After Ryan's figure vanished, only a few men were left standing there, shaken and staring at one another in shock.

  It took them a long while to suppress the turmoil in their hearts. In the end, they could only shake their heads helplessly and carefully leave this heart chilling ruined village.

  Ryan did not linger. He moved swiftly through the forest, checking every village in the surrounding area.

  Yet the answers he received were almost identical. All of them were terrifying stories about an Undead Knight attacking villages in broad daylight. There was not a single concrete clue about the whereabouts of the people of Shrouded Village.

  At this moment, Ryan stood in the dense forest, his eyes filled with fury.

  He abruptly released his spiritual power, letting it spread wildly in all directions, searching for even the slightest abnormal fluctuation of magic.

  "I refuse to believe there is no clue at all!" Ryan growled, veins bulging at his temples in anger.

  He raised his hand and took out several magic talismans engraved with short range teleportation runes from his storage space. With a flick of his wrist, he threw them out. The talismans stuck precisely to several thick trees nearby, turning into faint points of light as they merged into the trunks.

  This was his precaution. Once an Undead Knight approached, the talismans would issue a warning.

  After that, he circulated magic through both hands. A layer of magical light formed over his fingers, shaping them into sharp steel like claws, and he viciously dug into the ground beneath his feet.

  Following the vague yet sinister sensation in his heart, he dug straight toward the unknown presence deep underground.

  "I will go straight to the source. I refuse to believe I cannot drag you out, you coward hiding in the dark!" Ryan muttered furiously as he dug, his words filled with barely restrained rage.

  In just a few short years, the first village in this life that had given him a sense of belonging was gone just like that.

  Although it was not yet certain which Undead Knight was responsible, Ryan's intuition told him that it was very likely the same Undead Knight who had once fought him by the cliff.

  After all, undead creatures with self awareness were rarely simple beings on this magical continent.

  Moreover, that unknown Undead Knight had broken the iron rule that undead feared sunlight and could only act at night, appearing openly during the day. His strength was absolutely not to be underestimated.

  Ryan suddenly realized that the villagers he had seen earlier were not listless because of hunger. Instead, they had been constantly on guard against this Undead Knight who roamed in daylight, worn down by fear and exhaustion.

  As he continued digging deeper underground along the sensed direction, Ryan sorted through the entire matter in his mind. According to his reasoning, the truth was most likely very close to what he had imagined.

  As the distance between him and the sensed target grew shorter, the unease in Ryan's heart intensified.

  A question kept circling in his mind. Why did these undead only emerge from the soil at night, only to completely vanish once day came?

  What kind of secret was hidden in their place of concealment?

  With a sharp cracking sound, Ryan's magical steel claws tore through the soil in front of him, revealing a vast underground passage.

  The passage was dark and damp, permeated with dense undead death energy.

  However, with the night vision ability of a Senior Mage, Ryan could still see everything inside clearly.

  He restrained his aura and cautiously moved forward along the passage, every step taken with extreme care.

  When he finally reached the end of the passage and saw what lay before him, Ryan froze on the spot.

  What appeared before his eyes was an eerie crystal coffin.

  With a brief sense, Ryan's pupils shrank sharply. This was the aura of Arcane Mage level magic.

  He instinctively raised his hand and released a faint thread of spiritual power toward the crystal coffin.

  But the moment his spiritual power touched the runes on the surface of the coffin, a stream of information flooded into his mind.

  Ryan's pupils constricted violently, and his entire mind went completely blank.

  The core information was simple: Athena's crystal coffin.

  Detailed information: Inside the crystal coffin were Athena's two souls. Athena was supposed to ascend to godhood after the unification of all three souls. The current combined magic level of the two fused souls was Ninth-tier Arcane Mage.

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  【Quest Triggered: Assist Athena in unifying all three souls to achieve godhood. Quest Reward: One hundred million Origin Value.】

  【Quest Hint: Athena's three souls are divided into Human Soul, Spirit Soul, and Ghost Soul. The Spirit Soul and Ghost Soul have already been fused. Only the Human Soul is missing to complete the unification.】

  "Who exactly is Athena?" Ryan's heart sank as a terrifying thought surged into his mind."Could it be… the Skeleton Knight who attacked the villages in broad daylight!?"

  The moment he finished reading the information, he urgently asked Grimoire in his mind.

  【I had not detected any related information before. The details of Athena were only parsed just now when you touched the crystal coffin.】

  【Additional Information: Millions of years ago, Athena, seeking to ascend to godhood, paid an enormous price to split her soul into three parts and scattered them across the continent to undergo worldly trials.】

  【The intent was to refine herself through worldly experience, ultimately unifying the three souls to achieve godhood. However, over the course of millions of years, the three souls never converged, remaining stalled on the eve of fusion.】

  【Currently, Athena has successfully fused the Spirit Soul and Ghost Soul by her own power. The host only needs to help recover the scattered Human Soul to complete the final step of unification.】

  "Splitting the soul for trials? Isn't that an ancient ascension method?" Ryan's eyes locked onto the crystal coffin, his pupils shrinking sharply.

  He had seen references to this in ancient magical texts. It was an extremely dangerous method of ascension, one mistake and the soul could be destroyed. He had never imagined it actually existed.

