Karen emerged from the washroom and conducted a quick check. Bart and Ventura's hands were no longer cramping. Earlier, when the two had just come down from the arrow towers, they had been in such a state that they couldn't even hold a spoon.
Mars had stopped his nosebleed and was holding a damp handkerchief to his forehead; Blanche had ceased dry-heaving and sat quietly drinking water.
Ashley remained in good spirits, having exerted herself the least.
Xijinni was exhausted to the point of retching constantly, her chest heaving intermittently.
Without Blanche's near-depleting buffs earlier, the others might have broken down long ago, and Xijinni's healing just now had given everyone a timely breather.
This proved the importance of having priests in a squad. Although they couldn't take part in direct combat, they played an indispensable role in battle endurance and post-combat recovery.
The more exceptional a team was, the greater its need for priests, as they could amplify the team's overall strength.
In short, this saved Karen a great deal of time, eliminating the need to stop and rest right now.
Karen clapped his hands and spoke:
"The second wave of pursuers will arrive in about two days. When they do, their numbers will be greater and their quality higher.
"The distance from our current position to Tagima Village is far too great. At present, we've lost all our war apparatuses. If we run into the second wave en route, there's no way we can hold them off like we did this time.
"However, going through the pursuers' belongings just now revealed that not a single one came from Blazing Valley. So I suspect something unusual must have happened there. It's very likely that Mural God Rielsa's influence can't reach that area, and Blazing Valley is very close to where we are now.
"Therefore, I've decided: we depart immediately, without rest, and make for Blazing Valley at top speed.
"I don't know what's there. I only know that's where our chance of survival lies."
With this brief analysis of the situation and the clear explanation behind the order, none of the members from either squad raised any objections.
The facts were right before their eyes; apart from following Captain Karen's arrangements, they had no other choice.
Everyone evacuated the castle, and Karen dismissed its presence. Left behind in its place were numerous damaged war apparatuses in need of repair. If they could have brought them out intact, selling them on the black market would have netted an absolute fortune.
Now, however, it was obviously impossible to hit the road with them.
After observing a half-minute of silence for the abandoned gear, everyone set off in the direction of Blazing Valley.
They marched for two full days. When the colossal silhouettes of monster beasts appeared once more behind them, Karen and the others finally stepped into the territory of Blazing Valley.
Bart and Demel caught up from the rear to rendezvous, reporting the latest intel: the second wave of pursuit would likely arrive in half a day. Not only were the pursuers using the teleportation arrays between the major cities to muster, but even the monster beasts that were usually fiercely ferocious were willingly serving as mounts, which greatly increased their pursuit speed.
Everyone sat in a circle eating, grim expressions hanging on every face.
Karen finished a bowl of black paste. Ashley then passed her waterskin over to him, and Karen took it, drinking a generous gulp.
"Captain, there's something I'm curious about," Ashley asked. "Earlier, you guessed that the pursuers chasing us had all meditated and trained at the Mourning Pool. So why haven't the contract souls inside the three of us reacted?"
Karen asked, "Did you ask the contract soul inside you?"
"I did. She's also wondering why she hasn't gone mad."
"My guess is that this influence might have some sort of trigger mechanism, similar to a relationship between a preacher and a believer, but shallower—more like a creditor and a debtor. Right now, you've signed a soul contract. While it appears to be a contract between equals, you are in fact the dominant party. Because the master has changed, your contract soul hasn't been affected."
"So that's how it is..."
"Contract souls are meant for partners to help one another. It's not just her helping you; you're actually helping her too. The fact that she hasn't gone mad right now is the best proof of that." Karen glanced around and asked, "Finished eating, everyone?"
"Finished, Captain."
"Finished, Captain Karen."
"Then let's set out. Into the valley."
The squad of twelve entered the valley. The ground and surrounding rocks of Blazing Valley were crimson, and the temperature spiked immediately.
Moreover, not long after walking in, everyone began to feel a surge of irritability and restlessness, emotions that manifested in subtle nervous fidgets and gestures.
