Chapter 56: The Clue to the Third Ring

In the shadow of the Wind-Eroded Cliff, the Sandspeaker's black robe fluttered violently in the night wind.

Lu Chen clutched the scorching Purification Ring, his knuckles turning white from the force. The dizziness briefly induced by the bone core's energy had not entirely subsided, and Williams's sickening, maniacal laughter still seemed to echo in his ears. When Alicia had forced Williams back with the Sand-Soul Ring, those eyes filled with shock and pain had pierced his heart like a thorn.

"Withdrawal symptoms acting up?" The Sandspeaker suddenly handed over a clay bowl filled with a dark green liquid that gave off a pungent herbal scent. "Old Dao's ancestral Soul-Awakening Broth. More effective than calming powders."

Lu Chen tilted his head back and drank it down. The bitter liquid burned his throat, but it cleared the greater part of his chaotic consciousness. He looked at the spreading calcification patterns on the back of his hand, where the golden Purification Ring was resonating with the earth-yellow Suppression Ring, emitting a faint buzzing sound. Ever since the Purification Ring was found in Old Dao's grandfather's tomb, these two rings had acted as if they possessed a life of their own, growing exceptionally active whenever they approached an S-Tribe stronghold.

"Three rings lacking one can never accomplish the task." The Sandspeaker drew a triangle in the sand with a withered branch. "The Suppression Ring wards off illusions, the Purification Ring cleanses curses, and the Communication Ring... is the key to conversing with the bone core."

"The Communication Ring?" Alicia suddenly stepped closer, her sand crystal stings gleaming coldly in the moonlight. "Why didn't you mention that before?"

"Would it have done any good if I had?" The Sandspeaker's white beard trembled as his branch pointed to the apex of the triangle. "That artifact is hidden in the S-Tribe's Ancestral Temple, the final resting place of past chieftains. After Williams usurped the throne back then, he sealed the entire mountain with a sand crystal barrier. Outsiders needn't apply, and even a collateral branch of the S-Tribe would be burned to ashes if they came within three steps."

Lu Chen's bone knife suddenly stabbed into the sand. "A barrier always has a weakness."

"It does, but this weakness recognizes bloodlines." The Sandspeaker drew a circle at the apex of the triangle. "The old chieftain—Alicia's father—carved a bloodline lock into the core of the barrier. Only the blood of the legitimate heir can melt it away."

Everyone's gaze instantly focused on Alicia.

The girl's fingers instinctively touched the silver bird birthmark on her chest, where the warmth of the Sand-Soul Ring still lingered. Ever since she learned that her mother had willingly entered the bone core, she had been wondering what role her father had actually played back then—was he an accomplice, or was there a hidden story?

"I've never been to the Ancestral Temple." Alicia's voice carried an imperceptible tremor. "I heard from a maid when I was little that the tribe's supreme treasure is enshrined there, and no one except the chieftain is allowed to see it."

"That supreme treasure is the Communication Ring," the Sandspeaker affirmed, his withered branch tapping rhythmically against the sand. "The old chieftain secretly sent a message to the Sand-Watchers back then, saying he wanted to unite the three rings to seal the bone core. Unfortunately, word leaked out, and Williams beat us to the punch."

Chen Yu suddenly slapped his thigh. "Doesn't that make things simple? Let Alicia go knock on the door, we'll provide backup from the perimeter, and once we get the ring, we run!"

"It's not that simple." The Sandspeaker's withered branch pointed northwest, where the dunes took on a blue-gray hue in the moonlight. "Surrounding the Ancestral Temple are 'Sand-Crystal Corpses'—former officials who resisted Williams back then and were sealed alive inside sand crystals to serve as guards. Their eyes can recognize bloodlines, but they don't distinguish between good and evil. Any living thing that approaches gets torn to pieces first."

Lu Chen's bone knife outlined the shape of the Ancestral Temple in the sand. "What do the corpses fear?"

"A mixture of anti-entropy powder and camel blood." The Sandspeaker pulled a leather pouch from his black robe and tossed it to Lu Chen. "It's a recipe passed down from Old Dao's grandfather. Back in the day, the Sand-Watchers relied on this stuff to get through the corpse array. But remember, you can only use it three times; any more will disturb the barrier."

