Chapter 1 The Shadow Dancer's Robe

Nie Yan picked up the robe. It was pure black, with a delicate gold-thread embroidered thorn bird on the collar. The robe was very wide, like a cloak, and completely concealed Nie Yan’s body when he put it on.

Seeing the thorn bird pattern, Nie Yan raised an eyebrow. The thorn bird was a unique symbol with a long history, inherited from the Dark Ages. Back then, eight thieves used the thorn bird pattern. They were the most famous Thorn Bird Organization, formed to assassinate the nobles of the Dragon race and liberate humanity from slavery. They assassinated hundreds of Dragon race nobles. Their final assassination was a success, slaying the Dragon race Grand Duke Courtney, but they were all annihilated, an event that became their swan song.

The thorn bird was an ugly little bird, despised by people. It only sings once in its life. From the moment it leaves the nest, it searches relentlessly for a thorn tree. When it finally finds one, it pierces its delicate body into the longest, sharpest thorn and sings with blood and tears. That poignant, beautiful, and melodious song makes all other sounds on earth pale in comparison! When the song ends, the thorn bird finally dies of exhaustion, sacrificing its life for the song.

Its meaning is that it creates a beautiful eternity with a tragic grandeur.

Those eight thieves, like thorn birds, created an eternal legend with their brilliant lives, allowing countless people to remember them.

"There is a legend of a thorn bird, that only sings once in its life.

That song is more beautiful and moving than the songs of all living things in the world,

From the moment she leaves the nest, she searches for a thorn tree until she gets her wish

Then, she plunges her body into the longest and sharpest thorn, opening her throat among the wild branches.

In the throes of death, she transcends her own pain, and that song makes larks and nightingales pale,

This is an incomparably beautiful song, ending with her death,

However, the whole world is listening quietly, and God is smiling in the sky

Because the most beautiful things can only be exchanged for deep and great wounds." (Taken from "The Thorn Birds")

Those eight thieves became a deep pain and sorrow in the hearts of countless people. After them, no one used the thorn bird pattern anymore, but the stories related to the pattern were passed down, and the bards composed songs from their stories and sang them everywhere.

‘System: You have discovered the Shadow Walker Robe covered in dust. You gently wipe the dust from it, sighing with emotion. Departed heroic spirits, may you rest in peace. Painful memories of the past are lost in the wilderness of time. Let us wait for the dawn after the darkness. Following in the footsteps of heroes, let the thorn bird sing softly......’

Nie Yan read the last sentence. This system prompt felt a bit unfinished. Since it didn’t trigger a quest, he let it go and looked at the robe's stats.

Shadow Walker Robe (Bronze): Special Item.

Item Description: Darkness is annihilated in history, it is the inheritance of glory.

Stats: Wearing this item conceals all of the wearer's information, making them undetectable. Attacking other players will hide their name. Attached skill, Dark Dancer. After using this skill, stealth is increased by 300%, making the wearer undetectable, but they can be sensed. If the wearer collides with an enemy or attacks them while using this skill, the skill will be interrupted. Duration: ten minutes. Cooldown: three hours.

The stats of this Shadow Walker Robe weren’t that strong, but it was very practical. For example, hiding information and concealing his name would allow Nie Yan to better avoid some unnecessary troubles. The Dark Dancer skill was very useful for quests or exploration.

Nie Yan put on the Shadow Walker Robe. Its design was similar to a cloak, and he could wear it over his leather armor without hindering movement.

This might be Nie Yan's outfit for the future. He would use this Shadow Walker Robe to completely evade anyone tracking him.

Nie Yan began to scout the main hall, searching behind the many statues to see how those people had triggered the mechanism. He searched behind a demonic beast statue, inch by inch. After five or six minutes, he found a strange groove in a hidden corner. Curiously, he reached out and touched the groove. The main hall shook violently, and stone powder constantly fell from the demonic beast statue.

This is it!

This groove was very hidden. It was difficult to find without a careful search. If someone hadn't accidentally triggered the mechanism, Nie Yan would never have known that these standing statues were actually monsters.

That demonic beast revived, and Nie Yan immediately directed the four Demon Forging Ironworkers to surround it, and the Golden Land Dragon also began to attack. After a few minutes, the demonic beast was knocked to the ground, and Nie Yan picked up a gem.

Nie Yan triggered these statues one by one and cleared them out.

