Step by step, she made her way up the steep slope. Occasionally, Xilutaiya had to brace a hand against the rocks just to pull herself onto a boulder and press onward.
After more than half an hour of climbing, Xilutaiya finally reached the last colored bubble. The grass here held a faint touch of verdant green, entirely unlike the stagnant, withered weeds of the grayish-white world.
The mountain rocks were weathered by the wind, shedding loose grains of dust and dirt. The view was open and wide—there was nowhere for monsters to hide, and no sign of abnormal distortion.
Everything about the place was reassuring, Xilutaiya thought with relief. Her gaze then shifted to a sword thrust into the rugged cliffside.
The blade was made of gray iron, weathered like ancient stone. Inscriptions had once likely been carved along its surface, but time had worn them beyond recognition.
Xilutaiya walked slowly toward the blade and grasped the hilt. The congealed power of the Castle attribute within instantly surged forth, washing over the area once more and forcing the grayish-white world back by several paces.
*So that was how this colored bubble was formed—it's all thanks to this sword,* Xilutaiya observed attentively.
[Weathered Iron Sword] (Castle): An ancient longsword in stone. A past king once plunged this blade into rock to swear an oath: wherever its cold glint falls shall be the soil of the kingdom. (Solidifies the surrounding environment, expelling other attribute powers.)
As her palm rested upon the hilt, the pulses of Castle attribute power it emitted washed over Xilutaiya like a gentle breeze, dispelling her lingering fatigue. Little by little, she began to understand and memorize the peculiar circulation of power contained within the sword.
Roughly forty minutes later, Xilutaiya slowly released her grip, an epiphany surfacing in her mind.
[Sword Oath Method] (Castle): One possessing the third-order Castle attribute may swear an oath upon a sword, encompassing the surrounding land and turning it into a fief to seal out erosion from other attributes.
Although she could not use it herself, esoteric knowledge of this caliber had to be exceptionally precious.
Having weathered away over countless years, the sword could not be taken with her. If she tried to pull it out by force, it would almost certainly snap on the spot, and the Castle attribute gathered within would disperse in no time.
Given the rarity of such a safe haven, Xilutaiya decided to take a proper rest here and sleep for a while.
...
Clearing a clean stone ledge not far from the sword in the stone, Xilutaiya leaned back and gently lay down, recovering from the exhaustion of trekking through the grayish-white world and replenishing her depleted attribute power.
In her slumber, she seemed to witness a scene from the distant past. A party had arrived here as well, clad in surcoats and chainmail, their faces weathered by wind and frost as if they had just stepped off the battlefield.
"Sir Knight Huolin, are we to continue forward? We're already deep within the World in Shadows," a retainer asked the leading knight.
"We press on."
The black-armored knight spoke with absolute resolve, leaving no room for the wavering men to entertain thoughts of turning back.
They were all warriors who possessed the Castle attribute. Knight Huolin, their leader, was likely of the fourth order—an immensely powerful combatant. Xilutaiya watched him wield a broad two-handed greatsword, slaying mountain-sized, hideous fiends with ease, their spilled black blood enough to drown a pond.
From the roiling black mist, the knight stepped forward with measured strides, his resolute face impassive. An emblem depicting a fir tree was emblazoned on his arm, marking his allegiance to the Fir Knight Order.
The company traversed domain after domain shrouded by colored bubbles within the grayish-white world. Any monsters they encountered along the way were cut down: flying multi-headed serpents, bird-footed humanoid creatures that could speak human tongues, and one-eyed flying slugs. Most were grotesque and twisted in form, possessing all manner of bizarre abilities.
Yet none of those powers could affect Knight Huolin. His potent Castle attribute coated him like a suit of armor, shielding him as he conquered these aberrations step by step.
Thus they triumphed again and again, yet their fatigue mounted with every battle.
Trekking through the grayish-white world exacted a tremendous toll, even for a fourth-order Castle knight like Huolin.
Such spent strength was exceedingly difficult to recover in this realm. To cope, Knight Huolin was forced to conserve his power, no longer fighting with the sweeping, unrestrained ferocity he had displayed at first.
