Chapter 214 - Unveiled Dagger
The bold characters within the diary didn't make much sense on their own, but once he places them together, something interesting will be found. Leon flipped through the pages of the diary from beginning to end. The bold characters could be found throughout.
Leon pulled out a spare notebook and ink pen and prepared to record down the bold characters from start in sequence, however, his hand paused on the first character before he proceeded to store everything away in his Worldspace.
Entering the Whitespace, he summoned the Worldspace projection and scanned the diary before creating a copy in the archive.
Under his will, Leon used the power of the Whitespace to filter out all the unnecessary contents of the copied version of the diary and only kept the bold characters.
The bold characters were subsequently placed in a new book he formed with his will. However, he was still not done. The bold characters were compacted together and didn't make any sense as a single entity.
Leon took the time to personally peruse the filtered content at this specific point to separate the compacted characters before words began to form and the hidden message slowly revealed itself.
What would have taken him hours through the tedious handwritten method or the mentally draining simulation method of his mind, was complete in under an incense worth of time. The entire process was smooth and at ease.
The convenience and prowess of the Whitespace could be seen at this point. It was like delegating all your work to a super-smart subordinate that completely understands what you wanted with a single command.
Leon sighed. How many functions did the [Divine Book of Life] had left that he had yet to uncover? He didn't know, but the artifact spirit definitely would.
'The [Divine Book of Life] had existed since the time of antiquity unknown to the denizens of the Divine Realm. However, one thing for sure is the artifact spirit of such a peerless treasure would have definitely accumulated a lot of wisdom of the long years since the beginning of its existence.'
'Knowledge pertaining to cultivation techniques, martial skills, spirit arts, divine arts, and other professions had not been recorded in the [Divine Book of Life], but perhaps the artifact spirit had them all stored in its own memory bank…'
Leon shook his head and focused on the deciphered hidden message Arden left behind in his diary.
"Life is like a puzzle. There is always a start and an ending. In life, people will be forced to make choices. Some are positive, some are not and fatal even. Even if the endpoint could be seen, it is uncertain whether they will be able to reach it until the path ahead had been tread."
"If the solution to realizing one's goal was given, how many would actually choose to believe it and blindly follow through the designs of others? How many can stay true to their conviction? How many would waver?"
Leon wasn't sure what Arden was trying to convey in his message but if someone told him he could kill all the divine kings by following that they say, he would think the person was crazy and a fraud that would screw him over.
Following the message that seemed to contain hidden meanings was a single character 'jade' that represents the Dragon Phoenix Jade, the starting point of the puzzle.
Below the 'jade' character were there directional words of left, right, and upward. Each direction was attached with a string of 'T' characters that could be seen flipped upside down, rotated sideways, or simply just 'T'.
It didn't take Leon hard to guess that these 'T' characters were referring to the positioning of the runic plates. Leon followed the instructions and turned the runic plates accordingly. After he was done, three runic lines connected the center plate on the front entrance of the inheritance building and the jade plate.
Ignoring the complexity of the runic lines itself, the runic plates formed a straight line to the entrance plate without any interruption of dead plates on each side of the cubic puzzle.
Leon waited afterward, but nothing special seems to happen after. However, the hidden clue didn't end with that set of instructions.
There was another set of messages afterward that stated, "A teacher points the way, but it is ultimately dependent on the student on how they tread their path."
Leon smiled wryly at this point. Of course, Arden wouldn't leave behind something that would solve the puzzle for him outright.
Arden was still expecting his successor to be able to solve the puzzle himself, but at least he was given a framework to work with and only needed to fill in the blanks.
By having a set of correct runic plates provided for him, the seemingly difficult puzzle became extremely easy with its infinite possibilities narrowed down to an extremely low number. This was the difference between working blindly and having something to work with.
It was like taking a multiple-choice test that you haven't learned about nor studied for. Even if you managed to guess the answer correctly, you might go back and second guess yourself and end up with the incorrect one.
Of course, these were just Leon's assumptions. Nothing was proven until he starts solving the puzzle.
Once he did though, everything became a lot smoother as he expected. Although mistakes were still made, it wasn't as bad as before.
