Chapter 1 The Ancient City

Suren saw the city half-submerged in seawater at the end of his vision and issued a warning.

Before long, almost everyone on the ship was moving.

"Wow... there's actually such a magnificent city! It's probably about the same size as Lingdun..."

"Heavens, all the buildings in the city are made of stone! What methods did those ancient artisans use to build such tall houses with just stones?"

"Hehe, this is Atlantis, the rumored ruins of the Dawn Era. I wonder what treasures are hidden inside..."

"..."

At the ship's rails and on the masts, the Dawn Mercenary Group members were all using telescopes to gaze at the city in the distance.

The time and space within the Cursed Space are different from the outside world, which is why this ancient city, which should have long been annihilated in the river of time, has been preserved.

Now, everyone felt like they were gradually turning the pages of a history book, witnessing the traces left behind by that glorious civilization across time and space.

They also noticed a strange phenomenon: the surrounding sea was dark, but the seawater near the city had a faint, fluorescent blue glow.

As the ship got closer, the observers on board immediately issued a warning: "There's something in the sea! Looks like glowing jellyfish... wait... no! They're ghosts!"

At this, everyone became vigilant.

There was a series of dense clicks as firearms were cocked.

Suren had actually discovered them long ago; holding the Rune Black Umbrella, he could sense many soul fluctuations within his range.

It was just that many ordinary people couldn't see them.

Bartolo, the old Sword Saint, had also said before that there were a large number of ghost-type monsters in this ruined city, and they had planned to come in this direction.

It was just that the plan to ambush the necromancer from the Celestial God Plane was only known to the high-level combatants, which was why the crew was so surprised.

The Eternal Night slowly sailed towards the lost city, and more and more ghosts appeared near the ship, some hazy, light-blue spiritual bodies visible to the naked eye.

Gradually, everyone also realized that these ghosts were not aggressive, and no one made any unusual movements.

At this moment, everyone finally realized that the faint fluorescent blue they had seen before was the light emitted by these ghosts.

These ghosts were all non-ranked spiritual bodies, their facial features vague and dull, with no inclination to attack.

They floated aimlessly on and in the seawater.

Seeing everyone's confusion, Mister Black explained, "Some religious texts say that after death, souls either go to Heaven or Hell. Souls that linger in the mortal realm become ghosts, gradually forgetting everything from their past lives, unable to find their way home or where they came from, forever lost in the mortal realm."

Hearing this, everyone suddenly understood.

Suren also knew this theory.

But he saw something more.

He now had a very thorough understanding of souls and could clearly sense the state of their bodies. He knew that these were just the remnant souls of ordinary people, with no resentment, unable to become vengeful spirits.

However, so many spiritual bodies gathering in front of the city of Atlantis was not normal.

Suren squinted his eyes, looking at the city in the distance, a guess popping up in his mind: "There's treasure..." Souls would also dissipate, and the fact that so many were gathered here without dissipating meant that the city itself must have something beneficial to souls.

However, it was normal for such ancient ruins to have treasures.

What Suren was also thinking about was where that necromancer would be hiding to strike.

......

The distance of the voyage was farther than it looked.

It took about half an hour for the Eternal Night to reach the outskirts of the city.

This was a huge city, half-submerged in seawater, with no end in sight. But the buildings in the city were like reefs of varying heights, and a large ship like the Eternal Night couldn't enter.

Suren instructed everyone to prepare to disembark.

Hearing that they were going to search for treasure in the ruins, everyone in the Dawn Mercenary Group immediately became excited.

But after all, this was dangerous territory, and it was impossible to send too many people.

And if some went, others had to stay behind to watch the ship, so everyone scrambled to sign up.

Luo Luota grabbed Qian Tiao's arm and wouldn't let go, shouting, "Wow... Teacher, Teacher! I want to go!"

Tani also looked at Suren with an excited expression, saying, "Mister Suren, I want to go too, take me with you..."

Tatu of the Naga Clan was not to be outdone, "This place is all seawater, we Nagas are more suited to finding treasure..."

Others: "Me too, me too, me too..."

Suren knew very well that he was the enemy's target, so he naturally had to go.

Qian Tiao was still thinking about the Skeleton Sword God and the famous sword Fotu, so she also wanted to go.

