Chapter 1911: Door and Key

Xia De and Yi Lu Na walked along the sloping corridor to the end, and at the end, they finally saw the red door flowing with blood.

The metal door completely blocked the passage, and the left and right doors clearly depicted the map of the material world today, including the New Continent, the Old Continent, and the ocean.

The strange red color on the surface of the door was not paint, but like the color of the metal itself. Blood was constantly seeping from the metal, flowing to the ground. When Xia De and Yi Lu Na arrived, the ground before the door was simply a pool of blood.

The ends of roots drilled out from the walls, floor, and ceiling of the passage, fitting into the door panels, making the metal and tree roots fuse together. The pattern of the tree roots arched over the material world map in the center from around the door, but it was also as if roots extended from the void, peeping at the world described in the map.

At this time, eleven keys had already been inserted into the thirteen keyholes scattered on the door, with the key handles parallel to the ground, meaning the turning was complete.

"Look at the position of the keyholes."

Yi Lu Na reminded, and Xia De only then noticed that six of the keyholes were located in Tobesk City, Coldwater Port, Midhill Fort, the Pantanal Lake in the center of the Pantanal Swamp, Randall Valley, and the current Green Lake area, respectively.

"Are the keyholes corresponding to the keys symbolizing the thirteen Chosen all on the stage where the story takes place?"

The two went to look at the positions of the other seven keyholes, only to find that those keyholes did not indicate the locations where the Chosen would appear next.

Because the first six keyholes fell directly in the center of the regions, this clearly indicated the location. And the latter seven keyholes either fell in uninhabited areas such as deserts, oceans, or primeval forests, or at the intersection of multiple cities, clearly unable to indicate a precise location.

Xia De and Yi Lu Na still recorded those positions, so that as long as the seventh Chosen appeared later, the correctness of the other positions could be verified. And although Xia De had the last two keys in his hand, he still chose to try to force the door open with the "Door Key" first.

The tip of the "Night Watcher" sword pierced into one of the keyholes, and Xia De activated the strange art while trying hard to turn his wrist. The long sword remained motionless; instead, the tree roots embedded in the red metal door vaguely seemed to squirm. As Xia De persisted, a rumbling sound came from deep underground, and the ground seemed to shake violently again in response to Xia De's actions.

In the end, Xia De gave up:

"I feel like I'm prying the entire island."

He said to Yi Lu Na on the side:

"This door is like the core of the entire island, and also one of the cores of the Edwards Ascension Technique. Forcing the door open is equivalent to destroying everything here, and also equivalent to directly releasing the sealed island, letting the spatial collapse pass directly to the material world."

He took out two keys, and Yi Lu Na picked up one of them:

"Then let's do it together, witness all of this."

The two simultaneously pierced the keys in their hands into the last two keyholes. With their gentle turning, a huge clicking sound came not from inside the door before them, but from deep underground.

That deafening sound was louder than any sound Xia De and Yi Lu Na had heard on this island so far. And beyond this sound, Xia De and Yi Lu Na looked at each other, both feeling that the space where this island was located had changed in essence because of this.

And as the last two keys turned, the thirteen keys and keyholes on the blood-red door before them bloomed with light simultaneously. Then, as the tree roots at the four corners squirmed and spread to more positions on the door, the tree roots finally "swallowed" the two metal doors, and the tree roots themselves were dyed a more vivid blood color by the metal.

In the light, the red metal door itself was also melting. When the wooden part finally completely replaced the metal part, it formed an arch structure often appearing in ancient ruins, and thus revealed the path for Xia De and Yi Lu Na to continue forward.

The common occult symbol of "arch" has the typical meaning of "crossing boundaries" and "dividing space". For example, the three ancient arches in the Night Temple of Randall Valley were to divide the boundaries between gods and humans.

And when Xia De and Yi Lu Na crossed this arch at the end of the passage together, they felt that although they were still in the basement of the Edwards Old House, they seemed to have entered another strange space.

"Create space."

Yi Lu Na said softly the content of the ritual of the "Space Chosen", but Xia De shook his head:

"Not to that extent yet."

The front was still a passage wrapped in tree roots deep underground, but it was becoming wider and wider. After the crystal lamps on the walls—Xia De had only seen similar things in the 5th Era—were lit one by one, they saw some stone bookshelves scattered on both sides of the passage behind the arch, piled with dense parchment scrolls and stone slabs, while normally printed books were the minority.

And at the end of the passage was the banquet hall door with a crack open. The door was of ordinary metal material, but it had a pattern of the "One Who Returns" and the "Family Genealogy" overlapping.

