Chapter 479 240. Old Chong
Er still holds the ancient amulet in his hand. Under the influence of the Lich Priest ritual, the amulet reveals its true appearance. The materials are mixed with internal and external objects to form patterns of different colors. Black light stripes are mixed with yellow in gray, black in orange, and pearlescent white in rich tan. It can be said to be a colorful black.
A lifelike scorpion crawled over the edge of the table with its black light shining, and it stretched out its poisonous stinger to stab the old man. Then a spider appeared, cast from brass, with legs spread high on the joints. Then a locust appeared, its wing shells clicking, and finally a flat and narrow snake head appeared, its golden eyes blinking constantly, and its forked tongue protruding from its lipless chin.
As the outside of the amulet completely decomposed, a swarm of black beetles emerged, hundreds of bugs, meticulously carved from ancient oak that had been waxed and treated over centuries. In the heart-rending howl of the old man, these insects began to scurry around on the floor, looking for routes and their masters.
When Gilead heard the noise and rushed into the house, the amulet revealed its true form, transforming into an hourglass. The sand inside the glass was as fine as the tiniest dust particles, floating in the candlelight and dancing in the air. , the sand does not flow with gravity, nor does it lose weight. The sand seems to be floating in the air like perfect shining particles.
Each grain of sand becomes an entity, each particle changes in size, color and intensity. Every grain of sand, every particle, every speck expands rapidly like a sponge in water. Thousands of tiny particles trapped within the glass unfold, going from egg stage to nymph to adult locust in the blink of an eye.
Each locust squeaked, each spread its wings, each joined the yellow-green speckled swarm that began to spiral and rise around Gilead, Fishwell, and the Old Man.
The old man could feel something crawling on his hand, and there was a slight contraction around the wrist. He slowly lowered his head to look, but through the cloud of locusts, he could not see anything. These insects were forming crazy images, using a Awareness, shape a consciousness, collectively escape the room and find their way to the Lich Priest.
The hourglass fell from the old man's hand, and he could no longer hold it. He knew that the hourglass did not grant him eternal life as he thought, but gave him death. The hourglass came to life in his hands, the air filled with dust and insects, and when the swarm dispersed, he found that his hands and arms were covered in more bugs, covered in a layer of crawling scarabs.
The old man tried to raise his hand to push the scarab away from his body. With this movement, a group of hard black corpses fell down. Some of them spread their wings in mid-air and joined the group escaping the room, others dropped to the floor and scurried across the carpet, clicking and scratching on the floor, looking for gaps between the floorboards and places where they could make their way. Out of the crack.
Fiswell saw the snake wrapped around the old man's wrist and forearm. He endured the slight stinging sensation in his body, pulled out the dagger from the scabbard at his waist, inserted the tip of the dagger between the seven inches of the poisonous snake, and then used The dagger drew a long, neat and narrow line on the old man's skin, deep enough to draw a drop of blood. He kept repeating this process, trying to release the poisonous blood.
Gilead reacted and rushed over to help. He threw the snake to the ground. He found that the snake dropped to the ground was still intact, with perfect and shiny scales, sparkling eyes and a muscular appearance, but The snake did not bleed or shed any liquid when it fell to the ground. As the snake rolled, its scales petrified, its muscles withered, and its bones dried up, until only dust fell on the floor.
As Gilead watched, the swarm descended upon him, and he screamed and jumped in a strange, frenzied dance. He flapped his arms and torso desperately, trying to get rid of the creatures that were scurrying into his boots and pants.
Finally, these swarming insects with collective consciousness broke through the window and escaped from the confines of the old man's room. Because the remnants of the Wind of Shax were floating in the air, they flew into the distance, as if traveling through time and space, traveling through thousands of years, spanning Thousands of miles.
Gilead, who reacted again, came to the window and stuck his head out to check. As he appeared, the insect swarm seemed to notice him. The insect swarm stopped in mid-air, then changed its direction, and soon the insect swarm passed through. gaps, into storm drains and grates, and ultimately down through grates and vents into sewers.
Gilead knew he couldn't catch up, and before he could think any more, he heard a strange suppressed laugh. He knew it was the sound made by the old man, but it was weaker and more powerful than before. When he turned back, the old man had already stood up from the bed. His posture was also very strange. His feet were slightly apart, his hands were raised flat, his head was tilted to the left, and he had a happy smile on his face, which looked very charming under the candlelight. .
In addition to his strange posture, the old man was also covered with insects from head to toe. These insects kept climbing and weaving around, covering every inch of his body. When he blinked, insects fell from his eyelids to his cheeks. The insects on his cheeks landed on his chest. More insects flowed like a waterfall from his belly to his thighs and finally landed on his feet. on the feet, and the bugs on the feet began to crawl on the legs again, as if they were starting over and over again, never stopping.