In the end, these two, who were least affected by the environment, along with Mister Black, the erudite scholar, led a group of Dawn Mercenary Group's teenagers who were just there for fun, and boarded a small boat to the ruins.

The old Sword Saint Bartolo stayed on the ship, partly to guard the ship, and partly to give the necromancer a chance to strike.

Otherwise, with the existence of someone who could kill his undead body, that necromancer might not dare to show his face.

......

Suren and his group rowed a small boat into the city.

Most of the dozens of meters high city walls were submerged in water, with only one or two meters above the surface. There were signs of collapse everywhere, as if they had been knocked down from the inside out by some huge impact.

The small boat went all the way inside along the gap in the city wall.

After entering the city wall, there was a residential area completely submerged in seawater.

The seawater was very clear, and the corners and edges of the underwater buildings could be seen clearly under the blue light, with seaweed swaying gently.

If it weren't for the many ugly, mutated marine creatures swimming around in the water, the underwater ruins would definitely be a beautiful sight to behold.

Suren was now proficient in the architectural styles of various eras, and the architectural layout of this Atlantis city was somewhat like the Roman temple style of the Four Nations of North Continent.

He could roughly guess the function of the buildings by looking at their roofs.

Temples, concert halls, theaters, arenas, public bathhouses... and so on.

The city was too large, estimated to be able to accommodate tens of millions of people, and they couldn't carefully search every corner.

So Suren directly set his sights on the temple at the highest point of the city.

Generally speaking, that kind of place was where the most important treasures were stored.

Moreover, he also noticed that the closer they got to the center of the ruins, the stronger the ghosts became.

Suren felt that if he were that necromancer, the best choice would be to ambush them after they had gone deep into the ruins.... He stood at the bow of the boat, silently holding up his umbrella.

The [Goddess Hel's Runic Soul Umbrella] had the effect of deterring and comforting spiritual bodies.

With the protection of this black umbrella, the surrounding spiritual bodies seemed not to notice them, drifting past.

If he could avoid fighting, Suren planned to avoid it as much as possible.

The small boat traveled steadily on the sea, not too fast and not too slow.

Suddenly, Tani saw something and pointed at the water, saying, "Look, there are statues in that plaza!"

Luo Luota also discovered something: "Huh, the weapons in the hands of those statues are still emitting a metallic luster?"

Suren also fixed his eyes on it.

A hundred meters away in the water was a fountain plaza, surrounded by a group of seven or eight-meter-high stone statues, wearing armor and helmets, majestic and burly.

Most of the statues were broken, with only two or three intact.

It wasn't strange for such a large city to have statues, but what surprised Suren was that the statues were actually identified as having magical weapons.

Tani called out, and several people immediately went down to pick up the weapons.

[Giant Spear (Silver)], [Giant Shield (Silver)], [Giant Two-Handed Sword (Gold)]...

The quality was still very good.

Suren also looked very surprised.

But they were too big.

Each weapon was three to five meters long, weighing hundreds of pounds easily. It was not equipment that ordinary humans could use. They were like weapons for giants.

"Wow... there are so many treasures in this plaza, doesn't that mean there are more in the ruins?"

"There must be a lot of treasures! Hahaha, our Dawn Mercenary Group is probably going to get rich this time!"

"..."

Tani and the others immediately became excited.

Seeing this, Suren also felt that there might be a big harvest in these ruins.

After all, even if these weapons couldn't be used, they were still valuable. But the fact that they hadn't been taken away in such an obvious place meant that no one had come here alive since the city was destroyed. That meant that no one had looted anywhere else in the city.

This was a treasure trove that had never been discovered!

......

With the thought of treasure hunting in mind, the small boat continued to sail towards the depths of the ruins.

Tani had half-Naga blood, so his ability to survive underwater was very strong. Luo Luota and the others also took underwater breathing potions, carrying metal detectors used by dwarves for mining, and followed the boat like agile fish, searching for treasure.

To their surprise, they had one harvest after another!

Although the ruins looked old and most of the things had decayed, most of the metal objects were still there.

Along the way, Luo Luota and the others would occasionally find all kinds of valuable things.

Even in those small houses that looked like civilian residences, they could find some scattered gold and silver coins and ancient pottery.

Suren didn't stop their enthusiastic treasure hunting, and even felt that making some noise was a good thing.

As they gradually went deeper, he was increasingly certain that the necromancer must be ambushing them here.

