With the duo being able to successfully establish communication with Tian Yang, albeit only for a short period of time, they were able to put down their worries about the outside world and focus wholeheartedly on the task in front of them.
However, there were still a few loose ends to be tied. The most important of them all…
"The Death Seed."
Damien stared at the vial in his hand and the peculiar specimen within it with an inquisitive gaze. He wanted to find out the truth behind this product that had sent Zara into a frenzy.
Luckily for him, Zara was able to properly control herself after her original outburst, so although she still felt the overwhelming emotions from before, she didn't hinder him or try to pounce at the treasure in his hand.
At first glance, nothing seemed out of the ordinary about the item. It still maintained its appearance as a small black pill. In fact, it even bore a slight resemblance to some anti-toxin pills that already existed within the world.
But anyone with a working brain would be able to tell that it was anything but similar. For that Fairy Lin character to hype it up so much, there had to be something special about it.
Still, no amount of probing was able to elicit a response from the treasure. Damien's mana sense wasn't even able to penetrate the crystalline container it was kept in.
Such was the miracle brought to life by Star Jade. It wouldn't deserve its reputation otherwise.
"Should I take it out and examine it?" Damien questioned. He was glad he had someone to turn to for a second opinion at the moment.
"Hmm, taking it out would be the best way to inspect its characteristics and properties, but the risk that something could go wrong is also immense." Ruyue pointed out.
Indeed, that was Damien's worry as well. It was an unknown treasure passed down by the Nox. He had no intention to take it lightly.
"Does the risk outweigh the gain, though?"
"We haven't an inkling about what the treasure actually is, so I can't say for sure. However, I think we should do it. With the amount of trouble we went through to safely secure it, we at least deserve to know this much."
Truthfully, Damien wanted to open the vial and do a closer inspection from the beginning. His concern for Zara had already decided his answer. But he wasn't alone and he couldn't mindlessly make decisions at this point, so he decided to ask Ruyue.
Nevertheless, with her agreement, he also firmed his decision. He revolves his mana and prepared to quickly react to any unforeseen circumstances, and without hesitation, he opened the vial.
In that instance, he felt the threat of death encroaching upon him. It was as if countless skeletal arms were threatening to burst from the ground and consume him, dragging him down to hell with them.
But oddly enough, his danger sense didn't activate. Damien trusted this skill a great deal. It had been properly honed through a myriad of life and death encounters, becoming almost flawless.
The only time it didn't activate was when the threat was too strong for him to perceive, such as when he had been wounded and poisoned by the peak 3rd class cloaked figure from before.
But this time, he was sure it wasn't the same case. Regardless of the deathly feeling that washed over him, he could still properly gauge the aura of the treasure. It was illusory and vague, but it didn't seem to possess any attack power.
Damien hardened his heart and channeled mana into his eyes. The world was soon enveloped in a vast rainbow of colors. The ambient mana around him swirled and danced like fairies among nature, but in the center of his vision was a patch of abyssal darkness.
'As I thought. It's not that death itself is approaching me, rather it was solely the aura of death that surrounded me.'
The Death Seed was no longer in his vision, at least not its physical form. It was replaced by the coalescence of deathly mana that produced it, as well as the cloud of the same mana that had encircled him.
This cloud of mana was the source of his feeling. It was giving him the illusion that he was soon to die, instilling a guttural fear in his heart. If not for his eyes that could witness its true form, he might've ended up making a mistake.
Ruyue was too far away to feel the same effects as Damien, but she too could sense the eeriness that had suddenly emerged in the atmosphere. The vial had only been opened, the treasure inside hadn't even been taken out yet, but the burst of aura alone was frightening.
Just like Damien did previously, she revolved the mana within her body, putting up a resistance against the foreign feeling. Since it still didn't feel like enough, she brought out a trace of lunar energy and costed herself with it.
The negative nature of yin would have been the best ward, but she didn't use it. Instead, she opted for the purifying effects that she was granted as a sub ability of her moon affinity.
She had two moons under her dominion, with one supplying her icefire and the other being the main moon that decorated the Cloud Plane's night sky. The purifying effect came from the latter, which seemed to have a few extra abilities besides the use of lunar energy.
She was still slowly excavating them, but for now, she only needed this one. With the new layer of defense, she was able to properly view the situation without fear.
"This mana is likely of the death element," Damien commented once he realized she had stabilized.
"The death element…I didn't think such an element existed, but I guess anything is possible in this world."
"Mm, I have a companion who uses the Life element so I was never doubtful of its existence, I just didn't expect to see it here. Coupled with my previous observations, it's clear that the Nox mainly specialize in said element."
"But how does the concentration of death mana have anything to do with the effects that were promised when consuming the treasure?" Ruyue questioned. The reasoning made no sense, and although it could be said that Fairy Lin had simply lied about its effects, it was more plausible that she didn't.
After all, there was no way she would be able to fool so many 4th class beings and be so confident if not for such a firm belief that her words were truth.
Damien also had this question, but there was still plenty they had to learn about the treasure. At this point, they couldn't even say they had a preliminary understanding of it.
Knowing this, Damien decided to probe deeper. He expanded his awareness, focusing it within the vial and gently probing the spherical object within.
At first, it didn't respond to his probing. At the Chaos Rank, treasures and artifacts would begin to gain a semblance of will, able to use mana to communicate their intentions.
For this reason, binding a Chaos rank artifact was much different than the process with its predecessors. One would have to establish communication and make the treasure accept them before they could use it.
There were many ways to go about this process, but the main two were bonding and domination.
Just like with everything else in the world, strength could always act as a backdoor. Anything with sentience would value its life, and threatening a treasure with pure strength was an easy way to gain its submission.
But many chose to bond with the treasures instead. If a treasure was willingly cooperating, much more strength could be drawn from it and the process would be much smoother.
But Damien didn't need to do either at this moment. He had no intention of using a treasure that had Nox origins. But he still had to establish some sort of communication so he could successfully probe.
He continued sending his awareness towards the treasure, being careful of the amount of force he used, before finally getting a reaction.
It was faint, but he felt something awaken within the seed. The small black ball became active, shining with a light glow. And then, it began wriggling around within the confines of the vial.
