Chapter 428: Unexpected

He slightly raised his hand forward, and the metal ring held by Tu Ba Ge was lifted by an invisible hand, floating before him.

Looking at the metal ring that had become much smoother and flatter, Lei Ke Dun's mouth twitched slightly. It was indeed cleaned, a layer smoothed out—is this what they call "great force produces miracles"?

After sighing inwardly, he brought the metal ring close to his eyes and carefully distinguished the now-blurred patterns on it.

The patterns depict a giant bird spreading its wings and soaring in the sky, its body covered in feathers woven of flame and pattern, with a winding river crawling beneath it and layers of illusory doors following behind.

On the upper and lower sides of the metal ring, a circle of mysterious symbols symbolizing spirits and the dead is engraved, thick and dense, as if the dead were worshiping this giant bird.

Phoenix, the phoenix depicted here should be the "Phoenix Ancestor" Grejali. Is this ring an item of the phoenix, or an artifact made by those who worshiped the phoenix back then?

In his contemplation, his eyes suddenly became deep and dark, like the sea before a storm, his gaze unfocused, appearing a blank white.

Using his prophetic ability, he performed a divination on the ring, and soon a blurry image surfaced in his mind.

It was a dim, gloomy sky, with an exaggeratedly huge bird circling, whipping up mournful gales, the wind mixed with the howls of vengeful spirits; a wailing sound came from the bird's right ankle, where it bore a metal ring engraved with intricate patterns, woven of gray-blue and dark gold, constantly flapping its wings as if rushing anxiously somewhere.

The scene quickly shifted, many phoenixes appeared around, their pale flames almost merging into one, piercing reality and surging into the twisted, illusory spirit realm, forming an exaggerated sea of terror filled with wails and howls.

A figure terrifying and exaggerated to the extreme flew out from the layers of illusory gates deep in the spirit realm, its body covered in feathers interwoven of pale fire crows and mysterious patterns, its eyes as if cast of bronze, within which lay layers of illusory gates.

Accompanying Him emerged an indescribable black illusory river, seeming to surge from an unfathomable mist, rushing toward the end of all things, the conclusion of everything—a death beyond death, indescribable and ineffable.

At the instant that terrifying phoenix appeared bearing the black illusory river, Lei Ke Dun lost the ability to think; his flesh quickly cracked and became mottled.

In the cracks of his flesh grew fine, tiny pale hairs, which in the blink of an eye enlarged into white feathers.

His vitality rapidly waned, as if sprinting down the road to death, and in a moment he had reached the end of his life.

His flesh and even his clothing fell away in chunks, turning into mottled debris and rising dust.

"Death! The boss is dying quickly!"

Wu Ya A Nu, perched on the coat rack, was the first to regain consciousness, flapping its wings and fluttering about the room somewhat at a loss.

Tu Ba Ge stared blankly for a moment, then, hearing Wu Ya A Nu's voice, came to his senses and lunged onto Lei Ke Dun without thinking, scrambling into the clothing covered by the sage's robe and feeling out the small iron box holding the probability dice.

Before it could leave Lei Ke Dun, suddenly the ground gave way beneath its feet and it fell straight to the floor.

Tu Ba Ge blankly lifted his head to look at Lei Ke Dun; the figure that had been leaning on the chair had dissipated, turning into drifting specks of starlight that filled the room.

The once brilliant starlight now grew dim, occasionally specks of pale white drifting out, while fine tiny pale hairs continually melted and reappeared.

The aura of death, decay, and corruption permeated these starlights, seeming impossible to dispel.

Tu Ba Ge merely stared for a moment, then quickly regained composure, anxiously pulling out the probability dice and saying in a voice full of urgency:

"Six, six, give me a six quickly!"

Having spoken, it flung the dice from its hand; the milky-white die rolled on the floor for two seconds then stopped, six facing up! Seeing the dice show six, Tu Ba Ge sighed in relief, still somewhat anxious as he turned his head around, noticing the floating starlight remained dim.

"One six definitely isn't enough!" it muttered to itself like a pep talk, quickly picking up the dice from the floor and throwing them again.

Ding ding~ the milky-white die wobbled a few times on the floor before stopping again, still six facing up!

"I'll do it! I'll do it!"

Wu Ya A Nu muttered as it fell from the air, extending a claw to grab the probability dice, then flapping its wings to fly midair and toss them down.

The probability dice rolled on the floor for two or three seconds before stopping again, two facing up!

"You stupid bird!"

Tu Ba Ge loudly grumbled at seeing the two on the dice, dissatisfied, for he had never seen any number other than six.

It ran over, dissatisfied, to pick up the dice and throw again, but as it was about to touch the dice, its foot slipped and it flopped to one side.

"You useless stinky bird, stupid bird!"

Tu Ba Ge loudly complained, feeling that if it weren't for the unlucky crow rolling a two, he wouldn't have been unlucky too.

Clang!

Wu Ya A Nu, about to descend from the air to fetch the dice, suddenly had a wing cramp, losing control of direction and speed, and slammed straight into the protruding window ahead.

It dazedly fell to the ground, unable to stand for a moment.

Tu Ba Ge had just risen from the ground when he saw Wu Ya A Nu fallen in the corner; he sighed, shook his head, and said in a rather speechless manner, "Stupid bird!" He took a deep breath, preparing to retrieve the dice again, but suddenly noticed the previously dim starlight around him brighten abruptly, and the aura of death, decay, and corruption vanished just as suddenly.