They were searching for a target—or rather, hunting an enemy who had fled into this world: a powerful hag who had once terrorized the mountain forests.
Hags of this caliber were mostly adept in the powers of the Sleeping Winter or Nightmare attributes, mastering all kinds of sinister esoteric arts. Some could easily bewitch and control others.
After an exhaustive, long-distance pursuit, Knight Huolin finally reached the hag's lair deep within the mountains.
"How dare you pursue me all the way here."
The hag's face was emaciated to the bone, yet her frame was towering, standing over two meters tall. Sadly, there was scarce little flesh upon that skeleton, leaving her limbs looking like the scaly legs of a bird. In one hand she clutched a peculiar skull, while the other pinched a scattering of powder.
With a breath from the hag's lips, the powder drifted upward as shimmering crystalline dust, which then coalesced into pitch-black serpents slithering at her side. They flicked blood-red tongues, their hidden fangs flashing now and then.
Knight Huolin and his two remaining retainers drew their blades and charged at the last surviving hag. A bloodcurdling cackle escaped her lips as the black serpents burrowed into the skull in her grip, as though devouring something within, before lunging back out.
In an instant, the black serpent swelled to colossal proportions, its plump body thicker than a water vat, its reared head exuding sheer savagery.
It swooped down, swallowing the two retainers whole in a single strike, then clamped its jaws viciously around Knight Huolin's body. Its venomous fangs corroded the black armor bit by bit, slowly sinking into his flesh and blood.
Knight Huolin fought back with everything he had. Straining with every ounce of strength, he drove his sword into the serpent's neck from the flank and ignited the power within the blade.
The keen edge of cold steel flashed, severing the serpent's wellspring of power. Before long, the massive head rolled lifelessly away, entirely torn apart by Knight Huolin.
With one hand, the mighty knight hoisted the colossal serpent carcass and hurled it down the mountainside. He picked up his heavily notched greatsword and marched toward the hag on the slope once more.
"You are at your wit's end. You have no reinforcements, no one will care if you die here, no one will raise a monument for you, and your departed soul will never ascend to the heavens. In the end, you will merely become nourishment for my pets," the hag sneered, watching the knight with cruel amusement.
She beckoned with her hand again. The serpent's fallen corpse in the valley dissolved into crystalline mist, reforming into the black serpent that coiled around her once more.
"Do you see? This is true power—something you stone-headed fools could never hope to learn," she mocked, ridiculing the knight's foolishness.
"Fall, you wretched thing!" With a breath from her dark-purple lips, an unseen gale surged toward Knight Huolin.
At that very moment, two tiny black serpents burst from the wounds the great serpent had bitten into him. Half of their bodies remained embedded within his flesh while the other half writhed, flicking their tongues with wicked fury.
The two tiny serpents gorged upon the vitality of his blood and flesh. Because they had sprouted from within his own body, even the protection of his Castle attribute could scarcely shield or isolate him from them.
The knight's steps up the slope grew increasingly labored and unsteady. He stumbled repeatedly, sinking to one knee; his spent stamina made it almost impossible to stay upright.
Just as the hag had said, he was at the end of his tether, walking toward his doom.
And yet...
What of it?
He had long sworn an oath to follow that sovereign, to purge the foul abominations haunting these mountains,
and to carve out a new kingdom upon the fringes of the twisting, encroaching mist.
He raised the heavy greatsword once more, reversed his grip, and drove it down into the rock with the very last ounce of his strength.
*"May our kingdom remain ever-green as the fir; may our knights' armor remain ever unyielding, and their longswords ever sharp."*
The ancient oath resonated through the air. The knight upon his Destiny shattered, and the scattered fragments poured into the earth along the blade. An invisible radiance expanded outward, and for the first time, an ascending pillar of light parted the suffocating, heavy gloom. At the far reaches of the vast expanse above, a colossal serpentine form rolled and surged across the sea of clouds, while threads of luminous light pierced past it, shining down into this forgotten corner of the world.
Chapter 75