Chapter 143: Awakening

"Was it really torn out?" After Ryan received the diary, he did not immediately examine its contents, but instead inspected the torn edge. Judging by the marks, it certainly was not torn by Xius.

Immediately, the three of them began to flip through the contents of the diary. As Xius had said, there was nothing hidden or omitted.

"Should we..." Gute felt a surge of temptation. He had originally assumed this was merely the secret realm of a Rank 2 wizard; he had not expected it to belong to a Rank 3 wizard. Although it was a bloodline wizard, as long as it could help him advance on his path, he did not care about the specifics.

"What if they discover the entrance?" Xius asked Mavis, his eyes glancing toward the portrait.

"Rest assured, I control that entrance. Even if they find it, they cannot enter!" Mavis replied with great confidence.

"This is the bedroom. We have searched for quite some time and have yet to find the laboratory; perhaps it is nearby. Let us keep looking," Ryan said, changing his mind and deciding to stay.

Minnie remained silent. Ma Fan's death had left her in a daze, and whether or not they stayed in this place no longer mattered to her.

"Then let us search the surrounding area," Gute suggested; after all, he did not want anyone else to meet with an accident.

In the waters outside the island, the sea, which had been surging, suddenly went still for a few seconds. Then, all living creatures steered clear of a certain area, scattering in all directions, not daring to linger.

"Has someone finally arrived?" A giant octopus, over a hundred meters long, stirred its tentacles in the depths of the sea, its eyes gleaming with a light of intelligence.

"Mavis!" After leaving the bedroom, Xius searched the surrounding area, calling out to Mavis anxiously.

From the very beginning, Xius had felt as if the blood in his veins were boiling, and he was gripped by a foreboding sense that something terrible was about to happen.

"What is it now? I told you, they cannot find that place!" Mavis, who was in the middle of absorbing energy, felt increasingly annoyed by Xius’s constant interruptions.

"I want to know, did the original master of this place die here?" Xius went over everything that had happened since entering the secret realm. He finally sensed something wrong: since entering the bedroom and then the laboratory, he had not found a single corpse. It was impossible for the body of a Rank 3 wizard to be completely eroded by time.

"A corpse..." Mavis was suddenly shocked. She had always been here and had never seen the corpse of her previous master.

"You don't know either?" Xius was surprised by Mavis's reaction; surely Mavis, having been sealed here, could not be unaware.

"I... I cannot remember! I only recall that my former master never left the secret realm. Before he died, he sealed me away completely, but I am certain the entrance to the secret realm remained untouched!" Realizing that something was amiss, Mavis began to explain in a flustered tone.

"I see..." Xius grew tense. Ma Fan's soul had just been extracted; clearly, it was the work of some creature within the secret realm. But why? Xius could not figure it out, unless the entity required souls to recover, just as Mavis did.

"Soul... recovery... corpse..." A terrifying thought took root in Xius's mind. Perhaps the master of this place, like Mavis, had been existing as a soul within this secret realm, waiting for someone to appear.

"Do you think your master, like you, has been existing in this secret realm as a soul?" Xius communicated with Mavis, wanting to know if such a possibility existed.

"Impossible, I can sense the entire secret realm..." Mavis began, but before she could finish, she suddenly recalled a place within the realm that she could not perceive.

"The seabed of the secret realm! I cannot sense it!" Mavis suddenly understood what Xius meant.

"When did that start?" Xius asked urgently; the problem lay there.

"It seems, it seems it was... oh, I cannot remember!" Mavis said painfully, seemingly distressed by the loss of so many mysterious memories.

"Wait, Xius!" Mavis suddenly sensed a strange surge of energy.

"What is it?" Xius stood up and scanned his surroundings.

"I can feel the energy beneath the sea beginning to riot. Furthermore, in the laboratory we just visited, it seems something is about to emerge!" Mavis said sheepishly, despite having claimed earlier that the creatures there were all dead.

"What?!" Xius was startled by Mavis's words. He had not yet resolved the situation at hand, and now something was waking up in the laboratory.

"Damn it! Do I have to leave this place as soon as possible?" Leaving alone would be no problem for Xius, but how could he explain it to Gute and the others, and how could he do so without raising their suspicions?

"You still have the heart to worry about others? Let us leave at once!" Mavis saw Xius's hesitation; clearly, he was influenced by the people who had entered with him.

Ignoring Mavis, Xius checked his surroundings. Seeing that Gute and the others were not nearby, he turned and began to run toward the entrance of the secret realm.

"That is the way!" Mavis was extremely satisfied to see Xius following her advice. She had already decided that although her soul essence was in Xius's hands, there was nothing wrong with acknowledging him as her master. As long as she could absorb the bloodline of the Purgatory Snake and obtain a sample of Xius's blood to fuse with, her path as a wizard would be secure.

As he walked, Xius carefully watched his surroundings. If Ryan were to discover him, he would have no way to defend himself. Fortunately, the three of them seemed not to be paying attention to his direction, busy as they were searching for the legacies of a Rank 3 wizard.

"Hey, hey, the corpse!" Mavis reminded Xius in a timely manner as he passed by Ma Fan's body.

"I tell you, I have a premonition that those three will not be able to get out. Give me this body to use; if someone investigates later, I can help you!" Mavis had not given up on Ma Fan's physical form.

"Fine." Xius listened to Mavis this time; if the Holy Round City were to investigate, Mavis might indeed be able to assist him.

"Hee hee hee!" Seeing Xius agree, Mavis gave a happy laugh, impatient to hold the ritual for her reincarnation.

"What is that?" Having searched in vain, Ryan was preparing to return to the bedroom when he spotted Xius making a dash for the entrance of the secret realm.

"Very well! He wants to run the moment he gets his hands on something!" Ryan watched Xius's figure, convinced that he must have found something and was trying to escape while everyone else was occupied.

"Ryan! How is it going?" Gute approached with a frustrated look; he had found nothing.

"No need to search anymore; we have found him!" Ryan pointed toward Xius's direction.

"That is!" Gute looked at Xius's retreating figure in disbelief.

"Get ready to work!" Ryan did not think Xius would be able to walk away with the loot safely. If he spread the word in Holy Round City that Xius had been in the secret realm of a Rank 3 wizard, things would get very interesting.

"They seem to have discovered you!" Mavis warned Xius.

"So, if you lied to me and nothing emerges from the laboratory, we are both finished!" Xius knew he was gambling—gambling that the three of them would die here so that his entry into the secret realm would never be uncovered.

"Rest assured! I know what is in that laboratory better than you do, and furthermore, the thing inside is already breaking through the entrance," Mavis said nonchalantly.

"What happened to you all?" Minnie was the last to return. Seeing Gute standing there in a daze, she assumed something had happened.

"Nothing, let us prepare to leave!" Ryan knew Minnie possessed a curse that would take effect once she knew a person's name; this was why he had been willing to wait for her.

"Then what about Xius..." Minnie looked around and, not seeing Xius, wanted to wait a little longer.

"Hah, he has already run off with the goods!" Ryan sneered, seemingly looking down on Xius's behavior.

"What!" Minnie had not expected things to turn out this way. Seeing Ryan waiting for her, she understood his intentions.

"O, Abyss of the Endless Sea! I beseech you to play the dirge of the elements. In the name of the Water Spirit, I curse you, Xius Bruch!" A blue rune emerged in Minnie's palm and shot out. Minnie collapsed to the ground, the curse having been a bit too much for her to bear.