The Creators: From Night City

Page 279

But the demons had no one to collect their corpses.

A large number of petrified 'demon' corpses were piled up almost like a small mountain, scattered on both sides of the road. These corpses were either covered with arrows and giant crossbow bolts, or covered with marks from being hacked and chopped. Many of them were also torn to pieces, and the cause of death was unknown. Of course, the most eye-catching was a demon corpse pinned to a giant pillar by a giant crossbow bolt.

This was exactly the situation that the two of them, as Kacarus had described, could never have imagined.

This demon had a very peculiar appearance. It resembled a lizardman in general, but its head was shaped like an ancient dragon. It was extremely large, and its body was covered with dense, hard scales that had turned into rock. Although the surface of its corpse was covered with a kind of glowing, slender moss, it was still possible to see that its agile forepaws could easily grasp weapons like a human.

A rough, natural, and unrefined giant club was casually discarded not far from the corpse. Its material was neither stone nor iron, which successfully attracted Jiang Bing's attention.

This stick was seven or eight meters long and more than two meters thick, but compared to the demon's height of more than twenty meters, it was still only a nimble one-handed short stick.

Amidst the complicated gazes of the other two, Jiang Bing used both hands to lift the giant stick from the ground and moved it to an open space so that he could examine it more closely.

Kakarus strode over, stretched out her old leather boots with leg wraps, and kicked the rough-looking 'pillar' with all her might. However, she found that her strength was like an ant trying to shake a tree. The other party did not budge at all under her kicks and kicks, which made her very shocked.

This thing looked to weigh tens of tons, and she couldn't believe that someone could lift it so easily.

She could hardly imagine how earth-shattering the scene must have been when the dead demon wielded it in battle.

But even such a powerful being was still nailed to this giant pillar supporting the underground space. A thick, long, specially made crossbow bolt was deeply inserted into its chest. Judging from the angle, it didn't seem to have been shot by the crossbow. Instead, it seemed as if something had forcibly inserted it.

After all, the demon's hands were still tightly gripping the crossbow bolt, as if it were putting up a fierce resistance.

But it was clear that it had lost this life-or-death struggle.

In addition, its body was covered with wounds that were more than ten meters long, clearly inflicted by a huge, sharp blade.

A long time has passed, and its body has turned into rock, but its unclosed eyes, angry expression before death, and struggling posture still allow people to vaguely feel the ferocity of the battle back then.

In front of this enormous corpse was a small altar made of stones and scraps of cloth.

Although simple, the altar still shows signs of having been worshipped.

Around the altar were numerous corpses of subspecies of demons, about the size of a normal person, resembling goats but with curved horns on their heads.

Some of the corpses were kneeling, some were sitting on the ground with their heads down, and some were simply lying on their backs. However, most of the corpses, which were also as dry as rocks, had no wounds and were obviously dead from natural causes.

“They are Gollum, descendants of demons. They probably consider this place a sacred site, and they probably worship that demon as a god or ancestor,” Kakarus said, offering his guess.

"Isn't it incredible? Such a massive creature, yet it still died tragically here, nailed to the stone wall, for later generations to freely visit and ridicule." Kakarus, hands on her hips, introduced her discovery to the two newcomers with the air of a master of her own destiny, looking just like a tour guide from later generations.

"It's really hard to imagine what kind of being or monster it was that could defeat it." After explaining what he knew, the sorcerer also asked his own question.

She didn't expect an answer; it was just an involuntary sigh. Almost everyone who witnessed this scene would have the same question.

"Eom," Hawkwood suddenly spoke.

Carcharus turned around abruptly and looked at the man who had been frowning the whole way.

She didn't expect that the other party knew the answer.

Chapter 546 Demon Ruins

“Yorm the Giant King, a descendant of the ancient conquerors.” Hawkwood stared blankly at the giant demon corpse and sighed, “Only he, and only he, could possess such suppressive power.”

“Looks like you know a lot, Hawkwood.” Jiang Bing turned around from beside the giant club. “I feel like you’re very familiar with everything here. Have you been here before?”

Hawkwood gave an awkward smile but offered no explanation, clearly indicating he didn't want to answer.

Jiang Bing didn't press the man who had escaped from the Farron Immortals, since these things happened in the distant past and were now history.

Compared to the other party's stammering, he didn't reveal the other party's identity as a member of the 'Lords of Cinder' (the Farron Undead Legion is an army, and all members of the Undead Legion together form the Lords of Cinder), although he had already remembered the other party's true identity from the moment the other party introduced himself.

But even if we see through each other, we won't say it out loud; we can still be good friends.

“There’s something you’ve both misunderstood.” Jiang Bing looked up at the towering pillar and explained to the two of them, “This isn’t a stone pillar, it’s a tree.”

"A tree?!" The two were quite surprised.

"Yes, a tree, probably one of the few ancient trees that survived the witches of Izaris."

