Chapter 232 - 212: Black Copper Giant Gate

Chapter 232: Chapter 212: Black Copper Giant Gate

"Finish off the rest of them."

After a moment of consideration, Philina said to Midton.

Eliminating those Pirates completely would be one less problem to worry about.

"Yes, Miss."

Midton was very satisfied with Philina’s decisiveness.

The order was quickly passed down.

Including the newly arrived ships, there were six in total. The hundreds of Pirates aboard were powerless against the dozens of Extraordinary Beings.

Screams, cries for help, and shouts spread from the distant ships across the entire surface of the sea.

Blood completely soaked the ships’ decks, running down their hulls and into the sea.

Some Pirates tried to abandon their ships and flee, but it was useless. Before the dozens of Transcendents, they had no way of saving themselves.

"It’s too noisy..."

Philina frowned, left the deck, and went into the cabin.

Only Midton remained, waiting for the Pirates to be completely annihilated.

...

「Three more days passed.」

In the same area of the sea, only one ship remained.

The Tusk Pirate Gang that Vili had brought had been utterly annihilated by Philina’s subordinates. There were no survivors.

Their bodies, along with the blood-stained ships, were burned to ashes and sank into the depths of the sea.

「Nightfall.」

"Miss!"

Midton had been standing on the deck, pondering matters related to restoring Fidala’s kingdom, when he suddenly looked up and saw six stars gathered in the sky, forming a hexagonal ring around the moon.

Midton froze for a moment, then hurried to find Philina.

"Miss, the treasure entrance is about to open!"

When Midton found Philina, she was flipping through a faded old notebook.

Philina was also taken aback when she heard Midton say the treasure was opening.

"Isn’t today only the thirteenth day since the treasure last opened?"

Philina’s face was full of questions, but she moved quickly, throwing on an overcoat and walking onto the deck with Midton.

"According to our ancestor’s notes, it should be another thirty days until the treasure opens again. Why is this happening?"

Philina gazed at the stars in the sky and the churning whirlpool on the sea’s surface in the distance, her voice thick with confusion and doubt.

"I... I don’t know either..."

Midton also found it strange.

This didn’t seem to match the records in the Sivall Family’s ancestral notes.

"Never mind."

Philina knew this was not the time to investigate the reason.

The time the treasure entrance remained open was limited; she had to hurry.

"What about the people we chose to enter the treasure with us?"

Philina glanced back at Midton.

She and Midton had already discussed this. From the nearly ten Senior Knights accompanying them, she had chosen five to enter the treasure’s legacy site with them to handle any difficult situations that might arise.

"I’ll summon them at once."

Midton left quickly and soon returned with five armored Guards.

At this moment, the sea was tumultuous, and the starlight from the horizon spilled onto the whirlpool on the water’s surface.

SPLASH!

The whirlpool spun faster, the water drained away, and a dark hole appeared on the surface of the seabed rock.

Thirteen days ago, Vili and his group had entered the treasure’s legacy site through this very tunnel.

"Let’s go!"

At Philina’s command, she moved, leaping from the deck.

SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH!

The seven of them ran across the water’s surface, quickly approaching the entrance to the tunnel.

Within seconds of them entering the tunnel, the rock fissure healed, and the sea became calm and still once more.

"What is this stone? Warm Fluorite?"

Philina, walking at the front, stopped to look when she saw the warm orange Light Stones glowing inside the tunnel.

"It should be."

Midton also glanced at it and replied.

Philina nodded. The ancestral notes did indeed mention Warm Fluorite.

It was said that before the Cold Lion Duchy was destroyed, the Royal Family used Warm Fluorite for lighting in their palace at night.

However, having been born outside the Storm Strait, she had never seen Warm Fluorite before. It seemed to be a specialty ore from the Southeast Continent.

The group didn’t waste any time and continued down the tunnel.

"Hm?"

Soon, they saw a cave entrance piled high with rubble.

A faint blue light emanated from within the cave mouth.

Philina frowned. She could vaguely guess that this was likely a trail left by Baron Vili from White Bear Town.

She didn’t linger, instead stepping over the rubble and entering the cave.

Immediately, a dark, empty space appeared before them. About five hundred meters away lay an excavated tree root and a hole in the ground emitting a blue glow.

Philina quickened her pace and approached the hole.

"What species of plant is this?"

Philina examined the Broken branches nearby but couldn’t identify the species of this Extraordinary Plant.

The ancestral notes didn’t contain a guide for exploring the treasure’s legacy site, which Philina found regrettable.

