Capture, Source of Destruction

Ronan's spiritual power radiated outwards, spreading like light throughout the entire Royal Treasury.

Beneath the blue desert, he discovered several enormous metal boxes, buried deep in the sand like coffins, and roots resembling those of some kind of plant, spreading like a net across the entire sea of sand.

There was no trace of the so-called "Clarity Snake".

"Ordinary methods cannot detect the existence of the Clarity Snake."

"The Clarity Snake' feeds on the thoughts of living beings; by releasing vibrant, impure thoughts, you can lure it out."

"But be careful, don't let them follow your thoughts and devour your mind. A hungry, Clarity Snake can eat a Dawn Wizard alive, leaving him as a soulless shell."

Alazan's voice echoed gently in my mind.

Ronan took a deep breath, maintaining his mental energy output, and tried to clear his mind of the jumbled thoughts. The sand rising from the sea gradually concealed his figure.

Serena frowned as she stared at the figure that was faintly visible in the blue dust.

Serena had entered and exited this royal treasury many times, and she knew exactly what was inside and where each item was located.

With just a flick of her finger, she could bring out everything, lay it out in front of her, and slowly examine and choose what she wanted. She didn't understand the purpose of the other person doing this.

"An arrogant, rude, and conceited fellow."

Serena's eyes flickered, and she stepped back.

The treasure trove buried deep beneath the blue sea of sand contains several items that, even if found, require special methods to retrieve, while others are hidden in extremely secret "secret compartments." Without her reminder, she eagerly awaited to see how the Golden Dawn before her could be found.

A gentle breeze blew past Serena, ruffling her long hair.

Serena felt a sudden, inexplicable chill run down her spine, and the hairs on her body practically stood on end.

"Who?!"

Serena turned around abruptly, but found nothing. She only saw horizontal ripples in the void, as if something huge and invisible was silently drifting by.

Serena frowned; she had never encountered anything like this before when she entered this secret vault.

"Your Tirions Tyrion!"

Serena called out and looked in Ronan's direction.

They were shocked to discover that the figure that had been silently suspended among countless blue sandstorms had vanished without a trace.

In the empty and silent Royal Treasury, it seemed as if only Serena remained, and a faint sense of oppression and eeriness gradually arose in the atmosphere.

Serena pursed her lips, golden runes flashing in her pupils, and countless rays of light burst forth from her body, transforming into magnificent armor that covered her entire body.

A magnificent golden longbow appeared, Serena placed her hands on the bowstring, feeling a slight sense of security.

Just then.

"Whoosh—", something flashed past, causing a ripple, and that inexplicable sense of dread returned.

Serena instantly drew her bow to its fullest extent, her right arm muscles taut in a near-perfect, fluid curve. She released her fingertips, and the tangible arrow shot out, rapidly splitting into countless smaller arrows the instant it was released.

A dense barrage of light arrows rained down on a rippling void. Amidst the rapid, shattering sound of crystal, Serena heard a strange, long, mournful cry that seemed to come from an extremely distant place.

Immediately afterwards, a huge body appeared.

Snake!

A semi-transparent black serpent with a body over ten meters thick was lurking almost in front of Serena.

The eerie snake-like body, covered in patterns resembling brain tissue, coiled around Serena's location, making it as solid as an iron barrel.

It seemed enraged by the arrow Serena had just fired, and a ferocious serpent head the size of a mountain drooped down.

The eerie snake had no eyes, and its lips and jaws opened like flower petals, from which dense black whiskers extended, lunging straight at Serena to bite.

"Buzz—"

Serena felt a chill run down her spine and instinctively raised the golden bow in her hand.

But before she could draw the bowstring, countless black whiskers protruding from the mouth of the eerie giant snake plunged into the void above Serena's head.

"Gurgle—"

A strange sucking sound was heard.

Serena's movements suddenly stopped, her pupils dilated, and even the Life Armor on her body showed signs of faintly collapsing.

Serena stared blankly at the gaping maw of the black snake as it tore at her, feeling as if all the decisions and thoughts that had been racing through her mind had been inexplicably emptied.

For a moment, she didn't even know what she was doing or what she should do next.

