Chapter 1 Corpus Event

Every step of the Corpus event was full of twists and turns.

A simple internal war among the Demon Hunters could involve so many ancient secrets. To be honest, Hao Ren was already a little numb. The Creation Goddess's abandoned palace, the discovery of the Godslaying Sword, Vivian's shocking connection with the Demon Hunter Order—each of these events was enough for him to write at least eight hundred words of report when he got back, and to work with the demons and monsters at home to rebuild their worldviews several times over. So, when Mimir mentioned those ancient records, he was actually quite calm—he'd already heard a shocking story from start to finish, what was there to fear from reading the written version again?

Of course, calm as he was, he still had high expectations for those ancient scrolls. After all, they not only recorded Vivian's experiences six thousand years ago, but also the Demon Hunters' early explorations of Corpus. Now that Hao Ren had confirmed that Corpus was indeed a relic of the goddess's palace, these records had become the most valuable things to him.

Mimir closed his eyes slightly, and mysterious ancient runes began to appear around his massive head. These runes flowed in the air and suddenly floated towards the wall behind the altar, combining to form a door. As the door slowly opened, a deeper secret chamber was revealed.

"That secret chamber is where the First Saint once lived in seclusion," Mimir's voice echoed in everyone's mind. "After being seriously injured by Vivian, she still managed to survive for several years. By that time, the Dark Sword's special curse had already begun to take effect. The Saints discovered that all books, stone tablets, and objects related to Vivian Anseista had become unreadable. So, they believed that this was precisely proof of your power causing heavy damage to the Dark Sword—that the sword, fearing your great power, spared no effort to eliminate your influence. Therefore, after some discussion, the Saints collected everything in the clan related to you and sealed it all in this secret chamber, and the First Saint, in the last years of her life, constantly used all her power to bless and reinforce these scrolls and objects."

"In the end, the First Saint was exhausted, and she ordered the secret chamber to be sealed from the outside, leaving a will: only when the one whose name cannot be mentioned comes to eliminate the 'shadow entrenched in the holy land' can this door be opened. Later, the Demon Hunters brought me to this tower. I spent a thousand years gaining their trust, and eventually, I was placed in this place to guard the secret chamber."

Hao Ren was about to walk towards the secret chamber when he suddenly became a little curious: "I'm very curious about one thing—how did you gain the Demon Hunters' trust?"

Mimir possessed respectable ancient wisdom, and even the Demon Hunters sometimes needed to seek help from his knowledge, but apart from that, this guardian giant was still an "oddity" in the eyes of the Demon Hunters. Hao Ren could imagine that when the Norse pantheon had just been destroyed, ordinary Demon Hunters would definitely confuse Mimir with Odin and the others—Demon Hunters in a state of fanaticism couldn't distinguish between the two.

"Gaining trust wasn't easy. At first, they really wanted to kill me," Mimir said calmly. "But they didn't act immediately. Instead, they wanted to get some ancient knowledge from me first. So, I stayed in the Spirit World Clock Tower for a long time, until I was controlled by the whispers of the Dark Sword, just like them. I think that's why they dispelled their hostility towards me."

After the other party was also controlled by the "whispers," the Demon Hunters dispelled their suspicion and hostility towards Mimir?

Hao Ren nodded slightly, gaining a deeper understanding of the power patterns of the Godslaying Sword: that sword seemed to be looking for servants, and anyone who was also controlled by it would be forcibly assigned to the same camp.

Led by Claude, the group entered the secret chamber behind Mimir.

Apart from being spacious enough, the furnishings in the secret chamber were simple and unadorned.

The room contained a stone bed and a set of stone table and stools, which were all the personal furniture used by the First Saint in her daily life. The bedding on the stone bed had long since rotted into dust, and some ancient, unidentifiable tools could still be seen on the stone table. Thick dust had accumulated on these pieces of furniture, completely covering their original colors and edges.

Apart from these, the secret chamber was filled with neat rows of large shelves along the walls.

