Void Beetle Evolution Guide

"Move! Run!" Thresh sat directly on the roof of the carriage, a whip appearing in his hand, which he lashed out at the ghosts of the soldiers. The whip cracked, and the ghosts immediately took off, pulling the carriage at breakneck speed.

"He's already running away? He's no good at fighting, but he's quite good at running away." The Wild Hunt, who was just watching the show, looked at Thresh who was far ahead of everyone else and laughed speechlessly.

Then he looked at Nera. He had just caught a glimpse of Ossilash's glimpse when he pulled out his soul through Thresh.

Now, like a soft octopus, it is forcibly stuffing itself back into Nera's body, while the latter rolls around on the ground, letting out eerie laughter, making for a very bizarre scene.

The Ten Demons are likely all possessing extraordinary abilities.

A moment later, Nera stood up again from the cold floor and stumbled to the tavern door, leaning against it.

She glanced in the direction Thresh had left, about to set off, when she suddenly turned her head sharply to look at the location of Wild Hunt and Cassiopeia, raising an eyebrow in thought.

Cassiopeia, thinking she'd been found out, was about to greet her when she saw Nera turn back and chase after the tracks left by the ghost carriage. "You Meimei, you Yongkong, you Lin Zaizai, what are you doing...?"

She leaped onto the rooftop, weaving and darting between the residential buildings, and soon became a black dot on the horizon, disappearing from their sight.

"I almost got caught; she seems to have noticed." Cassiopeia thought to herself how close she had come to disaster, knowing that the Wild Hunt's hand had very rudely slipped inside her clothes.

“Thresh can’t detect us, but she can vaguely sense our presence, which means her strength is far superior to Thresh’s,” Wild Hunt said. “They’re heading towards the Immortal Bastion. Let’s follow them and see.”

Chapter 751 Wolf Spirit Hall

Thresh drove his ghostly carriage at breakneck speed along the smooth road without looking back, seemingly trying to leave some terrifying thing far behind.

He had messed with the wrong person, and he hadn't expected the curse on that woman to be so powerful. He abandoned the idea of ​​forming an alliance with her, and only wanted to reach the depths of the Immortal Fortress as soon as possible before she came after him again.

Noxus's streets are narrow and winding, a design intended to put enemies who breach the outer walls at a disadvantage.

Every house had crenellations built on its flat roof, like the fortifications of a castle, allowing any soldier to occupy the high ground and launch an attack. Even crows could blend perfectly into the dark eaves.

Their war stonemasons, however, built roads that were exceptionally well-maintained and wide, demonstrating their deep understanding of the principle that supplies must precede troops.

Thresh quickly approached Spirit Bank, right at the foot of the old south wall of Bastion of Immortals.

This is a tall, multi-story tower without walls; each floor stands atop a black stone pillar. At the center of the tower sits a fifty-foot-tall obsidian wolf statue.

According to ancient Valoran custom, death is two sides of the same coin, inseparable. The Lamb spirit represents a peaceful death, while the Wolf spirit signifies a brutal end. In Noxus, the latter is revered as a majestic and dignified manner. In an empire that worships strength, dying peacefully in bed is not the proper way to uphold honor. [The remaining text appears to be unrelated and possibly machine-generated gibberish.]

But Thresh dislikes neither wolves nor sheep. No matter how powerful he is, he is still essentially an undead. For those who flee death, the most terrifying thing is the relentless pursuit of wolves.

Thresh just wanted to get past the Wolf Spirit Temple as quickly as possible, but things didn't go as planned. As soon as the carriage turned out of the alley, he saw the Trevor Legion setting up a roadblock on the road.

They placed barricades across the road, pointed sharp wooden stakes at the carriage, and more soldiers leaped out of the darkness of the temple like hunting dogs, firing crossbows at him on the roof of the carriage.

The powerful crossbow bolts pierced the air, instantly turning the carriage into a pincushion and piercing Thresh's body, but they couldn't harm him in the slightest.

"Charge!" That's how undead beings act with impunity. Thresh laughed and brandished his whip, showing no mercy to the lives of his undead soldiers.

Eight undead soldiers, pulling a carriage, continued their relentless charge against the barricades. The ghosts pulling the carriage passed straight through the obstacle, but the carriage slammed violently into the barricades.

Thresh felt a violent shaking and clung tightly to the carriage with his claws. Fortunately, the carriage he had found was sturdy and withstood the impact, carrying him through the encirclement and away.

