Chapter 364: Chapter 363: Hall Spirit: Life and Death in a Thought

Richard appeared in a strange place.

Moments before, he was in Hall 15, deep within a tomb, and the next, he materialized here.

Looking up, the faint reddish glow in his eyes scanned the surroundings, piercing through the heavy darkness, he could see it was a space that could be called enormous.

Beneath his feet was soft soil, but void of any plants or traces of living creatures. The land stretched out into the distance, ending at edges that resembled walls.

The edges appeared to be constructed of the white boulders commonly seen at the White Stone Tower. But upon closer approach and touch, he discovered they were not made of stone but an unidentifiable material, exceedingly smooth, without any seams–utterly monolithic.

Looking upward along the edges of the “walls,” he saw a sky-like ceiling, perhaps thousands or tens of thousands of meters high, with no visible end.

After sweeping his gaze around, Richard roughly understood the basic layout. He withdrew his attention and focused on the palace standing in the middle of the massive space.

Yes, a palace.

In the center of this vast, lifeless space stood a palace of glittering gold brilliance, its opulence far surpassing the lavishness of any ordinary royal palace.

To Richard, not a single palace within the Blue Lion Kingdom could compare.

So, what could be inside this palace?

With narrowed eyes, Richard strode toward the palace, climbed the steps, and finally entered.

Inside, he found the interior to be as deathly still as the outside, with numerous coffin-like boxes laid out as if they were coffins.

“Tap, tap, tap…”

Richard walked up to one of the boxes, “creak,” he carefully opened it, revealing a trove of shimmering silver coins.

Opening another, it was full of glittering gold coins.

The third revealed a box full of gemstones, diamonds, pearls, and exquisite jewelry.

The fourth contained peculiar and delicate artifacts.

“Hmm…” Richard’s eyes flickered as he went straight to the last box, “creak,” upon opening, he found it filled with High-grade Crystal Coins!

High-grade Crystal Coins!

Even as composed a person as Richard, the astounding quantity of Crystal Coins in the box made his eyelids twitch involuntarily.

“Huh–”

Taking a deep breath, Richard shifted his gaze away from the box of crystal coins, contemplating aloud to himself, “A treasure, indeed. With these, even if I can’t be rich enough to rival kingdoms, I could certainly become wealthy. But…”

Richard turned his head toward the depths of the palace.

To him, the wealth in the boxes was tempting, but it paled in significance. More than riches, what he desired were things with research value beyond the wealth.

So…

“Tap, tap, tap…”

Richard walked towards the deepest part of the palace and soon reached the end, where there was a stone table with a symbol on it.

The symbol was familiar, representing the Black Spirit Empire: firstly a triangle, then a circle placed within the triangle, and lastly a line segment passing vertically through both the triangle and the circle.

Compared to the symbol he had seen in the books of the Black Spirit Empire, the symbol on the stone table was different–not drawn, but assembled from several objects.

Yes, assembled.

The three edges of the triangle were three slender magic scrolls.

The circle in the middle was a spherical object the size of a fist.

The vertical line, then, was a pitch-black Short Wand.

Richard looked at these items for a while and, finally, he reached out and picked up the Short Wand. He waved it around but didn’t notice anything special; it seemed to be just an ordinary Short Wand.

Then Richard picked up the fist-sized spherical object. It was quite heavy, and it felt metallic to the touch, but after examining it for a long time, he still couldn’t find anything special about it. It seemed to be just an ordinary Metallic Ball.

At last, Richard picked up the three slender Magic Scrolls and carefully opened them to see their names.

The first Magic Scroll: “Shadow Cloak.”

The second Magic Scroll: “Wind Lord.”

The third Magic Scroll: “Eye of Gaze.”

After looking through the three Magic Scrolls, Richard’s lips pursed slightly. He was unsure about the specific effects of the spells. After pondering for a moment, he waved his hand, putting the Magic Scrolls, the spherical object, and the Short Wand all into the Space Iron Ring and turned back towards the way he had come.

“Clatter, clatter, clatter…”

Just then, a sudden “hiss” of blowing air came from behind him, like a trumpeter blowing with all his might, trying to clear the dust jammed in the trumpet’s tube.

“Hiss!”

“Hiss!”

“Cough!” After a while, the blowing sounds ceased, followed by a light cough, and an elderly voice emerged, questioning, “Who is it?”

“Who has intruded upon the great Black Spirit King’s treasure hall?”

“Who has taken away the sacred artifacts like a thief?”

“Who has disturbed my sleep and now prepares to leave without even a greeting?”

“Hmm?” Richard blinked and looked towards the source of the voice, which was a Golden Mask hanging on the wall behind the Stone Table. He had originally thought it was just one of many decorations in the palace but was surprised to discover that the mask was conscious and could speak. It appeared to be similar to the Book Spirit from the “Monroe Chapter,” that is, a sealed Spirit of sorts.

Speaking of which, after the Book Spirit from the “Monroe Chapter” was stumped by his questions, it had not responded since, allowing him to use the “Monroe Chapter” without any obstacles to this day. He couldn’t help but be curious about whether the Book Spirit was alive or dead. If it was alive, then asking a few more questions about pi might just manage to question it to death.

Thinking these thoughts, Richard waved to the Golden Mask on the wall to greet it.

Yet the Golden Mask continued as if he hadn’t seen Richard, shouting, “Who? Who is it that has broken in here? Come out at once.”

“Hmm? Can it not see in the dark?” Richard guessed as he looked at the Golden Mask, “If that’s the case…”

“Snap!”

Richard snapped his fingers, and a ball of Flames appeared at his fingertips, illuminating his body and allowing the Golden Mask to finally behold his presence.

“Uh, just some inconspicuous lad, I thought it was someone else.” The voice of the Golden Mask slowed when it saw Richard.

Richard questioned the Golden Mask, “Who are you?”

“Me?” The Golden Mask replied slowly, “I am the Guardian of the great Black Spirit King’s treasure hall, a Spirit that has been slumbering for a very long time.”

“Guardian? Spirit?” Richard’s eyes twinkled, “So, you’re saying you’re a Hall Spirit?” This was in line with his prior conjecture.

“You may refer to me as that,” the Hall Spirit said, not denying it.

“Then…” Richard’s eyes widened, a light of indescribable clarity shining within them, “Then, do you have any objections to my taking things from here?”

“Hmm?”

“Just now, I sensed a hint of hostility in your tone. Does that mean you would be angry if I take something away? In other words, do I have to pass your test in order to take things from here successfully? And does this test require me to answer your questions, or could it be that I need to ask you questions instead?”

“Uh–this…”