Chapter 216:

Words : 1916 Updated : Oct 5th, 2025

“You’ve done well. Such dangerous demonic objects are not something you can handle right now. In the future, if you find similar items, make sure to turn them in promptly.” In the Blood Vulture Halls, Tris was carefully yet casually flipping through the 《Midnight Book》 turned in by two little players. Feel You Poor and Life Is Pretty Good watched the book in front of them. They saw that every time Lady Tris turned a page, strange spirit sparks would pop out of the odd book. These were the spirit echoes of the mental curses contained within being broken by Lady Tris’s spirit energy. This scene made Life Is Pretty Good break out in a cold sweat. He had been thinking about flipping through it on the way here. But with the density of curses on this book, he probably wouldn’t have made it through a few pages before being finished off. These cultists’ creepy things were really terrifying. “Cultists often use this kind of shallow mental induction to tempt those with weak wills. Once you read it without protection, it means your mind will suffer irreversible damage. However, speaking of the book itself, it is indeed a legendary item. And it’s quite valuable.” Tris looked at the various dark arts recorded in the book with interest and explained to the two curious little players: “It’s impossible to trace when the original Midnight Book was created, but the most credible account I’ve heard is that this thing has been circulating in the shadows of the continent for at least 400 years. It’s regarded as a holy relic by some spirit mages who have fallen into darkness, but in essence, it’s just a grimoire recording various forbidden spells. It’s said to be divided into three volumes. They are the ‘Trickery and Destruction’ you found, which records techniques of darkness and death factions, the ‘Book of Astral Truth’ that records knowledge of sub-space, and the ‘Scroll of Dagon’ related to a legendary evil god. You’re lucky, you picked up the most harmless volume. Although the knowledge in it tends towards curses, corruption, and darkness, it doesn’t involve more troublesome demonic powers.” “So, Lady Tris, is this the genuine article?” Feel You Poor asked curiously. Tris glanced at this little darling with a mature woman’s smile as if looking at a little fool, shaking her head gracefully and saying: “How could it possibly be genuine? If it were genuine, you two would have become irredeemable and physically distorted lunatics due to the spirit impact the moment you saw it. This is just a very high-quality handwritten copy. However, the recorder likely saw the Trickery and Destruction volume in person. Look, he even thoughtfully added some annotations. I’ve heard that the genuine Trickery and Destruction volume was personally confiscated from cultists in the Cato region by Lord Mairedin, the previous Purification Master of the Circle Tower, and stored in the Forbidden Tower of the Circle Tower. That was over 190 years ago. Just a year before I was declared dead. Ah, ancient stories. But you’ve done well, and you deserve a reward.” Tris pulled out two scrolls from the drawer, quickly wrote orders on them and handed them to Feel You Poor and Life Is Pretty Good, saying in a charming yet gentle tone: “Go find the Blood Vulture quartermaster. Each of you will receive a mind protection ring made by me as a reward for promptly turning in the demonic object.” “Thank you for your generosity! Your Grace.” Feel You Poor accepted the note with a beaming smile. After glancing at it, he found it was a reward for a part of the “Clan Guard” set, which made him even happier. That was the “top-tier set” in the current version. Getting a part for just doing a quest was a huge profit! However, Life Is Pretty Good had some other expectations. He said softly: “Um... Grand Duchess Tris, I’m actually quite curious about this knowledge. Could I...” “You want to learn?” Tris rolled her eyes. She thought to herself that these otherworld warriors were truly ignorant and fearless. Even after being told that vampires, who are called “evil spirits,” view this thing as a demonic object, he still dares to defy the world and learn these things. But then she remembered little Murphy’s instructions. After some thought, she said: “It’s not impossible, but I need to filter out those dangerous spells that you can’t learn first. Afterward, I’ll allow you to copy some of the knowledge. However, warrior, you must first prove your potential as a spirit mage.” Tris drawled, putting on a serious face and speaking officially: “First, bring me 30 bottles of fine wine. I need them to complete a complex purification ritual for this evil spirit book. The wine must be at least 30 years old, and there can’t be any duplicates. The longer they’ve been cellared, the deeper the purifying power contained in those mellow substances.” “I understand! I’ll do my best to collect these for you. Thank you for your generosity, Lady Tris.” Life Is Pretty Good saw that he had triggered the “Trial of the Trickster’s Apprentice” quest and left the Grand Duchess’s office contentedly with Feel You Poor. On their way out of the Blood Vulture Halls, Life Is Pretty Good savored his conversation with Lady Tris and said softly: This ghoul overlord hasn’t truly formed, resulting in insufficient concentration of death plague on its claws and teeth. Even if weapons are made, they won’t be as high-level as you think. Alright, alright, we’ll make the most of everything. I’ll find time to make them for you. But since we’ve come this