'The National Treasure Box... What is this thing?'
Sitting in the cafe, Miss Dorothy looked at the asset list in Naifnis's hand, and a hint of curiosity arose in her heart. What was inside this so-called National Treasure Box? She was very concerned about it for a moment.
'Mazhar was the last prince of the Baruk Dynasty, and also the first crown prince. If the Baruk Dynasty hadn't been overthrown, then Mazhar would have been the next Baruk King. So this National Treasure Box is likely something passed down by each generation of Baruk Kings. What good thing could make a country last for hundreds of years?'
Touching her chin, Miss Dorothy pondered with interest, immediately becoming curious about this Royal Family heirloom. From the list in Naifnis's hand, although Mazhar's wealth was vast, it was basically all secular assets. Except for this so-called Treasure Box, there were almost no items that could be related to Extraordinary. Therefore, Miss Dorothy was now curious about what was inside this box.
After a brief consideration, Miss Dorothy decided to have Neff, who was far away, retrieve the so-called National Treasure Box and study it herself to see what was inside.
Next, after giving instructions to Neff in the distance, Miss Dorothy sat there, waiting while drinking coffee and reading a book. After waiting for about an hour, Naifnis, who had already changed her disguise, hurried into the cafe, walked up to the second floor, and sat down in front of Miss Dorothy. After taking a long breath and resting for a while, she opened her eyes and spoke to Miss Dorothy with a hint of excitement.
"Miss Dorothy... we, we've struck it rich this time! That fat prince is so rich! With his assets, we won't have to worry about food and drink for several lifetimes!"
With stars in her eyes, Neff said directly, with a trace of unconcealed happiness on her face. Miss Dorothy responded calmly after taking a sip of coffee.
"He is a prince of a country, after all. Although he has fallen, he still has this much wealth."
"Yes... I initially thought that guy might have some money, but I didn't expect him to have so much! This is much more than the money we got from direct robbery and covert theft..."
Neff continued to say with emotion. After gradually accepting her identity as a thief, some qualities in her heart seemed to be gradually awakening. Her obsession with gold, silver, and treasures had significantly increased. This made Miss Dorothy sigh for a moment, thinking she was indeed born into a family of tomb raiders.
Then, Miss Dorothy and Naifnis chatted for a few more sentences. Since Neff had also contributed to this operation, Miss Dorothy directly gave Neff 1,500 pound of the 3,000 pound cash from Mazhar's inheritance as a reward. Therefore, she was also eager to go shopping. After Miss Dorothy finally instructed Neff on some precautions, Neff hurried out of the cafe, leaving behind a not-so-small square package wrapped in white cloth on the table. It was clear that this was the item Naifnis had just retrieved from the Craftsmen's Guild stronghold not long ago, the National Treasure Box from the list.
Looking at the package on the table, Miss Dorothy unhurriedly finished the rest of her coffee, then got up and took the package to the restroom. There, she put the package into her magic box, then walked out of the restroom and left the cafe.
Next, Miss Dorothy hailed a carriage and quickly returned to the hotel where she was staying. After returning to her room, she placed the package on the table and then opened it.
After unwrapping the white cloth, what appeared before Miss Dorothy was an iron box engraved with complex patterns. These patterns included the Baruk's guardian beast, the scorpion, the Baruk Royal Family's emblem, and some other symbols of authority. The iron box was quite large, and Miss Dorothy felt it was quite heavy when she lifted it, which made her even more curious about what was inside.
Next, Miss Dorothy did not rush to open the iron box. To prevent any mechanisms or curses inside, she set up a divination array on the spot to predict whether there would be danger after opening the iron box. Since the Baruk Dynasty's anti-divination system was finished, and this iron box was not like Mazhar and Ma'ad, who had other forces providing anti-divination for them for other reasons, Miss Dorothy's divination was successful on the first try. After confirming that there was no danger inside the iron box, she finally began to try to open it.
However, the opening process was not smooth. Miss Dorothy first tried to open the box directly but found that it did not move at all. After carefully examining it for a while, she found a small hole like a keyhole on one side of the box, which seemed to be for inserting a key. Just as Miss Dorothy was troubled that she seemed to have no key, she suddenly had a flash of inspiration and thought of a point.
Miss Dorothy opened the magic box and rummaged inside for a while, then found a metal seal. This was obtained from Mazhar, the seal of the Baruk King. Not long ago, Miss Dorothy had used this seal to stamp Mazhar's will.
After taking out the seal, Miss Dorothy held it in her hand and fiddled with it for a while. Then, after Miss Dorothy twisted the handle of the seal and turned it vigorously, the head of the seal opened with a "click" sound, and a key-shaped toothed iron piece extended from it.
Next, Miss Dorothy inserted this key into the keyhole of the iron box and turned it directly. With a "click" sound from inside, Miss Dorothy pulled out the key, then pulled open the lid of the iron box, revealing what was inside, which was a rolled-up beast skin scroll.
"It's actually a scroll..."
