save the bachelors

Chapter 5165-5168 [The Wish Crystal]

"The God of Deception?!" Xiang Nan asked. "What kind of god is He?"

“The full name of the god of deception is Dicarafria Ero,” Diana explained. “He also has other names, such as Mendasius, Dolos, Duke of Deception… He is a very evil god. The artifacts he created must also have been very evil, which is why this ancient Mayan city fell.”

“You just said that making a wish upon a magical artifact resulted in disaster, which reminded me of the story of ‘The Wish Monkey’s Paw,’” Xiang Nan said to Diana.

"The Wish Monkey Paw?!" Diana asked in surprise, as it was the first time she had ever heard this story.

"It's a horror novel by the British author William Jacobs," Xiang Nan explained. "It tells the story of a family who obtain a magical monkey paw that can grant three wishes."

So the father wished for a sum of money to renovate his house. The next day, his son was crushed to death by a machine while working at the factory, and the compensation was exactly the money the father had wanted.

The mother missed her son day and night, so she wished for him to be resurrected. So the son, who had been crushed beyond recognition, crawled out of the grave and returned home, a truly horrifying sight.

Seeing this, the father begged the monkey's paw to retract all his wishes, and so his son and the money vanished. The once happy family was thus destroyed.

“I see, it is indeed a terrifying story.” Diana nodded.

“I suspect that this wish-granting artifact, like the wishing monkey's paw, can indeed grant wishes, but in an extremely bizarre way,” Xiang Nan nodded. “That’s why these Mayans suffered terrible consequences after making wishes to it.”

“That makes sense,” Diana agreed, finding Xiang Nan’s guess reasonable.

Because an evil god like the god of deception would never kindly help people fulfill their wishes; instead, he would only fool and harm them.

“In that case, we should find that artifact to prevent it from being unearthed again in the future and causing a tragedy,” Xiang Nan advised Diana.

He knew that in Wonder Woman 1984, this artifact was obtained by a madman. He wished upon the artifact to become it, and then he actually possessed its power.

He then broadcast the message live on television, allowing people all over the world to make wishes to him. Some wished to become king, some wished for all immigrants to leave, some wished for their enemies to die, and some wished for their countries to possess nuclear weapons... As a result, the whole world was thrown into chaos, almost leading to the destruction of the earth.

Therefore, it's best to put away such a dangerous artifact. Otherwise, it will definitely cause a lot of trouble in the future.

“That makes sense.” Diana nodded. Artifacts like these, forged by evil gods, should be found and destroyed to prevent future tragedies.

“But we don’t know where they hid the artifact,” Diana said to Xiang Nan. “We can’t exactly turn the whole city upside down.”

“Don’t worry, I have a plan.” Xiang Nan nodded. “I will pray to the god Ilúvatar and hope that He can give us some guidance. I think He certainly doesn’t want this evil artifact to continue to exist.”

Diana nodded.

Xiang Nan then pretended to pray to Ilúvatar, “Ilúvatar, the exalted god of justice, your apostle prays to you solemnly.”

In the lost ancient Mayan city, I found a clue to an evil artifact. Created by the god of deception, Decarafria Ero, it wreaked havoc on the world under the guise of granting human desires, causing immense tragedy. Therefore, I hope you can guide me to find it and destroy it completely…”

While praying, Xiang Nan had already separated his primordial spirit, holding the Wish Compass, and found the place where the Maya had buried that artifact.

Xiang Nan then stopped praying.

"Well, did the gods give any guidance?" Diana asked quickly.

Xiang Nan nodded.

“That’s wonderful. To be honest, although we Amazons also believe in gods, none of them have ever answered our prayers,” Diana said to Xiang Nan with envy. Xiang Nan knew that the Amazons worshipped the Greek gods.

However, some of the Greek gods were killed by Ares, while others were stripped of their divine power by the Wizarding Guild and banished from the human world, as depicted in Shazam! 2: Wrath of the Gods.

Therefore, even if they wanted to respond to the Amazons' prayers, they were powerless to do so.

……

Xiang Nan then led Diana to the place where the Maya buried their artifacts, which was about 20 kilometers away from the ancient city.

The place where the sacred artifacts were buried must be the royal cemetery.

Because there are still some building complexes on the ground, and some hieroglyphs are carved on the buildings.

“Fortunately, we discovered it in time.” Xiang Nan said to Diana upon seeing this. “Otherwise, this cemetery might be excavated in the future, and that artifact might also be discovered. At that time, even if someone makes a wish as a joke, it could cause huge damage.”

Diana nodded in agreement.

The artifacts forged by the evil god are all extremely wicked and capable of causing great disasters.

This lost Mayan city, which at its peak probably had hundreds of thousands of inhabitants, became a ghost town in less than a few months because of that evil artifact.

This shows how evil it is.

Xiang Nan then led Diana into the tomb of the Mayan king, where they found the artifact in his coffin.

It was a yellow crystal with a bronze base on the bottom, on which was written in Latin: "Hold this object and make a great wish".

"Sure enough, this is the divine artifact." Xiang Nan picked up the yellow crystal, then squeezed it hard, and the yellow crystal shattered into dust, leaving only the bronze base.

“Sure enough, it’s inscribed with the words of the gods.” Diana took the bronze base and saw that there was indeed another ring of text engraved inside.

Xiang Nan didn't recognize that script either; only the Amazonians, who have lived since ancient times, knew how to decipher it.

“In that case, this base cannot be kept either.” Xiang Nan then unleashed a burst of flames, burning the base into molten copper.

From then on, this magical artifact disappeared from the world, preventing it from continuing to do evil.

……

After resolving the wish crystal issue, Xiang Nan and Diana left Nicaragua and headed to the Caribbean to enjoy the island scenery.

Then they set off for Peru. Peru is the site of the ancient Inca Kingdom, where they found the paradise city of Machu Picchu and the Nazca Lines in the Nazca Desert.

“These are paintings depicting ancient Incas praying to their gods,” Diana explained to Xiang Nan.

"I see." Xiang Nan nodded.

He often saw the Nazca Lines in books about unsolved mysteries of the world when he was a child, and he wondered what they were used for. Now he knows that they were used for rituals.

(End of this chapter)