Alicia suddenly grabbed Lu Chen's wrist, the tip of her sand crystal sting nearly piercing his skin. "I'll go alone."

"No way!" Lu Chen refused without a second thought. "There are bound to be Williams's contingencies inside the Ancestral Temple. It's too dangerous for you to go alone."

"I have to go." Alicia's gaze was like ice-tempered blades, the moonlight shattering into tiny cold stars in her pupils. "Williams killed my parents and usurped my family's position; I must settle this score with my own hands. Have you forgotten? I am the legitimate heir of the S-Tribe. The mechanisms in the Ancestral Temple may only be solvable by me."

Her fingertips gently brushed against the calcification patterns on the back of Lu Chen's hand. "Besides, your withdrawal symptoms are growing more severe. Getting too close to the barrier might cause you to lose control again. The Sandspeaker needs to stay and help stabilize your condition, and Chen Yu and Wang Lu must set up the anti-entropy array on the outer perimeter to prevent Williams from reinforcing. The most suitable person can only be me."

Lu Chen looked at the silver bird birthmark on her chest, suddenly recalling what the blind boy had said: "The light in the sand says she carries two scents—one like the desert sun, the other like ice."

Now he understood. The sun was her bloodline, and the ice was her resolve.

"I'll go with you to the outer perimeter." Lu Chen put away the leather pouch, twirling the bone knife in his palm. "We'll stop at the edge of the barrier and use the Suppression Ring to shield you from energy fluctuations. If you don't come out in half an hour, I'll blow that damn temple to pieces."

Alicia suddenly smiled, the deep blue of her sand crystal sting rippling in the depths of her eyes. "Don't worry, I still need to use the ring to slap Williams across the face; I'm not going to die that easily."

The third watch of moonlight, like a piece of crushed silver, spilled over the sand dunes of the S-Tribe's forbidden land.

Alicia stripped off her combat jacket, revealing the long silver robe underneath. She had secretly found it in the ruins of the temple—the ceremonial dress of the former chieftain's daughter, with exquisite scorpion totems embroidered around the collar, gleaming with dark patterns in the moonlight.

"You're really wearing that?" Lu Chen's brow knitted into a tight knot. In the pitch-black desert, this robe was practically a walking bullseye.

"The bloodline lock recognizes the totem on the clothing." Alicia tightened her belt, concealing the Sand-Soul Ring inside her collar. "My mother said that the ceremonial robes of legitimate heirs are woven with energy threads that can temporarily keep the corpses from recognizing hostility."

She suddenly stood on tiptoe and gently kissed the calcification pattern on the back of Lu Chen's hand. "Wait for me to come out."

Lu Chen's face instantly grew hot, and just as he wanted to say something, the girl had already turned and dashed toward the blue-gray sand dunes. He gripped his bone knife tightly, watching her silver figure slide into the darkness like a fish. The remaining warmth on his fingertips intertwined with the heat of the ring, miraculously subduing the agitation of his withdrawal symptoms.

Not long after Alicia left, the sand dune suddenly lit up with a deep blue glow.

It wasn't the eyes of the sand-crystal corpses, but a semi-transparent barrier, like a giant sapphire covering the sky above the Ancestral Temple. Fine, intricate patterns flowed across the surface of the barrier; upon closer inspection, they turned out to be countless miniature scorpion totems, each tail pointing toward the temple doors, forming an airtight defense net.

"Is this the sand crystal barrier?" Alicia held her breath, pressing her fingertips gently against the totem on her collar.

The silver embroidery suddenly flashed red, creating an eerie resonance with the deep blue of the barrier. The tails of those scorpion totems slowly shifted, parting a gap in the barrier just wide enough for one person to pass through. From the gap drifted a scent combining sandalwood and decay—the unique fragrance of the Ancestral Temple.

She took a deep breath and stepped into the gap.

The barrier felt like a layer of cold gelatin; as she passed through, she could feel countless tiny sand crystals scraping against her skin. Alicia clutched the Sand-Soul Ring at her collar for dear life. In case the bloodline recognition failed, this trinket might serve as a temporary shield.

