Ashes of Doomsday

In fact, no matter how you look at it, this thing doesn't seem like something that should exist in the War of the Gods.

Its attribute descriptions alone are completely out of place.

I wonder if the stats of this equipment will be discounted when converted to the current game. If they aren't discounted, that would be truly overpowered.

But no matter how overpowered it is, it's useless. This thing requires level 42 to equip, which is simply impossible in this game.

However, no matter how unusable it is, we still have to take what we should take and distribute what we should distribute.

The two sides split the spoils into five, with each side taking four pieces of equipment. As for how to distribute them, everyone naturally went back and divided them among themselves.

After dealing with these Dragonspawn, the group continued their journey.

After passing through the hall and opening the stone door opposite, we walked along the passage for a short distance before encountering another fork in the road.

This time it's much simpler; just follow the blue trail left by the Insight.

They continued forward, and after walking for a while, they entered the second hall.

Clearly, this underground ruin contains many such halls, which were likely prepared specifically to deter explorers.

The hall was empty and devoid of statues, appearing completely bare. However, as soon as the group entered, they immediately sensed something was amiss.

With a snap, Xiao Yu felt as if he had stepped on something, something that looked like a tree branch.

Looking down, beneath the thin mist, countless white bones were revealed, the entire floor of the hall was made of skulls.

A scream of "Ah!" startled everyone.

"What's wrong?" Xiao Yu asked irritably.

"There are skulls everywhere below, it's so scary," a female skeleton archer next to Xiao Yu said nervously.

Xiao Yu was speechless upon hearing this.

"Damn it, you're a skeleton yourself, what are you so afraid of?"

Suddenly, a hand reached out from beneath the ground and grabbed Xiao Yu's ankle.

Damn, Xiao Yu was startled too. He kicked hard, and the hand flew out. It was a skeletal arm, and after landing, it actually grabbed the ground and started moving.

In fact, it wasn't just the arm that was moving; all the bones underfoot seemed to come alive, starting to move and even combining with each other to form skeletons that rose from the ground.

Some skeletons were assembled in a poorly coordinated way, resulting in many monsters with three legs or four arms.

Moreover, those bones did not seem to be just human bones, but also the bones of many unknown creatures. Some were unusually large, and some were covered with bone spikes and fangs. The resulting Undead monsters were also strangely ferocious.

"It's Undead!" Xiao Yu shouted. And it was clearly a hostile Undead, completely ignoring the objective fact that Xiao Yu and the others were also Undead, and pounced on them.

The two adventurers who were walking in front were almost instantly torn to pieces.

"Retreat! Retreat into the passage!" the Count of Earl of Monte Cristo shouted, and everyone retreated. Melee fighters were still in front, and ranged fighters were behind. However, compared to the previous battle against the Dragonspawn were impervious to swords, spears, and magic, this battle was much simpler. These Undead could be easily killed with the Let the Dead Return to Death.

The Exorcism can kill in large numbers; under the white light of the Exorcism, the Undead rise up in groups and fall down in droves.

Ironically, since Xiao Yu and the others are all Blasphemers, they can all use divine arts like the Let the Dead Return to Death. If a civil war were to break out, the outcome would probably be decided in no time.

After fighting for a full half hour, the group had almost exhausted their spell slots, and finally, no Undead rose to their feet.

In that single breath, he killed hundreds or even thousands of Undead, and more than one person leveled up during the process.

Xiao Yu glanced at his experience points; he was still a bit short of leveling up. There was nothing he could do; his level was the highest, so leveling up was naturally the hardest for him.

"My God, so many Undead! I wonder where they came from."

"I don't sense any negative energy here, so how come so many Undead have appeared?"

The crowd discussed amongst themselves, but Xiao Yu could guess why; these were clearly Undead monsters from the Sky World.

Keep going!

After the team regained its spell slots, it triggered again at Xiao Yu's command.

The group had figured out the style of this underground ruin: there was basically no danger in the passages, and they would only encounter enemies in the main hall.

Sure enough, the journey was smooth, and the group arrived at the third hall.

This time, however, they encountered a gigantic golem.

Even before entering the hall, from a distance, you can see a huge stone statue standing in the center of the hall, and in the grooves of the walls around the hall, there are many smaller stone statues.

Xiao Yu recognized the shapes of these stone statues; they were clearly demonic golems. They would be activated as soon as one got close.

The smaller ones are manageable, but this Big Build guy in front of us is a different story. Neither magic nor physical attacks will be easy to deal with.

