Chapter 64: The False Treasure and the Unseen Gaze

At the end of the path where the man had vanished stood a half-collapsed castle.

It resembled a colossal beast crouched amidst the ruins, its former majesty still palpable despite its broken state.

The man’s footprints led directly into the castle’s gaping, dark entrance.

Lia did not approach rashly, instead halting some distance away.

This was the destination.

The endpoint marked on the treasure map, and the three-ring mage’s objective.

Leaning against a broken wall, she calmly analyzed the situation before her.

The castle’s interior remained unknown, but it was certain that the man was inside.

He was familiar with the place, knew the traps intimately, and possessed the strength of a three-ring mage.

Should she enter directly, or devise an alternative plan?

Lia’s fingertips unconsciously traced the surface of her spatial ring.

A three-ring mage, familiar with the terrain, acting strangely.

Was her limited practical combat experience sufficient?

If she forced her way in, what home-ground advantages might her opponent possess, or perhaps he wasn’t alone in the castle?

The multitude of unknowns intensified her growing unease.

Just then, Klein’s expressionless face and his words, ‘Safety is paramount,’ flashed through her mind.

Lia suddenly smiled.

Indeed, why should she hesitate?

To possess a treasure for a last resort and yet refuse to use it, choosing instead to gamble her life on mere probabilities—that would be true foolishness.

Why refrain from using such an advantage?

With a thought, two scrolls materialized in her hands.

One was silvery-white, the other ethereal purple.

She unfurled the silvery-white scroll first.

“Seven-ring Force Field Spell—Absolute Silence!”

The scroll disintegrated into dust, and an invisible domain, centered around her, instantly expanded.

The world transformed.

The wind still rustled the distant vines, yet she heard not a whisper of its passage.

She stamped her foot, and the loose stones beneath collided and tumbled, but it was like watching a silent play; all sounds were instantly swallowed by an invisible black hole, not a single trace escaping outwards.

Her heartbeat, her breath, even her magical fluctuations, were enveloped and neutralized by a layer of absolute force field, utterly insulated from the outside world.

Unless someone’s eyes could physically perceive her, under the current laws of physics, she simply did not exist.

Next, she unfurled the ethereal purple scroll.

“Seven-ring Perception Spell—True Sight Omnidirection.”

The moment the scroll turned to ash, the entire world separated and analyzed itself before her eyes.

It was no longer stone walls and shadows, but a torrent composed of countless particles of matter and magic.

She could ‘see’ the faint vortices formed by temperature differences in the air at the corners of the walls.

She could ‘hear’ the subtle stress fractures developing within the stone bricks due to the ravages of time.

In this vision, any physical disguise lost its meaning.

In this state, all camouflage and concealment became utterly transparent.

Lia took a step, silently entering the ancient castle.

The main hall was empty, thick layers of dust covering the floor, with only a single, clear set of footprints leading through the center.

The footprints extended to the hall’s heart, then… abruptly ceased.

Lia walked to the spot where the footprints vanished and crouched down.

Through her True Sight Omnidirection, the spatial structure here was stable; there were no residual fluctuations from any teleportation magic.

Her gaze slowly swept across the ground.

In the cracks between the stone bricks, an extremely faint disturbance in the airflow, almost merging with the environmental background noise, was precisely captured by her senses.

She extended a finger and gently pressed the edge of one particular stone brick.

The floor tile next to where the man’s footprints disappeared slowly sank, revealing a dark opening leading underground.

So that was it.

Lia did not descend immediately.

She stood at the opening, her True Sight Omnidirection extending down the steps.

There were no magical fluctuations or signs of life.

Below was only a small, enclosed space and a male corpse.

The corpse appeared to have been dead for a long time, its ribcage visible through its chest, though its face was covered by a mask, significantly reducing Lia’s sense of fear.

However, there was no sign of the three-ring mage.

After a brief observation, curiosity ultimately overcame caution, and Lia descended the steps, one by one, into the darkness.

The basement was small, roughly the size of a single room.

By the faint light filtering in from the entrance, she could see several wooden crates stacked in the corner.

One of the crates was already open, revealing neatly stacked gold coins and several faintly glowing magic gems, with a few enchanted items casually discarded beside them.

