After checking his physical condition and the condition of his Dimensional Pocket, Hao Ren decided to explore the temple first.
Of course, he was more worried about where Lily had gone. But before that, he had to at least figure out where this place was. From all the details, he was sure that he was no longer in space. So where was the temple?
He first checked the stone pillars and the sculptures in the temple. These things had been seriously damaged. The temples built by mortals could not be compared to the real temples of God on the Star of Creation. These once solid boulders had weathered for thousands of years and were now beyond recognition. All the patterns on the stone pillars had been eroded, and most of the sculptures of heroes or great men were only pedestals. Hao Ren stopped in front of a barely intact sculpture. This sculpture was the image of a warrior in armor, leaning on a long sword, facing the center of the temple. He looked up slightly and focused on the empty space above the hall. Thinking of the other half of the temple that had been split, it should be the position of the suspended pulpit.
The pulpit represented the voice of God, so these sculptures should represent the greatest warriors of the Vatican in history, or other similar characters. Hao Ren used his half-baked clerical logic to reason.
Apart from these sculptures and stone pillars, there was nothing more eye-catching in the lower level of the temple. Hao Ren walked around twice but found nothing. Finally, he came to the gate of the temple.
After crossing the wreckage of a collapsed wooden door, the scenery outside the temple came into view. Although he had made many guesses and assumptions before, when he really saw the situation outside, Hao Ren could not help but widen his eyes: a vast world shrouded in chaos.
The Divine Temple was located on a mountain, occupying almost the entire peak of the mountain. Looking down from the front of the Divine Temple, one could see the jagged rocks stretching out from the foot of the mountain. The lower one went, the darker it became, and the foot of the mountain was almost completely plunged into darkness. There was no sign of life on the mountain, only the remains of withered and twisted shrubs and dark boulders all over the hillside.
Hao Ren tried his best to focus, and finally, he could see through the darkness in the distance. He saw a barren wilderness spreading out from the foot of the mountain. The wilderness was full of twisted plant remains and strange shadows that he could not tell what they were. A kind of turbid fog hovered over the wilderness, making it even more difficult to see the scenery in the distance. Above the barren land was endless darkness and Chaos. The sun, moon, and stars couldn't be seen, and neither could the clouds. There were only large clusters of amorphous, pitch-black spots rolling against a grayish-black background, as though doomsday had arrived.
In any case, this was not normal "weather", or even the atmospheric landscape that could be seen on the surface of any planet.
"What the hell is this place?" Hao Ren could not help but murmur as he looked at the weird scenery that was absolutely not natural. But he was still a little relieved. In any case, it did look like the surface, at least much better than drifting in space.
If Lily had also landed in this place, there should be no problem.
Just as Hao Ren was thinking about how to start looking for Lily, a little light suddenly appeared on the plain at the foot of the mountain and attracted his attention.
The light appeared from the distant chaos and gradually drifted toward the bare stone mountain. The light was weak, but wherever the light shone, the darkness and mist on the ground seemed to be dispelled. Hao Ren looked carefully and finally saw a group of figures in the wavering light, and it seemed that there was something else around those figures.
More than a dozen tired soldiers, broken armor, chipped swords, and a tattered golden war flag — the once glorious Taros Royal Guard was now only left with these few things. Under the dim light of the golden war flag, the light's shelter was only a hundred meters wide. Moving numbly in this hopelessly narrow shelter, Veronica's heart was sinking little by little.
The tragic battlefield in the Shadowy Jungle was still lingering in her mind like a nightmare. More than two thousand brave veterans died in that bloody meat grinder, and the slaves of Chaos surged out from all directions, devouring precious lives and letting the noble knights die without dignity. The entire camp was smeared with filthy blood, and the proudest pearl of the kingdom, Princess Veronica, could only lead a few dozen bodyguards to break out of the siege in a panic. Now, more than half of the bodyguards were dead or injured, and they were about to be swallowed up by the forgotten dark wilderness.