In the ancient war for world domination against the ancient dragons, the witch Izalith and her followers (daughters) burned most of the towering ancient trees where the ancient dragons lived with a firestorm, but left a few 'saplings' to grow in the smoky lake underground.

Jiang Bing's answer was presented with absolute certainty, after all, it was an answer certified by Heiml.

The tree is ancient, but the bad news is that it's impossible to extract accurate spacetime coordinates from it. After all, this thing is too ordinary, and the 'information' it contains is pitifully little, completely insufficient to support the possibility of precise positioning in a chaotic and disordered spacetime.

Jiang Bing is not currently considering using approximate coordinates for teleportation. After all, a slight error can lead to a huge mistake. When the time scale is extended to the dimension of the entire world, any tiny error could mean a difference of tens of thousands of years.

Therefore, Jiang Bing still needs to delve deeper into the Demon Ruins to search for 'antiques' that can provide precise spatiotemporal positioning.

So the three of them continued their search along the path of the demon's corpses.

"An extremely powerful old demon is blocking my way," Kerkarus said with distress as she walked.

“Let’s go around.” Jiang Bing walked to a high cliff and looked down at another lake, saying calmly.

That was another smoky lake, not very large, but full of life.

Several crabs the size of trucks swaggered across the lake, while in the lake lay several broken brick and stone structures, the remains of which were unclear—whether they were the remains of the Carthaginians' buildings or structures built by the Gollums.

"Go around it?" Kakarus repeated Jiang Bing's answer with a puzzled look.

Hawkwood, on the other hand, had already taken the very forward-thinking step of tightening the straps around his weapons and shields.

So Jiang Bing, carrying his two little pendants, leaped off the cliff, gliding like a kite across the wide, smoky lake and the vast, bottomless cliffs that led to who-knows-where. He circled around a graveyard also filled with demon corpses, soared high over the head of the old demon, and landed precisely on the dome of a building.

The Demon Ruins were formerly the ruins of Izaris, which had once been quite glorious.

The floor tiles beneath the three people's feet were neatly arranged, but many were damaged, and large patches of firelight could be faintly seen through the cracks.

"How do we get down?" Kakarus peered down through the crevice, his curiosity piqued.

The answer to her question came from the heavy "Negotiation" in Jiang Bing's hand.

The dome was very thick, but even the nearly one-meter-thick stone bricks couldn't stop Jiang Bing, this ruthless human pile driver.

In no time, a hole was opened in the dome, and the three of them entered the demon ruins through the hole.

The Demon Ruins truly live up to their name.

The architectural style of the entire ruins is very similar to that of a classic dungeon exclusively for a demon king.

Towering diamond-shaped stone pillars support a high arched ceiling, surrounded by wide passageways. The walls are covered with numerous reliefs depicting various demons, and there are also various demon sculptures on both sides.

Of course, there were also plenty of demon corpses lying everywhere.

After all, the demons in this building were almost all dead, which is why it was given the name of a ruin.

"I sense the aura of a powerful flame!" the female sorcerer exclaimed excitedly as she rounded a corner.

Her words successfully attracted the attention of the two men, as well as some of the native inhabitants of the demon ruins.

Gollum, a species that belongs to the demons, yet isn't quite demonic.

Demons are born from the fire of chaos and cannot reproduce naturally.

However, this world is not lacking in scholars who love to do terrible things and have a strong research spirit (representative figures include the Old Witch and the scholar of original sin, Andil). Somehow, this subspecies with demonic blood was born.

However, they did not inherit the powerful strength of the demons at all.

These goblins were not only thin, but they also had no metal objects on their bodies or in their hands. The guns and shields they carried were made of some kind of wood.

However, to increase their lethality, they generally coat the spearheads with a highly toxic slime that resembles feces.

As the saying goes, "If a mop gets covered in poop, then Lu Bu is reborn."

Even though Jiang Bing possessed countless methods, he dared not easily let these foul-smelling ghouls get close to him.

Thus, they had the good fortune to experience the effects of heavy explosives.

Having already fired, Jiang Bing no longer held back. Based on Kakarus's keen sense of fire, he made holes in walls wherever he saw them and fired at anything unusual he encountered.

Creatures in the Dark Souls world are generally born twisted and deformed.

Along the way, besides Gulu, Jiang Bing also saw 'slimes' that looked like mud, stone fire-breathing beasts with bloated bellies shaped like standing silkworm cocoons, a large number of skeletons that were lost and dead and could not rest in peace, and small, large-bellied demons with several limbs and arms mixed in.

Finally, after Jiang Bing blasted a group of frogs (earth dragons) the size of calves with two large, staring eyes to smithereens with two explosive shells, the three of them arrived at their destination under the guidance of Kakarus.

This is an underground lava lake that radiates endless heat and is extremely dazzling.

The existence of this lava lake is undoubtedly quite anti-human; ordinary lava cannot remain boiling for such a long period of time.

Even more inhumane is the presence of a group of bright red fire slugs living in the lava lake, and a desiccated corpse in the very center of the lake.