This was the treasure?

Lia examined the items closely in the dim light, noticing that the gold coins were all remarkably new.

She stepped forward and picked up a coin.

The gold coin felt slightly heavy in her hand, bearing the emblem of an ancient kingdom.

She then picked up a pigeon-egg-sized flame stone; the magic within the gem was pure, emitting a gentle warmth.

Was this all the wealth left by that fallen noble family?

A sense of absurdity welled up within Lia.

The adventure she had imagined involved outsmarting powerful magical beasts, solving intricate ancient riddles, and finally, after a thrilling battle, acquiring a secret treasure capable of astonishing the world.

And the reality?

She had tracked a clearly suspicious individual for half a day, only to find him vanish completely.

The so-called treasure site didn’t even have a proper guard.

Though there was a corpse nearby, it wasn’t enough to excite her much, as long as she didn’t approach it.

This expedition felt rather… uninteresting, almost like a shattered dream.

She pouted, then began to gather the treasures into her spatial ring.

Although the value of the treasures gained from this adventure was not high, it was, after all, the fruit of her first adventure; she couldn’t return empty-handed.

Gold coins, gems, an enchanted dagger, a defensive amulet…

Her movements suddenly paused as her fingers brushed against a magic book at the bottom of the crate.

Something was amiss.

Something felt wrong.

She picked up the magic book; its cover was made from the hide of some magical beast, but the texture felt too new, lacking the dryness and stiffness that age should impart.

She flipped out a gold coin with her other hand, her gaze once again falling upon it.

It was too clean.

Under the True Sight Omnidirection, the metal crystal lattice structure on the coin’s surface was perfect, so perfect it could only exist in theory, devoid of any trace element erosion or crystal structure degradation caused by long-term burial.

And those magic gems.

Their magical structures were stable and perfect, and remarkably uniform, yet they lacked the random impurities and internal stresses that natural minerals inevitably acquire during their long formation process.

They did not resemble natural minerals.

They looked more like… industrial products, swiftly cultivated using high-purity magic in an extremely short period.

A thought abruptly surfaced in her mind.

These treasures were fake.

Or rather, they were new.

They were not relics from hundreds of years ago at all, but had been deliberately placed here very recently.

The moment her internal alarm bells blared, and she prepared to retreat, an untraceable yet incredibly clear gaze instantly pierced through the Absolute Silence force field, landing precisely upon her.

Lia’s mind went blank for a fleeting second.

A gaze capable of penetrating a seven-ring force field spell.

The opponent was a seven-ring mage.

Without True Sight Omnidirection’s analysis of surrounding information, she wouldn’t even have detected this scrutiny.

But the opponent clearly hadn’t expected her to be able to perceive him.

This was her only chance.

‘Running now would tell them I’ve discovered them.’

In an instant, countless thoughts flashed through her mind.

She forcibly calmed herself.

The opponent hadn’t acted immediately, indicating some apprehension.

After a brief deliberation, a foolish grin, a mix of greed and surprise, spread across Lia’s face.

It was as if she had just discovered an extra magic book at the bottom of the crate, completely overwhelmed by this unexpected delight.

She quickly stuffed the brand-new magic book into her ring, then clapped her hands, standing up with a satisfied air.

“I’m rich, I’m rich!”

She muttered in a voice only she could hear, every syllable brimming with naive joy.

The scrutinizing gaze remained fixed on her.

Lia suppressed the urge to immediately activate a Lightning Lance and blast the place to smithereens.

She maintained a slightly lighthearted pace, ascending the steps one by one, leaving the basement.

She followed her path back, walking towards the exit of the Silent Valley.

With every step, she felt that gaze clinging to her back like a leech, scrutinizing her every move.

The gaze followed her relentlessly until her figure completely vanished into the dense forest.

The pressure abruptly lifted.

The scrutiny from the unknown dimension withdrew.

Lia abruptly leaned against a large tree, sliding down its trunk to sit on the ground.

Her clothes were already drenched with cold sweat.

She gulped air, as if trying to expel all the dead, decaying气息 from her lungs.

After a brief rest, she ran silently along the forest path until she was certain she had completely exited the valley’s bounds.

Once her emotions had settled, she turned to look at the dense forest, lost in thought.