Chapter 1058 - 871: Treasury (Part 2)

The Duke slipped silently through a half-open window, following the internal structure he had scanned countless times with Spiritual Power during his past days staying at the estate, heading directly towards the Earl’s private study.

The Earl’s study was located at the end of the third-floor corridor of the main castle, with two heavy oak doors embedded with dark silver decorative emblems. The doors were not locked, possibly because the Earl left town in a hurry, or perhaps he was confident that his guards could stop any unwelcome guests.

The Duke pushed the door and entered. The study was exceptionally spacious, with redwood bookshelves embedded from floor to ceiling on all four walls. The shelves were filled with various ancient books and scrolls with leather covers, mostly concerning the chronological history of the Osseron Kingdom, territorial tax records, and military strategy manuals.

On the west side of the room was an entire stone-built fireplace. The embers inside still glowed faintly red, illuminating and darkening the life-sized oil portrait of an ancestor of the Cadwell Clan above the fireplace.

In the east corner stood a half-human-high brass astrolabe, its tracks covered with a layer of dust, indicating it hadn’t been fiddled with for quite some time.

At the center of the room was a large black ironwood desk, with intricately carved vine patterns along its edge. Several unreviewed documents were spread across its surface, and the ink bottle cap was not tightly screwed, forming a semi-dry crust at the bottle mouth.

The Duke circled the desk, his gaze slowly sweeping across every corner of the room.

His Spiritual Power was like an extremely fine net, attached to the floor, walls, and ceiling, advancing inch by inch, penetrating planks and bricks, capturing every hollow and crevice behind them.

Soon, his gaze rested on the wall behind the desk, filled with maps and family emblems.

The most conspicuous spot on the wall hung a giant territory map, with an extremely subtle crease at the edge that slightly mismatched the texture of the surrounding wall.

He reached out to explore along the crease for a moment, his fingertips finding a hidden compartment nearly flush with the wall surface.

The surface of the hidden compartment was covered with a thin layer of plaster, painted with the same coating as the surrounding wall, making it impossible to distinguish with the naked eye.

He gently pried the edges of the hidden compartment with his nails, revealing a palm-sized brass knob inside, surrounded by a circle of simple rune patterns on its base.

As he tentatively turned the knob, a crisp clicking sound was heard, and the bookshelf against the wall silently slid inward, revealing a stone stairway extending downward.

Torches, yet to be lit, were affixed to the walls every few steps, but the remaining scorch marks and the smell of lamp oil on their heads suggested this place had been used not long ago.

The Duke didn’t light those torches, descending twenty or so more steps in the dark before a heavy metal door appeared before him.

Each side of the door frame housed a set of intricately designed crossbow linkage devices. When the Duke lightly pressed the surface of the metal door, dozens of poison-tipped arrows simultaneously shot from above and both sides of the frame, their arrowheads glimmering ghostly green in the dark.

Metallic Yellow Sand silently surged from his sleeve, forming a seamless arc-shaped barrier in front, causing all the arrows to fall to the ground with a tinkling sound.

After passing through the metal door, a vast underground labyrinth lay ahead.

Standing at the labyrinth’s entrance, the Duke closed his eyes, expanded his Spiritual Power, scanning the entire maze inch by inch before stepping forward, weaving left and right through the dark passageways, avoiding hidden traps under floor tiles and a few doors leading to dead ends, ultimately standing before a heavy wooden door at the maze’s end.

This wooden door had a very unique texture.

The wood was finely grained and dense, appearing dark brown on the surface without any varnish, yet maintaining such a fine state in the damp underground environment.

As he extended his Spiritual Power towards it, it rebounded upon contact with the door’s surface.

This wood naturally possesses Magic Power and Spiritual Power isolation traits, which the Duke had never seen before.

A circular disk lock composed of multiple concentric metal rings was embedded in the door’s center.

The disk was about the size of a plate, consisting of several independent metal rings nested together, each ring inscribed with diverse rune patterns.

After careful observation, the Duke realized the arrangement of these rune nodes matched the array runes he had previously transcribed from the plaza.

He attempted placing his palm on the disk, rotating the rings, aligning the rune nodes in the correct sequence.

Moments later, the final metal ring clicked into place with a muffled sound, and the wooden door slowly opened inward.

As the wooden door slowly opened, a heavy and musty air flowed out from the gap, mixed with the acidic smell of metallic rust, a dry bloody scent, and a faint, sweetly decayed aroma reminiscent of aged spices.

Standing at the doorway, the Duke gazed through the frame into the treasury, silent for several breaths.

This was a highly spacious underground stone chamber, its dome several yards high, walls built from coarse gray-white granite, contrasting sharply with the intricate opulence of the Earl’s mansion above.

There were no decorative reliefs or emblems here, no carpets, no candlestick holders, nothing extra.

The entire stone chamber served only one purpose: storing Philosopher’s Stones.

Neatly arranged in rows of black ironwood shelves reaching from the floor to the dome, each tier lined with deep red velvet padding, the Philosopher’s Stones were categorized and arranged by size and luster.

The smallest was only the size of a thumb’s nail, while the largest were nearly as big as an adult’s fist, their internal blood-colored nebula swirling densely like liquid, emitting a dim red glow autonomously in the dark.

Hundreds of rows filled the entire stone room, compressing the once spacious area into narrow passages just allowing one to sidle through.

The Duke took a slow walk around the passage. His steps were light, with the leather soles making hardly any sound on the rough granite floor.

His Spiritual Power swept across each rack, precisely counting the Philosopher’s Stones.

All told, there were at least ten thousand pieces.

And behind every piece of Philosopher’s Stone lay tens if not hundreds of forcibly extracted Lives.

On the plaza, he had witnessed firsthand the dark red threads wrapping around the devotees, stripping, compressing, and refining their Life Force from their bodies within mere breaths—a sight unforgettable to anyone witnessing it.

Now, the ten thousand Philosopher’s Stones before him meant at least hundreds of thousands had died on that plaza, beneath that giant divine statue, among those dark red rune engravings.

And this was only the current quantity in the treasury. The Earl had lived for so many years thanks to the Philosopher’s Stones, and the amount he had already consumed was far greater than this.

Without further contemplation, the Duke raised his right hand, fingers spread, as a gentle yet irresistible suction enveloped the entire stone chamber.

One row after another of black ironwood shelves filled with Philosopher’s Stones floated into the air like being lifted by invisible hands, transforming into dark red streams flowing into the Light God Court.

Every one of the ten thousand Philosopher’s Stones was taken away, clearing out the formerly crowded iron racks in moments, leaving only the empty deep red velvet pads faintly emitting a bloody odor.

Almost at the same instant the last Philosopher’s Stone was absorbed into the Light God Court, the Divine Revelation Mark on the back of the Duke’s left hand silently trembled.

With a thought, a subtle silver-blue radiance emerged from the mark, unfolding a translucent screen before his eyes.

On the screen, his score numbers were leaping upwards at an insane speed, bursting through five digits within the blink of an eye, then surpassing dozens of names on the leaderboard, steadily securing the top spot.

Over ten thousand points, this figure far exceeds the second place.

Helena originally occupied the top, her score steadily increasing.

But now, the Duke’s name suddenly jumped above hers in a drastically abrupt manner, creating an astonishing gap between him and everyone else.