However, magic can be quite wondrous at times, and after some discussion, the group came up with a solution.

Use Transmute Rock to Mud, apply it to the ground to create a mud pit, and then lure the golem onto the trap.

No matter how powerful the golem is, it will die once it gets stuck in the mud, after all, the golem is heavy and cumbersome.

Sure enough, the giant golem was easily dealt with; of course, since it was buried under the mud, it wouldn't fall.

As for the smaller golems, they weren't too difficult to deal with. Although they were tough, they were taken down one after another by attacks enhanced with Magic Weapon.

After passing through the hall, the group continued onward.

Ten minutes later, the group arrived at the fourth hall. This hall seemed somewhat special because it was unusually large, and unlike the previous halls which were clearly just transit rooms, this hall had no way out, suggesting that it was the lowest level of the ruins.

Moreover, the blue orb of light from the Insight stopped and disappeared in front of a huge wall at the far end of the hall.

Huh, what's going on?

Both Xiao Yu and the Earl of Monte Cristo were stunned by what they saw. Before them was a huge wall, hundreds of meters wide and tens of meters high, standing there in front of them.

Unlike the sights we'd seen along the way, this wall was remarkably smooth and well-preserved, with patterns still visible on it.

It is a mural engraved on the wall.

This mural appears to depict a story.

Because the murals in these kinds of games often contain hidden game information, the group began to carefully examine the murals.

The first illustration depicts a group of people in long robes sitting together, discussing something. This group seems to be a group of very learned people, each dressed in magnificent clothes and with solemn expressions. The artist seems to have intentionally blurred the faces of the people, but subtle differences can still be discerned.

The second image depicts people fighting against various monsters; it is so abstract that it is almost impossible to identify what kind of monsters they are.

However, it can be seen from the murals that these people possessed powerful magical abilities. These monsters were ferocious and terrifying, but they were completely powerless against the attacks of these mages.

The third image depicts a group of people in robes commanding monsters to fight against some celestial gods. At the feet of those gods, countless tiny figures prostrate themselves, as if worshipping the deities.

Among these monsters, there was one fleshy ball that was particularly eye-catching.

In the fourth image, the fleshy ball releases countless tiny, snake-like worms. The little people are burrowed into the bodies of these worms, and each of them is covered in tentacle-like things, and then they begin to attack the gods.

The fifth image depicts two robed figures who appear to have betrayed the others. These two rush into the temple, kneel at the feet of the god, seemingly pledging allegiance, and open a treasure chest from which many abstract symbols of evil and destruction fly out.

The world around us began to collapse and perish, and everything began to wither.

In the sixth image, three people in robes are being grabbed by a large hand in the darkness. One person in a robe disappears as a beam of light. The fourth person clearly has female characteristics.

Only three people remained in the entire conference hall, seemingly discussing something, while the world around them appeared to be crumbling.

In the last image, several people wearing pointed hats appear to be using some kind of magic to seal themselves away.

Xiao Yu was suddenly startled. Damn it, isn't this the story of the Council of Sages?

Those two the Betrayer were probably referring to himself and Medivh.

The three people captured by the Blackhand likely refer to Naiser, Shen Yuan, and Merlin.

The one that vanished in a beam of light must have been Lilith.

As for the last three people, it goes without saying who they are.

Kairoz, Ner'zhul, and Alodi —these three are probably sticking together for warmth, trying to use some kind of magic to protect themselves and survive the crisis of the quantum computer being formatted.

The last image depicts the Council of Sages using magic to avoid the game's destruction; whether they succeeded or not remains unknown.

But is that even possible? Can the game's code survive the formatting process?

Regardless of whether they survived or not, I need to confirm it. If they did survive, the impact on the entire game would be enormous, whether it's for good or bad.

Fortunately, I've changed my appearance, so the other person is unlikely to recognize me.

However, the reason why the Earl of Monte Cristo was able to identify these individuals is that he also knew them.

Could it be that the Earl of Monte Cristo was also a member of the Council of Sages? If so, who was he?

Naiser is highly unlikely; that guy messed up as Great Hero of Humanity and is now locked up.

Shen Yuan is unlikely to be the one. That old guy is a chuunibyou (a person with delusions of grandeur), and being an old man, his behavior and habits are hard to hide. Could it be Merlin?

But this guy's in prison now, and he can't go online. Just in case, I'll have Old Li check on them later to see if anything's changed.

The problem now is how to open up the stone wall in front of us.