CIATB Chapter 884: To Shurima
Chapter 884: To Shurima
Chapter 884: To Shurima
Cassiopeia explained in detail her experience in Shurima two months ago, lowering her head and saying, "I'm sorry to disappoint you, Lady Pale Witch. Not only did I fail to retrieve the weapons for the organization, I also turned myself into a monster.
I am not trying to avoid your punishment during this period, I just don’t know how to explain it to you.”
"Don't take appearance too seriously, Cassiopeia." LeBlanc said, "You have heard of Iris's name."
"The duchess who revived the Kythera family several centuries ago?" Cassiopeia was startled and said, "I have heard rumors about her. Could it be that..."
"She's still alive, and she's one of my best subordinates." Leblanc said, "Her situation is very similar to yours, and she was bitten by the Spider God, the Vicious Maw. The difference is that she can switch back and forth between her human body and the spider. I think you can communicate with her next.
Becoming a snake woman is a disaster for you, but it can also be an opportunity, which will give you a lifespan and power that you never had as a human."
Cassiopeia's pupils were slightly erected, and she looked at the masked LeBlanc with excitement and admiration: "Is the legend of the Spider Queen true? I understand. I will go visit Lady Iris! But Master Witch, the failure of the expedition..."
“No, it’s not a failure.” Leblanc said gently, “The stone statues were able to move, and the poison curse could turn humans into snakes. Everything means that the Ascended Tomb you found at the end was not simple, but it was beyond the exploration capabilities of you and the Shuriman mercenaries.”
"This discovery is very important to us." She looked at Ji Xing and said, "Sevier, this is what I want to ask of you. Explore that tomb for me and bring me something valuable. As a reward, I can give you a copy of the Black Rose's exploration data on Shurima over the years. I think both you and the Ferros family will need this information."
Cassiopeia looked at Ji Xing and couldn't help but spit out her snake tongue. Sewell? I seem to have heard of this name, the one who invented the universal capsule? The witch actually wants to make a "fair trade" with him? Could it be that he...
"Why don't you go there yourself?" Ji Xing looked at Leblanc and asked, "A slightly stronger clone would be enough to explore there, right?"
“Shurima is dangerous.”
Leblanc said directly: "That is the oldest kingdom of mankind, full of secrets. What we will encounter there is different from Cassiopeia and those local mercenaries.
Sewell, you should know a little bit about the history of Shurima, right?"
“Of course, Piltover and Zaun were once part of the Shuriman port cities.”
It was the first and most powerful human kingdom in Rune Continent. At its peak, the territory it ruled almost covered the entire Rune Continent.
If it weren't for a special disaster nearly three thousand years ago that cut off the bloodline of the Shurima royal family and buried its capital in the yellow sand, Runeterra would probably still be under its rule today!
"The Sun Disc, the Ascension Ceremony." Leblanc continued, "So far, no one has been able to figure out that ancient secret. They just suspect and speculate that it is related to Mount Targon.
An ordinary person, as long as he can gain recognition from the gods and go through the ascension ceremony to become a god warrior or an ascender, can gain a long life and power beyond the limits of human beings!
Even the powerful Noxian Empire today may not be able to withstand the simultaneous attack of two Ascendants, and at the height of the Shurima Empire, there were more than a thousand such Ascendants!"
There was a hint of temptation in her words: "Perhaps with your talent, you can crack the secret of ascension and make the sun disk... rise again."
Ji Xing smiled and said, "I am not good enough either. But I am really interested in Ascension. Even if you didn't tell me, I would have gone to Shurima."
Leblanc smiled: "Cooperation reached?"
"I need to look at the information first."
"Ah, Cassiopeia."
Cassiopeia was shocked by the ancient secrets in their conversation and Leblanc's admiration for Ji Xing. She came back to her senses when she heard Leblanc's call and swam to get the family information.
She was the person in charge of the Black Rose organization's exploration of Shurima. Before this failure, she had conquered more than a dozen precious tombs and brought many powerful ancient weapons to the Black Rose, so Leblanc was tolerant and kind to her.
"In addition to the information written on paper, there are also some secrets that only a few people know."
Sitting on the sofa opposite Ji Xing, Leblanc continued, "Sevier, have you heard of the void?"
