Chapter 27: Treasure

  The three of them walked forward in the mountain cave illuminated by the torches, and after walking for several minutes, the road became wider and wider. At this time, they had already reached the end of the torches, and in front of the three people was a piece of darkness.

  "What's going on? This design is a bit unreasonable, isn't it? Or did the torches in front break?" Francis found it strange that such a large project would still have water.

  Dys stepped forward, and instantly the walls and ceiling around him lit up with a milky white glow. The walls and ceiling slowly brightened, eventually turning pure white, illuminating the entire space. Francis looked up to see that he was in a massive square plaza, approximately fifty meters long and wide. The ceiling above was arched, allowing it to easily withstand the pressure from above. The most striking feature of the plaza was the large gray statue in the center - a dragon, about thirty meters long, with a sturdy body, long neck, and a head adorned with four horns. Its powerful limbs ended in claws similar to those of birds, perfect for grasping prey. The dragon's face was ferocious, with sharp teeth curved inward, and it had a long tail that exceeded half its total length. On its back was a pair of massive wings, resembling bat wings, and its body was almost entirely covered in hard, shiny scales.

  "How enormous, is this the strongest creature on the continent? It's hard to imagine if I haven't seen it once. Fortunately, it's just a statue, but it's really vivid!" Francis and the three of them looked up with their heads raised and their mouths open for half a day.

  "Hmph! Compared to my work, it's far too inferior!" Dais said with a hard mouth, but still gazed at the giant dragon statue with shining eyes.

  "It's hard to imagine what kind of terrifying combat power this creature would have!" Saber gazed at the statue in surprise. "It's unimaginable, the destructive power of this giant dragon!"

  "There's writing!" Francis exclaimed, discovering a line of text at the base of the statue. "Let me see... 'Great Scott I and his companion, the frost dragon Glaoria, founded the Empire of Zombait together!' Is this the one? The ice one?"

  Francis circled around the giant dragon with emotion and finally saw a shiny pearl in the dragon's mouth "What is that?"

  Dys followed Francis' hand and saw the pearl, Dys directly jumped into the giant dragon's mouth to take out the pearl. In the giant dragon's mouth was indeed a small pearl, but when Dys took it out, Francis discovered that this pearl was actually a crystal ball as big as a human head. Dys carefully placed the crystal ball on the ground, and Francis went over to poke at the crystal ball. Dys looked at the crystal ball "Is this the treasure?"

  Francis fiddled with it for a while. "It shouldn't be! Although such a large crystal ball is also worth a city, it won't be the wealth of an empire! This is a memory crystal ball, there are recordings inside, and as long as you input spiritual power, there will be images!" As Francis said this, he input some spiritual power into it, and the crystal ball slowly brightened.

  Francis stepped back a few steps, gazing at the image in the crystal ball. Inside the crystal ball, a black-robed mage appeared, his face shrouded in dark mist, making it impossible to discern his features. Then, his voice echoed out: "Descendants of later generations! I am Scott the First, the first king of the Empire and the founder of the Zhānbàitīng Empire. You have arrived here, and I am heartbroken! Does this mean that the great Zhānbàitīng Empire has already perished? However, do not worry, I have left behind wealth worthy of any empire; take it out and revive the glory of Zhānbàitīng. Also, if you don't have the power of the Holy Stage, then leave! The trials ahead will be deadly without the power of the Holy Stage. If the Empire is still prosperous, then leave! This is a forbidden land... I repeat, this is a forbidden land..." The light on the crystal ball dimmed, and the figure inside disappeared.

  "Ah! Do I have to go through so much trouble for a treasure?! Honestly!" Francis had already guessed there would be a test, but making it so troublesome, and he wasn't even his descendant. As Francis's voice fell, a door appeared on the wall surface, a white passageway that extended who-knows-where!

  "Come on! Let's see what he's up to!" Francis led the way into the corridor.

  "Master!" It seemed like Dice had something to say.

  "What's wrong?"

  "That statue!" Dice's face was a little strange.

  "Wow, I know you're good, but you can't be thinking of taking it away!" Francis suddenly remembered that Dais had always claimed to be an artist.

  "No! I always feel like that statue is alive! But it also seems dead!" Dice said strangely.

  "Ah! Probably because the carving was too good, it gave you that illusion." Francis thought for a moment, nothing seemed out of place, and the statue looked lifelike...

  The three of them walked for a while before exiting the passageway, and what came into view was a square plaza. Except for the statue in the middle being different, all other places were exactly the same. "If it weren't for the statue changing, I would have thought we went back to that place just now!"

  In the middle of the square, two swordsmen's statues were squatting, and it would be better to say that they were two clay sculptures. The yellowish-brown bodies, including their faces, were a bit blurry, only the intricate armor on their bodies could be seen, with styles already very ancient, each holding a large sword in hand!

  "What a big difference! The previous statue was so magnificent! But these two, you can't even see their faces clearly!"

  "Hehehe~~" The two clay figures slowly stood up, swaying their bodies.

