This Spiritual Energy is Lethal!
Chapter 278 Old Wang Fan Hede

Chapter 278: Chapter 278 Old Wang Fan Hede

Chen Ke looked at the ring in his hand, which Faralis had stripped from the Pope’s corpse. In his vision, this ring didn’t have any magic attributes, but it seemed it was to be used as a key.

Since it was the Pope’s key, the door it was meant to unlock would definitely be inside the church somewhere.

Before Faralis had pushed Chen Ke out of the great cathedral, she had mentioned she needed to save her own mother, which indicated that the Pope had imprisoned her somewhere.

But with the church’s vastness, finding the location where the Pope hid her was no easy task.

At that moment, the ring in his hand emitted a faint blue glow and was accompanied by a "yīng yīng yīng" sound.

Hmm?

Chen Ke took off his helmet, cradling it in his left hand, while lifting his right hand, which was wearing the ring, to his ear to listen more closely.

The sound, like the buzzing of mosquitoes, was sometimes weak, sometimes strong. Furthermore, it seemed that when he pointed in a certain direction, the sound became clearer.

Chen Ke suddenly understood; the ring was guiding him.

"Um... although I don’t know why it’s doing this, it’s saved me some time," Chen Ke murmured to himself. He put his helmet back on and followed the directions indicated by the ring, moving in the correct direction.

He carried the Moonlight Sword on his shoulder. He had no idea what material it was made from. When the sword wasn’t glowing, it looked like a piece of highly opaque rosin. The Pope had exhausted the sword’s power, so now it only showed a faint blue color.

And once the sword was fully recharged, it would likely take on the appearance it had in the Pope’s hands.

Chen Ke had no doubt about its sharpness. The middle of the sword was thick, but the edges and the tip were very sharp. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it was a weapon condensed from magic energy.

His entire suit of silver knight’s armor, scorched yellow by Faralis’ fierce flames, was blackened and cracked at the elbows and edges.

Even so, the armor still offered excellent protection because one of its special attributes was that the lower the durability, the higher the defense.

It was the only Holy Relic he could wear; the legendary suit he had originally worn was also damaged. It was just like adding insult to injury. He could only take things one step at a time.

Guided by the ring, Chen Ke arrived in the lower hall of the church. Here, he had once fought with a heavy knight wielding a giant shield and axe.

He also remembered that behind this knight lay a lectern. It was on a body here that he had found the key to unlock the seal on Faralis’ location and had acquired her head.

And now, the ring guided Chen Ke to enter the lectern room once again.

Chen Ke noticed that he hadn’t encountered any more undead on his way. The whole Fan Hede Kingdom had fallen into silence, and even the white dragon that had flown over the broken bridge was gone without a trace.

He had a premonition that there wasn’t much left for him to do in Fan Hede, and all of this was about to end forever.

What would he get after it ended? Chen Ke couldn’t help but ponder. The Administration Bureau, Yasla, the Consortium, and H.C.P had all conducted investigations here. They spared no expense in manpower and resources to explore this place.

Especially the organization H.C.P, let’s just treat it as an organization for the moment, was the most secretive. The two people Chen Ke had seen in Fan Hede who belonged to this power showed completely different attitudes.

Brother Discouraged looked like a lost soul who had been abandoned here and could never return home.

That iron can... seemed more like a watchdog that had chosen to stay.

Plus, with Parker’s current bizarre situation, Chen Ke concluded that there must be something incredibly significant hidden here.

Maybe it had to do with the secret of time? Or perhaps it concealed a Holy Relic of unparalleled power?

Chen Ke entered the lectern room again, and it was still the way he had left it last time, with blackened remains of bodies strewn about the seats and a corpse still lying on the lectern.

The ring buzzed. Chen Ke raised his hand and extended his fist towards the surroundings of the lectern, discovering that near one side of the lectern was the direction indicated by the ring.

He came to the wall behind the lectern. Amid the urgent buzzing of the ring, he knocked on the wall to find out if there was a hidden door there.

At that moment, the light from the ring suddenly became intense, casting a blue glow on the wall in front of Chen Ke. He heard the sound of stones shifting behind the wall.

The wall in front of him suddenly moved back two inches and then slid to one side, revealing a space. It was a small elevator hidden within the wall.

The small elevator was circular, and a knight in armor could barely fit inside and close the little door behind him. A heavy knight wouldn’t even think about it, but Chen Ke still managed to squeeze in.

Since an elevator had appeared, he definitely had to go up, but Chen Ke seriously doubted whether this small cage suspended by chains would break halfway through its descent.

