In the silent forest, a figure lay quietly on the grass, overgrown with wild plants.
Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the tree branches, illuminating a pale and handsome face. Morning dew slid from the tips of leaves, dripping one by one onto the dry, cracked lips.
The lips twitched slightly, and Ronan awoke from his unconscious state.
"Cough, cough..."
Ronan struggled to sit up, but the next moment, his hands instinctively pressed against his head.
It felt as though countless tiny insects were hidden beneath his brow and temples, pulsating, ready to burst through his skin at any moment.
At this moment, Ronan felt as if his brain had been forcibly stuffed with an overwhelming amount of information and knowledge, and it was still being poured in relentlessly.
This immense stream of information seemed to contain an ancient and complete legacy, but the legacy was still being transmitted, and he could only decipher a small portion of it.
"Spirit... Heart..."
Ronan took a deep breath, enduring the splitting pain in his swollen brain, and slowly stood up from the grass.
The surrounding environment was filled with a dense concentration of free energy particles, indicating that he had already left the Realm of Spirits. Ronan examined himself—the blue spiral within him remained intact, but the vitality orb was dim, almost completely drained, emitting only a small amount of life energy that slowly repaired the physical damage.
The [Ancient Mara Body] had elevated the strength of Ronan's [Immaculate Body] to another level, but the consumption of life energy was also immense.
Ronan took out healing potions from his space ring, drinking them one after another.
As his condition gradually improved, Ronan's brain regained its ability to think.
"How long was I unconscious?"
The last thing Ronan remembered before losing consciousness was being enveloped by a light membrane released by a golden ladybug and being transported away.
He wasn't sure how long this process had taken, but he knew that when he left, Evaque was still inside.
Ronan's eyes flickered a few times, and then his mental power spread out. Soon, he determined a direction and quickly moved in that direction.
But before he could take more than a few steps, a strange sensation came from his brow.
Ronan suddenly felt the endless stream of knowledge being poured into his brain come to a halt.
Immediately after, a beautiful golden ladybug, the size of a fingernail, flew out from his brow. It fluttered its translucent wings and hovered quietly in front of him.
The glow emitted by the golden ladybug cast a serene and hazy light over the surrounding forest.
Ronan stopped in his tracks, staring intently at the ladybug before him. After a moment, he calmly uttered a name: "Alazan Dillinfaskola Carkinston."
He clearly remembered the furious roar of the dark silver tailless dragon, which had repeatedly cursed this name.
As he spoke, the golden ladybug's wings fluttered slightly, and a stream of information flooded into Ronan's mind.
"The betrayer of the Gorini Dragon Wizard, once the guardian of the Hall of Spirits..."
Ronan frowned, silently reciting the fragmented information conveyed by the golden ladybug. His eyes flickered, and then he looked up. "I understand.
But now I need to confirm something... My friend is still in danger."
He tried to bypass the golden ladybug to find the entrance to the Realm of Spirits that Evaque had led him into.
The golden ladybug made no move to stop him, but a scene suddenly appeared in Ronan's mind.
—The scene depicted the fifth level of the Realm of Spirits, the stone statue plaza.
Ronan immediately spotted Evaque in the image.
He was pale, tightly leaning against the stone statue of the Wolf Witch Head.
A white beam of light descended from the top of the Wolf Witch Head's statue, firmly protecting Evaque within it. Despite the dark silver tailless dragon, whom the golden ladybug referred to as Gorini, frantically biting and roaring outside, it couldn't break through the defense of the white beam.
"Ah, Evaque passed the Wolf Witch Head's trial and received its legacy. It's only natural that he would be protected... I was worried for nothing."
Ronan felt slightly relieved, but the next moment, he saw the tailless dragon suddenly abandon its attack on the white beam and instead raise its head, roaring at the remaining seven stone statues in the plaza.
It seemed to be loudly proclaiming something.
Ronan frowned, and in the next instant, his pupils constricted.
He saw the white beam from the Wolf Witch Head's statue suddenly retract. Before Evaque could react, the tailless dragon spat out a milky white orb and then lunged at Evaque.
Caught off guard, the massive dragon's shadow pounced on Evaque, instantly transforming into countless viscous black liquids that desperately seeped into his mouth, nose, and pores.
Ronan's hands, hanging at his sides, clenched tightly. Then he saw the milky white orb that the tailless dragon had spat out split into six in mid-air, flying toward the six stone statues other than the Dragon Witch Head, Bahafus... The scene abruptly ended and disappeared.