While heat naturally made people restless, these were all elites of the Church of Order; they wouldn't lose emotional balance to such an extent over mere heat.
"Blanche, Xijinni, apply mental buffs to everyone to dispel the negative effects."
"Yes, Captain!"
The two priests began applying buffs to their teammates, and the restless irritation finally settled down.
This was likely the true nature of Blazing Valley: not just the physical searing heat, but the stoking of the inner fire within one's heart.
Yet after traveling for so long, they hadn't encountered a single native of Blazing Valley, which felt rather strange.
Karen raised a hand toward Ashley. "Ashley, summon Sandy..."
Oh, Sandy was already dead.
"Ashley, choose two monster beasts, one that can fly and one that can burrow underground, to scout ahead. Everyone else, go on alert!"
"Yes, Captain!"
Ashley rolled up her sleeves, selected two summon targets, and began to chant:
"O two of my most beloved friends, I require your aid now..."
Soon, an oversized crow and a monster beast that looked like a pangolin were summoned. One took to the sky and the other dug into the earth, beginning their reconnaissance.
Karen tapped the back of his hand with his fingertips, waiting for the results.
About a quarter of an hour later, the giant crow flew back. Karen noticed it was actually panting heavily—it had barely been any time, so how was it this exhausted already?
Right after, the pangolin burrowed back up as well, similarly sprawling on the ground and gasping for breath.
Evidently, Ashley had maintained consistent standards when selecting them.
"Captain, people ahead are heading our way."
"That's it?" Karen asked.
Ashley froze for a moment. "That's it."
"They couldn't scout anything else?"
"No. They said the pressure in this environment is immense. They even got lost just now and barely managed to find their way back."
"All right. Prepare defensive positions!"
Just as everyone assumed their defensive formation, a troop of knights appeared ahead. Flames blazed upon the hooves of the warhorses beneath them, green light glinted in the horses' eyes, and their entire bodies were covered in armor.
As for the knights, their equipment was far simpler: uniformly clad in black cloaks.
"Undead cavalry?" Bart let out an exclamation of surprise. "Captain, the steeds beneath them look just like the cavalry warhorses of the knight order."
Karen nodded. He had once sneaked into the knight order's garrison with his Captain and witnessed the Order Knights deploying for battle, so he had seen similar warhorses before.
The leading chieftain pushed back his hood, revealing a face covered in scars. Sweeping his gaze across everyone ahead, he said:
"Well now, so many Lord Auspices. Is my luck today so thick it could condense into water to bathe in? Heheh."
This chieftain's reaction was completely standard—the typical response of a major city leader facing trialists who delivered themselves to his doorstep.
But when he pulled back his hood, revealing his face while simultaneously dropping the aura-masking effect of his cloak, Karen's pupils shrank abruptly.
No.
He was no native!
People were divided into groups, and each group conveyed a distinct feel and characteristic traits. The most superficial trait was appearance, but even appearance had varying degrees of difficulty in distinguishing.
For instance, ordinary people often experienced a kind of "face blindness" when distinguishing people of a different race, feeling that all whites, yellows, or blacks looked almost identical if they shared the same sex, height, and age.
In reality, people of the same race could capture far more detailed nuances, finding each other very different and easy to tell apart.
What Karen felt right now was akin to that recognition within one's own kind—not in physical appearance, nor even in demeanor, but in... sensation.
For a long time, his body had retained traces of Raniedal's modifications. Moreover, back home, even though Kevin slept in the bedroom alcove rather than in his bed like Pu'er, they still slept in the same bedroom.
That familiarity went unnoticed in daily life, yet it was genuinely real. Seeing him now, Karen sensed it in an instant.
It defied logic, but "familiarity" explained all logic.
He...
was Raniedal's mental imprint!
Not only had Raniedal's mental imprint awakened, but he had also come up to the surface. What was this body of his, then? Was he possessing a puppet, and were these subordinates of his also puppets once used for hauling cargo?
Where were the natives? Where had the natives of Blazing Valley gone? Why was this place so deserted?
Karen suddenly had a deduction—one that might be chilling, yet was most likely close to reality.