The moment she crossed the barrier, she was stunned by the sight before her.

The Ancestral Temple was not a stone structure as she had imagined, but a crystal palace embedded in the belly of the mountain. Countless sand crystal pillars hung from the vault like inverted icicles, refracting the moonlight filtering through the gap and casting mottled shadows on the ground. On a high platform in the center of the palace lay a crystal sarcophagus, surrounded by twelve armored corpses kneeling on the ground, their bone spears aimed at any living thing that approached.

"Guards, as expected." Alicia moved along the base of the wall. The energy threads of her robe caused the eyes of the corpses to merely flash faintly without launching an immediate attack. She noticed that the armor of every corpse bore the same mark—the insignia of her father's personal guard unit.

Dense rows of text were carved onto the base of the crystal sarcophagus platform. When Alicia leaned closer, her heart contracted sharply.

Those weren't S-Tribe characters; they were the ancient script of the Sand-Watchers!

"Blood as covenant, three rings return; soul as guide, bone core sleeps..." Alicia recited softly, her fingertips brushing across the final line of text, where the incisions were noticeably deeper, as if carved by her father on his deathbed. "To my dear daughter Alicia: The Communication Ring is in the third sand crystal pillar on the left. Remember, when the ring claims its master, it will awaken the temple-guardian spirit. Answer whatever it asks; do not lie..."

The third sand crystal pillar on the left stood right behind the corpses, only three steps away from the nearest one. Alicia looked at the bone spears in the hands of the corpses; the deep blue liquid on the tips was still slowly dripping, evidently laced with potent poison.

She took a deep breath, suddenly recalling her mother's words: "The bloodline of the S-Tribe can not only open the barrier, but also command the personal guard unit."

Alicia straightened her spine and lowed a command in the ancient language of the S-Tribe: "Guards, obey! Make way!"

The bodies of the twelve corpses all shuddered simultaneously, and their bone spears lowered slightly. Although the deep blue in their eye sockets still flickered, they did indeed clear a path leading to the sand crystal pillar—her father's bloodline command was actually able to pierce the bonds of death.

"It really works." Alicia clenched her fists and walked step by step toward the third sand crystal pillar on the left. The pillar was thicker than the others, and the patterns on its surface resembled entwined snakes, casting an eerie red glow in the moonlight.

Following her father's instructions, she dropped blood from her fingertip into the groove on the shaft of the pillar. The sand crystal pillar suddenly trembled, and the red light spread along the patterns, condensing into a ring-shaped mark on the pillar body that was identical to Lu Chen's Suppression Ring and Purification Ring.

"The Communication Ring..." Alicia's heart hammered wildly as she watched the sand crystals at the mark slowly peel away, revealing a snow-white ring inside. The face of the ring was engraved with a rotating anti-entropy vortex—it was precisely the most mysterious of the three rings, the Communication Ring.

The exact moment her fingertips were about to touch the ring, the entire Ancestral Temple began to vibrate violently.

The eye sockets of the twelve corpses simultaneously burst into dazzling red light, their bone spears locking onto her direction once more, while non-human roars emanated from their throats—not hostility, but warning!

The lid of the crystal sarcophagus popped open with a click, venting an intensely frigid aura ten times colder than the sand crystal barrier, instantly freezing Alicia's breath.

A deep voice echoed throughout the palace, seemingly originating from within the sarcophagus, carrying a millennia-old, unyielding frost:

"Who goes there? State your name."

Alicia's pupils contracted sharply.

This was not her father's voice.

Nor was it anyone she knew.

The voice was ancient, majestic, and carried a detached indifference that looked down upon all living things, like... like the voice of the primordial sand-watching priest who used the three rings to seal the bone core in the murals of the Memory Temple!

The Communication Ring on the sand crystal pillar suddenly flew up, hovering before her. The anti-entropy vortex on its face spun wildly, reflecting her terrified face.

Outside the Ancestral Temple, Lu Chen's Suppression Ring suddenly burst with golden light.

