Chapter 176: The Presence Within the Stone Forest

Chapter 176: The Presence Within the Stone Forest

“The Stone Forest…” Deya looked up at the stone forest before her, her expression slightly complex. The stone pillars looked perfectly ordinary, just like regular rock, but who could have guessed that these stones were composed of countless dissipated souls of the dead?

Unlike typical spirits, these existed in solid form as stone. When shattered, they transformed into mist-like entities. Their soul properties were utterly different from ordinary ghosts, even more peculiar compared to wraiths. They were incredibly difficult to purify or destroy, much like the zombies on Earth. Unless you blew up the head, hitting them anywhere else was useless. Even smashing their bodies into powder, leaving only a head, they would still snap their jaws trying to bite.

It was because the ghosts here possessed that trait… that this stone forest had been named the Soul-Crushing Stone Forest! It was also a key reason why the Sanctuary Church had left it standing rather than clearing it away.

They simply couldn’t be cleaned up! Even with special methods, it took months just to get rid of a single pillar. And here there were thousands upon thousands of pillars. Did the Sanctuary Church have unlimited time and resources? So, once it was confirmed the danger wouldn’t spread, and as long as no fools or self-important people actively went seeking death by entering it, the Sanctuary Church just half-heartedly kept watch after a brief period of sealing off the area.

She glanced around the entrance and spotted some lingering marks. They were claw prints – not from any beast. Animals obey their instincts and wouldn’t come near such a dangerous place. These marks belonged to… the Dragon Clan.

That Little Dragon had been here before; it might even have ventured inside the Stone Forest. There were two types of marks here; the second showed the tracks of leaving. Deya frowned slightly, thinking about that dragon’s unique aspects. It wandering inside for a round and emerging unscathed wasn’t really strange… plenty of people could achieve that feat. As long as you went in and didn’t randomly kick or destroy things, it was normally safe…

Even so, Deya had no intention of going in to explore. Since she had already detected signs of the Sorceress resurfacing, entering now – even with a small chance – was practically seeking death. Even though she herself was special, possessing the precise power needed to counter the Sorceress, stepping into a Sorceress’s primary location would naturally suppress some of her strength.

Confirming there was no further information to uncover outside the Stone Forest, Deya mounted her travelling Magical Beast and left. She was currently operating alone. However, the Sanctuary Church’s reach was vast. Even acting solo, she still received a flood of useful intelligence every day, sent in by branches scattered across the world.

Yet, her brief delay here had stirred something hidden extremely deep within the Stone Forest.

“The new Saintess? Hmm~ Have I slept too long? Useless… So many preparations, yet more than half got destroyed?” A soft murmur came from the Stone Forest, carrying a hint of discontent. The technologically enhanced Wizard’s Eye hovering in the sky seemed to lose power and plummeted downwards, landing in an abnormally pale hand. This object, which Zheng Yichen could grasp, was actually far larger than a Human hand and quite heavy. Yet, in that pale hand, the weighty sphere seemed as light as air.

“Oh! What fascinating ingenuity. Combining Souls and Alchemy? Using resonance between similar souls to transmit information?” The hand’s owner spoke with a charm so mesmerisingly unnatural that it felt like a young girl expressing utter admiration for something. The tone was enough to fill listeners with a strong sense of accomplishment and addiction.

A fragmented soul was pulled out from the technologically enhanced Wizard’s Eye. Strictly speaking, this soul fragment was only half-damaged; it maintained a deep connection with the severed other half. This was the bridge for information transmission. Achieving this was immensely difficult. When a whole entity breaks, seamlessly reconnecting it takes enormous effort – especially with Souls. The slightest mishap could lead to either the soul shattering completely, or the divided fragment becoming two separate, incomplete entities.

To achieve this level of control required masterful command over Souls.

Yet the Soul was inherently an external force. Unlike Mana, ordinary people couldn’t control it as easily as their own magic power. The soul in this hand was different. Ignoring its unique properties, it felt just like… an individual’s very own magic energy. What was more special was that she found she couldn’t read the information stored within this soul fragment. When her Spiritual Power pushed in, it was simply assimilated and dissolved by an unusual force.

If she strengthened her power, she could overpower that assimilating force. But the consequence would be shattering the soul itself. The holder of the other soul fragment would immediately notice something wrong. When trying to use her own abilities, she realized they were completely ignored. This soul fragment seemed to have a super-powerful Firewall built into it, blocking the influence of her powers right outside the barrier.

“…It’s time I moved around.” The owner of the pale hand mused. Nearby, a stone pillar shed flecks of dust automatically. Smoke etched with distorted faces clung to the sphere, navigating carefully around the Mana Nodes on the orb’s surface to avoid being assimilated by the equally dissolving power of its magic flow.

Then the technologically enhanced Wizard’s Eye floated back into the air. Still radiating faint waves of concealment, it faded its trace away and slowly resumed rotating, gathering any information it could within the Stone Forest.

The pale hand’s owner didn’t leave immediately. She lay in the large hammock previously used by Zheng Yichen, her eyes gazing skyward. Before long, she seemed to discover something noteworthy and gave a soft laugh.

“Oh? Someone succeeded in cultivating that? Quite fortunate.” A wickedly cold chuckle echoed within the Stone Forest.

At the destroyed, deserted village where Deya had struck earlier, members of the Sanctuary Church had gathered. Some newcomers looked particularly pale upon seeing the upturned bones scattered across the village ground. At a rough glance, there were over three hundred…

“Records indicate this village was once prosperous, though it rarely had contact with outsiders. The latest census recorded about eight hundred permanent residents here.” One Sanctuary Church member flipped through a manual, his tone tinged with sorrow. “No one imagined it had been secretly invaded and taken over by a Cult.”

Those bones? Probably most were the villagers themselves!

“Hurry and process the site! Eyes sharp! Don’t miss a single trace – we can’t risk any lingering contaminants!” an older Sanctuary Church member ordered. Places where an Evil God had been active required thorough decontamination similar to disinfection. Any leftover traces were problematic. Contaminants affecting the body spread like a plague, causing major disasters. Those affecting the mind slowly brainwashed the afflicted, twisting them into new Cultists.