Looking at the contents of the iron box, Miss Dorothy murmured, then opened the scroll to read it. After the scroll was opened, what came into Miss Dorothy's eyes were dense texts. Fortunately, it was in North Wu language and not ancient North Wu language, which Miss Dorothy could still barely understand.
After scanning the information on the scroll a few times, Miss Dorothy roughly understood the content.
"Royal Sacrifice Book... This is a sacrifice guide book..."
The scroll in Miss Dorothy's hand at this time was a sacrifice guide, which recorded a sacrifice ceremony called "Monarch Sacrifice". The object of this ceremony was the founding king of Baruk, Rahman. Baruk.
According to legend, more than nine hundred years ago, the original ruler of Adis, the Dofen Dynasty, firmly supported the True Shining Lord and fought against the Shining Light Church during the Holy War when the Shining Light Church invaded North Wu. Due to the entire country's firm faith and strong fighting power, the Dofen Dynasty became one of the main forces of the North Wu allied army resisting the Shining Light Church's invasion in the Holy War.
However, there was a huge disparity in strength between the North Wu allied army and the Shining Light Church, which controlled the entire Main Continent. Even if the allied army fought hard, they could not stop the advance of the Holy War Army. Just when the allied army was feeling desperate, due to the Shining Light Church's own excessive losses, they proposed a theoretical concession to the North Wu countries, acknowledging that the True Shining Lord and the Radiant Savior were one, in order to appease and recruit the North Wu countries. Due to the powerful strength of the Shining Light Church, most of the North Wu countries also compromised with the Shining Light Church, with only a few countries choosing to resist for the sake of the true Lord's ideals. Among them, Adis of the Dofen Dynasty was one.
Later, the Dofen Dynasty, which chose to resist, was destroyed by the Shining Light Church's Holy War Army, and the Adis region fell into a state of division, becoming a chaotic land with warlords everywhere, bandits rampant, and roving bandits all over the place. There were wars everywhere, and four dynasties were established and destroyed in just two hundred years. The entire land was in chaos.
Rahman lived at that time. Legend has it that he was originally just an ordinary shepherd, who became an Extraordinary due to some encounters while herding. He then used his Extraordinary power to form a force and establish a civilian protection group, providing shelter to a large number of ordinary civilians in the bloody chaos while fighting against the various forces on the land of Adis.
In years of war, Rahman was promoted all the way, eventually becoming a powerful Extraordinary of the Crimson Tier. He then used his powerful strength to eliminate the various armed forces on the land of Adis, announced the establishment of a country, and founded the Baruk Dynasty. Rahman then ruled Baruk for about fifty years, then retired behind the scenes, secretly guarding Baruk for more than two hundred years, and finally passed away at the advanced age of nearly three hundred.
After Rahman's death, he was secretly buried according to the will he had made, in the place where he had once encountered an extraordinary event. That place had already been built into a huge mausoleum beforehand, and from then on, Lakheman Royal Tomb became the Holy Land of the Baruk Dynasty.
From this volume of the Royal Sacrificial Book, Miss Dorothy learned that the succession ceremony for every Baruk king must be held at the Lakheman Royal Tomb. The Baruk king's succession there symbolizes Rahman bestowing the supreme power of Adus upon the new king.
The location of the Lakheman Royal Tomb is not known to outsiders; only the high-level members of the Baruk Dynasty's Royal Family and the Royal Priests know its whereabouts. Whenever a new king ascends the throne, they will take the Royal Sacrificial Book and the King's Proof, secretly go to the Royal Tomb, hold a ceremony there to obtain the qualification to be king, and then return to Adis to hold the grand succession ceremony before the people.
It is said that within the Lakheman Royal Tomb, the new king will directly face Rahman's soul and undergo a test before him. If the test is passed, the new king can return to ascend the throne. If the test is not passed, the new king will be stripped of their inheritance qualification, and the second-in-line heir will undergo the test as the new king. If they still don't pass, they will switch to the third-in-line heir, and so on, until someone is qualified. Therefore, this ceremony is also called the Royal Trial.
'The Royal Trial... I didn't expect that this dynasty, which is already utterly corrupt and almost extinct... still has such a legacy. I wonder what kind of successor is needed to pass the test. If this trial is very strict, and only enlightened rulers with extremely excellent qualities can pass, then why would Baruk have decayed to its current state?'
Looking at the "Royal Sacrificial Book" in front of her, Miss Dorothy thought this in her heart. She really couldn't imagine what kind of trial someone of Mazhar's level could pass. Moreover, it seems that Mazhar is not the only good-for-nothing in the Baruk Royal Family; Ma'ad doesn't look like much either. To be able to mess up the country like this, the other members of the Royal Family are probably also worthless scum. They can still go for the trial? If they can pass, how easy can this trial be?
After sighing a little in her heart, Miss Dorothy refocused her attention on the "Royal Sacrificial Book". It not only wrote about the origin of the Royal Sacrifice and the specific location of the Lakheman Royal Tomb, but also described the specific steps for holding the Royal Sacrifice, including how to open the Royal Tomb and how to use ritual implements to arrange the ceremony.
Among these ritual implements, one caught Miss Dorothy's attention. This implement is called "minyin zunzhan" and is the most important tool in the entire ceremony.
