A Precious Chest?
Nolan was a bit surprised—he hadn't expected a chest to appear here. Just in case it was a trap, he had the "Sword God" slash at it!
A golden sword slash ignored the distance and appeared in front of the chest, slicing its lid open with ease.
Boom!
A burst of black smoke exploded outward, engulfing everything nearby. The grass it touched withered instantly, as if its life force had been drained.
His caution was warranted. The chest had been far too conspicuous, clearly meant to lure people into opening it.
"Tch, lucky you noticed."
That unpleasant voice layered with multiple tones rang down from above again, leaving Nolan speechless.
Was this evil entity an idiot? Did it really think he'd fall for such a basic trick? He wasn't some dumb adventurer blinded by treasure.
Now, if it had conjured up a beautiful girl instead, that might have been different.
Still, he had scouted with the "Sword God." Even if it had been attacked, it didn't matter—after all, she had no life force.
After confirming with his spiritual energy that the first floating island held nothing else of interest, Nolan directed the "Sword God" to fly up toward the next floating island.
"The grass up ahead is thick. Let's just fly over it," he suggested.
"Isn't that because you just wanted to keep holding us while we walked slowly?" Yelan teased, smirking.
Being held like that by a guy was a first for her. It felt a little unfamiliar, but since she didn't have a bad impression of Nolan, she let it slide.
Nolan smoothly retracted his hand, realizing his mistake. "Ahem… Anyway, let's focus on dealing with that evil creature first."
Keqing brushed aside her violet bangs and sighed, "You saw it yourself—there's no way we can handle that thing. Only you can fight it. It's best if we stay here so you don't have to worry about protecting us too."
As the Yuheng of the Liyue Qixing, she really wanted to confront these evil threats to humanity herself. But she knew she lacked the power and didn't want to become a burden.
"As much as I hate to admit it, that's true," Yelan added with a helpless shrug.
"Alright then, I'll leave the 'Sword God' here to protect you both. Just in case that thing tries to attack while I'm gone."
Nolan summoned the "Sword God" back to his side. A shame—he was hoping to impress Yelan and Keqing a little.
"Heh, fine," Yelan replied. She hadn't expected to ever be in a position where someone else would protect her.
[Yelan Has Developed Good Feelings Towards You, Obtained 300 Affection. Current Affection Level: Lv.7 (550/700)]
Seeing the prompt on his character panel, Nolan thought to himself, Nice, and then used his spiritual energy to lift himself into the air, flying upward.
When he passed through the second floating island, he scanned it briefly with his mind and found nothing noteworthy.
The third floating island, however, was packed with mechanical constructs lying in ambush.
He approached slightly and enveloped them in the field of "Moonveil Tianquan," instantly gaining control over the "valuable" parts of their bodies.
He directly extracted the energy cores from the constructs, easily disabling them.
[Defeated Powerful Enemies x12. Obtained 62,832 Adventure EXP.]
Even though he had earned over 60,000 EXP, Nolan no longer felt particularly excited over these "scraps."
After all, it was still miles away from the ten million EXP needed to level up.
Perhaps realizing that simple ambushes were useless against him, the fourth and fifth floating islands didn't contain any constructs at all.
Before long, he reached the sixth island—the highest one in the entire domain.
This floating island was even smaller—only about a dozen square meters. There wasn't much on it.
At the center stood a pedestal, and upon it rested three distinct items, all shrouded in black mist that intertwined and twisted together.
That ominous black aura had combined to form the evil creature from before.
It seemed that the creature had somehow revived within its original components, likely due to being previously destroyed. However, with its main body still sealed, it was no longer capable of escaping.
"It's all YOUR fault! I finally broke free from the formation! Just a bit more and I could've destroyed the outer seal and claimed my freedom—ARGHHH!!! You bastard!!"
The self-proclaimed King of Cursed Artifacts shrieked at Nolan in rage, flailing about wildly.
Nolan ignored the ranting and focused on assessing its condition. Judging from its earlier ability to set traps using constructs, it could still exert some influence outside the seal.
However, its core essence had clearly been locked back inside the formation, and escaping again wouldn't be easy—it would definitely take a long time.
And that "undying and immortal" claim? Probably not literal. He likely hadn't struck the true source of its existence earlier.
That source… was the three ancient evil artifacts!
The so-called King of Cursed Artifacts was probably just an energy entity formed from the power of those artifacts. Destroy it, and it would simply reform.
Although it was still sealed now, the combined power of the three artifacts allowed its influence to gradually seep outward.
In other words, the current formation wasn't reliable anymore—it would need to be reinforced to prevent further escapes.
This could be easily handled if he brought Shenhe over to reinforce the array.
But even that would only be a temporary fix. Just like the current state of the seal—it was only a matter of time before it failed again.
Completely destroying the ancient artifacts wasn't a good idea either. If it were truly possible, the God of Dust Guizhong and the immortals wouldn't have sealed them here in the first place.
They might be similar to the Archons—destroying them could trigger some kind of catastrophe.
After a moment of thought, Nolan concluded that he didn't have the knowledge to deal with this yet. But that was fine—he had several gods within the Wonderland space he could consult.
He used "Interstellar Travel" to reach out to Raiden Ei, Raiden Makoto, Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, and Havria, explaining what he'd encountered.
"Uhh… I am a god, yes… but you know, I'm more of a weak one. I wouldn't have a clue how to solve something this complicated,"
—was Havria's response.
Alright then, if even Guizhong, the immortals, and even the Geo Archon himself couldn't solve the problem, how could a minor god like the Salt God possibly know what to do?
"If the domain you're in is sturdy enough to withstand the energy released from destroying an ancient evil artifact, you could contain the disaster within it," said Raiden Makoto.
