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Chapter 244 - 243: The Immortal Entity

Elorie swayed twice, suddenly feeling somewhat listless, "...In the end, did I fail?"

A customer’s failure is essentially a store manager’s failure, right?

This kind of record would undoubtedly lower the store’s rating.

Chen Xuan couldn’t let her think that way, "Don’t get discouraged just yet; the future may not be set in stone."

"But the Holy Temple Treasure Vault was destroyed... and Mother Lucy is gone too..." Elorie murmured.

"You should see the essence through the phenomenon. Humans fall into despair because they have no defense against heavenly calamities. Now that the warnings have materialized, do you think the Angel Alliance will turn a deaf ear to what you’ve said?" Chen Xuan said emphatically, "Demons suffered heavy losses, and the vault wasn’t completely destroyed. Just this fact alone is enough to bring about many variables."

"Will it really be like that?"

"It’s simple, why don’t we go to the future and see for ourselves? Seeing is believing, after all."

"Hmm... You’re right, as long as we can return to New Paris City, we can verify the results immediately." Elorie still seemed a bit absent-minded, as if she was responding but also comforting herself.

"What if the future doesn’t change?" Lin Qing whispered.

Chen Xuan gave her an indifferent glance.

"Can you tell me about your relationship with Mother Lucy?" He then looked towards Liuli, honestly... he was full of curiosity about the origins of artifacts, "Why can it impose constraints on you? You shouldn’t belong to humans, right?"

Liuli reached out and pressed the brim of her wide hat, "This is my privacy..."

Reluctant to talk... Chen Xuan couldn’t push further, "In that case..."

"But I’m still willing to answer some of your questions to a limited extent, just as a return for you lifting my constraint." Yet the other party’s tone suddenly changed, catching him off guard.

Liuli removed that large hat.

A cascade of silver threads fell down.

Chen Xuan finally saw her true appearance—it seemed as if to avoid overshadowing her elegance, the light in the room dimmed slightly. The face behind the white veil showed no signs of decay or distortion, instead appearing composed and poised. Her eyelashes were long enough to almost cover half her eyes; her lips were slightly full, smiling with an impression of warmth and friendliness... Perhaps her facial features alone wouldn’t strike people as stunning, but all of Chen Xuan’s attention was captivated by her eyes.

From a glimpse he once had, he thought it was incredible, and upon closer inspection now, it was even more so. Her violet irises, surrounded by countless sparkling rays, made it impossible for one to look away once locked in eye contact. It was precisely these eyes that rendered the other parts of her face somewhat less important.

It reminded Chen Xuan of a toy from his childhood: a kaleidoscope.

Her snow-like flowing white hair was already quite eye-catching, though at least it could be said to be dyed. However, her constantly changing oddly-shaped pupils could not be replicated. Anyone who saw Liuli’s eyes would instantly understand that she absolutely wasn’t human.

"Wow~" Even Lin Qing couldn’t help but whistle, "I’d love to replicate those eyes."

"You’ve probably known for a while that I am an artifact, registered as N21 by the Angel Alliance." Liuli smiled slightly, "There’s a subtle connection between artifacts, allowing powerful artifacts to use or suppress weaker ones. In the Holy Temple Treasure Vault, Mother Lucy is undoubtedly the most powerful artifact."

"Of course, I’m not its subservient slave; our relationship is more like collaborators who signed an agreement. I gained a fleshy body from it, taking on a more human-like appearance, and the price was to stay in the vault to protect those artifacts from destruction or theft, for a term of four hundred years."

This was vastly different from what Chen Xuan had expected, "I thought you were restricted by people from the Angel Alliance, forced to work for them for free."

"That’s one way to think of it. If they hadn’t brought me to the Holy Temple Treasure Vault, I naturally wouldn’t have encountered Mother Lucy." Liuli said slowly, "From that perspective, everything was orchestrated by the Angels."

"I-I’m sorry!" Elorie instinctively apologized.

So Mother Lucy could bestow a fleshy body on an artifact...

Chen Xuan was incredibly astonished; was that its ability as an artifact?