Because the journey had been too smooth.

If this were any other ruins, being smooth might still be understandable. But this was a T-level cursed space!

No danger was the greatest anomaly.

It seemed like some hidden force was holding back the monsters, deliberately letting them smoothly approach the depths of the ruins.

And since these ruins were full of ghost-type monsters, the one with the ability to manipulate them, and who had the motivation to do so, must be that necromancer, Yale Robbins.

Thinking of this, Suren glanced at Qian Tiao next to him.

This gambling-addicted woman already had a look of eager anticipation on her face, as if she was sharpening her sword.

Actually, it wasn't that the enemy was stupid, making such obvious flaws for people to see.

Suren was able to judge this only by taking advantage of the information gap between the two sides.

The enemy didn't know that the Black Saam Pirate Group had been to these ruins before, and thought that the Dawn Mercenary Group didn't know anything.

Although there were many ghosts in these ruins now, the difference between it and the high-level ghost monster density that the old Sword Saint Bartolo described was still a bit large.

If Suren didn't know, he might not have thought too much about it, and would have thought that the ruins were just like this.

But now that he knew, he naturally noticed that something was wrong at once.

......

The small boat sailed towards the temple. The temple was the tallest building in the city, and the main hall was above the surface of the water.

From a distance, they could see a golden glow. The entire temple was built of gold, silver, ivory, and finely carved stone pillars.

The small boat docked at the stone steps leading to the temple.

Suren took the lead and stepped onto the stone steps.

It had been a long time since he had stepped on solid ground, and it felt very strange to him.

As soon as everyone came down, Luo Luota, with her sharp eyes, pointed, "Look, there's a shield on the platform!"

Just dozens of steps away from everyone, a shield engraved with a war god pattern was emitting a dark golden light.

Suren's left eye flashed with light, and he immediately identified it.

[Athena, the War God's Golden Shield (Dark Gold)]

Detailed explanation: Even if it is an imitation artifact, this is an absolutely hard shield; weight 1221 kg, firmness +889, with perfect block, absolute magic reflection, Qi and Blood Heavy Hit and other special effects; This is a spiritual shield, only those with heroic domineering can use it;

"This...?"

Suren also made a light sound of surprise.

A dark-gold heavy shield like this was top-level knight equipment in the Ruen and Yingfa Empires.

Suren felt that he had seen a lot of good shields, and this one could definitely rank in the top three.

But such a quiet shield was simply placed on the steps?

Suren and the others walked over.

Luo Luota wanted to pick it up, but even with the veins on her arms bulging, she could only lift a corner of it with great difficulty.

Tani next to her also tried, with the same result.

Only then did the two look over with frustrated expressions, "Teacher, Mister Suren, we can't pick it up..."

Qian Tiao also walked over curiously and tried it. With a single arm exertion, she easily picked it up.

However, she was a swordsman, and it didn't feel right to use it no matter how she tried. She just said, "This shield is stained with the aura of heroic spirits. You can't control it unless you comprehend the domineering aura."

Luo Luota was immediately discouraged and stuck out her tongue, "Oh. No wonder."

Qian Tiao looked at her disciple and didn't forget to take the opportunity to teach her a lesson, "Now you know that you're not strong enough, right? If you don't cultivate properly, you won't be able to use good equipment even if you find it. You're still clamoring for a famous sword every day, with your level of not even mastering domineering aura, you can't even pick up a shield, and you want a famous sword?"

Luo Luota pouted, with a look of grievance after being scolded, and argued, "Teacher, I've already worked very hard, okay? And I feel like I'm only a tiny bit away from comprehending domineering aura..."

As she spoke, she used her fingers to pinch out a very, very short distance to illustrate.

"Effort?"

Qian Tiao's eyes were full of disdain for this statement, and she said unkindly, "Do you cultivate as much as Suren's kid? You call that effort?"

"I..."

Luo Luota wanted to defend herself, but hearing the second half of the sentence, she immediately wilted, drooping her head and muttering, "Of course I can't compare to Mister Suren."

Suren smiled when he heard this, and was used to becoming the "cultivation time measuring unit" for various teachers in the group to teach their disciples.

If you don't cultivate as long as him, you're not working hard enough.

This made the teenagers on the ship miserable.

Suren was a recognized cultivation madman who could stay in the cabin for ten and a half months without going out, which was not something anyone could do.

