Close Combat Mage

Chapter 353 - Trade Route’s Secret Part 2

Sensing the trident in his hands, Suo Jia’s heart fluttered. He could vaguely conclude that, even it wasn’t a Divine Artifact, it was definitely a sub-Divine Artifact. Even Epic ranked magic equipment sets had never given him this kind of feeling before.

Without wasting time, Suo Jia quickly opened his interspatial ring to store away the trident. Then…Suo Jia gave the main hall one final sweep before swiftly leaving. Although he hadn’t stayed in the shrine for a long time, who knew whether the Giant Icebear King would suddenly wake up or not. If it did and discovered Suo Jia’s tracks, what would the consequences be?

With this short sweep, Suo Jia hadn’t been very hopeful in detecting anything. The main hall had already been surveyed by him for a while. If there was anything, he wouldn’t be discovering it only now. However…this quick check had actually resulted in Suo Jia noticing something he’d overlooked before.

As mentioned before, the sculpture sitting there had a trident in one hand, with the other hand pressed on its knee. Before, because Suo Jia had been far away, he hadn’t noticed anything. Now that he’d looked closer, there was clearly an opened book underneath the hand on its knee…

Suo Jia’s eyes shone in excitement, and he quickly pulled the book out. After examining the area once more, and confirming that there was nothing else, he hurriedly left the shrine and crawled back through the tunnel.

Upon leaving the ice tunnel, Suo Jia anxiously activated his water manipulation to fill up the 30 meter long tunnel with an ice stream. He then turned around and rushed back to where the Giant Icebear King was.

Fortunately, the Giant Icebear King had been sleeping for most of the time. Even if Suo Jia had been gone for a while, it hadn’t woken up. Seeing how comfortably the Giant Icebear King was sleeping, Suo Jia let out a breath of relief. This time, he had finally done something with his time instead of wasting it. Suo Jia had not only gained 10 rank nine monster cores, but a nameless weapon as well. It could be said that he’d completed the objective of his journey to Icebound Valley.

After a stretch, Suo Jia excitedly paced around back and forth for a long while before suddenly freezing in his tracks. He turned around to look over in astonishment at the pack of Giant Icebears off in the distance…

Only now had Suo Jia suddenly realized a major problem: he’d entered as he’d wanted to, and had obtained what he’d desired as well. But how was he supposed to leave? The Giant Icebear King might not kill him because of the honey, but it definitely wouldn’t let him out! Even if it did, Suo Jia wouldn’t have the ability to leave by himself.

Suo Jia anxiously paced back and forth until the next morning, yet he still wasn’t able to think of a solution. He powerlessly gave another barrel of honey to the Giant Icebear King, before sitting down on the icy ground in despair.

Suo Jia opened his interspatial ring to rummage through it and look for any items that would help him escape this predicament, but wasn’t able to find a single thing. Suo Jia helplessly began to flip through books as well to look through alchemy techniques that could allow someone to make a magic tool that could grant the ability to fly!

After searching through dozens of books, Suo Jia was disappointed to discover that there wasn’t any magic tool like that at all. However…he didn’t give up, and continued to read. He opened the interspatial ring once more, and pulled out a faded book.

“Hmm?” Suo Jia stared at the somewhat familiar book in his hands, not remembering when he’d gotten this book. All alchemy books had red skins, without exception.

After staring blankly at it for a long time, Suo Jia finally remembered. Wasn’t this the book he’d gotten from the sculpture’s hand yesterday? He’d been too worried about the Giant Icebear King waking up the other day, so he hadn’t looked at it closely, and had eventually forgotten about it.

When Suo Jia inspected it, he discovered words written on the grey cover: Psychic Technique! Suo Jia looked at these words in confusion and furrowed his brows; he’d never heard of any magics like this before. What exactly did it mean?

Suo Jia flipped through the pages, and saw flamboyant cursive script. Upon careful inspection, Suo Jia’s jaw dropped further and further down…

This shrine was called the Sea God’s Shrine. It was erected to worship the God of the Sea, Poseidon, and the object the sculpture had in its hands was the Divine Artifact passed down through the Sea Gods: the Sea God’s Trident!

