Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2589: Chapter 2590: Traces of Color

As soon as the Black Earl finished speaking, the crowd’s gaze, which had shifted from Angel, once again focused on him.

The Ancient One’s subordinates can pretend to be Demon Gods, which means that the Ancient One’s subordinates must possess at least the strength not inferior to that of a Demon God. And not only has Angel met a subordinate of the Ancient One, but he also obtained information about the Ancient One from them!

This is akin to hearing a fairy tale where a giant chats with an ant at his feet, and then the giant leaves without stepping on the ant.

This kind of scenario should only appear in fairy tales.

Yet now, the fairy tale has indeed come to life.

A silent atmosphere spread as everyone looked at Angel with their gaze.

This time, Angel allowed everyone to examine him, resolutely refusing to speak. And since Angel did not take the initiative to speak, no one could force him to, not even the Black Earl, as it involved Angel’s privacy and had nothing to do with today’s topic.

After a tense silence lasting about half a minute, someone finally broke it.

”Why did the Ancient One’s subordinate pretend to be a Demon God? Was it just for the ’Sacred Object’ stolen by the ’thieves’?” asked Kaier.

”Building a group of followers for an external object and secretly constructing a church beneath the Extraordinary City seems excessive, doesn’t it?” Dox shook his head. ”The most important thing is, can a thief really enter the Abyss and steal a Sacred Object from a Demon-level existence? The more I hear it, the more impossible it sounds.”

”Then... why did they do it?” Kaier asked, puzzled.

Dox: ”It’s still a question whether it was the Ancient One’s subordinate pretending to be a Demon God.”

Dox’s nonchalant words caught Angel and the Black Earl’s attention.

They had previously assumed the Demon God came from the Abyss, and it might be the Ancient One’s subordinate, based on the presumption that it was indeed a Demon God.

But what if it wasn’t a Demon God?

Outer Gods or Wild Gods typically wouldn’t provoke the Abyss, nor would they frame it, as the nature of their powers is different. And gods like Evil Gods, who don’t even care about their own kind, would they be interested in external objects?

So now, two possibilities seem most plausible: Firstly, the ’Mirror Demon God’ comes from the Abyss and has taken on the form of a Demon God for a particular purpose.

This possibility requires a premise: the Mirror Demon God must at least possess power comparable to a Demon God. Since various Demon Gods in the Wizards’ Realm develop followers, even though these followers have different beliefs, the cooperation among the major Demon Gods has formed a gray social circle. For the followers of the Mirror Demon God not to be exposed when encountering other Demon God believers, the Mirror Demon God backing them must have Demon-level power, or a strong background that deters other Demon Gods from revealing their identity...such as the Ancient One or the Ancient One’s subordinates.

At the same time, the Mirror Demon God must have some methods akin to a Demon God, such as mind communication with followers or granting miracles with their true name, etc. After all, Transcendents are not fools; without seeing any benefits, they wouldn’t be fooled by an unknown Demon God.

Second, the entity is not from the Abyss but a presence from the Wizards’ Realm, playing the role of a Demon God.

For only wizards understand wizards best.

As long as this Wizard Realm bigwig has enough energy, preventing followers from contacting other Demon God follower circles is very simple. As for mind communication and various miracle deceptions, they can also be explained... Wizards have studied Demon Gods most thoroughly; haven’t wizards already borrowed enough power from Demon Gods? The original prototypes of Magic Pattern and Inscription, didn’t they all come from the Abyss? So, creating similar capabilities would truly be no difficulty for a Wizards’ Realm bigwig.

Both situations are actually possible. Regardless of which is possible, flaws can be found.

For example, in the second situation, if a Wizards’ Realm bigwig is indeed doing this, why play a Demon God to have followers do this? He could hide it himself and secretly build an underground church beneath the Extraordinary City, but such sneaky behavior seems a bit incomprehensible. As for framing a Demon God... framing an unheard-of Demon God, for what reason?

Moreover, if they wanted a ’Sacred Object,’ couldn’t they steal it themselves?

