After checking his physical condition and the condition of the space he was carrying, Hao Ren decided to explore the temple first.Of course, he was more worried about where Lily had gone—but before he could at least figure out what this place was.Judging by all the details, he was sure that he was no longer in space, so where was this temple?
He first examined the stone pillars in the temple and the sculptures between them, which were badly damaged.The temples built by mortals cannot compare to the true temples of gods on the Founding Stars, these once-sturdy monoliths have been weathered beyond recognition over the millennia, all the stone pillars have been eroded, and most of the sculptures of heroes or great men are reduced to a pedestal.Hao Ren paused in front of a barely preserved sculpture of a warrior in armor, with his sword in hand, facing the center of the temple, his head tilted slightly, his eyes focused on the empty space above the hall: the other half of the temple was split off, where the hanging pulpit should have been.The pulpit represents the voice of the gods, and these sculptures should represent the greatest papal warrior in history, or some other similar character—Hao Ren reasoned with the logic of his own half-hung clergyman.There was nothing more noticeable on the lower level of the temple other than these sculptures and stone pillars, and Hao Ren turned around twice to find nothing, and finally he came to the gate of the temple.After stepping over the wreckage of a collapsed and cracked wooden door, the scenery outside the temple came into view, although he had made many guesses and assumptions in his heart before, but when he really saw the situation outside, Hao Ren couldn't help but widen his eyes: a vast world was shrouded in chaos.The temple is located on a hill that almost completely occupies the summit of the mountain, and when you look down from the front of the temple, you can see the strange rocky mountain stretching out at the foot of the mountain, and the further down it becomes, the darker it becomes, and the foot of the mountain is almost completely in total darkness.There was no life in sight on the mountain, only the remains of withered and twisted bushes and pitch-black boulders dotted the slopes.Hao Ren struggled to concentrate his mind, and finally let his eyes break through the darkness in the distance, and he saw a barren wilderness spreading out at the foot of the mountain, the wilderness was full of twisted plant remains and strange black shadows that could not see anything, a kind of fog hovering over the wilderness, making it even more difficult to see the distant scene.Above the barren land, there was boundless darkness and chaos, no sun, moon, stars, no clouds, only large clusters of amorphous black patches tumbling against a gray-black background, as if the end had come.In any case, it doesn't look like normal "weather", or even like the atmospheric landscape that can be seen from the surface of any kind of planet."
What the hell is this place......
Looking at this strange scenery that definitely doesn't look like natural scenery, Hao Ren couldn't help but mutter, but he was still slightly relieved: no matter what, this place does look like the surface, at least it is much better than continuing to float in the universe.If Lily had landed in this place, there shouldn't have been a problem.And just as Hao Ren was thinking about where to start to find Lily's whereabouts, a little light suddenly appeared on the plain at the foot of the mountain and caught his attention.The light appeared from the chaos and desolation in the distance, and gradually drifted towards the bare stone mountain, although the light was faint, but where the light shone, the darkness and mist on the earth retreated as if they were dispelled, Hao Ren looked closely, and finally saw a group of figures in the shaking shimmer, and looked ......
There was something else around the figures.Tired of a dozen soldiers, torn armor, notched swords, and almost tattered into a few strands of rags, the once glorious Talos Royal Guard entire squadron is now only a little bit left, under the faint light of the golden battle flag, the shelter of light is only a hundred meters, in this narrow and desperate place of shelter, Veronica's heart is sinking little by little.The tragic battlefield of the Shadow Jungle still lingers in my mind like a nightmare, more than 2,000 heroic veterans died in that bloody meat grinder, chaotic slaves poured out from all directions, devouring precious lives, making the noble knights die with a wail without dignity, the entire position was smeared with foul blood, and Princess Veronica, the proudest pearl of the kingdom, could only end up breaking through in a panic with dozens of personal soldiers when she led the army for the first time, and now even these dozens of personal soldiers have been killed and wounded.