Fiswell, who had retreated, turned to look at Gilead, who shrugged at him and then drew his weapon. However, they did not attack the old man. They knew that the old man's current situation was very difficult.
Finally, Gilead took a slow, deep breath, then calmed down. He hit the old man's leg with the tip of his sword, and then attacked the old man's arm. He cleverly made small and regular movements on the old man's limbs, turned his wrist flexibly, and knocked off the insect. The insect made a squeaking sound and tried to escape by jumping.
But Gilead's sword moved faster than the insects. He kept disintegrating the insects. His sword was like a scalpel. The insect's limbs and wings kept falling off, and the insect's body kept cutting open, and Some of them turned into powder directly under his sword, but the old man also suffered pain as he attacked.
The old man was inevitably cut, and blood gushed out from the wounds on his limbs. Blood flowed from the cut skin, and black, sticky blood kept dripping on the ground. He didn't make a whining sound, he tried to smile, but when he opened his mouth a spider slipped between his broken teeth and he hated the feeling of it moving on his dry tongue. Without saliva or enough breath, he was unable to fight the spider away, and he ended up biting the bitter, repulsive creature, chewing it into gray-white dust.
Two minutes passed, and Gilead was sympathetic to the old man's plight, at a time when every locust, scarab, spider, and scorpion was no longer a threat to him. He could sense the weakness of these insects and the actions they were about to take. He kept picking the insects out of the old man's clothes and skin, and skillfully strung the insects together. When the blades were full, he swung the blades to remove them. The insect bounced off easily, and the old man was no longer injured in the whole process. When it was all over, the old man fell.
There was an unnatural paleness on the face of the old man who fell on the floor. Fiswell knelt down beside him and checked. Fiswell knew that he was poisoned. Gilead took another breath, put away the weapon and came to him. Beside him, he stared at Gilead and weakly told Gilead: Ashes to ashes...Earth to earth, sands of time, bugs, salvation... Before he could finish speaking, he died.
After the old man lost his breath, Gilead heard the faint sound of sand moving again, and the rustling and hissing sounds of dripping sand began to fill the entire room. He glanced at Fiswell, and this time it was Fiswell's turn to shrug. All the sand in the hourglass is gathered in the ball at the bottom. With gravity in a motionless dormant state, it is as if the passage of time has stopped, as if the sound is not coming from the hourglass, as if those insects are not coming from just now. Appearing in an hourglass.
Under the watchful eyes of Gilead and Fiswell, the glass of the hourglass broke, and the sand went to the glass, and then back to the sand...
"That night, many sick people and the old and the weak died in Dongcheng District." The maid who also started to eat stopped. After finishing the meal, he thought for a moment and said firmly, then thought of something and continued, "I remember Trancas mentioned that something seemed to have happened over there. The wind of magic was acting abnormally, as if it suddenly appeared. Same." "It should be a clay pot, the unique use of magic by the skeletons in the south." Darkus knew it was because of the clay pot, or organ jar, anyway, they are the same thing. The first time he saw the clay pot was Last seen in Lauren Loren's Golden Pond at the fairgrounds of Krakalund. Then after saying something, he motioned for Gilead to continue speaking.
Although the old man was a liar at first, he did have two brushes and mastered drawing skills after becoming a scholar. During his stay in Gilead, he taught Gilead how to read pictures.
During the period when the old man lived, Gilead did master the basic skills of looking at pictures and drawing, but he didn't pay much attention to it. In his opinion, he was not a human or dwarf living in Altdorf, and he and Fiswell would not be there. Altdorf stayed too long and eventually had to return to the wilderness to continue looking for possible similar species.
However, with the death of the old man and the humans in Dongcheng District, everything changed. 3 knew that this phenomenon in Dongcheng District was not a plague that human officials claimed after a hasty investigation. He judged that it might have something to do with the south, although he had not seen it. He had never seen things like Tomb Kings, but he knew that there was a period of time in history when beings from the south occupied the Border Prince Territory, and humans from the north and beings from the south were constantly fighting there. His ancestors witnessed everything, and then Recorded again.
Gilead knew that the old man had a unique map in his hand, a map that the old man had copied in the Xicheng District Museum. The map showed various features from topographic and geological studies to traditional streets. The map marked where the industrial area was and where it was. Commercial areas, and detailed maps arranged according to race, prosperity, religion, and other characteristics.
