Chapter 1042
Lion Head Secret Codex
In the very beginning, Eivass indeed didn’t quite understand the situation.
But later, upon hearing, “The Swan King isn’t completely dead yet; his soul is still watching the Iris Flower somewhere,” Eivass suddenly understood which specific dungeon this was—
—To be fair, that statement wasn’t entirely wrong.
After all, according to the original game’s plot, almost all forces or individuals in this World with the strength and intention to change it were eventually beaten to death by players.
At the time, Eivass hadn’t noticed any issues—as a Player, what was wrong with defeating NPCs who held different stances or opinions as BOSSes? Nothing!
And as a BOSS, it was normal to have a shattered dream, to be persecuted, or misunderstood; having firm resolve and perseverance was even more reasonable. Only by meeting these conditions could one be called a boss with gravitas—and breaking the noble dreams of villains was precisely what the “protagonist,” the Player, should do!
—I won’t listen; you don’t deserve to speak!
From a Player’s perspective, this could even be considered a power-fantasy plot—all organizations that treated “Players” poorly would ultimately turn out to be villains, with no “redemption” arcs in between; and as long as they were villains, they were basically thoroughly defeated, at most escaping once or twice midway.
Now, as more and more BOSSes from dungeons followed Eivass, he gradually realized something was amiss.
—Knowing that an unknown world-ending catastrophe awaits, and this is a time for transcendence… Is it really necessary to beat to death those who attempt change now? What is the Player’s stance? Or rather, what are the personal stances of the “Player’s” controllers? Is it merely “world peace”?
At least in this World… in this idealistic World where one must strengthen their Dao heart to become powerful.
One could say… every major villain was once a failed hero.
—The BOSS known as the “Box of Nothingness” is precisely like that.
Version 4.0 had a total of four high-difficulty dungeons, only two of which were Heavenly Envoys. The last one was the Calamity Demon Dragon, the half-body of the Crown Lord. In the original worldline, Professor Moriarty was the one who, in the end, stole the Calamity Demon Dragon’s heart—and that was also the prelude to “Eivass’s Death.”
Among the four high-difficulty dungeons, the simplest, and the first one, was the “Box of Nothingness.”
Eivass rarely played this dungeon because it was a pure mechanics BOSS. The dungeon was full of all sorts of mini-games, feeling like a round of Fall Guys. Eivass’s short-term memory wasn’t very good, and he disliked snapshot-memory mechanics—the kind where you see the colors of the floor, then the floor returns to black, and you have to guide skills of different colors to tiles of the same color according to the set pattern.
Eivass could only follow his teammates throughout, unable to remember anything. And Players like him, Eivass estimated, were at least seventy percent—all of us working stiffs, basically soulless dungeon grinders with no intellect, unlike the young students whose brains were already so ossified they couldn’t even pass these mechanics…
Because he kept failing this dungeon and wiping the party, he vividly remembered the first five seconds of the unskippable opening CG:
The “Box of Nothingness,” resembling a treasure chest, opened, but what jumped out wasn’t a treasure chest monster—rather, it was a handsome, closed-eyed human head.
Looking back now, that should have been the Swan King’s head.
“—According to my calculations,” Eivass said, “the Swan King’s head should now be preserved in the home of a Child of the Moon Count.”
“…Where did you get that from?!”
Sherlock blurted out.
He clearly remembered that when he asked Eivass, “What do you think?”, Eivass had replied, “I’m not so sure.”
At that time, Eivass didn’t even know if the Swan King was completely dead… he still needed to verify the answer with him. But then, in a blink of an eye, he knew where the Swan King’s head was.
Simply outrageous!
This was no “calculation” at all!
Sherlock increasingly suspected that Eivass truly possessed some unspeakable precognitive ability…
Eivass, however, seriously recalled the pre-quest of the “Void of Nothingness Barren Courtyard” dungeon, speaking backward from the end: “Children of the Moon actually have a secret technique… they can preserve the heads of others, thereby keeping them in a state of ‘still being alive’.”
“Hmm, I know this.”
Unexpectedly, the Old Duke nodded in agreement. “This is a technique from the Lion Head Secret Codex.
“In the past, during the Path of Love or rather the Beast Path, there was a Heavenly Envoy of the Lion on the Beast Path. He called himself the King of Beasts, but his head was severed by Supreme Heaven and made into an ornament… Even so, he did not die.
“He endured until Supreme Heaven left its throne before finally escaping to the lower realms. This technique of preserving oneself with ‘a single head’ is called the ‘Lion Head Art’.”
The Old Duke had clearly heard of this technique. He even knew its background.
Considering his age… it was likely promoted by the Children of the Moon.
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After all, given Duke Bingxin’s age, if he didn’t step into the Path of Twilight, his lifespan should be within these few years. He was an elder who had experienced the Third Rebellion; his age had likely long surpassed a hundred years old.
If Duke Bingxin was unwilling to be transformed into a Child of the Moon, they could offer another method of extending life—that is, the “Lion Head Art.”
“‘Lion Head Art’ originated from the Taichu Empire, named ‘Lost Head Method,’ and those who mastered it were called ‘Decapitated Ones’.”
Eivass also had a deep impression of it. “The sorcerers who use this method are also known as ‘Flying Head Barbarians’—their characteristic is that their heads can survive separation and fly freely. If one fails to master the ‘Lost Head Method,’ they must return to their body within a time limit, otherwise they will die. And they can gain others’ life force by sucking blood. If the ‘Lost Head Method’ is practiced to profound levels, they can even directly consume heads and seize others’ bodies to ‘act on their behalf.’
“Although it’s easy to die if one cannot return to their own body, conversely… as long as one can continuously ‘suck blood’ to maintain vigorous blood, they won’t die immediately.
“The Swan King was stuck in the boundary between ‘death and non-death.’ Those Children of the Moon placed his head in a blood sarcophagus, thereby providing a continuous supply of fresh blood and qi… And for a Child of the Moon Count, hoarding blood is a very reasonable demand.
“—Therefore, no one would suspect him of using this blood for other purposes.
“For instance, using this blood to nurture the head of a former king.”
(End of this chapter)
