Chapter 702: Chapter 348: Craftsman Ghost, the Truth
Ronan stood at a distance, carefully observing the ghost in the distance.
From the appearance, he seemed to be a middle-aged man with a thick beard, wearing old-style ancient clothes, holding tools such as a hammer and nails in both hands, like a craftsman who specialized in repairing waterways during the Keldim Empire.
Ronan listened to the mutterings from the craftsman ghost but couldn’t discern their meaning.
His gaze went past the craftsman ghost and was drawn to a low, dilapidated hut behind it.
The area where the craftsman ghost repeatedly wandered seemed centered around the hut, perhaps the place where he had worked during his life, being sustained by some obsession, refusing to leave.
Ronan squinted his eyes, casually extinguished the flames in his palm, and turned his hand to reveal a square-cornered, antique-looking black cow bell.
He approached the direction of the hut, his footsteps making a rustling sound on the ground.
As he approached a certain range of the hut, the craftsman ghost, seeming to follow some program along a path, suddenly raised his head, his hollow eyes fixated on Ronan.
In the next second, his previously merely eerie, honest face quickly became ghostly and distorted, his mouth opening into a black hole, continuously expanding until it engulfed his entire face.
“Howl—”
The craftsman ghost transformed into a green wind, rushing directly toward Ronan.
The energy fluctuations weren’t very strong, only about Level 2.
Ronan continued walking, gently shook the cow bell in his hand, which emitted no sound; instead, thick black smoke poured out from the bell.
A pale-faced young person, with blood-tear eyes and intricate patterns floating on his forehead, soon emerged from the black smoke, without saying a word, directly attacking the green wind.
The black smoke enveloped the green wind, sounds of beast-like growls emerged, soon it was just the sound of chewing.
Ronan didn’t gaze at the battlefield even once, only focusing on the crumbling stone hut.
Ahaxia, as a Level 4 Resentful Spirit, after being tempered several times by Ronan as part of the Ghost Arrow Embryo, had his strength soar again, capable of contesting even a normal Level 4 Wizard, let alone a mere Second-tier Ghost Body.
For Ahaxia, the craftsman ghost could only be considered a piece of chewy old meat bone.
Ronan left Ahaxia to enjoy his meal, walked to the stone hut, finding that its original door was long gone, leaving only a large hole formed by some impact.
He flicked a cluster of flames inside with his fingers, sweeping aside the cobwebs accumulated over the years, and under the brief flash of firelight, some unnamed small creatures living in the darkness scurried away beneath his feet.
Ronan pulled a corner of his Magic Robe over his nose and mouth and then slowly stepped into the stone hut.
The entire hut was extremely small, piled with rubble everywhere, suggesting that many tools were once placed here, along with a narrow single bed, but these were all decayed.
Ronan used spiritual power to clear away layers of dirt and dust, searched the hut, not finding anything of value, but discovered many chiselled traces that resembled ancient writings on the inner side wall.
“Spirit Lake Book.”
Ronan took out the Spirit Lake Book he carried from the Space Ring, compared it to the text on the wall, and tried searching, actually finding some information related to the Keldim Wizard Empire.
The data was scarce, but it was barely sufficient for Ronan to translate the content of the text on the wall.
Ronan sometimes felt confused, wondering why an empire as powerful as Keldim, which had once ruled an entire Upper Ring Continent, left so few documentary records.
He didn’t even know whether the era in which the empire existed was recent, medieval, ancient, or prehistoric, as if someone intentionally erased it from history.
[…Commercial discovery…Quivada Oasis…ordered construction…waterway…]
[Utmost honor…no one more suited for this task than you…]
The writings at the beginning of the wall mentioned both “Quivada Oasis” and “Ancient Waterway,” which read as if they were diary entries written by the craftsman ghost outside during his lifetime.
Ronan continued down the “diary wall.” In the middle of the wall, there seemed to be marks of magic or physical attacks, with a layer of stone skin sheared off, resulting in few remnants of the text above.
He could only skip over it, looking further down.
