Chapter 1 The Devil's Corridor

The verdant plains in the southern part of the kingdom boasted the most fertile land and abundant water sources in the realm. Cities and villages, large and small, were scattered across this vast expanse, forming a densely populated economic zone known as the "Kingdom's Treasury." Yet, even in such a flourishing region, desolate, uninhabited areas still existed. This particular strip of wasteland stretched lengthwise, running from the northern plains to the southern hills.

The inhabitants of the plains referred to this wide, barren land as the "Devil's Corridor." Local legends said that Taros' founding monarch once led his knights in a fierce battle against Chaos on the verdant plains. It was the final year of the Chaos Tide, and the last Chaos legion entrenched on the continent stubbornly resisted in the wilderness, engaging in a bloody battle with the human legions for seventeen days and nights. Finally, the valiant monarch led his warriors to defeat Chaos, annihilating them all along this defensive line. The ashes of Chaos monsters and human blood mixed together, seeping into the ground and permanently polluting the land, leaving behind a black, corrosive scar on the fertile verdant plains: the Devil's Corridor of today.

In this land, plants struggled to grow, the soil was hardened and barren, undead and shadow creatures roamed day and night, and even the climate became strangely erratic. Although it wasn't as deadly as the Chaos Lands, the people of the plains still kept a respectful distance from it. Apart from warlocks who studied shadow magic and adventurers who profited from monsters, no one was willing to travel through the Devil's Corridor. Yet Hao Ren had deliberately chosen to travel south through the Devil's Corridor.

Because only in this desolate, uninhabited place could he drive his Bei Dou Xing with the pedal to the metal, the road ahead wide open, saving him the trouble of steering...

The strange vehicle, unseen before in the world of Collow, kicked up high clouds of dust in the Devil's Corridor, roaring and crashing through everything in its path. Hao Ren calculated that obstacles had appeared in front of the car more than a hundred times. So far, the Bei Dou Xing had a record of one hundred and twenty-five wins, zero draws, and zero losses. He glanced at the map and saw that they were already halfway there.

The mysterious "King's Emissary" – An – was sitting in the passenger seat.

This strange woman, shrouded in darkness from head to toe, hadn't uttered a single word since getting into the car. Her silence seemed to be an inherent trait; unless you asked, she would never take the initiative to speak. However, Hao Ren believed that even her composure had its limits. At least when the Bei Dou Xing crashed through a small hill, she had jumped up once...

Such a sullen companion made the atmosphere in the car unusually awkward. Hao Ren had set the Bei Dou Xing on autopilot, and he was now extremely bored. He turned his head to look at An beside him, "I say, are you always this quiet?"

An's hood swayed slightly, as if she had tilted her head in his direction. She made a short nasal sound: "Mm."

"Can you tell me about yourself?" Hao Ren wasn't giving up. That was how human curiosity worked; once it arose, it couldn't be suppressed. "You're the king's emissary? What's an emissary doing looking for an investigator from the Theocratic Order?"

An was silent for a moment. Just as Hao Ren thought she wouldn't answer, a hoarse, low voice came from under the hood: "I need to go to the Holy Sanctuary."

Hao Ren was so surprised that he almost slammed on the accelerator.

"You need to go to the Holy Sanctuary? You're a Tarosian; what are you going to do in the Holy Sanctuary?"

"You are not from the Holy Sanctuary. I have no need to tell you." An said stiffly.

This time, Hao Ren's surprise was even greater. He looked at her as if he had seen a ghost: "What are you saying? I'm an ancient guardian, remember? A guard of the Kasu'an Temple! How can I not be from the Holy Sanctuary?"

Actually, he didn't care about his so-called "Holy Sanctuary" identity at all, but after all, he had been using this title for nearly a month. His actions in the world of Collow had basically been paved by this title. Now, this strange woman had actually revealed the truth in one breath, which of course surprised him greatly.

An, however, didn't have any extra emotional fluctuations. She simply stated, as if stating a fact: "You are not from the Holy Sanctuary. The Kasu'an Temple has no guardians. Your identity is false, which requires no explanation. Not only your identity, but those 'ancient sacred objects' you brought are also very problematic. They are definitely not products of the Holy Sanctuary, but their divine power is genuine."

Hao Ren sized An up – in fact, he was just sizing up her hood. A layer of shadow magic enveloped the woman's face, making it impossible to see her true appearance. After a moment, he shook his head: "Whatever; the issue is not important."

He acted very magnanimously, and in fact, he really didn't care much about it. An inspector was, after all, a permanent third party. Any identity when dealing with indigenous civilizations was temporary and disposable. Once a stage of the mission was completed, the identity was meaningless. Inspectors had a common saying: you don't believe in this identity? That's easy; wait and I'll make up another one...

"Then why didn't you expose my identity when you were with Rudolf III?" He was only a little curious about this question.

"Because you are not a lackey of Lockmarton either," An said. "I cannot see what you are, but at least you are not Chaos, and you carry the power of Order, therefore I judge you to be harmless."

