Chapter 709: Raphael, Father and Son Meet
silence without a word.His eyes looked out the car window, his chest filled with a jumble of thoughts.At that moment, Yisi Chen outside the car window just happened to see Lu Qinan come over to pick...This 1.7-meter-long golden staff, its body intricately engraved with complex ancient glyphs and writings, is said to contain spells capable of destroying the world and resurrecting the dead. However, these ancient words have been lost to time, and no one knows how to recite them anymore. The top of the golden staff takes the form of a ferocious flattened snake head, vividly brought to life. A rare red ruby adorns the serpent's forehead.
When the three sections of the staff were combined, the ruby on top burst forth with a blinding red light, illuminating the entire Water Curtain Cave.
Let everyone involuntarily rise with reverence for this scepter.
Even though Qiao Bao'er held this rare and precious scepter, she didn't possess the aura of a powerful person or the confidence of a king. Instead, she timidly and fearfully pleaded for Raphael's help.
"What do I do What should I do I don't know how to use it—"
The Serpent God Naga, upon seeing the fabled Trident reassembled in its entirety, radiating with a brilliant crimson glow as it had for millennia past, instinctively recoiled.
Right now Qiao Bao'er’s voice was gradually bringing it back to consciousness. After thousands of years, no one knew how to use it anymore, so it had nothing to fear.
This scepter belongs to me, you wretched beings are unworthy of possessing it!
The serpent god Nagaraja's voice, ethereal and aged, boomed with a fury that shook them to their core as he swore an oath.
I will break out of this prison, I will rule this island once more!!
The Serpent God Nagas, consumed by millennia of pent-up hatred, had been imprisoned within this waterfall for far too long. It yearned to break free, craving blood and proving its dominance through carnage. All creatures here should kneel before it in devout worship.
The enormous serpent's head lunged toward Joa.
And she could only limp away clutching the golden scepter, awkwardly dodging and weaving. The cave floor was damp and cold, littered with stones. She tripped on one, stumbled forward and fell headlong, scraping her palms and knees bloody.
Her face turned pale with fright. The giant serpent behind her was charging. She tried to scramble to her feet, but the overwhelming fear left her body frozen and rigid, her legs trembling like jelly. To her, the golden blade was nothing more than a useless ornament, an encumbrance in her current state.
"Wave your wand at it."
Raphael on the other side was also very anxious, shouting incessantly.
"Useless!"
Qiao Bao'er was a bit self-deprecating, wishing she could throw the scepter away to vent her anger. Everyone was vying for it; this scepter was nothing but a curse.
She ran hastily within the dimly lit cave, her face pale as she turned her head, wildly waving her staff behind her, but to no avail.
Finally, the gigantic serpent's blood-filled maw opened wide to swallow her. Qiao Bao'er, like a small animal encountering its natural enemy, felt her legs go weak and she collapsed to the ground, her limbs stiff and her eyes vacant. The Serpent God Naga was about to engulf her in his belly, but at the crucial moment, a small black shadow darted through the air. With several swift leaps, it climbed onto Naga's head and dug its claws fiercely into the corner of Naga's eye.
The Serpent God Nāga's entire body is covered in scales as hard as armor, virtually impenetrable. The only weakness of Nāga lies in his eyes, the sole vulnerability he possesses.
The Black Cat leaped swiftly and nimbly across the enormous serpent Nagas, much like an ant clinging to an elephant. Naga's eyes stung with pain, and it turned its head to hiss at the black cat on its back, but the cat was too agile. Even the Serpent God Naga was helpless against it for a time, which only made Naga more agitated. It constantly thrashed its massive serpent body, trying to shake the cat off.
The entire mountain shuddered and shook violently, like an earthquake. Pieces of rock tumbled down the slopes with a deafening clatter, sending up clouds of dust. Qiao Bao'er and Raphael scrambled for cover in panic, their situation becoming increasingly perilous.
"What should we do!" Qiao Baier anxiously asked him.
