Chapter 170: A Familiar Gaze

Chapter 170: A Familiar Gaze

Shepherd Lovia’s response only made Joshua more vigilant. He glanced at the other members of the exploration team and asked urgently, “Did any of you hear abnormal footsteps?”

Holding Thunder God’s Roar and a straight broadsword, Derrick recalled for a few seconds and shook his head to deny it. Haim, who held the Unshadowed Crucifix, looked at the sealed artifact whose light had not changed, then responded, “Perhaps it was an illusion?”

“No. I heard it very clearly.” Joshua, wearing crimson gloves, frowned and expressed his view.

Hearing this, Demon Hunter Colin, who was walking at the very front, half-turned and calmly instructed, “Haim, Antilna, examine Joshua’s state.”

“Yes, Your Excellency.” Haim immediately walked before Joshua and pressed the Unshadowed Crucifix, composed of pure light, against his teammate’s forehead.

The sealed artifact did not change in any way.

Immediately afterward, Antilna, the burgundy-haired female warrior, arrived beside Joshua and raised her left hand.

Around her wrist was a pale gold bracelet. Hanging from it were three small bells covered in golden scales.

A jingling sound rang out, echoing through the surroundings and calming Joshua’s mind, making him less tense and impatient.

“There is no problem.” Antilna turned her gaze to Chief Colin Iliad.

Two complicated dark-green symbols had already appeared in Colin’s eyes. He watched Joshua for several seconds, then nodded.

“It may not be an illusion. But you must pay attention at all times to whether anything abnormal is happening to you.”

Seeing that the Chief supported him, Joshua secretly let out a breath.

“Understood.”

Temporarily setting aside their doubts, the City of Silver exploration team continued descending the enormous staircase covered in twilight, level after level.

Suddenly, everyone heard a muffled groan.

Out of the corner of his eye, Derrick Berg saw Joshua raise both hands and clamp them tightly around his own neck.

Because he was a Dawn Paladin with extremely great strength, the moment that muffled groan was uttered, his hands snapped his cervical vertebrae with a crack.

Joshua collapsed with a gloomy, twisted expression. His eyes were filled with disbelief.

The one who had killed him was himself!

“…” Although Derrick and the others could not react in time to understand what had happened, their long training and the experience they had accumulated while exploring the depths of darkness made them instinctively form a battle formation, guarding against any follow-up attack.

Then they heard another muffled groan.

This one came from Shepherd Elder Lovia.

The facial muscles of the silver-gray-haired woman tightened, showing obvious twitches and writhing, as though another face were growing out.

She fell to her knees on the broad staircase with a thud, pain overflowing from her every movement.

Her hands lifted slowly, irresistibly, and grasped her own neck.

Just as Lovia was about to exert force, two straight swords coated in silver-gray paste extended over, each flicking one of her hands away.

Demon Hunter Colin, already prepared, had responded in time.

Lovia’s entire body twitched. Her head lowered even more. Her mouth opened, and she vomited out chunks of shattered flesh and incomplete organs.

She exhaled, as though she had finally recovered slightly. Then, propping herself on her elbows, she crawled forward one step, lying prone as she swallowed the pieces of flesh and organs she had just vomited, one piece at a time. She looked devout and humble.

Demon Hunter Colin, whose face bore several old scars, watched this scene quietly and did not stop her.

At last, Lovia raised her head. Her pale gray eyes had no focus as she said, “It is corruption.

“The corruption that exists within everyone.”

“Do you have a way to resolve it?” Colin asked, his tone unchanged.

Lovia nodded without the slightest hesitation.

“Yes.”

No sooner had she said this than she gripped the index finger of her left hand with her right and snapped it off. She pulled it free by force, bone and blood together, stuffed it into her mouth, and began chewing while reciting in a low voice:

“Lord who created everything;

“Master behind the curtain of shadows;

“Fallen nature of all living beings…”

The True Creator’s honorific name… Derrick’s eyelid twitched as he suddenly felt some subtle change occur around him.

The orange-red twilight grew a little denser, coming closer to the color of blood.

Above the gray fog, The Fool Klein’s expression also instantly turned solemn.

Although he saw nothing through True Vision, he vaguely sensed a gaze cast over from somewhere unimaginably distant. It interfered with his observation, causing both the clarity and range of his vision to weaken.

In addition, that gaze gave Klein a strangely familiar feeling.

How could it not be familiar? The first half of my life after transmigrating was spent dealing with Him—His divine son, His divine envoy, the vessel He intended to descend into, objects left behind by His believers, His mad ravings, all kinds of murals connected to Him… At that moment, Klein could completely confirm that the one beginning to watch the City of Silver exploration team was the True Creator.

To be honest, when Lovia began reciting that being’s honorific name, Klein very much wanted to throw down a Lightning Storm and erase the problem before it appeared. But in the end, he restrained the impulse, because he was not confident he could kill the Shepherd in a single strike. The evil-spirit knight Lovia Shepherded should possess Sequence 3 status. Although it had long since died, its current overall strength was still at the Sequence 4 level. It would have no problem withstanding, for a while, a Lightning Storm that was close to but not yet at angel level.

And once The Fool failed to kill Lovia simply, decisively, and effortlessly, that would expose weakness in Demon Hunter Colin’s eyes.

Furthermore, Klein believed that Colin Iliad was willing to see Shepherd Elder Lovia recite the True Creator’s honorific name. He wanted to use it to counterbalance Mr. Fool and achieve a certain equilibrium.

