Ke-style law enforcement officers

Chapter 842 The Dark Face

"So this is where the soprano voice comes from."

Rick and Xiao Yan eventually arrived at the foot of the ancient building nestled in the mountains.

...

This is a huge castle.

The main building is likely constructed from giant stones quarried from the rocks of the Full Moon Desert, giving it an overall dark gray color.

The city gates were tightly closed.

Rick tried to reach out and touch the door.

He didn't expect to be able to push it open; even without any locking mechanism, this massive stone gate, tens of meters high, was clearly not something he could open with brute force.

But unexpectedly, just as he reached out and touched the stone door, dust began to fall from above.

A strange line of text appeared before their eyes.

Rick couldn't understand it, but Xiao Yan behind him had a look of realization after seeing the line of words carved on the stone door, and then blurted out: "It can't be opened from this side."

"You can understand it?" Rick asked, somewhat surprised.

“I’ve already lived for over a hundred years,” Xiao Yan nodded and said.

Rick pondered, "If we can't open it from this side, where do we have to go in from..."

"Why don't we try this?" Xiao Yan pointed to an open doorway, only about two meters high, on the left side of the castle gate.

Rick's dead skin twitched unnaturally, then he said, "Actually, I already found out."

……

...

Upon entering the castle, the two finally realized that they had stepped into a cemetery deep in the mountains.

None of the buildings here were designed for habitation; the path seemed to be deliberately left for visitors, or perhaps for those who performed rituals.

The cemetery contains countless heavy, ancient stone coffins. They may have been brand new when they were made, but after millions of years of erosion, the coffins have become one with the ground.

Ancient characters were carved on each stone coffin.

These include "Golden Knights, First Squad...", "Fifth Generation Black Blade ***", and so on...

These were servants who died before the establishment of the Golden Kingdom and before the construction of the Temple of the Golden Law.

Some of them died in the war to drive out demons, and demon skulls with horns are displayed in front of their sarcophagi. Others sacrificed themselves in the war against extradimensional life forms, and the sarcophagi record the war achievements of their owners.

Behind these towering stone coffins lies a pile of broken weapons: knives, axes, shields, spears, and shattered helmets, filling the entire valley.

This place is a memorial for those who died without leaving behind any remains.

Before the sea of ​​shattered weapons and armor stood a heavy stone tablet, bearing no names, only a single sentence:

May you find a safe haven.

...

"Why not write down their names too? Even if they died on the battlefield and their remains can't be found, a simple check would reveal exactly who went missing."

Rick's thought process is quite modern.

In his view, this was a differential treatment of the dead. Those who were nobody didn't deserve a stone coffin of their own even after they died. They didn't even have the right to leave their names. They could only lie in the cold valley with others.

There is only one explanation: those who possessed the stone coffins were of higher status.

"Am I right?"

Rick glanced back and found that Xiao Yan hadn't kept up with him at all; he was still squatting in front of a stone coffin, lost in thought.

He noticed that there were several adult demon skulls placed in front of the sarcophagus, so he didn't disturb her.

...

On one side of the valley, there is also a man-made staircase that winds its way down the rock face.

The soprano singing that lingered in my ears did not stop:
"Y'ai'ng'ngah, Yog-Sothoth..."

But it wasn't much louder or clearer than what they heard outside the cemetery.

Rick suddenly felt a strange impulse.

Despite repeated warnings from reason that something ominous might be hidden at the end of the increasingly gloomy road ahead, he could not suppress the strong impulse and still stepped onto the first step.

Then comes the second layer, and the third layer.

...

Walking on the narrow, winding stone steps.

Passages of ancient poems began to surface in Rick's mind.

To the right is a cold stone wall, and to the left is a mass grave filled with tattered armor.

He suddenly realized that the syllables sung by the strange soprano were from one of the four volumes of poems he had collected.

The poem titled "Children of the Giant Stone" contains four poems. Apart from "Escape from the Ancient Land," which he has already comprehended and is gradually mastering, and "Star Beast," which he has lost, there are two remaining poems: "Dark Fame" and "Black Desire."

At that moment, the soprano was reciting a passage from the poem "The Dark Face".

At some point, Rick could no longer hear obscure, unknown syllables, but rather clear and recognizable sentences.

He quickly took out the tattered scroll of poetry from his person and turned to the page with the words "Darkness's Majesty".

At this moment, in his eyes, even the ancient characters on the tattered scroll seemed to have a life of their own, swaying and pulsating.

And then the soprano singer suddenly whispered something in his ear:

"She's hiding her heart, let's go in and take a look..."

...

Rick was startled. He shuddered and nearly crashed into the rock wall, almost slipping and falling into the valley.

After looking around, he found that there was no one around.

I have no idea how long I have been walking on these stone steps. I can't see the end in sight, only the blurry stone steps disappearing into the darkness.

"A dark and majestic appearance."

He silently read the title of the poem aloud and subconsciously swallowed.

Gritting his teeth, he braced himself and continued climbing.

...

In the deepest part of the valley, he finally saw the so-called dark face.

There are no elegant female singers here; in fact, the soprano's singing stopped abruptly when Rick reached the depths.

This is a dark altar.

Countless extinguished and dried stone candlesticks surrounded a corpse that had lost all signs of life.

It appeared to be a doll woven from roots, not tall at all, not even reaching the size of an adult human, and its shape was somewhat deformed. But almost every root was woven perfectly to depict its features, even the trace of sadness between its brows was lifelike. Otherwise, Rick wouldn't have had the thought that "it has lost its life."

Each vine is covered with dense ancient runes, coiling around the altar, and each end has a clean cut, as if it had been chopped off by a knife or axe.

...

Rick looked somewhat dazed.

He didn't know what the scene before him meant, but tears were trying to well up in his eyes, even though he didn't understand why he was crying.

...

Suddenly, the poem in his hand flew out.

It landed in mid-air behind Rick.

Rick turned around and reached out to grab it, only to find that what lay before him was no longer a dark valley and narrow stone steps.

Instead, a vast sea of ​​stars appeared.

What unfolded before him was an unprecedented battle.

On one side was the golden tree he knew well, and the golden legion that surrounded him, the black-knife assassins, and the dashing blades of law.

The other side was also a legion, but they were covered with a deep, dark mark.

Among them were members of the Golden Knights, Black Blade assassins, and even many Law Blade disciples.

Their leader was a puppet woven from strange black roots.

He is the dark side of the golden tree, the inverted will.

...

Under the gaze of the stars, this ancient war sank the continent and shattered the land.

All of this happened in the blink of an eye in front of Rick.

When the flames of war subsided, all that remained were endless skeletons and shattered weapons and armor.

The final victory was won by the Golden Tree, but it was a Pyrrhic victory.

The fate of the Dark Legion is that of those broken swords and halberds in the Full Moon Tomb Valley, unworthy of stone coffins and names.

...

It wasn't that the temple was unwilling to erect monuments and commemorate the deceased of low status, but rather that they themselves were sinners. Between the Holy Light and the Deep, they chose to embrace the Deep, betraying the Golden Law and the Golden Tree.

That's why there's the saying: "May you find a safe harbor."

……

The scene flashed, and the ancient battlefield beneath the starry sea vanished.

However, when Rick's vision returned to the real world, he suddenly realized that the fragments of the poem that had floated out of his hand had completely disappeared.

And all the dried-up candlesticks around the altar suddenly lit up.

He was facing away from the altar at that moment.

The scene before my eyes is the candlelight reflected on the stone wall.

The shadow standing in that candlelight wasn't just his own; there were others too...

(End of this chapter)