kingnovel Chapter 1095 The Dark Appetite of Star Coins
Chapter 1095 The Dark Appetite of Star Coins
Lin Qiye's pupils suddenly contracted, almost as an instinctive reaction.
His body instantly shrank by half, his muscles tensed like a fully drawn bow, ready to spring into action at any moment.
"Who?" he roared in the mental link.
Wu Hen reacted even faster than him, without uttering a single word.
Its figure had already transformed into a shadowy silhouette close to the ground, instantly merging into the deepest shadow of the bookshelf, as if it had never existed.
The chilling, piercing ripple of spiritual energy came and went quickly, vanishing in a flash, leaving the entire secret chamber silent once more.
Silence can sometimes be more unsettling than any sound.
Lin Qiye remained in a half-squatting position, like a cheetah locking onto its prey, his eyes flashing like lightning as he quickly scanned every corner of the secret room.
There were no enemies, no ambushes, and not even the movement of the air was abnormal.
"Damn it, a hallucination?" Lin Qiye cursed in his mind.
"It's not a hallucination." Wu Hen's cold voice rang out, tinged with a hint of solemnity.
"It's an alarm."
“We touched the restriction of the topmost mud tablet, but the other side did not choose to act immediately.”
"You didn't make a move?" Lin Qiye was taken aback.
"What does this mean? Are you looking down on us?"
"No, he's observing, or rather, he's on his way back."
"Everything here is a setup he orchestrated; he wants to see what happens."
"Who exactly is the 'rat' that broke into his treasure trove, and what does it want?"
No sooner had he finished speaking than a series of staggering and hurried footsteps came from outside the door.
An old, weak figure, yet brimming with boundless rage, charged straight toward the secret chamber.
"City Lord!"
The two exchanged a glance, and without even thinking, they flashed and hid behind a row of huge wooden frames.
They were like two experienced geckos, concealing their presence and blending into the darkness.
"boom!"
The door to the secret room was violently kicked open.
The city lord stumbled in, his magnificent robe covered in dust.
His face was ashen, completely devoid of the imposing aura he exuded when he controlled the thunder atop the tower.
He looked like a dying person who had just crawled out of his grave.
He didn't even bother to check the clay tablets on the bookshelf; instead, he knelt down with a thud.
He slammed the [Scepter of Domination] heavily onto the ground.
"Come back...all of you come back!" he roared like a wild beast.
The next second, an astonishing scene happened.
Countless golden threads, finer than a hair, flew wildly out of the city lord's aging body!
These golden threads, dense and intricate like a golden spiderweb, partly shot towards the scepter in his hand.
More often, however, they pierced through the walls and shot out in all directions of Wucheng.
Lin Qiye and Wu Hen saw it clearly from the shadows; as the golden threads detached from the body,
The city lord's already weakened aura began to plummet, his cultivation level dropping from a terrifying height that had previously allowed him to overlook the entire city.
They plummeted all the way down, eventually becoming even less capable than an ordinary Night's Watch member.
He visibly withered away, collapsing to the ground.
He was breathing heavily, like a salted fish that had been drained of all its moisture.
"Holy shit..." Lin Qiye exclaimed in a low voice through the mental link.
"So that's what happened! That incredible ability he displayed just now wasn't his own at all!"
“It was borrowed.” Wu Hen’s voice was terrifyingly calm. “The core ability of the [Scepter of Domination] is not ‘deprivation,’ but ‘requisition’!”
"It forcibly requisitioned the mental energy of all agents in the city, and even some residents,"
"It was released through the city lord as a 'transfer station.' Now, he's simply returning the borrowed power."
"No wonder those agents were all paralyzed...it turns out they were forced into 'online loans' by this old man,"
"And they don't even say hello." Lin Qiye clicked his tongue.
"So, this old man is just a tool, a living battery held hostage by the scepter, used and then discarded. Tragic, truly damn tragic."
This so-called Lord of Wucheng was nothing more than the most loyal, and also the most pathetic, first slave under the command of this terrifying artifact.
The city lord, who had been lying paralyzed on the ground, gasped for breath for a long time before he shakily propped himself up.
He raised his head, his cloudy eyes fixed on the top shelf of the bookshelf, on the clay tablet sealed by chains.
He didn't notice the two people hiding in the shadows, but spoke in a desperate tone, almost like a dream.
Muttering to myself, "Why... why is it still not working... [Never-Spinning Pentacles], how can you be awakened..."
Lin Qiye and Wu Hen's hearts skipped a beat at the same time.
The ever-spinning coin!
