Chapter 1 Aftermath

After checking his physical condition and the contents of his dimensional pocket, Hao Ren decided to explore the temple.

Of course, he was even more worried about where Lily had run off to—but before that, he had to figure out what this place was. Judging from the details, he was sure he was no longer in space, so where was this temple located?

He first examined the stone pillars and sculptures in the temple, all of which were severely damaged. Mortals' temples could not compare to the true divine halls on the Primordial Planet. These once-solid boulders had been weathered beyond recognition for centuries. All the patterns on the stone pillars had been eroded, and most of the statues of heroes or great men were reduced to mere pedestals. Hao Ren stopped in front of a barely intact statue, depicting a warrior clad in armor, leaning on a long sword, facing the center of the temple, slightly raising his head, his gaze focused on the empty space above the hall: considering that the temple was split, that should be the location of the suspended pulpit.

The pulpit represented the voice of the gods, so these statues should represent the greatest warriors of the Holy See, or some other similar role—Hao Ren reasoned with his half-baked clergyman's logic.

Apart from these sculptures and stone pillars, there was nothing more noteworthy on the lower level of the temple. Hao Ren wandered around twice without finding anything. Finally, he came to the temple's main entrance.

After stepping over the collapsed wreckage of a wooden door, the scenery outside the temple came into view. Although he had made many guesses and assumptions in his mind, Hao Ren couldn't help but widen his eyes when he saw the actual situation outside: a vast world, shrouded in chaos.

The temple was located on a mountain, almost completely occupying the summit. Looking down from the front of the temple, he could see jagged rocks stretching out at his feet, becoming darker as they went down, with the foot of the mountain almost completely plunged into darkness. There was no sign of life on the mountain, only withered and twisted shrub debris and black boulders scattered across the slope.

Hao Ren tried to concentrate, finally allowing his eyesight to penetrate the darkness in the distance. He saw a desolate wilderness spreading out at the foot of the mountain, covered with twisted plant remains and strange black shadows that he couldn't identify. A turbid, hazy mist swirled across the wilderness, making it even more difficult to see distant objects. Above this barren land, there was boundless darkness and chaos, with no sun, moon, stars, or clouds, only large, amorphous black patches rolling against a grey-black background, looking as if the end of the world had arrived.

In any case, this didn't look like normal "weather," or even any kind of atmospheric landscape that could be seen on a planet's surface.

"What the hell is this place..." Looking at this bizarre landscape that looked nothing like natural scenery, Hao Ren couldn't help but mutter. However, he was slightly relieved: in any case, this looked like the surface, at least it was much better than continuing to drift in space.

If Lily also landed in this place, then there shouldn't be any problems.

Just as Hao Ren was considering where to start looking for Lily, a glimmer of light suddenly appeared on the plains at the foot of the mountain, catching his attention.

The light emerged from the distant chaotic wilderness and gradually floated towards this bare stone mountain. Although the light was weak, the darkness and mist on the ground seemed to retreat as if driven away by the glimmer. Hao Ren focused his attention and finally saw a group of figures in the swaying light, and it looked like... there were other things around those figures.

A dozen tired soldiers, tattered armor, chipped swords, and a Jin Hui (Golden Radiance) battle flag almost torn into rags, the entire company of the once-glorious Taros Royal Guard was now reduced to this. Under the faint light emitted by the Jin Hui battle flag, the protection of light was only a mere hundred meters. Veronica's heart was sinking bit by bit as she numbly advanced in this narrow, despairing refuge.

The tragic battlefield of the Shadow Jungle still haunted her mind like a nightmare. More than two thousand brave veterans died in that bloody meat grinder, the servants of chaos涌涌 from all directions, devouring precious lives, and allowing noble knights to die howling without dignity. The entire position was covered with foul-smelling blood, and the kingdom's proudest jewel—Princess Veronica—could only end up leading dozens of personal soldiers in a chaotic breakout on her first command. Now even those few dozen soldiers had suffered more than half casualties, and were about to be swallowed by this forgotten dark wilderness.

