Chapter 444: Eternally Frozen Abel and the Evil Key

"The Villeries family's grand castle—winter version, no frills, perched on a cliff."

The moment he stepped through the entrance in the oil painting, the temperature plummeted below zero.

But a temperature like this was utterly insignificant to Qi Suian. Only the native humans of the Blood Race World would have felt the chill.

Compared to the frigid temperatures of the Cold Winter World, this paled in comparison.

Here, wind and snow raged. A thick layer of snow covered the ground, blanketing the entire grand castle.

Only its silhouette revealed it to be a perfect, one-to-one replica of the Villeries family's grand castle.

"So lifeless. Even more desolate than the real one outside. I have no idea where this place is."

Qi Suian was certain this wasn't the real world. He followed the lone path and flew directly toward the winter version of the Villeries family's grand castle.

Upon arriving, he pushed open the massive doors, which were frozen solid.

Since the doors and windows were sealed tight, there was no wind or snow inside.

Instead, his arrival ushered in a blast of long-absent wind and snow, causing the temperature inside to drop even further.

Seeing this, Qi Suian promptly shut the door behind him.

He wasn't afraid of the cold, true, but that didn't mean he didn't prefer a more comfortable environment.

As long as his survival was guaranteed, Qi Suian would never turn down a better quality of life, especially when it was easy to achieve.

"AI, 3D schematic." Qi Suian had no intention of conducting a meticulous search right from the start.

He'd first run an initial scan with his reconnaissance network. If that turned up something, all the better.

If it didn't, it wasn't too late to start a manual search.

Five seconds later, a 3D schematic of the entire castle materialized in his vision.

It was accompanied by a partial comparative analysis against the original Villeries family castle.

'A sarcophagus? It couldn't be Abel's, could it?' Qi Suian's eyes were immediately drawn to the most conspicuous area highlighted by the AI.

The difference was most obvious in the castle's main hall. Of course, the original Villeries family castle might have had one too, only for it to have been removed by someone.

That was impossible to verify now, but it didn't stop Qi Suian from investigating.

Upon his immediate arrival, he was greeted by the sight of a stone sarcophagus covered in extremely intricate patterns, which seemed to hold some kind of religious significance.

He was certain of one thing: this significance didn't stem from the Church, but from a much older faith.

"Unable to scan. Shielding effect detected." Qi Suian's reconnaissance network couldn't penetrate it, so he had no idea what was inside.

The only way to find out what was inside was to open it.

'It's protected by something like a Blood Race's rule-based ability—it defies all reason and logic.' After further attempts, Qi Suian discovered it was impossible to see what was inside.

Otherwise, he would have preferred to play it safe. Knowing even the general situation inside the sarcophagus was far better than knowing nothing at all.

But as things stood, he had no choice but to push open the sarcophagus. Inside lay a middle-aged man. He was no desiccated corpse or skeleton, but perfectly preserved, his body full as if he were merely sleeping.

His skin was covered in numerous strange patterns.

But the most eye-catching feature was his torso; his chest and abdomen had been sliced open with an incredibly sharp instrument and masterful technique.

The flesh was splayed open, resembling a pair of outward-facing wings.

All of his internal organs had been completely hollowed out. This made Qi Suian suspect he had been sacrificed by Cain.

This was also the cause of his death.

His gaze then moved past the torso and landed on the man's forehead. A key resembling a bone spike rested quietly upon Abel's brow.

"The Evil Key," Qi Suian murmured, but he didn't reach out to take it.

According to the usual clichéd tropes, the moment he took the Evil Key, the corpse would, at best, instantly rot into nothingness. At worst, this entire pocket dimension would shatter.

Therefore, he decided to study Abel's corpse first.

'First, I need to secure the body.' To prevent any accidents, Qi Suian had to immobilize Abel's corpse. If it moved and disturbed the Evil Key, things would get complicated.

'Second, I can't just brace it against the sarcophagus. I need to find other anchor points.'

His AI immediately analyzed the surrounding environment, structures, and stress points, providing Qi Suian with a plan.

After a quick glance, Qi Suian sprang into action.

He quickly secured both the stone sarcophagus and Abel's body. Polymorphic energy materialized in his hands, and he began his examination of the corpse.

'The markings on his body were applied with some kind of plant-based pigment; they're not natural patterns.'

'But his physical constitution is confirmed to be far beyond that of the humans and Blood Race of the Blood Race World. He must have broken past human limits to reach the Extraordinary level.'

'However, it didn't result in mutation. It's more akin to evolution.'

Throughout the dissection, Qi Suian gathered a massive amount of data, even gauging Abel's strength before his death.

'Time-dating test failed. It seems the power of some rule has frozen him at the exact moment of his death, so he's unaffected by the passage of time.'

'It's as if he died less than ten seconds ago.'

'Abel was killed by Cain... so who turned Cain into a Blood Race Sacred Artifact and sent him into the Villeries family's oil painting?'