A bear freshly awakened from hibernation: the very first thing it had to do was feed.
So why hadn't anyone from Blazing Valley come out to hunt them down?
Because... Blazing Valley was already on an "empty stomach"—devoured.
This was what the mental imprint left behind by his own dog had done: upon waking, he had slaughtered the entire valley for a meal.
Looking at this scar-faced man before him, it was truly difficult to link him to the balding golden retriever at home who loved carrying Pu'er around on his back.
"Since you're here, you're guests. Who among you is the leader?" the scarred man asked.
Karen composed his emotions and stepped forward. "I am."
"Your name?"
"Karen."
"Karen, heheh. You may call me Lord Dal."
"Greetings, Lord Dal."
What a lazy name to pick.
"I see you are wearing Order robes. I happen to have a decent history with the Church of Order. Since fate brought you here, I shall host you. I hope you won't refuse."
Hearing that this chieftain intended to host them, many team members behind Karen wore expressions of relief, for they truly needed shelter right now.
Karen, however, could not feel at ease, because he knew exactly what Lord Dal meant by a "decent history."
Mural God had been sealed by the God of Order, so her hatred for the God of Order upon waking went without saying; the true body of the man before them had also been sealed by the God of Order.
Still, judging by his Kevin's attitude toward Order, he didn't seem to harbor an extreme hatred toward the God of Order. Perhaps he understood that after committing so many chaotic misdeeds, ending up in that state was well-deserved?
Nevertheless, Karen knew that Raniedal was definitely not a warm, hospitable person.
His hospitality would very likely be a "devil's dinner."
He and his teammates would merely be the ingredients on tonight's menu.
"What, unwilling?" Lord Dal asked when Karen didn't respond.
"No, to receive your invitation is our honor."
Leaving Blazing Valley meant certain death. Staying here, they could at least observe and look for an opportunity.
Flanked by the knights on both sides, the group walked down the middle and arrived before a massive cavern. Stepping inside, they found that the cavern sloped downward.
After trekking a long distance, a rusted giant gate appeared ahead. The gate stood open, and the marks around it indicated that it had been opened not long ago.
By this point, uneasy feelings had already begun to stir in the team members' hearts, but seeing Karen continuing to follow Lord Dal deeper inside, they had no choice but to follow along.
Behind the giant gate lay a platform, beyond which stretched an underground lake. The lake was crystal clear, yet unnervingly quiet.
Lord Dal dismounted, walked to the edge of the platform, grabbed a handful of something unknown from a subordinate beside him, and threw it straight into the water. Instantly, countless wraiths leaped out from the previously calm surface, jumping like fish to snap up the bait before splashing back down.
This sight was thoroughly shocking!
Everyone sensed that the wraiths leaping out radiated exceptionally formidable auras. Out in the open world, each would likely be on the level of a major city lord, yet here, they were kept like domesticated pets.
"Do you want to feed them? Don't worry, they're very well-behaved and won't bite."
With that, the guards brought over several basins of bait—yellowish-orange, resembling coarse sand.
Everyone grabbed large handfuls and walked to the platform's railing to scatter it down. Tense expressions were visible on their faces, mingled with excitement.
It was probably like the sensation of feeding dinosaurs.
Muri came over to Karen's side and gave him an inquiring look. Karen pressed a hand downward, signaling him not to act rashly.
They had already entered someone else's lair. To put it bluntly, whether they were deep-fried or charcoal-grilled would entirely depend on their host's whim.
Lord Dal walked up behind Karen and Muri and asked, "Aren't you two going to play?"
As he spoke, he held out a handful of bait.
Muri smiled, took the bait, and cast it downward, drawing another swarm of powerful wraiths leaping up to feed.
Karen placed his left hand on the railing. It felt freezing cold with a frosted, matte texture, indicating that for long ages in the past, this entire place had been locked in deep freeze—including the wraiths in the lake.
"This is my home. At the risk of you laughing at me, this is the first time since I moved in that I've invited guests in for a visit."
"Then it is truly our honor."