However, Veronica's greatest concern was not how her battlefield defeat would be criticized by the incompetent nobles in the kingdom, nor how her opponents in the upper echelons of the kingdom would divide up her land and wealth after she left. She wasn't even worried about her own fate. All she was thinking about was one thing: the largest chaos nest in the Shadow Jungle had finally broken through the blockade. The chaos servants would reach the kingdom's border within half a month. Who could send a warning?

Even if just one messenger could break through the encirclement, at least the border would receive this terrible news. With earlier preparations, perhaps tens of thousands of lives could be saved.

However, she was destined not to complete this mission: although she had initially tried to break through and retreat towards the kingdom's border, the Shadow Jungle's twisted mist blockade had led her soldiers astray. Now it was meaningless to turn back, and absolutely certain death, so they could only continue to move forward in this barren wilderness, according to an unreliable record in the royal family's ancient books, to seek that ethereal glimmer of hope.

"Damn the Theocracy, if their monks hadn't withdrawn from the battlefield in advance, we would never have ended up like this."

Beside Veronica, an old knight with white hair was indignant. As soon as he spoke, his body shook violently, almost falling off his horse.

The warhorse under the old knight lowered its head, staggering as it walked, as if it had been infected with a plague in the barren wilderness. In fact, almost all the surviving warhorses in the team had reached the end of their rope: compared to humans who could protect themselves with faith and spiritual warfare, animals were often more difficult to survive in chaos. Except for those pollution beasts that already lived in lawless zones, already between demons and animals, most ordinary animals usually didn't survive more than three days after losing the protection of light.

The light of the Jin Hui battle flag was now so weak that it was only a flicker in the wind. The protection it could provide wasn't even enough for humans, let alone these trained warhorses. Perhaps tomorrow, or even today, half of the team would lose their mounts.

If they couldn't find the Holy Mountain before that, the consequences for a group of mortals trekking through the chaotic domain would be predictable.

"Sir Morian, the monks of the Theocracy also fought bravely, their courage and spirit of sacrifice were obvious to all," Veronica shook her head, her lilac hair losing its luster due to being stained with blood, "Their sudden withdrawal must have a reason—in the borders of chaos, the battlefield is not just one Shadow Jungle."

The old knight lowered his head and said nothing more, and none of the young knights behind the team made a sound.

These were the most loyal soldiers to the kingdom, who had sworn to serve the country with their lives many years ago. This loyalty was a well-known trait throughout the world of Coro. Even though they had been reduced to this situation under the princess's command, these knights' respect and obedience to Veronica had not diminished in the slightest.

In fact, they also knew that there was nothing wrong with Veronica's command. Even if a true veteran of the battlefield came, he probably couldn't get better results—three times more enemies than expected, and the Theocracy's monks withdrew in advance. Faced with this desperate situation, it was no longer a situation that an excellent commander could reverse.

Veronica looked around. Her gaze passed over the wounded soldiers. At the boundary of the Jin Hui battle flag's light, she could see countless shadowy and distorted black smoke. These things emerged from the mist, gathering around like hungry wolves smelling meat. She could clearly see their gradually forming entities, but they wouldn't attack yet.

Not yet.

The knights had just repelled an attack an hour ago and burned the remaining magic reserves of the Jin Hui battle flag. Now the surrounding mist couldn't condense enough and strong enough chaos servants, but as time went by, the power of the Jin Hui battle flag would decline, and the monsters in the darkness would definitely launch a new round of attacks. It was hard to say how many people would be left after this attack.

Veronica raised her head again, looking into the chaotic distance.

Her vision was only a hazy mist, and the unfathomable darkness behind the mist. Walking in the wilderness was a hundred times more dangerous than in the mountains and forests, because your surroundings lacked reference points. The mist and darkness would quickly disorient people. Although she had the highest-level traveler's talisman made by the royal alchemists, this talisman could only provide a general direction and distance guide.

In this endless darkness and wilderness lacking landmarks, so little guidance couldn't provide much security.

The princess shook her head, trying not to think about whether she had missed the Holy Mountain.