Tu Ba Ge's eyes lit up; he was about to speak when he saw the surrounding flowing starlight quickly turn dim again.

Affected by the River of Eternal Darkness, Lei Ke Dun's consciousness, which had sunk into slumber, suddenly woke, but before he could grasp the situation, a sense of fatigue surged again.

His consciousness grew fuzzy; he could only roughly feel himself accelerating toward the end of life, stepping into true death.

A strong sense of danger barely kept his consciousness awake, preventing him from slipping directly into slumber as before.

"I have been contaminated by viewing the pollution brought by the River of Eternal Darkness."

"This is not a problem I can solve alone; I must seek aid from the Wilderness of Knowledge."

"The essence of knowledge, the root of mysteries, the brilliance of civilization, the upholding of truth."

The thought with difficulty drifted in his mind; he used the Ancient Hermes Language to silently chant the honorific pointing to the Wilderness of Knowledge, over and over, and upon the third chant he finally felt a change.

His consciousness beheld a vast, boundless ocean of light formed by countless pixel-like particles stacked together, enveloping everything, covering everything; each tiny particle was a bit of knowledge, flickering, swaying, in extremely orderly motion.

This is the manifestation of knowledge, the sum of all knowledge, the Wilderness of Knowledge!

A sudden understanding arose in Lei Ke Dun's heart, continually sweeping away his conscious fatigue, which disappeared at some point; the trend of life heading toward its end also halted, as if frozen at this moment.

In the inn's room, the scattered dim starlight shed pure white feathers and many tiny faces; as they drifted down, they quickly turned thin and yellowish, gradually becoming transparent, and before they could reach the ground they had already completely disintegrated.

The dim starlight began to shed rays of brilliance, lighting the whole room, dispelling the layer of tranquil night veiling the specks of starlight, and purging the aura of decay, death, and withering.

With the restoration of condition, these starlights grew ever more brilliant, so dazzling that Tu Ba Ge and Wu Ya A Nu simultaneously shut their eyes.

Shards of starlight began to gather, condensing into a humanoid figure woven of blazing white and pale blue, yet never transforming into a flesh-and-blood body.

In his consciousness, Lei Ke Dun gazed at the light ocean gradually receding from him, and an irrepressible urge arose to rush forward and merge with it.

This thought grew stronger and stronger; soon he could no longer restrain himself, sprinting toward the receding light ocean.

As he was about to touch that light ocean, a curtain of shadow silently arose, severing his connection to it.

The irrepressible strong thought in his heart gradually faded, and Lei Ke Dun quickly commanded the brilliant, piercing starlight to condense into his own body.

He exhaled~ long and slow, clenched his fists, felt the fleshly sensation of his body, and inwardly lamented: "I almost put an end to my own life."

A comfortable life makes people rash; knowing full well that the ring's history is ancient and involves the phoenix, I actually went straight into making a prophecy without any divination or preparation.

After sighing, he lowered his gaze to his own sage's robe, where the magic markings and symbolic sigils had grown noticeably dimmer; evidently, when he earlier reset his condition, it too had been affected by the Eternal Dark River and the Phoenix Ancestor Ge Lei Jia Li, and he had sprinted far along the road to ruin.

Having settled his thoughts, Lei Ke Dun turned his head to look at Tu Ba Ge and Crow A Nu, who were nervously staring at him, too afraid to speak, and he gave a light smile, nodded, and said, 'I'm fine now.'

His gaze fell on the Probability Die held in Tu Ba Ge's hand, and on the finely cracked bulging window behind Crow A Nu.

In the flicker of his eyes, he had already let the events that had just taken place in the room resurface in his mind.

After a moment, his gaze upon the Probability Die held in Tu Ba Ge's hand grew solemn. This Probability Die had undergone some changes; the misfortune and fortune it brought no longer affected the thrower, but instead took effect within a certain range.

Is this metal ring from the phoenix, and my earlier reckless action, a coincidence, or are they both under its influence? Lei Ke Dun quickly gathered his thoughts, he glanced at the Probability Die in Tu Ba Ge's hand and said, 'Put this die away; don't use it casually from now on.'

'All right, boss.' Tu Ba Ge gave a solemn nod.

It felt that the die was utterly useless—rolling a six brought no luck, yet the two points rolled by Crow A Nu could still affect it.

After tidying the room, which had grown a little chaotic from the recent incident, Lei Ke Dun leaned back in the wooden chair by the window, looking at the gray‑blue and dark‑gold interwoven ring on the small round table; the ring that Tu Ba Ge had cleaned was now stained again with mottled rust, as if it had undergone a long‑time baptism.

It looked like an ordinary item with a long history; its spirituality had long since faded away over time, and that is why it influenced my judgment, leading me to believe that probing its past would bring no danger.

The vision I had seen earlier was clearly incomplete, but I couldn't withstand the corruption of Ge Lei Jia Li and the Eternal Dark River, and it was forcibly cut off.

As his thoughts drifted, Lei Ke Dun rummaged through the room for ritual materials, preparing to sacrifice this metal ring upon the Grey Mist so that Ke Lai En could help him divine; after all, there he wouldn't truly die—at most he'd blow up a couple of times, and he'd recover quickly.

Ke Lai En responded to the ritual quickly; it seemed he, too, had stayed up past midnight and still hadn't slept.

Lei Ke Dun leaned back in the wooden chair; he drew the curtains, the gas wall lamp was extinguished, leaving only a thumb‑length candle flickering with a dim yellow light on the small round table.

(End of chapter)