"Haah—"
In the silent forest, Ronan stood quietly. After several deep breaths, he regained his composure.
"So, it made some kind of deal with them... Evaque, sacrificed by the spirit of the Witch Head he most revered and admired?"
The golden ladybug hovered silently, offering no response.
Ronan remained silent for a while, then spoke in a low voice, "Then, tell me... where should I go now?"
The golden ladybug flew toward Ronan and re-entered his brow. All the surrounding light retracted, as if nothing had happened.
"Realm of Spirits... Witch Head... Tailless Dragon Gorini..."
Ronan muttered these words under his breath. After a moment, he turned and ran in the opposite direction.
"Crack, crack—"
In the swamp filled with black liquid, the water level rapidly dropped, revealing a faceless black stone statue. In an instant, countless cracks appeared on the statue, and with a "bang," it exploded into countless fragments.
In the void where the statue had exploded, a pair of rough, dark hands gripped the edges of the spatial rift, slowly prying it open. The figure of Evaque, accompanied by incessant curses, squeezed out from the widened crack.
"...Only an idiot would think that person would come back!
He abandoned everyone long ago! Only a fool would believe he could find the answer, and only the biggest fool would think that after finding the answer, he would return to save everyone!!"
"A bunch of stubborn old fossils, your brains have long been corroded along with your bodies by the passage of time. Wisdom is gone, all that remains is the decayed silt!!"
"Evaque," his face twisted, stepped out of the spatial rift one step at a time.
His body was still strong and imposing, but his demeanor and aura seemed to have changed completely. There was an indescribable gloom and coldness in his expression, and the surrounding environment became eerie under his influence.
"Even Alazan, that old fox, has begun to fear extinction and is planning his escape. Back then, he was one of that person's most loyal followers..."
"Evaque's" face darkened as he thought about his "failure" in the Realm of Spirits, and his expression twisted with resentment.
If someone hadn't intervened at the last moment and snatched away the vessel he had long chosen, he wouldn't have had to mortgage a third of his soul just to barely obtain a body to move around in.
The quality of the body didn't matter; the key was that he was now bound to those foolish Witch Heads in the Realm of Spirits. If he couldn't find a way to "rescue" the others and leave, he would have to die along with them when the Hall of Spirits collapsed! "Cunning fox, shameless old bastard..."
"Evaque" cursed through gritted teeth for a while before finally calming down.
Regardless, he had finally escaped.
"First, try to recover my strength, and then..."
"Evaque's" eyes flashed with a cold light, "Find the vessel chosen by Alazan."
As the oldest and most mysterious of the twenty-four Witch Heads, Alazan had existed since the birth of the Spirit Wizards. He had even participated in the construction of the Hall of Spirits from the very beginning.
He knew more secrets than anyone else, and he had outlived more than a few Lords of Spirits.
Finding Alazan might provide a solution to all the troubles he was facing.
If this were the most glorious era of the Spirits, "Evaque" naturally wouldn't dare to directly challenge him. But now, the once most powerful and respected leader of the Witch Heads was nothing more than a pitiful creature struggling to survive under the threat of death.
"Perhaps I can even obtain the core legacy of that old bastard's system..."
"Evaque" seemed to think of a promising future, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly. His right fist slowly clenched, "Bahafus, one day, you too will bow your proud head before me... Heh heh..."
"Evaque" chuckled softly, raising his right hand. A destructive hurricane swept through the void, instantly flattening everything beneath and around him.
When the storm subsided, the patch of forest that had been forcibly erased no longer held any trace of "Evaque."
The seventh sunset after leaving the primeval forest.
"Boom!"
Ronan punched through the waist of a small hill, causing a cascade of rolling rocks. With a flash, he entered the temporarily opened cave.
He casually tossed out a few array disks, setting up simple protective rune arrays around himself and the cave entrance. Ronan took a deep breath, sat cross-legged in the damp interior of the cave, and quickly sank his consciousness into his mind.
After seven days, the endless stream of knowledge being poured into his brain had finally finished transmitting.
At this moment, within Ronan's consciousness space, ten diamond-like mental power crystals surrounded a black dandelion that bloomed quietly.
Not a single word or detail was missed in the content found on 69shu!
On the dandelion, a beautiful golden ladybug lay, its antennae occasionally twitching, appearing quite docile.
Ronan looked at the dandelion and the ladybug before him, some information silently rolling through his mind.
"Spirit Heart Amber!"
