Chapter 257: Chapter 44: Ancient Spirit Coin Reveals the Ancestor of Light

Just as the mortal world uses gold and silver coins for trade, the Wizard community naturally has its own unique currency.

Murphy had previously acquired one from the Shadow Hunter.

And now, the faint glimmer at the edge of the scorched, bloody mess was undoubtedly another one.

A Wizard’s "currency" isn’t made of ordinary metal or gemstones.

They are typically forged from special Spiritual Materials, making them inherently difficult to destroy. They also possess a unique aura that is nearly impossible to imitate, ensuring they cannot be mistaken for anything else.

More importantly, these materials naturally repel external imprints of will. This makes it extremely difficult to place malicious curses, tracking spells, or mental suggestions on them, ensuring a basic level of safety and secrecy in transactions.

This wasn’t a currency issued by any modern Wizard Organization, but rather "Ancient Spirit Coins" that originated before the Dawn War.

Their specific origins have long been lost to the mists of time.

One legend claims they are Energy imprints, uniformly forged during the peak of the ancient Wizard Empire for the purpose of interplanar trade.

Another theory suggests they are fragmented media left behind by some ancient Magic civilization, capable of stably storing specific information.

Even more obscure lore mentions that they might be "by-products"—possessing stable Energy structures—accidentally created by the great beings of the First Age who touched the very roots of the world during their grand experiments...

The theories were many and varied, with no consensus ever reached.

Most modern Wizards no longer concern themselves with the origins, simply continuing to use them for their excellent properties.

Their purchasing power varies depending on the era, region, and what is being traded. However, their inherent properties make them a form of wealth in their own right, a hard currency, much like Gold in the mundane world.

Indeed, Wizards also used Spiritual Materials.

But this was different from the methods recorded in *Celestial Craftsmanship*, which could refine and purify anything and everything into Spiritual Material.

From what Murphy had seen so far—be it the Shadow Ring, the Shadow Hunter, or the Wizard before him—they all seemed to rely on Spiritual Materials that were either naturally occurring or had undergone relatively simple processing. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

WHOOSH!

With a mere thought, Murphy exerted a gentle pull from several meters away.

The stained Ancient Spirit Coin was lifted by an invisible force, tracing a short arc before landing in Murphy’s outstretched palm.

He used his Qi to brush away the scorched, bloody residue from its surface. A crystal, roughly the size of a thumbnail, appeared. It was an irregular polyhedron, a deep, ethereal blue, with motes of stardust-like light swirling within.

Its texture was hard yet smooth, and its Energy Fluctuations were contained and pure, no different from the one he had previously obtained.

Just as Murphy was about to put it away, something unexpected happened!

The Ancient Spirit Coin in his palm trembled without warning!

HUM!

An extremely faint resonance, yet one that reached deep into his very soul, suddenly emanated from the other Ancient Spirit Coin he carried!

Murphy realized that the ancient, silver-gray Energy traces in the environment—the ones he had been tracking, which had been extremely faint and on the verge of dissipating—had suddenly become sharp and bright!

It was as if the two Ancient Spirit Coins had formed an amplifier, magnifying the faint traces he had struggled to perceive and making them vividly apparent to his senses.

The silver-gray lines, which had been sparse and intermittent, capable only of indicating a general direction, now pulsed with life. In the spiritual vision granted by his Spirit Root, they wove themselves into a denser, more coherent network, pointing clearly toward the narrow fissure—the one the Wizard had mentioned—that led to the ruined hall.

Murphy’s heart sank.

’Weren’t Ancient Spirit Coins supposed to naturally repel external imprints of will? Weren’t they extremely difficult to enchant with tracking spells or mental suggestions?’

’What was this sudden phenomenon all about?’

’Was there something wrong with this coin? Was it a trap set by the Wizard?’

’Or was the belief that these coins were completely safe flawed or limited in some way?’

A chill shot down his spine.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Murphy’s fingers clenched. He was about to hurl the obviously compromised coin far away while simultaneously flaring his Qi to sever any energetic connection with it.

However, in the very instant he tensed to throw it...

VMMMM...

A whisper, as if drifting from the very ends of time and space, resonated directly in the depths of his mind.

The voice was faint and broken, as if filtered through the heavy, curtain-like dust of history. The tone was humble and desperate, like the hoarse plea of a drowning man clutching at a final straw:

"...Ancestor... of... Light..."

Just three broken words, yet they carried with them heavy fragments of time and shattered afterimages, crashing violently into Murphy’s consciousness!

His vision suddenly swam!

The sunken ground, the fissure, the scorch marks, the Ancient Spirit Coin in his palm... everything in his surroundings rippled like the surface of water struck by a pebble, shaking violently and distorting before fading away.

The next moment, Murphy found himself in another place.

His vision gradually sharpened.

The first thing he noticed was that same familiar smell: a mixture of sulfur and rusted metal.

This was still the Deep Red Wilderness.

The dark red sky hung low, the distant mountains formed menacing silhouettes, and the land was barren and desolate.

The Energy in this area was simply more placid, less violent, and its corrosive properties were diminished. Still, it was by no means a place suitable for ordinary people.

Ahead, a low, crooked hall stood, crudely built from massive, dark red stones.

It had no roof, supported only by a few charred, crooked wooden pillars holding up several tattered pieces of Concealment.

The walls were covered in the scars of wind and rain, as well as high-temperature scorch marks. Most of the structure was exposed to the dark red light of the sky.