No wonder Liuli was so indifferent towards the Angel Alliance and unmoved by the vault’s destruction. It turns out she was tricked in! As long as those artifacts weren’t touched, she probably wouldn’t mind if someone turned the Holy Temple Treasure Vault upside down.

"But in the end, you allowed us to enter Warehouse No. 9; wouldn’t that violate the agreement?"

"Because at that time, someone tried to blow up the Holy Temple Treasure Vault, posing a substantial threat to all artifacts, so your entry into Warehouse No. 9 was no longer just theft or plunder but could be considered an act protecting the artifacts." Liuli stated with conviction, "The core of this agreement is protection, and it naturally changes according to actual conditions."

Chen Xuan was speechless, feeling like what she explained was open to personal interpretation.

"Huh?" Lin Qing interjected, "So according to you, before the bomb went off, if I casually took one or two artifacts, it wouldn’t be a problem?"

"Yes." Liuli nodded, "I wouldn’t stop you."

"What a pity!"

"Oh right." She reached into her waist pouch and took something out, "I remember you were interested in this at the time? Consider it a thank you gift."

Chen Xuan took it with a puzzled expression and found that it was indeed that circuit board.

"When did you take it?"

"When I was escorting this young lady out of the hall. After all, with the explosion imminent, moving artifacts equates to protecting them."

Chen Xuan twitched his mouth; this person always had to be reasonable.

Yet with a free artifact in hand, he certainly wouldn’t be polite.

This was a rare research opportunity!

"It was merely a small favor, no need for such a grand gift in return." He said courteously while handing the circuit board to Lin Qing, who had been eager to try it out, "Do you know what this is used for?"

Liuli showed helplessness, "I’m not too sure about extremely novel things. I only know its number is N959, and it remains dormant most of the time."

"Dormant?"

"According to the Angel Alliance, it’s a stability measurement. Any active artifact will have an inside-out effect, altering its surroundings." She pointed to herself, "and I am no exception. Professor Yuren believes my stability is at 50."

Chen Xuan further questioned, "What exactly are artifacts? Do you know how you came into being?"

Liuli closed her eyes and shook her head.

"When I was created, I was a damaged doll amidst ruins, lava, and dust. I couldn’t move or make a sound, and this state lasted a very, very long time. Later, rain fell from the sky, the lava solidified, and my body slowly formed until I could crawl out of the ruins on my own. How long the process took, I have no way of knowing because consciousness formed over long years, and no one ever told me how to measure time."

A doll amidst ruins?

It sounded like a myth, Chen Xuan thought, how could an ordinary artificial creation gain consciousness and extraordinary power?

In terms of structure, she didn’t even have a brain!

"So I can’t answer the questions you ask because I also want to know why I exist and why I took on this form." Liuli said calmly, "As for other artifacts... I know even less because they are all unique entities, their completeness varying greatly."

"Can artifacts evolve?"

"Life evolves, and we naturally do too. You measure evolution by species, while we measure it individually—after all, from a certain perspective, artifacts are immortal."

Immortal, yet destructible.

Chen Xuan felt that his understanding of artifacts had advanced another step; though they still held many enigmas, he had at least touched the threshold.

Especially with a talking artifact sitting right in front of him.

"What about Mother Lucy?" Lin Qing suddenly asked, "Do you know its origin?"

Liuli continued to shake her head, "In fact, all my knowledge about the artifacts in the vault comes from the alliance’s guardians. When I was brought to the Holy Temple Treasure Vault, Mother Lucy... N5 was already there."

"I have a hypothesis, I don’t know if it’s correct..." Lin Qing paused slightly before saying, "That mountain is where Lucy was born, it hasn’t been moved like you. The reason the Holy Temple Treasure Vault was built on the world ridge is solely to conceal Mother Lucy’s birthplace!"

"You guessed correctly." Liuli replied straightforwardly, "Warehouse No. 9 is indeed a natural cave, and the base is a house built over the cave. But is this important? I thought you’d know just by looking."

Indeed, Chen Xuan glanced at Lin Qing in confusion, not understanding why she was asking.

Lin Qing remained silent for a long time, seemingly lost in thought.

"It might not be entirely natural..."

After a while, she whispered in a voice only she could hear.