Isn't that what they stole from "Mystery"?
The two immediately turned their attention to the sealed clay tablet.
Sure enough, the clay tablet was engraved with a pattern of stars, but the cuneiform script below the pattern...
But it was forcibly erased by someone with a brutal force, leaving only a blurry mark.
The instruction manual left behind by Gilgamesh has been destroyed!
The city lord seemed to have descended into madness due to this powerlessness; he clutched his hair.
He screamed in agony, "I've done it all! I've made them betray each other!"
"Put them in despair! Isn't that enough? What else do you want?!"
After shouting, he collapsed to the ground as if all his strength had been drained, and passed out.
The sealed room returned to silence.
Lin Qiye and Wu Hen waited quietly in the darkness for a full ten minutes.
Only after confirming that the city lord had truly fainted and was not faking it did he quietly emerge.
"What did he just say?"
Lin Qiye frowned, walked over to the city lord, and kicked him, but the man didn't react at all.
"Betrayal? Despair?"
"Negative emotions".
Wu Hen walked to the clay tablet where the writing had been erased, his eyes gleaming with wisdom.
"The [Scepter of Domination] requires mental power, while the [Never-Spinning Star Coin] probably requires a different kind of 'energy'."
Lin Qiye reacted instantly and took out the ancient-looking star coin from his pocket.
No matter how he tried, the star coin had no effect, just like a piece of ordinary metal.
But at this moment, in this secret room filled with the city lord's despair and resentment,
He could clearly feel a barely perceptible warmth emanating from the surface of the coin.
"Damn... this thing has a rather strange appetite."
A playful smile curved Lin Qiye's lips.
"It eats people's negative emotions? What kind of monstrous things has Gilgamesh created?"
"One plunders divine artifacts, the other devours despair." Wu Hen adjusted his glasses.
"This hero-king is far more greedy than described in mythology."
"Let's go, there's no point in coming here anymore."
The two ignored the unconscious city lord and swayed away.
He then left the city lord's mansion and re-entered the chaotic night of Wucheng.
The streets were still a mess.
The powerless agents were either slumped or sitting, their eyes vacant.
Ordinary residents who found the "magical artifact" were like holding a hot potato, either terrified or bewildered.
Lin Qiye wandered aimlessly, his fingers unconsciously stroking the star coin that was beginning to heat up.
"Betrayal, despair..." he muttered.
"This thing has a rather picky appetite. Where do you find so many high-quality negative emotions for it?"
Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.
He found himself unknowingly walking back into the dark alley leading to the dungeon.
Deep in the alley, at the entrance to the dungeon, faint, suppressed cries and angry curses could be heard.
"...Liar! That city lord is a liar! He promised us everything!"
"My power... my power is all gone! Why is this happening!"
"It's you! Number 08! You must have betrayed us! You sold us out!"
Inside, nearly a hundred deposed agents were imprisoned.
They had just experienced the enormous fall from grace, and then suffered the double blow of being betrayed by both their companions and the city lord.
At this moment, they were like a group of scorpions trapped in a jar.
It was filled with resentment, anger, unwillingness, and the deepest... despair.
Lin Qiye stopped and looked down at the star coins in his hand.
The cold metal was now vibrating more rapidly in his palm.
A glint of ruthlessness and cunning suddenly appeared in his eyes.
"Wu Hen."
He spoke softly in the mental link, his voice carrying a hint of barely suppressed excitement.
"Do you think... is it possible that what Gilgamesh left behind was actually a combination of attacks?"
"What do you mean?"
"The scepter is responsible for creating betrayal and despair, while the star coins... are responsible for enjoying these sacrifices."
As Lin Qiye spoke, he slowly walked towards the dark dungeon entrance.
Deep inside the dungeon, the pungent smell of blood mingled with the stench of mold.
Number 05 was impaled on the wall by a specially made silver chain that pierced through her collarbone.
His eyes were bloodshot as he stared intently at an agent who was also locked up not far away, cursing in a hoarse voice.
“...I should have killed you long ago...you treacherous bastard..."
The atmosphere inside the cell was extremely tense, with nearly a hundred former powerful figures present.
Now they are all prisoners, they distrust and curse each other, blaming each other for all their failures.
And in the deepest shadows at the dungeon entrance, Lin Qiye's figure quietly emerged.
He stared at the faces inside the cell, twisted with despair and resentment.
Feeling the increasingly joyful vibrations of the star coin in his palm, a cold and cruel smile slowly crept onto his lips.
What he seemed to see was not a group of pitiful prisoners.
Rather, it is a grand feast about to begin.