Valmont Descends!

"What is it?"

Ning Fengzhi glanced casually, not paying much attention at first, but his eyes narrowed instantly upon seeing it clearly.

How could this be so similar to the half-talisman that kid Dai Shengyang had?

"Rongrong, is this a talisman?" he asked his daughter in shock.

"Hahaha, that's right, this is a talisman, a talisman that can spew out fiery power!" Ning Rongrong said with a laugh, describing it vividly.

"It seems Rongrong has already used it," Sword Douluo said happily, stroking his beard.

They were also glad that Rongrong had such good luck.

"Dad, I'll show you how powerful this talisman is."

Ning Rongrong couldn't wait to demonstrate to her father. She looked around and her eyes fell on the stone man in the hall. She then aimed directly at it.

"Wait, Rongrong! Don't!" Ning Fengzhi realized something was wrong and quickly got up to stop her, but it was too late.

Boom--

A massive Explosive Dragon Flame engulfed the stone man.

The three of them stood there dumbfounded, Ning Rongrong smiling proudly. Soon, you'll see how powerful the talisman is.

As the smoke and dust cleared, a large hole had been blasted through the hall, and the once mysterious stone man had been smashed to pieces.

"Hahaha! Isn't this talisman amazing!" Ning Rongrong said excitedly, hands on her hips, waiting for her father's praise.

"This, this!" Ning Fengzhi stared at the fragments on the ground in shock. They were completely ordinary stone fragments.

How could this be? He couldn't believe it.

Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo were also extremely surprised. The mysterious stone man they had studied for days was just ordinary stone? Weren't they told there was a person inside?

Had they been tricked? But the Demon was clearly real.

Ning Fengzhi clenched his fists, his face terrifyingly grim.

He couldn't believe that the hope he had placed his faith in had ended like this.

On the other side, Shendu also sensed that his stone man had been destroyed and was somewhat surprised. However, he didn't pay much attention.

After all, he never said that this stone man was the real stone man. He could just make another one elsewhere later.

Or perhaps Ning Xiaoyao had made nine fake stone men to conceal the real one. He was already very familiar with such tricks. It was a trivial matter.

Returning to the conference hall, Ning Fengzhi sat down, trembling.

"Dad, are you okay?"

Ning Rongrong stepped forward, holding his hand with concern.

"Dad's fine," Ning Fengzhi replied, forcing a smile.

But the fragments on the ground still made him close his eyes in disbelief.

Valmont was just an ordinary stone man? Then was there a real stone man or not? Were the diaries left by Ning Xiaoyao true or false?

Where was the real stone man?

Or perhaps, there was no real stone man at all?

He didn't know. Everything was too confusing. He was like a moth in the night, not knowing where to fly.

"Rongrong, Uncle Jian, Uncle Gu, you should go out first. I want to be alone for a while."

"Dad," Ning Rongrong hugged him worriedly.

Chen Xin sighed and said, "Ah, alright. Fengzhi, don't overthink it. Resisting the Demon isn't just our family's business. To put it bluntly, we don't have to be the saviors. Someone else will do it."

"Exactly!" Gu Rong agreed.

Ning Fengzhi slowly nodded.

Seeing this, Chen Xin didn't say much more and could only take Rongrong away.

At Shrek Academy, everyone was training when Ning Rongrong ran in crying.

"What's wrong, Rongrong?" Xiao Wu hugged her with concern.

"I don't know. I just used a talisman I found to break one of Dad's stone men, but Dad became very sad."

Ning Rongrong said while crying, her sad appearance evoking much sympathy from everyone.

However, Tang San and Yu Xiaogang, who were nearby, had their eyes light up.

Talisman!

They looked at the talisman in Ning Rongrong's hand, their minds racing.

That night, in the secret chamber, Ning Fengzhi looked at the stone man he had reassembled, his heart heavy.

Valmont, who exactly are you? Do you exist or not?

He clenched his fists, constantly pondering this question.

Based on the life trajectory of his ancestor Ning Xiaoyao, the stone man before him was the only one that fit Valmont's identity. He had dug three feet deep, and there was no possibility of a second stone man.

But this was clearly just an ordinary stone statue!

Could it be that Valmont had already died completely the day he turned into stone? Then why did he claim he could be resurrected?

Perhaps Valmont was just an ordinary person! Hahaha! Ning Fengzhi found it somewhat laughable.

It was utterly ridiculous; how could a person turned to stone possibly come back to life?

It was impossible for someone else with the same name to just show up and claim to be Valmont!

As these words fell, a thunderclap seemed to echo in his mind, and his face instantly filled with shock.

What if the resurrected Valmont and the Valmont of the past were not the same person?

I seem to have forgotten one thing: Valmont only wanted to obtain the power of the Eight Demons, but he had not yet succeeded.

In other words, Valmont was just an ordinary person, and he had already died the day he was petrified!

According to records, the time the Eight Demons existed should have been extremely distant, a past era too far back to be documented, yet their stories had still been passed down to this day.

This suggested that there were many people like Valmont who recorded the events of the ancient past, allowing them to be preserved.

Perhaps there was one such Valmont who had also tried to resurrect the Eight Demons but failed.

Then another person saw the predecessor's deeds, learned the ancient mysteries, and before dying, sealed away the knowledge for the next successor to uncover the secret.

After each Valmont died, another would take up the pen to continue writing the secrets of the ancient times, extending from the primordial era to the present.

In other words—Ning Fengzhi's heart hammered in his chest—Valmont was not the name of the Stone Man, but the name of the person who discovered the Stone Man, and that person was—me.

"Am I Valmont?" Ning Fengzhi's pupils shrank to pinpricks.