Keep attacking girls and try not to be killed by them

(Then let me get closer and see what treasures are inside...!)

·

After confirming safety again and again, Jiang Ran began to order the shadow clones to open the two rows of treasure chests in the ruins.

As the saying goes, there's nothing more exciting than opening treasure chests in the maze ruins... If there is, it's opening two rows of treasure chests at once, opening twenty chests at once.

The opposite of the joy of opening a treasure chest is naturally that all that comes out of the treasure chest is garbage, or even an empty treasure chest.

After a while, the shadow clones opened all twenty treasure chests. The result of this "twenty consecutive draws" made Jiang Ran so depressed that he didn't know what to say...

·

These twenty treasure chests are all empty!

·

(Damn, did I end up in an abandoned treasure palace?)

Jiang Ran smiled bitterly and shook his head, then walked forward to check the twenty empty treasure chests.

Seeing it in person won’t make an empty treasure chest turn into treasure, but seeing it in person can reveal details that others have not noticed.

Intentionally or unintentionally, Jiang Ran saw a line of text on the inside of the top cover of the empty treasure chest, and the text was written in the demon language.

The presence of demonic writing here meant nothing, but what puzzled Jiang Ran was how a palace built by the demons could appear in the territory of the Human Alliance? And on the territory of the Kingdom of Wester, the kingdom in the rear.

(Another strange detail... This underground palace clearly has a long history, long before the war between demons and humans. How is this possible?)

There are too many unknowns, so Jiang Ran put these questions aside for the time being and turned to confirm the words inside the top cover of the treasure chest one by one.

He discovered that the words on the top covers of all the treasure chests were the same, and they all said the same thing:

·

"This is the treasure palace of the demon baron, Night Skull. Anyone who trespasses will die!"

·

9.117 - In Trouble

Before Jiang Ran could say anything, the silly loli in his mind was already giggling non-stop.

(Stupid Loli: Hahaha~ It turns out the owner of this place is four ruthless guys. It’s a pity that Jieli is already useless. No matter how ruthless he is, there’s no point in provoking him hahaha~)

Just as the silly loli mocked, these harsh words engraved on the top cover of the treasure chest had no deterrent effect in this scene. Instead, they made the underground treasure palace look even more dilapidated.

How many years ago was this palace, quietly hidden underground in the ruins of the Wacono volcano, built?

Jiang Ran looked at the cracked pillars around him and the thick dust on the ground, and guessed that this palace had a history of at least a hundred years.

As a secret place for hiding things, once it is forgotten or the manager dies, its fate is to be abandoned and eventually turned into dust.

What a shame, Elder Minghei. What you thought was a "good thing" was actually just a key to a ruin.

Jiang Ran sighed lightly. He didn't feel sorry for not being able to obtain the treasure, but he just sighed at the helplessness of "nothing can withstand the corrosion of time."

The stupid loli sighed and said that it was a wasted trip. The Feiqi family could have given her something else, but they had to give her such a troublesome thing.

Jiang Ran felt okay about this. Although he didn't get any equipment or props, at least he knew one thing - that is, the history of this Prison Star world is far from as simple as it seems.

Since the treasure chests were empty, there was no point in staying in this abandoned palace. Jiang Ran turned around and walked towards the entrance, intending to go directly back to Yanji City to find the craftsmen and see what design plans they had come up with.

But at this moment, Jiang Ran was surprised to find that the stone door at the entrance had been quietly closed at some point...!

·

"……Um?"

Jiang Ran hesitated for a few seconds, then summoned a black shadow clone and asked him to go to the stone gate to investigate the situation.

The black shadow clone quickly arrived in front of the stone gate. No matter it was pushed, pulled, tugged or kicked, the stone gate did not move at all. So Jiang Ran asked the black shadow clone to use the beast horn giant sword to destroy the stone gate. This time, the stone gate finally responded, but this reaction was not to crack. Instead, a magic barrier like a shield emerged, which withstood the powerful impact of the beast horn giant sword.

(Automatic defense mechanism...?)

(No way, after being abandoned for so long, this underground palace is still functioning normally?)

Surprised, Jiang Ran realized that he had actually made an oversight. If this underground palace was really unusable, it would have been impossible to use the "Wakno Sensing Door Stone" to make the hidden stone door open by itself.

It's really ironic. Even though everything has been forgotten and there are no treasures in the treasure chests, this underground palace is still performing its duties faithfully.

