Chapter 398: Chapter 398: Open the Door (Request for Monthly Tickets)
According to Li Yao’s knowledge, there were indeed traces of ancient gods within these ruins, though the situation was already quite advanced at the time.
Furthermore, as the ancient god in question had stirred up trouble elsewhere and been jointly defeated by the three factions, dying at a significant cost, it was merely a tentacle that had no bearing on the overall situation. The minor crisis here naturally disappeared with the death of the ancient god.
Of course, the three factions weren’t truly capable of killing an ancient god. They merely destroyed the god’s physical body and used the Titans’ seal to thoroughly trap the ancient god.
The ancient gods are the most cryptic group of deities.
There are multiple theories surrounding the ancient gods.
One of them is the Void Theory, which posits that ancient gods, like the Titans, are not fixed to any particular world nor do they belong to any specific pantheon.
They roam the void and like the Titans, they too aim to transform the world and perfect its laws.
However, their principles differ from those of the Titans. While the Titans lean more towards stability and order, ancient gods are inclined towards freedom and chaos.
The land of The Ancient God World was initially chaotic until the Titans first arrived and commenced the first round of transformation.
Due to entanglements elsewhere, the Titans’ initial transformation was incomplete.
Eventually, the ancient gods and the Elemental Lord showed up. The army of worm-men and faceless beings, created by the ancient gods, defeated the Elemental Army.
The Elemental Lords were then compelled to obey the will of the ancient gods.
Tens of thousands of years later, the Titans returned to discover that their creation had been reduced to unrecognizable devastation.
What followed was a great war between the Mountain Giants and Dragon Clans, created by the Titans, against the army of worm-men and faceless beings.
Ultimately, the Titans won, sealed off all the ancient gods, and then devised a blueprint, i.e., the Emerald Dream, permitting them to transform the continent into a vibrant world.
Another theory posits that the ancient gods are the primitive creatures born from this world, eventually attaining godhood.
They represent the will and essence of this world and are inseparable from it. Thus, the Titans cannot kill them, only seal them.
Regardless of the legend, ancient gods are existences of absolute evil.
All traces of ancient gods will inevitably provoke the joint crusade of the three factions.
Li Yao’s goal was to open this portal and find evidence of the ancient god breaking through the seal to reveal itself within these ruins. This way, after going back, he could certainly gain a hefty reward.
Although it is somewhat risky, when compared to what he could gain, it is worth it.
“Brother, how should we assist you?
By all means, explain clearly.”
Li Yao replied, “Ladies and gentlemen, rest assured. I have got a certain mastery over unlocking this seal and won’t put you in any danger. Mainly, I wish to borrow the summoning capabilities of the new soldiers in your respective teams. I need time to unlock the seal. You all should understand that such a challenging lock will undoubtedly have something extraordinary inside. And, as one person alone cannot monopolize it, it’s going to be a pleasant deal if we share the winnings together once it’s opened.”
“He has a point, there must be a lot inside. It’d be impossible for one person to take it all, let’s cooperate with this brother.”
“No problem, we’ll stand by our word.”
Upon hearing that Li Yao only wanted the new recruits to summon their pets to cooperate, all the high-ranked players breathed a sigh of relief.
As long as they weren’t put into danger and the door could be opened, why would they hesitate to sacrifice others?
As for whether there would be enough rewards to divide after opening the door, that wasn’t something to worry about at the moment. Anyway, everyone would have to rely on their own methods then.
Once they understood, these high-ranked players instantly began behaving like old friends with Li Yao, maintaining a friendly or overly enthusiastic demeanor.
Li Yao pretended to reciprocate these gestures, which made Ephemeral Bloom and Little Cold Hands, who knew Li Yao’s true identity, speechless.
“The shift in the masters’ attitude is quite swift.” Little Cold Hands messaged Ephemeral Bloom privately: “But quite impressive, just now they were shouting and fighting, now they’re acting like old friends.”
Ephemeral Bloom had nothing to say. It’s difficult to explain to such a naive child and so he replied: “It’s actually not hard to do this, all you need to do is to be thick-skinned and shameless.”
“Is that so…” Little Cold Hands fell into infinite contemplation.
While Li Yao and the high-ranked players were talking gleefully, the players capable of summoning pets were chosen.
Most were summoners, magicians, or necromancers, with only few hunters.
“Very good.” Li Yao walked to the front of the door, sincerely saying, “My life isn’t worth much, it’s not a big deal if I die. But I need to remind you all. If you have any little schemes, I’d suggest you wait until I’ve opened the door, if anything goes wrong during the unlocking, we all fail and no one will get anything.”
“Rest assured, brother. We genuinely support you now. Whoever messes with you, messes with me,” exclaimed the high-ranked players, who couldn’t wait for Li Yao to open the door, as it was too weird.
Even if they knew how to unlock the door, they were unwilling to take the risk themselves.
Li Yao nodded and said, “Have your pets come up to me in turns to draw the black aura. Remember, the chain must never be broken, or else you will have to deal with the mission penalty when you return.”
Upon hearing about the mission penalty, all the selected players became serious.
Li Yao took a deep breath and adjusted the control panel.
“Start.” Li Yao began deciphering the riddles. The moment he saw the riddle, Li Yao’s face changed.
The text inside had shifted from Titan language to ancient God language. The Ancient God language, like the Titan language, is an extremely rare and tough to learn language, not just because they are just languages, but involve knowledge about spells and runes, so even if someone learns it, they wouldn’t teach others.
As a player challenging the realm of Gods, Li Yao had paid a huge price to learn Ancient God language.
As he deciphered the text, a surge of black aura rose from within.
“Quick,” he commanded.
The player-controlled pet hit the black aura, immediately being enveloped and corroded by the black aura, just like the old goblin before.
Meanwhile, Li Yao swiftly started unlocking the seal. The Ancient God couldn’t destroy the lock, but could alter the riddle. If Li Yao hadn’t been reborn, he would never have known so many secrets about the Ancient God, and wouldn’t have been able to unlock this enigma.
In this manner, Li Yao peacefully solved the riddle while players took turns allowing the black aura to corrode their pets.
Twenty minutes flew by quickly.
The high-ranking players were thrilled as well. This door had been troubling them for more than a day. In that period, several naive individuals had tried to unlock it but couldn’t persist even for ten minutes.
But this fellow had already persisted for over ten minutes. Despite the nodes turning black, they were still illuminated, indicating the task was nearing its completion.
“It’s open, the last one is also open,” a goblin shouted excitedly.
With the lighting up of the last node, cheering erupted from the crowd.
“New recruits, leave,” commanded a Goblin woman.
The player who was preparing to instruct his pet to approach the door momentarily froze as a surge of black aura maddeningly burrowed into Li Yao’s body.
The few players guarding Li Yao were taken aback while the high-ranked players turned a blind eye to everything with cold expressions on their faces…