However, being scolded did not affect Luo Luota and the others' enthusiasm for treasure hunting.

The few of them changed their faces and smiled again, and ran up the steps. Suddenly, Tani discovered something and exclaimed, "Look in the temple, there are so many skeletons! So many weapons!"

Suren also walked up.

In fact, Crow, who had flown over first, had already seen it.

The temple had a design that allowed wind to enter from all sides, so they could see through it at a glance.

At this moment, there were many skeletons at the entrance of the temple. Next to the skeletons were some decayed weapons, and also some intact ones. Like the golden shield that fell on the steps just now was one of them, which fell on the steps during the battle.

And there were more in the temple.

Various jade-colored skeletons, and even golden skeletons, were lying scattered all over the ground, as if there had been a great battle here.

Swords, spears, shields, axes, daggers, rings, bracelets, bracers...

Gold-grade, dark-gold grade, legendary-grade, and even epic-grade equipment was scattered all over the ground.

No one knew what had happened here, but looking at so many high-level treasures, Suren and the others were all stunned.

As expected of the most glorious era in the Alchemy Plane of the Dawn Opportunity! Just these equipment alone could show how intense and high-level the battle back then was!

This temple was like a super treasure chest, revealing its treasured treasures to outsiders for the first time in countless years.

However, just when everyone was excited, Suren's expression tightened, and he suddenly shouted, "Don't get close to the temple!"

His left eye flashed with light, and he could see strong soul fluctuations within the range of the temple.

Hearing this, the excitement on the faces of Luo Luota and the others instantly subsided, and they immediately became vigilant.

Qian Tiao also squinted slightly, her hand on the hilt of the sword at her waist.

Suren had already expected that the necromancer Yale Robbins would attack here, so his expression did not change much.

Sure enough!

At this moment, in the pile of skeletons in the temple, a skeleton with phosphorescent flames burning in its eye sockets slowly stood up. It was also holding a long sword whose scabbard had rotted.

Even if it was just a skeleton, everyone immediately recognized that this was the Skeleton Sword God they had seen before!

It seemed that this guy probably wanted to hide in the pile of corpses and launch a sneak attack, but it didn't work.

However, this didn't seem to affect his plan.

The Skeleton Sword God stood up, the phosphorescent fire in his eye sockets burning fiercely, and on that face that clearly only had bones left, he seemed to see an expression of "I've finally waited for you."

At the same time, a gust of wind suddenly rose around the temple, and countless ghosts pressed out like a dark cloud.

Suren's pupils shrank slightly when he saw this.

He wasn't surprised at all that he would be ambushed by this guy.

Because this was the battlefield they had deliberately chosen.

But looking at the crystal skull next to the Skeleton Sword God, Suren's pupils shrank slightly.

[Descartes' Crystal Skull]

Description: I think, therefore I am.

Curse characteristics: Holding this item imposes the status of 'Dominion', 'Soul Capture', 'Soul Absorption', and 'True Illusion' on souls within the range, and obtains a large range of soul manipulation abilities; Holding this item grants immunity to all soul attacks, deterrents, hypnosis, curses, soul absorption, whispers... negative effects that are not higher than the item itself; Those with Soul Power lower than this item will suffer backlash and become Soul Slaves;

Detailed explanation: An epic-level cursed object created by a great alchemist in the Dawn Era by imitating a certain artifact. It is the bones after the death of the soul, a treasure for nourishing the soul; It can be used as a professional advancement material. Fusion requires domineering domination, soul strength rating S+, mental strength rating SS, and the probability of aberration does not exceed 7%; After fusion, the ability 'I think, therefore I am', 'Brain Domain Load', and 'Soul Fire Immortal' (the soul will not collapse even if it receives a fatal attack, the degree of preservation is affected by soul strength) are obtained.

......

Looking at the information identified, Suren was both surprised and delighted.

Thoughts flashed through his mind: "Epic-level cursed object?! So the ghosts in this ruin are gathered together because of this treasure..."

The enemy was using this crystal skull to control the surrounding spiritual bodies.

Because the effects of this cursed object were simply divine artifacts for soul-type professionals!

Seeing this, Suren immediately determined what the material for his eighth-level professional advancement was.

This cursed object completed the last link in his ideal plan for the Puppet Master profession!

Mang Hou reminds you: Remember to bookmark after reading.