Chapter 63

62. Older Than the Empire

Dorothy also noticed those spheres: "What are those?"

She was about to take a step, but Li Ang reached out to stop her, pointing at the floor: "Watch out for traps."

"Traps? I know there are trap mechanisms in some ruins. You mean there are some here too? How come I can't see them at all?"

The lady tilted her head, her ginger hair adding a bit of silliness to her.

"Setting traps is certainly not meant for you to see. However, trap mechanisms are divided into magical ones and purely mechanical ones."

Li Ang explained: "The traps in ancient ruins and supernatural forbidden zones that high-rank Sky Knight groups go to conquer are a big problem, but the ones here are clearly just general traps for dealing with grave robbers or desecrators."

"General? Aren't they dangerous?"

"Probably just fire, poison gas, arrows, and retractable blades. With your delicate, soft body, I'm afraid you'd turn into a dried corpse or be skewered like meat on a stick in an instant."

Hearing Li Ang talk about her body, Dorothy had been standing with her hands on her hips, smiling faintly, but she couldn't smile anymore after hearing the second half.

"I won't die... but it must hurt a lot. Forget it, I don't dare to move. You come and scout the path."

"It's not about whether it hurts or not. This isn't just your problem alone. The way of exploration in adventuring also has to consider the adaptability of others in the team."

Li Ang had seen teams where everyone had outstanding defense and wasn't afraid of poison gas; they would brute-force their way through general trap mechanisms. But most teams didn't have that condition, so they would be equipped with a thief carrying various tools to solve conventional traps.

Since they hadn't made that kind of preparation, they needed experience to judge and avoid locations that might have mechanisms.

Li Ang pointed to the ground: "The floor tiles around the altar, the statues in the niches, the rows of hanging oil lamps—in this room, these three things are the most likely to have mechanisms."

He also pointed to the ventilation vents at the bottom of the wall: "That one is exposed."

Some of the ventilation vent grids were covered in dust, while the areas near other vents, although also having dust, were significantly thinner, indicating that these "vents" with thick dust had no airflow passing through them and were essentially mechanisms for spraying fire or poison gas.

"If there were no dust, they wouldn't be easy to discover, but it's been too long since anyone came here. The concealment is almost ineffective.

"Since we know the locations of some mechanisms, the traps that trigger them are usually nearby. This is determined by both the level of craftsmanship and cost control. Based on this line of thought, we can look at the nearby floor tiles. For traps with ordinary materials like this, the floor tiles might bulge or sink over time, and there might also be obvious gaps between them and other floor tiles."

Li Ang explained to Dorothy while stepping on safe locations to walk inside.

He wasn't afraid of ordinary traps. With the Wind-Chaser Bell, the Exalted-rank wind elemental shield could be used at will, and trap damage couldn't get close to him. However, this tomb was already underground within the Count's mansion, and the movement of triggering traps might alert people.

However, after getting closer, he found that these traps had already been disarmed.

Looking back, the lady was carefully walking on tiptoes, one step at a time. Li Ang originally felt she was too nervous, but then he realized she was avoiding some bones and spider webs on the ground.

"Come in, the mechanisms here should all be inactive."

"Why?" Dorothy asked.

"I originally thought this was the Finat family cemetery, but it has another owner. Instead, Finat might be the party that disarmed the traps."

"Whose tomb is this?"

"That should be for me to ask you," Li Ang turned back and said: "You've worked in Spark Port for so many years, haven't you learned about the history of this land in the Count's mansion? Collecting information is also a necessary part of adventuring."

Dorothy clasped her ten fingers together, twisting them.

"I don't know, sorry."

"This tomb records information about the sleeper," Li Ang pointed to the side and said.

Below the sculptures corresponding to the coffins, there were inscriptions, and there were also reliefs on the stone walls between different sculptures. The pigments used were precious and had only peeled off a little, but even if they had all faded, it wouldn't matter, because the reliefs had a high level of artistic skill, enough to tell the recorded story completely. That was a family history.

The coffins and statues had an obvious order of arrangement. The oldest ones had relatively rough craftsmanship, and while the last one was finished, no one was buried in it, and all the positions after that were empty.

The epitaph below the first human statue read: "Here sleeps the pioneer Lin Deng, who brought his adventuring partners to land on Spark Island, helped the residents here defeat a dragon that could spray sparks even when breathing, and gained their support, thereby laying the foundation for the family's glory."

"Adventuring partners" might be an embellishment; they could have been adventurers, or they could have been sky pirates or wandering stragglers.

"Hogati Lin Deng, builder of the port, brought prosperity to Spark Island and ensured the family's rich foundation."

"Lina Morn Lin Deng, Dragon Tamer. Brought the family the method of taming the Dragon of Sparks, intimidating all forces coveting the key location of Spark Island, allowing the family to remain stable and long-lasting."

"Caban Lin Deng. A loving grandfather, a strict father, a heroic warrior. Sacrificed gloriously in the battle against the army of the barbarian Kekrus. We will surely inherit his will and defend the family territory."

"Dukas Wall Lin Deng. A returning prodigal son, took over his father's will, and resisted the barbarians together with the people of the territory. Beheaded multiple red-haired barbarian generals. In the final moments of his life, he protected the Fire Dragon Ranch amidst the barbarians' conspiracies."

"Little Dukas Lin Deng. Artist,"

The text below the last sculpture only wrote a beginning. The open coffin that wasn't closed indicated that this artist wasn't buried here, or perhaps it was impossible to bury him, or there was no one left to preside over the process.

"Lin Deng family?" Dorothy thought while pinching her chin.

"This family was the earliest builder and ruler of Spark Port. It should have been a long time ago. Anyway, I've never heard of it, and I've never heard of any fire dragon on this island," Li Ang said.

Even the edges of Spark Island today had towns built up, and there was no trace of any "Fire Dragon Ranch."

"I might actually know a little about this."

Dorothy pointed to the epitaph of Caban Lin Deng and said: "The name Kekrus has been mentioned by people in the last year or two. Later, someone told me that he was the founding emperor of the Holy Spirel Empire."

"Looking at it this way, it was the Finat family that followed the Empire to conquer Spark Island and wiped out the original owners here."

According to what Li Ang had just learned from Lancelot, the Empire had existed for at least eight hundred years, which was much earlier than the founding of the Sky Knight Guild.

The vast majority of contemporary people, even if they lived in the Ignis Airspace, would have no real sense that this land once belonged to the Empire, let alone know the history from before the Empire's conquest.

For a Sky Knight like Li Ang, his understanding of a sky island was more about what resources and uses it could provide.

This tomb was so ancient that it felt like a phantom in the gaps of time, and even the founding emperor of the Empire was the same.

If it weren't for a place like Spark Port that had such origins, no one would mention him at all.

At the same time, Li Ang didn't feel that the entire "Urban Interlayer" shown by the system could be that ancient. Those secret passages were likely built by the Finat family later, and many documents mentioned that many wars had occurred later.

The Finat family discovered this tomb during the construction process, and it was thus connected to the secret passages.

After the secret passages were no longer needed, they deliberately abandoned the areas outside some of the exits, or kept them under their control and surveillance.

Li Ang asked Dorothy: "Is the house you live in a property of the Finat family?"

"Yeah, many mansions are theirs, but I pay rent, so I don't have any intention of being associated with their family!"

Li Ang nodded; he should have guessed correctly.

If the Finat family followed the Empire's founder in his conquests, it could also explain why they became the vanguard immediately when the Empire wanted to rise again.

Dorothy teased with a smile: "Why ask this suddenly? Are you very concerned?"

Li Ang didn't respond to her and walked toward the altar in the middle of the tomb.