Xiaotian swallowed hard and approached the room. He wouldn't knock on the door because it would surely collapse like everything else; he simply peeked through it and looked into the room.
It was a fairly large room, although very simple. It had no decorations, and the few it did have had fallen down, like the lamp that had fallen onto the bed, which was also completely covered in dust.
The ceiling was slowly falling apart, but what caught his attention was the shiny thing next to a half-open door leading to a covered patio. It was between the columns in the room.
'It's an item!'
His body trembled; his heart began to beat fast as his mind tried to calm down.
An item in a ruin was not something commonly seen. You could easily clear 100 ruins and not find a single one. Only someone extremely lucky could obtain one.
They are usually dropped by specters, which is more likely. But there is a remote possibility of obtaining one that was created by the concentration of spirituality and does not come from a specter.
Those are harder to come by, though not necessarily better.
Xiaotian focused his gaze, trying to see what it was.
'A crystal?' He frowned.
'Is it a core? Did a specter die here? Impossible.'
He looked inside the room once more and, after confirming that there should be no one there, entered.
Swosh—
The wind brushed the back of his neck at that moment, making the hairs stand on end. But he managed to calm himself and take a step inside before the same wind brushed his neck again.
'Wind?'
Then he noticed it.
There couldn't be wind here. That doesn't make sense. If there were, dust would have been flying everywhere, and he wouldn't even be able to see!
His skin prickled, he gripped his sword tightly and spun around with a quick movement, thinking he was about to be attacked. His sword sliced through the air quickly, and his movement kicked up dust, but there was nothing in front of him.
'Nothing?'
Impossible.
'Wait!'
He turned sharply and looked at the place where the item lay...
It was like a crystal, similar to a core, but milky white.
'Echo Content!'
Now he understood. That 'wind' he felt was actually an echo caressing his skin. The same echo that was contained in this crystal.
An Echo Content (or Echo Crystal) item is extremely rare and highly sought after. Basically, it is the echo of a specter crystallized into a milky-white core, different from the core it had before.
It occurs in very special cases, such as when the echo refuses to disappear and wishes to remain in this world longer. Crystallization occurs when the specter dies, using the specter's body to crystallize into a new form.
Now, for an echo to do this, it needs to have consciousness. That is, it needs to be very powerful, even more so than its own Specter; therefore, this echo has a voice of its own!
That is, it has knowledge of the past!
Xiaotian was in shock; he wanted to ask how it had gotten here and what kind of specter had such power, but he didn't have time.
Chirp-
Suddenly, the sound of a door opening made his hair stand on end again.
He ran to press himself against one of the columns in the room and looked behind him... it wasn't coming from there.
The sound of the door opening didn't come alone either.
Thud-
Thud-
Footsteps could be heard from the other side of the back door, leading to the room's covered patio.
'Another challenger?!' Xiaotian swallowed hard, not wanting to look behind him...
"Sigh..." A sigh was heard. "Of all things, I came to fall into the lair of those damn spiders... That damn Butterfly Sword Lady will pay for this, someday!"
"How do I get out of here?" Helplessness and determination enveloped that voice after roaring that one day he would make them pay.
But then, the voice broke. "No... I can't get out anymore."
"I've fallen into the trap... I will be consumed by time."
His voice sounded a little strange, causing Xiaotian to frown.
It was an ethereal voice. Too... curious.
It wasn't human!
And it sounded very... ancient. Too ancient.
So much so that Xiaotian mustered up the courage he didn't have to look the other way and see who was speaking...
What his eyes saw was not what he expected.
The figure was ethereal, almost like a specter, with one slight difference: it had no core.
'A Vestige of the Wind?' he thought, remembering that these kinds of beings could also be seen in the ruins.
His gaze shifted to the Echo Content, and he had a glimmer of understanding.
'I see...'
The Vestige of the Wind carried a sword, which he stared at intently.
"My sword... I have failed you," he whispered. "But someday we will be useful. Let us reunite, my strength, and take revenge on the Cursed Lady! With this sword, I swear that my voice will torment you, Spider Queen!"
His roar was clear and audible, yet at the same time inaudible. It was the typical roar carried away by the wind that only those close to him could hear.
His voice disappeared immediately afterwards, as if carried away by the wind, and the figure dispersed into a pile of particles that entered the Echo Content...
Then...
Swosh-
The "wind" caressed Xiaotian's neck again.
This time, he was not alarmed.
Seconds after the second passing of the wind, the door rang...
The Vestige reentered.
"Sigh." The same sigh.
"Of all things, I came to fall into the lair of those damn spiders... That damn Butterfly Sword Lady will pay for this, someday!"
The same words...
Xiaotian smiled. He didn't need to see anything else. He walked straight out, heading toward the vestige, as if he wanted to confront it.
But the vestige didn't notice him.
"How do I get out of here?" Helplessness and determination...
Xiaotian took another step closer.
"No... I can't get out anymore." The voice broke once again.
But before he could finish his speech, Xiaotian reached the Echo Crystal and grabbed it... the vestige disappeared at that very moment.
[You have found an Echo Crystal: Call of the Queen.]
His mouth smiled, his eyes smiled, his whole face smiled.
"I've found a treasure," he whispered.