In the presence of deities, this was actually disrespectful behavior. It could easily anger those great existences. But Colin Iliad had no choice. He would not, and could not, so simply trust either The Fool or the True Creator. He could only work hard to maintain balance, probing at the edge of a cliff.

Only in this way could the City of Silver avoid sudden destruction, like those city-states already buried deep in darkness and covered by the dust of history.

Unfortunately, if the Unshadowed Crucifix were in my hands right now, and if I fully mobilized the power of the mysterious space above the gray fog to cooperate with it, there would be hope of instantly killing that Silver Knight evil spirit… It’s a natural counter… Klein sighed soundlessly a couple of times and could only accept this development.

He had not noticed anything abnormal about Joshua before either. Not until the warrior wearing crimson gloves had grabbed his own neck had Klein seen his spirit become gloomy and gray.

Just as Shepherd Lovia had said, this was “corruption” belonging to oneself. It was not fundamentally different from losing oneself to money or beauty, and it was very difficult for external powers to detect.

“That section of staircase should have divine power representing corruption remaining within it, fused into the environment. It is hard to discover and hard to resist… The stone figure from before had no intelligence or spirituality, so it was unaffected… Judging from the honorific name, the True Creator holds authority over fallen nature. Merely His gaze can make the corresponding power recede…” Klein adjusted his state of mind and continued observing subsequent developments.

During this process, he could not help thinking about one question:

Is the True Creator now like me, watching the City of Silver exploration team’s actions from His divine kingdom?

…Back on Earth, this would be called friends watching the same livestream… If I tip a little, would the True Creator tip more? Klein used joking, self-mocking thoughts to ease the tension and worry produced by the True Creator’s gaze.

That was a genuine deity. Neither Adam nor Amon could be placed on the same level as Him!

At this moment, Shepherd Lovia had already stood. Her missing left index finger wriggled and grew back.

She looked at Chief Colin Iliad and said, “This area is no longer corrupted.”

That meant the staircase was no longer as dangerous.

Ordinarily, the exploration team would not bother with Joshua’s body at a time like this. Whether advancing or retreating, they could not waste time and remain too long in an abnormally dangerous area. That would only lead to accidents involving other team members. However, since Elder Lovia of the six-member council had stated with certainty that the vicinity was now safe, they could take a short rest and handle matters briefly.

Derrick set down Haim’s broadsword, walked to Joshua’s side, stared for several seconds, then bent over and picked up the crimson gloves, putting them on his left hand.

He still remembered how Joshua had often shown off this magical item obtained during exploration. He also clearly recalled that, before they had left the Afternoon Town camp, Joshua had said that after this expedition ended, he would be forcibly assigned a marriage, and he wondered who his wife would be. Yet an hour later, this teammate had become a cold corpse.

To the people of the City of Silver, this was daily life. No one wept or collapsed. Only a certain emotion that had already seeped into bone marrow and blood surged up—an emotion mixing heaviness and grief.

They watched Derrick raise his left hand and aim his palm at Joshua’s body.

A blazing ball of fire flew out and covered the teammate who had just fought shoulder to shoulder with them.

After the burning, Demon Hunter Colin collected the Beyonder characteristic that had separated out. The other team members each grabbed a handful of ashes and placed them in hidden pockets inside their clothes.

In silence, they continued descending and reached the bottom of the staircase. There stood a towering palace bathed in twilight, with corridors and staircases leading to other areas behind it.

The palace doors were open, but within was total darkness. Not the slightest trace of light could enter.

Demon Hunter Colin carefully observed for a while before saying, “Same as outside.”

He meant that they should maintain illumination by every available method and prevent themselves from falling into absolute darkness.

Thus, Haim stimulated the radiance of the Unshadowed Crucifix, letting it envelop all his teammates. Antilna, meanwhile, lit a lantern and carried it in her hand to guard against the possibility of the cross suddenly failing.

The group entered the palace and walked through what seemed to be an exceptionally vast hall. Their footsteps echoed far away, yet none returned.

As they walked, Derrick suddenly felt his eyelids grow heavy, overcome by an intense sleepiness.

At that very moment, he heard the Chief’s low roar:

“Do not fall asleep!”

Derrick jolted awake and broke free from that exhaustion that had nearly sealed his eyes shut.

Just then, a female warrior’s body softened. She collapsed to the ground, seemingly having fallen into deep sleep.

Then she vanished into thin air. She simply disappeared, directly before everyone’s eyes.

Demon Hunter Colin and Shepherd Lovia each examined the area for a while, then shook their heads and led the team onward.

During this process, they wounded themselves from time to time, using pain to keep themselves awake.

At last, after passing through arch after arch, they saw that what lay ahead was no longer darkness that could not be dispelled.

With the team’s light, they discovered that this was a hall whose walls were covered with countless murals. At the center of the hall stood a dark-red long table, surrounded by high-backed chairs with intricate patterns.

This… Derrick inexplicably found it somewhat familiar.

He soon understood. This resembled the scene of the Tarot Gathering!

Suddenly, clusters of light ignited, and whispers sounded around them.

Around the hall, atop stone pillars that stood upright yet did not support the dome, crimson flames were lit one after another, illuminating the surroundings with extraordinary brilliance.

The whispers gradually grew louder, as though they had finally crossed an immense, distant span of time and space to reach their destination, making the hall lively, as if a gathering were taking place.

Around the dark-red long table, blurry, illusory figures suddenly rose one after another and sat in different high-backed chairs.

There were eleven in total.