However, Thresh did not suffer a Waterloo in front of the Wolf Spirit Temple, but instead tripped and fell in the alleyway afterwards.

Suddenly, black thorns, which seemed to have grown out of nowhere, entangled the wheels, causing Thresh to fall off the vehicle unexpectedly.

This delay allowed Trevor's army to surround him from both sides.

Thresh stood up, and three soldiers resolutely thrust their halberds at him, their fear not slowing them down just because he was an undead. Thresh turned his head, grinned, and swung his scythe.

The lead warrior knocked the scythe away with his halberd, but the scythe suddenly turned in mid-air and wrapped around his neck. The chain snaked and tightened, the hooks tearing through his robe and probing into his flesh... With a forceful tug from Thresh, the warrior's entire soul was ripped from his body by the scythe. He screamed in terror and flew toward the lantern, where he was locked in a painful prison and fell silent.

The warrior's soulless body fell limply to the ground. Thresh, wielding his scimitar, deflected two halberds beneath him. Just then, he suddenly sensed someone approaching from behind and, without thinking, swung his sword behind him.

The hooks delivered a beautiful, shocking sensation as they tore through flesh, but the black thorns also wrapped around his arms and neck, creating a stalemate.

It was a person shrouded in layers of jet-black robes, wearing a black mask with an expressionless, cold gaze and a smooth texture. Even the small holes that revealed the eyes were covered by black mesh, completely concealing the person's identity.

The man's hands were also hidden, concealed within the thick fabric sleeves, but the thorny black brambles were protruding from his wide sleeves.

"Faceless Man." Thresh looked at the other's appearance with interest.

When Thresh first arrived in Noxus, he heard about the Trifali Council of Three, and he was immediately intrigued by the enigmatic Faceless One among them. It seemed illogical to anyone that someone whose identity was unknown could be part of Noxus's highest power structure.

So he took action. After managing to capture several spies, he interrogated them by questioning their souls and uncovered the existence of the Black Rose, a massive organization entrenched in the heart of the empire. He also learned that the so-called Faceless Man was the leader of the Black Rose.

The formation of the three-person council was merely a tactic by Swain to drag the Faceless Men from the shadows into the open. On the surface, he granted the Faceless Men immense power, but in reality, by winning over Darius, he ensured the Faceless Men's majority rule, preventing them from acting too recklessly under surveillance. This demonstrates the immense power of the Black Rose, which compelled Swain to make such a decision.

Thresh gleaned more clues than just these. Under relentless torture and interrogation, the spies revealed even more secrets. They said the Faceless One had lived for a very long time, at least a thousand years, and that she had close ties with the Blessed Isles in the past. She had entrusted a crucial relic to the Blessed Isles for safekeeping, but with the Great Devastation, the relic disappeared without a trace.

Thresh had already captured Black Rose agents back on the Shadow Isles, learning they were searching for a crucial relic. Understanding its purpose, he decided to bring it back to Noxus, intending to unleash the Tyrant and aid him in his tyranny.

If all goes as expected, the relic he brought is exactly what the Faceless Man is looking for. The other party doesn't want the Tyrant to return, so the entire Black Rose will stand against him. And because of the Trifary Council, the Faceless Man has also dragged Swain into the conflict; their fates are intertwined… Therefore, he faces the resistance of all Noxus! The will of the entire empire!

However, Thresh was not afraid, because he did not need to face the entire nation's army alone. All he needed to do was infiltrate the Immortal Bastion and release the Tyrant, who would then clear all obstacles for him.

As for infiltrating the Immortal Fortress, that's not a big problem either. He just needs to shake off this group of elite Trevori. With his ghost form, it wouldn't be difficult to quietly approach his destination.

He had already interrogated people about the route he took to enter, and had even wandered around the area several times. Now he's just been discovered, but these people are dreaming if they think they can catch him.

Chapter 752 Darkness Under the Lamp

"Destiny, domination, deception—these are the laws of power that Noxus believes in, and you are the embodiment of deception." The black thorns tightened their grip, but Thresh remained unfazed, instead reaching for the Faceless Man's mask: "I really want to see what kind of face lies beneath this mask."

Through the scythe hooked around his body, he could sense that the other person was not like a living person, lacking the vibrant aura of a living person, but also not a dead person like himself. This made Thresh even more curious about the other person's true appearance.

Thresh reached out and, as he wished, removed his mask.

Behind the mask was a brown face, with gleaming chains connecting a nose ring and earrings. Disheveled long black hair outlined a slender face, and purple eyes revealed an unusual joy, as if mocking his ungratefulness.

