Valmont Descends!

"What is that?"

Ning Fengzhi glanced over casually, not paying it much attention at first. But the moment he recognized what it was, his eyes narrowed.

Why did it look so much like the half Talisman that kid Dai Shengyang had?

"Rongrong, is that a Talisman?" he asked in shock, staring at his daughter.

"Hahaha, that's right! This is a Talisman. It can unleash the power of flames!" Ning Rongrong said with a hearty laugh, describing it in vivid detail.

"It looks like Rongrong's already used it." Sword Douluo happily stroked his beard.

They were glad that Rongrong had been so lucky.

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

Ning Rongrong couldn't wait to demonstrate it for her father. She looked around and spotted the stone statue in the hall, then aimed right at it.

"Wait, Rongrong! Don't!" Ning Fengzhi realized something was wrong and hurried to his feet to stop her, but it was already too late.

Boom—

A massive blast of Explosive Dragon Flame swallowed the stone statue.

The three of them stood there dumbfounded while Ning Rongrong smiled proudly. You'll see how powerful the Talisman is in just a moment.

As the smoke cleared, a huge hole had been blasted through the hall. The mysterious stone statue had been smashed to bits.

"Hahaha! Isn't this Talisman amazing?" Ning Rongrong said excitedly, hands on her hips as she waited for her father's praise.

"This... this!" Ning Fengzhi stared at the fragments on the ground in shock. They were nothing but ordinary pieces of stone.

How could this have happened? He couldn't believe it.

Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo were also utterly astonished. The mysterious stone statue they'd been studying for days had turned out to be nothing but ordinary stone? Hadn't they been told there was a person inside?

Had they been fooled? But the demons were real.

Ning Fengzhi clenched his fists, his face frighteningly grim.

He couldn't believe that the hope he'd placed in it had led to this.

Elsewhere, Shendu sensed that his stone statue had been destroyed and was somewhat surprised. But he didn't think much of it.

After all, he'd never said that this statue was the real one. He could just make another stone statue somewhere else.

Or perhaps Ning Xiaoyao had made nine fake statues to conceal the real one. He was already well practiced at that sort of thing. It was no big deal.

Back in the meeting hall, Ning Fengzhi sat down, trembling.

"Dad, are you okay?"

Ning Rongrong hurried over and took his hand, worried.

"I'm fine, Rongrong," Ning Fengzhi replied, forcing a smile.

But the fragments on the ground still made him close his eyes, unable to accept what he was seeing.

Valmont was just an ordinary stone statue? Was there even a real stone statue? Was the diary Ning Xiaoyao left behind true or false?

Where was the real stone statue?

Or was there no real stone statue at all?

He didn't know. Everything was too bewildering. He was like a moth in the dead of night, with no idea where to fly.

"Rongrong, Uncle Jian, Uncle Gu, please go outside first. I'd like to be alone for a while."

"Dad." Ning Rongrong hugged him, worried.

Chen Xin sighed. "Sigh, all right. Fengzhi, don't dwell on it too much. Resisting the demons isn't our family's burden alone. To be blunt, we don't have to be the saviors. Someone else can take on that role."

"Exactly!" Gu Rong agreed.

Ning Fengzhi slowly nodded.

Seeing this, Chen Xin had nothing more to say. He could only lead Rongrong out.

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

"What's wrong, Rongrong?" Xiao Wu asked, hugging her tenderly to comfort her.

"I don't know. I just used the Talisman I found to break one of Dad's stone statues, but he got really upset."

Ning Rongrong spoke through her tears. Her sorrowful appearance filled everyone with sympathy.

But Tang San and Yu Xiaogang, standing nearby, lit up.

A Talisman!

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

That night, in the secret chamber, Ning Fengzhi stared gravely at the stone statue he'd put back together.

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

He clenched his fists, turning the question over and over in his mind.

Judging by the course of Ning Xiaoyao's ancestor's life, the statue before him was the only one that fit Valmont's identity. He'd searched every inch of the place. There couldn't possibly be another statue.

But this was clearly just an ordinary stone carving!

Could it be that Valmont had died completely on the day he turned to stone? Then why did he say he could be revived?

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

It was utterly absurd. How could someone who'd turned to stone ever come back to life?

It wasn't as if another person with the same name would show up and claim to be Valmont!

As the words crossed his mind, a clap of thunder seemed to ring out in his head. His face changed in an instant.

What if the Valmont who came back to life wasn't the same person as the Valmont from the past?

I think I've forgotten something. Valmont only wanted to obtain the demons' power; he hadn't actually gotten it yet.

In other words, Valmont was just an ordinary person. He died on the day he was petrified!

And according to the records, the demons had existed for an extremely long time, in an age so ancient it was lost to history. Yet their story had still been passed down to the present.

That meant there must have been many people like Valmont who recorded what happened in ancient times, allowing the story to survive.

Perhaps there had been a Valmont who also tried to revive the Eight Demons, but failed.

Then someone else discovered his account and learned the secrets of the ancient past. Before dying, that person sealed the knowledge away, waiting for the next heir to uncover the secret.

Every time one Valmont died, another took up the pen and continued recording the secrets of the ancient past, carrying them forward from antiquity to the present day.

That meant... Ning Fengzhi's heart pounded with nerves. Valmont wasn't the name of the stone statue. It was the name of the person who discovered it. That person was—me.

"I'm Valmont?" Ning Fengzhi's pupils contracted.