I Contracted All Ancient Divine Artifacts-Chapter 362 - 261: Rotating Lantern

"Joseph, your talent is outstanding. Congratulations on achieving second place."

A middle-aged professor with sparse hair and black-framed glasses was sitting on a meticulously crafted, expensive velvet-cushioned chair.

Looking at the face handing him the report card, the smile on his own face was nauseating.

"Teacher, I got the same score as Ferdinand. Why is he first, and I’m only second?"

The young Joseph, with golden curly hair, stubbornly lifted his head to look at his teacher.

The middle-aged professor tugged at the corner of his mouth.

He took off his glasses, leaned slightly forward, looking down at the little boy who didn’t know the vastness of the skies and the depths of the earth.

"That is Sir Little Ferdinand. Mind your words."

...

"Joseph, congratulations on being selected to become a great knight, serving the Empire!"

The speaker was a beautiful woman, with a cascade of golden hair like a waterfall and star-bright eyes.

The youthful-looking Joseph lowered his head slightly, somewhat embarrassingly.

"Thank you, Tina."

He hesitated for a moment, as if mustering his courage, to invite this charming and lovely person opposite him.

"May I invite you to have dinner with me tonight?"

Faced with Joseph’s invitation, Tina was momentarily stunned.

"Sorry, I’m afraid I can’t accept your invitation," Tina said with an apologetic smile on her lips, continuing, "Ferdinand invited me to his family’s ball today, and I already agreed to him first."

Upon hearing this, something in Joseph’s eyes gradually dimmed.

...

"Imperial Sword!"

"Imperial Sword!"

"Imperial Sword!"

In the square, the citizens of the Empire were cheering and shouting.

Joseph, returning triumphant, rode a silver-white warhorse, entering from the city gate.

Amidst the thronging crowd, they walked from the city gate into the palace.

Just as they entered the palace and disappeared from the public’s view, a transparent barrier rose behind him and his men, isolating them from the outside. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

This was the Empire’s relic, a powerful means only possible with the Knight’s Code.

A nobleman with green curly hair, about the same age as Joseph, slowly emerged from the shadows inside the hall.

"Ferdinand?!" Seeing the man before him, Joseph looked bewildered.

"Joseph, your reputation is too high."

"The Empire only needs one leader, you should understand this logic."

As Ferdinand turned the pages of the Knight’s Code in his hand, streams of multi-colored knightly power were forcibly extracted from Joseph and his warriors, who had fought life and death together.

Their cultivation vanished in an instant!

The Royal Guards, who had long been lying in wait, swiftly closed in, covering their mouths with their right hands, drawing short curved blades with their left hands, swiftly slashing across their necks.

Watching each of his brothers fall to death before him, Joseph’s heart was filled with endless rage.

It was at this moment he heard a low whisper, audible only to him.

"Do you desire more power?"

"Joseph, you’re a genius and should not be targeted and shackled like this. Your legend should not end here!"

"Betray the Knight’s Code, what it can grant, I can as well."

"Come, believe in me, my child!"

Joseph’s lips, bitten hard enough, turned pale, with blood seeping through the gaps between his teeth.

More and more knights who had braved birth and death with him were having their throats slit, discarded like trash.

Watching this scene, Joseph’s once-held faith collapsed in an instant.

"Tell me your name!"

"My name is Corruption."

...

This was the darkest and most tragic part of the Empire’s history.

It was a day destined never to be recorded in the annals.

A large number of citizens died in the Imperial main city. Ferdinand, the nurtured successor, and his fiancée, the future Empress Tina, were cut in half, dying from loss of life.

Numerous buildings were destroyed, and knight troops suffered heavy losses!

That day marked the fall of Joseph the Imperial Sword, abandoning his beliefs, descending into darkness.

If not for the Empire’s residual strength, and the full might of the Imperial Relics Knight’s Code suppressing the fallen Imperial Sword,

the fall of the Imperial main city would have been imminent.

At a time when manpower was needed, the Empire, suffering such a blow, sought to use Joseph’s hand to slaughter other forces in the City of Extreme Evil, thus sparing his life.

Joseph was exiled to the City of Extreme Evil, his honor as the Imperial Sword erased, leaving only the name of the Fallen Knight.

...

Scenes of the past flashed like a revolving lantern in his mind.

Joseph’s consciousness, from muddled, gradually became clear.

In his ears, that once-appearing voice resurfaced.

"I can grant you endless life, boundless power, let you live again!"

Live again... Joseph, looking at his headless standing posture, only then realized his head was placed in his own hand.

The face within the helmet gave a tragic smile.

"Forget it."

The Headless Knight placed the head in his hand back onto his neck.

Then, he removed his helmet with both hands, discarding the armor that had accompanied him through countless battles, planting his feet firmly on the ground.

It was the appearance of a youth, with brittle yellow hair hanging loose and a gaunt visage.

After millions of years, his countenance seemed to remain at the moment of his fall.

Joseph looked back over his shoulder.

From the door leading to endless corrupt darkness, the voice of temptation continued to sound.

Joseph looked down at his hands.

With his last strength, he clawed with his right hand, puncturing his heart area, taking out a black heart still beating thumpingly from his body.

"Goodbye."

Joseph’s dry voice rang out, gripping the heart fiercely in his hand, crushing it to pieces.

As the heart shattered, dark liquid splattered everywhere.

The enticing whispers finally disappeared from his ears.

In this instant, the darkness in Han Zhan, Gongyang Jin, and Bob’s eyes also gradually retreated, with the once "frozen" scene coming alive again.

Gongyang Jin still maintained the posture of swinging a sword.

In the next moment of awakening, the Xuanyuan Sword struck that door.

Without any accident or resistance, the door leading to the Land of Corruption was stirred to shreds, disappearing completely!

Simultaneously, in the ears of Gongyang Jin and Han Zhan, the prompt from the Slaughter Battlefield sounded:

"You have successfully killed an enemy camp character, Social Level 4, Spit-upon."

"You have received a ten million point reward."

Looking at the Fallen Knight lying in a pool of black blood, the man stripped of armor, gaunt to the point of no longer resembling a human.

Next to him, a colorful Character Identity Card shimmered vibrantly.

There is a chance for the corresponding Character Identity Card to drop upon killing an enemy character.

Did something really drop?

Han Zhan picked up the card, on which was an image of a naked man bound to a cross.

——You are a being despised and hated by the entire world, you know well, their contempt stems from their fear.

——And you deeply loathe this world as well!