Under normal circumstances, this would have been a touching scene, but now it only made Jiang Ran feel troubled.

So, should we continue to use more powerful methods to destroy the closed door?

Jiang Ran thought about it and did not continue with this rough method. Instead, he first identified the stone gate to see if there was any useful information.

Unfortunately, this time the identification ability did not bring any valuable results, so Jiang Ran could only rely on his own guesses.

(Stupid Loli: Is there a "password" or something like that? Don't you have a password like "Open Sesame" on Earth?)

At this time, the stupid loli's suggestion gave Jiang Ran some inspiration. However, the people in the Prison Star World definitely didn't understand the "Open Sesame" joke, so Jiang Ran made a reasonable adaptation based on the actual situation.

"I give the order in the name of the Demon Baron Yeku! Open the door!" (Demon language, the same below)

"Stone Gate! I, the Demon Baron Ye Lou, command you to open it!"

"Long live the Demon Baron Yeku!"

"Open it, stone door!"

"..."

Jiang Ran racked his brains and came up with several commands. As a result, not only did the stone gate not move at all, but the stupid loli in his mind was laughing so hard that it made Jiang Ran's head hurt.

Looking at the motionless stone gate, Jiang Ran knew that he had really become the laughing stock of the stupid loli this time, and the best way to resolve this embarrassment was not to take it seriously.

Jiang Ran simply ignored the stupid loli and didn't give her the chance to continue laughing at him. What Jiang Ran had to do was very simple, which was to increase the output firepower and destroy the damn stone gate from a physical level.

·

Three seconds later, a shadowy clone holding the "Yanma Knight Sword: Lanzel" attacked the stone gate.

According to Jiang Ran's plan, the dark blue flame of the Yama Knight Sword will break through the protection of the magic barrier, then melt the stone door into liquid, opening a way to leave.

However, just after the magic barrier was burned through, the entire underground palace was suddenly shrouded in a red light. Then, the stone doors, walls, ceiling and ground were all covered with a denser magic barrier. It was obvious that it was more difficult to deal with than the previous magic barrier.

(No way… the things you were supposed to protect are gone, so why are you still working so hard?)

Jiang Ran saw that the defense level of the underground palace had been improved, and his heart was filled with helpless complaints.

However, he did not increase the firepower because of this, but remained calm, and temporarily stopped the attack of the shadow clone and retrieved the Yama Knight Sword first.

Jiang Ran's mind was now very clear. If he continued to use fire attacks in this enclosed underground space, he might suffocate to death before burning through the magic barrier and the stone door.

(The mechanism here is that after detecting an attack, the defense level will automatically increase... But if you don't attack, there is no way to get out...)

Jiang Ran continued to think calmly, and then suddenly realized a problem:

·

Where is the power source of this underground palace?

·

Yes, no matter whether the power source is magic stone or something else, since this underground palace can do so many things, it must be connected to a power source somewhere.

As long as the power source is cut off, all these annoying defense mechanisms can be eliminated.

Thinking of this, Jiang Ran immediately set out to explore around using his identification ability, but at this moment, a gray stone ball the size of a watermelon floated over from nowhere, which immediately aroused Jiang Ran's vigilance.

"Oh my, I didn't expect there would be another intruder. The Baron's treasure really does have a fatal attraction~" (Demon language, the same below)

An old voice came from the stone ball. When Jiang Ran heard the voice, he immediately used his "all-round vision" to look for hidden enemies, but he found nothing.

"Hmph, so it's a dirty and despicable human. Let me think, how do humans say it..."

The stone ball seemed to be able to see Jiang Ran and kept talking to itself.

After hearing this, Jiang Ran decided to strike up a conversation to gather information.

"Don't think about it, I can speak the demon language too." Jiang Ran suddenly spoke, causing the stone ball to tremble as if it was frightened.

"Oh wow? There are actually humans who can speak the demon language. You're really weird, hahahaha!"

The stone ball approached Jiang Ran while laughing. Jiang Ran immediately raised the alert level to the highest level, ready to fight at any time...!

9.118 - Black Rock Statue

In an underground palace covered with red magic barriers, the trapped Jiang Ran is confronting a stone ball floating in the air.

This talking stone ball itself is not scary; what is scary is the power it represents.

