Chapter 1 Through the Data Terminal's Scan

Through the remote scan of the data terminal, Hao Ren discovered that the bottom of the Blood Lake Whirlpool was a hole leading straight to the earth's core. This was highly likely related to the crashed spaceship from before. He suspected that when the spaceship "crashed" into the lake bottom, it had already damaged the geological structure there. However, the spaceship itself had acted like a plug, blocking the hole it had created, so nothing had happened. But after those little green men dragged the spaceship out, this fragile structure began to collapse.

However, the fissure didn't erupt on the spot. At that time, there should have been a thin layer of rock barely holding on. Hao Ren recalled the cavity of lake water left after the spaceship was teleported away. At that moment, an unknown number of tons of lake water, with hundreds of meters of water pressure, slammed hard on the lake bottom. Perhaps this was the last straw that led to the collapse of the hole.

The rock shell had held on for more than a day after that, and now it had finally collapsed.

This was the deduction made based on the scan images sent back by the data terminal. Hao Ren and Vivian both felt that this guess had at least an 80% chance of being true.

"This mess has to be shouldered," Hao Ren sighed. "Fortunately, no one died, otherwise the pressure on me would be even greater. We must not let Ofra know about this."

Vivian knew that Hao Ren was a person with strong principles in this regard and that he had a strong sense of responsibility. He would inevitably feel quite guilty at this time, so she comforted him, "Don't take it all on yourself. The geological structure should have been damaged when the spaceship crashed. Even if we hadn't done anything, the Blood Lake Whirlpool would probably have appeared sooner or later. It's just a matter of time. You couldn't just leave that spaceship alone, could you? At most, we were a bit negligent. We should have been more careful and had the data terminal do some surveying at the time."

Hao Ren nodded, looking enviously at Lily, who was running around the camp making friends with the werewolves. "I really envy that girl's simple mind."

"Does she have a mind?"

"It's precisely because she's simple-minded that I envy her..."

By the time that simple-minded husky had run two or three laps around the entire camp and found a large group of werewolf friends, Gelton and his Church Knights had finally arrived late—actually, they weren't late at all, and could even be said to be very fast. He and his men had set off earlier than Ofra, and the Church Knights also had acceleration techniques in terms of divine magic. They had traveled in just over an hour a road that ordinary cavalry would have taken almost a whole day to travel. It was just that Ofra's marshal charge was too unreasonable, which forcibly threw the Church Knights, who had set off earlier, behind her.

Gelton saw that the Kingdom Knights had arrived in advance, but there was no surprise on his old face. It seemed that he had already guessed that the decisive female marshal would resolutely throw aside the rules of the Holy See in this situation. However, several ordinary bishops frowned frequently after seeing the Kingdom Knights who were moving faster than them, but in front of the female marshal and the prefect, these people would not say much.

Becky had sharp eyes and saw at a glance that the four ascetics were also in the Church Knights' entourage. She immediately waved happily and greeted the latter. The big-bearded man, sensing something, raised his head and smiled at Hao Ren and his party.

Gelton quickly found the person in charge at the scene to confirm the situation of the Blood Lake Whirlpool. When he heard that the entire church had sunk into the lake, he coughed violently. His already old and hunched body trembled violently under a burst of coughing, looking as if he was ready to be summoned by the Goddess at any time: "The entire sanctuary has sunk?!"

"Yes," the tall, thin priest from before said with a heavy expression.

A flush of blood rushed to Gelton's wrinkled face: "What about the Holy Coffin?!"

"The Holy Coffin is sealed in the basement of the church, integrated with the divine magic array. It takes at least a quarter of an hour to open it under normal circumstances. The situation was urgent at the time, and I really..." The tall, thin priest's face was full of guilt. "...Prefect Gelton, we have failed the Goddess. We did not have time to transfer the Holy Coffin, and it has sunk into the vortex with the church."

Gelton's throat suddenly made a gurgling sound. Hao Ren thought that this old man was going to report to the Goddess on the spot, but he didn't expect him to catch his breath and recover: "...The Goddess has mercy. Today's great change must be a test from God. This kind of major event cannot be reversed by the manpower of one or two people. The Goddess will forgive you... But the Holy Coffin must be retrieved! If necessary, you can even go into the vortex to find it! Mages, prepare to go to the vortex with me!"

