Chapter 357: The Situation Reached a Deadlock

Chapter 357: The Situation Reached a Deadlock

They did not wait for Lena to wake up hungry and come out to search for food. Instead, they encountered a team from the Sanctuary Church passing by.

The team had about eighty people, each with a serious and capable expression. Perhaps seeing that Oss and the others were camping and resting there, these Sanctuary Church members, who had been rushing on their journey, also set up camp nearby.

Even during their rest, the movements on their side were quiet. If not for the light there, it would have been difficult to notice them.

“They are all elites,” Wood observed, looking at that batch of Sanctuary Church members.

They watched the entire process of the other side setting up camp.

Throughout the process, those people had no unnecessary movements, not even unnecessary conversations. The division of labor was extremely clear. Although there were many people, each one contributed with great precision, completing the camp setup in the shortest time.

After that, lighting fires and eating were also done in an orderly manner.

By the way, it seemed that in the trading zone of the Magic Weapon Summoning Book, there was an online store of the Sanctuary Church… This online store was very popular. On one hand, it was for internal consumption, where Sanctuary Church members bought it themselves. On the other hand, those who were not from the Sanctuary Church bought the takeout made by the Sanctuary Church’s cafeteria out of curiosity.

The Sanctuary Church created this online store for a clear reason: to prevent Sanctuary Church members on missions from being cheated. Although the possibility was low, who could guarantee that those takeouts were entirely problem-free? Since they had the full ability to create a large-scale takeout online store, why not do it? The Sanctuary Church also needed income.

The Sanctuary Church camped not far from their side, but there was no interference between them. The two sides kept a clear distinction.

After eating, some Sanctuary Church members chose to rest, while others were on guard duty.

“I’ll go ask about the situation,” Rick stood up after they had almost finished eating.

In other matters, the Sanctuary Church did not appear overbearing. When encountered in the wild, if there was no urgent situation, or even when there was enough leisure, one could completely invite those Sanctuary Church members to have a drink or two without breaking any rules.

Of course, one rarely did this with Sanctuary Church members on missions. Even if they drank a couple, it would only be the wine they carried themselves, not provided by others.

So, going over to ask about the situation now was not something that needed special attention. As long as it was not something that needed to be kept highly secret, they generally would not withhold information.

Not long after, Rick returned to their resting place and talked about the situation he had inquired about: “It’s still about the matters at Windwhisper Valley. The power of the Undying Witch began to spread outward from that place. If not controlled, several nearby towns would suffer.”

“If it’s not the Undying Witch herself appearing there, but just the spread, the Sanctuary Church people should be able to control it, right?” Gale couldn’t help but say upon hearing this.

“In other places, that might be true, but Windwhisper Valley is different. Don’t forget the Wind Dragonflies that live there year-round,” Rick shook his head.

Hundreds of Wind Dragonflies gathering to attack—not to mention prosperous cities, even the main city of the Empire would be severely damaged by such a combined assault.

Fortunately, Wind Dragonflies’ aggressiveness was generally not strong, and each could be considered a homebody, only liking to inhabit places with strong enough Wind Element power. They paid no attention to other places. Even if someone angered them, after going beyond a certain distance from their living area, they would actively turn back. Therefore, up to now, no one had made big news by using Wind Dragonfly power.

“Those Wind Dragonflies stirred up a huge storm, speeding up the spread of the Undying Witch’s power…” At this point, Rick paused slightly: “And one more thing, it seems that besides this matter, there were other important things they did not mention.”

Wood nodded.

The Sanctuary Church people would not hide some things, but would not casually speak about important matters.

He took out a map and marked a red dot on it.

The red dot was at Windwhisper Valley, and their current distance from Windwhisper Valley… was not far!

During this time, they basically took some quests nearby, gradually moving away from Windwhisper Valley.

After all, the big festival in this world was approaching. They all thought about making a good profit before the festival arrived, and then comfortably returning to spend this once-a-year big festival.

This festival could be said to be a rare common festival in this world, celebrating the day when the Abyss was sealed.

You should know that besides the disasters brought by witches in the past, the Abyss was also a disaster area, and the disasters it brought to the continent were even stronger than those by witches.

Back then, to seal the Abyss, countless living beings on the continent sacrificed themselves in it. So, this big festival was recognized by all countries, and no one wanted to change it. If forced to say the importance of this festival, it was probably like New Year.

