Chapter Eighty-Nine: The True Sword in the Stone

“Your Majesty, this village…”

Everyone fell silent at the sight of the frozen ruins ahead. The village before them was completely buried beneath ice and snow, with only a few rooftops showing through, utterly devoid of life.

This village had survived the Zombie King’s massacre, only to perish at the mercy of heaven.

“Go inside and take a look. There may be useful information.”

Mofangyuan might not have been able to kill his own countrymen with his own hands, but he had grown accustomed to their deaths. All that remained was a sense of desolation.

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

The joy the soldiers had felt after destroying the zombie village was scattered by this sight.

Mofangyuan went to the nearest wooden roof and took out a shovel, digging down three blocks.

The snow blocks yielded before the iron shovel with no resistance at all, and in an instant he had carved out a tunnel leading to a wooden door.

He pushed hard, only to be surprised that the door was tightly shut, as if the owner of the hut had tried to bar the cold with it.

He pushed again, but it still would not open. So he braced himself and slammed his shoulder into it.

With a sharp crack, the wooden door shuddered.

Even Mofangyuan had not expected his strength to be so great; the impact had even split the door.

Fortunately, it burst open.

The hut was small, and yet when he looked inside it seemed almost unnaturally empty.

Aside from a wooden bed and a stone furnace, there was no other furniture. The rest of the wood must have been used as firewood for warmth.

The bed was plain: four wooden supports with a thin red cloth spread over them. The cloth was so thin and so small that it could not even cover a person completely, let alone keep anyone warm.

The beds in the Block Kingdom had once been like this too. Every winter, many people died, severely hindering the kingdom’s growth.

This had lasted for a very long time, until Mofangyuan took office and brought about a complete change by organizing the large-scale production and use of wool.

“If only someone among the Block People had found cotton. Then the Block People could make cotton clothes and cotton cloth, and would not be so helpless in these damned winters.”

Looking at the bed, Mofangyuan could no longer hold back the emotions pressing in his chest.

On the bed lay the rigid body of an adult female Block Person. She had not been covered at all, only curled up upon that rough, frigid bed.

The only red cloth was clutched tightly in her arms, and in those arms was her child…

The child, too, had lost all signs of life…

“Rest in peace…”

Mofangyuan was deeply shaken. It was the first time in reality that he had encountered such… great maternal love.

Forcing back the tears in his eyes, he quietly closed the wooden door and buried the hut once more beneath the snow.

People are flesh and blood; Mofangyuan did not have the courage to burn them away…

“Let them remain like this, forever…”

He used a sign to make a simple grave for the mother and child.

The inscription read: Nameless Loving Mother, Grave of Love for Her Son.

“This is what happens when the Block People are too weak! It is a tragedy belonging only to this age!”

Only by holding power can one avoid being harmed.

Mofangyuan did not linger. He bowed to the sign, then turned and left.

“Your Majesty! Nothing found here!”

“Your Majesty! Nothing here either!”

“Your Majesty! Same on my side…”

The soldiers who had been scouting in different directions returned one after another, and each looked even more grim than when they had set out.

“Your Majesty! I found a well-preserved chest here, and there was a book on top of it!”

Little Li arrived late, carrying a wooden chest.

“Hm?”

Mofangyuan was puzzled. The village’s wood had all been burned, so how could a single wooden chest have survived?

“This chest was found in that stone house. It had been placed in a very obvious spot!”

Little Li pointed at the two-story stone house as he spoke.

It was the only stone building in the village, likely the village chief’s home or a place of worship.

Little Li set the chest and the book before Mofangyuan, then respectfully returned to the ranks and awaited his next order.

February 13, Year Eleven…

“Is this a diary?”

Seeing the date written on the first page, Mofangyuan could not help but think of it as a diary.

“How strange. Why would anyone leave a diary on top of a chest… No, wait.”

…Final words!

After the date, those words were written clearly: final words.

“From that year until now, it has already been eleven years! I hate that I could not die in battle alongside my countrymen!”

“Die in battle? That year? So the one who wrote this was an old veteran who survived the war against the Zombie King ten years ago?”

“Now I have reached the end of the road. Ten years of painstaking effort, turned to dust and ashes…”

It was only a short sentence, yet it made Mofangyuan feel the writer’s intense unwillingness and hatred between the lines.

More than ten years of careful planning, all for revenge against the Zombie King, only to be destroyed in mere months by this damned weather. If it were Mofangyuan, he would be enraged to death as well.

“Descendant, if you can see this, it means I am already dead… The most precious things I can leave you are in the chest. I hope you will use them well and kill the Zombie King…”

According to the book, this old veteran had placed his most precious possessions in the chest below, and he also asked Mofangyuan to inherit his dying wish: to kill the Zombie King.

“Rest assured. That Zombie King will die… I swear it.”

Whether to avenge his fallen countrymen, for the Block Kingdom, or for this old veteran, Mofangyuan would kill the Zombie King.

Knock, knock, knock!

He tapped the wooden chest, though he had not expected much from the inheritance inside.

How many good things could a small village possibly have?

“Holy—!”

A beam of golden light shot out from the chest and lit Mofangyuan’s face.

Diamond x1
Enchanted Book: Flame II
Crafting Diagram: Cloth Clothes
Crafting Diagram: Straw Sandals
Emerald x3
Iron Ingot x1
Village Map
Book

“This?!”

Holding up the translucent blue gemstone and the enchanted book of Flame, Mofangyuan fell into deep thought.

Was he, this king, truly so inadequate?

He thought of the kingdom’s empty treasury.

After all this time, and this treasure trove still could not compare to that of a tiny village!

“This… is really tempting.”

A gentleman loves wealth. Without hesitation, Mofangyuan stuffed everything into his inventory.

“We’ll rest here tonight. Go to that stone house… and do not damage any other buildings.”

Even while opening the chest, Mofangyuan had not forgotten the soldiers standing around doing nothing.

They had reached the zombie village in the morning, and it had taken quite some time to destroy it completely.

Then there had been the climb up the mountain and the search through the village, which had taken several more hours.

Add to that the countless small matters along the way, and much time had been lost.

If they went down the mountain now, by the time they reached the foot of it, night would likely have fallen.

And if a blizzard came charging at them as well…

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

Staying in this place was heartbreaking enough; if they lingered any longer, the blizzard certainly would not be polite.

Standing on the hillside and looking down at the lake below, Mofangyuan took out the Book.

Clearly, the old veteran had placed this Book among the many treasures for a reason; it was no ordinary thing.

“What kind of book could earn such regard from an old veteran?”

With that thought, Mofangyuan opened it.

Sword in the Stone.

The first page was covered with those three large words.

“The Sword in the Stone is the most powerful sword… Legend says it was forged over countless years from magic diamonds, kingly gold, the souls of a race… It is a sacred artifact unique to the Block People… Only a Block Person who possesses the reverence of the people and the heart of a king can wield it… It has a will of its own…”

“The hopes of the people are its nourishment… The mind of its wielder is its cradle…”

The Book’s account of the Sword in the Stone was many times more detailed than the old village chief’s record from the mountain valley.

From legend to history, from hardness to function, everything was described, almost like an instruction manual.

“This?”

Mofangyuan was stunned. He had originally thought it was merely a super-enchanted diamond sword, but now it seemed to be a true divine artifact.

“Why would such a precious ancestral treasure be lost?!”

He could not help but roar inwardly in a frenzy.