After saying this, she lowered her head, as if she would never answer any more questions.

Nor did she show any extra curiosity about Hao Ren's attitude.

Seeing this, Hao Ren simply shrugged, as if casually saying: "Just so happens, I also want to go to the Holy Sanctuary."

An reacted to these words, and she had to speak again: "You are not from the Holy Sanctuary; why do you want to go there?"

Hao Ren smiled and kept his mouth shut.

He wanted to see if this "An" would also be curious, but after a long while, she didn't ask a single question.

Hao Ren: "..."

Unbeknownst to them, they had already reached the end of the verdant plains, and the southern hills were faintly visible.

The sky was getting dark.

The car gradually slowed down at the exit of the Devil's Corridor, finally stopping with a squeal on the gravel beach. The two rows of thruster nozzles at the rear of the car slowly retracted into the machinery bay, and the repulsor shields surrounding the four tires also extinguished one by one. In the direction from which the Bei Dou Xing had come, a scorching ravine steamed in the sunset, gradually cooling down.

Hao Ren pushed the door open and got out of the car: "It's getting late. Let's rest here, and we'll leave again at dawn."

An followed him out of the car: "I thought you would travel through the night."

"Why?"

"You seem to be in a hurry to meet up with your 'friend'," An said. "Crossing these hills is the border of Black Crow Territory, and the remaining journey is not long."

Hao Ren looked up in the direction of the hills. He was indeed a little tempted, but in the end, he shook his head: "There's no rush. It's risky to get close to the border. The Black Crow Fortress is at war. If we go there, we'll probably have to fight, or even fight our way in – we have to conserve our energy today."

An nodded and said nothing more.

Camping in the wild wasn't difficult for Hao Ren; in fact, it could even be called enjoyable. His personal space was filled with various survival supplies in addition to munitions, including even small extraterrestrial living pods and extreme environment ecological domes. These things allowed inspectors to live comfortably even on Mars. Of course, he wouldn't build an ecological dome here, but he could still have a living pod.

An was a little stunned when she saw Hao Ren casually throw out an affordable house. Even with her composure, she couldn't help but be a little dazed.

"Don't ask; I won't say. Even if you really ask, I can only tell you that this is technology from a previous generation, and you certainly won't believe me. But if I tell you something else, you might not be able to understand or accept it. So, in short, don't ask." Hao Ren waved his hand in front of An, bringing her back to her senses. "I have many more magical items in this 'dimensional bag' of mine."

However, An seemed to be paying attention to something else. She stared fixedly at the living pod Hao Ren had thrown out, muttering to herself: "This also has the power of Order..."

"What?"

"No... nothing."

"Weird..." Hao Ren muttered in a low voice, feeling more and more that it had been a mistake to bring this strange, gloomy woman who never seemed to be clear about what she was thinking. He shook his head and turned to go into the living pod to rest, but at that moment, he saw a shadow looming over the hills to the south.

It was already the last quarter of dusk. The sky was dark, but that shadow was still particularly conspicuous in the darkness. It was a dark, blocky shape, floating among the clouds. Beneath the shadow, the entire world seemed to be shrouded in a layer of purplish-black mist. This made it completely different from the surrounding clouds, looking more like the shadow mass he had seen in the desolate wilderness.

"What is that?" Hao Ren couldn't help asking curiously.

"That is the 'Chaos Tear Point' closest to the southern border," An said. "The hill people call it 'Hoggus' Cabin.' We'd better bypass that place tomorrow when we travel – although this place is still under the control of the Power of Order, the Chaos Tear Point often expands suddenly, and accidents are bound to happen."

The reticent "King's Emissary" had rarely said so much.

"Chaos Tear Point?" Hao Ren scratched his chin. "I seem to have heard Veronica and Anya mention something about this."

"That is a permanently solidified Chaos Domain. Even in the Land of Order, the tear point will always be shrouded in Chaos. The Kasu'an Temple is located in such a tear point. Before Princess Veronica found you, it had been swallowed for a full thousand years, so almost no one in the secular kingdom knows of the existence of that temple."

While Hao Ren and An were discussing the Chaos Tear Point, another group had arrived deep in the hills.

Lily looked up at the hill in front of her, shrouded in a purplish-black mist and exuding an unclean aura, and felt that the light on her body, which had finally dimmed, was about to be lit up again.

Behind her, the Kasu'an Holy Sanctuary Investigation Team, the Knights from Black Crow Fortress, and the "Head Wolf Guards" composed of high-level magical beasts, a large group of people, all looked tense, as if facing a formidable enemy as they looked at the Chaos mist in front of them.

"Head Wolf," Karasuius reminded, "the Tear Point is very dangerous. Its internal environment is almost the same as the Chaos Lands, even more bizarre. Please think twice."

"But I smell some strange smells around here..." Lily blinked her eyes, sniffing as she spoke. "Sniff... sniff... I want to go in there!"