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Chapter 108: I’ve heard that overly perceptive women often…

“Of course, to fully transform, it requires an enormous amount of sacrifices. These guys probably didn’t turn into this in a normal way, but rather through a crash course—it’s likely related to the ceremony that the Pope is currently holding.”

“Yeah…”

Miss Vilyric didn’t comment much on that cruel sacrifice; she just quietly observed the increasingly approaching, smoke-filled cultists, her palms glowing with a golden light.

“Fully-fledged divine followers… If their followers look like this, it seems the god isn’t exactly a proper god. And that masked guy from last time, clearly, the gods of order and neutrality are all practically dead, yet the evil gods are somehow surviving…”

“Whoosh!”

The golden light spear shot out of nowhere, piercing through the chest of a cultist who had just lunged at them. Surprisingly, although the spear easily penetrated and disappeared deep into the forest, the Truth Church believer, hit by it, merely hesitated momentarily mid-air before continuing their assault as if completely unaffected, and was now about to reach the Black-haired Girl!

“Not happening!”

“Boom!!!”

A massive wooden shield, as broad as a wall, stood up in front of the Priestess. The Tree Wall Sophie rushed in just in time, solidly blocking the opponent’s charge and forcing them back, which left Miss Vilyric, whose eyes were already hinting at a deep golden glow, a bit startled.

“Are you okay?!”

“Ah? Oh… um, thanks?”

“Hey, why do you look so reluctant?”

“I’m not! It’s just your imagination.”

“It’s definitely not! Deep down, you think I’m a nuisance, don’t you?!”

Wow, what a sharp sixth sense.

“Whoosh whoosh whoosh!”

Several green arrows flew in, hitting a few cultists’ masks with a solid thud, sending them flying. However, even more resembling the Truth Church believers kept pouring out from the forest, completely surrounding the adventurers trying to enter deeper.

“Don’t linger with them! Tree Wall, Tree Barrier, clear a path! Our goal is to reach the depths of the evil cult’s ceremony site!”

“Understood!”

“Leave it to me!”

In such a critical moment, no one was laughing anymore. The two front liners courageously pushed back the encircling enemies, while the others cooperatively fought with their respective roles, pushing forward.

Though some words were left unsaid, since Xiao Guang had specifically come to seek Miss Vilyric’s help, the Tree members could guess that only the Priestess, as a divine magic user, had the chance to stop that kind of evil ceremony. This was also the key reason why the Tree Bow sought to collaborate with Miss Vilyric from the very beginning.

The cultists, modified by divine power, had quite impressive strength. While they didn’t reach Captain Marcelo’s level, each could exhibit about lv30 strength, which already counted as high-tier among adventurers.

However, the real annoyances lay in the fact that they nearly wouldn’t take any damage from conventional means. Their bodies seemed to be made of true smoke, yet when attacking, they could unleash real physical force.

If it weren’t for the exquisitely coordinated legendary adventurer team like the Tree, along with Le Qiao Qiao and Hong Yan providing support, and the occasional healing from Miss Vilyric, a regular group would probably find it impossible to break through in such conditions.

Fortunately, the number of Truth Church cultists in the forest wasn’t too high; this part of the mutated guardians only numbered around several dozens. Although the Tree couldn’t completely wipe them out, pushing forward wasn’t too strenuous.

The group protected the central Priestess and advanced swiftly. Strangely, as they moved, the entangled cultists around them started decreasing instead.

Finally, a vast and magnificent magic circle, like a barrier, appeared before their eyes. They had reached the vicinity of the ritual site described by Little Dragon Daughter.

“Oh! I see it! This must be…”

“Wait!”

Amid the squad, Miss Vilyric, who had rarely faced direct combat and thus had plenty of opportunity to observe her surroundings, suddenly shouted urgently, causing everyone, who had been approaching the ritual site, to instinctively halt in their tracks.

“What’s wrong, Miss Vilyric?”

Enrique replied with slight confusion, but he found that the Black-haired Girl had surprisingly shown a rare serious and contemplative expression, her body emanating a faint golden glow, almost as if she had used some kind of self-enhancing divine magic.

“I see now; so this is the principle at work… This guy is indeed very sinister; seeing it in person is much different than just hearing about it.”

Muttering softly, the Black-haired Girl suddenly shook her head decisively at everyone, including Hong Yan and Le Qiao Qiao.

“You can’t go forward anymore. I’ll handle the next part on my own.”

Sophie, holding a heavy wooden shield, was momentarily taken aback.

“What do you mean we can’t go forward? Is there a trap up ahead?”

Before Miss Vilyric could answer, the swordsman girl standing nearby seemed to sense something and expressed a heavy tone.

“The environment here is indeed a bit strange. The cultists we encountered when we first entered and those we just fought clearly differ significantly. The latter only appears near this forest… Perhaps it isn’t a mere coincidence.”

“Oh? Not bad, Little Hong Yan, you’re quite sharp.”

Finally shaking off her prior contemplative state, the Priestess nodded and pulled out a wild chicken they had hunted earlier, which was processed but hadn’t yet made it to the grill, and casually tossed it toward the edge of the ritual array, several dozen meters away.

Then, something astonishing occurred.

With no obstruction, the chicken crossed the glowing surface and almost immediately began to emit thick “ash,” like wood scorched by flames, a dried corpse that had lost moisture—rapidly turned fragile and blighted until it completely shattered into a wisp of grey mist.

“What the heck! So terrifying?!”

“…”

Le Qiao Qiao was spooked as if encountering a ghost, retreating three steps back. The others, though not as extreme in their reactions, also looked quite pale.

If Miss Vilyric hadn’t warned them, they would have rushed in recklessly and the outcome wouldn’t have been pretty.

Miss Vilyric casually clapped her hands, seemingly having anticipated this situation.

“See? The ritual site is already shrouded in a genuine power of law. If any beings not meeting its criteria step in carelessly, they’ll be directly erased by the law and become sacrifices for the ritual. Even wandering nearby, they’d be eroded by divine power, just like those cultists earlier.”

“You lack faith in that deity, and since you’re quite strong, you can withstand its influence on the periphery. However, if you really enter the ritual site itself…”

Miss Thief swallowed nervously.

“Good thing our boss reacted quickly! How did you notice these things?”

Miss Vilyric shook her head, noncommittal.

“It’s actually pretty simple. Just look at the edges of the magic array; do you think it’s odd that such a well-defined clearing appeared in the forest out of nowhere?”

As she put away her wooden bow, Enrique hesitated to speak.

“But if that’s the case, Miss Vilyric…”

“Yeah, I’m a Priestess under the protection of Holy Light, so I have a bit of resistance against this thing.”

Seeing that everyone, especially the Tree members, still looked worried, the Priestess patted her not-so-great chest and struck a confident pose.

“Alright, there’s nothing to worry about. This is the former homeland of the tree spirits. Who knows, a great Life Goddess might be watching over us quietly—our backup is solid!”

“You really know how to joke…”

“Uh, speaking of which…”

Suddenly, Miss Le Qiao Qiao weakly raised her hand, interjecting at an inopportune moment.

“Have you all noticed that one little ancestor has been missing since earlier?”