'And there are no traces of who did it. This is a bit troublesome.' Qi Suian racked his brain but came up with no leads.

The Piercing Demon had sworn up and down that it wasn't Adam or Eve, nor any other relatives like siblings or aunts and uncles.

For the time being, Qi Suian believed him.

'It couldn't possibly be the Red Sea Witch Lilith, could it? Then again, if she could leave the Red Sea, she would have conquered the world long ago. Why wait until now?' Qi Suian found it contradictory.

The Red Sea Witch was no saint; she was an ambitious madwoman. Otherwise, would she be raising hell in the Red Sea?

If she ever set foot in the real world, she would undoubtedly try to drown it with the Red Sea.

After the lengthy dissection, Qi Suian hadn't obtained much useful intelligence. Still, it wasn't a complete waste.

'I can take the sarcophagus. It might not be a benevolent object, but it's holding Abel's body. The preservation of the corpse might be linked to it.'

"And next, the Evil Key." With that, Qi Suian reached for the Blood Race Sacred Artifact on Abel's forehead.

Normally, this was the point where someone would show up to stop him.

But events were not proceeding normally. Basically, anyone who might have caused trouble for Qi Suian had already been tossed into the Melting Furnace to be used as fuel.

As a result, obtaining the Evil Key went off without a hitch.

'Good news: the corpse didn't rot and the pocket dimension didn't collapse.'

'Looks like I was overthinking things.' Qi Suian placed the Evil Key into his Subspace Pocket.

He then shouldered the sarcophagus and prepared to leave.

In the time he had spent dissecting and studying Abel's corpse, dawn had nearly broken in the outside world. Once the moonlight was gone, the entrance in the oil painting would surely cease to function.

Qi Suian had no desire to gamble on what fate awaited him if he were trapped in this Ice Castle after the passage closed.

So, it was best to leave first.

The instant he shouldered the sarcophagus, Qi Suian keenly sensed a tremor begin to spread.

Qi Suian's expression shifted slightly. "So the cliché part was here all along."

The tremor started small but rapidly intensified into a violent quake.

'The cliff beneath the castle is collapsing.'

'The Evil Key wasn't the trigger, the sarcophagus is!' Still shouldering the sarcophagus, Qi Suian took flight, heading straight for the passage he'd come through.

Based on the logic that moving the sarcophagus would cause the castle to be destroyed, Qi Suian concluded that the sarcophagus itself was also a treasure.

Why else would all this happen just from moving it?

He glanced back and saw it wasn't just a matter of the cliff collapsing. The very foundation was cracking; the entire pocket dimension was breaking apart.

"Damn it, I hate it when my predictions come true like this." Although Qi Suian had been wrong about the trigger, he hadn't been wrong about the result.

If he failed to escape this pocket dimension in time, he certainly wouldn't die, given his constitution. However, whether he'd emerge as a whole person, a puddle of a person, or a person scattered in all directions was another question entirely.

More importantly, he had no idea where he would end up.

It would be fine if he remained in the Blood Race World. But if he was flung into some other world, he'd be truly screwed.

Without the Doomsday Game platform, he would be trapped in another world until he died.

Even though he was the only "bug" in the entire Doomsday Game, that didn't mean the game could cross worlds to find him.

For one thing, all it had on Qi Suian was a mere mark. For another, the Doomsday Game was too heavily damaged. It might have recovered somewhat, but it would most likely just sever its connection with him rather than go to great lengths to rescue him.

After finally managing to cast out the "malignant tumor," the Doomsday Game would have to be insane to pick Qi Suian back up again.

Fortunately, Qi Suian was fast enough to reach the passage in an extremely short amount of time.

However, the passage itself was now riddled with cracks, clearly affected by the pocket dimension's collapse.

The entire tunnel was therefore highly unstable, with spatial rifts erupting intermittently. Only someone like Qi Suian could directly power through them.

If it had been a Daywalker or the Piercing Demon, they would have been torn to shreds on the spot.

He made it out of the passage smoothly, but had to squeeze his way out of the oil painting with some difficulty.

After all, he was still shouldering a sarcophagus, and the oil painting was only so large. Squeezing was unavoidable.

The scene in the oil painting had now devolved into a chaotic mess, making it impossible to discern its original appearance.

It looked more like a huge glob of paint had been stirred together and then splashed onto the canvas. At the same time, tiny spatial rifts were visible to the naked eye all around it.

"It's a goner." Qi Suian watched as cracks began to appear on the oil painting, spreading rapidly across its surface.

In about thirty seconds, the oil painting had completely shattered into a pile of fragments on the floor.

With the entrance destroyed, the connection to the pocket dimension was completely severed. The tiny spatial rifts that had appeared in the room also vanished without a trace.

They had apparently been smoothed over by the world's natural self-healing properties.

'A pity. There might have been other treasures in that castle.'

'Still, achieving my objective is what matters.' Qi Suian thought of the Evil Key and felt no regret.