Chapter 547 White Hair Amulet

"Is there a corpse over there?" Hawkwood asked uncertainly, then rummaged through his small bag and pulled out a pair of binoculars, holding them to his face.

“It really is true. This lava can’t be fake, can it? How could there be corpses here?” Hawkwood scratched his head, and fearing that his employer Jiang Bing wouldn’t believe it, he handed Jiang Bing the binoculars so that he could take a look too.

But Jiang Bing's eyes were far more effective than that thing.

He not only saw the corpse in the center of the lava lake, but also the withered corpse in a prayer position with its ten fingers tightly clasped together, as if it were clutching something.

"Chaotic flames, it's chaotic flames! It's incredible! This entire lake is actually formed from chaotic flames!" Kakarus squatted beside the lava lake, his hands almost reaching into the flames, excitedly waving his arms and legs.

This lava lake is astonishingly large; the intense heat of the lava is enough to melt ordinary steel. For an ordinary undead person to try to retrieve anything from the center of the lava lake would be like Louis XVI's hairstylist—completely impossible.

Fortunately, Jiang Bing is not someone who doesn't die.

He can fly!

And so, with the two people beside him looking up, Jiang Bing soared into the sky, flying towards the center of the lava lake amidst the endless heat.

As he got closer, Jiang Bingcai noticed something unusual in the air that was distorted and deformed by the high temperature.

Not only were the remains intact in the lava, but although the desiccated remains were emaciated and all the flesh and blood had dried up and weathered, causing the skin to shrink tightly onto the skeleton, the overall skeletal outline was still larger than that of an undead.

This was actually the remains of a god.

Under the gazing gaze of numerous fire slugs, Jiang Bing reached out and grasped the corpse, about to fly into the sky. However, halfway through his flight, he felt his hand sink and froze in mid-air.

In the lava lake, all the fire slugs roared furiously, staring at the uninvited guests in the sky, while Jiang Bing frowned as he looked at the corpse in his hand.

To be precise, it was half a corpse.

The corpse not only lacked legs, but also hips. It resembled a prisoner who had been dismembered and executed at the execution ground. Below the navel, there were no limbs, but instead, numerous tiny, spiderweb-like threads, glowing with the light of chaotic flames, densely extending from the corpse's abdominal cavity all the way to the depths of the lava lake, like a spider spitting out a large web.

Jiang Bing pulled hard towards the sky again, but he didn't expect that those 'spider silks', which looked so thin, were so incredibly tough. The 'spider silks' were stretched to a very long length, but they were so strong that they didn't break.

Its bottom also seems to be connected to the entire lava lake, showing no sign of being uprooted.

In the end, Heiml made a move, summoning a spatial rift to precisely sever the spider silk, ending the unusually bizarre and mysterious 'tug-of-war'.

On the shore, Jiang Binggang placed the wreckage on the ground, and Kakarus, like a pervert, approached and reached out with his little hand.

Before Jiang Bing could even take the item from the other party's hands, which were clasped in prayer, Kakarus suddenly exclaimed incredulously, as if he had just touched a cute girl on a train.

"Ah? What a deep flame, what ancient traces of chaotic burning, Lord Sabur, if I am not mistaken, she may be a witch of Izaris."

Jiang Bing took the object that the corpse was clutching from the other person's tightly clenched hands.

This is a lock of white hair, carefully gathered and knotted into the shape of a talisman.

Like a dog that has smelled meat, Kakarus followed the chaotic aura and quickly focused his gaze on the white-haired amulet in Jiang Bing's hand.

"hair?"

"The Chaos Witch's hair?"

"My God, after such a long period of time, to still see the Chaos Witch's hair is truly unbelievable."

"It's not certain yet. It could just be some kind of hair-like material," Hawkwood said, habitually pouring cold water on the idea.

Jiang Bing didn't dwell on the origin of the white hair; instead, he focused his attention on the node that held the entire white hair amulet together—a ring engraved with mysterious runes.

The strand of white hair was arranged in a unified manner to resemble an amulet, with the ring braided in the very center. Clearly, it was the most treasured item for the creator of this amulet, and the entire amulet may have been created for this purpose.

"A ring?" Hawkwood peered at the ancient-looking ring, trying to decipher the meaning of the runes on it.

But he failed.

However, Jiang Bing gently stroked the surface of the ring with his hand, carefully feeling its unevenness.

"Your Excellency Sabur, do you know what this is?" Hawkwood's knowledge was limited, but his ability to read people was quite good.

Jiang Bing, of course, couldn't understand it.

But a 'craftsman' can.

"A coming-of-age gift for Kragg, kinship is a precious thing comparable to the Chaos Flame." Jiang Bing softly recited the meaning of the rune, read Izalith's instructions to his daughter, and sensed the longing and sorrow that still lingered on it after so long.

These runes have no power; they are merely a mother's admonition and warning to her daughter.