The words shouted by the revived corpse made Neo and Karen exchange an instinctive glance, and the expressions of the others behind them turned solemn.
This place was actually connected to the Church of Order?
Or did the "Order" spoken by this person refer not to the Church, but to the God of Order?
The situation felt utterly absurd. After all, they had painstakingly concealed their movements and taken two long-distance teleportation arrays to come explore this place, only for their very first excavation to hit "home ground."
Didn't that turn all their previous preparations and groundwork into a joke?
The corpse shouted "conspiracy" many times before finally seeming to calm down a little. Not a trace of black could be seen in his milky-white eyes, but the turning of his neck indicated that he could "see" the people in front of him.
"Quick, go tell Corps Commander Falin that all of this is a conspiracy of Order!"
Neo immediately adopted an urgent, anxious tone. "Yes, my lord, we'll take you out of here right away!"
As he spoke, Neo even took several forceful steps forward.
"No, I can't leave. It's too late. You must go quickly, get out of here right now, and tell Corps Commander Falin that Compasini did not betray us! Compasini has always remained loyal to our church!"
Neo pressed on anxiously, "My lord, please be more specific! This is of utmost importance!"
"Compasini failed to bring the Placer Gold Scepter out of the Church of Order, but it brought back a secret—our God of the Desert fell because of a conspiracy orchestrated by the God of Order! The Church of Order has been assimilating our belief system all along. Compasini deduced that in just over two hundred years, the Church of Order will have perfected the integration of our faith, and when that time comes, they will likely launch a war of annexation against us!
"Tell Corps Commander Falin to report to the First Seat, to report to the elders of the Sand Sea Abyss! We still have enough time to prepare, to resist and unravel the invasion from the Church of Order over two centuries from now..."
At this point, the corpse suddenly froze. Having just been awakened, his mind was still stuck in the state right before his death, so he had not yet gained a clear understanding of his ultimate fate or his current condition. But now, he realized something.
He immediately cried out in horror:
"No... I'm already dead! I was killed by Order's people! Because I killed several of them, they tortured and slaughtered me in the end! I am dead, I'm already dead!
"If I'm dead, why could I wake up? If I'm dead, why can I still speak..."
The corpse abruptly fell silent.
After a moment, he spoke in a hollow whisper:
"I was awakened... You... you are people of Order?"
It was rather cruel. Three hundred years after his death, he awoke still desperate to pass along his secret, only to find enemies standing before him.
Neo spoke up. "My lord, we kidnapped an Order priest specifically to awaken you."
"Did you kidnap a regional bishop as well... heh."
Clearly, the corpse didn't believe it.
"Ah... well." Neo stretched his arms lazily. "Then there's nothing for it. My apologies, but the message you wished to deliver to the Wilderness is doomed never to arrive."
"How many years... have I been dead?"
"By my estimate, close to three hundred years."
"Three hundred years... my Church of the Wilderness..."
"Don't worry, the Church of the Wilderness is still around. It still holds that awkward position hovering between an orthodox church and a major church. If I recall correctly, ever since the start of this era, the Church of the Wilderness has been sliding up and down in that very position."
During the previous era, the Church of the Desert was undeniably one of the orthodox churches. However, during the latter half of that era, due to the bizarre fall of the God of the Desert, its branch deity, the God of the Wilderness, was forced to succeed the main deity. This caused the Church of the Wilderness's standing to decline drastically, slipping from an orthodox church toward the ranks of major churches. As such, the God of the Desert and the Church of the Desert were the original faith of today's believers of the Church of the Wilderness. After succeeding the position, the God of the Wilderness had always considered itself the inheritor of the God of the Desert, never purging its predecessor or formally rectifying its own name. Consequently, "desert" rather than "wilderness" often appeared in the doctrine and everyday speech of the Church of the Wilderness's followers today.
"Then... it's all too late..."
"If what you said is true—er, I'm not doubting your sincere outpouring of emotion and candid disclosure just now, I'm merely saying that if it is true, the time left for the Church of the Wilderness might truly be running out."
Since the Church of Order had already begun the establishment and planning to assimilate the faith of the Church of the Wilderness three hundred years ago, and given that the Church of Order had recently broken with its past restraint to aggressively intervene in disputes among other churches, it was highly probable that the time for the Church of Order to make a move on the Church of the Wilderness was fast approaching.
