“Zi Luo Mo… Authority?”
Qiansitelin asked uncertainly.
Muxuan gently nodded.
Then the Great Artisan God’s armor automatically fell off, reverting to a cloud-like form.
That spherical object wrapped in light was thrown into the Holy Relic by Muxuan.
Muxuan then made a gesture.
Qiansitelin immediately understood and reached out to touch the Holy Relic.
The next moment, the Holy Relic emitted a brilliant light, slowly swallowing the sphere wrapped in light.
Now Muxuan finally understood the Holy Relic’s function.
The Holy Relic was initially created to store Authority… and the material for making it was the Goddess’s flesh and blood.
Dismissing the complex emotions in her mind, she turned her gaze back to the Great Artisan God.
The Great Artisan God sighed softly, then nodded.
Without many words, his hands forcefully pierced the cliff wall.
The next moment, the platform trembled continuously, and thick steps extended from the cliff wall.
With a dull grinding of rock, cold stone steps stretched downward into the silence, each step accompanied by faint echoes in the empty abyss.
The Great Artisan God’s movements were slow.
Each time his hands, covered in gray-yellow waves of air, plunged into the rock, they precisely caused a stable enough step to “grow.”
Qiansitelin followed closely behind the Great Artisan God, one hand gripping [Lyrasel] which was embedded in the cliff for support, the other hand carefully supporting Muxuan.
Muxuan’s body was almost entirely leaning on her, her steps unsteady, each lift of the foot seeming extremely difficult.
Her golden eyes were half-closed, and beneath her long eyelashes was an undeniable exhaustion.
Theodore was following closely at the Great Artisan God’s feet, her small hands gripping the folds of his leather armor at his waist, her little face still somewhat pale.
The deeper they went, the more stagnant the air became.
A stale smell of earth and rock, as if it had not moved for hundreds of years.
After his self-destruction annihilation, it seemed to have completely disappeared.
However, between the cliff walls, there was nothing, very quiet.
The strange corruption aura left by Zi Luo Mo had also disappeared.
But this excessive silence weighed like a heavy stone on everyone’s heart.
“We’re here.”
The Great Artisan God’s deep voice broke the silence.
His figure stopped on the last step, below was solid ground covered in thick dust.
This was the bottom of the cliff… a bottom they had never visited before.
Muxuan took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing her physical exhaustion and mental burden.
Her golden eyes flickered with a weak but determined light in the darkness.
She raised her hand, applying slight force at her fingertips, and a beam of pure, gentle light brightened, enough to pierce the thick darkness.
The light dispelled the darkness a few steps ahead, illuminating the ground beneath her feet.
As she expected, and as the brief “calm” she sensed after Zi Luo Mo’s annihilation indicated—there was no anomaly at the bottom at all.
No rolling Black Mist, no twisted tentacles, no nauseating corruption scent, nor the terrifying scene of accumulated pollution erupting.
It was as if Zi Luo Mo had never left anything at the bottom.
However, Muxuan’s heart sank even deeper.
This kind of “normality,” from the moment she sensed the Seal disappear, she knew was the greatest abnormality.
Although Zi Luo Mo had annihilated with his own corruption, he had already introduced corruption to the bottom long ago.
It was just that they couldn’t detect it now.
The light moved, illuminating farther places.
Below were many grim skeletons.
Pale white bones were piled chaotically, covering the ground as far as the eye could see.
Some were human-shaped, some were the thick frames of Dwarves, and even some massive skeletons of strange forms, difficult to identify what creatures they belonged to.
They were covered in thick dust, some half-buried in black soil.
Among the bones were scattered some rusted weapon fragments and broken armor pieces, reflecting a cold glimmer under the light from Muxuan’s fingertips.
“The Crosier…”
Qiansitelin said in a low voice.
She knew it was Muxuan’s primary goal in insisting on coming down, and her gaze searched eagerly through the pile of bones.
The Great Artisan God warily looked around, Forging Hammer tight in hand, the Rock Armor covering his body silently materialized.
Without Muxuan’s reminder, as a peak Moho Layer powerhouse, the Great Artisan God instinctively sensed something was wrong here.
Muxuan did not answer Qiansitelin.
The light at her fingertips shone steadily.