Anyway, both the positive and negative speculations have a certain possibility. Plus, there might even be a third possibility that they haven’t thought of yet.

Angel himself pondered until he felt a headache and finally sighed: ”Forget it, let’s not get tangled up in the identity of the Mirror Demon God; maybe our current destination has nothing to do with the Mirror Demon God.”

Just as Angel finished speaking, a familiar voice of opposition rang out: ”Don’t be reassured so soon; the more unlikely you think something will happen, the more it may happen in this world.”

The speaker, of course, was Dox.

Angel looked at Dox speechless and helpless, and after a long pause, let out a deep sigh: ”If you hadn’t said that, I’d think perhaps it wouldn’t happen.”

Dox: ”Are you subtly calling me a crows mouth?”

Angel: ”As long as you understand.”

After Angel finished speaking, he stood up and turned to everyone: ”Let’s go, check other places, and if there are traces of the Mirror Demon God or its followers... don’t let them go.”

After saying so, Angel glanced at Dox, hoping that his words were neither inspiration nor would they come true.

Involving the ’Mirror Demon God,’ whether a real Demon God or a fake one, is a huge trouble.

After Angel left, Dox immediately caught up and chatted with Angel about things like ”destined events won’t change because I spoke of them, this isn’t a crows mouth, it’s seeing through obstacles” and so forth.

After speaking, Dox was somewhat pleased, teasing by Angel’s ear: ”When you called me a crows mouth just now, were you frightened by my inspiration?”

Angel stopped and turned to look at Dox.

Dox patted Angel’s shoulder and then beat his own chest, making a brotherly gesture: ”Don’t worry, I had no inspiration just now. I was just speaking from theory, just what I talked to you about.”

Saying this actually makes one more uneasy. Angel sighed silently in his heart; he really wanted to point out that Dox’s inspiration is always functioning, but revealing it might make Dox miss the opportunity to grasp it.

Words that were about to spill out were swallowed back, and Angel called out faintly: ”Dangross.”

The intuitive Dangross immediately jumped onto Angel’s shoulder, and used fiery heat to burn the spot where Dox had patted before.

”What are you...”

”Nothing, just some dirt on my shoulder.” After saying this, Angel turned and strode away.

Dox watched Angel’s departing figure silently, looking at his own hands, muttering: ”Dirt?”

...

After exiting the transfer point, the group entered the hall of the ’second level.’

Compared to the first level, there were even more obvious signs of looting here. Even the walls bore handprints, albeit very shallow, likely made by later visitors to probe the Magical Energy Array within the walls.

The group quickly completed their search, as usual, turning up empty-handed.

They have gotten used to it, after all, with ten thousand years having passed, it’s almost impossible for anything good to be left behind.

Only Kaier seemed a bit dejected, the reason being that he discovered another incredibly large Star Color Stone, enough to serve as a stage curtain.

A Star Color Stone of such size must have been engraved with beautiful murals back then, and if they still existed, they would be invaluable historical materials.

But now, the Star Color Stone is completely blank, with nothing visible.

Kaier enjoyed the process of exploring ruins and digging out those secret and interesting matters in history. Seeing murals that could have been easily obtained but missed due to bad timing naturally made him frustrated.

”The quality of Star Color Stones also varies, maybe we’ll encounter one that hasn’t faded yet,” Dox comforted.

The others’ consolation was just comfort. Dox’s comfort, that was blessed!

Instantly, Kaier regained his enthusiasm: ”Let’s continue upwards; the higher we go, obviously the higher the rank. Perhaps there are still colorful Star Color Stones above!”

Once Kaier finished speaking, he eagerly rushed to the side of the stairs, looking expectantly at Angel.

Angel didn’t speak, instead responded with action. With one step forward, he simply said ”Let’s go,” and headed up the stairs towards the third floor.

As soon as they reached the third floor, they felt something different.

Because the place where they appeared was no longer a corridor but directly in a hall.

This hall was much larger than the halls on the previous two floors. The reason is simple: this floor only has this hall, and looking out the windows showed alley scenery outside instead of corridors.

