This Spiritual Energy is Lethal!
Chapter 279: The Final Test

Chapter 279: Chapter 279: The Final Test

"There are many people who don’t belong here..." Chen Ke said.

He observed Fan Hede, trying to discern something, but the life countdown showed no reaction.

"A lot has happened here, Knight... Um, please allow me to call you that, since you are wearing our armor," Fan Hede said, adding some firewood to the fire.

Chen Ke noticed that as soon as Fan Hede threw the firewood into the fire, some branches appeared out of thin air beside him.

"It’s okay, Your Majesty, it’s okay... I would be more than happy if you were willing to tell me about it," Chen Ke said with a smile.

"Of course, Knight... If you don’t mind a long story, I will try to keep it short... A long, long time ago... I was so old that I’d forgotten my age... Back then I was but a wandering swordsman..." Fan Hede recalled his life as if remembering something joyful, a smile spreading across his face.

"Back then, I wasn’t a king, and all problems could be solved with a sword..." Fan Hede added another piece of wood to the fire, making it burn more fiercely.

"Being a leader was never an easy thing..." Chen Ke wanted to add some firewood too, but he had only sand near him, so he pretended to ponder deeply as he let the sand run slowly through his fingers.

"Yes, I may not have been a good king, but I once traveled with someone... I learned a lot from him," Fan Hede nodded.

"Who was that person?" Chen Ke asked.

"I called him Lear, but others referred to him as Hades," Fan Hede answered.

"Hades, huh... No offense, but that sounds like a killer maniac..." Chen Ke said.

"No... Quite the contrary, he seemed very cold on the outside, but his heart was warm... and he really had the ability to bring the dead back to life..." Fan Hede said.

"That’s quite impressive... but why didn’t he come to save you?" Chen Ke asked.

Hades Lear? Really had the ability to bring the dead back to life? If he was so powerful, how could Fan Hede’s kingdom fall?

"We went through some things, legendary adventures. One day, I realized that I too should strive for some goals... pursue things in life worth fighting for, and thus we parted ways," Fan Hede answered.

"So... you lost contact with him?" Chen Ke asked.

"You could say that. It took me a long time to build my own kingdom, but I couldn’t find him again," Fan Hede said.

"Since he is Hades, it’s obvious that he wouldn’t die so easily," Chen Ke spread his hands.

"I can’t guarantee that, Knight, but there’s some sense in what you say. Perhaps he simply didn’t want to contact me," Fan Hede maintained a neutral stance.

"Tell me about your daughter... Faralis..." Chen Ke tread carefully.

"I believe you know already. The fact that you carry that sword proves that you have passed the test," Fan Hede pointed at the Moonlight Greatsword beside Chen Ke.

"Do you mean..." Chen Ke asked.

"Perhaps you have noticed already. This place has become a Curse land, and everything is caught in a cycle. The dead cannot rest, and the living have no future," Fan Hede said.

Chen Ke nodded; it seemed Fan Hede knew not only that he had traveled through time but also what his kingdom had become.

"There’s something wrong with the time here, Your Majesty. If you’re aware of it... haven’t you tried to do something?" Chen Ke couldn’t help asking.

"I should have died long ago, a very, very long time ago. I should have been devoured by the darkness plague and become one of the soulless... Knight, I’ve tried methods you’ve never heard of, countless times, but in the end, I understood something. I am part of the cycle. I am a witness, a guide, and you, Knight, are the first to come to me," Fan Hede said.

"What does this mean?" Chen Ke asked.

"It means that all of this is significant. Knight, I don’t know what it means, but at least, I can tell you what your final test is," Fan Hede smiled.

"The final test...? You mean to say, the Great Void is just a test? Are you joking with me?" Chen Ke was puzzled.

"What is the Great Void?" Fan Hede asked back.

Of course, Fan Hede didn’t know what others were calling his kingdom now.

"This doesn’t... it doesn’t make sense... it can’t be... Your Majesty! As far as I know, places like your kingdom, trapped in cycles, they aren’t the only ones..." Chen Ke was perplexed.

If the Great Void was some sort of test, then it was certainly an excessive one. After all, as long as one possessed the Blasphemous Dagger, they could randomly open a door to the Great Void.

