Sigmund tossed the scroll sent from Twilight Fort onto the table.
Recorded on it was not only the appalling damage caused by the large-scale "Return to Death Ritual" held by the Hand of Passage in Urbic Territory, but also attached was the testimony of a butler who luckily escaped from the disaster area.
"Cassinar Urbic... an immortal who lived for nearly four centuries?" His low voice was soaked in sarcasm. "Truly laughable. The wisdom accumulated over four hundred years probably isn't even as good as a goblin who survived on the battlefield."
"Holding a so-called clue found from who-knows-where, he dared to teleport into an ancient ruin with incomplete intelligence? After disappearing, he even created such a big mess for the Empire."
"He'd better be thoroughly dead; otherwise, that fellow Mofrey would probably be very happy to let him know what 'living is worse than death' means on behalf of His Majesty."
Lin Jun felt Mofrey probably wouldn't get the chance to torture Cassinar.
Although this guy was now hanging at the door calling like a strip of dried meat, and the Mushroom Citizens almost treated him as a permanent landscape feature, he was actually upgrade material reserved for Piggy.
And Piggy was almost LV60 under the nurturing of Lin Jun's Water of Life; it would be time to use him up then.
Whether Piggy could survive the next Blood Seizing Ritual was unknown, but as material, he definitely wouldn't survive.
Of course, these things weren't suitable to chat with Fatty Xi about.
Lin Jun asked a question he cared about more: "Ah Xi, have you seen undead?"
Souls, Lin Jun had seen, touched, and tasted; it wasn't rare anymore.
Reasonably speaking, in a world where souls truly existed, undead shouldn't be a rare phenomenon.
But regrettably, Lin Jun really hadn't seen one directly.
Those souls, once detached from the dependent flesh, would be swallowed by the world very quickly, unable to remain at all.
Lin Jun only learned from collected data that some aggressive undead existed in the Empire's Tomb of the Ancients, but never had the chance to see the real thing.
"Seen them," Sigmund replied casually. "Just a group of prisoners bound to specific regions, no essential difference from those elemental spirits relying on elemental nodes to manifest. Good that you haven't seen them; this time is just right to broaden your horizons."
"You are going personally?" Lin Jun was somewhat surprised.
The Emperor's handwritten decree indeed required nearby lords to cooperate in clearing out the cult and undead.
But between Sigmund's territory and Urbic Territory, saying it was close didn't count as adjacent, saying it was far wasn't to the extent of being out of reach.
Going or not going, both could make sense.
Lin Jun originally thought Fatty Xi would at most send a small squad to participate symbolically.
Sigmund turned around, walking toward the wall hung with a huge map, his fingertip tracing the distance between the two territories.
"High Fortress has finished reconstruction, and the southern defense system is comprehensively updated. Even if the Human Kingdom launches a surprise attack at this moment, it is sufficient to hold until I return."
Lin Jun noticed he only explained the reason for "being able to leave," but didn't explain "why go."
But if he didn't say, then don't say. Anyway, Lin Jun really wanted to see what exactly undead and the environment undead survived in looked like.
Just didn't know if the Hand of Passage was still within Urbic Territory?
...
Urbic Territory, disaster area.
The High Priestess of the Hand of Passage, a woman wearing a plain white long dress, stood quietly in the center of the altar. Her skirt hem moved without wind, like a pale flower blooming on a pile of corpses.
Around the altar, four pitch-black giant pillars stood tall.
On top of each pillar sat a priest chanting with closed eyes. On the sides of the pillars were inlaid countless sacrifices with faces peaceful to the point of being weird; most were demons, but there were also quite a few humans and dwarves dressed as slaves.
The High Priestess raised her face, eyes looking toward the sky vault. Deep in those eyes wasn't the white of the eye, but constantly churning pure black.
She concentrated fully, attempting to obtain an oracle, but could only hear a patch of static noise.
"Not enough, still not enough! Need more souls!"
Hearing the High Priestess's request, the four priests including Genie immediately increased the speed of transporting souls in the pillars to the center of the altar.
And this finally allowed the High Priestess to glimpse a trace of an incomplete oracle:
[...Mushroom... Enemy... Sweep clear... World...]
The High Priestess wanted to find more details from it, but a cyan wind blade suddenly interrupted the process of the ritual.
The priest on top of the black pillar at the outermost edge didn't even have time to open his eyes before his head was separated from his neck.
The lifeless body fell forward. The connection between the black pillar beneath and the altar snapped in response. The originally stably transported souls also instantly lost restraint, scattering in all directions.
"You dare interrupt this sacred ritual!"
Genie stood up abruptly. The deepest fear of countless dead souls before death condensed in her palm, turning into an attack striking toward the figure where the wind blade came from.
However, a long snake composed of translucent gelatinous substance darted out, blocking this fear impact. After a brief stiffness, it returned to normal.
"The power of attacks condensed from emotions is indeed not bad, but facing primitive creations lacking mind, it's not as effective as a simplest fireball spell."
A figure draped in a deep purple mage robe walked out from under the slime giant snake. Five A-grade magic crystals flowing with magnificent luster floated behind him like a star ring.
"You dependents of losers, if you want to cause trouble, can you stay far away from my turf?" Saying this, two teleportation arrays were outlined out of thin air behind him.
Countless red and green slimes jumped out from them, tangling together with the cultists.
In the center of the altar, the pitch-black light in the High Priestess's eyes slowly faded with the interruption of the ritual, revealing the originally pale white pupils beneath.
She looked toward that uninvited guest, her gaze holding no anger, only deep regret: "You don't understand... exactly how much sacrifice you just made go to waste."
"No, I know very well what I am doing."
The High Priestess argued no more. She raised her plain hand lightly. A patch of pure darkness spread from her feet, rolling silently and swiftly toward where the Demon King was.
The slime giant snake bearing the brunt attempted to resist.
But the instant the dark tentacles wrapped around it, the countless slime cores composing its body lost activity one after another. Struggling for merely a few seconds, the entire giant snake collapsed completely, turning into a puddle of lifeless viscous liquid.
His figure flickered repeatedly, moving rapidly between ruins and broken walls. The position of every appearance was just a line faster than that spreading darkness.
"Actually already utilized the god's power so skillfully; spirituality is indeed troublesome..."
While dodging, the magic crystals behind the Demon King rotated. Electric arcs, explosive flames, and wind blades poured like raindrops toward the white-clothed girl on the altar.
However, the remaining three priests had long been ready in full battle array. Power of faith converged into a dim gray light screen, intercepting all attacks completely.
Time passed. The cultists gradually eliminated the gushing slimes, beginning to encircle the constantly dodging Demon King.
Slimes not yet deeply modified ultimately couldn't defeat an enemy of this level by sheer numbers.
Seeing unable to find a flaw in a short time, the Demon King could only sigh lightly, launching an unprecedentedly huge fireball into the sky.
Immediately after, under the desperate cover of remnant slimes, a complex teleportation light array lit up under his feet. At the last moment before the light swallowed his figure, that fireball rising to the zenith exploded with a boom.
Even separated by a long distance, that round of fireball blooming in the sky was clearly visible. The Empire's clearing troops groped toward this side without surprise.
(End of Chapter)
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