Chapter 329
The Philosopher’s Trap
The philosopher walked forward, feeling her body grow weaker.
She coughed up bloody phlegm, her breath ragged, and almost helplessly dropped the package she was carrying.
She couldn’t carry it anymore.
Her fingers were white from gripping it. It was simply too heavy for her.
This simple package contained the fragmented remains of the Hatter—the ritual materials she had painstakingly acquired.
In this ritual, the Hatter had become a robust young man. The philosopher had traded with him using the information she obtained, clearly stating the situation of her missing teammates and her desire to form a temporary alliance.
With the Hatter’s help, the philosopher, who had just escaped the private room and was still weak and powerless, was able to enter the secret tunnel. At that moment, she could barely stand; the Hatter had practically lifted her and shoved her into the tunnel.
After both of them entered the secret tunnel, as soon as the philosopher had caught her breath, she immediately used a spell to sneak attack and kill him.
There was no other reason; she desperately needed to heal her body and restore her stamina.
This ritual had no priest. Even if there was one, it would be difficult to abduct them to heal her. Although the Hatter was willing to cooperate with her now, if she continued to appear so weak, he might just kill her himself.
It was better to strike first.
As a mage of the Path of Wisdom, the philosopher did not have the ability to recover. However, fortunately, as long as she knew how to operate it, even without the level of the Transcendent Path, she could perform some simple rituals.
And human corpses with mana were excellent ritual materials—
As expected, she didn’t have much talent for the Path of Wisdom, the philosopher mocked herself.
After all these years and so many resources, she had only just reached the Third Tier of the Path of Wisdom.
The core principles of the Path of Wisdom were mystery, selfishness, and rationality. To guard secrets, maintain neutrality, and stay rational; an isolated sage, beyond their era, not understood by the masses—
The philosopher was confident she could accomplish the first two points, but the third was difficult. This was because she easily became enraged.
She wanted to pursue the Path of Wisdom as a secondary path because she felt she frequently lost her reason. Thus, she hoped this most rational path would compensate for her shortcomings.
Perhaps it was the influence of the Transcendent Path, or perhaps the corrosion of her rationality by her Contract Demon. Whenever she encountered any pain or setback, instead of thinking “remain silent, offer no explanation, and ignore it,” or “dismiss it with contemptuous disdain,” she immediately wanted to take action and make the other party pay the price.
Because she couldn’t help herself.
—I am so powerful!
She held a high status, possessed great wealth, and had an intelligent and capable successor. She was from an old noble family that had existed for hundreds of years, a noble family with real power, and a general with meritorious service in war. No one would dare to disrespect her.
But the Path of Wisdom required one to dismiss the doubts and hostility of fools with a smile. On the path to pursuing truth, all those disputes and clamors were merely meaningless wastes of time.
That sense of being aloof, looking down on all beings, and being genuinely uninterested in worldly affairs, the philosopher could never grasp.
When she ascended the Path of Wisdom, she gave herself this codename to remind herself to remain rational and to think more before acting.
As a result, she not only turned into a frail girl… but also had to endure such insults and bullying from that old man!
—If this were the Ascension Ritual of the Transcendent Path, she might have resonated with the path by now.
But this was the Ascension Ritual of the Path of Wisdom. The result was that now, not only was she enraged, causing her head to spin intermittently, her vision to darken, and her limbs to weaken, but she also felt her spellcasting success rate continuously declining.
Ultimately, in this Ascension Ritual of the Path of Wisdom, she still used the ritual of the Transcendent Path…
Manually dismembering corpses was tiring, a technical skill, and very time-consuming.
Her current physical state could not support her manually dismembering the “Hatter’s” corpse. Therefore, the philosopher consumed a little more mana and quickly set up a “Decomposition Ritual” to quickly break down his body into portable materials.
Afterward, she performed the first “Vitality Regeneration Ritual” using the Hatter’s remains to replenish her own stamina.
Then, she used the Hatter’s clothes as a package, packing the materials into separate bags.
She did not want to come into conflict with others at this time. Because she only had a little mana left, and running out of mana completely could lead to a coma.
