More than a decade ago, even Lancelot with twelve Temple Knights couldn't get there. How could the three of us possibly make it?" Ethan put the gem away with a bitter smile.

  "That's right. You can kill me, and then you can go." Valthor suddenly said, coughing.

  This sentence was not said to Ethan, but to Talise. The female knight seemed to have grown somewhat impatient. Although she knew she couldn't act, a sliver of killing intent still leaked from her.

  "The path is right under the bed I'm sitting on. You can come and try to kill me..."

  It seemed he had said too much, for Valthor's coughing suddenly intensified. His small, frail body convulsed violently with the coughs, his wrinkled, ugly face turning red. He was no longer breathing, just gasping. Such an old man—anyone looking at him would feel there was no need to kill him; just stand there and wait for a while, and he would cough himself to death.

  "Is this old grandpa going to be alright? I have some medicine here..." Aimee couldn't help but ask. Although she knew the old man before her was the legendary Necromancer, his piteous appearance was truly too much for her to bear.

  Talise still kept a cold face and did not move. She knew that no matter how pitiful or frail he looked, this old man was absolutely not someone she could handle.

  But she didn't move. Ethan did. He suddenly stepped forward and grabbed the old man Valthor's neck, his other hand placing itself on Valthor's chest.

  His movements were fast, and without the slightest hint of killing intent beforehand. Even Talise and Aimee were startled by his action.

  The old man Valthor was already very small and frail. Ethan's hand almost completely encircled his neck. His coughing and his convulsive gasping stopped immediately. The difference in their body shapes and appearances was as stark as that between a strong, adult wolf and a dying old chicken. It seemed that with just a casual exertion of force, Ethan could crush this old man, who could be toppled by a gust of wind, into a pulp of flesh.

  But the instant Ethan grabbed Valthor, the entire house came to life.

  To be precise, all the corpses and organs inside the house came to life, and they moved with incredible speed. All the organs and corpses on the floor, on the cabinets, and in the bottles came to life as if they were living things, and with the energy and magical power of things that had been dormant for hundreds of years and suddenly awakened, they each bounced, jumped, darted, and charged toward Ethan.

  The fastest to move were the things under the large piece of cloth in the corner. Even before Ethan's hand had time to reach Valthor's neck, the things under the cloth had lifted the large piece of cloth and flew over. Their speed was so great it even surpassed Ethan's. From the outline of the cloth, it could be seen that there seemed to be two people.

  As Ethan moved, Talise also moved. With a shing, her long sword left its scabbard. The light of white magic once again shone on her body in an instant. The two support spells, Holy Blessing and Holy Armor, were instantly cast upon her. She charged toward the two figures under the cloth, who were the fastest to charge. She could tell that the things beneath were definitely the most threatening in the room.

  With one hand on her sword, Talise had already taken out a crystal triangle. The light of white magic flashed in her hand, and the crystal suddenly lit up. Her movements and reactions were truly flawless, but at this moment, a loud shout made her freeze.

  "Don't move." It was Ethan who was shouting.

  It was unclear whether this sentence was for Talise or for the Valthor in his grasp. In any case, all the jumping organs and corpses in the room indeed stopped instantly. Some organs and limbs that were in mid-air fell to the ground with a plop. The two figures under the cloth also stopped. The light in the triangular crystal in Talise's hand also immediately extinguished. Had it been a moment later, the Prism of Light would have been fired, and at such a close range, it could have turned all those small internal organs and limbs into charcoal.

  Only now did Aimee react, fumblingly chanting scriptures as a circle of blue water mist appeared around her and Talise's bodies.

  A faint magical fluctuation overflowed from Ethan's hands. It was a magic that mixed Necromancy with another indescribable, elusive aura. It surged from his hands toward Valthor's body, drilling into his stooped, frail frame. A layer of black mist also emanated from Valthor's body, and the smell of corpses in the entire room suddenly intensified dozens of times. That layer of mist was Necromancy that had been condensed and tempered for decades. This layer of mist was also slowly flowing toward Ethan, gradually seeping into his body.

  The two of them, one old and one young, one small and one large, remained motionless. Only magical power flowed continuously between their bodies. Talise and Aimee watched the unmoving pair, not understanding the situation and burning with anxiety, yet they were at a loss as to what to do.

  After a long while, Ethan let out a long breath. The magical fluctuation between his hands weakened and dissipated. The layer of mist around Valthor's body also slowly faded and vanished. Finally, the two separated. Talise and Aimee also breathed a sigh of relief.

  "I don't owe you any gratitude. Since I was thirteen, I have never owed anyone gratitude in my life," Valthor's cloudy eyes looked at Ethan, with a hint of astonishment. He had actually managed to say this short sentence without coughing, and his previously dry, wrinkled face seemed to have gained some vitality: "Besides, you were just trying to show favor and curry favor, wanting me to let you pass. It doesn't count as a favor. I can even see it as a malicious act, a threat."

  All the corpses and limbs in the room moved again, but this time they returned to their original places. The two figures under the cloth also walked back to the corner.