Mibu also shook his head; he had never seen it either.

"It seems this plant originally grew on top of this hole, but it was dug up..."

Philina murmured to herself, "It looks like Baron Vili and his group are making quick progress..."

’If she didn’t know that the treasure left here could only be taken by someone with the Sivall Family bloodline, Philina would truly be wary of Vili’s treasure-hunting Ability.’

"Down we go."

Philina was about to leap down into the hole when Midton suddenly grabbed her.

"Wait, Miss."

Midton stopped her, then pointed to one of the Senior Knight escorts. "You go first."

The Senior Knight immediately complied, jumping down without the slightest hesitation.

Soon, the Senior Knight escort’s confirming voice echoed from the blue-glowing hole.

"All clear!"

Philina and Midton exchanged a glance, then jumped down one after the other.

...

"Lord Baron, are we going to be trapped here until we die?"

In a forest full of blue plants, before a massive black copper gate, Colson asked Vili, his tone tinged with helplessness.

Ten days ago, Vili and his group had leaped down from the hole under the tree roots and arrived in this dreamlike blue forest.

Here, the leaves and branches of the plants were not green, but a sea of blue.

Azure, deep blue, bright blue... it was an ocean of blue, just like a dream.

Although amazed by the scene, the group hadn’t forgotten their goal of finding the treasure. So they began searching the vast blue forest for the next path.

Finally, after almost a full day, they found the Black Copper Giant Gate before them.

This Black Copper Giant Gate was set into a giant rock and carved with strange patterns.

According to the tales of adventurers, as long as one could push open this Black Copper Giant Gate, they would obtain a precious treasure.

But adventurers’ tales were, after all, just tales.

Although Vili’s group had found the Black Copper Giant Gate, a difficult problem stood before them: they couldn’t push it open at all.

On the frame of the Black Copper Giant Gate was a grooved protrusion, and on it was a carved word in the Wuya Language—Bloodline.

Only a descendant of the Cold Lion King Royal Family, the Sivall Family, could open the Black Copper Giant Gate by anointing it with their own blood for verification.

Vili was going crazy over this.

’Two consecutive checkpoints in this treasure site require bloodline verification!’

With no other choice, they could only wait here for the next ten days, wasting their time.

They now had only two paths: either find a way to open the Black Copper Giant Gate, or find the way back outside.

But unfortunately, at present, they could take neither path.

They couldn’t push open the Black Copper Giant Gate, and they couldn’t find the way back.

They had tried to return and leave through the entrance, but the sealed rock fissure couldn’t be opened again.

Trapped in this Blue Dream Forest, the group had no way to escape for the time being.

"How could we be trapped to death here? We can definitely get out!"

Vili hadn’t even responded when Benduin came right up and encouraged Colson.

At this moment, the aura around Benduin had changed once again.

The Fruit Core Crystal had already helped Benduin break through the bottleneck of a Junior Mage.

Benduin was now a Middle Level Earth Mage.

"There will be a way out."

Vili remained relatively calm for now.

Although they were trapped in this blue forest, their lives were not in danger.

In this blue forest, while there were no living creatures, there were all sorts of fruits to satisfy their hunger.

There was no danger here at all, to the point that Vili felt this wasn’t really the treasure site of the Cold Lion King Royal Family, but rather a sanctuary left for their descendants after the Kingdom fell.

Vili stood up, walked to a low bush, and plucked a light-blue, apple-like fruit.

After wiping it lightly, Vili popped it into his mouth.

With one bite, rich, slightly salty juice flowed into his stomach.

’It’s really hard to imagine that a small forest like this exists beneath the ocean...’

Vili’s eyes flashed with deep surprise.

He could only roughly identify the fruits here. According to Vili’s speculation, the plants in this blue forest were all deliberately cultivated and mutated.

They were able to absorb water from the seabed rocks and mud, and could grow without sunlight.

The surfaces of a third of the plants in this small forest also emitted a blue fluorescence, bathing the forest in a magnificent light.

This place was like a sealed-off cultivation space, isolated from the world but still self-sustaining.

"Guarding the treasure gate but being unable to enter... this feeling is unbearable."

At that moment, Benduin walked up to the Black Copper Giant Gate again and hammered it fiercely twice.

The Black Copper Giant Gate only responded with a loud boom, but the door itself remained motionless.

Just as he was about to strike again, he suddenly saw Colson’s expression change.

"Someone’s coming..."

A wary look flashed in Colson’s eyes.