While Jiang Ran was listening to the stone ball, he used his identification ability to confirm the other party's information.

He saw that the identification result of this stone ball was: a magical suspended sphere.

The magical suspended sphere has no levels, nor does it have values ​​such as vitality, endurance, and magic power. In other words, even if this stone ball can move and speak, it is just an "object".

No wonder Jiang Ran had no reaction when he used mind reading on it just now.

"What? Is it rare for humans to speak the demon language?" Jiang Ran asked the stone ball, trying hard to find out more information.

"Haha, that's certainly very rare, at least in our time... Little ghost, what year is it outside now?"

The question raised by Shi Qiu made Jiang Ran sure that his previous guess was correct.

This underground palace is indeed a very ancient historical relic.

In order to continue to get more information from Shi Qiu, Jiang Ran gave the other party the correct answer at this time and then asked more questions.

"It's the 187th year of the Prison Star Calendar now. Who are you and how come you don't even know the year?"

"187 years? The Prison Star Calendar? Hahahaha... Hahahaha! I'm impressed, I'm really impressed. I didn't expect you humans to come up with your own system of counting years. You truly are filthy and despicable humans. You've usurped the throne and now think you're the masters of this planet!"

Unexpectedly, the stone ball suddenly became excited. Jiang Ran judged from what it said that the history of the Prison Star World was indeed not as simple as 187 years. Before the 0th year of the Prison Star Calendar, it was very likely that the world was dominated by the forces behind the stone ball.

(This stone ball just called the Demon Baron Night Skull "Baron-sama"... Could it be that the demons actually controlled the Prison Star world hundreds of years ago?)

When Jiang Ran thought about this, he immediately became interested.

Perhaps his expedition will not end empty-handed, but he will be able to bring back some valuable information.

·

"Uh, well, don't get so excited. Can you tell me what you are? Why can a stone ball talk? Are you a rock monster?"

Jiang Ran used his signature acting skills, pretending to be Xiaobai and asked Shiqiu another question.

However, the subsequent developments did not go as Jiang Ran wished, because this stone ball was actually not an object with which he could communicate normally.

"Hehehe, you have a lot of questions, little human kid...but do you think I will reveal information to you easily?" The stone ball said this and suddenly began to move backwards, widening the distance between itself and Jiang Ran.

Then, the stone ball continued, "Hmph, don't even think about it! Let me tell you, I actually know that a fellow like you who can enter the Baron's underground palace is definitely not an ordinary kid... So no matter what the current situation is, anyone who trespasses into the Baron's underground palace will only have one outcome, and that is death!"

As the words fell, a black rock statue like a heavily armored knight suddenly fell from the ceiling and landed heavily on the open space between Jiang Ran and the stone ball.

The next second, without giving Jiang Ran any time to react, the black rock statue kicked the ground and crashed into Jiang Ran like a cannonball!

(Hashrate boost and overclocking!)

The enemy was extremely fast. If Jiang Ran had not activated his skill to slow down the flow of time immediately, he would have had no choice but to use the "Shadow Escape Step" to save his life.

After slowing down the flow of time, Jiang Ran was able to rely on his own physical ability to jump sideways to avoid collisions. This evasive method is what he will try to use next.

After this improvement, Jiang Ran can not only hide key skills such as "Shadow Escape Step" and use them later, but also save a lot of magic power.

However, this black rock statue that suddenly appeared was no pushover. It had just flown and landed on the ground when it immediately turned around and attacked Jiang Ran!

(Such a strong desire to attack...!)

Jiang Ran had to keep an eye on the movements of the mysterious stone ball while dodging and observing the black rock statue. Even with the help of all-round vision, he was still overwhelmed for a while.

So, he first quietly summoned a black shadow clone to attack the stone ball, and then after the cooling time was over, he summoned another black shadow clone to share the firepower of the black stone statue on his side.

With Jiang Ran's multitasking, the situation changed within two minutes.

First, the talkative stone ball was caught by the shadow clone, and then was embedded into the wall, and could no longer float around.

The second is the black rock statue. Although this guy fights very fiercely, he seems to have no brains. Now he basically ignores Jiang Ran and is chasing the black shadow clone.

At this point, Jiang Ran finally had enough time to identify what this black rock statue was. What he saw was that this black rock statue was actually an inanimate "object" just like the stone ball.

(The history hidden in this underground palace... seems to be far more complicated than I imagined.)