Lord Dal remarked, "You've said that phrase already, and I don't care much for it. I've never liked giving people perfunctory lip service, and I like fawning on people even less."
"Indeed, one can tell that you are very easygoing. In your eyes, one can almost see a sort of resilience."
"Oh?" Lord Dal pointed at his own eyes. "You can see something in my eyes?"
"The eyes are the windows to the soul. It is not the eyes one looks at, but the soul."
"Then tell me something specific. What did you see in my eyes—no, my soul? Where does the resilience you mentioned come from?"
"Your background was surely not noble."
"Heheh, in this world, there are very few who are genuinely of noble birth to begin with. Nobility, by definition, implies rarity."
"Yet I believe someone of humble origin like you is equally rare."
Karen remembered the image of home deep within Raniedal's memories; even by ordinary standards, Raniedal's childhood home had been destitute in the extreme.
"Tch, are you insulting me?"
Karen shook his head and said, "A man who climbed to the summit through his own efforts doesn't mind others mentioning that he once lived at the foot of the mountain. It won't anger him; rather, it will make him proud, for that is the greatest affirmation of his past perseverance and struggle."
"Heheheh." Lord Dal covered his mouth with a chuckle. "You're an interesting young man. Come along. The dinner I've prepared for you is about to begin. I'm sure you will be satisfied."
With that, Lord Dal licked his lips. Clearly, he was looking forward to it.
Under the guards' guidance—or rather, semi-supervision—the group formed a line and proceeded deeper into the interior along a corridor leading off the platform.
Along the way, outside the corridor stood a circular platform bearing a statue of a woman. She was beautiful, and strikingly natural.
Unfortunately, this down-to-earth, plain depiction lacked the typical divine characteristics of an "idol."
The people of the Church of Order had never paid much attention to smaller denominations to begin with and were hardly familiar with their gods, let alone an idol stripped of divine attributes. It would have been truly bizarre if anyone recognized it.
Thus, everyone merely whispered among themselves, guessing back and forth, without a single clear answer.
Karen paused in his tracks and turned to face the statue.
When Karen stopped, everyone else halted as well.
Karen solemnly offered a salute to this female statue in the manner reserved for praising the God of Order. When the salute concluded, he let out a sigh, a perfectly placed glint of moisture welling in the corner of his eye.
Lord Dal walked up beside Karen and smiled. "What, you know who she is?"
Karen pointed to the teammates around him. "They all know that I'm an orphan."
On his official profile, Karen was listed as an "orphan," and he was certain that most members—both from his squad and Muri's—had looked up his background information.
"And then?" Lord Dal asked.
"I grew up in an orphanage. You know, not every child in an orphanage gets the chance to go to school. Most of them are sent to factories as child laborers at a very tender age. I was very lucky; I had a benefactor who funded my schooling.
"Later on, I tried looking for her, and I found her. She was in Wien... Um, do you know of Wien?"
"A kingdom?"
"Yes, a kingdom. I lived in its capital, York City. In York City, there is a street called Richard Pastry Street."
"Pastry Street?"
"It's a street packed with small brothels. My benefactor worked there. Her name was Annie.
"She was a prostitute. While the other ladies charged forty riels each time—oh, the riel is the currency of the Kingdom of Vien—she only ever took twenty riels, because she felt she was getting old.
"Yet some customers would insist on giving her forty riels, telling her that even if the other women were younger, her skills were better, and she was worth forty riels.
"Whenever she met customers like that, she would be delighted.
"Every day, she praised a deity, devoutly praising her.
"After spending time with her, she was the one who showed me the gentleness that belonged to a goddess—the great Goddess Mills."
The most convincing lie in the world was one containing partial truth.
Speaking up to this point, Karen was genuinely recalling Madam Annie; it was no longer pure acting.
Lord Dal kept his gaze fixed on Karen and asked, "I want to know: where is she now?"
"She is no longer with us."
"Gone?"
"Mm. I hosted her funeral myself. On the day of her funeral, every pastry shop on that street closed down, and everyone came to see her off on her final journey."
"Oh. That is nice."
"Yes. It is very nice."
Chapter 373