But Veronica's biggest worry was not how she would be criticized by the incompetent nobles in the kingdom for her failure in the battlefield, nor how her opponents in the upper echelons of the kingdom would divide her land and wealth after she left. She was not even worried about her own fate. She only had one thing on her mind: the largest lair of Chaos in the Shadowy Jungle had finally broken through the blockade, and the slaves of Chaos would reach the kingdom's border in half a month. Who could send a warning?
Even if only one messenger could break out of the siege in the chaos, at least the border would receive the bad news and be prepared. Perhaps, tens of thousands of lives could be saved.
But she was doomed to fail this mission. Although she had tried to break out of the siege in the direction of the kingdom's border, the twisted fog blockade of the Shadowy Jungle had led her soldiers to go the wrong way. It was meaningless for them to turn back now, and they would definitely die. So they could only continue to move forward in this barren wilderness, according to an unreliable record in the royal ancient book, to find that illusory hope.
"Damn the Theocracy. If their monks had not withdrawn from the battlefield in advance, we would not have ended up like this."
Beside Veronica, a gray-haired old knight was furious. As his voice trailed off, his body shook violently and he almost fell off his horse.
The old knight's warhorse hung its head and wobbled as it walked, as if it had contracted a disease in the wilderness. In fact, almost all the remaining warhorses in the team were on the verge of dying. Compared to humans who could use faith and spiritual warfare to protect themselves, animals often found it harder to survive in the Chaos. Apart from the corrupted beasts that lived in the lawless zone and were a cross between magical creatures and animals, most ordinary animals usually did not live more than three days after losing the protection of the light.
The light of the golden war flag was now so weak that it was like a flickering candle in the wind. The protection it could provide was not enough for humans, let alone these trained warhorses. Perhaps tomorrow, or perhaps today, half of the team would lose their mounts.
If they could not find the sacred mountain before then, the fate of a group of mortals trekking in the realm of Chaos would be unimaginable.
"Sir Morian, the monks of the Theocracy have also fought bravely. Their bravery and sacrifice are obvious to all." Veronica shook her head. Her lavender hair had lost its luster because of the blood stains. "There must be a reason for their sudden withdrawal. In the border of Chaos, the Shadowy Forest is not the only battlefield."
The old knight bowed his head and said no more. The young knights at the back of the team did not make a sound.
These were the most loyal soldiers of the kingdom. They had vowed to serve the kingdom with their lives many years ago. This loyalty was a well-known trait in the world of Collow. Even under the command of the princess, the knights' respect and obedience to Veronica had not diminished in the slightest.
In fact, they also knew that there was no problem with Veronica's command. Even a real veteran of the battlefield would not get a better result. The enemy was unexpectedly three times the number, and the monks of the Theocracy had retreated in advance. In the face of such a desperate situation, it was no longer a situation that a good commander could turn around.
Veronica looked around. Her eyes went past the wounded soldiers. At the edge of the light of the golden war flag, she could see countless shadows of twisted black smoke. These things emerged from the fog and gathered around like hungry wolves smelling meat. She could clearly see them gradually taking shape, but they would not attack yet.
Not for the time being.
The knights had just repelled an attack an hour ago and burned the remaining magic reserves of the golden war flag. Now the fog around them could not condense enough powerful Servants of Chaos. But as time passed, the power of the golden war flag would decline, and the monsters in the dark would launch a new round of attack. It was hard to say how many people would be left after this attack.
Veronica looked up again and looked into the distance of Chaos.
There was only a hazy fog in her vision, and behind the fog was an unfathomable darkness. Walking in the wilderness was a hundred times more dangerous than walking in the forest because there was no reference around. The fog and darkness could quickly make people lose their way. Although she was holding the most advanced traveler's amulet made by the royal alchemist, it could only provide a general direction and distance guidance.
In this endless darkness and the lack of landmarks in the wilderness, such little guidance could not give her much sense of security.
The princess shook her head and tried not to think about whether she had missed the sacred mountain.
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