Saying that, the old man turned to look at Ofra: "Marshal, please forgive me for the many disputes with you before. That was my responsibility. Today, I hope that the Marshal can face this matter with me. In the name of the Kingdom and the glory of the Goddess, we must retrieve the Holy Coffin!"

"I thought you would continue to be stubborn at this time," Ofra smiled, raising her finger and pointing at her Knights. "Don't worry, I brought these experts here to deal with any trouble."

Lily hopped behind: "And us, and us—we are also experts!"

Gelton looked at Hao Ren and the others in surprise. He had been curious as to why these mercenaries were also here to join in the fun. Now he couldn't help but ask. Lily immediately put on a straight face and imitated Hao Ren's words: "Because we have a heart of serving the country and a heart of piety, by the way. If you don't believe me, I'll make one up..."

Hao Ren reached out and pulled Lily back: You don't need to say the second half!

Becky shrank back with a bitter face: "Actually, I wanted to say... Can I not go?"

This was a mercenary with a normal style—but unfortunately, she had boarded Hao Ren's pirate ship. After being cowardly, she still had to be forced to be righteous.

"You were able to escort the jewel back, which is enough to prove that you are sincere and reliable," Gelton silently looked at the strange mercenaries in front of him and nodded slightly. "This matter is dangerous, but if you can prove that you are blessed by God and return safely, the Church will reward you handsomely."

Although the old man was pious to the point of being pedantic, he was not so unreasonable that he didn't understand the seven emotions and six desires of ordinary people. At this time, he just said a word.

Becky's righteousness immediately became sincere...

This time, Nangong Wuyue was not around, but among the people brought by Gelton and Ofra were experts in water magic. After everyone prepared a little, they set off for Blood Lake.

Gelton and Ofra led the team, followed by a dozen mages from the Kingdom Knights and the Church. Hao Ren and his party, as well as the big-bearded man and his party, followed at the end of the team. This was the first time Hao Ren had met the big-bearded man and his party since they parted yesterday. He deliberately walked at the end and asked the other party in a low voice about the situation: "What exactly is that Holy Coffin?"

The big-bearded man silently glanced at Hao Ren, seeming a little hesitant, but in the end, probably considering Hao Ren's special background, he opened his mouth with confidence. At the same time, before opening his mouth, he set up a magic barrier around him to isolate the sound: "It is a holy object located in the basement of the Lakeside Church."

"Holy object? What is it used for?"

"The oldest sacred creature," the big-bearded man said with a solemn expression. "The Holy Coffin contains the original ancestor of life created by the Goddess. She scattered these original ancestors of life in the world to monitor the balance of the entire world and serve as a last 'insurance'. When the world encounters great changes, these original ancestors of life can maintain the balance and even recreate life. There are three Holy Coffins in total, all of which are currently within the territory of the Kingdom of Holleta. The one in the Beinz Diocese is one of them."

Hao Ren blinked his eyes, thought about it, compared it with the legends he knew, and asked some questions: "What about the Age of Ancient Civilization? If the original ancestors of life were created by the Goddess, then there should have been Holy Coffins in the Age of Ancient Civilization, right?"

"No, the original ancestors in the Holy Coffin were created by the Goddess, but the Holy Coffin itself is a container created by the first Pope of the Church," the big-bearded man said in a low voice. These are not too critical secrets, and basically any official member of the Church can access them. "The original ancestor of life is not a creature or a corpse, but a strange substance containing the power of God. These substances have been lurking in the depths of the ground during the Age of Ancient Civilization. When those sinful magic emperors wantonly destroyed the balance of all beings in this world, so that the Goddess destroyed the world, these original ancestors of life returned to the ground from the ancient caves. They accepted the Goddess's oracle, protected the few innocent people after the world-destroying disaster, reshaped many species, and then returned to several sacred caves located deep underground. Thousands of years later, the first Pope of the Church received a divine revelation and created the Holy Coffin to replace the original seal in the depths of the underground, and enshrined the original ancestor of life in several sanctuaries protected by the power of the Goddess. The sacred blood he took out from the sacred cave at that time became the source of divine magic in the future."

After speaking, the big-bearded man paused before looking into Hao Ren's eyes and saying, "There is one more thing I should confess to you: what we are going to now is the Sacred Cave!"

Hao Ren's eyes narrowed suddenly.