Chapter 125: The Gravedigger

The echo of armor hitting stone walls came from the entrance of the underground space.

The light of torches dispersed the darkness at the stairs first.

Dozens of heavy guards fanned out along the walls, their shields forming a wall of steel.

Behind the front line, mage-breaking heavy crossbows were wound, their cold arrows locking onto the center of the field.

Count Valerius strode down the final step.

His noble attire was tattered, and his sleeves were stained with dust.

The longsword that he always wore as an ornament was now held in his hand, its edge even showing a few nicks.

The Count came to a halt.

His gaze swept over the metal tower that had turned into scrap metal and the pile of red crystal powder on the ground, finally landing on the unconscious old man.

Valerius sheathed his sword, the sound of metal friction piercing the air.

“It seems I’ve arrived late.”

His voice echoed in the basement.

Lia stood by the pile of scrap metal and patted the dust off her hands.

“Not too late; you’re just in time to clean up the mess.”

Klein stood at Lia’s side, looking coldly at the ruler of Leo City.

Valerius waved his hand.

Two army mages in robes stepped forward quickly, carrying several pairs of shackles engraved with runes.

“Who is he?” Valerius pointed at the person on the ground.

“The one those madmen called the ‘Commander’,” Lia replied. “He is also an Eighth-Circle mage.”

Hearing the words “Eighth-Circle,” the hands of the two army mages shook, nearly dropping the shackles.

The surrounding guards also reflexively retreated half a step, raising their shields a bit higher.

In a border city like Leo City, an existence of this level was equivalent to a walking natural disaster.

Valerius’s face turned pale as he stared fixedly at the old man’s face, seemingly trying to find some familiar trace on that wrinkled visage.

“I do not know him.”

Eventually, he looked away.

“Take him away. Use the highest specification of magic-sealing shackles. Pierce his collarbones and seal his spiritual sea. Do not let him wake up.”

The two army mages complied immediately.

They scrambled to fit the old man with layer upon layer of shackles, then commanded four strong men to carry him out.

Valerius walked to the pile of red powder and crushed it with the tip of his boot.

“Is this the control hub?”

“It was,” Lia said. “Now it is just a pile of trash.”

“Completely destroyed?”

“The core crystal structure has collapsed, and the energy circuits are severed. Even if a god came, they couldn’t fix it.”

Valerius let out a long breath, and his tensed shoulders finally slumped.

“That is good.”

“What about the situation on your end?” Lia asked.

Valerius leaned against a piece of debris and fished a silver cigarette case from his pocket, his hands shaking slightly.

He took out a cigarette but forgot to light it.

“I took men to that estate.”

The Count crushed the cigarette between his fingers.

“We dug up the foundation. There was indeed a secret room underneath. Inside was a tower similar to this one, but much smaller.”

“That was a resonance node,” Lia judged.

“I had my men smash it.”

Valerius grit his teeth. “That was a gift I gave to… dammit.”

He didn’t finish his sentence, instead hurling the mangled cigarette onto the ground.

“That architect, that construction crew, even the consultant who recommended this plot of land to me—I will find them all and flay them alive.”

A violent emotion spread through the basement.

“That is your family matter,” Klein spoke up. “Since the problem here is solved, we should be going.”

“Wait.”

Valerius called out to them.

“I owe you a favor for this. Aside from the agreement we discussed, I will pay an additional reward.”

“That is a must,” Lia said without any politeness. “Mental trauma fees, compensation for lost time, and the material consumption from just now. I will give you a list.”

Valerius gave a bitter smile. “As long as Leo City still stands, any amount of money is fine.”

He looked around the room, staring at the place that had almost become the city’s tomb.

“It’s hard to imagine; I was working right above this, while this… thing was buried beneath my feet.”

“The darkest spot is always beneath the lamp,” Lia said. “They exploited your trust and the city’s own defense system.”

“Weber’s followers…”

Valerius muttered the words. “I will conduct a carpet search of the city; not a single one will escape.”

“That is a matter for later,” Klein said, turning toward the stairs. “For now, we are going back.”

Lia followed him.

The amount of exercise tonight had indeed exceeded her limits; not only was the mental exhaustion massive, but she had also consumed over half of her mana.

Lia only wanted to go back to the mansion and lie down on her soft, large bed.

The three of them walked up the stairs.

Valerius walked at the rear.

They returned to the first-floor hall of the library.

The faint bustle of the streets drifted in.