"I will curse you! I will curse all of you, curse the Church of Order, curse the God of Order! In the end, the yellow sand will bury everything you have!"
"Do you have anything else to say?" Neo asked, completely ignoring the curses. "That is, if you're willing to believe us."
"Believe you?"
Neo raised a hand, and a ball of the Fire of Light rose up. "To be frank, we are Light remnants hidden within the Church of Order. The Church of Order is our true enemy as well. Without overthrowing Order, Light can never truly return. If you're willing to take a gamble, perhaps you could share some other valuable information with us."
Karen looked at Neo and asked, "Shall we keep moving forward?"
Neo looked back at him calmly and countered, "Why shouldn't we?"
"You should know why," Karen pointed out bluntly. "He said he was tortured and killed by our Church of Order's people, which means our predecessors won the battle fought against him and his companions here back then. But the problem is, when we investigated this matter, we found no corresponding records in the church's archives. Of course, that could be explained by our lack of clearance, but regardless, the church should have dispatched people to clean up this site, rather than leaving this corpse standing here for three hundred years."
Karen took a few steps forward and looked at the corpse, which had just burned itself out.
"His initial welcoming posture was actually made into a humanoid signpost by those who tortured and killed him, meant for friendly forces who would follow later. That means the people who killed him knew this place would be processed afterward. But... it never was."
Neo sighed and asked, "So what are you getting at?"
"Three hundred years ago, after paying a certain price, our people took care of him—or rather, his group. However, our people never made it back to the church alive.
"I strongly suspect the church lost contact with them, and that the church doesn't know about this place either.
"The most reasonable explanation is that they probably died inside."
"Doesn't that bring us right back where we started?" Neo chuckled. "We came here specifically to find Compasini's burial ground, and we already knew there ought to be plenty of people who surrounded and killed it lying beside Compasini's corpse. We've had our eyes on their lost weapons all along, so why wouldn't we keep moving forward?"
"The fact that they even had the leisure to pose the slain man into a welcoming doll proves it was under the premise that all visible targets had been dealt with—meaning Compasini was dead, and this group was dead.
"In other words, it's very likely there was a third party present back then that wiped them all out."
"Keep going forward, and you'll find the answer you want." Neo pointed ahead. "Three hundred years have passed. How could any threat possibly still remain, right?"
Karen pursed his lips and said, "Stay on alert. Keep moving forward."
This sudden turnabout caught Neo by surprise. He immediately asked, "I thought you'd hesitate a bit longer."
"What you just said reminded me. If a threat has truly endured for three hundred years, it should have already seen us by now."
"Tsk, now that instantly sets the mood," Neo said, taking the lead. "Everyone stay sharp. It's very likely that those who left weapons ahead for us are seniors from our own church, which means the weapons we scavenge will have a much higher affinity for us."
Continuing onward through a rocky tunnel, the sound of flowing water reached their ears from ahead.
When everyone stepped out onto a platform, they discovered that what flowed below was not underground river water, but a colossal pool of sand. The quicksand here was so fine that it truly cascaded and flowed like water—it was "alive."
In the center of the sand pool lay a massive skeleton, half-exposed above the sand's surface, resembling the skeleton of a whale.
Even after hundreds of years, however, the bones remained translucent and crystalline, sufficient to display its extraordinary nature.
"Who wants to go down and test it out first?" Neo asked.
No one answered.
Karen began, "Director..."
"I can handle a few minor superficial wounds, but that doesn't mean I can't be buried alive and suffocate. This sand pool is clearly being drawn by some power, and it's not a spell array."
Alfred activated his Succubus Eye to inspect it. "The director is right. This sand pool is alive. I can see a power methodically directing it.
"Hmm? Young Master, Director, look over there!"
Following the direction Alfred pointed, everyone looked toward the far edge of the sand pool, where human silhouettes were slowly emerging.
First came one person, then the numbers gradually increased until ten figures appeared.
Yet they did not seem like living people, for they remained completely motionless from start to finish. And yet, they were "advancing"—an advance that looked more like the flowing sand carrying them along.
Most importantly, they were dressed in Order robes.
Under natural conditions, sacred robes rarely rotted away like ordinary garments.
"They're our people," Karen said. "Pay attention to their movement trajectory."