Runic lines began lighting up one after the other and after an unknown period of time, every runic line had been lit up before he knew it.
When the last runic plate was rotated into position with a click, the pale purple light from the lit runic lines grew with increasing intensity, before it faded. No, it was more accurate to say that it congregated elsewhere, the sealed entrance at the front.
Heading over, Leon was soon absorbed when he began watching the fascinating mechanism of the inheritance building at work as the first layer of the seal entrance unraveled itself.
What was left behind in its place was a new layer. The entrance had not been opened. However, at the center of the second layer was a new runic plate.
This runic plate differentiated itself from any other runic plate he had seen. There were no runic lines on it, nor was it a dead plate for the entire plate itself was enshrouded in purple light.
Leon had a feeling that if he pushed on this plate with the palm of his hand, it would open the seal entrance before him, or at least something that would allow him inside would happen.
Just as he placed his hand on it, his body screamed danger! The danger didn't come from the inheritance building itself but from behind him!
He quickly attempted to steer his body away from the danger by dodging sideways, but his palm was surprisingly stuck to the plate shrouded in purple light like it has been fused with it, forcing his attempt to fail.
'Fuck.'
At that moment, he knew it was in trouble as his expression turned ghastly. A sharp object penetrated his body from behind.
He had grown complacent, believing that with the tree spirit's omnipotent divine sense, even if there was another spy in the group, they would not make a move until they had left the elder tree's range. The price he had to pay for that mistake was overwhelming.
Leon paled as he stared down at the tip of the steel sword sticking out of his chest. The sword was of the same designs like the ones carried by every palace guard.
The sword strike missed his heart due to his quick reaction, but it did not improve his situation. One of his lungs was punctured and strength slowly slipped from his body along with shortness of breath.
The next strike probably won't miss. He was trapped and despair gripped his heart. Why did this have to happen here?
"Che."
The assailant uttered, seemingly disappointed that his strike missed its intended target. Leon wanted to catch a glimpse of the assailant as he turned his head. When he actually saw the person, he only had one question.
"Why?"
Faced with Leon's question, the assailant did not show any guilt. Only a foreign look filled with coldness, a contrast from his stern but usually warm expression.
Zorbek cracked a cold smile and mockingly responded, "Birds will flock to greener trees. Thanks for the hard work."
'Thanks for the hard work?'
Leon glanced up to where the other palace guards were seen busy digging through the earthen ceiling and realized that Zorbek didn't go up there before to study the difficulty of their objective but to get a good vantage point to observe him!
Zorbek must've waited for him to complete whatever it was he was trying to do before taking action when the time was right.
Leon laughed self-deprecatingly at his own naivety and carelessness. He still had much to learn.
"What are you laughing nothing at?"
"Nothing. Don't expect things will go your way." Leon shook his head and said icily with determination. Excessive words were unneeded against an enemy.
Zorbek wasn't sure what Leon was about to do but he wasn't planning on waiting to find out. He pulled his sword out of Leon's body to deliver the finished blow, but he still wasn't quick enough.
Leon exerted some force with his palm that was glued to the bright purple plate, hoping for a miracle.
Once the plate was pressed inwards, a magical scene happened. Leon's body glowed with the same light before his entire body dissipated into particles of purple light before disappearing into the inheritance building.
Lilith had a hunch that something bad was going to happen and went to find Leon. However, she came too late, only enough to watch Leon disappear into particles of light as Zorbek hacked at nothing.
Zorbek's expression turned ugly. He took momentary delight in his victim's look of betrayal and despair and ended up failing his mission. He broke the ultimate rule for killing; To be merciless and relentless. Don't give your opponent chances to make a comeback.
"What the hell did you just do!?" Lilith shouted.
Zorbek smirked at her and tossed the bloodied sword in his hand over to her. Lilith caught it subconsciously, but her expression swiftly changed as she realized what the other person intended to do.
"Palace guards, to me!!!"
Sure enough. In the next moment, Zorbek issued a mighty angry roar to summon all the palace guards.
'Bastard!'
Lilith cursed. The person was planning to frame her!
She quickly turned around darted away before the palace guards arrive. Her explanations would be useless because she was considered an outsider.
The palace guards would rather believe the words of their captain than a beast.