"That's clearly Nera's face!" Thresh yelled, startled and taking several steps back. For a moment, he thought Nera had really caught up. But he quickly realized it was No-Face in disguise. The leader of the Black Rose was a master of transformation, so no one had ever been able to discover her true appearance.

Startled, his opponent seemed to have found his weakness. In an instant, the surrounding scene turned upside down, with countless black thorns shooting in from all directions, binding him tightly like a three-dimensional spider web. These thorns sliced ​​space into mirrors, each reflecting Nera's face, all saying in unison, "Hand over the relics!"

"Using illusions on an undead, huh?" Thresh couldn't help but laugh. He, who took pleasure in tormenting others, scoffed at such an abused method. He disdained using illusions; generally, he would capture the person closest to the target and torture them to the point of madness in front of that person again and again—that was far more stimulating than illusions.

Thresh was unaffected, and the illusion woven by the Faceless Man was naturally broken. The rusty scythe silently slid from his waist, raising its head like a snake, drawing a crescent moon in the night sky, hanging above the Faceless Man's head. It was imbued with the resentment of the dead, and the blade's light shimmered expectantly.

The Faceless Man noticed Thresh's underhanded move and immediately dodged away. The scythe only managed to catch the afterimage left by the Faceless Man. Thresh looked at the swarming Trevor soldiers and the Noxian Hand, clad in a blood-red cloak, striding towards them in the distance. He decided not to waste any more time on a pointless fight.

A burst of intense light erupted from Thresh's body, forming a dim halo around him that completely kept the black thorns binding his body away, leaving him unharmed.

He raised his lantern, releasing a large amount of black mist. The viscous black mist coiled around him like tentacles, and only a blurry outline could be seen in the disgusting green light. From the vortex came a series of ghostly wails.

"We'll meet somewhere else, if you can make it back in time." The tentacles of black mist merged in the air, and a huge mass of boiling mist stirred up a gale, carrying Thresh's whisper in the wind.

Then the undead coalesced into a pillar, shooting into the night sky like a tornado. When the black mist dissipated, the Soul Warden's whereabouts also vanished.

A few breaths later, Thresh appeared beside the base of Bastion. He stopped in front of a black stone wall, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"We're here, this is it," he murmured to himself, looking up at the solitary stone tower before him. (The last two lines appear to be unrelated and possibly machine-generated text.)

The tower is composed of three separate, seamless walls, with no visible trace of the massive stones used in its construction. This was a spectacle built by the tyrant Mordekaiser for himself. It's hard to imagine how much manpower and resources he exhausted to construct this enormous monument to commemorate his "great achievements." Even Thresh knows it was a dark age ruled by terror.

He had already planned to infiltrate this place, but because he didn't know how strong the Black Rose's defenses were, he thought of having Nera as his henchman.

However, plans don't always go as expected. Trifalli's army launched a preemptive strike, and Nera didn't fall for his trap. He had no choice but to change his strategy: first, lure the enemy away from their position, drawing out all the defenses, both visible and hidden, and then, taking advantage of the weakened defenses, infiltrate behind enemy lines to launch a surprise attack.

Just as he had expected, Trifalli's army had deployed its forces along the main road he had come from, neglecting the defenses of the dead ends behind. He saw many soldiers standing on the steps leading to the audience hall in the distance, but blending into the darkness was an instinct for every undead; it was darkest under the lamp, and at such a distance, the enemy could not possibly spot him immediately.

Thresh was secretly observing others, unaware that others were also secretly observing him.

"Tsk, he actually knows the entrance to the Soul Well." Wild Hunt watched Thresh's every move in surprise. The latter had sharp eyes and had already noticed something unusual on the stone wall. Moonlight shone on the wall, forming a string of mysterious runes in a brief moment.

“Perhaps he captured some high-ranking member of Black Rose, tortured him, and interrogated him,” Cassiopeia replied.

The Great Well of Souls is a knowledgeable entity only to the higher echelons of the Black Rose, such as elders like Elise. Those like Cassiopeia before she gained power, or her mother Soleanna, had no right to know of its existence.

“That’s not surprising then,” Wild Hunt nodded. Thresh was clearly after the Soul Well; it would be strange if he didn’t know where the entrance was.

He saw the warden suddenly reach out his hand, and several streaks of black mist extended forward along his arm, crashing into the stone wall in front of him.

The black mist that hit the object exploded, but one of them went straight through the stone wall, leaving a ripple-like mark on it.