Serena could only watch helplessly as the giant serpent's mouth descended rapidly, about to swallow her whole, when suddenly an indescribable, immense spiritual power descended.

It was as if a blazing, powerful golden sun had suddenly appeared, radiating boundless light and heat, instantly dispelling all the gloom and strangeness in the void.

Serena's bewildered eyes reflected a tall, slender figure clad in a platinum robe, who landed lightly on the head of the black giant serpent.

The immense spiritual power firmly suppressed the giant serpent's body, and countless rune-shaped streams of light surged from under its palms, tightly binding the entire giant serpent.

"Clang—"

The clear, resonant sound of a golden blade being drawn was followed by a flash of cold magic. A cross-shaped gash appeared on the top of the giant serpent's head, from which streams of nearly transparent, pale blue viscous liquid flowed out. Ronan took out a container he had prepared beforehand and caught all of the viscous liquid without leaving a trace.

When the last bit of pale blue mucus had drained away, the enormous black serpent became completely still, floating lifelessly in the void as if it were an inflatable balloon.

Its already nearly transparent body became even more ethereal, and the snake-like patterns on its body, resembling brains, faded away rapidly.

"Is he really going to die like this?"

Ronan gently shook the container in his hand, which resembled a long-necked vase. The sound of liquid sloshing inside could be heard; it was probably only about half full.

The venom of the Clarity Snake is also its brain fluid, which is stored in its brain.

"Won't."

Alazan his head. "It's just entered a short period of dormancy. After absorbing a certain amount of thoughts, it will wake up again. As long as you can provide enough resources, this Clarity Snake will be enough for you for a long time."

"I never expected the so-called 'Clarity Snake' to be so enormous..."

Ronan sighed softly.

He had originally thought that the Clarity Snake was the same size as ordinary snakes, agile and difficult to catch, but he did not expect that the opposite was true.

"This is still considered small; you haven't seen a truly enormous, Clarity Snake."

Alazan paused for a moment, then continued, "That will absolutely shatter your expectations."

Ronan couldn't help but recall an earlier experience of "Reincarnation into Dream," in a world ruled by the "Deep Drowning Church," where he had seen an Ouroboros Black Snake that could entwine the entire world.

It looks somewhat like Clarity Snake, and it's unclear whether there's any connection between the two.

"You can keep it in your personal space. The characteristics of the Clarity Snake' allow it to provide excellent alertness; it can detect any malicious entity that approaches the space immediately."

Alazan's suggestion was clearly a reference to Ronan's previous experience in the Mist Space, where he was caught completely off guard and had his base "stolen" by Hecalto.

Ronan nodded and casually put the dormant, Clarity Snake into the "Mirror of Emptiness".

He drained all the brain fluid from the Clarity Snake in one go. It would take some time before it woke up from its hibernation, and he could slowly figure out a way to tame it.

When the Mist Space expands in the future and the Saint Blood Tree has followers, the living creatures within the Mist Space will continuously provide it with food, so he won't have to worry about it at all.

Now that we have the Clarity Snake Venom, all that's left is to prepare the "Clarity Potion".

The Prophet Eve had not lied to him; everything went much more smoothly than Ronan had anticipated.

With a long-standing question finally resolved, Ronan was in a good mood. He turned his head and focused his attention on Serena, who was slowly recovering.

Perhaps because his will was too sharp and pure, and the distracting thoughts he released were too deliberate, the Clarity Snake was completely uninterested in him.

Serena, on the contrary, unintentionally became the perfect "bait".

In a way, Ronan should thank Serena. If he had entered this secret vault alone, he would have had to go through a lot more trouble to successfully lure out the Clarity Snake hiding in the void.

Serena's blank stare gradually faded, and when her dazed gaze refocused, she seemed to reconnect as if she had been powered off, and a sentence quickly slipped out of her mouth.

"What was that just now?!"

"Princess Highness should know better than I do."

Ronan replied calmly, "This is the Royal Treasury of your Alba Family."

"I had no idea that this treasure trove contained such a monster?!"

Serena gritted her teeth, her eyes fixed on Ronan, and whispered, "You knew all along, didn't you? You came here specifically for this?"

"You shouldn't look at me like that."

