Chapter 1 The Search

The search party entered the deepest part of the Holy Mountain, and the wolf cavalrymen leading the way found themselves stepping into a completely unfamiliar place.

In the depths of their homeland, yet such an alien world.

Hao Ren followed behind the silent Uruk, with a dozen knights and monks on either side of the road, guarding and searching. Everyone's nerves were already strained, but they had not yet encountered the enemy.

"The other wolf cavalrymen have also sent messages," Uruk suddenly muttered. His ears twitched slightly in the air, and the werewolf's special communication secret technique allowed them to stay in touch with each other in this mountain. "Several teams are feeling their way towards this valley. They all say they don't remember the mountain roads here."

The situation was as Hao Ren had guessed. The Mind Monster used some kind of mental interference or perception-twisting ability to shield this valley. For any sentient being, this was equivalent to digging out a piece of the area from the mountain out of thin air—and the people being interfered with were completely unaware of it. No one could say when this interference started, but one fact was very disturbing: from the historical records of the werewolves' migration to the Holy Mountain to the present, this valley had never appeared on their maps.

A knight didn't understand for a moment, and muttered casually, "Speaking of which, why did we suddenly discover this valley this time?"

Uruk glanced at him, "Because of the protective crystal – this is the first time someone has come here with a clear mind."

As they walked, Lily suddenly pointed ahead and shouted, "There's something ahead!"

Hao Ren looked in the direction Lily was pointing and saw half a stone pillar protruding from the ground on the snow slope next to the mountain road ahead, looking like the remains of some kind of man-made object. He stepped forward to take a look and found that it was a black obelisk, and there were uneven rune marks remaining on the obelisk. A passing monk quickly identified the runes: "These are the marks of those heretics."

"This thing hasn't been abandoned for a short time," Izhaks stroked the almost completely eroded grooves on the obelisk. "Can you test it?"

The data terminal floated over and shined a light on it: "There are paint residues in the grooves, at least three or four thousand years old."

If even this fragment of the obelisk was three or four thousand years old, then the other relics in this valley would only be older than that. Ofra looked at the relic in astonishment, and suddenly understood a lot of things – such as why the cultists still emerged here unnoticed despite the Radiant Church's long-term surveillance.

Because they were already here!

"They are older than the history of the Radiant Church," Hao Ren clapped his hands and stood up. "Even before the werewolves migrated here, before the establishment of the Kingdom of Holleta, and before the Radiant Church was established, this valley was already shrouded in the power of the Mind Monster. They didn't develop under the eyes of the Radiant Church at all. The opposite is true: the Radiant Church and the Kingdom of Holleta developed under the eyes of these cultists."

Ofra's expression was strange. She couldn't accept this fact at all, which was even more unreal than when she first heard that the cultists' lair was hidden in the Beinz region. Even Becky, the rough mercenary, felt that this was a bit of a fantasy: "The Regression Sect is older than the Radiant Church? Then this world would have been theirs long ago! Have they been hiding here for thousands of years without doing anything?"

Hao Ren waved his hand, "How would I know what they've been doing? We can only speak with data. At the very least, since the werewolves migrated here, the heart of the Holy Mountain has been shrouded in mental interference."

Vivian stroked her chin thoughtfully: "Being able to endure for thousands of years in secret and only emerge recently, there must be a reason. If it's not that they have some big plan that needs thousands of years to brew slowly, then something must have changed in recent years that forced them to come out. It should be related to the Goddess."

Ofra was still frowning, feeling that this matter was difficult to believe. In any case, the fact that those cultists had been hiding in the Holy Mountain for thousands of years had greatly impacted her worldview. Thousands of years... how many generations would have passed for ordinary races?

When did the original cultists gather here? Where did they come from? How did they live and pass down their beliefs here? What kind of connection did they maintain with the outside world? What could make them live in seclusion in such a place for thousands of years without revealing themselves, and maintain the same fanaticism after so many generations? Was it just the mental control of the Mind Monster? Or were there other reasons...?

"Continue moving forward," Ofra shook her head and ordered the knights, "Concentrate your minds, and report any illusions or mental fluctuations as soon as possible."

Despite holding the protective crystal, the unease in her heart still spread. Mind control was such an insidious and frightening thing, its horror lying not only in its ability to make people lose their minds, but also in its ability to make people completely unaware of all this. It is difficult for a sleeping person to realize that they have fallen asleep, and a person targeted by mind control is most likely to have been invaded when they feel clear-headed.

Any excellent mind-control master knows a trick: the best way to control prey is to make the prey still feel free. And any instructor responsible for teaching mental protection will also remember to remind their students: when you feel that your enemy is not so powerful, it often means that you have already been defeated.

Uruk and the remaining wolf cavalrymen around him walked ahead with cautious expressions. This mountain road was no longer familiar to them. There were unfamiliar forks and scenery everywhere in front of them. Although they were walking on the roads of their hometown, they still felt as confused as those outsiders behind them. Now their only advantage was to adapt to the terrain and environment here, so that they would have more opportunities when attacked—but God knows if this was of any use.

"Why do I feel like the Mind Monster here is even more powerful than the one in Nasaton?" Lily came to Hao Ren's side and muttered, "The Mind Monster in Nasaton also needs to subtly interfere for a long time to control others. Why does this one make people GG as soon as they enter the mountain?"

"Maybe it set up something here," Hao Ren curled his lips. "Thousands of years, even if it dug with its tentacles, it should have dug out an Afang Palace."

Lily thought about it seriously and poked Vivian's arm next to her, "Bat, do you know how to get around in Afang Palace?"

Then Vivian and Hao Ren both ignored this husky who had given up on treatment.

At this time, Uruk, who was walking in front, suddenly stopped. His ears twitched slightly in the cold wind, and his nostrils opened slightly. A faint, fishy smell wafted from somewhere, "Be careful... there's something unclean."

Ofra immediately drew out her long sword, and blazing holy flames burst out from the blade. Nangong Sanba and Nangong Wudi also narrowed their eyes at the same time. They activated the demon hunters' special skills, and in the hunter's spiritual vision, the snow-covered valley was covered with a layer of light blue, strange light and shadow, and all unclean things would be invisible in their vision.

However, the first to find the enemy was not these combat experts, but the stupid cat who had been restless since entering the mountain, scurrying around everywhere: "Roll" suddenly exclaimed, and then scurried out from behind a large rock not far away, "Meow—there's a monster!"

Almost at the same time as "Roll" scurried back, a strange humanoid creature suddenly rushed out from behind the mountain rock!

One could only say that it was a "humanoid creature" because this thing had almost completely deviated from the proper form of a human. This monster was covered in festering wounds, abnormally tall, and its body was covered with crude wounds and mismatched muscles, as if several corpses had been pieced together. It was also wearing a strange-looking vest, which was pitch black and covered with a large number of black crystalline flakes, constantly bursting out with hissing electric arcs, looking completely unlike equipment that the people of Holleta could make.

After this first "abomination" jumped out, continuous rustling sounds followed, and a large number of such monsters emerged from who knows where, surrounding everyone in the blink of an eye.

Hao Ren didn't know how these monsters had escaped everyone's perception, but there was no time to think so much at this time. After taking out his own guns and cannons from his dimensional storage, he took the lead and rushed up: "Let's kill them first!"