[In the city…constructed luxurious…public fountains…providing safe drinking water…]
Ronan translated while reading. The enlightenment of over five thousand Ancient Spirit Texts had enhanced his thinking and comprehension remarkably, making learning even a new language exceptionally smooth and rapid.
The diary entries on the wall mostly praised the greatness of the waterway construction project, using repetitive phrases with limited vocabulary.
But Ronan didn’t feel bored either, as if dreaming of ancient times, observing from the perspective of a small craftsman, he sensed the novelty and intrigue of a prosperous corner of the Keldim Wizard Empire.
Ahaxia finished eating outside, licked his lips, and floated inside with a sinister air.
Ronan paid him no heed, continuing to read the journal on the wall, and after a few lines, the style of the diary abruptly shifted!
[Intestines…heart…only an empty shell remains…]
[The chest cavity has been hollowed out…]
[Someone has turned into a mummy again!…I always said…they dug into the entrance to hell…]
The chaotic handwriting, even after unknown years washed over it, still expressed the panic and fear it held.
Ronan seemed to envision a scene — at night, in a small room lit by a dim kerosene lamp, how the terrified stonemason used trembling hands to engrave these incoherent words one by one onto the wall.
“Looks like the craftsmen of Keldim dug up something dreadful while constructing the waterway; perhaps this is the truth of how the grand Keldim Empire went from flourishing to decline, ultimately falling, perishing in flames and dust…”
Ronan’s eyes flickered with contemplation.
Looking further, there was hardly any valuable content left, all scattered phrases with mismatched beginnings and ends, filled with words like “monster” and “horror.”
Some lines matched the characteristics of the lizard monster he had encountered before.
[I…I’ve already lost sight of the sunlight…]
[Sharon…this is not the most glorious project in history…this is the most foolish decision…]
[They were noble, powerful, and proud, yet they released the demon by their own hands…]
[My dear…little Sharon…]
Ronan slowly withdrew his gaze from the illegible handwriting, feeling a complex emotion surging within.
He seemed to have found the truth behind the downfall of the Keldim Wizard Empire, the reason why the grand Ancient Waterway ultimately became a bloodstained battlefield.
But none of it mattered anymore.
This unnamed craftsman’s lingering obsession as a ghost, refusing to leave after death, was perhaps for his daughter named Sharon who stayed alive above ground at that time?
Was he still hoping that someday, in his ghostly state, he might see his daughter once more? For the incomparably powerful empire then, this was indeed not an unfeasible hope.
Perhaps in the last second before the craftsman’s death, he stubbornly believed that one day the empire’s wizards would completely eliminate those demons that emerged from underground, thinking it was merely an unforeseen accident.
Yet he did not know that the empire he took pride in would ultimately perish in this catastrophe.
“Hoo—”
Ronan exhaled lightly, calming the ripples on his heart’s lake.
Every time one reads historical records, they seem to collect some dust of time, making the mood inexplicably heavy.
He and Ahaxia withdrew from the small house, conducting a simple search near the dilapidated stone house, eventually finding a second magic node slot under a pile of chaotic rocks.
Injecting spiritual power to activate it, fortunately, this node wasn’t damaged, so he casually tossed in an Advanced Magic Stone.
The illumination system within nearly a kilometer around the small house all started functioning, and gentle light dispelled large swaths of darkness, the monsters lurking in the dark stirred from inquiry.
Ronan exchanged a glance, and Ahaxia, full of sinister determination, transformed into a cloud of black smoke, rushing out as the distant sound of monsters’ dying cries and the hum of Ghost Arrows echoed.
“I should have thought of letting this guy out to play long ago…it’s the perfect place for him to show his skills…”
Ronan shook his head, sensing the situation over at the Element Pool through the Deep Knowledge Crown.
Before leaving, he used the Deep Knowledge Crown to create thirty-five Elemental Life Forms, with each having a subtle connection with the crown, enabling Ronan to remotely control and command.
Now, two of the thirty-five third-level Elemental Life Forms had been reduced, still within expectations, belonging to normal attrition, presumably, there was no real issue.
Ronan thought for a moment, planning to explore a bit further along the path of the waterway near the dilapidated stone house.