Chapter 173: Deserted Village

Chapter 173: Deserted Village

“What the…!?” Zheng Yichen stared at the sky in shock. He took out the oversized pocket watch from his pocket, which was easy for his claws to hold, and checked the time. This time was divided by Zheng Yichen based on Earth’s twenty-four-hour system. Even though a day in this world was different from Earth’s, it didn’t matter. As long as he calculated the minutes, he could just divide by twenty-four.

It didn’t matter how long each hour was; he just wanted something to remind him of home.

The time shown on the pocket watch was now midnight, the start of a new day. But looking at the sky, it was still brightly lit by the sun. Lying in his hammock, Zheng Yichen could even feel the gentle warmth from the sunlight. Everything was exactly the same as the outside world, except for the time. As for those stone pillars that had been playing the statue game earlier, after he tied them up, they hadn’t moved at all.

Feeling uneasy, Zheng Yichen left the Stone Forest. Sure enough, as soon as he moved beyond the Stone Forest’s range, he immediately entered the darkness of night. The Stone Forest behind him blended perfectly into the night. After a moment of hesitation, he turned back and entered the Stone Forest again. Upon returning, the bright sun was gone, replaced by the same darkness as the outside world.

“Huh? That’s strange. What’s the principle behind this?”

Scratching his head, Zheng Yichen tapped the sunglasses he was wearing. The sphere floating in the air quickly flew back. Zheng Yichen checked the device. The Magical Structure inside was working perfectly normally, without any interference at all. In other words, he might have been overthinking things. Maybe some Divine Artifact phenomenon in the Stone Forest caused this result… Overthinking, my foot!

When encountering certain special situations, thinking you’re overthinking is just fooling yourself! Zheng Yichen shook his head. He set a time for the sphere in his hand and tossed it back into the Stone Forest. It resumed its hovering, stationary state.

This time, however, the monitors on it were no longer locked onto the nearby area. Instead, they were all focused on the range of the Stone Forest. As for Zheng Yichen himself? He wanted to figure out the Stone Forest’s strange phenomena, but time didn’t allow it. Even though there was unusual power here that could interfere with Prophecy Magic.

The danger it also possessed made him unwilling to stay and take risks. Leaving a magically modified tech version of a Wizard’s Eye to collect information was enough. The Mana Source loaded inside that thing was sufficient for it to operate for a long time. Zheng Yichen would also place some Beacons along his way.

When the device’s preset time ended, it could return to Zheng Yichen’s hands by following the weak signals emitted by those Beacons, as long as it wasn’t destroyed.

After setting everything up, Zheng Yichen hurriedly left the vicinity of the Stone Forest. He unfolded his map again. The light spots that would appear based on Prophecy Magic showed up once more, marking Zheng Yichen’s current location.

“Speaking of which, this Continent is really vast. I wonder what the world beyond the Endless Sea is like.” Zheng Yichen looked at the small amount of blue at the edge of the map. It looked small, but that was actually just a corner of the Endless Sea. Here, this huge Continent was completely surrounded by the Endless Sea.

Anyway, let’s not talk about that sea for now. Whether it’s truly endless, Zheng Yichen didn’t know. The books said so. Maybe he could find a way to confirm it in the future? Tsk… better think about how to break through the sky instead. Sailing and such? He didn’t even have a crew. Flying aimlessly over the sea would only end in exhaustion. And drifting on a seemingly endless ocean would inevitably bring an indescribable sense of fear.

Most importantly, this was an Otherworld. Who knew what kind of dangerous things existed in the Endless Sea?

“What is this place?” Saintess Deya, who was tracking Zheng Yichen’s trail, frowned slightly as she passed by a Deserted Village. She examined the long-abandoned village with a grave expression. An ordinary person would think that. As the Saintess of the Sanctuary Church, she was extra sensitive to the aura of certain powers. From a distance, she could detect an unusual aura in this Deserted Village.

It was very faint, but very evil! It was not a power Humans should possess: “A Cult?”

She hesitated. Dealing with this matter would definitely delay her pursuit of Zheng Yichen. But leaving it alone might not cause problems in the short term, yet it could also lead to serious harm during that time. The harm caused by Cults could be big or small, and the things they stirred up were diverse.

It was like drawing cards… some were unlucky, some were lucky. In Cults, this rule also applied. Ignoring it, they might just draw an SSR at some moment…

Not ruling out that possibility, even if she notified people in The Church and had the nearest Church Branch send someone to handle this Deserted Village, extra changes might have already occurred here before that. She’d handle it herself!

The evil power emanating from there wasn’t strong. If she acted quickly, it wouldn’t take much time!

A gentle light suddenly shone in the night. As the light approached, the silent, desolate Deserted Village instantly became turbulent. The black sky was stained a mottled dark red. A fierce giant eye emerged from the clouds. Looking closely, that giant eye was actually composed of countless densely packed small eyes. The clearer one looked, the greater the pressure it brought to the viewer…

Just the nausea from trypophobia alone could overwhelm someone!

Under the gaze of the giant eye, an intangible yet oppressive pressure descended upon Deya. The young girl’s seemingly frail body looked like a leaf in a violent storm, likely to be utterly crushed by the next wave…

Pop—

A sound like a bubble bursting was heard. Under the attack of a piercing Light Spear, the giant eye in the sky suddenly shattered. A large number of bats scattered and flew in all directions. The dark red clouds also vanished instantly. The world-shaking tremors all around disappeared completely.

Dozens of Cultists with withered, mummy-like faces stood frozen in place, staring dumbly at the young girl with milky-white hair less than a hundred meters away from them: “Impossible!! The Evil God’s domain was broken!!”

It was hard to imagine how these Cultists, whose voices seemed as withered and decayed as their bodies, produced such sharp, piercing high-pitched screams.

“Domain? Just a mere illusion!” Deya said coldly. Illusion intimidation was a basic skill that those Evil Gods summoned through Blood Sacrifice or other sacrificial methods should master… after all, illusions were simple, crude, and especially easy to scare people. As long as they were made realistic enough, you could stage a war of the gods within the illusion!

However, she had dealt with many Evil Gods and seen too many illusions. Many were even more exaggerated than the one she encountered now. This one was purely… disgusting!