Time passed bit by bit. More than two hours later, only a few of the statues remained standing in the main hall, and it had become extremely open. He saw that the ground was covered with lines, forming a huge geometric pattern. This thing seemed to be a magic array.

While grinding monsters, Nie Yan studied this pattern, but he knew very little about magic arrays and didn’t understand what this magic array meant. He copied the entire array diagram onto a piece of paper and called Guo Huai.

"Help me check what this magic array diagram is used for," Nie Yan said, sending the copied diagram to Guo Huai.

"I'll go find the enchanters in the guild immediately." After receiving Nie Yan's magic array diagram, Guo Huai immediately began contacting the enchanters in the guild. Nie Yan was currently on a mission, and deciphering the diagram would help him.

After receiving the array diagram sent by Guo Huai, the enchanters of the Niu Ren Tribe immediately began studying it. They discovered that the magic array contained very profound mathematics and physics, and it would take at least six advanced enchanters twenty minutes to complete the calculations.

Where did Nie Yan get such an array diagram!

The mathematics and physics on the array diagram gave these enchanters a headache, but they didn’t dare to slack off since it was an order from above, and they quickly started calculating.

Nie Yan continued to clear the remaining statue creatures. After a few minutes, the monsters here were cleared out, leaving only the tall Foreman Iglin at the very front of the main hall. He didn’t dare to touch that statue easily.

If Foreman Iglin revived, Nie Yan would be in trouble. He couldn’t deal with it at all.

After waiting in the main hall for nearly twenty minutes, Guo Huai connected to Nie Yan's voice channel.

"How is it? Did you figure it out?" Nie Yan asked. He was very curious. Why did a simple magic array require so much calculation? However, he was a layman when it came to magic arrays. He had very little contact with them in his previous life, and he could only recognize a few orientations at most. In his memory, when he took his equipment to be enchanted, the enchanter only needed to inscribe an array diagram on his equipment. It seemed that magic arrays were much more complex than he had imagined.

"Those enchanters said: Draw a straight line from the Star Domain as the starting point and the Star Departure position as the ending point, then draw a semicircle with the Moon Feather position as the center..." Guo Huai relayed all the information sent to him by the enchanters to Nie Yan word for word.

"Didn't the enchanters say anything else?" Nie Yan asked suspiciously. What did these words mean?

"The enchanters said that this is an array lock, and you can unlock it by following their method," Guo Huai said.

Hearing Guo Huai’s words, Nie Yan pondered for a moment, deciding to follow the enchanters’ instructions and see if he could unlock the magic array.

"Take the Star Domain as the starting point and the Star Departure position as the ending point, a straight line..." Nie Yan walked along the path described by the enchanters, leaving a greyish-white line on the ground where he passed.

The line continued, forming a closed geometric figure in the empty main hall, which looked a bit strange. Then, the white lines emitted a dazzling light, and the entire main hall was filled with a white glow.

At this moment, a thick book floated up from the center of the magic array. Next to the book, a golden key about the size of a palm was quietly floating. It was very delicately made, covered with patterns.

Seeing the key, Nie Yan immediately thought of the Golden City's vault!

The key to open the vault, it must be it!

Nie Yan walked towards the two items and reached out to touch them. The light of the two items disappeared instantly, and they fell down.

Nie Yan reached out and caught them, looking at the key.

Vault Key: Quest Item.

A system prompt sounded, and Nie Yan looked at it.

Quest Progress: Use this vault key to open Iglin's Treasure Vault and find the Abaak Cloak of Destruction.

Nie Yan had already obtained the Abaak Seal Hand and the Abaak Bloody Dagger. This Cloak of Destruction would be the third item. The entrance to Iglin's Treasure Vault was behind Iglin's statue. As long as he had the key, he could open it!

As for the other book, it was dark grey, with a thorn bird pattern drawn on the cover. The name of the book was written in Ancient Common Language and was called: Song of the Thorn Bird.

‘System: You have discovered an ancient book. Some of its pages are damaged. Opening the first page, there is a sentence on it: The most beautiful things can only be exchanged for deep and great wounds. Seeing their story, you let out a long sigh and slowly close the book.’

This book told the story of the eight thieves. It was probably a quest item, and he needed to discover quest clues from the book’s content. He didn’t have time right now, so Nie Yan put the book away in his bag.