126: Chapter 126 May's Wish

" Haaah—! "

Fu Hao, who had instantly arrived in front of the mountain of treasure using the teleportation gem, was deeply shocked by the scene before him.

The quality and sheer quantity of the treasures piled up before him were incomparable to Marquis Alfen's treasury.

They were not neatly displayed but stacked in layers, crushing against one another, forming a mountain in the truest sense of the word—calling it a "small mountain" was not an exaggeration, but a literal description.

The island itself was astonishingly vast, with several towering terrains that could rightfully be called "mountains."

And this behemoth before him, built from endless gems, gold, and artifacts, possessed a volume and presence that could rival those natural mountain ranges! This was exactly why Fu Hao had impulsively called it a "mountain of treasure" rather than a "treasury" or "warehouse."

This area, which should have been heavily guarded, was devoid of any sentries, and even the magic puppets that patrolled the island were nowhere to be seen.

Looking at those rare treasures buried casually in the "mountain" like discarded trash, Fu Hao even wondered if there was something wrong with Mei's brain.

But upon reflection, this lax management by Mei was actually the most logical approach. The entire island was her absolute domain; as long as her rule remained rock-solid, setting up any security within the island was meaningless and redundant.

Then what about when she left the island (for example, to go to Mondo)? She had long since set up exclusive Teleportation anchors in the core area, ensuring she could return from any corner of the world in an instant.

At the same time, a massive barrier network, like an invisible dome, tightly shrouded the sea and sky within ten kilometers of the island, constructing an impregnable first line of defense. With these dual safeguards, why would she need to worry?

If she possessed a Subspace large enough to hold all her treasures, she naturally would not need to go to such great lengths to set up Teleportation points and barriers.

Unfortunately, although Mei was of the dragon race, the capacity of her exclusive Subspace was far from enough to swallow this terrifying wealth accumulated over a thousand years—on one hand, the quantity of treasure was indeed vast, and on the other, the Mythical Rank magic crystals necessary for expanding a Subspace had been completely exhausted three thousand years ago.

And the culprit behind all this was none other than Emperor Endel! When the empire was on the verge of collapse, that emperor, in order to revive his great cause, had scavenged almost all the existing Mythical Rank magic crystals in the otherworld, ultimately forging the Subspace ring now worn on Fu Hao's hand.

Although Subspace magic fell under the Mythical Rank category, even a transcendent existence could not expand its boundaries at will.

Therefore, in terms of absolute Subspace capacity alone, this ring created by the emperor exhausting the power of the empire far surpassed Mei's inherent dragon space.

Although Fu Hao's system inventory space was not inferior to the emperor's Subspace, it was limited by rules and could not store such a massive amount of physical items as efficiently and in bulk as the Subspace ring.

" Whoosh—clatter! "

A low and powerful suction sound suddenly erupted! Fu Hao's Subspace ring burst forth with greedy rainbow light, like a bottomless cosmic black hole, and began to crazily devour and tear at the radiant mountain of treasure before him!

This scene was so shocking that Fu Hao instantly forgot the danger of being in a dragon's lair, staring dumbfounded as his ring swallowed the wealth accumulated over a millennium.

In less than five seconds! The towering mountain of treasure vanished without a trace, leaving behind only a huge, empty pit!

At this moment, Mei, who had witnessed Fu Hao disappear right before her eyes, was rushing toward the location of the mountain of treasure at a speed that tore through the sound barrier.

When she arrived, the only thing that met her eyes was that bare, deep pit—Fu Hao's figure, along with her thousand-year collection, had long since completely evaporated from this exclusive domain she regarded as her treasury!

" Aoooooo—!!! "

Her life's work, accumulated over a millennium, had been looted clean! Mei's grief and fury transformed into a dragon roar that shook the heavens and the earth!

The scorching dragon breath erupted suddenly like a volcano that had been suppressed for ten thousand years; golden-red flames shot into the sky, dyeing more than half of the sky a destructive crimson! This apocalyptic scene was magnificently spectacular, but unfortunately, Fu Hao had long since fled far away and had no chance to see it.

