Chapter 136: Relics of the Ancient Sorcerer

Rat-a-tat-tat!

Ghostly blue flames flared to life. A line of Gatling guns took up formation, keeping all the monsters pouring in from several passageways outside the hall.

“Wow! That’s so cool!” Fiona exclaimed.

“There are actually this many…” Susie murmured.

“Holy— you…” A sharp glint flashed through Pang Ding’s eyes. “When did you get these…? Oh, right… that last time…”

“Speaking of which, I went back afterward, but you weren’t there. And the odds of finding an Ancient Devourer were so low that even the luckiest man alive would have cried. What exactly happened?” Luo Yong asked.

“Uh…” Pang Ding’s breath caught, as though he had choked. His eyes shifted as he said, “Who knows? Anyway, I didn’t draw anything at all. You left, so I left too. I couldn’t find you, so I went somewhere else!”

“Is that so?” Luo Yong asked skeptically.

“Of course!” Pang Ding suddenly thought of something. “Aren’t there also the Peerless Swordmaster and the Magical Girl? Why not bring them out too and crush these monsters outright? You could level up faster!”

“I’d like to go faster too, but I’m afraid of bringing this dungeon down, so I’ve never used my full strength,” Luo Yong replied.

Then he saw three strange looks directed at him simultaneously from three different directions.

“What? Is something wrong?” Luo Yong asked.

“This dungeon can’t be blown apart. Besides, you were only level fifteen—oh no, you leveled up. You’re level sixteen now!” From the magical fluctuations radiating from Luo Yong, Pang Ding accurately determined his level.

“Not bad! Looks like all that effort hasn’t gone to waste. It was worth playing Wenman for a while!”

Pang Ding let out a long sigh, then casually pulled out a fire-element tactical scroll and activated it.

Boom!

A gigantic fireball exploded at the entrance of one passageway, forming a shock wave. The overwhelming surge of energy swept away a huge number of monsters.

It even affected the two passageways beside it.

Yet the ground only trembled slightly, showing none of the weakness they had imagined.

“Although this dungeon lay abandoned for many years and was only recently rediscovered, it hasn’t completely decayed. Powerful magic arrays still protect many areas. Energy fluctuations of this level won’t damage the place, much less bring it crashing down.”

Pang Ding explained.

“That’s good.” Luo Yong carefully sensed the surroundings. Indeed, not a single fragment had fallen from above. The structure here was remarkably sturdy.

“Heh. Are we switching to bombardment mode?” Pang Ding asked with a grin.

He was quite fond of the feeling of unleashing a furious barrage.

Before meeting Luo Yong, however, he had never accumulated so many tactical scrolls.

Nor had he ever imagined that such a shameless tactic could exist in this world.

“Of course.”

Luo Yong summoned the Holy Light Guardian and activated the Holy Light Domain.

“What use is that thing?” Pang Ding asked.

“Although you’ve already told me so, I’m still afraid of bringing this place down,” Luo Yong said calmly.

Then he began another round of summons.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

One dashing figure after another appeared in the hall. Row upon row of pitch-black cannon barrels were raised and arranged into formation.

“What are these now?!”

This time, all three of them—including Pang Ding—cried out in unison.

“Mana-powered war puppets,” Luo Yong said casually.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Shell after shell was fired. Thunderous cannon blasts exploded beside their ears, while the monsters in the passageways were blown to pieces amid the barrage. Some shells even struck the very ends of the passages, briefly restoring silence there.

The monsters could no longer emerge fast enough to keep up.

“There are actually… mana-powered war puppets like these…” Fiona was so astonished that she could barely speak. How much power could her own strength possibly display before such war puppets?

For the first time, she began to doubt the combat ability she had always been proud of.

“There’s no way to dodge this…” Susie thought of herself as well. Although she was known as the Fleet-Footed Thief, if she ever faced a bombardment like this, how long could she possibly hold out?

“How the hell did you get all of these?!” Pang Ding began to question the existence of the Ancient Devourer. In the past, he had never doubted his own luck.

But now…

“You grind monsters like this in the Demon Secret Realm?” Pang Ding asked.

“Of course.” Luo Yong shrugged. “And that’s not all. With several troop types working together, I can fight all day. If the corruptive power there weren’t so severe, and the Holy Light Domain could last longer, I’d have reached level twenty already!”

“Oh…” Pang Ding nodded as though he understood. Then he glanced meaningfully at the two girls standing to Luo Yong’s left and right. “So their job is to lure monsters for you in the Skeleton Secret Realm?”

“Do I look that deranged?” Luo Yong asked in surprise.

