Chapter 171: Stone Forest

Chapter 171: Stone Forest

The Archbishop next to him had been trapped here for a month. Even though his assistants or other Bishops handled some matters in his area, many of those matters required his personal attention. After being away for so long, if he didn’t hurry back to deal with them, the place he was responsible for would likely fall into chaos!

Currently, only the Saintess of the Sanctuary Church could act directly.

“Be careful. Although your power is not afraid of the Witch’s Power, the Witch’s own strength is formidable. If you cannot win, retreat immediately. Support will reach you afterward,” the Archbishop instructed Deya. The young Saintess nodded and left. As for a mount, the stationed members outside the Lockdown Zone had them. Her status as the Saintess meant the mount she could use now was the best available.

“What kind of place is this…” Zheng Yichen pulled out a map. He glanced at the glowing dot on it and curled his lip slightly. An Otherworld version of a GPS map—Prophecy Magic was really convenient. The map itself was just an ordinary one made from Magical Beast hide, but after Dan Marina enchanted it with her Prophecy Magic, it became a pretty good Magic Artifact.

It could locate the map holder fairly accurately. Completely precise? It wasn’t impossible. As long as the map was perfectly identical to the Continent’s terrain, down to the tiniest detail, then the positioning would be exact.

“Hmm…? Wailing Soul Stone Forest?” Zheng Yichen looked at the name marked on the map and stared down at the area shrouded in a gray, hazy region below. He couldn’t see anything. Should he go down and take a look?

Wailing Soul Stone Forest… Zheng Yichen curled his lip again. He decided not to use his Projections. Dan Marina had warned him: the connection between Projections and him was very strong. If used too frequently, they could also be affected by Prophecy Art, leading to exposure of the Projection’s location or even causing all connections to be influenced and spread by the prophecy.

Mtherfcker, how powerful a Prophecy Art did that woman cast on him! However, Zheng Yichen currently had no reason to linger. When he left, Dan Marina had promised to gather the things needed to deal with the Prophecy Art on him as quickly as possible. Then, he just needed to take those items and find a certain person.

Of course, if before that Zheng Yichen became so awesome that he broke the prophecy himself—like defeating the Sanctuary Church’s Saintess or using so-called “dragon charm” to make her give up on capturing him—then the Prophecy Art would also be considered broken.

But was that even possible!?

Was it possible!!? Zheng Yichen remained deeply skeptical. So, he figured he’d just wait. He hoped that woman, under Loris’s supervision, wouldn’t slack off too much.

Descending from the sky, Zheng Yichen looked at the stone pillars before him, each several times larger than the stones at Stonehenge. He clicked his tongue in surprise, stretched out a claw, and scraped it against one of the stones. He scooped up some stone dust. In his hand, the dust quickly melted like tiny ice shards placed in fire, transforming into wisps of smoky mist that floated away. Within the mist, faint, twisted faces of the dead could be seen.

The drifting mist seemed alive, swirling around Zheng Yichen and refusing to disperse… teasingly trying to pull him into the Stone Forest.

“What is this!” He swatted away the strange mist that was swirling around him and even trying to worm into his nostrils. Zheng Yichen snorted lightly and prepared to step into the Stone Forest with his big feet… Huh!?

Never mind. Better observe the situation first.

Muttering to himself, Zheng Yichen glanced at the stone he had scratched earlier. The claw marks were already gone. He lightly tapped his chin with a claw, then simply summoned the Magic Weapon Summoning Book. A double-edged axe flew out, and he swung it fiercely several times at the Stone Forest ahead.

The attacks splashed out, hitting not only the stone pillar he targeted but also affecting several nearby pillars. Large chunks of stone broke off with a clatter. Cracks spread to a certain height until the pillars could no longer bear their own weight and collapsed completely.

Zheng Yichen stared at the broken stone pillars and observed. The fragments produced copious amounts of mist. Within that mist, he could see countless churning shadows of resentful spirits, like boiling water. As one bubble burst, more bubbles roiled up from the broken spot. A massive wave of Grudge and malice pressed toward Zheng Yichen. In response, the dragon simply scratched his ear.

Tch! When he held Dan Marina’s Contract earlier, the indescribable, disturbing whispers he heard hadn’t affected him at all. Confronted with this stuff now? Get lost!

He waved a claw dismissively, then grabbed a handful of mist. He rolled it into a small ball in his hand… “Hmm, there’s Soul Power in it, but even more of it is some other kind of energy. A strange mix indeed.”

Soul was something that blended most easily with negative energies like Grudge. After all, it’s easier to dye water black than to purify it. But this mist was mixed with another additional energy, making it hard for Zheng Yichen to determine exactly what that energy was.

However, the Soul Power portion of the mist energy was already blended beyond recognition. This stuff was less like a Soul and more like a novel, special kind of energy. By grabbing it this time, Zheng Yichen made this energy controllable for himself. He squeezed the mist ball a few times, then tossed it back into the air…

The returned mist immediately reacted violently with the original mist in the area. The two clashed fiercely. The amount Zheng Yichen had grabbed was so small that it was almost instantly swallowed up!

“Tsk! Even though it’s the same source, the energies are so incompatible?” That reaction made Zheng Yichen’s lip twitch slightly. He grew a bit more interested in the mist within the Wailing Soul Stone Forest. He took out the map again and looked—the glowing dot had vanished!

“Out of power?” He channeled his Mana into the map. The result was that even with the Mana infusion, the glowing dot on the map flickered dimly, barely visible. It darted around erratically like a frenzied ant, completely losing its original positioning.

He looked somewhat taken aback at the Stone Forest before him. It seemed he had come to quite a remarkable place, one that could even interfere with a map enhanced by Prophecy Magic. Zheng Yichen, who initially only intended to look and not enter, changed his mind. This Stone Forest seemed pretty interesting. Maybe it could interfere with the Prophecy Art power on him…

As for destroying the place?

After the mist settled down and vanished, the several stone pillars Zheng Yichen had smashed actually restored themselves. Their shapes were different, but their mass was exactly the same, even a little more. A few new, smaller stone pillars had emerged from the ground.