According to the description in the "Royal Sacrificial Book", this minyin zunzhan is a precious implement blessed by the gods, a supreme treasure obtained by Rahman during his lifetime, and a key point of the sacrificial ceremony. The entire sacrificial ceremony can only be activated with it.
'An item blessed by the gods, this is a divine artifact! And listening to this name, it's clearly a divine artifact of'Silence'! The guys from the Baruk Royal Family actually kept such a good thing as a divine artifact of'Silence'?!'
Looking at the content on the "Royal Sacrificial Book", Miss Dorothy's eyes lit up, and she thought with extreme excitement in her heart. She hadn't expected to find a clue about a divine artifact of'Silence' here, and she hadn't expected it to be in the hands of the Baruk Royal Family.
As long as she confirmed which Royal Family member was keeping this thing, she could just go and get it herself, and wouldn't the item be in her hands soon? Given the Baruk Royal Family's current pathetic state, wouldn't it be easy to deal with them?
With this thought, Miss Dorothy immediately began to carefully examine the "Royal Sacrificial Book", wanting to find specific clues about the minyin zunzhan from it. However, after she finished reading the sacrificial book, she couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.
According to the records in the sacrificial book, because the minyin zunzhan is too important and deeply tied to the sacrificial ceremony, its storage location is inside the Lakheman Royal Tomb. Every time the ceremony begins, the person performing the ceremony needs to take out the minyin zunzhan to arrange the ceremony, and after the ceremony ends, they put the minyin zunzhan back into the Royal Tomb, then seal the Royal Tomb, waiting to take it out for use during the next ceremony.
That is to say, the minyin zunzhan is not currently in the hands of any member of the Baruk Royal Family, but is lying quietly within the Lakheman Royal Tomb. If one wants to obtain this divine artifact, they can only open the Royal Tomb and retrieve it from within. Fortunately, this sacrificial book records the hidden location of the Royal Tomb and the method to open it.
Looking at the content on the sacrificial book, Miss Dorothy couldn't help but fall into deep thought for a moment. After pondering for a while, she couldn't help but sigh.
"It seems that coming to North Wu, I still have to experience the intangible cultural heritage and traditional sports activities here. I didn't expect that after dealing with North Wu tomb robbers quite a bit... there would be a day when I would have to personally go tomb robbing..."
...
Just as Miss Dorothy was examining Baruk's National Treasure Box in her hotel, on the outskirts of Kankdar, in a dense suburban forest, a dark-skinned man wearing a North Wu robe was running rapidly through the dense forest. His speed was incredibly fast, unlike an ordinary person.
While running through the dense forest, the man kept looking back at the woods behind him. He saw a large amount of green smoke rising from the distance in the woods, as if something was burning there. The direction the man was looking was exactly where Robert's secret villa in the suburbs of Kankdar was located, the place where Mazhar's spirit was once imprisoned.
"Huff... huff... Why... why would the Inquisitor suddenly launch a raid? What went wrong with Robert's side? Why did they suddenly fall out with the Inquisitor?! Weren't their positions on Mazhar's matter consistent?"
After a long run, the man stopped, leaning against a tree and gasping as he muttered to himself. His expression showed confusion in addition to fatigue.
"No... I must report this immediately..."
Gritting his teeth, the man forced his tired body to kneel on the ground and quickly drew a magic circle. After that, he took out a test tube from his clothes, which contained a tiny bit of white powder.
Kneeling beside the magic circle, the man chanted an incantation. After finishing, he opened the test tube lid and sprinkled the powder. The powder ignited spontaneously above the magic circle, producing a large amount of white smoke. This white smoke automatically gathered above the magic circle, eventually forming a vague humanoid shape like a ghost. After looking at the man, the humanoid shape spoke.
"What's the rush? Yakalu."
"Something unexpected happened, Captain! The Robert stronghold I was at was just raided by the Tribunal! I happened to be outside the stronghold and escaped when I saw things were bad! For some unknown reason, Robert's side has fallen out with the Inquisitor from Holy Mountain!" The man explained, and his words caused the white smoke humanoid to show surprise.
"What? Where is Sazhuoya? Where is she? Why are you the only one here now?"
"I don't know. Sazhuoya suddenly disappeared before. I left the stronghold to look for her, but I didn't expect the people from the Tribunal to arrive shortly after I came out. Everyone else in the stronghold was captured. I was lucky enough to escape and have been on the run ever since. I haven't seen any sign of Sazhuoya during this time."
The man replied to the white smoke humanoid. After pondering for a while, the white smoke humanoid spoke again.
"Then what about the item? Did Robert and Ma'ad give us the item we wanted?"
"Well, not yet, Captain. According to Robert, that item is a secret treasure of Baruk, and only the first crown prince can possess it. Before Mazhar died, he stored the item with those cunning merchants at the Craftsmen's Guild. After Mazhar's death, they planned to go to the Craftsmen's Guild to handle the personal inheritance procedures, but these procedures are very complicated and haven't been completed yet, so the item is still stored there."