Chapter 778: Chapter 216: Ian of Myth and Mutation

Ian and Merlin stood before the mysterious coffin, its lid slowly pushed open, releasing a waft of old yet strangely captivating air.

Their eyes focused on the interior of the coffin, where a raven’s corpse lay quietly. This raven appeared peculiar; though dead, it looked lifelike, with glossy, smooth feathers, as if it was merely asleep, ready to soar at any moment, indistinguishable from when it was alive.

The raven’s eyelids seemed merely lightly closed, as if they would open in the next moment, with sharp eyes unaffected by the passage of time and years.

"This bird is truly beautiful."

The existence of iridescent black is real.

Exactly as Ian saw on the black raven within the coffin. The raven’s corpse maintained its final pose from life, with its right claw tightly clutching half of a shattered crystal.

There was no trace of magic left on the crystal, but what concerned Ian the most was not this — rather, why a bird would be lying in his tomb?

Why would it be a raven?

Moreover, the appearance of this raven made Ian feel inexplicably familiar. Ian desperately searched his memory, trying to find clues related to this raven.

And at this moment.

Merlin’s outburst of curses showed no signs of stopping.

"This damned thing! I actually have to see it! Damn you!" His face turned red, eyes bulging, with an anger as if flames were about to burst forth.

"What exactly is your relationship with this raven?"

While Ian was indulging in his indecipherable thoughts, Merlin suddenly turned his head, angrily looking at the little wizard Ian beside him — if Merlin remembered correctly, this should be Medivh’s tomb, which meant it should be his own tomb.

Facing the aggressively furious Merlin, Ian shrank his neck, without knowing why, just feeling inexplicably guilty.

"I don’t know either, I just think this bird looks familiar." Ian’s voice was small, still pondering, feeling the raven seemed familiar, especially those tightly closed eyes, as if he’s seen them somewhere. Yet no matter how much he recollects, his mind can’t piece together a complete picture.

"Familiar?"

Merlin’s angry expression slightly froze.

He spoke in surprise.

"You’ve been tricked by this bird too?"

This was almost Merlin’s instinctive reaction. The reason for such a thought was simple, as based on his understanding, historically, anyone with some reputation had been tricked by this bird.

Not only wizards.

And for Medivh, as a significant figure hidden in history, having an intersection with this bird wasn’t impossible... Thinking of this, Merlin began to ponder.

Hearing this, Ian was slightly taken aback as well.

"Tricked? Not really... it’s just that it kind of looks like a phoenix I had, overall they’re quite similar." This was the only reason Ian could think of for the familiarity.

His black phoenix and this raven shared about eighty percent similarity.

"Phoenix?" Merlin furrowed his brow in confusion.

"I remember phoenixes don’t look like this? Don’t think I haven’t seen a phoenix!" As he spoke, Merlin’s emotions grew agitated again, his expression and emotion management was even less controlled than when he was afraid earlier.

"Phoenixes are such sacred beings, surrounded by flames and radiant, how could they look so evil and despicable like this?"

It’s hard to imagine what Merlin might have encountered in the past.

"But I have a black phoenix." Seeing Merlin’s escalating excitement, Ian delivered a fatal blow with one sentence, causing Merlin’s unfinished criticism to get stuck in his throat.

"There’s a black phoenix?"

Merlin seemed to have stumbled into a knowledge blind spot, despite having roamed through many mystical spaces due to his special bloodline, he hadn’t even heard of a black phoenix. Surely he’s not making it up, right? Merlin’s eyes glowed white as he scrutinized the little wizard for quite a while.

His gaze seemed to penetrate Ian’s inner thoughts, searching for the truth of his words. After a while, a surprised expression appeared on Merlin’s face.

"Strange, there really is a black phoenix?" He didn’t possess the ability to delve into Ian’s thoughts, but he still retained the magic to discern if Ian was telling the truth. Merlin’s tone was filled with disbelief, as if within his understanding, Ian’s mention of a black phoenix was an incredibly inconceivable matter.

"I’m known for speaking the truth." Ian blinked, without a hint of guilt, for once not only speaking the truth but revealing it entirely.

"If possible, I’d love to see your phoenix... I recall you told me you came from a thousand years in the future?" Merlin seemed suddenly intrigued and curious.

"That’s right."

Ian nodded.

"What’s that era like?"

Merlin continued his inquiry.

"It is the best of times, it is the worst of times." Ian almost instinctively borrowed a famous quote, "At least, wizards no longer need to work behind closed doors to learn magic, nor wander with their teachers; the survival rate increased several times, and every wizard child can attend schools with many powerful wizard instructors."