far, why not take out its eyeballs too? Those can be made into ornaments for reconnaissance. And the tendons can be tanned with alchemical materials to make bowstrings. The sturdiest few bones can make two protective shields. If you don’t mind, the ghoul overlord’s extremely stretchable barbed tongue can even be made into a whip. Hmm, looking at it this way, it’s all treasure!” “Now that’s what I call professional!” Murphy gave a thumbs up and exclaimed. Then he took out a computation bead to relay Tris’s instructions to Guildmaster Natalie who was busy in the room. He could clearly see the shock and helplessness on Natalie’s face outside the room, but the Guildmaster lady of the Adventurer’s Guild didn’t object. Instead, she sighed tiredly, picked up a pair of fully protective gauntlets and a boning knife made of sacred oak from the side. She was apparently preparing to fulfill her lord’s request to “waste not, want not”. “Then there’s the second thing,” Murphy said, handing the box containing the ghoul overlord materials to Maxim, who held it in his arms. He stood guard here, listening to Murphy’s description to Tris. The vampire lord looked at the final purification taking place in the room filled with green light, and said softly to Tris: “Grandma Marianne just told me that they’ve identified the ‘original form’ of this ghoul overlord. It was a dwarf, and a frost dwarf at that. Unfortunately, it’s been too severely eroded by Netherworld power to determine his original identity.” “Hmm? A frost dwarf?” Tris was truly shocked this time. As the well-informed Crimson Witch, she immediately realized the strange aspect of this matter. She frowned and said: “No matter which clan of dwarves, even those ‘exiles’ who committed grave errors and are not recognized by the three clans, they all strictly follow the teachings of Gaia, the Mother Earth. Regardless of identity and status, after a dwarf dies, they return to the flames, and their ashes are buried in the funeral temples located beneath the earth. Theoretically, unless an irreversible accident occurs, it’s very difficult to find an intact dwarf corpse in the material world. Those shorties’ adherence to tradition is beyond your imagination. They once paid the heavy price of 200 deaths to retrieve the corpse of a warrior. I witnessed that with my own eyes when I traveled the continent years ago. To be able to form as material for a ghoul overlord, the person must have been a Golden Rank powerhouse in life. Even among dwarves, there wouldn’t be many such individuals. I haven’t heard of any dwarf powerhouse dying an unnatural death in the past decade or more. Let alone having their corpse stolen.” “What about further back?” Murphy asked. “Perhaps they obtained this corpse as material decades or even over a hundred years ago?” “Don’t be ridiculous. Do you think necromantic spells can be cast with just any corpse? What those cultists or orthodox death masters pursue is that peculiar ‘essence’ preserved when a corpse crosses from life to death. Especially for high-level necromancy like this, the selection of the subject is even more stringent.” Tris corrected: “The universally recognized school of death spirit masters, those Moon Priests of Sanghai, would even start complex rituals before the subject’s death to make their death ‘complete’, in order to obtain more perfect casting materials. That was a plague ghoul overlord! It’s a rare high-level undead even in the Netherworld plane. The timing and conditions needed to cultivate such a thing in the material world are beyond your imagination. This dwarf’s time of death cannot exceed 5 years! Absolutely not! And if the witch hunters have confirmed he was a frost dwarf, then perhaps we can investigate a bit in Frosthold in the Great Wilderness through that flirty fox Shani’s channels.” Tris glanced at Murphy and said: “Of course, I’m just offering a suggestion. It’s impossible to get Shani to help you without paying a price, so now it depends on how much you crave this ‘truth’. However, my thought is, let it go, little Murphy. Dealing with dwarves isn’t a pleasant thing, and this involves the dangerous ‘Dusk’. If you want Shani’s help, you’ll have to tell her some things, but you can’t be sure if the Thorn Clan is ‘safe’ either. This will greatly increase our current risk. We can keep this urn of ashes, and then when the time is right, send more trustworthy people to the Great Wilderness to return it. But for now, your curiosity needs to be suppressed a bit.” “Isn’t there any other way to get a clue?” Murphy said, still not giving up: “Like some spirit magic that can extract the deceased’s memories? This way we can at least confirm the identity of this ‘Dwarf Victim Mr. X’.” “Oh, so that’s why you called me over. I thought you just simply wanted to see me. Tch, men.” Tris snorted quite discontentedly, shaking her head and saying: “Such magic does exist, but I can’t do it. My understanding of death magic isn’t sufficient to cast that level of ‘necromancy’. Perhaps you could find a genuine Moon Priest who can do it. I guess they’re probably the only ones in this world who can. But those death servants of the Sanghai Empire never leave their place of origin. So, let’s talk about it when we have the chance in the future.” “Hmm, we have another secret that makes people anxious. I have a feeling that once Mr. X’s identity is revealed, it will bring another bloodbath,” Murphy sighed and said: “Sigh, why are things in Transia always so terrible?”

Chapter 216:

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