Chapter 155: The Prophetic Mural (Part Two)

Due to a lack of sufficient clues, Qin Fei was still unable to draw an accurate conclusion.

However, one thing was certain: both the Pig King and Queen Mafalafa of the Pigman Kingdom were definitely harboring suspicious motives.

Therefore, it was best to avoid entering the royal capital again anytime soon.

Additionally, the murals mentioned that after leaving this place, the Pig Caesar was holding a scepter.

If the prophecy depicted in the murals was accurate, Qin Fei and his companions should be able to find that very scepter somewhere within this mountain peak...

Pig Caesar was merely an ordinary pigman.

If it truly became the savior of the Pigman Kingdom, the only possible explanation was that it had found the scepter shown in the murals.

Qin Fei guessed that the scepter in the mural was likely an extraordinarily powerful weapon.

At the same time, it was also the key item required to complete this mission!

Yet, where could the scepter be hidden?

Prior to this, in their quest to find the hidden cave beneath the summit, Qin Fei and the others had practically pounded every inch of the summit's ground with their iron hammers.

However, other than this particular cave, Qin Fei had found nothing else.

This suggested that the scepter was unlikely to be hidden on the summit itself.

As for being hidden among the stone eggs in the bird's nest, that was equally improbable.

The scepter in the mural was about a meter long, while the diameter of those stone eggs was less than half a meter.

In terms of length, it was simply impossible for the scepter to be concealed inside them.

Since the scepter was not on the summit, the only place left that Qin Fei and the others had not searched was this cave engraved with murals.

Qin Fei retrieved iron hammers, pickaxes, and other tools from his backpack, distributed them to Xie Nainai and Pig Caesar, and then began a thorough, carpet-like search of the cave's interior.

The cave was not particularly large.

Even so, searching for a scepter in such a dark cave relying solely on the sound of striking walls posed quite a challenge.

Qin Fei and his companions spent several hours tapping almost the entirety of the cave, yet they still found no hidden doors whatsoever.

The plump bird seemed to have exhausted itself from talking too much. Upon entering the cave, it had collapsed onto the ground and fallen fast asleep for quite a while.

When it finally woke up and saw Qin Fei and the others relentlessly hammering against the walls, it cried out to Qin Fei, "Dad, I'm hungry!"

Qin Fei was momentarily speechless. "I am not your dad!"

Wasn't this silly bird claiming to be an orphan just a moment ago... Now that it was hungry, it suddenly knew how to call him dad. It really had a thick skin!

"I know that for a fact! I'm a dragon, and you're a monkey."

The plump bird showed not the slightest bit of embarrassment for its random attachment of kinship. After a moment, it continued, "I was hatched by you, after all. Give me something to eat!"

Qin Fei pondered the matter.

After all, this plump bird could communicate normally with people, and it possessed a built-in storage space within its body, making it somewhat useful to keep around.

He might as well give it some food to keep it alive for now...

Consequently, Qin Fei took some dried frog meat from his spatial backpack, along with an iron rod, and handed them all to the plump bird.

"Here you go... but you need to help me find something."

"Deal!"

The plump bird acknowledged with a chirp, opened its massive beak, and swallowed all the jerky handed by Qin Fei directly into the storage space inside its belly. Then, it continued to ask, "What do you want me to find?"

Qin Fei tapped the mural on the cave wall, pointing at the scepter held by Pig Caesar in the painting, and said, "This thing!"

"Ah, this thing..."

Upon hearing this, the silly bird thrust its wing deep into its mouth and rummaged around... A moment later, it pulled a pitch-black stick out from its beak.

When Qin Fei saw the black wooden stick, he frowned.

At first glance, the stick looked rather ugly.

However, if one looked a little closer, it became apparent that this black wooden stick looked astonishingly similar to the scepter in the mural!

So the stick from the mural had actually been hidden inside this bird's internal spatial dimension all along...

Qin Fei took the wooden stick and stored it in his backpack.

[Imperial Scepter: Possesses the ability to end the Cataclysm! Only a pigman can unleash its true power.]

It truly was the Imperial Scepter!

The Imperial Scepter was a special item in *Don't Starve: Hamlet*, which players could find at the nest of the 'Friendly Primate'.

Players could hand this scepter over to the Pig Queen in the royal capital to receive her reward.

However, the description of the scepter in the spatial backpack did not detail its specific functions or usage.

The system's introduction merely stated that this scepter could end the Cataclysm and could only be wielded by a pigman.

This description matched the prophetic content of the mural almost word for word.

This indirectly proved that the portion of the mural depicting 'Pig Caesar holding the Imperial Scepter to end the Cataclysm of the Pigman Kingdom' was at least trustworthy.

After all, the system's descriptions never lied.

Since the Imperial Scepter could only be used by a pigman, Qin Fei handed the item over to Pig Caesar.

Now that the scepter had been found, Qin Fei walked over to the deep pit in the center of the cave—according to game mechanics, this should be the exit leading away from the summit...

The diameter of the deep pit was about one meter, and its interior was pitch black, with no bottom in sight.

Qin Fei tossed a burning wooden block into the pit, and instantly, the firelight illuminated the entire shaft vividly.

In the glow of the fire, Qin Fei was finally able to discern the condition inside the shaft.

This was a vertically descending shaft, and at the bottom lay a remarkably vast space.

The height of this shaft was roughly twenty to thirty meters.

After confirming there was no danger below, Qin Fei leaped forward into the shaft.

Just as he was about to hit the ground, he utilized the 'Cloud in a Bottle' item tied around his waist, causing a burst of mist to spray from beneath his feet.

The mist cushioned Qin Fei's fall, allowing him to land steadily on the ground.

Subsequently, Qin Fei pulled a sniper crossbow from his backpack, attached the grappling hook he had obtained from the 'Ark' world, and fired it into the entrance above.

aided by the wire attached to the grappling hook, Xie Nainai and the others also climbed down from above.

A downward-sloping passage lay here.

Following this path, Qin Fei and his companions journeyed all the way down and soon reached the very bottom of the cave.

At the lowest point, there was a room that appeared to be artificially excavated, its walls constructed of mud bricks.

In the center of the wall stood a door.

Recognizing the remarkably familiar layout, Qin Fei instantly identified it: wasn't this the very temple located beneath the rainforest!

Moreover, within this temple room, there was also a wishing well present.