  Could it be that Athena had created her own ascension path using this ancient secret method combined with the characteristics of her spiritual essence?

  【The host does not need to force it to match known conventions. Athena's ascension system exists in a different dimension from the current magic continent.】

  【Hint to host: Although Athena is a plant-based spiritual essence in humanoid form, she is benevolent. If the host assists her in achieving godhood, she will repay the favor. Benevolent spiritual essences value the principle of cause and effect above all.】

  "So that means if I help her achieve the unification of the three souls, I will gain a god-level powerful ally?"

  Ryan immediately realized the implications and quickly weighed the advantages and risks.

  【A being capable of absorbing magical energy and human faith from the world on her own millions of years ago, ascending to the Demi-God Realm, and completing the soul-splitting trials alone is a force not to be underestimated.】

  After hearing Grimoire's explanation, Ryan no longer hesitated. He immediately retrieved defensive magical items from his storage space.

  He equipped a protective talisman engraved with guarding runes and a magic-threaded outfit capable of withstanding high-tier magic attacks. Everything was secured.

  Finally, he gripped the Stellar Sword, holding the blade horizontally in front of him, ready to respond to any sudden threat.

  Although Grimoire had said Athena was benevolent, the crystal coffin had been sealed for millions of years. No one could guarantee there were no traps outside it.

  Ryan tightened his grip slightly on the Stellar Sword, yet a flicker of doubt arose in his mind.

  According to past experience, the Stellar Sword would actively tremble when held by him. This time, however, it remained unusually calm, showing no resistance whatsoever.

  Ryan's gaze shifted from the crystal coffin a short distance away to the protective talisman's glow surrounding him.

  He spoke to the Stellar Sword,"Stay with me, and I promise I will one day elevate you to a mythic-level weapon! Let us become bonded partners!"

  He was eager to have the Stellar Sword accept him as its master. Before the bond, whenever he held it, he could feel a faint resistance lingering in the blade, making control sluggish and uncomfortable.

  The moment he finished speaking, the Stellar Sword trembled lightly twice in his hands. Its runes began to glow faintly, as if actively responding to his words. A subtle feeling of pleasure seemed to emanate from the blade itself.

  "You believe me?" Ryan's eyes lit up with surprise. He instinctively raised his voice, full of disbelief.

  The Stellar Sword seemed not to fully understand the deeper meaning of his words. It simply interpreted them as confirmation of his intent and trembled gently twice more, the glow softening further.

  In truth, the Stellar Sword had long recognized this master. The last time it witnessed him, a Senior Mage-level master, holding it to withstand a magical assault from an Elder Mage without sustaining a scratch, it had been completely convinced of his strength. From that moment, it had willingly cooperated and was ready to accept him as master.

  Fearing the sword might change its mind, Ryan did not hesitate. He lightly drew the blade across his fingertip, then pressed firmly.

  A drop of blood slid down his finger, slowly falling onto the blade, spreading outward in fine blood lines that coated the sword.

  Unlike the first time he had attempted to bond, the Stellar Sword did not repel his blood. Instead, it actively released magic, fully absorbing and merging with it.

  In an instant, the blade erupted in dazzling starlight. The star-like patterns on its surface flickered violently for several moments. A clear spiritual connection instantly formed between Ryan and the Stellar Sword. The bond was complete.

  This legendary weapon, from the moment it was forged until now, had finally found its first master.

  "From now on, we are partners in battle!" Ryan laughed heartily, feeling the joy the Stellar Sword transmitted to him.

  Though the sword had just completed the fusion and was not yet perfectly intuitive to wield, its fluidity in his hands was already far beyond what it had been before bonding.

  After ensuring everything was prepared, Ryan's gaze hardened, and he muttered an incantation.

  A semi-transparent magical projection separated from his body. Its features were blurred, eyes empty, completely under Ryan's mental control.

  This was a projection technique only a Senior Mage could master. It could not display his full strength but could explore dangers on his behalf.

  With a thought, Ryan guided the faceless projection toward the crystal coffin.

  Meanwhile, his physical body stepped back a few paces, linking a thread of mental energy to the talismans he had placed on the ground. If they triggered an alert, he could immediately teleport to safety.

  Even if teleportation failed, he was confident in a fight. Wielding the bonded Stellar Sword and empowered by his Ninth-tier Senior Mage magic, he could certainly defeat a partially fragmented Spirit Soul.

  Under Ryan's control, the projection approached the crystal coffin with hollow, unseeing eyes and extended its ethereal hands to press against the heavy lid.

  Ryan sent a mental command. The projection exerted force, but the lid did not budge.

  "So heavy?" Ryan muttered. He then continuously infused more magic into the projection.

  The projection's magical output rose rapidly, reaching the level of a First-tier Senior Mage.

  Since the projection was merely a magical construct and could not inherit his physical strength, it was unsurprising that it could not move a crystal coffin sealed for millions of years.

  Ryan stopped holding back. He poured even more magic into the projection and commanded it to push the lid with full force again.

  A sharp scraping noise echoed through the empty underground space. The junction between the coffin lid and body gradually loosened, opening a narrow gap.

  As the gap widened, Ryan immediately shared the projection's vision, peering into the interior of the crystal coffin.

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