Although the ripple disappeared in the blink of an eye, Thresh had already noticed its presence.

"A little trick, huh."

He rubbed his chin, raised the lantern close to the stone wall, and the lantern emitted a ghastly green light. The stone wall, which was completely indistinguishable to the naked eye, vanished without a trace like a bubble in the sunlight, revealing the passage hidden behind it.

Thresh acted quickly, entering the hidden passage. Inside the dark stone doorway lay an even deeper darkness.

His eyes gleamed with an evil light; nothing in the darkness could hide from him. He didn't raise the scythe, but let it drag on the ground like a chain, as if death itself was approaching.

Suddenly, with a crack, he seemed to have stepped on something... a scattered fragment of bone, which had been left here for who knows how many years. Its originally hard internal structure had long since become fragile, and it crumbled into powder with the slightest step.

The warden smiled knowingly. The illusions, the skeletons—the master here seemed to be desperately hiding some dark secret, the very secret he sought.

On

Chapter 753 Grudges of the Dark Ages

Thresh didn't immediately venture deeper. Instead, he paused inside the hall, picked up a lantern, and pressed himself against the wall, examining it closely like a tourist. The lantern's light revealed the mysterious inscriptions that had been blank, reflecting the fanatical expression on his face.

These mysterious inscriptions are not directly engraved on the wall, but rather float on the surface like a layer of oil. The Wild Hunt has never seen these strange characters in any orthodox book with verifiable origins. They seem to be something created by someone, something that only a specific group can decipher.

“This is Ochen language… the language of the dead. Close your eyes and listen carefully. Can you hear it? Indistinct whispers, recounting his sinful deeds. You’ll hear it more clearly if you’re enveloped in the black mist.” Thresh held the lantern to his ear, as if trying to hear some response from within.

“Legend has it that once you understand the language of the dead, you will hear unspeakable secrets and be haunted by evil spirits. It’s like being bewitched by the powerful energy of runes, unable to stop,” Cassiopeia said.

Even with her eyes closed, the strange runes remained, refusing to dissipate no matter how much she shook her head. Only chaotic whispers lingered in her ears, and ghostly mist enveloped her body. Her consciousness was involuntarily drained to decipher this sinful language that belonged to no living being. The initially indistinct whispers gradually solidified into words she could almost understand, but the detached consciousness made her increasingly disoriented, unable to perceive her own existence.

Just as Wild Hunt thought she had been bewitched by Ou Chenyu and was about to wake her, Cassiopeia opened her eyes again, revealing a cunning expression. A red light flashed deep in her pupils as she laughed at her successful prank. "Master, are you worried about me? Don't worry, how could I possibly lose my composure because of such a small trick?"

Wild Hunt didn't say anything, but simply patted Cassiopeia's shapely bottom to urge her to keep following.

The spread of the Ouchen language is actually closely related to Mordecais.

In the previous era, the ruthless warlord Sarn Uzul ravaged the northern lands. Driven by a dark faith, he purged all the tribes and villages that stood in his way, forging his empire, Noxus, with blood and death—the precursor to Noxus.

He firmly believed that his actions would grant him a place in the Hall of Bones after death, qualifying him to be eternally alongside the gods. However, the afterlife was nothing but a gray wasteland, with chaotic whispers echoing in his ears and ghostly mist enveloping his body. Occasionally, lost souls would drift by, their tiny phantoms shrouded in their own nothingness, before vanishing into the annals of time.

Saan Uzur was furious. Had his faith always been a lie? Or had his conquests in life not been enough to earn him the immortality he so desperately craved? How could the nothingness before him possibly be the end of his life?

He refused to dissipate, and in a fit of rage, he began to defy fate, preserving his consciousness with a will forged in fury and brutality. After a long time, the previously indistinct whispers gradually solidified into words he could almost understand. This was the language of Ochen, a sinful language that belonged absolutely nothing to any living being.

Since then, Saan Uzul, sealed in the underworld, has been using whispers to penetrate the veils between different realms, promising his invincible power to anyone who dares to listen.

Once, a group of wizards heeded his call and decided to bring him back to the world of the living. Without flesh and bones, he incited the wizards to seal their spirits within a suit of black iron plate armor that resembled the one he wore in life, thus gaining power enough to scorn mortals. The merciless Iron Armored Wraith was born.

The wizards, thirsting for power, hoped to use him as a weapon of war. However, he executed them all on the spot, rendering their magic and weapons useless against him.

In their desperation, they called out his name in an attempt to seal him away again—but it was all in vain, for Saan Uzur was no more.