Nolan thought this through—it was actually a pretty decent idea. But surely, the immortals back then had considered it as well.
Judging from the fact that the ancient artifacts were still sealed rather than destroyed, it was likely that this domain was no longer capable of containing that kind of destructive energy.
"Perhaps you could forge those ancient evil artifacts into weapons or armor, then inscribe runes and formations to completely suppress the evil will within them," the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata offered her suggestion.
"Or maybe you could disperse the will directly during the forging process—but that would require a blacksmith of exceptional skill."
At a certain level of power, destruction often led to catastrophe. But in Nolan's current situation, it might not be necessary to destroy the ancient artifacts.
As long as he could erase the evil will within them, that would suffice.
"Oh?" Nolan was pleasantly surprised by the Dendro Archon's words. He had previously thought about asking Ei to forge armor for him when he received Keqing's affection skill.
But since he lacked enough gold-grade materials, he wasn't sure if Ei could make armor on par with divine artifacts.
Now, reminded by Rukkhadevata, he realized using these ancient evil artifacts to forge armor was actually a great idea.
After all, the armor would only be used for damage transfer—not for anyone to wear. Even if it contained ancient evil, it wouldn't matter.
He immediately asked Raiden Ei, "Would that work? The method the Dendro Archon mentioned?"
"Of course. Weapons forged with thunderous light can purify all malice," Raiden Ei replied calmly, half-floating in the meditative space of the Wonderland.
"Hehe, then… could you do it?" Nolan asked with a smile.
"Mm, I can help." Staying at Nolan's place, Raiden Ei had no reason to refuse such a small request.
Sensing her teleport request, Nolan quickly approved it.
A tall figure appeared beside him—long, deep violet hair braided into a thick rope that brushed against her knees, her calves wrapped in over-the-knee socks. She wore wooden high heels. Naturally, it was Raiden Ei.
"These are the ancient artifacts you spoke of?" she asked, placing her hands just below her pale, exposed chest, her deep purple eyes focused on the objects on the altar.
The first item was black, smooth like a polished gem, but shaped like a creature's heart.
The second was a spiral-striped horn—clearly from some powerful demonic entity, given it could trouble even gods.
The last was an irregularly shaped white object—perhaps a bone?
Hmm… it looked like a rock, but also like a bone. Nolan couldn't tell just by sight.
"That's right. Do you think they could be forged into a set of armor?" he asked Raiden Ei.
Meanwhile, he commanded the "Sword God" to bring Yelan and Keqing up to him. With Ei present, there was no need to worry about the evil entity launching a sneak attack.
"After refining, they'll shrink in size, but it should be enough to forge a smaller set of armor," Ei concluded after a glance—worthy of a master blacksmith.
"Foolish humans! Daring to speak of forging me into armor in front of me—how dare you insult me so!" the King of Cursed Artifacts roared in anger.
These arrogant humans! They wanted to make armor out of him! Hmph, the moment they broke the formation, he would be completely free!
Come on! Do it! Break the seal and forge me into armor! Hahaha!
The King of Cursed Artifacts acted enraged on the surface, but inside, he was ecstatic. It had taken countless years using the power of the three ancient artifacts just to crack a small gap in the seal.
Now someone wanted to willingly break it open? He had never seen such a foolish human!
"Heh. Don't get too cocky. You really think you can escape?" Nolan sneered dismissively at the so-called King of Cursed Artifacts.
"Open a gate, I'm heading to the storage to grab some supplementary materials," Raiden Ei said to Nolan.
"Mm."
Nolan casually tore open a spatial rift, letting Ei step through. Just then, Yelan and Keqing arrived with the help of the "Sword God."
"That was… the Raiden Shogun of Inazuma, wasn't it?" Yelan asked, her fair face tinged with surprise.
"She's Raiden Ei," Nolan explained the relationship between Ei and the Shogun to Yelan and Keqing.
"I see…"
Even as Ningguang's top intelligence agent, Yelan's ability to gather information was formidable—but the secret of the puppet governing Inazuma was likely beyond her reach.
Keqing had sensed through the "Waymark" that there were two Raiden Shoguns, but even she didn't know they were two souls in one body.
"Right, the ancient artifacts are still sealed by the formation. I plan to have Ei forge them into armor while eliminating their merged will—that should resolve all the issues," Nolan explained the plan.
"With a god helping, there should be no problem," Keqing nodded.
"Whew, hard to believe a simple mission to deal with a mutated Akai Maou would lead to something that requires divine intervention," Yelan sighed helplessly.
"Agreed," Nolan said, then looked at her and added:
"By the way, I give all the girls I'm close with a special emergency ability called 'Interstellar Travel'—it's a teleportation skill meant to save you in times of crisis.
"I'll give one to you too."
With that, he summoned a golden orb of light and handed it to Yelan.
"Heh, no wonder all your lovers don't mind your flirtatious ways. Taking responsibility and being good to everyone equally is one of your virtues. Alright, I'll accept it."
She'd already been hugged and held—there was no reason to refuse such a precious ability now.
[Yelan Has Developed Good Feelings Towards You, Obtained 350 Affection Points. Current Affection Level: Lv.8 (150/800)]
Seeing the affection prompt pop up again, Nolan sighed inwardly—gifting, especially rare gifts, was indeed an effective way to gain favor.
Just then, Raiden Ei stepped back through the spatial rift, materials in hand. She merely nodded at Yelan and Keqing.
Then she set the materials down and looked at the formation ahead.
"Step back a bit," she said.
Knowing the forging process might get intense, Nolan and the others retreated a few meters behind Ei.
They were curious to see how Ei forged items, after all.
Once she confirmed that no one behind her would interfere, Ei's body began to crackle with lightning.
(End of Chapter)
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