The oblivious citizens had no idea they had just walked past the gates of hell.

“It’s over.”

Valerius stood at the hall entrance, taking a deep breath of the early morning air.

“I will arrange a carriage to send you back.”

“No need,” Klein refused. “We came by carriage.”

Lia walked to the center of the hall.

The massive crystal chandelier hung high from the dome, refracting the light of the murals.

Everything looked quite normal.

Until a wisp of dust floated down from overhead.

Then another wisp of dust fell.

Immediately following was a stone flake the size of a fingernail, peeling off the dome’s mural and hitting the floor.

Snap.

The sound was very light.

But in the quiet hall, it sounded exceptionally clear.

Klein also came to a stop.

He turned around, his blue eyes looking at the ground beneath his feet.

“What is it?” Valerius looked at the two of them in confusion.

The ground gave a jolt.

Lia felt a numbing vibration through the soles of her feet, as if dozens of heavy carriages were racing past the street in front of the door.

But this was the library hall, dozens of meters away from the street.

“Something is wrong.”

Lia stared at the floor.

The vibration did not stop.

Instead, it became increasingly clear.

Hum—

A low rumbling came from underground.

The sound wasn’t loud, yet it made the eardrums and heart resonate with it.

Books on the shelves began to fall like a flock of startled birds.

“An earthquake?” Valerius braced himself against the doorframe.

“It’s not an earthquake.”

Klein’s voice remained steady, but his speaking rate quickened.

“It’s energy feedback.”

Lia snapped her head toward the direction of the basement.

The control hub was destroyed, and the energy of the core resonance field had lost its guidance.

Logically, this energy should have naturally dissipated into the atmosphere or returned to the leylines.

But…

Lia remembered what the old man said.

“It is connected to the resentment buried beneath this land for centuries.”

And there was still that resonance network covering the entire city.

Those towers may have lost their commander, but they hadn’t disappeared.

They were still connected to the underground pipe network.

The destruction of the control hub hadn’t cut off the energy source.

Instead, it was like opening a hole in a high-pressure water pipe.

The massive, out-of-control energy was searching for a vent.

And that vent was here—the convergence point of the entire city’s leylines.

“Run!”

Lia shouted.

Rumble!

A deafening explosion drowned out her voice.

The hard marble floor of the library shattered like a cracker, cracks spreading outward like a spiderweb.

Scorching air currents erupted from the fissures.

That was violent leyline energy.

“Retreat! Everyone retreat!”

Valerius roared at the guards outside.

There was no need for his order.

The guards, who had been in neat formation, were already being thrown off balance by the violent shaking of the ground.

Warhorses neighed in terror, breaking their reins and running wild across the plaza.

“Klein!”

Lia felt her body grow light.

Klein had already grabbed her arm, lifting her up.

A blue shield expanded instantly, enveloping the two of them.

In the next second—

The floor of the library hall collapsed completely.

The entrance that once led to the basement became a giant maw that devoured everything.

Countless stones, bookshelves, tables, and chairs, along with that massive crystal chandelier, all plunged into the abyss.

A red light shot up into the sky from the depths.

It was a high-concentration torrent of mana.

The main building of the library groaned under the strain of the violent tremors.

“Dammit!”

Valerius was thrown back by the air current, slamming heavily into a pillar on the porch.

Ignoring the pain, he scrambled and crawled toward the plaza.

Klein carried Lia, his feet stepping onto a falling stone slab to leap outward.

His body traced a blurred image through the air.

The two burst through the doors of the imminent collapse.

The moment they landed—

A world-shaking roar erupted behind them.

The Leo City Public Library, with centuries of history, collapsed amidst a cloud of rising dust.

The ground heaved violently.

The fountain pool on the plaza exploded, pillars of water mixed with soil spraying into the sky.

Lia lay in Klein’s arms, watching the scene before her.

Dust obscured the sky.

The red pillar of energy pierced through the smoke, stabbing straight into the clouds.

The surrounding air warped and distorted under the impact of this energy.

“This isn’t simple feedback,” Lia said, poking her head out of Klein’s arms to look at the light pillar.

“This looks like an overload eruption.”

Klein let go, placing Lia on the ground.

He looked at the pillar of light, his brow furrowed.

“The leylines are rioting.”

Valerius stumbled over, covered in grime.

He was injured, walking with a slight limp.

“What exactly is going on? Didn’t you say it was settled?” the Count asked, staring at the ruined library.