He silently uttered these four words.
The massive stream of knowledge that had been forcibly poured into his brain had ultimately formed an ancient legacy.
And it was a legacy related to soul cultivation.
This legacy was most likely a gift from the golden ladybug that had taken him out of the Realm of Spirits—the same one that the tailless dragon Gorini, who had tried to seize his body, had referred to as the Ancient Spirit Witch Head, "Alazan."
"Is this a legacy... or a trap?
Is this the bait you've thrown to me?"
Ronan tried to converse with the golden ladybug on the dandelion, but it naturally remained silent.
An ancient legacy originating from the Spirit Wizards, specializing in soul cultivation.
Ronan couldn't say he wasn't tempted.
But after his battle with Gorini and witnessing Evaque being ruthlessly sacrificed by the Wolf Witch Head he had trusted so much, he had many reservations.
He feared escaping the wolf's mouth only to fall into the tiger's jaws.
Perhaps sensing his hesitation, the golden ladybug on the black dandelion suddenly fluttered its wings, then separated a bit of golden light, quickly tracing faint ancient characters in Ronan's consciousness space.
"A contract?"
Ronan read the meaning behind the ancient characters and frowned.
"Is this your way of showing sincerity?"
Ronan thought for a moment but still refused.
"Unless you sign this one..."
Soul contracts were like contracts from his previous life—the final interpretation always lay with the party who drafted them.
He casually drafted a "master-servant" contract that was almost entirely in his favor and tossed it toward the golden ladybug, calmly saying, "You can choose not to accept it. I won't attempt to practice this legacy, and from now on, your existence will become a soul ailment I urgently need to resolve..."
"Buzz, buzz, buzz—"
The golden ladybug fluttered its wings in Ronan's consciousness space, conveying one after another obscure mental wave. It was clear that its emotions were not stable at the moment.
Ronan simply exited his consciousness space, letting it "calm down" on its own.
Inside the cave, Ronan gently twisted his space ring, and a message stone appeared in his hand.
It was the one Evaque had given him, though now, in the central region, this message stone had lost its intended function.
Ronan stared at the message stone in his hand for a long time, then silently crushed it into powder between his fingers, scattering it on the cave floor.
With his body now occupied by the soul of an ancient evil dragon, Evaque had most likely completely disappeared from this world. Ronan couldn't describe the complex emotions he felt at this moment.
He had witnessed a devout believer gradually bury himself in the faith he had so fervently pursued.
He felt sorrow for Evaque.
"The so-called sacred hall where the Spirits reside is nothing more than a carefully woven lie by ambitious individuals."
Ronan couldn't help but mutter to himself, but an old voice suddenly echoed in his mind, replying.
"No.
It's just that time has made some people forget their original intentions."
"Who?!"
Ronan abruptly looked up, his expression alert as he scanned his surroundings.
In the next moment, a beautiful golden ladybug flew out from his chest, accompanied by a faint snort.
"Just signed the contract, and you've already forgotten about me?"
Ronan was stunned, only then realizing that the soul contract he had drafted had already been successfully established.
"...In the endless passage of time."
The golden ladybug hovered in front of Ronan's nose, and the old voice continued to echo in his mind.
"Countless wizards once knelt at my feet, offering everything in the hope of becoming my disciple..."
The voice grew angry.
"And you are the first... to make me sign a servant's contract before inheriting my legacy!!"
At this moment, Ronan could almost imagine an old man, once highly respected and renowned, standing at the pinnacle of the wizard hierarchy, stomping his staff and glaring at him with a beard bristling in anger.
"..."
Ronan couldn't help but fall silent.
He had drafted the master-servant contract under the assumption that the other party had ill intentions. But if the other party meant him no harm, then his actions... did seem a bit excessive.
It was like a dragon showing kindness to an ant, only to have to lower its head and kiss the ant's feet first. After a long while, Ronan cautiously tried to break the awkward silence.
"How should I address you?"
"Haven't you already figured it out?"
The old voice sounded somewhat weary. "You should really consider yourself lucky. Other than you, I truly have no other choice... Regarding the 'Spirit Heart Amber'..."
The voice seemed to want
to say more to Ronan, but as if it had exhausted its strength, the golden ladybug before Ronan quickly dimmed, then dragged its "weary" body, wobbling back into his body.
When Ronan returned to his consciousness space, he found the ladybug lying motionless on one of his mental power crystals, as if it had already "fallen asleep."
(End of Chapter)