In a gloomy swamp, the air was filled with poisonous gray fog, and ghostly shadows roamed around the place. But in the depths of this terrifying area was a clear patch of starry land, and in the center of this land stood a colossal violet tower surrounded by bolts of violet lightning.
But at this moment, the once peaceful, solitary place was now filled with corpses, blood, and gore. In the center of this massacre stood a cloaked figure who was holding a disheveled, white-skinned goblin in front of it with ethereal pitch-black arms as blood trickled from multiple wounds on its body.
"S-spare me, and I c-can promise you anything! My father is a Legendary King!" the goblin stuttered weakly, terror blazing in its eyes as it looked toward the cloaked figure before him. It was like he was gazing into an endless abyss of darkness!
"Hehehe, you bunch of shits don't have a spine, do you?" An eerie voice sounded behind the hood, filled with scorn. "Aren't you hunting me because I have the legendary key? I was being nice, not taking action against you weaklings, but you just never gave up. Do you think just because you are from the middle galaxies and a son of the legendary king, this gives you the right to look down on lesser galaxies and hunt us down like dogs?
"And when the situation goes against you, you will get pardoned just because of your status? Let me answer this for you: if you're ready to kill someone, be ready to get killed as well. Now, suffer in darkness!"
Before the goblin could plead or react, the dark hands holding him suddenly turned into a canopy of darkness, engulfing him entirely. When the darkness retracted back into the cloaked figure, the goblin's lifeless corpse hit the ground, and its eyes were pitch black.
The cloaked figure didn't seem bothered by this carnage scene as it sighed in disappointment and muttered in a flustered tone, "Despite being a legendary king's descendant, his soul was so weak. I didn't make progress at all; the same goes for his goons! I thought it would have been worth it if I acted a bit, but I was wrong; only legendary rank could satisfy my needs now!"
After lamenting for a moment, the figure finally turned around and looked toward the lightning tower under the starry light, its eyes lit up. "Well, I guess I should focus on collecting these cosmic vestiges and stop paying attention to these weaklings."
Without hesitation, the figure moved toward the door of the lightning tower, and a legendary key pulsing in violet light appeared in its hand.
The next moment, an imposing voice rang, "The Tower of Capricorn welcomes you, trialist!
"The Tower detects the Legendary Key of Capricorn!
"You are given three one-time options!
"First… (Same as Tower of Taurus)!
"Second… (Same as Tower of Taurus)
"Third… (Same as Tower of Taurus)
"You may choose now!"
"Wait, what is this ascension permit?" the figure asked in an astonished voice, clearly unaware of the permit. No answer was given; however, she didn't seem to be asking the Tower of Capricorn to begin with.
At this moment, an ethereal, deep voice rang in her mind, "You need to enter the Mythical Ascension Bridge, which leads to the Mythical Plains or Upper Galaxies, just like the Path of Legend, which leads to the Legendary Plains or Middle Galaxies, and…Wait, this!"
Astounded by the information, she was startled because she had never heard this voice get so agitated.
"What happened, Old Chaos? Is there some problem with this permit? Do you want me not to select this option? I can understand the third option is quite dangerous." She quickly asked, thinking it was because of the final option that this voice had reacted like this.
"It is here, right in the Path of Legend!" the deep voice suddenly said with a hint of excitement.
She was again shocked and quickly probed, "What is here?"
"My Universal Godly Artifact! Wait, what the hell is going on? How's that even possible!? I just lost connection!"
---
Far away, Jacob had left the Tower of Taurus area and was back in the ancient forest. He was now moving randomly in search of clues to another legendary key or the tower while the Spiritual Star Tracker was in his hand.
Although he didn't know when he would find another tower or legendary key, he was sure that he could at least detect the legendary key with this Spiritual Star Tracker.
Furthermore, it wasn't like Jacob didn't have any target. In fact, he was planning on heading toward the meeting place in the barbarian's memories and apprehending the person who hired the barbarian and those two orcs and gave them the Spiritual Star Tracker.
Jacob was sure that the person behind them would definitely have more methods to track legendary keys or that the person might have already found one. Although he didn't know how much time had passed since he had entered the tower, he knew he needed to hurry, or he might even lose a legendary vestige and a chance to get the legendary king's treasure or legacy if someone else beat him to it.
Furthermore, the secret of the legendary key could only be unraveled after he gathered all the recognitions of the other eleven zodiacs. But this was his second priority, for the main priority was still collecting all the cosmic vestiges and completing the second phase!
However, at this moment, Jacob suddenly stopped and frowned with a hint of confusion as he touched his skull face and muttered, "Why did the Gluttony Mask suddenly burn, and I sense agitation from it? It wasn't my imagination. I'm not even using it right now, and it's only at the unique rank, so it shouldn't be acting up since it has never happened before.
"Furthermore, now that I think about it, this Gluttony Mask is also a soul artifact, but it's bizarre and different from the soul artifacts described by Immortika. Immortika also never provided me with any information about it. But why did it act just now?"
Jacob brushed it off as a futile attempt to escape from his clutches. His eyes flickered coldly, 'Since no soul artifact can escape my possession and harm me, you can only be obedient and behave like a good tool!'