Chapter 2719: Brand, Ritual, and Key

Just as Xia De had expected, as he retreated, the third treasure chest opened, revealing a scarlet tongue inside. Before the chest could rise to reveal the slender legs and arms beneath it, a bolt of lightning pierced directly into the gap of the chest's open mouth.

The "Mimic," a monster that appeared due to the sublimation of greedy desires, did not belong to any naturally existing alien species, but was a mutation of the "treasure chest" type of item caused by a concept.

Therefore, even though this secret chamber had not been opened for tens of thousands of years since it was sealed, the originally normal chests inside could still turn into Mimics. Especially since Xia De admitted that he had indeed been greedy when he saw these three chests.

And very unfortunately, different Mimics had different behavioral habits; this was the third one Xia De had encountered. Although the 【Mimic】 was classified as document-level, in reality, depending on the preciousness and antiquity of the treasures it contained, its power ceiling was actually quite high.

The one Xia De encountered this time, although it did not display characteristics such as "blocking roads" or "scattering bait," was definitely not just document-level.

The lightning spear was successfully thrown into the "mouth" of the monster that had stood up, but the lightning did not explode, because the blackened red tongue flicked out with a *whoosh*, actually pushing the lightning spear back toward Xia De:

"Can reflect attacks? Nightfall Seal!"

The ink-colored shield silently absorbed the silver-white lightning spear, and when the shield vanished, the monster with two-meter-long legs like withered tree branches had already strode in front of Xia De. As its tongue lashed out, its two hands reached directly for Xia De's neck.

"Body of Courage!"

Xia De had no intention of dodging, and after taking a deep breath, his entire body suddenly expanded until his height was exactly the same as the upright Mimic.

Thus, the monster's hands changed from trying to strangle his neck to hugging Xia De's body. It exerted force suddenly, trying to lift Xia De and stuff him into its mouth to gnaw on, but Xia De's feet just left the ground before falling back down again.

Both sides were very surprised; the Mimic didn't understand why this human's strength was so great, and Xia De was surprised at how strong this Mimic was.

The chest lid opened wide again, and the black-red tongue, like cured meat, shot toward Xia De's throat with a *whoosh*. Xia De's left hand reached up and grabbed the tongue, and a huge lightning spear appeared in his raised right hand, which this time completely pierced into the monster's mouth.

The lightning spear exploded in the narrow space, and the lightning even splashed onto Xia De, the caster. But fortunately, the "attack reflection" method mastered by this Mimic seemed to rely on its tongue, so with the tongue held by Xia De, the lightning spear successfully pierced through its body.

"Oh~"

After a long wail, the tall monster turned into gray-white sand and quickly scattered all over the floor, and Xia De's body size returned to normal. Although it seemed like an easy win, it was because Xia De's strength after growing larger just happened to suppress it.

For a "Mimic," an agile monster whose attacks were mostly physical and whose whole-body resistance was extremely high, once one's own strength could not surpass it, things would become quite troublesome.

The chest turned into gravel, and the items originally inside were buried in the gravel.

Xia De bent down and searched expectantly, and sure enough, he did not find the "Arcana of All Things" card he was thinking of, but first found a strange silver metal plate. The plate was not a regular shape, but looked like the front cross-section of a treasure chest:

"Whisper elements... Relic derivative - 【Brand of Greed】!"

Xia De was truly shocked this time. After a "Mimic" was killed, there was a very low probability that it would condense its own concept of "greed" into a physical form, thereby generating a "Brand of Greed," which was the thing Xia De was holding in his hand.

Its rating as a relic derivative was on par with the Mimic itself, also document-level. Its negative characteristic was to greatly enhance the wearer's own greed, while its positive characteristic was that when encountering a scenario where one "has a probability of obtaining something," such as "killing a Mimic has a probability of obtaining a Brand of Greed," wearing this silver plate would increase the probability of obtaining the item.

Because this type of relic derivative did not need to be worn on the body for a long time and could be worn when needed, its negative characteristics could be avoided to a certain extent. This led to this type of relic derivative being exceptionally valuable.

But compared to its practical value, people valued its collection value more. After all, if Xia De remembered correctly, the total number of existing 【Brands of Greed】 would not exceed 30:

"Do I really have this kind of luck?"

Then he thought of a quite serious problem:

"Wait a minute, 【Brand of Greed】 wouldn't be something that was originally in this chest, would it?"

"She" at his ear laughed again, but fortunately, Xia De had guessed wrong.

