Chapter 138: The Disappearing Inscription

“This is really… quite stubborn.”

After reading everything carved on the stone tablet, Miss Priestess’s expression turned rather strange.

If she didn’t understand all this, then Miss Vilyric must be lacking in intelligence.

This tomb was indeed built by someone related to Lingyin Fairy Island, but none other than the Spiritual Fox Priestess herself, with whom she seemed to have a thousand connections.

【Ming Xi】

This was the first time that Vilyric truly came in contact with the traces left by the Spiritual Fox Priestess, rather than just hearing those unverifiable stories from others.

To be honest, Miss Priestess still didn’t know how to treat this renowned Spiritual Fox Priestess, who was said to hail from Lingyin Fairy Island and known almost throughout the Ancient Spirit Realm.

Although everyone who saw her after wearing the Mask of the God Fox was convinced she was the real Spiritual Fox Priestess, the name “Xī” was something Miss Vilyric came up with herself, and even if she was fooling herself, it was hard to dismiss it as just coincidence.

Yet aligning herself with Ming Xi was something Miss Priestess could not accept no matter what.

Moreover, until now, she had very little actual understanding of the Spiritual Fox Priestess.

“Vilyric, what are you looking at?”

Hearing the curious voice of Cat Daughter, the Black-haired Girl temporarily halted her thoughts and turned around.

“Can you really not understand the writing on this stone tablet?”

That shouldn’t be the case.

Since Xiao Kong had once fought alongside the Ancestor Dragon and was said to have reached the divine realm in her prime, she must have encountered this universal language among gods.

If Murong Yun and Hen couldn’t comprehend the ancient divine language on it, Vilyric could understand that, but Xiao Kong shouldn’t be asking such a question.

Upon hearing Miss Priestess’s retort, the other party looked particularly puzzled as she tilted her head, pointed at the ancient stone tablet that had likely existed for at least a thousand years, and said blankly.

“What do you mean ‘can’t understand’? Isn’t this just a nameless stone tablet?”

“?!”

Her light tone struck like thunder.

It shattered the illusion like a giant hammer, akin to pulling a girl drowning in the invisible deep sea back to the surface. At that moment, Vilyric felt a brief moment of daze, as if her consciousness had jumped from one world line’s body to that of a completely parallel world line, leaving her feeling uneasy yet unable to pinpoint anything amiss.

Her silver-blue pupils constricted slightly. In the confused gazes of the Silver-haired Girl and Murong Yun, Vilyric turned her head again and once more locked eyes with the ancient stone tablet.

“…How is that possible?”

The writing had vanished.

Those words that seemed to float on the surface of the stone tablet, the ancient Nuir language that had perplexed her, were nowhere to be found, leaving only an empty void!

Absurdity washed over the Black-haired Girl’s heart in an instant.

Even the divine race’s composure couldn’t shield them from such bewilderment.

The last time she felt this degree of incredulity was when she encountered Ming Lan on the streets of Holy Star City, where he casually spoke the names “Xī” and “Mask of the God Fox.”

That was precisely Vilyric’s first encounter with the concepts of the Lingyin Clan and the Spiritual Fox Priestess.

It seemed that anything involving that mysterious priestess would immediately turn odd and incomprehensible.

Sensing the shock and confusion of the Black-haired Girl, the three exchanged glances. Murong Yun approached the stone tablet, squatted down, and tentatively brushed his fingers over its still smooth surface, pondering like an experienced scholar.

“This stone doesn’t seem to be made from any materials commonly used for spirit tablets in the Ancient Spirit Realm. If this tomb truly has been sealed for over a thousand years without care, the surface of the stone tablet should be showing signs of moss due to humidity and lack of air circulation…”

“In other words, this might be a special type of stone imbued with some kind of power. The absence of any writing on the tombstone indeed defies logic. Could it be that it was inscribed with alternative characters through some method we can’t comprehend?”

“But why can only Miss Vilyric see it?”

“…”

Seeing the Priestess fall silent, the Silver-haired Girl, more attuned to her, didn’t continue Murong Yun’s unproductive speculation. Instead, she pressed straight to the point.

“Vilyric, what did you see on it?”

After scrutinizing the now completely blank stone tablet, the Black-haired Girl shook her head.

Although she wasn’t entirely sure what just happened, there was indeed a way to prove whether the writings she saw were merely an illusion.

She moved behind the towering stone tablet, exploring in the shadows it cast.

“What’s wrong? Looking for something?”

Without responding to Xiao Kong’s curious inquiry, Vilyric continued tapping her holy staff against the seemingly flat ground, closely deciphering the variations in sound.

“Tap, tap, tap… whoosh.”

Suddenly, a slightly different feedback reverberated through the air, causing the expressions of everyone to shift simultaneously.

“Wait! Miss Vilyric, this place is hollow underneath; there might be something down there!”

“Mm.”

She offered a light reply but didn’t pursue finding the mechanism to open this suspected secret space. After all, considering how someone previously designed those paths along with the vanished messages, the method to activate it was most likely…

With an expressionless face, she raised her seemingly harmless pure holy staff, and in the mix of the odd and surprised gazes of the other three, she brought it down heavily!

“Boom!!!”

With a resounding strike, numerous cracks erupted from the impact point, and then, within a complete square area, it shattered entirely, caving downward without affecting the adjacent ground at all.

Clearly, this had been a pre-designed structure, and Miss Vilyric’s method of activation had perfectly matched the designer’s intentions… probably.

Indeed, those previous messages were not an illusion.

The girl squatted down and retrieved a palm-sized wooden box from the hollow, the exterior light brown and showing no signs of decay even after being sealed underground for over a thousand years. Instead, a refreshing fragrance gradually wafted from it.

“This is…”

Xiao Kong seemed to immediately recognize the material, her tone filled with more surprise, but Vilyric didn’t ask her for details.

This was merely the outer packaging, unrelated to the main point. What the Spiritual Fox Priestess truly wanted to leave for future generations was likely something contained within the box.

“Click ~”

The lid of the box was gently pushed open, revealing its contents to all.

It was a jade.

Its overall shape resembled a familiar little fox, pure and flawless like snow, with no signs of decay from time, and underneath it lay a seemingly ordinary piece of white paper that appeared to have writing on it.

Not rushing to take that seemingly valuable jade pendant, Vilyric chose instead to pull out the paper that had been sitting beneath it, possibly preserved intact due to the box’s protective nature.

Indeed, there was another message.

And this time, it was written in clear black words on white paper, in the universal language of the Ancient Spirit Realm.

   

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