Magical Girl's Knight Brother

Chapter 669 Diary of the Late Mythological Period

Forsold's clues about opportunity and resonance are like trying to see flowers through a fog.

"If finding the temple gate truly requires some vague and elusive opportunity..."

'

Tang Zijun's deep voice broke the oppressive silence. He glanced at Chang Lei, who was pacing restlessly beside him, a hint of experimentation in his eyes. "Can your deception directly deceive 'space,' making it open that door for us? Or... at least point us in the right direction?"

Chang Lei suddenly stopped, his scarlet eyes glaring at Tang Zijun, his lips twitching dramatically as he let out a short, mocking laugh.

"Ha, what do you take me for? A magic wish-granting machine? Or Aladdin's lamp with a built-in 'Open Sesame' spell? My deception is convenient, but it needs something to deceive, a foundation, a target, and a set of rules to twist. This thing, whose door frame doesn't even know which dimension it's in, is purely water without a source, a tree without roots. How can you expect me to deceive it? Shout 'There's a door here!' at thin air and expect it to actually appear?"

He crossed his arms, his crimson pupils sweeping over the crimson coordinate area in the basin, his tone filled with helplessness.

"At most, I can fool this wrecked ship and make it obey, trick it into opening the door to a temple whose very existence is a mystery, unless I transform into Poseidon himself right now, or... conjure that damned trident directly into my hands!"

Chang Lei kicked the leg of the nautical table in frustration, making a dull thud.

Upon hearing this, Tang Zijun also fell silent. No matter how powerful Lao Chang's deception was, he still needed a target. Faced with this unknown deep sea and the ethereal door, he was indeed powerless to use his abilities.

Just then, the heavy iron door to the captain's cabin was pushed open again.

Tangcao rushed in like a gust of wind, her little face flushed with excitement, her big eyes sparkling with the ecstatic joy of discovering a treasure.

Behind her, Xiao Xiao and Afran were carrying an oak box that looked unusually heavy. The box was covered with thick green rust, barnacles, and a layer of sticky black oil stains. The box was not large, but it was exceptionally sturdy. A huge iron lock, rusted to the point of being almost integrated with the box, was hanging on it.

"Brother, Uncle Chang, look, look!" Tang Cao pointed at the box as if presenting a treasure.

"I found it in the bottom cargo hold, which was full of stinky water. It was hidden really deep, and there was a lot of rotten wood on top of it. It felt like something very important. Maybe it's Blackbeard's treasure chest. Quick, help me open it and see!" She shook Tang Zijun's arm impatiently.

Xiao Xiao and Afran carefully placed the box on the relatively clean floor, their expressions a mixture of seriousness and anticipation.

Afran's azure eyes swept over the sticky black grease on the box's surface, her delicate brows furrowing slightly. "This grime retains a strong amount of negative energy, like a mixture of solidified resentment and curses."

Tang Zijun stepped forward, ignoring the nauseating filth, his warm, large hand gently stroking Tang Cao's hair, which was disheveled with excitement. "Alright, let your brother see what treasure you've found."

Chang Lei curled his lip. For him, spending even a second longer on a restriction of this level would be a disgrace. He then extended his finger, covered in scarlet energy, and gently tapped the rusted giant lock.

laugh-!

A greedy force with strong corrosive and decomposing properties instantly enveloped the lock. The seemingly indestructible ancient iron lock, as if soaked in strong acid, rapidly rusted, disintegrated, and turned into a pool of dark red iron slag, which fell down in a rustling sound.

"Done." Chang Lei withdrew his hand, gesturing for Tang Zijun to open the box.

Tang Zijun bent down, grabbed the edge of the box lid with both hands, and applied slight force.

crunch—

Accompanied by a teeth-grinding screech of wood scraping and a soft sound as if centuries of pent-up fumes were being released, the heavy lid of the chest was slowly lifted, releasing an even stronger stench, a mixture of musty smells, aged parchment, and rust.

The air was filled with the scent of sea salt and some indescribable, pungent, divine glow, like the breath of a deep-sea monster.

Inside the box was a layer of black velvet that had long since rotted into a fluffy texture. On the velvet lay several items quietly: a few silver coins that had long lost their luster and were engraved with blurry sea monster patterns; a brass compass that was full of cracks, its pointer completely motionless, as if it had been twisted by a tremendous force; and a few dark green, irregularly shaped stone fragments that emitted a faint phosphorescence.