With a faint whisper, he uttered his name in the language of Euclidean: Mordecais.

Mordekaiser once again embarked on his conquest of the mortal world. Empowered by necromancy, his ambition and power swelled, leading him to subdue not only the fire demon Tybak, the war demon Ertahan, and the secret demon Rammer, but also to forge a ferocious mace—Nightfall—from the souls of wizards.

This weapon, which commands the dead, can control their resurrected spirits. LeBlanc, as a member of the wizarding community that summoned Mordekaiser back to Runeterra, was naturally enslaved by Mordekaiser using Nightfall. Obsessed with slaughter and destruction, his brutal conquests nearly wiped out an entire generation, and then he built the Immortal Fortress in the heart of the Empire, attempting to control all forbidden knowledge of souls and death.

That's right, the real LeBlanc was killed by Iron Revenant thousands of years ago and then transformed into an immortal lich to be enslaved for eternity. LeBlanc refused to accept her fate of being enslaved by the tyrant, and after years of biding her time, she finally found an opportunity to betray Mordekaiser, severing the connection between Mordekaiser's soul and armor. She then sealed this empty shell in the Soul Well, and even placed his head on the Blessed Isle to prevent the two from reuniting.

Mordekaiser was thus banished from the material realm, but LeBlanc knew that he would eventually return, unwilling to accept his fate and become a slave once more. For centuries, she had been trying to prevent Mordekaiser's return, including but not limited to rebuilding Noxus, cultivating her own power, searching for any relics that could be used to deal with Mordekaiser, and sealing off magical resources to prevent anyone from accessing the language of Ochen through dark magic.

Yes, Noxus also once banned magic, but LeBlanc's methods were far more sophisticated than Demacia's. She portrayed Mordekaiser as a victim of dark magic, naturally severing Noxus's magical lineage. That's why it's now rare to see mages in Noxus. The headless statues scattered throughout the Immortal Fortress are a profound warning from her to that dark age.

This is the grudge between Mordekaiser and LeBlanc. The previously stagnant progress was disrupted by Thresh's sudden intrusion. (The remaining text appears to be gibberish and unrelated to the previous sentences.)

Following Thresh, Wild Hunt saw him arrive at a heavy door. This time, the door was no illusion; the black stone door had no switch, only a three-eyed raven carved on it, and below the raven, a line of text was engraved.

"If you want to open the door to darkness, tell people the darkest secret in your heart."

Chapter 754 The Dark Gate

"If you want to open the door to darkness, tell people the darkest secret in your heart."

Wild Hunt looked at the words on the door with slight confusion. He and Elise had been to the Well of Souls once before, but they hadn't encountered this door then. Could it be that this door only reveals itself to those who haven't been here before, and that Elise had already passed its test?

He turned to look at Cassiopeia, who giggled mischievously, "Don't look at me like that, it's actually my first time here too. As for the secret of the darkness, I do have one here, but it concerns our future plans, so even the master can't tell you."

Cassiopeia remained unfazed, because a secret once spoken is no longer a secret. Her biggest secret had already been revealed to the Wild Hunt, and even if she had any unspoken secrets, they were far less impactful than the Wild Hunt's.

Wild Hunt listened to Cassiopeia's explanation with narrowed eyes, but ultimately did not pursue the matter further.

Cassiopeia is a very special woman; in her, the Wild Hunt sees ambition and loyalty coexisting in parallel.

Wild Hunt wondered if she might weave a series of destinies to make everyone blindly believe in her, and then, at a crucial moment, repeat the mistakes Lissandra had made, leading everyone to switch sides to the Void. But upon closer reflection, he realized that this was absolutely impossible.

Because the Watchers can only bring utter destruction, unlike with Bervis, there is no room for negotiation. Cassiopeia cannot ally with the Watchers, and even if she wanted to, the World Runes would not allow her to hand over Runeterra.

Therefore, there's no need to worry about her betraying us. Besides, what she's secretly plotting is irrelevant; even if she wants to become a god, so be it.

"Forget it, you keep it. I trust you won't harm me," the Wild Hunt said. "I just remembered a book stored in the Shadow Isles' vaults. It reveals the darkest secrets of the human heart, and it'll be perfect as the key to this door."

“Thresh is also from the Shadow Isles, so he’ll definitely be familiar with this door,” the femme fatale chimed in.

"The crows on the door remind me of the demon within Swain—Rammer, the demon that feeds on secrets," Wild Hunt said.