He jerked his head up and saw the deep blue of the sand crystal barrier rapidly turning red, like a glowing branding iron. The previously quiet sand dunes suddenly boiled, and countless sand-crystal corpses burst forth from the earth, their blue-gray arms clawing toward him at the edge of the barrier—evidently, the disturbance inside the temple had alerted the perimeter guards.

"Alicia!" Lu Chen's bone knife slashed out golden light, severing the foremost arms as a tidal wave of unease surged within him. "Hold on! I'm coming—"

Before he could finish, a deafening roar echoed from deep within the barrier.

Red light gushed forth from the gaps in the barrier, forming a massive pillar of light that soared straight into the clouds. Lu Chen could feel the energy fluctuations of the Communication Ring rapidly escalating, resonating unprecedentedly with the two rings in his possession. The calcification patterns on the back of his hand suddenly erupted in searing pain, as if countless fine needles were pricking him.

"What's going on?" Chen Yu rushed over with a rocket launcher, followed by Wang Lu and the Sandspeaker. "Did something blow up inside?"

The Sandspeaker's expression was graver than ever before. Staring at that pillar of red light, his lips trembled. "It's the temple-guardian spirit... When the Communication Ring acknowledges its master, it awakens it... This isn't an ordinary guardian spirit, it's..."

He suddenly choked, his eyes bulging wide as he fixed his gaze on the massive figure faintly materializing within the red light—the figure wore a beast-skin robe, wore the three rings on its left hand, and held a soul-calming bone flute in its right. It was none other than the primordial sand-watching priest from the mural!

"It's the primordial priest's residual soul!" The Sandspeaker's voice was laden with terror. "He's going to ask the heir three questions. Answer even one incorrectly, and you'll be trapped in the Ancestral Temple forever as a sacrifice!"

Lu Chen's heart skipped a beat.

Three questions?

Did Alicia know the answers?

The figure within the red light slowly turned toward the area outside the barrier. Though its facial features were indistinct, one could feel that all-penetrating gaze falling directly upon him. Lu Chen's Purification Ring trembled violently, and an ancient voice rang in his mind, carrying unquestionable majesty:

"The first question, posed to the heir's protector—"

"Are you willing to surrender your bone core for her?"

Lu Chen's pupils contracted sharply.

Surrender his bone core? That meant... completely losing the power to resist the bone core, and perhaps even being consumed by reverse-噬 to become a sand-skeleton beast!

The roars of the sand-crystal corpses were already ringing in his ears, and the priest's figure in the red light still awaited his answer. He could imagine the anxious look in Alicia's eyes inside the Ancestral Temple right now; that Communication Ring hovering before her was growing dimmer with every passing second.

The calcification patterns on the back of his hand sent a stabbing pain through his flesh, as if urging him to make a choice.

Lu Chen tightened his grip on the bone knife, looked at the red light connecting heaven and earth, and suddenly smiled.

Old Dao had said that in the dictionary of the Sand-Watchers, there was never any such word as "unwilling."

He raised the Purification Ring, aimed toward the pillar of red light, and shouted every word clear and distinct:

"I am willing!"

The moment his voice fell, the Purification Ring burst into blinding golden light, intertwining with the red light. Lu Chen felt the bone core energy within his body being forcibly extracted, flowing along the ring toward the Ancestral Temple. The calcification patterns on the back of his hand faded at a visible rate—not a recovery, but a sign that his energy was being drained dry.

Inside the Ancestral Temple, Alicia watched the suddenly illuminated Communication Ring, her eyes instantly turning red.

She knew Lu Chen had made his choice.

And the priest's figure in the red light slowly opened its mouth, posing the second question, this time directed toward her:

"The second question, posed to the heir—"

"Are you willing to renounce your vengeance and forgive all sinners?"

Alicia's body stiffened abruptly.

Forgive?

Forgive Williams? Forgive those accomplices? Forgive the world that destroyed her family?

The stings on the sand crystal pillar suddenly pierced her palm, the pain instantly clearing her mind. Her mother's voice echoed in her mind: "Hatred is like the curse of the bone core; it traps others, and it traps yourself."