  "Ah! Is this the trial?" Francis exclaimed, "This is a magical puppet, relying on magic to maintain its bodily movements! How unoriginal! With only speed and strength, it's indeed suitable for trials, especially for testing the Saint stage! Which means these two puppets only possess the speed and strength of the Saint stage!" He took a step forward, "Looks like it won't be much of a fight. Let me take care of it! It's been a while since I've exercised my limbs!"

  "It's not interesting!" With Dis's abilities, he naturally couldn't get interested in this kind of thing. Saber didn't object either.

  Francis strode forward, and the two magical puppets also raised their great swords to slash at Francis. Francis didn't rush to attack either, swaying left and right as he danced around the two puppets for a while, observing them. "Hmm, stiff bodies, no flexibility in the joints, speed and strength can only be exerted in linear attacks. It's true that those below the Sacred Rank can't handle it, but once you reach the Sacred Rank, you can easily take care of it. That Scott the First is still quite considerate of his descendants!" Having probed them, Francis lost interest in the puppets before him. "You two would be better off turning to dust!" "Bang, crack!" The bodies of the two puppets were instantly torn apart by Francis!

  "It's really meaningless, a body made of mud is truly..." Francis said, stopping mid-sentence. The mud in front of him suddenly began to melt and flow together, and the two mud sculptures stood up again!

  "This is it! As expected, it's alchemy! That Scott the First must have been a formidable alchemist! This self-repairing puppet may not be a problem for high-ranking professionals, but it's indeed troublesome for lower-ranking occupationals. No wonder that guy was able to take down an empire! This thing would be terrifying on the battlefield!" But Francis thought too much, this saint-level puppet is not perfect, but just with its self-repairing ability, its production cost is already very high. Scott the First back then didn't use this thing on the battlefield, otherwise it would have been taken away by other empires for research a long time ago.

  Francis smashed the two puppets again, watching as they slowly reassembled. Generally speaking, these kinds of puppets all have their own cores! So where were they?

  "Holy Light Bullet!" Francis swung his arm, and a Holy Light Bullet directly hit the puppet's face, blowing its head open. Seeing that the puppet was still charging towards him, not on its head? Then! Another Holy Light Bullet hit the puppet's belly, blowing it in half from the middle, the puppet's lower body directly turned to mud, and the upper body and head followed suit. Is it on the lower body? This way is much simpler!

  After a while, Francis grasped the two blue glass balls in his hand and exclaimed "This is it!" The two mud statues behind him immediately turned into mud blocks without restoring.

  Dys took the blue glass ball from Francis' hand, fiddled with it for a while and then returned it to Francis, shaking his head "No good, completely can't understand, was this also made by alchemy?"

  Francis handed the glass ball to Saber, letting her take a look. "Hmmm! Only an alchemist could come up with something like this. Alchemists are powerful mages in their own right, and on top of that, they can create all sorts of strange and unusual things, so their abilities far surpass those of ordinary people of the same rank!"

  Saber shook his head "I don't understand alchemy either, I guess only a professional can figure it out!"

  "Also!" Francis put away the two glass balls in his spatial ring. "The three of us are mismatched professionals!"

  "Let's go back!" The three of them had been chatting for so long, but hadn't seen any reaction. Francis said: "I reckon the treasure is still in that hall with the giant dragon sculpture!"

  The three returned once again to the grand hall with the giant dragon sculpture! Francis looked at the sculpture in front of him, "No matter how many times I look at it, it still feels magnificent!"

  "Master! Over there!" Dix pointed behind the giant dragon "There's another door!"

  "Go and take a look!"

  Three people came to the door, and unlike outside, it was pitch black inside and nothing could be seen.

  "Illumination!" Francis cast a low-level light system magic, Illumination, which could maintain the surrounding light for about five minutes, an auxiliary magic.

  With the help of lighting techniques, the three quickly saw the situation inside. A pitch-black cave, with no idea how long the road inside was. The three walked along the road for less than a minute and reached the end.

  "This is?" In front of Francis was a bony frame, on which were placed over ten rings and a crystal ball.

  "It's a Spatial Ring!" Francis' eyebrows danced with excitement "Haha, this time we've hit the jackpot!" Francis suppressed his excitement and carefully counted them - twelve in total, not one more or less, and each one looked extraordinary. "Dis, saber, from now on, we're rich! Remember, when fighting others, don't use your fists, I'll crush them with my wealth! Ahahahaha..."

  Compared to Francis's excitement, Saber and Disc are much calmer. Saber used to be a king and didn't lack money, and later became a heroic spirit who doesn't need money either. As for Disc, the Holy Grail War probably doesn't use currency.

  "Master! I've got some bad news for you!" Dais said, tossing a ring up and down.

  Francis snatched the ring from him "Careful, Des! What if you drop it?"

  Dys looked at Francis helplessly, learning for the first time that Francis was also a greedy person. "My spiritual power can't penetrate into the ring, there's a seal on it!"

  Francis tried each one in turn and found that, just as Dais had said, none of the rings could be sensed.

  "How could this be?" Francis was on the verge of tears, feeling like he was going crazy. He had run all the way here, found the treasure chest, and now they were telling him there was no key.

  "Young master, there is a memory crystal ball!" Saber pointed at the crystal ball on the shelf and said calmly.