Gilead, who was holding the map, found a reference point, which was the skull on the wall of the staff dormitory of Stephen Franz College, which he had seen in the college. After proving that the map was effective, he began to circle the streets and spent a lot of time roaming the Dongcheng District, marking the locations represented by the various reference objects on the map. He found many of the markings in curbs and sills in the ground, in wrought-iron grates, and in spouts at the base of drain pipes.
Within days, the map of Gilead was filled with dots, dashes, left and right slashes, and elven runes that only he and Fishwell could understand. Sometimes a mark was repeated over and over in an area, and sometimes Two or more overlap, like street lights, while some areas are cross-hatched with multiple markers.
As time goes by, Gilead can use the map to know where the basements and cellars in the east city of Aldor are, the distribution of each street, the correspondence between the sewers and the ground, and how the underground rooms follow the lines of the streets and buildings to converge under the city. , the sewers throughout Altdorf are distributed in a wide arc, spanning the entire city.
3 discovered that this city is not as simple as he thought. There are many secrets in this city, some secrets that have been lost long ago, and some secrets that are not known now.
Interestingly, Gilead and Fiswell came to the conclusion when they were walking around Elsin Alvin that when elves walk in human cities, they should keep their bodies as low as possible and cover their heads and body as much as possible. Hands, speak as little as possible, speak as quietly as possible. When entering a human city, you must stay in the busiest slums, darkest corners, and most densely populated areas in the city. They must hide and avoid humans discovering their elven identities at all costs.
By chance, Gilead noticed a row of ornate cast street lamps in the slaughter market area. Of course, the street lamps were not important. What was important was that the street lamps were covered with the creatures he had been looking for. One of the street lamps was crowded with a group of people on the backs of scorpions. Crawling locusts and scorpions seem to be fighting scarabs, while locusts stretch out their wings to escape danger that may appear at any time. The insects are so densely packed that there is a sense of trypophobia. Snakes are twisting around the lamp base, some are smooth and fat, With flat heads and fangs, some with wide throats and wide eyes, he had never seen such intricate and extraordinary iron castings.
Finally, Gilead discovered those weird existences, but he did not act in a hurry, but kept waiting. He knew that those weird existences were very strong, very strong. If he acted rashly, the only outcome for him and Fiswell would be inexplicable. He had been waiting until last night to die in this human city.
Gilead and Fishwell followed the insects as they moved. Although they could not hear the sounds of the insects in action, as elves they had good night vision. As they learned about Altdorf, they With the help of the lights, they tracked the insects easily.
At this time, Ren and the others came to the bottom of the elder's residence through the sewer. Just as Asanok said, this elder's residence was built on the basis of the ruins of Cole Varnas. They saw Regarding the elven artifacts and carvings, however it wasn't just elven ones, they also saw dwarven ones based on elven carvings and cut rocks.
In the end, Ren and the others also figured out why this was the place where the human emperor’s final battle took place. The area beneath the elder’s residence was filled with tunnels and winding caves. No one might know where these passages would lead, but there was a huge possibility. There is a chance that he will pass through Altdorf and appear in the forest outside the city.
It was very smooth, extremely smooth, just like going downstairs to pick up a courier. The courier was right there and had not been falsely claimed. I took my key with me when I came out, so I wasn't locked out in my pajamas.
Renn and the others found the sealed brass ring without even alerting the human guards stationed in the elder's residence. Except for Belloda, all the spellcasters who could go there last night went. After all, this is the legendary brass ring. Ring, this word is too loud in the elf society, even if it is not allocated to oneself, it is still good to see what it looks like.
However, there was nothing attractive about the brass ring, which disappointed these elves. Just like Asanok said before, it is just a brass ring that is so unremarkable that it does not even have magic power fluctuations. It is an ornament that should be worn on the hands of soldiers. A collector will not recognize it at first glance. A second look at the garbage.
It seems... Even though Hecate is very accomplished in magic, her aesthetics doesn't seem to be very good. No wonder she is jealous of Assati, or maybe Hecate knows that Kane likes this kind of simple look?
In addition to the brass ring, there are also some scattered items in the secret room. Most of them are personal items that Asanok was in a hurry and did not have time to take away, such as Assur-style robes, cloaks, and packages. Yes, under the protection of time and magic, these things are still safe and intact even after thousands of years.
Things went much smoother than the elves expected. The expected battle did not happen, nor did the expected need for shadow magic to evade the humans and guards on the ground. After looking at each other for a while, Maranur suggested that it was still early anyway, so why not go down the sewer to have a look underneath the Altdorf University and explore the way in advance, just in case there are other discoveries.
Damn, this period should have ended with 8,000 a day for 3 days. It should have been settled today. This month broke the record and it updated to 212,000
(end of this chapter)