She gazed at her father's remains in the crystal sarcophagus, suddenly recalling how, when she was little, her father used to hold her before the Ancestral Temple and look at the stars, telling her that the S-Tribe's mission was not conquest, but protection.

Alicia took a deep breath, and toward the figure in the red light, she slowly nodded:

"I am willing."

The radiance of the Communication Ring grew even more intense, and the anti-entropy vortex on its face began to spin, evidently accepting her answer.

The priest's figure in the red light raised the bone flute, seemingly about to ask the third question. At that exact moment, Williams's roar suddenly echoed from outside the Ancestral Temple. Black-purple calamitous fire, like a venomous snake, slammed fiercely into the sand crystal barrier:

"A pack of fools! That's not a guardian spirit, that's an avatar of the bone core's consciousness!"

Alicia's pupils contracted violently.

An avatar of the bone core's consciousness?

Then the first two questions just now...

The priest's figure in the red light suddenly distorted, black-purple liquid seeping from beneath its beast-skin robe, rapidly devouring the radiance of the three rings. The Communication Ring emitted a piercing screech, attempting to break free of Alicia's control and fly toward the direction where the barrier was shattering!

"Trying to run?" Alicia abruptly grabbed the ring, the golden light of the Sand-Soul Ring erupting simultaneously. "Did you really think I fell for your nonsense?"

Her other hand suddenly pulled out an item hidden within her robe—the fragment of her mother's silver bird necklace found in the temple ruins, still stained with her blood.

The moment the fragment made contact with the Communication Ring, the figure in the red light let out a painful roar, and the black-purple liquid retreated like a tide, revealing the true guardian spirit beneath—a woman wearing the ceremonial attire of the S-Tribe, whose features bore a striking seventy-percent resemblance to Alicia's.

"Mom?" Alicia's voice trembled.

The woman smiled gently, her figure gradually growing transparent: "I'll ask the third question—my daughter, do you know the true cost of uniting the three rings?"

Alicia's heart sank heavily.

The true cost?

Not sacrifice, not renouncing vengeance, but...

Before the woman's figure completely dissolved, she left behind a final sentence, as light as a sigh:

"It is oblivion..."

Outside the Ancestral Temple, Lu Chen suddenly clutched his head, the excruciating pain nearly driving him to his knees. The memories of his daughter within his mind were rapidly fading away; that smiling face holding half a piece of flatbread was growing increasingly blurry, like a sand painting scattered by the wind.

He looked in terror at the calcification patterns on the back of his hand, which had returned to normal skin, yet had lost all luster—the energy of the Purification Ring had been depleted.

"Brother Lu!" Chen Yu's shout grew distant in his ears. "What's wrong with you?!"

Lu Chen opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He couldn't remember why he was standing here, nor could he recall whose silver figure had rushed into the Ancestral Temple. He only felt an emptiness in his heart, as if he had lost something of supreme importance.

The sand crystal barrier completely shattered amidst the black-purple calamitous fire, and Williams's maniacal laughter pierced the smoke and dust, carrying the madness of assured victory:

"Forget! Let it all be forgotten! This is the most merciful curse of the bone core!"

The gates of the Ancestral Temple slowly opened amidst the red light. Alicia stood at the entrance gripping the three rings, the fragments of the silver bird necklace sparkling in her palm. When she saw Lu Chen's dazed eyes, she suddenly understood the meaning of her mother's words.

The cost of uniting the three rings was for the protector to forget their most cherished memories.

And what she was about to face was a Lu Chen who no longer remembered her, and a bone core on the verge of complete loss of control.

The night wind swept across the shattered barrier, carrying sand crystal debris and the scent of oblivion. Alicia gripped the three rings tightly, suddenly raising them toward Williams's direction.

Golden light burst forth once more. This time, however, it carried a desperate, uncompromising resolve.

She did not know that the moment she raised the rings, Lu Chen's bone knife would suddenly unsheath of its own accord. The sand-watching priest totem on the blade glowed red, tracing a blurred silver bird pattern in the sand—his final fragments of memory from the depths of his subconsciousness.

This game of chess concerning the rings ultimately headed toward an even darker abyss in a way no one could have anticipated.