Underground in King's Campus, deep within the ruins.
At the stairwell connecting the fifth and sixth floors of the ruins, Claudius stood upon it, closing his mouth, ending the expulsion of poison gas, and then silently looked downwards, gazing at the purplish-red mist that nearly filled the entire lower corridor.
"At this level, no one should be able to survive..."
Gazing at the churning purplish-red poison mist below, Claudius muttered with his hands clasped behind his back.
As Ci Rong's superior, Claudius naturally knew the structure of this underground ruin. He understood that this ruin only had six floors, and the sixth floor was very small, just a long corridor with a sealed room at the end. Apart from the way in, that room had no other exits; it was the end of the entire ruin.
Therefore, Claudius clearly knew that when the group of invaders was sealed off on the opposite side of the ruins, they had nowhere to escape. Claudius could even ignore them and let them die of thirst or starvation inside. However, to ensure their death and prevent them from struggling for survival, Claudius chose to release poison gas.
Now, Claudius was certain that the poison gas he had created by expending a considerable amount of Spirituality had filled the entire sixth floor. Under this concentration of poison gas, the opponents could not possibly escape.
"Hmph... I really want to see... the final death throes of that Extraordinary who could use the Voice of Tyranny, slowly dying in despair within a sealed space. That final expression must have been spectacular, what a pity..."
Claudius said with a cold snort, then he turned around, enveloped himself in a wave of Shadow, transformed into a bat, and flew into the distance.
The invading enemies have been dealt with. Now he needs to go back and oversee the reconstruction of the stronghold. The Eight Point Nest is not ready to give up here yet.
...
Within the dark corridor, Dorothy advanced slowly under the illumination of her Corpse Puppet's Light. After passing through that strange wall, she arrived in the new space hidden within these ruins.
Suddenly discovering a secret passage at the end of the road, while it might seem like Dorothy stumbled upon great luck, in fact, Dorothy was not surprised by this in her heart. She had already anticipated such a situation.
According to Beverly, the ruins of this Xing Shu Xiu Shu Hui (Star Numerology Scripture Society) have been plundered by multiple societies in turn. Logically speaking, there should be nothing left at all.
Beverly knew the condition of the ruins, and Aldrich must have known too, but he still recommended Dorothy to come here. This proves that in the eyes of an Extraordinary as sincere and almost Golden qualified as Aldrich, Dorothy would definitely gain something by coming to these empty ruins.
And what situation could allow Dorothy to find something in ruins that have been searched countless times? Naturally, within the ruins of this 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment) society, there might be something that only 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment) Extraordinary can access.
Aldrich had also been to these ruins. As an auxiliary 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment) Extraordinary, he must have sensed something hidden but couldn't access it, which is why he let Dorothy, a primary 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment) Extraordinary, give it a try.
And this is why Dorothy chose to risk exploring the ruins herself this time instead of remotely controlling her Corpse Puppet, because she had to personally explore the ruins to find the secrets that perhaps only a 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment) Extraordinary could find.
Therefore, Dorothy was not surprised by the secret passage, but rather complained a bit that she had searched for so long and only found the secret passage at the very end.
"Hoo... Anyway, I've finally arrived. I hope there's a way out of here..."
Muttering this, Dorothy continued to walk forward. After a short while, she finally finished walking through the corridor and arrived in a room.
Dorothy had the Corpse Puppet hold the Light and begin illuminating the surroundings. The scene before her gradually appeared, and then she slightly frowned.
What appeared before Dorothy was an incredibly messy circular room. There were broken and collapsed pillars, shattered statues, and the ground was covered with various severely corroded metal objects. In the center of the circular room, a complex magic circle was carved. At the center of the magic circle was a """enlightenment""" symbol, and surrounding the """enlightenment""" symbol were symbols of five other types of Spirituality, just one size smaller.
Around the magic circle was a pile of scattered Stone. Among these scattered Stone, scattered human bones could be seen, and not just one set. Many of the bones showed severe fractures, some were directly fatal fractures, and some bones were directly shattered everywhere, showing how tragic the deaths were back then. Some of the bones didn't look human, but rather like some kind of animal bones.
Clearly, this place seemed to have undergone a bloody and brutal battle, and the result of the battle was the scene before her.