After he bent down and searched the pile of sand quickly a few more times, he discovered something new. But it was not an Arcana of All Things card, nor was it a glass-style "Time Fragment," but a quite familiar emerald green leaf:

"【Ye Zi of Eternal Youth】?"

This touch did not trigger 【Ancient Voice】, which likely meant that this secret chamber was built in the Second Era, just that two items from the First Era had been placed inside.

And Xia De looked at the leaf suspiciously. His first reaction was disappointment, but he immediately thought that a leaf was not just a leaf:

"There is power and information here?"

He then skillfully raised his head and placed this brand-new leaf in front of his eyes. As the golden light traces flowed along the veins of the leaf, a piece of information appeared out of thin air in Xia De's mind.

This information pointed to an ancient ritual called "Proof of Time," which was to find a giant tree in the forest and dig a pool under the tree. Hold the 【Ye Zi of Eternal Youth】 in your mouth, and jump into the pool while carrying an item related to time, such as a clock or an hourglass.

Float back up from the water ten minutes later, and then leave your name on that tree. In this way, the ritual is completed. As long as the name on the tree is not destroyed afterward, and one carries that pocket watch or hourglass as "Proof of Time," the person who completed the ritual will not enter other times due to accidents.

Of course, if one does not have the 【Ye Zi of Eternal Youth】, one can also use alchemical means to create a divine item known as the "Time Cicada." This divine item can also play a role similar to the Ye Zi of Eternal Youth in this ritual, but from the information Xia De obtained, this divine item is expensive and requires the power of a god related to time to create.

"Avoid entering other times? With this ritual, others can come to the Vesta Woodland with peace of mind."

He thought this, and then puzzledly rummaged through that pile of sand again:

"Is that all? Nothing else?"

A seed that could grow a tree hole, a crown symbolizing elven kingship, and a ritual that could prevent being affected by the power of the tree hole—these gains were certainly very good, but Xia De had gone to great lengths to unlock the secrets of the "Temple of Time" not for this.

"What about the 'Time Fragment' to lift the time curse? What about the clues related to the Chosen One ritual? This wouldn't be the Chosen One ritual, would it?"

The Chosen One ritual certainly wouldn't be so simple; even the simplest ritual so far, Irena's "Upside-Down Sacrifice" to exchange for power and knowledge, was much more complex than this.

But there really was nothing else in that pile of sand. When the puzzled Xia De stood up, he didn't know whether he should be happy about the harvest this time or disappointed that he hadn't found what he was looking for at all.

But he didn't leave immediately, because the Outlander knew from the many stories he had read in the past that there might be secret chambers within secret chambers. The hidden passage behind the secret chamber of the "Temple of Time" in the forest was a good example.

So the Ring of Life appeared, and the light of the 【Space-Time】 spirit rune illuminated the surrounding walls. Xia De originally just wanted to try, but he didn't expect that under that light, something really appeared on the wall facing the stairs.

But this time it did not reveal a hidden passage, but a small square secret compartment appeared on the wall. Although he was still using the 【Space-Time】 spirit rune, Xia De felt that it was the power of time, not space, that was at work this time.

This time there was no need to solve a puzzle. A wooden key was floating in the secret compartment. This was, of course, a time key that Xia De was very familiar with, so Xia De became even more puzzled:

"What does this mean? And why is the color of this key so dark?"

Thinking this, he reached out to grab the key, but suddenly the sound of wind arose behind him, and Xia De turned around subconsciously. As his body turned, a yellow moonlight greatsword appeared in his hand and swept across. After a *ding* sound, the moonlight greatsword was shattered by the clock hand tied to the woman's hair.

And amidst the sky full of golden light chips, the brass clock hand continued to stab toward Xia De's face without losing momentum, but he dodged it by turning his head. The clock hand then touched the time key in the secret compartment behind Xia De, and as they made contact, the key was tightly sucked onto the clock hand.

Just as the hair tried to pull the clock hand and key back, Xia De's hand grabbed the woman's hair first. With a flash of silver moonlight, the tough hair was severed.

Xia De reached out to grab the clock hand and key that possessed whisper elements, but both disappeared into thin air before his eyes.

He looked up toward the stairs. A woman in her forties, with naturally curly long black hair braided into thirteen bundles, each with a metallic clock hand from the twelve-ring "Clockmaker" tied to the end, had already grasped the clock hand and key.

Her left eye, which looked like a glass bead with a clock face embedded inside, glowed slightly. She had found the image of the location of this secret chamber ten minutes ago, which was still completely underground soil:

"Time Return!" ===== CHAPTER 2720 =====