Moreover, even without using the Blasphemous Dagger, many places on Earth would inexplicably sudden open a door.

"I do not know from whence your doubts arise, Knight," Fan Hede said.

"I beg your pardon, Your Majesty... In your time... What was your calendar system like...?" Chen Ke asked.

"The year I adventured with Lear was around 1630, that was a beautiful time, and it was during that time I met An Helei... By the time I founded my own kingdom, it was already 1664," Fan Hede said.

"Medieval...?" Chen Ke muttered.

"Medieval? This term is interesting. But we usually call it the Dragon Ascending Era," Fan Hede chuckled.

"Dragon Ascending Era... Are there dragons?" Chen Ke asked.

"That’s a long story... When I was born, the last dragon in this world had died, but later, they returned, and that was not a good omen... What did we call it... The Battle of Dusken Eve?" Fan Hede spoke, his gaze drifting away, as if his thoughts had pulled him into a distant memory.

"Uh... It seems you have experienced quite a bit, Your Majesty, but focusing on the present, what is my final test?" Chen Ke asked.

"Oh... I almost forgot... Look, look ahead," Fan Hede pointed into the darkness to the left of the bonfire.

Chen Ke followed Fan Hede’s direction into the dark, but could see nothing.

"There’s nothing there," Chen Ke insisted to Dong Ao.

Fan Hede did not speak; his entire figure actually turned into a statue. Upon closer inspection, Chen Ke saw not Fan Hede, but a large rock.

"Your Majesty!" Chen Ke stood up, looking around, his own voice echoing in the darkness.

At that moment, the bonfire also disappeared, and when he turned back, the once roaring fire was nothing more than a pile of cold, dry twigs and ash.

A cool breeze blew, and Chen Ke saw a stream of white light shining into the darkness from not far away. Grasping the Moonlight Greatsword, he made his way to the source of the light, only to find that his location was on the midsection of a chasm in a gorge, with an endless grassland below and rolling mountains in the distance.

It appeared that the church built into the mountainside had dug a deep pit below, the position of the pit even lower than Fan Hede Kingdom itself, which was built in a valley; thus, the pit’s crevice was lower than the kingdom’s terrain but still above the plains.

"Was everything just now an illusion?" Chen Ke wondered. He turned and walked into the darkness, where he saw a large stone door on the mountainside.

The protruding part of the originally Fan Hede rock was directly opposite to this large door.

"Let me see what the test is," Chen Ke said, pushing the stone door open with force, causing a grating noise and grinding white marks on the ground.

Beyond the stone door was a very spacious stone chamber, similar to the one where Faralis was imprisoned, only this was clearly a man-made room, roughly 100 meters on all sides, with a woman imprisoned in the center.

The woman was sickeningly skinny, dressed in a red gown, her long hair dragging on the floor, her face unclear, her arms as thin as reeds.

She was pierced all over her body by iron spikes with chains at the ends, locked in place at the shoulder blades, collarbones, and hip bones. The chains were connected to the iron frame used to secure her, with her arms locked in a thick iron shackle chained to a column above her head.

Chen Ke cautiously circled the woman.

The back of the woman’s dress was open, exposing a back full of branding and whip marks, with frighteningly long nails that were coiled and blackened. Her black hair completely covered her head, and Chen Ke had the premonition that this thing might suddenly lift its head and snap at him.

Although Chen Ke was not sure who this woman was, it was evident that she had suffered much in life and had eventually starved to death here, forgotten by the world.

He couldn’t help but be curious, wanting to lift the hair and see the woman’s face.

"Who’s scared of who... She can’t bite me, right?" Chen Ke bolstered his courage; the woman was tightly bound, what was there to fear?

Thus, he reached out and gently lifted the woman’s hair, revealing that ghastly pale face.

As soon as he lifted the hair, Chen Ke regretted it. The woman’s cheeks had completely collapsed, her nose shaved off, leaving only two nasal holes, with her lips also cut off, her stark white teeth exposed in a truly disgusting sight.

But the worst part was that the woman’s eyes were open, staring at him, the whites murky, and the pupils like crescent moons, showing only half, which reminded him of Sadako.

At this moment, a line of text appeared at the bottom of Chen Ke’s vision:

The Crazy Queen An Helei.