Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 542 Heart of Mithril
When something becomes so large, it becomes truly awe-inspiring.

This applies to everything.

For example... the heart.

That's right, right now above Li Wei's head, there's a heart almost the size of a basketball court suspended in the air. One of its openings has mithril flowing out, forming what looks like an endless sea of ​​mithril on the ground.

Moreover, this thing was tightly bound and suspended in the air by several vines. Apart from the damaged blood vessels, the other two blood vessels hung down from above, submerged in the deep sea of ​​mithril.

Judging from its appearance, this should be a coronary artery...

Li Wei stood there blankly, even trying to figure out which blood vessel had been severed and whether there was any possibility of suturing it, using his limited medical knowledge—well, probably not. Even if it were sutured, it wouldn't make any difference.

"This is really unexpected."

Even the saintess was astonished by this scene, her eyes widening in surprise before she looked around warily.

“Be careful, Mr. Levi, this is not a good thing.”

"Oh? You know what happened?"

"Yes."

The saintess nodded.

"You also know that before the flames died down, the gods walked on this land, didn't they?"

"Yes."

Livy already knew this history, so the saint didn't need to repeat it.

"Of course, the gods are not a monolithic entity. In fact, the emotional entanglements and troubles among them are no less than those among mortals. Naturally, there are all sorts of struggles and even killings among the gods."

"And here..."

As the saintess spoke, she looked around.

"I think it must be a god's corpse."

"You mean...the corpse of God?"

It must be said that Li Wei was greatly surprised when he heard the saintess speak.

"You mean to say that God's body turned into a mountain... Oh no, never mind."

Li Wei's first instinct was to question it, but he quickly recalled that when the Ancients destroyed their creations, the corpses of those creations gradually evolved into the current environment. So, theoretically, it didn't seem impossible for the corpse of a god to transform into a mountain range.

"But now it seems that this god is not completely dead?"

"Not completely dead, but half-dead."

The saintess made a comment.

"From what we can see now, this god should be sealed here, but we can no longer find the answer as to who did it."

"...Do you think we should bring that mithril doll here?"

Li Wei looked at the saintess and asked a very crucial question, while the saintess looked back at him.

"What do you think?"

"I think... maybe we should just forget about it."

Li Wei looked at the heart bound by vines before him and swallowed hard. In this era, there were no gods left, yet here stood a half-dead, lifeless corpse of a god?
Could it be that the master blacksmith intended to have this half-dead guy possess the mithril doll and then open the passage sealed by the arcane magic? Or had he already made a deal with the other party, which is why he did this?
Ok?
Just as Li Wei was pondering this, he looked at the heart again, and then he saw that from the vines that were wrapped around the heart, roots-like things were emerging and piercing into the heart, twitching weakly with each beat.

vine?

Li Wei suddenly remembered something.

That was the treasure he obtained after defeating the dragon in this dungeon—the Staff of Nature!
This staff could manipulate all plants and animals within a radius of hundreds of miles, and could even be used as its eyes and ears. However, because it was too life-consuming, Li Wei simply shelved it after that.

Right now, what's binding this heart is actually a plant, which immediately reminded Li Wei of this incident from back then.

The dragon guarded the outside, while inside lay a divine corpse, its heart bound by plants, and the dragon happened to possess a staff of nature.
Is this a coincidence?

With this thought in mind, Li Wei immediately summoned the Staff of Nature into his hand.

At the same time, the vines binding the heart seemed to sense something and suddenly tightened, squeezing the heart and spurting out more mithril.

What did you do?

The saintess naturally witnessed this scene and looked at Li Wei in surprise, while Li Wei raised the Staff of Nature.

"Do you know about this, Miss Saint?"

"Let me see..."

The saintess approached the Staff of Nature in Li Wei's hand, examined it carefully, and then frowned.

"Is this the staff of the God of Nature? How did it get here?"

"...The God of Nature?"

"Hmm, the God of Nature was the protector of the elves in our time. After we defeated the elves, it accepted Arthur's request and became part of the All-Seeing Eye... I never expected that its staff would be in your hands. Are you a descendant of the elves?"

“My ears aren’t that long either.” Seeing the saintess curiously trying to tug at his ears, Li Wei quickly took a step back and then explained the origin of the staff.

"I see... That's not surprising then. Dragons have always served as messengers of the gods, and some dragons even follow the gods in waging wars. Hmm, so you think this god was sealed away by the god of nature?"

"Very likely. What are your thoughts on this?"

"Um…………………"

The saintess crossed her arms, frowned, and pondered deeply. Then she patted her head.

"Oh, right, there is indeed a little story about the god of nature."

"What story?"