Ronan looked down at Serena and shook his head, saying, "If it weren't for me, you might be dead by now."

The first member of the Alba Royal Family to die in his own treasury.

"You clearly used me as bait to lure that snake out!"

"Is it possible that it thinks you're weaker and therefore a better target?"

"You!"

Serena's fair face flushed crimson instantly, and her full breasts heaved violently beneath her magnificent Platinum Armor.

The Life Armor emanating from her body shone brightly, and one could sense Serena's rapidly surging emotions.

Ronan met her gaze calmly, his deep blue eyes, visible beneath the mask bathed in the morning light, filled with a condescending indifference.

The heightened sensitivity gained from simultaneously practicing the [Primordial Star Meditation Technique] and the [Spirit Heart Amber] allowed Ronan to clearly perceive that Serena's volatile emotions were steadily building up, like a volcano about to erupt.

But gradually, the restless volcano subsided until it returned to complete calm.

"This woman."

Ronan narrowed his eyes slightly.

Ever since she met him, Serena had been enduring his various unreasonable demands and behaviors, and her resentment had been building up.

He thought Serena was about to finally snap, but to his surprise, she was able to continue to endure it.

Serena seems to have matured a lot since she was in the south.

Is power really that tempting to a person?

"Perhaps it's not just because of power."

Alazan suddenly responded, and a name flashed through Ronan's mind, but he remained silent.

"Is there anything else in this treasure trove that Your Majesty needs?"

Serena, now completely calm, spoke expressionlessly.

Ronan shook his head and said calmly, "Let's move on to the next one."

"Good."

Serena turned around and opened the exit to leave the treasure vault.

Ronan had achieved his goal for this trip, and whether he looked at the other four treasure troves or not was irrelevant to him.

But after all, it was the royal treasury of an empire, and since he was already there, Ronan had no reason to let it go.

Ronan had no expectations for the last four treasure vaults, but to his surprise, he found something useful when he entered the fifth one.

The fifth Royal Treasury secret realm is a nearly barren grassland.

The irregular patches of green and yellow grass are scattered across the plain like mottled scars.

Ronan landed on one of the grassy patches, parted the plastic-like grass to reveal dark red clay underneath with an indescribable smell.

It smelled like something rotting, mixed with a hint of sweet cake aroma.

Ronan gently placed his palm on it, and the dark red clay under the lawn immediately surged up, slowly "digging" a hole about the size of a palm.

As more clay was unearthed, it gradually piled up into a small mountain around Ronan, and the strange smell, a mixture of stench and sweetness, grew stronger and stronger.

Serena stood not far from Ronan, frowning as she watched him do his thing, but she didn't come up to stop him.

At some point, a stream of murky water gushed up from the cave, carrying a strange black egg the size of a regular egg. Some black liquid seemed to be flowing inside it. Ronan's eyes flashed, and he instinctively reached out to grab it, but Alazan in a low voice.

"Do not touch it directly with your body or with your mental energy. Do not put it in your personal space; store it in a separate Space Ring!"

Ronan thought for a moment, then swept his mental energy around, picked up a clump of dark red clay from the side, wrapped the black egg in it, and casually tossed it into a useless Space Ring.

Then he also put the murky spring water that surged up along with the black eggs, as well as the dark red clay that had just been dug up, into the ring.

After doing all this, he calmly stood up.

"Your Majesty seems to know more about the secrets within these Royal Treasury than I, a legitimate member of the Alba Family and owner of the treasury."

From afar came Serena's indifferent voice.

Ronan didn't tolerate her, giving her a dismissive glance and coldly asking, "Why do you think the Prophet needs my assistance?"

Do you really believe you are the prophesied new Alba King?

Serena froze, and soon she was speechless.

She silently led Ronan away. After they emerged from the last Royal Treasury, Serena left without a word, leading all the wizards of the Life Royal Court away swiftly.

Ronan ignored her; his focus was entirely on the strange black egg he had just unearthed under Alazan's guidance.

Before Serena and her party had gone far, he couldn't wait to ask Alazan about the origin of the strange black egg.

Alazan: "Source of Destruction."

A miraculous substance that could only be born from the destruction of a world.

Don't you still have a World Devouring Insect?

Now we can put it to use.