The passage behind the arch was not long, and the door with a crack open was only a few steps away.

But since there was a library-like scene here, Xia De reached out his hand:

"Library retrieval—books related to the Philosopher's Stone, the end of the world, and the birth of the soul."

Only one parchment scroll tied with a ribbon flew into Xia De's hand, with a bright red "Philosopher's Stone" symbol pattern branded on the surface of the paper scroll. Xia De opened it and took a look, only to see the first line written:

【The Philosopher's Stone itself can be used to make the elixir of life, but its original meaning of being created is the intention of pursuing "perfect eternity".】

This was knowledge related to the Philosopher's Stone. Xia De put this unexpected joy into his pocket and continued with Yi Lu Na to the door at the end. The light behind the crack of the door was even somewhat dazzling. Xia De asked Yi Lu Na:

"Are you ready?"

The brown-haired girl, who was about to welcome her eighteenth birthday in a few hours, nodded:

"Ready long ago. This scene is very familiar, isn't it? It's you and me again."

With a look of joy and tension coexisting in her eyes.

"Yes, it's you and me again."

The two didn't communicate anything else, Xia De inserted his empty right hand into the crack of the door, and the door opened.

Before this, Xia De had guessed several times what the banquet hall where the final "Edwards Family Banquet" was held would be like.

Perhaps it was magnificent, a luxurious place like the one where the great nobles of Tobesk held banquets;

Perhaps it was full of mystery, decorated with strange murals of various colors, but also a cold and slippery underground space;

Perhaps it was an open-air place located in the woods, like the "Feast of the Earth Mother" two months ago;

Perhaps it was other shocking and magnificent places beyond the imagination of outsiders that exhausted human imagination.

But he guessed wrong. When the door finally opened, what Xia De and Yi Lu Na saw was a rectangular basement with no decorations and gray stone walls all around, seeing those many people sitting on one side of a long table that was also made of stone.

Laplace Klein Edwards was located in the very center of the long table, and on the left and right sides, his descendants were seated in order of blood relationship, all facing the direction of the door. The table was covered with gold cups, silver plates, and sumptuous meals, but even if there were golden candlesticks and candles radiating light here, it still couldn't cover up that this place was really shabby to the extreme.

Except for the long table, the decorations and food on the long table, and the people by the long table, there was probably only dust left here. The room was of moderate size, but because it was empty, it appeared exceptionally large.

And counting the people at the table, except for the eldest son of the third generation, Envy Edwards, who transcends time and space, everyone was here. But except for the Diviner who was located in the center, wearing a golden robe with an Ouroboros pattern on the chest of the robe, only the second son of the second generation, the tentacle man Sloth Edwards, the little daughter of the third generation, the demon dragon Gluttony Edwards, and the Jarvis Edwards of the fifth generation who believed in the 【God of Tyranny】 were awake.

It was just that Gluttony Edwards's face had a clear bruise, as if she had been hit by something rectangular.

These three were sincerely supporting their ancestor, while the others were all in a coma. Xia De, of course, also saw Megan among them. She was wearing a cat-shaped mask, lying on the table just like the other people in a coma.

Except for Megan, just like the oil painting Xia De had seen, the six people of the sixth generation were also wearing masks. Those masks were clearly specially made alchemical items, specifically used to restrain these family members who had never been on the island and were controlled by their ancestor.

As for Maria Edwards of the fifth generation and the little girl Lust of the second generation, their souls, of course, did not have the saying of "coma"; they just sat there blankly, with no expression on their faces at all.

Tree roots, a large number of tree roots were entangled on the table, and also entangled on the backs of everyone's chairs. When Xia De and Yi Lu Na appeared, those spreading giant tree roots were spreading out bit by bit from the cracks in the wall. The door behind the two closed silently, and the roots soon completely blocked the door.

However, Xia De and Yi Lu Na didn't care, and Yi Lu Na even said mockingly:

"Even shabbier than I thought, don't you even have the gold pounds to install gas lamps?"

The Diviner sitting upright didn't pay attention to this topic, his brown eyes looking at the two:

"Truly amazing, although I had guessed it long ago, that someone would be able to influence the Edwards Ascension Technique, but I didn't expect it to be two people."

He didn't say who he originally expected:

"Thank you for everything you did on the island. The ritual is about to be completed, God-Awakener, Chosen of Balance, please take your seats, the banquet is about to begin. This place is not shabby; you will understand soon."

Seeing that the two didn't move, he smiled again:

"I am not being polite to you; if you don't sit down, you might fall later." ===== CHAPTER 1912 =====