426: Leonardo Cowell

The mine chamber fell into sudden, deathly silence, leaving the remaining few pale-faced; staring at their companion's corpse, their eyes were filled with undisguisable terror.

The small leader forced himself to remain calm and spat, "Damn it, what bad luck."

"Drag him to the side and continue working."

"Whoever dares to dawdle again, don't blame me for being impolite." He had just finished speaking.

Shang Wan Ning keenly sensed an intangible, malevolent mental fluctuation suddenly spreading from the center of that exposed blood marrow ore.

The bodies of the remaining miners stiffened simultaneously, their eyes gradually becoming unfocused and chaotic, and they let out meaningless roars from their throats, clearly having been affected as well.

Shang Wan Ning furrowed her brows.

Her Sea of Consciousness permeated downward, piercing through the hard rock strata.

Ten meters, thirty meters, fifty meters...

When her Sea of Consciousness touched the region a hundred meters below, even she raised her eyebrows slightly.

Below was not the mineral vein she had expected, but a massive sinkhole.

Dense piles of skeletons formed a mountain, having accumulated for who knows how many years, with resentment and death energy nearly liquefied.

And at the peak of that bone pile, a skeleton clad in tattered black armor and holding a rusted greatsword stood silently, with ghostly blue Soul Fire dancing in its eye sockets.

A Tier 5 Undead—Black Knight Lord.

No wonder these miners had gone mad; the mental bewitchment emitted by a Tier 5 Undead was enough to make ordinary people take their own lives in extreme terror.

Shang Wan Ning understood in her heart.

This blood marrow ore was likely nurtured over the years by relying on the immense blood energy and resentment of this pit of a thousand people.

Viscount Morris was daring enough to mine this ore, awakening the slumbering undead.

The Black Knight Lord had not yet fully awakened, but the power it was emitting was already beyond what mortals could endure.

It was purely good luck that Therese hadn't encountered any trouble when she came here to collect moon moss before, as she hadn't hit the undead's active period. Now that the miners were excavating on a large scale, they had essentially poked a hornet's nest.

"Tsk, troublesome." Shang Wan Ning rubbed her temples.

She was not one to meddle in other people's business; what did the life or death of beings in this other world have to do with her?

But if this Tier 5 Undead were to fully awaken and rush out of the mine, Chisong Town would instantly be turned into a dead zone.

She didn't want to change places to "experience life" just yet.

Moreover, the reason for this undead's formation piqued her interest.

In the mine chamber, the only remaining small leader was in a slightly better state, but his eyes were bloodshot, and he was gripping his weapon, waving it wildly at the air: "Get away, all of you get away, don't come over."

Shang Wan Ning no longer hid and slowly stepped out from the shadows.

Her footsteps were exceptionally clear in the deathly silent mine chamber.

The small leader turned his head abruptly, and seeing the young girl in black clothes with a blurred face, he immediately shouted sternly, "Who is it?"

Answering him was a wisp of finger wind that Shang Wan Ning flicked out casually.

The small leader's body stiffened, and he fell straight to the ground, sinking into a faint. The other few miners who had lost their minds were also knocked unconscious by her with a casual wave.

After dealing with the small fry, Shang Wan Ning's gaze fell upon that patch of dark red blood marrow ore.

She pressed her fingers together like a sword and lightly slashed at the rock wall.

"Slish!"

The hard rock wall was sliced open like tofu, revealing a vertical passage behind it, and a chilling, bone-piercing aura of death rushed toward her.

From below the passage, the wailing cries of ten thousand souls could be vaguely heard.

Shang Wan Ning leaped down.

The hundred-meter distance was covered in an instant.

She landed lightly on top of the mountain of bones, her dress not gathering a speck of dust.

In front, at the peak of the bone mountain.

The Black Knight Lord's Soul Fire began to jump violently, having sensed an unprecedented threat.

"Trespassing... into my place of eternal rest... death."

The hoarse, fragmented mental fluctuation crashed into Shang Wan Ning's Sea of Consciousness, enough to instantly shatter the soul of any professional below Tier 5.

Shang Wan Ning didn't even lift her eyelids.

When that violent mental shock reached her, it was like a mud ox entering the sea, disappearing without a trace.

The Soul Fire in the Black Knight Lord's eye sockets froze abruptly; it had felt the divine power within the other party, vast as a sea of stars and majestic as a prison.

Instinctive fear made its massive skeletal body tremble slightly, and the rusted greatsword in its hand almost slipped from its grip.

"Shall we chat?"

The Black Knight Lord was obedient, its Soul Fire flickering on and off.

(* ﾟ ﾛ ﾟ )!!

"You are not a naturally formed undead. The style of this armor belongs to the 'Garrison Knights' of the Violet Kingdom three hundred years ago. Why did you gather here and turn into undead?" Shang Wan Ning pointed out the undead's origins directly.

She had read the historical records of the Ativi Continent and had some understanding of the military systems of various countries.

The Black Knight Lord's skeletal body shook, and intense emotional fluctuations poured out from its Soul Fire—anger, unwillingness, resentment...

"Why... hehe... why..." it emitted a difficult mental echo.

"We were ordered to guard the border... repel the orcs... return in triumph... what awaited us... was not a reward... but a trap... it was a massacre."

The intermittent mental information outlined a buried history.

Three hundred years ago, a branch of the "Eagle" Garrison Knights was ordered to intercept an orc raiding party moving south and returned in great victory.

While passing through the Chisong Town area to rest, they were lured into this mine by a noble of that time—the ancestor of the Morris family—under the guise of celebrating their victory.

Then, the massacre began.

"They feared that our achievements would overshadow the master... they embezzled military pay and trafficked supplies, and we held the evidence... they needed to silence us... and they needed the flesh and resentful souls of our soldiers... to sacrifice to an evil god in exchange for power."

The Black Knight Lord's mental fluctuations were filled with sorrow.

"A full thousand soldiers... a thousand loyal souls... were buried alive here... the resentment did not dissipate, turning us into undead... I, Knight Commander Leonardo Cowell, cannot close my eyes in death."

"Hatred! Hatred! Hatred!"

The sky-high resentment was almost overflowing.

Shang Wan Ning suddenly understood.

So it was the fear of being overshadowed by high achievements combined with political infighting that evolved into a bloody massacre and an evil god sacrifice.

This Morris family, their ancestors were nothing good to begin with; no wonder they act so despicably today.

The blood marrow ore was likely the product of that evil god sacrifice and the resentment of a thousand loyal souls combined.

"Evil god? Which evil god?"

"Unknown... only knew of the sacrifice... to summon... the 'Thousand-Faced Shadow'..." The Black Knight Lord's mental fluctuations became chaotic and blurry; clearly, its rank back then was not high enough to access core secrets.

Thousand-Faced Shadow?

Shang Wan Ning searched through her memories; it seemed to be a weak evil god that had occasionally appeared in the history of the Ativi Continent, having long since been silent for many years.

"Who... exactly are you?" The Black Knight Lord looked at Shang Wan Ning, its Soul Fire filled with awe.

"Just passing by, and I didn't like what I saw." Shang Wan Ning said bluntly.

She raised her hand and pointed into the air.

A faint light containing the aura of the Law of Reincarnation submerged into the Black Knight Lord's Soul Fire.

The Black Knight Lord's massive skeletal body shook violently; the violence, resentment, and madness accumulated in its Soul Fire over three hundred years were rapidly purified and stripped away by that faint light.

The Soul Fire gradually became clear; although there was still sorrow, it lacked the madness of destruction.