“You are,” Pang Ding said with complete seriousness. “I remember getting three light orbs back then, but they all disappeared afterward! Did you take them?! You already have so many mana-powered war puppets, so why did you take mine? Do you have any idea that you took my good luck along with them? I farmed that place for so long that I nearly emptied my entire fortune, yet I didn’t get even a single hair!”

“Oh!”

Luo Yong suddenly understood. “So you came here to find something valuable to rebuild your fortune—or trade for gems and continue in Nazdak…”

“Nonsense!” Pang Ding shouted. He took two steps back as though Luo Yong had exposed his innermost thoughts.

But he quickly recovered and said angrily, embarrassed beyond measure, “I… I just… wanted to reclaim what belonged to me!”

“What belongs to you? The thing glowing in your pocket?” Luo Yong pointed at the blue radiance shining from Pang Ding’s body.

“Glowing? What’s glowing?”

Only then did Pang Ding realize that the object he had just placed in his pocket was emitting light.

And…

At the same time, the same ghostly blue glow appeared on Fiona and Susie.

“Ah! It’s this!” Fiona cried, pulling out the two blue crystals she had obtained earlier.

“That’s a Wizard’s Eye!” Pang Ding suddenly said. “It should have been taken from the eyes of the stone statue.”

“Really? I didn’t notice,” Fiona said, sticking out her tongue.

“Mister…”

At that moment, Susie suddenly turned around. Her voice trembled on the verge of tears.

“It’s so cold! I can’t stand it anymore!”

As she spoke, she released the object she had been clutching in her arms. It fell to the ground.

Crash!

A ceramic jar shattered into pieces.

Something emerged from within, glowing with the same eerie blue light.

“That should be a Wizard’s Hand,” Pang Ding said.

“But this is clearly a… um…” Fiona stared at the blue-glowing object on the floor. At first glance, it looked like a staff.

But on closer inspection, it seemed more like part of an arm with its fist clenched tightly.

“Ugh…” Susie immediately looked disgusted. She could hardly believe she had been carrying such a thing around.

Tsk, tsk.

Just thinking about it made her feel strange.

She couldn’t bear it.

“Then what I got should be the Wizard’s Heart.” Pang Ding pulled a round object from his pocket. It looked nothing like a heart, let alone a root.

“Roar!”

The moment these objects appeared, the monsters pouring from the passageways grew berserk. Wave after wave of furious roars rang out, temporarily drowning even the cannon fire.

“Oh-ho! So these monsters were drawn here by these things.” Luo Yong said.

“Normally, one piece should still be missing. According to legend, there are four in total. Together, they form a key leading to the Unspeakable Land, where one can obtain the legacy of the ancient wizards.” Pang Ding muttered to himself like some old charlatan.

“This…” Fiona held up the two crystals in her hands. “Aren’t these two pieces? That makes four things altogether!”

“No. The final piece should be the Wizard’s Foot, something resembling a leg bone.” Pang Ding looked toward the only passageway from which no monsters had emerged. “And it’s at the end of that passage.”

“Then let’s hurry over!” Fiona immediately brightened. “Once we retrieve it, we’ll have the complete key!”

“Exactly!” Pang Ding nodded.

“Agreed,” Susie said.

“But I didn’t come here to find a key,” Luo Yong said without a hint of emotion.

“Uh…” Pang Ding froze and fell silent.

“Then what did you come here for?” Susie asked.

“Yes, my lord. You still haven’t told me what the purpose of this journey is,” Fiona said.

“To grind monsters,” Luo Yong answered with deadly seriousness.

“Huh?” Fiona stared at him in utter bewilderment. What kind of purpose was that?

“Anyway, if you want to follow me, then follow me. If you don’t, you can leave at any time,” Luo Yong said.

“Hmph!” Fiona snorted. She had been somewhat angry and was considering leaving, but when she saw the mana-powered war puppets with their cannon barrels raised, that impulse came to an abrupt halt.

“My purpose is to obtain mana-powered war puppets! I’m not leaving! Hmph!”

“My purpose is to obtain mana-powered war puppets… Tsk, tsk…” Susie shamelessly mimicked Fiona’s tone, repeating her words from moments earlier. Her expression was so irritating that it practically begged to be hit.

“Oh? Fleet-Footed little thief, now that you have nowhere to run, shouldn’t I teach you a lesson?” Fiona narrowed her eyes and rubbed her fists together, clearly preparing to attack.

“Ah! Murder!”

Susie let out a shriek like a slaughtered pig, then began darting around Luo Yong and Pang Ding within the Holy Light Domain. She flipped and leaped, dodging and weaving with astonishing speed. Her movements were agile, her footwork exquisite, and her body as nimble as a swallow.

“Wow!”

Although Pang Ding was usually too lazy to pay attention to anyone, even he couldn’t help letting out a gasp of admiration at the sight.