Chapter 262: Axe-beak Bird and Brass Candlestick

Gray Valley, as the name suggests, a gray valley.

The violent wind whistled between the empty valleys, and fine stone powder drifted in the air.

Ground, stone walls, and even the firmament covered by dust—wherever the eye could see, it was gray and black.

The undulating small hills were like solidified waves, surging from the edge of the firmament at the end of the line of sight layer upon layer, turning into a hard, dead, and life-devouring gray, falling hard in front of him.

Xia Nan stretched out his hand and rubbed gently on the gray rock wall on the side, feeling the cold and rough touch on his fingertips.

Unable to help but compare the dead gray in the valley right now with the stones in the Goblin nest just now, and the lime stained on the "Fading Fire Coin."

It was indeed the same color.

"Are you very familiar with this valley?"

He asked Leon beside him casually.

"This is also my first time here." The teenager's expression appeared exceptionally nervous, his body tensed to the point of being almost stiff, his hands tightly gripping his old iron sword, "Mr. Xia Nan, please be careful."

"It is said that a group of dangerous monsters inhabits here, and since I can remember, I have been warned that 'Gray Valley' is a forbidden area that is not allowed to be stepped into, even the naughtiest children in the village dare not approach."

Hearing this, Xia Nan nodded thoughtfully, but then noticed that extremely faint thin mist seemed to be floating in the air, unable to help but frown:

"Have you heard the adults in the village mention this kind of mist in the valley?"

The white mist was too thin, and Leon only noticed it after Xia Nan reminded him.

But he just shook his head, indicating that he had no relevant information.

The description of the 【Fading Fire Old Coin】 on the attribute panel made Xia Nan somewhat concerned, and it happened that he had stayed in Gray Valley Village for many days, and had no clue about the help that Beicuisi said might bring him.

Right now, he couldn't help but have some thoughts.

Recalling the monster information living in the valley introduced by Leon in his mind, he waved his hand toward the teenager beside him:

"Follow closely, let's go a little deeper."

The two continued to penetrate deep.

The environment in Gray Valley was not much different from what Xia Nan imagined.

Basically, one couldn't see any vegetation, and gray rocks filled every part of the line of sight.

Even not a single creature could be seen, only the sharp wind sound echoed gloomily between the stone walls.

And what was worth paying attention to was that, as the two walked deeper and deeper in the valley, the originally thin mist in the air gradually began to become dense.

Xia Nan didn't feel any abnormal content of magic particles in it, clearly these mists had an essential difference from those in the air of the Mist Forest.

It was not a manifestation of highly concentrated magic particles, but a "natural phenomenon" in the valley.

"Is it really natural?" He felt a trace of something wrong in his heart, but right now he didn't have any special discoveries, so it was not easy to draw a conclusion rashly.

Abruptly, in the line of sight filled with dead gray, a touch of unusual brown-white entered his eyes.

That was half a broken stone pillar pointing straight at the gray firmament, which should have supported the magnificent dome above it.

Right now, it fell abruptly in the depths of the valley, looming under the shroud of thick fog, revealing a blurred outline.

That was a ruin of a large building.

Centered on that lone stone pillar, it was a piece of collapsed and weathered broken building materials, bricks, wooden boards, hanging cloth... perhaps they once possessed their vivid colors, but right now they had already been dyed with a layer of pale dead gray that could not be washed away by this valley.

Only a few individual items, inherently sturdy and capable of withstanding the erosion of the river of time, retained some of their original appearance.

A broken giant stone-carved palm that could cover a normal person's head, the little finger was missing, and the ring finger only had half left, but one could still capture the desperate emotion the sculptor wanted to express through the exquisite and superb technique from the remaining three spasmodic and bent fingers that opened powerlessly toward the sky;

Not far away, it was half a broken plaster human face, it leaned diagonally against the broken wall, the soft smile that should have been intoxicating on the only remaining hollow eye gazing at the valley, but set against the cracks and dead gray on its surface, it appeared empty and eerie.

Xia Nan frowned, his gaze sweeping across the ruins.

"Have you heard the adults in the village mention these things?"

"No, Mr. Xia Nan, nothing at all." Leon followed closely behind him, his face under the shroud of fog becoming paler and paler.

After all, he was just a fifteen-year-old teenager who had lived in a remote farming village since childhood, the experience in the Goblin nest just now had already caused him a huge shock.

Right now, encountering such an eerie scene in this dangerous environment that had been warned by his elders not to step into since childhood, Leon could still think normally and answer Xia Nan's question, which was already his limit.

Seeing the other party's expression, Xia Nan didn't force it, thinking about asking the old people in the village if there was any detailed information about these ruins after going back.

His gaze paused.

Stepping forward two steps, he lifted a small stone slab covering the ground to the side.

Bent down.

The next second, an old and dilapidated candlestick, also covered in lime, was picked up by him from the ground.

Taking the water bag from his waist again, he rinsed it with clean water from top to bottom.

The volume of the candlestick was much larger than that half coin, and the drinking water Xia Nan carried with him was only that much, so in the end, he only managed to wash away some stone powder on the surface of the candlestick, allowing some of its details to be revealed.

Its base was six petals of twisted copper leaves, the bowl-shaped wax pool above was melted and deformed due to long-term high-temperature burning, like withered flower petals curling inward;

The main stem was twisted and braided by three strands of copper strips, and one could see obvious twisted and concave traces in the middle, as if deformed by a collision with a heavy object; the top candle holder was a serrated ring expanding outward, and the traces of wax tears dripping in the past could no longer be seen under the gray powder.

Xia Nan carefully examined this exquisite creation that was completely different from the style of Gray Valley and Gray Valley Village, and his attention was deliberately concentrated.

Immediately, just as expected, translucent characters burst out in the void once again:

【Ancient Brass Candlestick】

Type: Candlestick

Level: /

Introduction:

An old brass candlestick that once briefly dispelled the darkness of a corner, illuminating the face of a tired traveler, and some long-forgotten classic.

Remark:

"Oh great and merciful Lord, the fire is gradually extinguishing..."

——Anonymous Nun of the Church of Ashes

"This 'Church of Ashes' again?"

Xia Nan's gaze swept quickly across the attribute panel, whispering in his heart.

The same words, he had already seen on the 【Fading Fire Old Coin】 before, and now appearing again on the candlestick in the Gray Valley ruins, clearly had already proven the correctness of Leon's conjecture.

That half coin was indeed looted from Gray Valley by the Goblins, and the coin and the candlestick came from the same source.

But...

Xia Nan carefully recalled the information on the attribute panels of the two items, pondering their unique and extremely exotic design patterns, trying to compare the information he captured with the knowledge in his mind. ===== CHAPTER 263 =====