"Legend has it that the Goddess of Nature is the nurturer and guardian of plants and animals. She loves life and cherishes it. But the Goddess of Rocks disdains this. 'These fragile lives, if I just turn over a stone, they will die as easily as insects!' In order to protect the lives she loves, the Goddess of Nature and the Goddess of Rocks waged a great war. In the end, the Goddess of Nature won, while the Goddess of Rocks was sealed away."

As she spoke, the saintess looked at the heart before her once more.

"Yes, that's the story."

"Okay, maybe it's more than just a story."

Li Wei has now clearly guessed who this unlucky guy, who turned into a mountain and whose heart was even hung up and beaten, is.

"Splash splash splash!"

Suddenly, the tide of the Mithril Sea began to recede, then surged up like waves, eventually forming a face. It glared fiercely at Li Wei and the saintess, opened its mouth, and let out a thunderous roar.

"I sensed... that abhorrent life force... who is it?"

The voice was not speaking the Imperial language, nor any other language. Li Wei could only feel an incredibly powerful thought crashing into his mind like a boulder rolling down. Every syllable it emitted was like a boulder rolling down a mountain and hitting the ground, producing a loud, numbing sound.

It seemed enough to completely crush a person's mind and body.

However, this feeling was fleeting; in the blink of an eye, Li Wei felt his body regain control.

But at that moment, Li Wei did have a sense of fear of impending death.

Is this what gods are?

Although Li Wei had experienced the might of dragons firsthand when facing them, it was nothing compared to the power of a god. The fear that seemed to come from the heart, the fear that made one want to prostrate oneself and die to escape it, was too terrifying, let alone that it came from a dying god.

If this is a true god... um...

Li Wei thought about the Goddess of Night carefully, but it seemed that she had not shown such a deterrent power.
For some reason, Li Wei always felt that the Goddess of the Night was a bit silly.

Perhaps because he was thinking of the Goddess of the Night, Li Wei suddenly felt that the half-dead guy in front of him wasn't so scary after all.

He gripped the Staff of Nature tightly, and then a thought struck him.

Then, the vines tightened their grip once more, and the face composed of the sea of ​​mithril showed a pained expression.

"No... Stop torturing me! You've taken away my power! Stop making me suffer! Kill me!"

So the god of nature took away the power of this god of rocks and even hung him here to whip his corpse?
Wow, the god of nature is really ruthless.

Hearing the other's howls, Li Wei silently complained to himself. Generally speaking, the gods of nature should give people the impression of being gentle and kind. But this god of nature seemed to be very ruthless; how could he do something like this?

So, should we kill it?
Levi gripped the Staff of Nature, a flicker of temptation stirring within him. He vividly remembered the angel he'd killed in Francis, whose divine nature had only increased by 1%—and that was just an angel. This one, however, was a genuine god. Besides, this guy wasn't doing anything good here; keeping him around would only cause trouble. It was better to let him die sooner rather than later, making things easier for everyone…

"no-----!"

However, just as Li Wei was hesitating, a voice suddenly rang out, and in the next instant, the boundless darkness completely enveloped Li Wei's vision.

Li Wei looked up and saw the Goddess of Night standing before him, looking at him anxiously. With her appearance, time seemed to stand still, and even the Holy Maiden remained in her previous pose, unchanged.

“You can’t do that. Killing it is letting it go…”

The goddess of night spoke these words almost in one breath, and then in the blink of an eye, the night vanished, and the goddess of night disappeared as well.

Killing it is the same as letting it go?

Li Wei gazed at the heart before him, pondering the words spoken by the Goddess of Night.

Oh right, he remembered!

The goddess of night once said that most of the gods had fallen into a deep slumber, for the long years would wear them down and damage them. But she didn't say what would happen to these gods after they died. Could it be that after the gods die, they don't truly perish, but are transformed into some entirely new form?
That makes sense! The God of Nature beat this guy up like this but didn't kill him, so there must be a reason!
Could it be that the god of nature imprisoned it here so that time would wear it down?

Li Wei recalled the vampire movies he had seen, where vampires didn't deal with traitors by hanging or shooting them. Instead, they would tie the traitor to a frame, and then wait until dawn, when the traitor would wail and turn to ashes under the sunlight.

It is obvious that only vampires know how to punish vampires to the greatest extent possible.

Similarly, the god of nature naturally knows how to deal with other gods.

With that in mind, Li Wei made a decision.

"Miss Saint, let's retreat!"

As he spoke, Li Wei stepped back, and at the same time, the giant human face suddenly changed its expression.

"You're not allowed to leave. Now that you're here, you're staying!"

With a roar, the surging mithril waves transformed into a giant dragon, rushing towards Li Wei and the saintess!
(End of this chapter)