Chapter 557: Corpse King’s Legacy
One strike, that was all it took.
The instant Holy Shield Charge’s knockback effect activated, the Navy Captain’s crystal coffin was blasted into the air. At the same time, Marcus’s melee attack inflicted damage, causing a yellow number to appear above the coffin.
-3200
Of course, the damage itself was irrelevant. Whether he dealt three thousand points or thirty thousand made no difference. His objective had always been simple: knock the Navy Captain’s coffin off the swirling whirlpool, and he had done exactly that.
Just as Elder Eagle had predicted, the moment the coffin left the whirlpool and lost its source of spiritual energy, the changes began.
Resting on the stone floor, the crystal coffin suddenly erupted with chaotic golden light that flickered wildly around it. It was unmistakable: the Navy Captain’s cultivation had fallen into complete energy deviation.
Bathed in the unstable golden radiance, the once flawless crystal coffin gradually softened before beginning to crumble. Piece by piece, it broke apart like weathered sand, collapsing into fine dust before everyone’s eyes.
’That was... surprisingly easy.’
Marcus grinned, waved cheerfully at the women waiting nearby, then gently tugged Blackie’s reins. The mount circled once through the air before descending gracefully from above the whirlpool, landing as lightly as a feather.
"Marcus, that was amazing!"
The women couldn’t help cheering after witnessing such a clean and effortless finish, but only one person remained completely frozen.
"Stonehaven... you..."
Elder Eagle’s soul stared at Marcus with his mouth hanging open, unable to hide the disbelief in his eyes.
"Your Strength... it’s actually over one thousand?"
"Yeah."
Marcus nodded as though it weren’t a particularly remarkable achievement.
"Apparently so. I only realized it today."
It wasn’t false modesty; until entering his Full-Power state, even Marcus hadn’t expected his Strength to cross the thousand-point mark. Sometimes his own stats surprised him.
Elder Eagle, however, was far less calm. He knew better than anyone that even many Level 90 Warriors, after activating every strengthening technique available to them, might still fail to surpass one thousand Strength, yet standing before him was a Level 50 Knight who had already broken through that seemingly unreachable barrier.
The old man’s heart was filled with shock. The younger generation truly had surpassed the old.
Looking at Marcus’s composed expression and unwavering confidence, Elder Eagle felt as though he were witnessing the rise of a once-in-a-generation genius. ’The Goddess of Dreams truly hasn’t abandoned me...’ The words escaped him almost unconsciously.
Today, not only had his imprisoned soul finally been freed, but the disciple who had betrayed him had also been destroyed with astonishing ease. The overwhelming sense of relief nearly brought tears to his eyes. If he still possessed a physical body, he would probably have rushed over and embraced Marcus on the spot. What incredible fortune.
"Good... good... good..." He repeated the word three times before finally calming himself enough to continue.
"Stonehaven, thank you for fulfilling my final wish and destroying that despicable traitor. As promised, I shall reward you generously."
The mention of a reward immediately caught everyone’s attention. Marcus himself was curious; after all, Elder Eagle existed only as a soul. What could he possibly have left behind?
As if reading his thoughts, Elder Eagle smiled faintly. "Before that beast betrayed me, I stored a number of treasures inside this chamber while cultivating here. I leave every one of them to you."
He raised a translucent hand and pointed toward a row of fist-sized glowing crystals embedded in the stone wall.
"Count from the left. The third crystal is the mechanism."
"Turn it once to the left, then three more times. An eagle-shaped emblem will appear. Face it and say, ’Eagle Strikes the Sky.’ The hidden chamber will open, and everything inside will belong to you."
So there really was a hidden treasure vault, and Marcus had worried for nothing.
Just then, another system notification rang out.
Ding!
[Congratulations, player Stonehaven. You have completed the Unique Hidden Quest: Elder Eagle’s Wrath. Reward: 300 Reputation, 10,000 Gold Coins.]
The quest was officially complete; now all that remained was claiming Elder Eagle’s hidden treasures.
The old man looked toward the remains of his former disciple one last time. The violent golden light surrounding the Navy Captain had almost completely faded, and both the corpse and the crystal coffin had nearly disintegrated into piles of gray dust.
"He chose this path himself..." Although his voice remained calm, sorrow still lingered beneath the words.
No matter what crimes the Navy Captain had committed, he had once been the disciple Elder Eagle had personally raised, almost like a son. Watching his final end still left a trace of sadness in the old man’s heart.
With a quiet sigh, Elder Eagle shook his head. "Stonehaven, my final wish has been fulfilled. I must now find a secluded place to cultivate and restore my soul. Farewell."
"If fate permits... we shall meet again."
As his final words faded, Elder Eagle summoned a gentle current of wind. His own preserved corpse rose into the air, carried alongside his soul through the chamber entrance and back into the passage Marcus and the others had come through.
Within moments, both had disappeared from sight.
Marcus watched the old man leave before silently scratching his cheek. ’A secluded place to cultivate?’
Honestly, he couldn’t think of anywhere more secluded than this underground chamber. Besides, Twin Wing Island was still sealed by the Storm Seal, so whether Elder Eagle’s soul could even leave the island was another question entirely. Still, that wasn’t Marcus’s concern.
Since Elder Eagle had been the one who originally discovered Crescent Island, he undoubtedly knew this place better than anyone, so if anyone could figure something out, it would be him. Once Elder Eagle had completely disappeared, Marcus led the women around the swirling whirlpool toward the hidden mechanism.
These were treasures the old man had hidden away before his betrayal, possessions that even the Navy Captain had never discovered. If Elder Eagle had gone to such lengths to conceal them, they were almost certainly valuable, and Marcus couldn’t help feeling excited.
As they walked around the whirlpool, his gaze casually drifted toward the pile of ashes where the Navy Captain and the crystal coffin had once been. Everything had turned to dust... almost everything.
A faint glimmer of gold suddenly caught his eye among the gray ashes.
"Marcus!" Amber pointed immediately. "There’s something golden in the ashes!"
Everyone hurried over.
Mixed among the scattered remains were countless tiny golden specks that glittered like grains of metal beneath the chamber’s light. Resting beside them was another object entirely: a palm-sized square tablet of pitch-black jade whose rough surface resembled scorched bone.
Marcus crouched down. The strange golden particles could wait; his attention was immediately drawn to the black jade tablet.
He picked it up, and before he even thought to inspect its attributes, three large words engraved across its surface entered his view:
Corpse King Art.