Meanwhile, worried about being tracked and locked onto by Mei, Fu Hao had used the maximum distance of the teleportation gem to precisely jump to the border region of the Demon World, which was in the exact opposite direction of Mondo.

He took a deep breath and began to count this heaven-defying wealth. Of course, as a top-tier billionaire in the otherworld, he was not simply greedy for money. He urgently needed to find, among this mountain of loot, a key artifact that could stop the elves from fleeing or quell the rampage of the World Tree!

In the mountain of treasure, the number of artifacts was as numerous as the stars. Fu Hao was immensely hoping to find a legendary transcendent ancient artifact—after all, the equipment enhancement system ignored level restrictions; if he could take a transcendent artifact with the right effect and then use Mimics plus Fates Luck to enhance it to +10, perhaps he could really break the current deadlock!

However, cold reality dealt him a heavy blow.

With the tireless assistance of a full six thousand Mimics, Fu Hao spent several days sifting through every single item.

Even with such a massive "workforce" working non-stop, faced with the vast sea of treasure, the screening time still far exceeded expectations.

However, until that huge mountain of treasure was sifted down to just a "small mound," not only was the dream transcendent artifact nowhere to be found, but not even a single decent item capable of truly turning the tide could be discovered.

Although he had discovered over one hundred Mythical Rank artifacts, which was a shocking harvest, at this moment, a huge sense of loss still enveloped him.

However, it was not a total loss: he had harvested a massive amount of practical Mythical Rank artifacts and Legendary Rank equipment, and even unexpectedly gathered some core forging materials for artifacts that he had been unable to find even in the Elf Kingdom.

Simply by enhancing this Legendary equipment to +10 and adding usage condition reduction, Fu Hao's combat power would surely leap to a whole new realm, even with the hope of instantly surpassing Leonhardt and reaching the top of the combat power rankings!

But for now, what use was this? If the otherworld were destroyed, the ranking board would be nothing more than a tombstone in the void! If he reached the top then, he would likely only invite more furious condemnation from billions of players.

" Do I really have to get caught by that dragon again? Or... bite the bullet and go to the Elf Kingdom again? "

After his expectations for an artifact were completely shattered, Fu Hao had to start seriously weighing these two thorny paths.

Whether it was rescuing slaves from the claws of a transcendent dragon or going to persuade the Elf Kingdom, which was on the verge of collapse and filled with deep hostility, both seemed to have slim hopes and were nearly dead ends.

After several bouts of painful struggle, he thought that perhaps the success rate of persuading the elves might be a sliver higher—after all, compared to the unfathomable transcendent dragon race, the elves were at least an intelligent race that could be communicated with.

However, the turning point of fate arrived quietly at this moment—when the screening work was nearing its end and the mountain of treasure was so empty that only that inconspicuous 'small mound' remained, an artifact suddenly jumped into his view, its unique light instantly seizing all his attention!

It was not the transcendent artifact Fu Hao was desperately searching for, but the power it contained undoubtedly tore open a faint glimmer of hope for the current desperate situation!

＜ eye of neleos ＞

Rank: Mythical

Usage Conditions: None

- Automatically records all events occurring within a 10-kilometer radius.

- Can specify recording time to view footage.

Judging from its effects, this artifact must have completely recorded every move Mei made in the core area of the island—in fact, it had always been regarded by Mei as an indispensable treasure.

A dragon's life spans thousands or even ten thousand years; even if their wisdom far exceeds that of humans, they cannot engrave every detail of the vast years into their hearts.

Therefore, Mei always carried it with her. Only when she was resting at the mountain of treasure (which was also her bedroom) in the center of the island would she take it off to record critical situations in laboratories and secret experimental sites scattered throughout the island.

Fu Hao knew nothing about this, but when he devoured the entire mountain of treasure, he had accidentally sucked this powerful "surveillance artifact" into his Subspace as well!

The problem was... how could he quickly finish watching this massive amount of recordings?

" eye of neleos " was like a surveillance camera with an ultra-wide coverage range, but it lacked the intelligent functions of magic puppets that could precisely extract specific memory fragments.