Compared to those ascenders who used the bodies of young men, she would definitely not be able to defeat them without using her extraordinary abilities.
Therefore, after much consideration, the philosopher chose to use two-thirds of the materials left by the Hatter to set up traps.
She set them up all the way she walked. Since she didn’t have many materials on hand, she couldn’t set up traps with much offensive power.
Considering the possibility of entering the secret tunnel together, setting up a sleeping trap could lead to her companions waking her up. Thus, the philosopher ultimately chose the Exhaustion Ritual.
It was a curse ritual that would make the limbs weak, making movement difficult.
If the other party was a temporary teammate, the person who stepped on the trap might be suddenly killed by others. If they were companions they couldn’t abandon, they would choose to help or carry them to move together, or simply stay behind to try and remove the curse.
Either way, it would buy her a lot of time.
After falling into one trap, they would likely become cautious. They might even prepare countermeasures against curses.
Therefore, the second ritual the philosopher set up was the “Acid Arrow” ritual, made from bile, stomach fluid, and blood.
When they walked into a long, narrow, and empty corridor, when they had passed two-thirds of the way and their guard was beginning to lower, acid arrows would fly from ahead. This First Tier ritual might not be able to kill someone directly, but it could cause immense pain, weakening their mobility and combat effectiveness.
Then, the philosopher extracted the Hatter’s spine and liver and set up a phantom wall that obscured light, with several runes above it. They might think they had reached a dead end and, believing it to be a trap, turn back. Or, unwilling to give up, they might try to investigate the wall. Below this light-obscuring wall, the philosopher had set up a tripwire to trigger a poison dart trap behind the wall.
When someone tried to approach and investigate the wall, they would be hit by poison darts from behind the wall—to ensure that taller male ascenders could also be hit, she had deliberately lowered the height of the runes. If they wanted to see clearly in the dim light, they would have to lower their heads. And the poison darts she adjusted would then pierce their eyes.
—These three ritual traps should at least reduce our numbers by three, the philosopher thought.
Including the already deceased Forgemaster and the Hatter, plus herself…
With three fewer people, there wouldn’t be many chasing after her.
Moreover, the first incapacitation ritual was a warning to her companions—although she had suddenly lost track of them, the philosopher had kindly left them a clue. Seeing that ritual traps had been set up, they should have realized that traps were laid ahead and proceeded with caution.
She didn’t have much material left.
She had originally planned to replenish her stamina once she could no longer move.
But now she suddenly hesitated.
—Because the philosopher was unsure if she needed to open a door at the end of the secret tunnel.
If it were a password or a riddle, it would be fine. With the development of intelligence through the Path of Wisdom, she could figure it out quickly. But if it were a command word or a spell rune she didn’t know, she would have to force it open through a ritual.
Every bit of material used earlier could lead to the subsequent door being unopenable due to the lack of that material.
“…Only one corpse, it’s completely insufficient,” the philosopher gritted her teeth, deciding to save what she had.
She would not recover her strength.
She had originally thought that if she couldn’t complete the New Moon Ritual, she would just find a place to hide. Even if she couldn’t pass, as long as she was alive, she wouldn’t bear any punishment.
…But after enduring such an experience, she suddenly felt that it would be too much of a loss if she didn’t pass.
But at that moment.
She suddenly felt a cold malice—the philosopher did not hesitate to pick up a package from the ground and throw it forcefully in a direction.
“Eat its heart, chew its liver. By the powerful blood of this youth, I command you! Appear before them, drunken bull!”
She chanted loudly at the same time.
The heart and liver in the package ignited, and then, enveloped in a strong smell of alcohol, the flames suddenly grew.
It was like soaking a bull in wine-soaked straw and setting it ablaze—golden-red flames surged. In the narrow space, a flame-like shadow resembling a bull flashed past in the direction she pointed.
But what made her heart sink was that she didn’t hear any screams.
“—Are you… Alain?”
Only a cold, hoarse voice rang out.
A black robe, like a bundle of rags, unfurled in the air, empty within, with no living person inside.
