I Forged the Myth of the Ancient Overlords
Chapter 638 - 638 637. Where did it go_1

Chapter 638: 637. Where did it go_1 Chapter 638: 637. Where did it go_1 Inside the pitch-black coffin, there was nothing.

There were no remains of Bronning, nor any monsters, tentacles, slime, mud, music-reciprocating zombies, or other sorts of mess.

It was completely empty, as if brand new.

Lu Ban moved the lid aside and saw the entire coffin clearly.

He reached in and shook it a bit, confirming there wasn’t an invisible person lying there.

His fingers brushed against the inner wall of the coffin, but Lu Ban didn’t feel any liquid residue on it either.

No one had ever lain inside.

Lu Ban turned to the butler.

“No, I don’t know, I really don’t know…”

The butler looked astonished; he had never seen such a scene before. He hurriedly peered into the coffin but couldn’t see his master’s figure no matter how hard he looked.

“I clearly remember putting the master inside… How could this be?”

The butler felt his decades of beliefs were being challenged.

The body had vanished into thin air.

Lu Ban and Shia exchanged glances.

“It seems we’ve overlooked something from the very beginning,”

Lu Ban said.

At the start of their task, they had assumed Bronning was already dead, leaving behind a corpse; thus, they overlooked a possibility.

That is, Bronning wasn’t dead and had been moving around in this Storm Villa all along.

The extra person was not Byron, but Bronning.

However, how had Bronning managed to escape the “Soul of the Seeker”‘s eavesdropping on his thoughts?

Lu Ban hadn’t heard Bronning’s inner thoughts in this mansion, which is why he hadn’t paid attention to this before.

Now that he thought about it, wasn’t it rather preposterous?

If Bronning wasn’t dead, then there’d be no point in talking about Soul Summoning Night. What use would summoning be if the soul hadn’t even left the body?

Lu Ban and his team’s task was to survive until the end of Soul Summoning Night, which meant they were bound to discover the truth about Bronning’s coffin someday, whether it be the first day, the second day, or the ninth. No wonder the manipulation of their perceptions was so subtle.

So, Lu Ban thought that the task probably wasn’t limited to just one subplot or one method leading to the answer.

Or, could all the clues they were gathering now be pieces of a puzzle that would allow them to survive Soul Summoning Night in the end?

Now, there was only one major question.

Where had Bronning gone?

However, just as Lu Ban thought he might have to search for Bronning for a while, with Soul Summoning Night looming ever closer, he heard a cough.

“Cough, cough.”

On the other side of the hall, where there had been no one before, now sat a person.

His temples were flecked with grey, but he didn’t seem old, resembling a mature man around forty.

He wore an old and loose suit, leaned on a cane, and had a kindly smile on his face that would make anyone think he was just an ordinary elder who knew his fate.

But Lu Ban recognized him at a glance. After all, the black-and-white portrait was still hanging on the other side.

This was indeed Bronning.

“You’ve made much faster progress in your investigation than I anticipated. I thought it would be at least the seventh or eighth day before you stumbled upon this,”

Bronning spoke evenly. Outside, the wind howled, making the windows rattle with heavy thuds, and the roar of thunder exploded, while lightning illuminated the desolate hall. Amidst the flickering candlelight, Bronning’s eyes were as deep as the Endless Abyss, as if lights were twinkling within them.

“To think you could find Byron truly was beyond my expectations. How did you discover he was locked inside the barrel?”

Bronning asked in a leisurely way, at this moment he did not resemble a person who should be dead, but rather like a teacher posing a question to his students, calm and confident.

“We possess some extraordinary items that can detect the remains of Gaude, and from there we discovered something in the underground wine cellar.”

Lu Ban answered, gesturing to Shia not to act just yet, because something told him that Bronning was not an entity they could handle—or rather, the person sitting before them might not be the original mortal Bronning, but some higher being.

“Extraordinary items?”

Bronning took a careful look at Lu Ban as if he were thinking at the same time.

“This Storm Villa relies on paintings from the Ancient Capital to suppress certain beings. I want to know, are you the one being suppressed, or the one doing the suppressing?”

Taking advantage of the other’s silence, Lu Ban asked.

“I called Stone over because I wanted to deal with the problems here. Unexpectedly, you’ve nearly unearthed the deepest secrets of Storm Villa.”

Bronning did not answer Lu Ban’s question, but instead muttered to himself.

“It seems detectives really can’t be relied on. They always possess a curiosity beyond that of common people, always wanting to delve into the truth of events. They will never believe in the seemingly perfect endings on the surface, only uncovering the most brutal truths by their own hands.”

“So that means you are the one being suppressed.”

Lu Ban quickly understood the meaning behind Bronning’s words.

“Suppressed? Hardly.”

Bronning laughed, yet there was no smile in his eyes.

“It’s not at a level where ‘that one’ needs to suppress me. The reason I stay here is because I fear those true beings that walk upon the earth.”

“The true beings that walk upon the earth? Are you saying that the Abandoned Capital has truly awakened gods?”

Lu Ban’s interest was piqued.

His previous guess was that the distinct feature of the Abandoned Capital might be truly awakened gods walking the earth, just like the myriad eyes he had seen. Now, according to Bronning, Lu Ban’s guess might be correct.

“Having a walking god is lucky; at least the visitors from the Foreign Domain will have a hard time truly polluting the residents of this Foreign Domain. But having such a god is also unlucky because the mere presence of it creates Pollution.”

Bronning’s lips curled up, his tone somewhat wistful as he spoke.

“Moreover, the one here is a being with a particularly strong sense of jealousy. I’ve clashed with it to some extent, but alas, at that time, I had not achieved my complete form yet, which led to my defeat, and I nearly lost everything. That’s why I was forced to hide here, relying on the art of reincarnation to continually extend my life.”

“You’ve clashed with it? That being with countless eyes?”

Lu Ban deliberately said.

He knew that this information itself was a sort of Pollution from the Ancient Overlord. If what the other said was true, then naturally this statement wouldn’t have any effect. However, if Bronning was just trying to “bluff to impress,” then this statement could prove quite damaging.

“It seems you also know a lot.”

Bronning was unmoved as he spoke.

“Looking at you, perhaps you could become the next me.”

He looked at Lu Ban.

“Who exactly are you?”

Shia couldn’t help but ask, she had her guesses, but still needed a definitive answer.

“Me?”

Bronning’s expression grew serious.

“You may call me Taoist Crane Cry.”

*

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