If the outer ruins gave Dorothy the feeling of being visited by thieves countless times, with even the plaster scraped off and nothing left, then this place had suffered a malicious robbery where everyone was killed.
'Holy crap, what happened here? People died all over the place... Could it be that everything here has been taken too...'
Looking at the scene before her, Dorothy's heart tightened, worried that the secret room she had finally found wouldn't be empty again. Then she began to carefully search the surroundings, activating her Spirituality vision to see if there was anything valuable.
After searching around, Dorothy found almost nothing. This place seemed to have been looted as well, with useful things taken away. Only at the last moment, in a gap within a pile of rubble, did she use her Spirituality vision to see tiny points of Spirituality light, and it was the purple color belonging to the """enlightenment""" Spirituality.
Dorothy walked over, pushed the Stone aside, and took out a dust-covered quill pen from within. This Spirituality trace was emitted by it.
'This is... an Extraordinary item! And it's an Extraordinary item of 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment)... Hoo... Thank goodness, at least something is left.'
Dorothy thought thankfully, then she immediately dusted off the quill pen, and then consumed 1 point of Light to appraise this quill pen.
...
"Common Sense Text Auxiliary Writing Quill"
This pen can assist those unfamiliar with Common Sense Text grammar in writing Common Sense Text. After injecting a small amount of 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment), the content written by this pen will transform into Common Sense Text. Anyone who sees Common Sense Text will understand its meaning, regardless of whether the viewer and the writer share a common language.
In the viewer's eyes, Common Sense Text will subconsciously be converted in their mind into the language they are most familiar with and use most recently.
When writing Common Sense Text, it can be conditionally encrypted, specifying that only people who meet certain conditions can see it, and those who do not meet the conditions cannot see it.
...
'Common Sense Text... an Extraordinary script that anyone can understand... Could it be that those strange carvings on the wall outside that could disappear and reappear were Common Sense Text? It was converted into Prit language, which I use frequently and can understand. The Common Sense Text on the wall at that time likely had the condition set that non-'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment) Extraordinary could not see it.'
After understanding the function of this quill pen, Dorothy continued to think this way, and the more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed.
'It seems the Xing Shu Xiu Shu Hui (Star Numerology Scripture Society) was using Common Sense Text to record things. In that case, I can look for other places with those strange carvings.'
Thinking this, after putting away the quill pen, Dorothy continued searching inside the secret room. After a short while, she saw a hanging Stone tablet on the wall. The Stone tablet had messy carvings on it. These carvings were somewhat similar to the ones Dorothy had seen at the entrance to the secret room earlier; they seemed to be Common Sense Text.
Seeing these carvings, Dorothy's expression became focused, and she carefully looked at the carvings on the Stone tablet. Then these carvings suddenly moved, beginning to twist like snakes, reforming and taking shape on the Stone tablet, turning into the Prit text she recognized in Dorothy's eyes.
What was written on it was "Hall of Ascension"
'Hall of Ascension? Is that the name of this room? Listening to the name... it feels like it's a place specifically used by the Xing Shu Xiu Shu Hui (Star Numerology Scripture Society) to hold advancement rituals... It seems the divination was correct, there is indeed a method here that can allow me to advance.'
Dorothy thought this, and looking at the Stone tablet before her, Dorothy felt a surge of excitement, then continued to search the entire room for Common Sense Text.
Finally, before the magic circle in the center of the room, Dorothy discovered a Stone monument. On the Stone monument, there was a large pile of messy carvings. The style of these carvings was very similar to Common Sense Text.
Coming before the Stone monument, Dorothy bent down and stared carefully at the Stone tablet, and the carvings on it also changed in Dorothy's eyes, becoming Prit text covering the entire Stone monument.
...
"Pursue Truth, Gaze Upon the Stars"
"The time for Ascension has arrived, Apprentice, choose the ladder you will step upon carefully."
"Receive """enlightenment""" with the cup, the path of spirits silk, Puppeteer."
"Receive """enlightenment""" with the Stone, the path of furious roars, Thunder Technique User."
"Receive """enlightenment""" with the Shadow, the path of bewildered hearts, Dream Interpreter."
"Receive """enlightenment""" with the Light, the path of foresight, Diviner."
"Offer your body to """enlightenment""", the path of pure reason, Erudite."