On one side of the hall was a spiral staircase leading upwards, bringing a cold and damp wind from the staircase’s mouth.

Everyone immediately probed with their spiritual power and discovered that above the stairs there was only one door, behind the door was the exit. The wind was blowing in from outside.

”Deserving of an Underground Labyrinth with such unconventional exits,” Dox clicked his tongue twice.

”Finding an exit is a good thing,” Angel said, ”Before leaving, let’s explore this hall first.”

The hall had also been looted, but many cabinets remained scattered messily. These were the first things they checked.

They didn’t expect to find anything valuable, but getting some intelligence like the altar fragments on the second floor would suffice.

But even after rifling through and scanning with spiritual power several times, they didn’t find any traces worth investigating.

Just as everyone was disappointed, Kaier’s voice suddenly called over: ”Over here, over here!”

Everyone looked towards Kaier, who stood on one side of the hall, in front of a desk. In the wall behind the desk was embedded a square blank Star Color Stone.

”What’s up, any discoveries?” Angel stepped forward.

Kaier crouched down, tilted his head to look at the edge of the frame below the Star Color Stone: ”Sir, take a look, isn’t there a hint of color?”

Angel followed Kaier’s pointer, bent down to look with his eyes.

Indeed, at the corner of the frame, he found a faint transition strip of gray-black colors.

Angel reached out and touched it, no powder fell off, it shouldn’t be dust or blood in the cracks.

Angel pondered for a moment then said: ”It does seem like color, but why is it on the edge?”

Kaier didn’t hesitate, directly responded: ”Could there be a painting hidden behind this?”

From Kaier’s quick response and his excited expression, it was evident he had long entertained this idea and was eager for affirmation.

Angel’s dialogue drew the attention of the others too, but since Kaier and Angel were already in front of the stone slab, the others could only watch with spiritual power.

Through the spiritual power perspective, the gray-black color gradient was indeed visible. However, they couldn’t see the back of the Star Color Stone.

Though Star Color Stone isn’t that impressive as a material, it’s still a Transcendent stone, and it’s also embedded in a wall inscribed with a Magical Energy Array, so spiritual power’s inability to penetrate is expected.

”Is there a painting behind it?” Angel murmured: ”We’ll know if we take it down.”

Though he spoke of dismantling, removing the Star Color Stone is not that easy. One must avoid the Magical Energy Array behind, hence it’s necessary to investigate the array’s condition.

Spiritual power can’t directly penetrate, so to observe the Magical Energy Array, one must take a detour.

Angel began wandering in the hall, looking for exposed Magic Patterns while sensing the energy transmission routes represented by the patterns.

While Angel deciphered the Magical Energy Array, others chatted leisurely at the side.

For they truly can’t help even if they wanted to; they could only move aside and lazily set up a wager, betting whether there’s really a painting behind the Star Color Stone or if it’s an empty effort.

But in the end, the wager wasn’t put to action because it was initiated by Dox, and the only participants, Kaier and Vay, both chose there was a painting.

They weren’t foolish, in the previous level Dox had spoken with his blessed mouth about the possibility of encountering a colored Star Color Stone.

And here it was.

As for Black Earl, he flew to the outside along the stairs. But he didn’t fly far, staying near the door as if perceiving something.

After about five minutes, Angel returned to the Star Color Stone.

”The quality of this Star Color Stone can’t bear most of the Magic Patterns of the Magical Energy Array, so there might not be many important Magic Patterns behind it. The only thing to note is that the energy channel I sensed is broken in two places, likely because the Magic Pattern Drafting for the energy channel is within the Star Color Stone.”

After Angel finished speaking, Dox immediately asked: ”Then, is there a way to bypass these two energy...”

Before Dox could finish, Angel turned and replied: ”No need to bypass, I’ve already prepared an External Array Disk. Now it should be possible to pry off this Star Color Stone directly.”

Once Angel finished talking, he made a ”please” gesture to Dox.

Although prying open the Star Color Stone is simple, he disliked seeing Dox leisurely observing coldly from the sidelines. Hence, the physical labor should be left to Dox.