The massive vault door groaned open, exhaling a dense wave of tainted abyssal Qi that coiled like smoke around the Dread Duchess’s feet. Her veil fluttered, and her eyes glimred with a predatory calm as she stepped into the eerie chamber.
The sight before her was not one of wealth or grand treasure, nor were there any secrets she was hoping for, but of ruin and horror, just like what Ace and Zaria had witnessed.
The chamber was vast, hollow, and silent save for the faint hum of runes still flickering weakly upon the walls. Chains hung like serpents from the ceiling, all converging upon a single point where a figure suspended in midair, mutilated, bound, and pulsing faintly with sealing sigils.
Her gaze sharpened the mont it landed on him, and unlike both Ace and Zaria, she was neither weak nor suppressed as her abyssal law sense pierced the layers of suppression and rotting Qi!
There it was, faint but undeniable. The sa abyssal aura that once belonged to the true City Lord of Black Hermit.
"Khazar!"
There was no mistaking it, and a cold fury ignited in her chest. She had stood beside the imposter. She had spoken to him, ordered him, might’ve even relied upon him, all the while this mockery had been wearing Khazar’s face.
That’s also why she was able to sense the familiar aura from the chained figure, no matter how suppressed it was, and confird the chained figure’s identity.
Nonetheless, to be deceived so completely, right under her throne, within her domain, the humiliation burned hotter than her rage.
At that mont, her gloved fingers curled slightly as abyssal Qi stirred like the tempest restrained by will.
"So," She murmured, voice low and venomous, "It was him all along. The real Khazar... reduced to this."
As she stepped closer, she could sense the faint residue of that sa nefarious aura that had erupted from the fake Khazar’s corpse monts before. It lingered like a disease upon the chains; it was twisted, hateful, and corrosive. Her expression darkened even further.
’That sa corruption...that sa taint. They orchestrated this and dared to bury their sches in my city. If not for that strange Qi’s eruption, I’d still be blind to it all...’ The thought cut like a blade.
The realization that she, the Dread Duchess of Obsidian Myriad Kingdom, a Half-Abyssal King whose will could crush armies, had nearly been outplayed by so unseen hand gnawed at her pride.
If that imposter’s plan had succeeded, if this secret had remained buried, both she and her kingdom might’ve paid a catastrophic price.
Her eyes narrowed. "No ordinary infiltrator could have achieved this. The false Khazar’s control thod, his mannerisms, even his aura, were all too perfect. Whoever’s behind this... isn’t just powerful, they are ticulous!"
She paused, frowning faintly as she thought, ’But then... where did that Qi co from? That ripple of ti law imbued with that intoxicating Qi... I still sense its residue, faint, foreign, but it didn’t originate from him!’
Her gaze swept the chamber once more. The chains, the walls, and the distorted aura, none of them carried the trace of that Qi or ti law.
This made her believe that the temporal Qi had originated from sowhere else or soone else, and considering the fake Khazar’s reaction, she was certain that a third party had intervened.
Her instincts sharpened, "This vault...it’s not just a prison. That fool or that mastermind behind him won’t be foolish enough to build sothing like this just to keep a weakling imprisoned!"
She began scanning the area, her law sense piercing through every inch of the stone. The deeper she probed, the more she realized this entire vault had been constructed with precision far beyond re containnt, as if it were a system—a layered formation of concealnt, suppression, and deception.
However, right at that mont, her eyes froze when sothing on the ground beneath the chained Khazar shimred faintly.
It was a reflection of gem light beneath the dust. She descended slowly, the heels of her boots clicking softly against the runic floor.
There, right below the figure’s suspended shadow, words had been ’carved’, no, they were inlaid, into the obsidian stone itself using perfectly cut Abyss Gems.
Moreover, those Abyss Gems were tier-7, at the very least, which was a ridiculous waste of fortune to use them like that.
However, for the Dread Duchess, who was filthy rich, what froze her heart wasn’t the extravagance, but it was the ssage itself, which read...
"I leave the rest to you now, and pay more attention to your backyard!
"Don’t let soone else clean it up for you, for it’s not polite and unethical!
"Anyway, your incompetent self still owes ...
"From yours truly, Unlucky Boss!"
The Duchess stared, and for a mont, silence reigned.
Then her veil fluttered slightly as a single exhale slipped through her lips and a sound halfway between a hiss and a laugh rang...
"Which vermin dared?!"
Her expression shifted rapidly between anger, disbelief, irritation, and finally, reluctant amusent, all warring beneath her poised deanor.
The dark lines creased her forehead as she muttered under her breath, "Unlucky Boss, is that what you called? What a ridiculous na..."
But even as she spoke, a faint realization dawned, and her amusent faded back into wary calculation.
Whoever this ’Unlucky Boss’ person was, he was the source of that strange Qi, not Khazar, nor the imposter.
Nonetheless, she was now both curious and wary about this ’Unlucky Boss’ because it was clear that this person had infiltrated so deeply into the Lord Castle and then used the ti law to open the master lock, which even she couldn’t do without using force.
Lastly, that intoxicating Qi which were sothing that even she hadn’t sensed in her life.
What made this ’Unlucky Boss’ even more interesting is that ’he’ left behind not just chaos, but also a ssage, addressed to her.
Her gaze lifted toward the chained figure once more, and her eyes glead coldly beneath her veil, ’Incompetent fool!’
The next mont, her gaze again lingered on those Abyss Gems, and a faint smile, dangerous and regal, curved her lips, "Interesting, very well. I’ll repay this favor by not hanging your head at my doorstep but only this once!"
The air trembled slightly as her aura rippled outward, sealing the chamber once again.
However, the faint echo of the ’Unlucky Boss’s’ taunting words seed to linger, glinting faintly in those gem-carved letters, a mocking reminder that even the Dread Duchess had been outplayed!
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