It is about to be swallowed up by this dark wilderness of oblivion.However, Veronica's biggest worry is not how her battlefield defeat will be attacked by the incompetent noble house in the kingdom, nor how her opponents in the upper echelons of the kingdom will divide her land and wealth after she leaves, she is not even worried about her fate, she only thinks about one thing: the largest chaos nest in the shadow jungle has finally broken through the blockade, and the chaos minions can reach the kingdom's border in half a month, who can send an early warning?
Even if there is only one messenger who takes advantage of the chaos to break through the siege, at least let the border get this bad news, and prepare early, maybe tens of thousands of lives can be saved.However, she was destined to fail in this mission: although she had tried to break through and retreat in the direction of the kingdom's borders, the warped mist blockade of the shadow jungle had caused her soldiers to go the wrong way, and now it was pointless for them to turn around and go back, and they were absolutely dead, so they could only continue to move on in this barren wilderness, according to a less reliable account in the ancient royal books, in search of the ethereal hope."
The hateful Order, if it weren't for their monks withdrawing from the battlefield early, we would never have ended up like this."
Beside Veronica, an old knight with gray hair was indignant, and as these words fell, his body shook violently, and he almost fell off his horse.The horses under the old knight hung their heads and staggered as they walked, as if they had been infected with the disease in the barren wilderness, and in fact almost all the remaining horses in the team were on the verge of running out of oil: animals were often more difficult to survive in the chaos than humans who could shelter themselves with faith and spiritual warfare, except for those polluted beasts that already lived in the immaculate zone, which were already between monsters and animals, most ordinary animals usually did not survive more than three days after losing the protection of light.The glow of the Golden Banner was now weakened and nothing but a candle in the wind, and the shelter it provided was not enough for humanity, let alone the fact that these were only trained horses, and perhaps tomorrow, or even today, half of the troops would lose their mounts.If the Holy Mountain can't be found before then, it's easy to imagine what will happen to a group of mortals trekking through the Chaos Realm."
Ser Morion, the monks of the Order Nation have fought bravely, and their bravery and sacrifice are obvious to all," Veronica shook her head, her long lilac hair stained with blood staining its former shine, "There must be a reason for their sudden retreat - there is more than one shadow jungle on the battlefield on the borders of Chaos." ”The old knight bowed his head and said no more, and none of the young knights at the back of the group made a sound.These are the most loyal soldiers to the kingdom, having sworn allegiance to it with their lives many years ago, a trait that is known throughout the world of Kolo.Even after they were in the current situation under the command of the princess, the respect and obedience of these knights to Veronica did not diminish in the slightest.In fact, they also knew that Veronica's command had no problems at all, and even a real battlefield veteran would not be able to get a better result - an unexpected threefold enemy, as well as the early retreat of the monks of the Order Nation, in the face of this desperate situation, it was no longer a situation that a good commander could reverse.Veronica looked around, her gaze beyond the scarred soldiers, and at the edge of the glow of the Golden Banner, she could see countless shadows of twisted black smoke, these things emerged from the mist, gathering around like hungry wolves smelling of meat, she could clearly see their gradually forming entities, but they were not going to attack yet.Not at the moment.The knights had just repelled an attack an hour earlier and burned the few remaining reserves of mana from the Golden Banner, and now the surrounding fog could not condense enough and powerful enough Chaos Minions, but as time passed, the power of the Golden Banner would wane, and the monsters in the darkness would surely launch a new attack.It's hard to say how many people will be left after this attack.Veronica looked up again, looking into the chaos of the distance.All she could see was a hazy mist, and the unfathomable darkness behind it.Walking in the wilderness is a hundred times more dangerous than in the forest, because of the lack of references around you, the fog and darkness can quickly disorient people, and although she has the most advanced traveler's amulet made by the royal alchemist, this amulet only provides an approximate direction and distance guide.In this endless darkness and lack of markers, there is little security in this kind of guidance.Her Royal Highness shook her head, trying not to wonder if she had missed the sacred mountain.
(To be continued.) )