Raphael looked at her with a complicated expression, his gaze fixed on the staff she held in her right hand.
Actually, Raphael wasn't sure exactly how to use it. He only found a description in the library's books, depicting an old man wielding a staff and repelling the Nagas, imprisoning them.
"...Help me up, let's get out of here."
“Hurry, Count. He won't last much longer.”
In the end, Raphael chose to compromise first.
Jo Baoer supported him on his left side, Raphael leaning against her, barely able to walk. But his face was as pale as paper with no blood color, obviously suffering from serious internal injuries.
The serpent god Nagas and the Count were locked in a brutal fight, shaking the very foundations of the cavern. It was a battle of pure strength, and if the Count even momentarily loosened his grip on the smooth serpent's scales, he would be flung to his death.
Fortunately, the water curtain cave inside this large waterfall was wide enough. Qiao Baoer helped Raphael away from their fight, hurrying towards the channel mouth with quick steps.
Raphael, being gravely ill, pressed most of his weight onto Jobeir. Feeling the strain, Jobeir had to use her staff as a crutch for support. Her palm, previously injured in a fall and bleeding, just happened to press against the ruby on the staff's handle.
"The white tiger didn't die, I'm going to take it out."
As Qiao Baier walked past the crushed white tiger, she couldn't help but stop.
The white tiger was gasping weakly, struggling with all its might to free itself from the massive stone pinning it down. Unfortunately, the rock had crushed its hind leg, and no matter how hard it tried, it couldn't budge.
This white tiger is tenacious, even on the brink of death, it still refuses to give up its instinct to survive, struggling in pain.
Raphael glanced at the white tiger, then turned and barked, "You can't save it."
"If you can't do it, don't try."
"You want to be a hero I tell you, that's just foolish!"
Rafael's words were thunderous, that much is true. She was just bluffing, just talking tough. She didn't have the capability at all. It was all a matter of guilt. To soothe her conscience, she lied big and fooled herself.
Qiao Baoer's face turned pale, a mixture of shame and anger flooding her heart.
She was deceiving herself, like a child who blurts out an ambitious dream in public and gets it immediately crushed. Infuriated and unwilling to accept defeat, she grew even angrier.
Clutching his staff, he roared back in defiance, "I'm just being stubborn. I don't have the strength to...to carry you out. Even if I did, I'd come back and watch it. Just watch it until it dies. Then I could finally leave... It hasn't given up. I don't know...I don't know how to give up on it!"
Jo Bao'er flushed red with anger, angrily throwing the scepter in her hand away.
However, just at that moment, a powerful invisible force suddenly pulled the large rocks off Baihu's body, sending them flying far away. They crashed into the mountain wall in the distance with a deafening boom, leaving a deep mark behind.
This left Raphael and Qiao Baoer speechless and dumbfounded.
The white tiger let out a low growl, roared once, and struggled to its feet. Its limbs trembled as it made its way shakily towards them.
"How did you just do that" Rafael's heart was suddenly filled with fervent excitement.
Qiao Bao'er's first reaction was to immediately pick up the staff on the ground. "I don't know," she said truthfully, but she was very sure that this staff did possess incredible power.
Raphael couldn't figure out the reason for a while, so he stopped asking. As days passed, he gradually figured out the key to it all. They tacitly didn't waste any time and hurried down the narrow passage.
They burst forth, running through the cascading curtain of water from the waterfall, and finally they saw the bright sunshine outside.
"Hand over the staff—" However, a large force had already been stationed at the entrance of the Water Curtain Cave, and Elder Frasco commanded loudly.
The white tiger, supporting its injured leg, retreated while still pouncing in front of Qiao Bao'er and Raphael. Baring its teeth, the white tiger glared at this heavily armed group of people.
Raphael's face stiffened, staring straight at the tall middle-aged man in the expensive pale gold robe leading the group.
His father, the current head of the Strozzi family, also came.any people who knew her, so even if some insiders were notified in advance, coupled with Junzhimu's low-key personality and strong style of doing things, basically no one dared to spread rumors about...