Her gaze swept over the piled mountains of bones, the depths of her golden eyes extremely solemn.
After hesitating for a moment, Muxuan gently exhaled a breath of stale air.
“Let’s go… that way.”
Although she couldn’t sense the Crosier’s location now, she had no other choice but to rely on basic intuition.
Her footsteps lightly pressed onto the ground covered in bone dust at the bottom.
Qiansitelin, the Great Artisan God, and Theodore followed closely behind.
The bottom was dead silent, only the faint sound of bones being crushed under their feet spreading in the emptiness, sounding exceptionally harsh.
The light at Muxuan’s fingertips seemed to flicker due to her weakness, barely illuminating a small area ahead.
The piled-up bones cast twisted, elongated shadows under the pale light, like lurking monsters.
“Watch your step.”
The Great Artisan God’s low voice sounded, his body blocking the front.
The Forging Hammer was gripped tightly, a dark red aura flickering at the hammer head, ready to respond to a sudden attack at any time.
Among them, only he was in the best condition currently, and for Her Highness, he had the duty to ensure safety.
Muxuan’s gaze finally fixed on an inconspicuous corner deep in the bone pile.
A faint, almost imperceptible sensation of resonance tugged at her perception.
Not light, but a… silent coldness, carrying a familiar remnant of divinity, same origin as the Crosier, but devoid of all life.
“There.”
Muxuan pointed in that direction, her voice weak but exceptionally clear.
Each word seemed to drain her strength.
They followed Muxuan’s finger to look.
In the gaps of the piled bones, a faint dull gold was barely visible.
Qiansitelin’s heart tightened.
Carefully supporting Muxuan, she pushed aside a few thick beast bones blocking the way, and moved forward together with the Great Artisan God.
Buried under several Dwarf skeletons, the Crosier symbolizing the Church’s supreme Authority lay quietly on the cold rock and soil.
The staff still flowed with a restrained dark gold luster, but the gem set at the top was dim, like an eye that had lost its sparkle.
Now, everything was clear.
The entire Crosier was almost entirely made from the Goddess’s body.
At this moment, Zi Luo Mo’s words “The Goddess’s Spine, worthless” echoed in everyone’s hearts.
Muxuan broke free from Qiansitelin’s support and stepped forward unsteadily.
Her gaze locked onto the Crosier, a turmoil of extremely complex emotions surging in her golden pupils.
Her feelings were equally complex… but there were some things she couldn’t say.
Qiansitelin instinctively wanted to stop her, her outstretched hand stopping in midair.
The Great Artisan God watched silently, muscles tense under the Rock Armor, alert to any disturbance around.
Muxuan slowly crouched before the Crosier.
The cold chill seeped through her clothes, biting into her knees.
She took a deep breath and reached out her equally cold hand to grip the cold staff.
However, the moment her fingertips touched the metal—
The piled bones seemed instantly connected by an invisible electric current.
Countless pale white bones violently trembled and clashed, producing a teeth-grinding clack clack sound.
The thick layer of bone dust covering them was suddenly stirred up like by a strong wind, instantly blurring vision.
An indescribable chill burst forth from every skeleton.
“Watch out!”
The Great Artisan God bellowed, then took a sudden step forward, his massive body blocking in front of Muxuan and Qiansitelin.
The Forging Hammer in his hand swung out fiercely.
The dark red violent aura instantly expanded, with a shrieking sound tearing the air, and slammed into the nearest few humanoid skeletons that had “stood up” due to the disturbance.
Boom—!
The skeletons shattered on impact, turning into bone dust filling the air.
However, more skeletons staggered to “stand” from the bone piles.
And the bone dust swept by the Great Artisan God’s aura did not dissipate; instead, with a cold deathly stillness, it tried to adhere to and erode the Rock Armor on his body.
Qiansitelin’s heart also tightened.
Lyrasel was instantly drawn from its sheath.
A brilliant silver glow lit up again, but the light was noticeably dimmer than before, and the blade seemed somewhat sluggish.
“Your Highness!”
After clearing the skeletons in front, Qiansitelin looked anxiously at Muxuan.
The moment the skeletons mutated, Muxuan had already tightly, desperately grasped that cold, heavy Crosier.
Her body shook violently from the immense impact and weakness, and she fell to one knee.