Now, as the year-end approached, the Undying Witch wanted to create a big event, which was really annoying. Up to now, the Undying Witch’s purpose was still unclear. Oss and the others, who originally seemed relaxed, became entangled. None of them could be sure whether the things the Undying Witch wanted to do would involve them like being caught in crossfire.

“Maybe… we should go back to Windwhisper Valley to check the situation,” Oss said hesitantly after a moment.

As for quests, not taking them temporarily was fine. The situation at Windwhisper Valley had to be clarified. Although Windwhisper Valley was far from the city where his sister was now, things were not absolute. There were many places where traces of the Undying Witch were found. Here was Windwhisper Valley, and other places might have a Thunder Marsh. “It’s less than half a month until the big festival. Taking quests now wouldn’t earn much. After checking the situation, we’ll go directly back.”

“That’s fine,” Wood nodded seriously.

Leaving when the situation was unclear seemed like avoiding risks, but at the same time, it meant falling into ignorance. Even though the Sanctuary Church would occasionally update some official posts on the forum, many major events that couldn’t be spread immediately would not be updated in real-time.

Whether others would do that was their business. Anyway, even if present, the Sanctuary Church people did not leak the core issues. Other ‘reporters’ only published superficial things. Among these things, probably many were additionally processed to attract attention.

It was better to personally confirm the specific situation. See how serious the problem actually was, so that they had a grasp in their hearts about what kind of ‘New Year’ they would spend.

“What about Lena?” Rick said.

“Ask for her opinion. It’s best to let her go back first,” Oss said.

Speaking of Lena, Oss couldn’t help but touch his eye socket. The strong pulsating sensation from his eyes still existed. The pain was not as intense as initially, but it was filled with a vague dull ache. After this discomfort disappeared, he would try the true power of these eyes. Now, he did not plan to use these eyes in some unnecessary situations.

At Windwhisper Valley, the spellcasters from the Sanctuary Church stationed there looked seriously at Windwhisper Valley shrouded in gray mist.

Above the canyon, a strong tornado gathered. The tornado stirred the clouds in the sky and the gray mist in the canyon. A large amount of gray mist was drawn into the clouds in the sky, making the normally colored clouds look like dark clouds…

Normal dark clouds they would not care about, at most scaring children when it thundered. But now, the dark clouds appearing in the sky were mixed with the Undying Witch’s power. Once these dark clouds spread out and blended into other cloud layers… if it rained a little elsewhere, it would be terrible!

The Undying Witch’s move was extremely wicked!

As for how far the gathered dark clouds in the sky could drift? They could only say very, very far.

The dark clouds contained powerful Wind Element. The Sanctuary Church’s reconnaissance teams even risked to observe the dark clouds, and actually found elemental ores inside that could only be produced in Wind Element veins. Although fragmented, the purity was high.

After losing several reconnaissance teams, they finally collected some samples.

You should know that those who could rush into the dark clouds for reconnaissance were powerful enough; the weakest could fly. Losing several teams at once, in some small forces, would be enough to make that small force directly fall apart.

Losing some people, the results brought back were very bad.

The dark clouds indeed contained a large amount of Wind Element ores. These Wind Element ores appeared gray. Although they still contained Wind Element power, they were severely polluted. Just by crushing a grain-sized piece of Wind Element ore, the elemental power spread out as a gentle breeze could easily kill a large group of people… Not the damage from Wind Element power erosion, but the main damage was from the Undying Witch’s power that polluted the Wind Element.

Now, those dark clouds contained a large amount of sand-like fragmented Wind Element ores. Below Windwhisper Valley, there was a massive Wind Element vein. If left to continue gathering power, a new natural disaster would certainly come. To stop it, those Wind Dragonflies were not idle. From the beginning until now, the Sanctuary Church had conducted several operations.

But without exception, all were forcefully defeated by those troublesome Wind Dragonflies.

With the power of the Wind Element vein, the power displayed by the Wind Dragonflies here far exceeded that of Wind Dragonflies living elsewhere. Not to mention they had been transformed into strange creatures that were neither alive nor dead, and the power they displayed seemed even more powerful. Thus, the matter reached a deadlock…

Up to now, support from other places was on its way. Since the matters at Windwhisper Valley could not be solved temporarily, the first thing to do was to build a sufficiently strong lockdown zone.