The Sea God, Poseidon, from the ancient Greek myths, was a god that controlled the ocean, earthquakes, and horses. He was the son of Kronos and Rhea, Zeus’s brother. He reigned over the realm of water with a trident in hand, and steered a golden chariot over the seas. He often used the trident to smash open rock cliffs, to call the wind, and to summon the rain.

Poseidon was one of the 12 main gods of Olympus, and his Roman name was Neptune, the king of oceans among the giant planets. He and Zeus prevailed over their father, Kronos, and split the world together. He was in charge of the oceans, and dominated the waters with his trident, holding absolutely authority over anything in the waters. He was the one that shook the earth.

The Sea God’s Trident, according to legends, was the weapon that Poseidon used. To humans, any weapon used by a god was called a Divine Artifact. In other words, it was one of the ten Divine Artifacts that had been passed down to the human realm!

The trident had the Water God’s Diamond embedded in it, and it could utilize earth-shaking abilities. As for its exact functions, these were still a mystery. According to records, no human had ever used the Water God’s Trident before!

Of course, these Divine Artifacts didn’t mean that they were necessarily weapons owned by main gods. In reality, any equipment used by a god counted as a Divine Artifact. Some were weapons, some were jewelry.

According to the records in the book, obtaining this trident meant going through the test of passing the tens of thousands of rank nine Giant Icebears, and killing the Giant Icebear King. Only then would one be able to get near the shrine, and take the Sea God’s Trident.

Suo Jia couldn’t help but sigh. Actually, even having a large amount of people wouldn’t help in defeating these Giant Icebear Kings. To eliminate these powerful creatures, one would at least need a sub-god level ability. Only sub-god level warriors would have the qualifications to use this Sea God’s Trident!

But it was very clear to see that the person that had established the shrine was not Poseidon, rather, it was just a sub-god. Although the architecture had been very comprehensive and was extremely tight, there was still a bit that had been overlooked, allowing Suo Jia to drill a hole through.

Upon reading the introduction in this book, Suo Jia began to tremble. As he continued to read, he found that the book’s records clearly stated that those Giant Icebears had been controlled by the sub-gods using this Psychic Technique, and then similarly commanded to guard the shrine. This continued generation after generation, until someone breached the shrine.

This Psychic Technique was a unique magic passed down from the Sea God. Using this magic, humans could telepathically communicate with other creatures, and exchange words. The Sea God could control the seas, which covered 75% of the earth’s surface. There were countless types of animals in the oceans; without this Psychic Technique, how could they act as a Sea God?

Flipping over another page, Suo Jia continued to read that there were a total of thirteen checkpoints on the Greater Trade Routes. The first nine were open, while the latter four were hidden. Each checkpoint contained a main god’s shrine, and within each shrine was a Divine Artifact that had been used by a main god, which able users could use.

After receiving these Divine Artifacts, one would become a spokesperson of the gods, and bravely continue charging forwards until the thirteenth checkpoint. A warrior that passed through all thirteen would be able to engage in a challenge to obtain the Godhead passed down from the gods of the past, and become the new Titan.

Suo Jia’s trembling did not stop as he continued to flip through the book. There was also a description of the Giant Icebears written within. It turned out that…average Giant Icebears were rank nine creatures, but the Giant Icebear King was a rank ten, peak-level magical beast! Whenever they were about to die, they would break through the ice layers and kneel before Poseidon’s statue to await their deaths!

Suo Jia was astonished to discover that, from this description, the Giant Icebears were similar to the Diamond Dragons. The average Diamond Dragons were rank 10 creatures, but the Diamond Dragon King surpassed all other magical beasts, and could no longer be categorized as rank 10.

Suo Jia was so excited that he nearly shouted out into the air. He hadn’t thought that these monster cores in the shrine were not only rank nine, but rank 10. No wonder they were so large in size and so full of energy! This time, the Diamond Dragon had really struck gold.