si-mexico Chapter 585 Forward to the Red Kingdom
Chapter 585 Forward to the Red Kingdom
The roads in the ruins were winding and twisting, and sometimes Xu Ning even felt like he was going in circles. Fortunately, the cautious Jeberlele would make a special mark on the corner of the wall at each intersection.
Xu Ning carefully examined the markings and was only relieved to confirm that he and his companions were always on a unique path.
What's even more annoying is that there's a door for almost every two or three rooms, and where there's a door, there's always one or two structures hidden there. I wonder what the people who designed and built this place were guarding against a long time ago.
But the most interesting one is Jiede's new friend, Benben.
Ever since Xu Ning threatened the little thing with the four elements, it has been keeping its distance from Xu Ning like a kicked puppy.
However, every time Xu Ning took out the stone slab and went forward to open the door, Benben would seem to want to rub against him and move closer.
When Xu Ning discovered Benben's behavior for the third time, he simply handed the stone slab in his hand to Benben.
"You want this to play with stickers?"
Benben visibly flinched at Xu Ning's hand, but slowly mustered his courage and, like a puppy tentatively sticking out its nose, gently touched a sharp edge to the stone slab before quickly running back to Jade's side.
With this touch, one of the symbols engraved on the stone slab suddenly emitted a sapphire-like light.
"Wow, it's lit up! Benben is awesome!"
If Benben had hands, Jade probably could have pulled it around in circles a few times. Even so, she gently patted Benben a few times to encourage it.
Xu Ning took the stone slab back, shook his head and laughed. He didn't recognize the characters from the Crimson King's era, so even if it lit up, he wouldn't know what it meant!
Turning to glance at Tirzad behind him, the scholar cleared his throat and said, "The most important thing in scholarship is rigor. Without sufficient supporting documentation, I cannot draw any conclusions..."
"Alright, alright, I know you don't know him either."
As Xu Ning touched the rune with his finger, a line of words suddenly appeared in his mind.
"From here forward lies the land of the Red King. Follow his guidance, open the path with your power, and remember what you see along the way."
"What's wrong?" Belial suddenly asked.
Xu Ning knew that when she perceived that sentence, her expression must have changed, and she noticed it.
He handed the red sandstone tablet to Belial, saying, "Touch that rune with your hand."
Belial extended a slender, jade-like finger and traced it over the glowing runes, then shook his head slightly. "I didn't sense anything."
Xu Ning was genuinely surprised.
Only you can perceive it?
Xu Ning touched the rune again, and the sentence was clearly reflected in his mind.
"Kong, why don't you give it a try?"
Even Jeberlele, who had been dragged along by Jade, tried to decipher the inscriptions on the stone tablet, but none of them could perceive any writing.
"Xu Ning, are you sure you're not hallucinating because you drank too much?"
Jade looked at Xu Ning's wine gourd with suspicion, after all, from the first moment she saw him, this guy seemed to have never stopped drinking.
Xu Ning gave a wry smile, "How could that be? I'm perfectly sober, okay?"
Xu Ning shared the line of text he had learned with everyone.
Tirzad pondered, “Before the pit appeared, this place was called the ‘Path of Sacrifice.’ As for whether it originally meant ‘the Red King sacrificed himself to preach to the people,’ or ‘the people must sacrifice themselves to enter the Red King’s path,’ there is still no conclusion. However, the statement that we have entered the Red King’s territory since we entered this ruin is correct according to the ancient geographical distribution.”
Belial asked, "That sentence mentioned opening pathways with power. We were able to open pathways almost entirely thanks to the power of this stone tablet. Does that mean that this stone tablet represents some kind of power? Now a symbol is lit up on the stone tablet. Does that mean it now possesses a level one power?"
Xu Ning looked at the stone slab and nodded. "Based on the current situation, that is indeed the case. If we take this place as the starting point, then the deeper we go into the Crimson King's Tomb, the more power we may gain, and the secrets of the entire Crimson King's Tomb should gradually be revealed to us."
Jade slapped Tirzad hard on the back, almost knocking him to the ground.
"Look, isn't this fantastic news? The entire secret of the Crimson King! That's enough for you to write countless papers. And Benben, I can let you write about that too."
When Tirzad heard Jade say that, he couldn't help but feel a little happy.
However, she quickly became worried again, "I can't be too happy yet. After all, I've never been involved in this kind of research before, and I don't know if there are any relevant documents. Maybe someone has already done the research..."
Xu Ning reached out and patted Tirzad on the shoulder, "Don't be discouraged, it's not a big deal that someone else wrote it first, Brother Tirzad..."
“This is serious. And I’m not Brother Ti, I’m Tirzad…”
"In my hometown, we call it the same thing. Oh, by the way, speaking of my hometown, there was also a scholar there who made a living by writing. He saw that other people's writing was very popular, and he thought that if he wrote something similar, it would definitely become a hit..."
Tirzad asked earnestly, full of hope, "So what happened to him? Did he really become famous?"
"In the end, it was just a little bit short. I was on the verge of starvation when my neighbor accidentally found me. Otherwise, I could have been cremated..."
Tirzad turned his head away with a dark face. "Sorry, Gantt doesn't get the essence of your neither encouraging nor ominous joke. This guy isn't here to comfort me."
Seeing that this guy didn't understand the joke, Xu Ning smiled and sincerely comforted him, "Let's go. I just felt a breath of fresh air coming in from ahead. The exit should be just ahead. With a little more effort, we can get out."
Upon hearing that they could leave, everyone, including Tirzad, was invigorated.
After two more right-angle turns and a downward sloping road, the hard stone pavement underfoot suddenly disappeared and turned into soft sand.
Paimon exclaimed with delight, "Outside it's all sandstorms, this must all be sand blown in. It looks like we're really close to getting out..."
However, the joy that everyone felt together suddenly turned into surprise after hearing a few bells.
"You...aren't you Nahtigar? What are you doing here?"
On this roughly east-west side, there was a pack animal caravan hired by Tirzad.
Bonifaz's partner, Nahtigar, was half-lying on the back of a pack animal, with another pack animal named "Seleus" following behind him, carrying all the luggage on his back.
"Ah, me? I was resting in that pit over there when I suddenly saw a door open up next to me. I thought you had found the way, so I brought Serius over."
Paimon wrinkled his little nose and said, "You're really carefree. Aren't you afraid it's a trap? How long did it take you to get here?"
Nakhtigar answered without hesitation, "About the time it takes for Serius to eat three carrots!"