“A little bit.” Ji Xing said.
"It's a mysterious plane, and I know very little about it." Leblanc said, "The only thing that is certain is that the void has no good intentions towards our world. When a void passage is opened, countless powerful and dangerous void monsters will descend and destroy everything they see.
Fortunately, there are no large-scale void passages in our era, but in the southern part of Shurima, at the site of a vassal state called Icathia during the Shurima period, there is a void land that interacts with the void.
Seville, I don't recommend you to explore there, but if you are really interested, I can't stop you from observing from the outside."
Interesting knowledge has been added.
Ji Xing smiled and nodded: "The Void Land? I will do my best."
LeBlanc nodded. "As far as I know, during the heyday of the Shurima Empire, there was a war with the Void. They paid a huge price to repel the Void, but the aftermath of this war has not been eliminated to this day."
"Darkin." She uttered the term in a low voice, and said, "The most powerful Shurima Ascendants who experienced and survived the war changed their personalities due to the erosion of the void, becoming bloodthirsty and cruel. After the Shurima Empire was destroyed due to the failure of the ascension ceremony of Azir, the last Shurima emperor, a Darkin War was launched across the entire continent.
I don't know the details, as I was only a child when the Darkin War came to an end. But unlike the God Warriors and Ascended who completely disappeared, I can still hear about the activities of the Darkin occasionally over the years.
They were originally the most powerful warriors among the Ascended, and they were enhanced by the distortion of the power of the void... Since Shurima is their homeland, I suspect that several darkspawn are hiding in Shurima, searching for something."
"This is one of the reasons why I don't want to set foot on that land." She looked at Ji Xing, answered Ji Xing's initial question, and then said: "Another reason... It is not accurate to say that the Ascended have completely disappeared. At least it is certain that Nasus, the Grand Scholar of the Shurima Empire and one of the most powerful Ascended, is still alive in that land.
He has a powerful force that can attack souls directly. He is the type I am least good at dealing with. I don't think he would welcome tomb robbers."
She spoke with a lighthearted and joking tone, and shook her head, saying, "These are probably what you need to pay attention to. As for the ancient curses and magic in the tomb, I don't think they can hurt you."
She did give a rough outline of the opportunities and dangers that might be encountered in Shurima, like an NPC quest instructor. Ji Xing looked at her with interest and said, "I understand."
Without having seen it with his own eyes, he had no idea about the power of the Ascendants and the Darkin.
But according to descriptions in some ancient books and certain battle relics on Rune Continent, Ascendants who can be mass-produced on a small scale cannot be considered to have completely surpassed the human species.
There should be a cross-existence between the top human combat power and the Ascendants. Mages like Leblanc should be stronger than the middle and lower-level warriors of the Ascendants, but Ji Xing cannot completely ignore the top Ascendants and mutated Darkin.
Ascension...how do you ascend?
His path of cultivation from now on is actually very clear. He will condense the four types of runes other than the precision rune one after another. Every time he successfully condenses one, his strength will undergo a transformation and improvement.
But now his physical strength is actually slowing down his progress. Without magic strengthening, his physique is only comparable to Darius'.
The ascenders are not pure mages, most of them are strong in the body, and he also wants to try flying.
Not long after, Cassiopeia returned with her snake body, and at Leblanc's signal, she handed Ji Xing... a universal capsule: "All the information about Shurima is in it."
Ji Xing nodded and took it, and Leblanc said again: "Sevier, do you still need a guide?"
Cassiopeia was startled and spoke first: "My Lady Witch, the mercenaries and Sivir who used to serve as guides have been killed by me in the ancient tomb. This news may have spread among Shurima mercenaries. If they hire more..."
He paused halfway through his words, his pupils narrowed. The guide the witch was talking about... couldn't it be me? !
Ji Xing looked at the girl with a human body and snake legs. She might have been a snake for a short time. Her appearance was much more tender and delicate than the original picture in the game. The curves of her upper body were also very elegant and graceful. He shook his head and smiled, "Forget it. The Ferros family has many miners in Shurima. I have plenty of guides."
……
Shurima.
Sivir felt as if a piece of broken glass was stuck to her throat, and her cracked lips felt like they were burning. Her body was telling her that she had to replenish water as soon as possible.
