Chapter 877: “map of sacred traces”

Zhou Huai refused to believe it.

He stood on the blood-soaked lawn, closed his eyes, and the power of a Half-step Transcendent within his body erupted once more.

This time, he not only used the Law of Space of Void Lawkeeper Victor, but also pushed the higher-dimensional perception of World Tree Rahil to its absolute limit.

The fluctuations of the Law centered on him, instantly covering the entire Yalige Family estate.

Every inch of the estate, and even the rock layers a hundred meters underground, fell into his perceptual network.

The massive Mental Energy caused silver ripples to emerge in the surrounding space.

Not far away, Yasuo, who was sitting cross-legged and comprehending the Domain, opened his eyes, a look of awe crossing his face as he looked at the imposing aura emanating from Zhou Huai.

Five minutes later.

Zhou Huai opened his eyes, confusion welling up in them.

Still, there was nothing to be found.

In the entire estate, aside from corpses and survivors, there were no special fluctuations belonging to higher-dimensional energy.

Could that painting really not be in the estate?

Zhou Huai frowned slightly.

If the "map of sacred traces" was not here, wouldn't he have made a wasted trip?

But if it was the guidance of the Heavenly Dao, based on the underlying logical calculations of the Heavenly Dao System, it shouldn't be wrong.

Since the Heavenly Dao led him to the Free Federation and to encounter Eliza, the clue must be on this bird-person girl.

Could some kind of perception-shielding prop have been used?

Zhou Huai turned his head and stared at Eliza, who was still in a daze.

"I'm asking you," Zhou Huai's voice was deep, "before your father passed away, did he mention anything special to you? Or did he give you any special items?"

Eliza trembled under his gaze and began to blankly recall the events before her father was murdered.

A moment later, she shook her head.

"No… Sir, my father never said anything to me."

"Think carefully again," Zhou Huai interrupted her, "don't let any tiny details slip by. Did your father have any abnormal actions?"

Eliza bit her lower lip and fell back into memories.

After thinking for a long time and seeming to find nothing wrong, she still shook her head.

Just as she was about to give up, she suddenly thought of something.

"Sir! Speaking of abnormal actions, my father didn't have any, but Uncle Bonnie seemed quite abnormal before!"

"Uncle Bonnie?" Zhou Huai asked.

"Right!" Eliza nodded repeatedly. "Uncle Bonnie is an old friend of my father's, but for some reason, the two hadn't been in contact for several years. The Family didn't even allow his name to be mentioned."

"Yet just recently, about half a month before Bake's rebellion, he suddenly paid a visit. Not only did he have a long secret conversation with my father in the study, but he also specially called me over and brought me a gift."

"What gift?" Zhou Huai keenly detected the crucial point.

Eliza didn't speak, instead hooking a necklace out from her collar and pointing at her chest.

"It's this."

Zhou Huai's gaze locked onto that necklace.

The chain body of the necklace was dark silver, neither gold nor iron, and the surface had no splicing marks.

The pendant was a thumb-sized grayish-black rhombic crystal.

The surface of the crystal was covered with fine natural cracks.

If viewed with a higher-dimensional horizon, one would find that these cracks were actually some kind of micro-carved ancient runes.

Inside the crystal, a mass of gray mist was slowly flowing.

"Take it off," Zhou Huai said.

Eliza dared not hesitate, untying the necklace and handing it to Zhou Huai.

Zhou Huai held it in his hand to inspect it. He tentatively probed a wisp of Mental Energy into the crystal.

The next second, his Mental Energy, which was sufficient to tear apart the Void Realm, vanished without a trace the moment it touched the crystal.

This crystal completely blocked and devoured his perception.

This necklace could indeed block perception.

Zhou Huai looked at Eliza: "Have you been wearing this necklace all the time?"

Eliza nodded honestly, indicating that she liked it very much and hadn't taken it off even when bathing or sleeping.

"Could it be…" Eliza looked at Zhou Huai.

"Is there a problem with this necklace?"

"Most likely."

Zhou Huai said no more.

Since the outer layer of this crystal had the sealing Law that blocked perception, smashing it would naturally reveal what was inside.

"Hum—!"

The Void Realm trembled.

A chain radiating a dark golden dim light and covered with Formation patterns darted out from the Void Realm behind Zhou Huai.

It was precisely the Divine Artifact of The Seventh World that could uniquely ignore and restrain all higher-dimensional Formations and energy Seals — the abyssal nether chain.

"Break!"

Zhou Huai used the abyssal nether chain to break the Seal of the necklace.

The dark golden abyssal nether chain instantly wrapped around the grayish-black crystal, and the two forces of the Law violently collided.

"Crack!"

The gray mist on the surface of the crystal was shredded by the power of the nether chain, and the indestructible rhombic crystal split open a crack in the middle.

Immediately after, a surge of pure vitality gushed out from the crack.

A scroll was revealed from within.

The scroll automatically unfolded in mid-air.

The background of the scroll was a primitive mountain range shrouded in mist.

In the center of the scroll stood a gigantic towering tree.

Its roots plunged deep into the earth, the surface of its dark brown trunk was covered with mysterious patterns, and its canopy was lush green.

What concerned Zhou Huai the most was the "state" of this tree.

On the scroll, a faint light circulated around the edges of the tree roots, and the lush branches and leaves swayed slightly on the paper.

The thick trunk was expanding and contracting at a slow rhythm.

Inhaling and exhaling.

This tree was breathing inside the painting.

It exuded an aura of the origin Law superior to the Heavenly Dao of the current world.

Eliza at the side blankly watched this scene.

She stared at the scroll radiating vitality in mid-air, and after quite a while, she covered her mouth, her face full of disbelief.

It turned out that the "map of sacred traces" they were looking for had actually been on her all this time.

The dark golden abyssal nether chain restrained its light, turning into a stream of light that vanished into the Void Realm behind Zhou Huai.

He glanced at the grayish-black crystal fragments on the ground, turned his gaze to the "breathing" "map of sacred traces" in mid-air, and then looked at Eliza, who had yet to recover her wits.

"Viewed this way, the one with the problem isn't your Yalige Family, but that Uncle Bonnie." Zhou Huai casually tossed out this conclusion in a calm tone.

Eliza was stunned in place, blankly looking at that scroll.

Her legs went soft, and she knelt on the blood-stained lawn, covering her mouth as tears endlessly welled up and poured out.

If she hadn't accepted this so-called "gift", if she had been able to notice the abnormality of the necklace, the Family wouldn't have faced such a devastating catastrophe.

The guards who died miserably outside the estate, the blood on the lawn—it was all because of this necklace.

What she found most unacceptable was that her father had always regarded Bonnie as a sworn brother of life and death, yet he had suffered a tragic end precisely because of this.

"It's all my fault… It's all my fault…"

Eliza lay prostrate on the ground, her fingers clutching the soil, her fingernails packed with blood and dirt.

"Why did Uncle Bonnie do this?"

Eliza suddenly raised her head, staring at Zhou Huai as she shouted hoarsely, as if asking him, and also as if interrogating that enemy who wasn't present before her eyes.

"Isn't he my father's good brother?"

"They once braved life and death together on the battlefield, and my father even blocked a fatal curse for him!"

"Why would he use such a vicious method to frame our Yalige Family?!"

Facing Eliza's interrogation, Zhou Huai's expression remained calm.

He had seen too much betrayal and scheming; for the sake of interests, biological fathers and sons turning against each other was hardly uncommon.

"Birds die for food, and men die for wealth. There are no eternal friends in this world, only eternal interests."