“The control hub is settled, but those resonance towers distributed across the city are still there,” Lia explained, pointing at the soaring pillar of light.

“The hub is destroyed, but the energy channels remain. It’s like you’ve unbolted the stable doors; the horses are running wild and they’ve been spooked.”

“Right now, the energy of the entire system has nowhere to go.”

Lia looked at Valerius.

“Those resonance towers have now become suction pumps. They are frantically drawing energy from the leylines and converging it all here.”

Valerius didn’t quite understand the technical principles, but he understood the result.

“What will happen?”

“If this energy cannot be vented…”

Lia glanced at the surroundings.

“This area will be leveled. Probably… about half of Leo City.”

Valerius’s legs gave out, and he nearly knelt on the ground.

“Is there any way to stop it?”

“There is,” Klein spoke.

Both of them turned their gazes toward him.

“Hold it back.”

“You must be joking!” Lia grabbed his hand. “That’s the leylines! That’s the energy of the ground beneath the entire Leo City! No matter how strong an individual’s mana is, even an Eighth-Circle mage will be blown apart trying to resist it head-on!”

Human strength has its limits.

Compared to the natural power of heaven and earth, personal mana is finite.

Klein looked at Lia.

There wasn’t a single ripple in those blue eyes.

“I know what I’m doing.”

“You don’t know a damn thing!” Lia cursed. “This doesn’t conform to the law of conservation of energy! Your output power simply cannot suppress an explosion of this magnitude!”

“Then add this.”

Valerius suddenly tore a pendant from his neck.

It was a diamond-shaped blue gemstone with a liquid-like glow sealed inside.

“The core security key for Leo City’s defense network.”

The Count shoved the pendant into Lia’s hand.

“This thing can mobilize the entire city’s defensive arrays. Although I cannot manifest its full potential, if it is you two…”

Lia gripped the warm gemstone.

Countless possibilities flashed through her mind.

The defensive arrays.

The energy nodes.

The leylines.

A bold idea formed in her head.

“We don’t need to suppress it.”

Lia’s eyes lit up.

“We can conduct it.”

She looked at Klein.

“Since it’s energy, it follows the laws of flow.”

“Since they want to come out, let them out. But as for where they flow—that’s up to us.”

Lia pointed at the light pillar.

“Klein, can you construct a force field channel? Direct this energy high into the sky.”

“How high?” Klein nodded.

“The higher the better.”

Lia turned back to Valerius.

“Count, evacuate the civilians. Get them out of this area, the further the better.”

“Also, transfer control of this gemstone to me.”

Valerius did not hesitate for a second.

“It is yours now.”

Lia gripped the gemstone tight.

Her spiritual power delved inside.

A magic network map, intricate and vast enough to cover the entire city, unfolded in her mind.

These were the blood vessels of Leo City.

“Time to get to work.”

Lia looked at Klein.

“The three-gold-coin job just turned into saving the world.”

The corner of Klein’s mouth curled into an arc.

“Agreed.”

He took a step forward.

His hands rose.

An icy-blue radiance erupted from his body, instantly overshadowing the red pillar of light.

The temperature in the air plummeted.

The rubble on the ruins became covered in a layer of white frost.

A transparent, funnel-shaped force field formed above the light pillar.

“Rise!”

Klein let out a low shout.

That violent red pillar of light was forcibly twisted, following the direction of the force field and shooting straight toward the firmament.

But this was only the beginning.

The tremors underground grew more intense.

More energy was surging up.

Lia closed her eyes.

The gemstone in her hand emitted a dazzling light.

She was reconstructing the defense network in her mind.

Since those resonance towers were pumps, she would just close the faucets.

“First node, close.”

“Second node, block.”

“Third node, reverse flow.”

Beads of sweat broke out on Lia’s forehead.

This wasn’t just mental work; it was a massive test of her spiritual power.

She had to operate hundreds of array nodes simultaneously within a few seconds.

This required calculation power as precise as a computer.

And at this very moment—

She was that computer.

The ground was still shaking.

The light pillar was still erupting.

But under the cooperation of the two, that destructive force was being firmly restricted within a controllable range.

The red pillar of light charged into the sky, piercing the morning mist and exploding thousands of meters in the air.

It looked like a massive firework in full bloom.

The citizens across the city all raised their heads, watching this spectacular and terrifying scene.

No one knew that beneath this firework stood two people.

One was carrying the earth.

One was weaving the sky.