Although the figures of these ten people would occasionally be swallowed by the yellow sand for a period, whenever they reemerged, they "advanced" along an arc. Picturing their path beneath the sand, one could deduce they were circling a single point in a loop.
"I think what deserves more attention are the weapons strapped to their backs," Neo said. "Their weapons are still hanging on them, and just like their bodies, they're extraordinarily well preserved."
Philomena stepped forward. "Captain, let me go scout ahead first."
Karen raised a hand. "No rush. Let's observe a bit more."
This was no longer a question of scouting ahead, because the "problem" was already right in front of them.
Muri spoke up: "There must be something wrong with that area encircled by those ten Order priests."
Alfred added, "Indeed. The sand in that area is the calmest. That single patch alone is motionless."
Karen and Neo nodded at the same time, and spoke almost in unison.
Karen: "The most dangerous spot is right there."
Neo: "The most valuable thing is right there."
Karen gave his orders: "Alfred, keep your eyes on Muri. Philomena, keep your eyes on Ventura. This is the burial ground of a phantasm beast; I worry there's a constant risk of being pulled into an illusion. The four of you will stay here to provide backup. Remember, if anything happens and I don't call out to you for help, do not come down to rescue me on your own initiative."
The four replied, "Understood, Captain."
Neo added, "Understood, Captain."
Karen turned to Neo and pointed at him. "The director comes with me."
"And here I was, just starting to feel touched."
"You should feel touched. Otherwise, if none of us went forward, you'd end up going alone anyway. The greediest person is always the most reluctant to walk away."
"Heh."
Karen and Neo leaped down together.
The moment Neo landed, it was like falling freely into water; without needing the quicksand to swallow him slowly, he sank instantly.
A pair of black wings materialized behind Karen's back, keeping him steadily suspended in midair.
*Whoosh...*
The sunken Neo breached the sand's surface once more. Treading sand with swimming motions, he grinned. "This sand is actually pretty warm and cozy. It's really a pity you won't come down and test the temperature."
Ignoring him, Karen flew toward the area circled by the corpses of the ten Order priests.
Neo brought his body back onto the surface of the sand. After giving himself a shake, he began walking across the sand as if treading water, following Karen in the same direction.
Halfway there, Neo called out, "Wait a second."
Karen paused in midair.
"See, you've got to keep your feet on the ground to see the truth clearly." Leaving behind those words, Neo plunged forward, submerging beneath the sand once more.
Before long, a white skeleton was dredged up, followed immediately by a second, a third, a fourth... Some skeletons had no clothing left, while others wore Wilderness robes... easily several dozen in total.
The corpses of the ten Order priests in the distance had intact clothing and preserved flesh, whereas these newly unearthed remains were clearly treated on a far inferior level—akin to the difference between broken toys beside a dumpster and high-end collector figurines.
Neo surfaced again and said, "They're all floating down below. I pulled them all up. There seem to be more at the very bottom. I suspect their weapons and valuable sacred relics might all be down in the deepest part. How about I dive all the way to the bottom to check?"
"How deep is it?"
"Unimaginably deep."
"Then let's finish scouting the most dangerous place first," Karen suggested.
"Fair enough. Let's secure the most valuable gifts left by our church's seniors first.
"Let me tell you, this bunch... our fellow church members standing over there, that welcoming corpse, and these skeletons I just dragged up—none of them were ordinary priests in life.
"Look at this. This is a badge I pried off one skeleton's wrist. It looks like a priest of the Jurist tier from the Church of the Wilderness.
"For priests of that tier to die so casually here, I'd say that team of seniors from our church ahead must have been the real deal—true elites."
"Like us?"
"No, to be precise, probably comparable to what your squad will be after several more years of development."
Karen and Neo pressed forward, one in the air and one on the ground. When they were only about thirty meters away from the ten "moving" Order priests, those ten priests happened to have just "emerged" from the sand, about to complete their next semicircle on top of it.
Then, Karen and Neo's eyes narrowed simultaneously.
Carved onto the staff held by one female Order priest was the insignia of a black leather whip.
Someone from the Whip of Order!
These were no longer just seniors from their church—they were seniors from their own branch!
Naturally, a mere whip insignia wasn't enough to elicit such a sharp reaction from both Karen and Neo. What really did it was that the woman, who had been pushed along by the sand current with her eyes closed, suddenly blinked.
Chapter 551