Chapter 451: True Destination

"Hah... Ha..." Song Xue panted a few times. This was the first time she worked the hardest, just in a different way.

The weight of the artifacts was something she could easily bear as a Rank 5 human. However, she needed to keep everything balanced while climbing up and down the hill.

The soldiers were startled when Song Xue, the proud daughter of the Song family, was actually being used as a baggage carrier. They thought Auric and his group were cruel to let her carry everything, but as soon as she put all those artifacts down, the narrative changed.

"Young Miss."

While they were on break, Song Xue had asked for her servant to come because she had a job to do.

"It’s good that you’re here. Hurry up and get me a bag that can carry all these artifacts."

"They..." The servant was confused. She thought Auric Elfe was a cruel and heartless person.

However, Song Xue said, "All these artifacts will now belong to the Song family. Hurry and bring me a bag that can carry all these artifacts. I am going to buy you some time while we visit the Dead Village. There are still two more ruins to go. As long as I can carry everything, they won’t be able to bring back any artifacts at all."

"..." The servant was stupefied. On the one hand, the agreement made it in such a way that Song Xue had no choice but to bring all these artifacts. On the other hand, it looked like Song Xue was trying to get the benefits for the Song family.

The biggest problem with this agreement was the number of artifacts they had just brought.

"What are you waiting for? There are about 102 artifacts here. If we’re talking about money alone, it is worth billions." Song Xue glared at her servant.

The soldiers were stupefied. There were two more ruins, so Song Xue could easily triple the amount of the artifacts, not to mention the fact that artifacts rarely came out of the river, meaning that more artifacts were still hidden there.

If simple physical labor could get hundreds of artifacts, even they were willing to do it.

The Song family might be worth more than just artifacts, but the sudden influx of artifacts meant that they could create a small monopoly regarding artifacts. The price, the status, and other things influenced by the artifacts would change in favor of the Song family.

It was more of an opportunity.

What Song Xue didn’t know was that Auric might look a little cruel, but that wasn’t exactly his goal.

His main goal was to enter the Dead Village. Now that Song Xue focused on the artifacts and the bag, she wouldn’t realize that the Dead Village was the real target.

Of course, Auric would receive the money later after everything had been sorted out.

Auric looked at Song Xue from the side. This kind of treatment wasn’t necessarily about the Dead Village. It was also because of what happened the previous day. This way, they could start cleaning again.

’Well, it still makes me feel like a jerk,’ thought Auric before shaking his head. This was also the price of his own principle. In the future, he might have to be cruel and merciless to his enemies or even do what the Relesha family did to their enemies in the past—commit a massacre.

Regardless of the situation, Auric had accomplished his objective.

Besides, he noticed that Song Xue didn’t seem to be like a spoiled young lady, despite being the most talented child from such a prominent family.

Rather, she rarely complained and just accepted the job if she thought it would benefit her or the family.

There didn’t seem to be any resentment toward her family either, unlike Stella, who resented her own country.

In other words, Song Xue had almost no gap to exploit.

Auric asked, "So, the special permit is ready?"

"Yes. The only ones who can enter are me, you, and Mr. Mathias." Song Xue nodded. "Because it’s still a government facility, there will be a guide for us to tour the facility. You aren’t allowed to move freely in the facility."

"Fair enough." Auric nodded. "We should just finish the tour fast, right?"

Song Xue smiled without answering him. She was definitely going to take her time until there was a bag big enough to hold the artifacts.

"Well, let’s go then." Auric chuckled.

"Of course." Song Xue extended her hand, gesturing for them to follow her. "This way."

It took them only five minutes before they reached the facility. It was a quite big village, and the security was tight. Considering that this place was in the wilderness, the chance of it being attacked by beasts was high.

However, they were near multiple ruins, so the number of beasts in the area was quite low because the beasts were most likely absorbed by other ruins or hunted by people who passed by.

These were the reasons why they could even build a research facility in the wilderness.

Song Xue showed the special permit that had been issued by the government. Her family had used their connections to get this permit.

As soon as they entered the Dead Village, a middle-aged man with dark circles under his eyes welcomed them with a tired expression. "Welcome to the Dead Village. I’m the chief researcher in this place, Li Si. I will give you a tour of this place. If you want to do anything, please tell me about it. Please don’t contaminate anything unnecessarily."

Song Xue nodded. "I’m Song Xue. I’m here on behalf of my family to accompany these two gentlemen to tour this facility."

Li Si didn’t really care about Song Xue’s identity. As the head researcher here, he wasn’t someone who could be easily replaced. Even the Song family would probably ignore her request to replace him since it wasn’t worth the effort.

"Welcome. This way." Li Si gestured for them to follow him.

Just like its name, the Dead Village used to be quite a busy village before the apocalypse, but it had been abandoned after the beasts massacred all the people living there.

In the end, this place became a ruin before collapsing again.

The structures were mostly reduced to rubble due to the passage of time as well as the destruction from the collapse.

"There is not much to see here." Li Si raised three fingers. "We will only have three places to visit."

Song Xue’s heart skipped a beat. Three places? That wouldn’t be enough to fill such a huge bag. She really needed to waste less time here.

Li Si explained, "We’ve split this place into three zones. The first one is the village itself, while the second one is the barrier zone. The village is obviously the target, but all the artifacts have long been excavated, so we’ll also visit the storage area in the village zone to see all those artifacts and learn a bit about the research we’re doing here.

"On the other hand, the barrier zone is where the former barrier used to be. As you know, the barrier has caused the energy around that area to skyrocket. We’re conducting research to decipher the barrier by examining what has been left behind.

"Last but not least, there is a sanctuary. We’re unsure about it as well, but we believe that this sanctuary is the source of energy for the ruins."

Auric didn’t show a change of expression, but he was slightly surprised. When he infiltrated the facility owned by the Kaufa and the Delimore families, the temple itself was hidden inside a massive limestone cave underneath the ground. He didn’t expect that the temple in this place was located on the surface.

If that was the case, it meant he could finally take a look at the true appearance of the temple.

Auric nodded in understanding. "Let’s start, shall we?"

Song Xue told Li Si to begin, so they first visited the barrier zone, which wasn’t that far from them.

"Well, the barrier zone is simply the zone circling this place." Li Si showed the results on his computer. "The amount of energy here is significantly higher. However, after a long period of research, we’ve found that the energy in the barrier is actually not just a single energy. Instead, it’s actually multiple energies combined into one."

Song Xue raised her eyebrows. She had never gone to this place, nor had she learned about the research, so it was quite surprising to find out that there were multiple energies mixed in this place. "You’re not talking about the fact that this place used to have earth, plant, and water elements, right?"

"No. I’m talking about multiple element ratings. In other words, there were a few fire elements with their respective ratings that were used to build the barrier. Unfortunately, that’s the limit of what I’m allowed to tell you."

"That’s interesting. So those elements are combined into one?"

"Yes, which results in a different kind of concentration. We believe that’s the reason the energy from the barrier will flood into your body when touched."

"That’s definitely dangerous. But if that’s the case, don’t we also need multiple fire element users to open the gate?"

"Well—" Li Si was about to explain it, but Auric didn’t seem to be surprised by the revelation. "Excuse me. You don’t seem surprised. Usually, when I talk about this, people are surprised. You seem like you’re interested in this topic, so the reason you’re not surprised... is it because you already knew this all along?"

"!!!" Song Xue widened her eyes in shock. This research facility was the best in the world when it came to ruins. There was no way Auric would have known about it since the information wasn’t published on the internet.