Although it had a fast-forward option, Fu Hao, as a "bystander," could not efficiently locate the target time point just by fast-forwarding, nor could he rely on the "human wave tactics" of the Mimics to share this tedious retrieval work as he had done when screening treasures earlier.

However, Fu Hao did not need to despair! He held in his hands the tool that could change everything—the power of enhancement!

＜ eye of neleos (+10) ＞

Rank: Mythical

Usage Conditions: None

- Automatically records all events occurring within a 10-kilometer radius.

- Can specify recording time to view footage.

- Recording range +100%

- Recording range +100%

- Recording range +100%

- Added keyword search function.

- Recording range +5000% within 10 minutes (Cooldown: 7 days)

Fu Hao did not hesitate, immediately mobilizing the power of the Mimics to rapidly enhance this artifact to +10! When he saw the words "Added keyword search function" clearly appear on the enhancement panel, his nerves, which had been tense for several days, finally relaxed, and he let out a long sigh of relief.

He immediately activated the " eye of neleos " and decisively entered the keyword into the search box: " Elf. "

Voom—!

The moment the input was completed, a massive amount of memory fragments related to " Elf " flooded into Fu Hao's vision! To ensure nothing went wrong, he did not directly locate recent records but chose to play them in reverse chronological order—tracing back from before the Human-Demon War, to the era when the elves had not yet arrived in Mondo.

He worried that the key information he was looking for might be buried in the dust of more distant years, so he held his breath and cautiously clicked on the first marked memory.

However, his worries were entirely superfluous—just as the first memory scene he selected began to play, the target content he had been desperately seeking presented itself with absolute clarity before his eyes!

The memory scene was somewhat blurry and shaky; the first thing to occupy his vision was a tear-stained, young, and sorrowful face—it was Mei in her younger form, transformed into a human shape! She was facing outside the frame, sobbing and pleading in utter despair:

" Your Majesty the Dragon King! Please! Please save my mother! "

The camera turned slightly, and an old man sitting on a stone throne, with eyes as sharp as blades, appeared in the scene.

Although both maintained human forms, the majesty and non-human aura that permeated their bones clearly indicated their identity as members of the dragon race.

Facing young Mei's heart-rending plea, the old Dragon King frowned, his expression exceptionally grave. After a moment of silence, he spoke in a low and hoarse voice:

" I... am powerless to help. " The old Dragon King's voice carried exhaustion and a trace of imperceptible pain. " What your mother has been struck by is the 'Soul-Annihilation Curse' left over from the Primordial Era... This curse can only be completely purified and removed by the pure life source power of a Golden Dragon. "

" But... isn't the Golden Dragon race already... " Young Mei's eyes were filled with terror.

" That's right. " The old Dragon King nodded heavily, interrupting young Mei, his eyes seemingly piercing through time, seeing that tragic war that led to the extinction of the Golden Dragons. " They have long since... gone extinct. "

" However... perhaps there exists an extremely slim alternative method. If one could perfectly fuse the Elf race's power source, which has a high affinity for natural elements, with a dragon's powerful magic core... perhaps it could simulate and catalyze an effect approaching the source power of other elemental dragons... "

" Elf... " Young Mei repeated this unfamiliar race name, hope reigniting in her eyes. " Among the dragon race... are there any dragons born with an affinity for elemental power? "

" No. " The old Dragon King answered decisively, instantly extinguishing that glimmer of hope again. " The power of the dragon race originates from their bloodline, which is a fundamentally different source path from the elves' elemental affinity. "

" But... I know of a magic originating from an ancient taboo. It can forcibly seize the existence of those with high affinity for elemental power! I can... teach it to you. "

Seize? The bloodiness and cruelty implied behind this word made her instinctively shudder. She remained silent for a long time, her small body trembling slightly. Finally, a flash of resolute determination replaced the confusion and fear in her eyes, and her voice carried a coldness that transcended her age:

" ... It seems I have no other choice. I must go and find the elves. "

The memory scene ended here, flickering violently a few times like a bad signal, and suddenly cut off!

Just at the moment this key information was branded into Fu Hao's mind, a brand new system prompt box, flickering with a deep blue light, popped up before his eyes without any warning:

[ Prerequisites met, automatically accepted quest 'Mei's Wish'. ]