But leaning over the edge of the boulder and observing, the Thaens who hated mercenaries, especially her, were still staying by the spring and showed no signs of leaving.
She retreated and lay back on her back, cursing in an inaudible voice: "That glamorous Noxian woman really made me embarrassed!"
When she was stabbed from behind by Cassiopeia, she thought she was dead.
In fact, she did deserve to die, but there are always miracles in Runeterra, and there are especially many miracles in the land of Shurima.
Perhaps it was because of their conflict that she was awakened, but when Sivir woke up, she saw an "ancient man" who was taking care of her.
She stretched out her hand and streams of water gushed out from those ancient statues. The water was like the legendary fountain of life, pouring on her, and her wounds and physical strength gradually recovered.
She was brought back from the brink of death and later witnessed a miracle.
The Shurima capital that had been buried for countless years reappeared on land from underground filled with yellow sand with the help of the ancients!
Then the ancient people muttered some incomprehensible ancient spells and were busy repairing the damaged temples.
The other party seemed to have said something to her, but Sivir didn't understand, and even if she did, she wouldn't do it. The ancient man who talked to himself in the City of Yellow Sands really didn't look like a mentally healthy person. She was afraid that he would bury everything back underground, or suddenly feel that she owed him something.
She escaped and has been here.
What she needs now is water.
Her breathing became increasingly difficult, and she knew she couldn't wait any longer. Looking at the muscles in her arms and the cross blade, her weapon that made her proud, Sivir got up from the ground.
If I don't leave, I'll just have to kill them. I can't let them die of thirst here, right? !
Cassiopeia didn't know that Sivir, who was stabbed in the vitals by her sneak attack, was not dead.
Sivir didn't know that the 'ancient man' who brought her back to life was Azir, the last emperor of Shurima! She had the blood of the royal family of Shurima flowing through her body, and could be called the princess of the Shurima Empire. In the underground tomb, her blood awakened the remaining soul of Azir, allowing Azir to ascend a second time and successfully resurrect!
Among the ancient sentences muttered by Azir, the Yellow Emperor of the Desert, in the Yellow Sand Capital, there is this sentence: "Shurima, your emperor is back!"
……
In the underground of the Immortal Bastion, Leblanc, who had bid farewell to Ji Xing, stood at the edge of the Great Well of Souls.
The shaft plunged deep into the bedrock beneath Noxus, deeper than the fortress's dimensions would allow, and a roiling miasma of cool blue and suspicious green swirled far below, illuminating the three bridges that spanned the gorge.
Below the bridge, above the whirlpool of madness, hung a huge, terrifying, humanoid figure that no Noxian could misidentify. A lifeless suit of armor that must be mentioned in every history book!
His name is Mordekaiser.
A monarch who conquered death and brought brutal rule to Runeterra twice.
This immortal fortress was built by him. Leblanc was once just a wizard under his command, but she eventually betrayed him.
She contacted the barbarians around the Immortal Bastion, killed Mordekaiser, and established the Noxian Empire that would last for nearly a thousand years.
But as time went by, Leblanc became stronger and gradually stood at the top of the mages, and the fear in her heart became stronger.
The power back then couldn't kill him at all!
Mordekaiser saw through my plan and chose death for the second time!
LeBlanc didn't understand what he wanted to do, but she knew that one day, Mordekaiser would appear on Runeterra for the third time.
With greater force than the previous two times.
By then, everything will be settled by him, and the world will be ruled by him!
Compared to Mordekaiser, Swain is just an opponent worth spending time on. I must accumulate more strength to deal with Mordekaiser!
"Sevier..." she murmured.
"What's the matter?" At this moment, a voice suddenly echoed in her ears.
Leblanc's body trembled, his pupils suddenly contracted, and he looked at Ji Xing who appeared beside him in shock: "Sevier?! You are not..."
"Let's go." Another similar voice appeared on the other side of her. Leblanc turned around again and saw another Ji Xing.
Then the third one, and the thirtieth one!
Just like she did in Bilgewater, densely packed Jixing surrounded her, each of them with a strange smile on their face.
"I came to say goodbye. I'm going to Shurima."
They said in unison, disillusionment vanishing.
Only Leblanc was left standing there blankly.
It’s been a long time since I felt fear!
(End of this chapter)