The huge, ancient wooden shelves were filled with items, including primitive handwritten books, thick and heavy enchanted stone tablets, and equipment and holy objects from six thousand years ago that were completely different from those used by modern Demon Hunters. These ancient items were all covered in a thick layer of dust, but they were still intact under the protection of magic. Some of the items with special magical power were still glowing faintly, emitting light like fireflies in the darkness.

Bai Huo and Tutanin couldn't help but sigh softly after seeing these things. While Mimir was telling those ancient stories, the two Demon Hunters had been in a state of shock and speechlessness the whole time, but at this point, they seemed to have recovered. Bai Huo covered his chest: "These are the relics of the First Saint..."

Tutanin looked at Vivian, seemingly trying to avoid Mimir's attention, and lowered his voice: "I still have reservations about those stories."

"That's only natural," Vivian nodded lightly, not taking it to heart. "To be honest, I still have some reservations myself. Mimir may not be lying, but he probably doesn't know everything either."

Tutanin didn't answer, but just shook his head with a complex expression. Obviously, he didn't know what to say at this point.

"These things have been preserved very well," Vivian silently walked to the ancient bookshelves and casually took down a scroll from one of them. Six thousand years' worth of accumulated dust flew up and was blown away by her wave of her hand. "...Early reclamation records of Corpus."

Hao Ren took out the terminal: "Scan, archive."

These things were priceless treasures—not only were they of great research value to Hao Ren, but they were also precious cultural relics of the Demon Hunters, so he didn't plan to forcibly confiscate them by virtue of his merits in quelling the chaos. The data terminal's scanning function was enough to preserve all the details of these cultural relics, which was enough for research purposes.

While Vivian and Hao Ren were reveling in these ancient books and scrolls, Lily quickly lost patience. She wandered around the furniture that the First Saint had once used, and curiously fiddled with the strange little gadgets on the table.

As she fiddled with those ancient utensils, a thoughtful expression gradually appeared on her face.

"After the First Calamity of Madness, these books were affected by a mysterious force," Claude came to Hao Ren and Vivian, carefully flipping through the documents as he whispered, "Only the Saints could see the words on them. When ordinary people read these books, they would have a headache and find it difficult to read. Even now, people still occasionally find ancient documents in the vast archives of the library that cannot be read. Except for a small portion that are truly forbidden books, most of them are because they record the name of Vivian Anseista or the deeds of the Fourteenth Saint. However, the important books have all been sealed in this secret chamber. Most of those found outside are insignificant things..."

Not far away, Lily listened to Claude, Hao Ren, and the others chattering about these ancient stories that made her head spin, and yawned a long yawn out of boredom. She swept the First Saint's stone bed with her tail, and after roughly cleaning off the dust, she plopped down on it.

An increasingly strong feeling of sleepiness spread over her, and the husky girl yawned again, this time almost squeezing out tears.

In the daze brought on by drowsiness and yawning, she saw a petite female figure suddenly appear out of nowhere at the door. This figure walked in casually, wandering around the secret chamber.

"Who are you?" Lily asked curiously.

"Who are you talking to?" Izhaks turned around curiously to take a look.

Lily pointed in a certain empty direction: "Isn't there someone standing there... Huh? Where'd they go?"

The place she pointed to was empty.

"Uh, I'm probably just confused from being sleepy!" Lily patted her head in embarrassment, jumped off the stone bed, and then expertly squatted down and patted a certain spot on the stone bed. A few taps opened a hidden compartment that no one had noticed before. She reached into the hidden compartment and rummaged around, but only pulled out a handful of black crumbs. "Oh no, what happened to my snacks?"

The secret chamber was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Everyone stared dumbfounded at Lily's actions, and Claude couldn't help but blurt out: "How did you know there was a compartment there?!"

"Huh? Of course I know, I designed it," Lily had a confused look on her face, but she still answered subconsciously. Then she went straight to the stone table and sat down, tidying up the things on it while shouting to the outside, "Fingel! Bring me my magic crystal! And tell Betoris to... Why is it so dirty here?"