And at the very top, there was a heavy book tightly wrapped in a thick, dark brown waterproof tarpaulin. The tarpaulin was also covered with sticky black grime, but the signs of careful wrapping were visible.

"A nautical logbook?" Avran immediately recognized the way it was packaged, her azure eyes suddenly lighting up. "Blackbeard's own nautical logbook?"

"No, Blackbeard's logbook should be this one." Chang Lei pointed to the one on the captain's desk. "This one...should be the crew's?"

Tang Zijun carefully picked up the tightly wrapped book, a faint wisp of purifying energy swirling around her fingertips. She gently brushed it across the surface of the oilcloth, and the sticky grime seemed to wriggle slightly as if alive, before being peeled away by an invisible force.

As the dust settled, he unwrapped the tough oilcloth layer by layer, revealing the books inside.

It was a book made of dark black, unidentified thick leather. The cover had no words, only a deep, claw-like tear. The edges of the pages were jagged, showing dark brown wavy patterns as if soaked in seawater and then dried. The whole book exuded a strong sense of the erosion of time, the saltiness of the sea, and a lingering, mad obsession.

Tang Zijun carefully opened the cover.

The pages inside are made of specially made parchment. Although they have also been eroded by seawater, turning yellow and brittle with curled edges, the writing on them is done with a special ink that is dark brown to almost black, like dried blood. Even after hundreds of years, it is still clearly legible.

The handwriting is wild, messy, and full of frenzied tension; every stroke reveals the writer's extremely unstable mental state.

Tang Zijun's gaze swept over the few shocking lines of text on the title page.

"...Storms! Endless storms! They're coming! From the deepest trenches! From the oldest nightmares! They're tearing the sky apart! They're ripping the ocean apart! Calypso... He's screaming! His kingdom is collapsing!..."

"...I saw the door...that damned door to His lair! It...is moving! Like a slippery eel! In the mirror of the storm! In the reflection of the whirlpool! It doesn't belong here! It's...escaping!..."

"...Chase! We must catch that door!...The key! The only key that can re-anchor it! Hidden...in...the fish's...eye..."

(The last line of writing is extremely chaotic, even penetrating the parchment, as if the writer had fallen into complete madness or fear.)

"A fish's...eyes?" Xiao Xiao murmured the last sentence, her cool face filled with doubt.

Tang Zijun's brows furrowed slightly. "Calypso, isn't that the sea god?"

"Hmm, she's the sea goddess in ancient Greek mythology, the daughter of the giant Atlas. Although she's called a goddess, compared to Poseidon and his offspring, she's not really a sea goddess at all. At most, she's a demigod-like being," Avran said after thinking for a moment.

At this moment, Chang Lei came closer, squinting as he focused his gaze on the words on the book.

Tang Zijun noticed his expression and asked softly, "What's wrong? Did you discover something?"

Chang Lei pondered for a moment, a hint of uncertainty in his eyes. "This...it doesn't seem to have been written by Blackbeard, nor by anyone on this ship..."

Upon hearing this, Tang Zijun's eyes flickered. He knew that Chang Lei's fraudulent techniques could sense the writer's emotions through words, something he had already experienced with Qin Nan's grandfather's notebook.

However, the others present were unaware of this, and Tang Cao asked curiously, "If it wasn't written by someone on the ship, then who else could it be?"

Chang Lei didn't look at Tang Cao, but instead looked at Tang Zijun and said in a deep voice, "I don't know what wrote it, but I'm certain that it's at least a demigod."

"Demigod!?"

Upon hearing this, everyone present was stunned.

The old butler stepped forward and adjusted his glasses. "Judging from the two diaries, the one Miss Tangcao brought seems to be older than Blackbeard's."

It's important to understand that while greedy beings existed as far back as mythology, those like Blackbeard were relatively recent, representing a period of history with a limited number of such beings. However, this diary is different.

"If it really was written by a demigod, then wouldn't that mean this journal comes from the end of the mythological period?"

Tang Zijun was pleasantly surprised.

What's surprising is that Blackbeard was able to get his hands on something like this, but what's exciting is that it might contain some hidden records from the mythological era.

Tang Cao was even happier than Tang Zijun. Upon hearing that the diary was actually a product of the late Mythological Era, she almost jumped for joy.

Tang Zijun immediately spoke up. "Old Chang, take a look at this journal for any clues. Everyone, let's check the records in the captain's cabin; there might be some information in those words."

"Okay!" No one had any objections.

...