Evolution: From Little Devil to Devil Empress

Chapter 582: Encounter With Corpse

"At the moment, it seems that the ancient city, and the civilization as a whole, hide certain secrets that could prove beneficial to my future."

"There is no reason to gamble unless necessary."

Having made her decision, and seeing that Elaouthr had yet to enter the tower, Liora waved a hand and left behind a message.

Then, carrying the azure token, she ascended the staircase.

The second floor contained more display cases.

Only this time, the treasures were noticeably more valuable. If one had to describe it, the objects behind the glass were upgraded forms of those on the first floor.

The third floor was the same, as was the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, etc.

As Liora climbed through the floors, she witnessed with her own two eyes as the items became increasingly precious, while the title of recommended cultivation changed.

Core Formation. Nascent Soul. Soul Transformation.

Although Liora had no understanding of what these realms represented, she could still sense the increasingly terrifying auras emanating from the treasures.

By the time she reached the higher floors, even she felt tempted.

For a brief moment, she considered whether it would have been more worth it to simply smash every display case apart and plunder the items inside.

Fortunately, just as that thought crossed her mind, she stepped onto yet another floor.

This time, the scenery was finally different.

Instead of another showroom, a vast library stretched before her.

Hundreds of bookshelves lined the hall, each neatly filled with jade slips every few meters.

Liora’s consciousness swept across them one by one, and she communicated with them.

Normally, the information engraved within them should have poured directly into her mind.

Yet it didn’t.

Nothing happened.

It was as though the jade slips were all empty, merely being ornaments to decorate these empty bookshelves.

If Elaouthr had stood in her shoes, he would have likely blamed this on the passage of time.

However, Liora had other thoughts. Her previous suspicions grew even stronger.

"The higher the floor, the more precious the treasures become. Some of the weapons below were already capable of threatening Rank 10 Awakeners on their own."

"If these jade slips occupy an even higher floor, their contents should be even more precious."

"Simple information can’t be worth that much. There is only one possibility..."

Techniques—exactly what Liora had wanted to find from the beginning but had utterly failed.

Combined with the strange omissions in the phantom’s final message, everything suddenly became much clearer.

"It seems some force deliberately erased specific knowledge."

"The techniques of the cultivation civilization just so happen to be one of them. The disaster that possibly led to the city’s destruction is also the same."

"I doubt this is limited to these two buildings. More likely, the records of the entire ancient city have been deliberately wiped clean."

"To accomplish something on this scale... It’s either a being beyond the Ancient Devil stage, or..."

Liora didn’t finish that thought.

After giving the empty jade slips one final glance, she turned toward the staircase once more.

Originally, she expected to encounter several more floors filled with empty libraries.

Yet as she landed on the next floor, she soon realized that she had been worrying over nothing.

What greeted her was neither another library nor another exhibition hall.

Rather, it was a long corridor that stretched seemingly infinitely into the distance, branching into countless individual rooms.

Several doors were partially open.

Through them, Liora could glimpse spacious chambers furnished with various pieces of furniture and some cultivation equipment.

Above every entrance hung a plaque with a number painted on it, ranging from one to a thousand.

The layout felt as familiar as everything she had seen so far.

Liora quickly understood. This must have been the residential area of the Heavenly Armory Pavilion.

Or more accurately, a place where the ancient practitioners could stay to practice.

As she instinctively approached the nearest chamber, she found that the door was locked.

Even after presenting the azure token, it remained completely unmoved, not budging in the slightest.

The token was obviously not of a high enough level to grant her authority to enter the private quarters.

Liora shook her head.

She tried several more rooms, only to receive the same result.

Eventually, she gave up and entered one of the half-open chambers instead.

As the door was pushed open from the outside, the empty interior was revealed.

The room was spotless.

Apart from the ordinary furnishings and some cultivation necessities, nothing of value could be seen.

Signs of daily life were everywhere, while a half-filled teacup still rested atop a wooden table.

Everything pointed to the fact that it was not an abandoned room, but that its owners had left in haste.

Besides these clues, nothing else could be seen.

At least, not at first glance.

The moment Liora stepped inside, however, she sensed something unusual.

The room contained no trace of Cosmic Energy at all.

Although a formation was constantly operating, endlessly drawing energy from the outside world into the chamber, it achieved nothing.

The neighboring rooms were no different, making it obvious that this was not the result of a single damaged formation.

"Did cultivators use another form of energy instead of Cosmic Energy? But that doesn’t make sense..."

"I can sense no other fundamental energy throughout the universe. Cosmic Energy should be the only one."

Unable to find an answer, Liora simply moved on.

She entered room after room, hoping to discover anything of value.

Unfortunately, she found nothing.

Just as she was beginning to believe the entire floor was empty and prepared to continue upward, however, her footsteps suddenly halted.

Her eyes narrowed.

As another door was swung open, her gaze immediately locked onto the blurry figure inside.

It was the first of its kind she had encountered within the city fragment.

It was a corpse.

Seated cross-legged in silent meditation, it exuded an aura that faintly surpassed the Archdevil stage.

Most of its skin had fallen off, revealing the bones inside, which glowed with a golden color.

It seemed that this corpse had remained motionless for countless years.

Yet Liora’s arrival appeared to have triggered some kind of mechanism.

Something hidden within the corpse was activated.

Its tightly shut eyes slowly opened.

Then, its neck moved accordingly so that they could stare straight at Liora.