He stepped one foot in to test it, pressing down hard a few times, and it felt quite sturdy. He then slid his Moonlight Sword in sideways, propping it against one side, before wriggling his whole body in with it.

The elevator clearly wasn’t designed for knights, which made wearing armor in it quite awkward.

Chen Ke then shut the little cage’s door. Suddenly, the wall in front of him shifted slightly, sealing the gap and plunging the space into pitch darkness.

He was startled, as people tend to get nervous in the dark, especially when in a confined space, and could easily become claustrophobic. Chen Ke activated his Spiritual Vision, the broad scope of which made the situation a bit more bearable for him.

The elevator began its slow descent, with only the sound of chains rolling in the darkness. Chen Ke couldn’t help but wonder what was driving this tiny cage in such a cramped space—there was no room for anything like a counterweight stone.

That small elevator just kept sliding downwards with Chen Ke aboard, his gaze fixed on the life countdown timer at the top right corner of his vision. A whole ten minutes had elapsed, and at the speed of this elevator, if it had been in a real-world skyscraper, it would’ve been equivalent to hundreds of stories by now.

Logically speaking, it should be hotter underground, and the pressure should be greater, but inside the elevator, his body temperature had not changed, and when the elevator had descended for the eleventh minute, the oppressive feeling from the walls disappeared.

Chen Ke reached out his hand beyond the small iron cage, only to find that he couldn’t touch the walls anymore. This meant he had descended past the building’s floors, into a dark void akin to the abyss, with only the faint blue glow of the Moonlight Sword beside him.

Where was this descent going to end up...

Chen Ke began to feel anxious, disliking the feeling of helplessness and abhorring the absolute silence.

At that moment, gazing down from the small cage, he spotted a faint red glow—a fire it seemed—with a vast shadow sitting beside it.

Chen Ke grabbed his sword, trying not to make any noise. The only sound was the clanking of the old, rickety cage’s chains.

He turned on Spiritual Vision, which just barely reached the shadow, revealing the silhouette of someone squatting beside the fire—meaning he was still over a hundred meters off the ground.

Faralis’s mother had indeed suffered, being imprisoned by the Pope so deep underground was like being in a man-made hell. It was pitch black, with no signs of life, and not a sound to be heard.

The small iron cage came to a stop with a clang, and Chen Ke wasn’t too far from the fire. He carefully stepped out of the elevator, his feet finding a familiar sand and stone surface.

He hoisted up his sword, his shield at the ready in front of him, and slowly approached the figure. The clash of his armor was inevitable, but Chen Ke did not intend to hide. If a battle was unavoidable here, then there was no need for stealth.

If he couldn’t win, he could just run for the door.

Chen Ke stopped about fifty paces from the dark figure, not wishing to get any closer. From that distance, tossing the Crystal Gun was perfect, and there was little chance of missing a shot. There was no need to rush using the Moonlight Sword’s slashing power until the other got closer.

Now, he could get a good look at the shadow. It was so massive that, even seated, it towered over Chen Ke. The figure faced the campfire, back towards Chen Ke, and because of the backlight, all Chen Ke could make out was a dark silhouette.

"Ah... It has been so long since someone has visited... Knight..." The figure suddenly spoke. The voice sounded aged and authoritative, but the tone carried a sense of weariness, emptiness, and an indifferent attitude towards all things.

Chen Ke remained silent, unsure of who the other person was.

"No need for ceremony, knight... This kingdom has already fallen. You must have seen it with your own eyes... I am no longer your King... Just an old man by the fireside..." the figure said slowly.

"You... are you Fan Hede...?" Chen Ke couldn’t help but ask.

"Yes, that is my name... How long has it been... that someone still remembers... Knight, would you be willing to sit by the fire and talk with me? I haven’t spoken in a long time..." said Fan Hede.

Chen Ke didn’t refuse, but he didn’t let down his guard either. He slowly sat down opposite the fire, sliding the Moonlight Sword into the ground beside him.

Only then, by the firelight, could Chen Ke see Fan Hede’s face clearly—a head of grey-white hair, clad in a black armor trimmed with gold, and a white beard reminiscent of Guan Yu, showing a countenance that was both kindly and majestic.

Even in his old age, Fan Hede still exuded an aura of not to be trifled with. In his youth, he must surely have been a Swordsman whom no one dared to confront directly.

But Chen Ke saw no sword.

"Where should we start... Knight, tell me your story, what has happened in your time?" Fan Hede looked into the campfire and asked languidly.

Chen Ke was startled—had Fan Hede seen through his identity as a time traveler?

"You are not from here, knight. I am right, aren’t I...?" Fan Hede said with a smile.