Chapter 150: Sealing Dust

If I had to forcefully differentiate between the two, it might be that one is slowly extracting nutrients from five hundred million people over hundreds of years, while the other immediately snatches the entirety of fifty million people’s essence to transform and evolve oneself.

I really can’t tell whether to praise that Nameless Demon Lord as a genius or to call him mad for coming up with such a brutal method to seek the Divine Realm.

Of course, Miss Vilyric wouldn’t hoard or take these “Existences” for herself. If it were something related to faith, she might not mind picking it up casually, but seizing something that directly relates to others’ lives, or even more fundamentally important essences, would be terribly cruel.

With a flick of her palm, the mass of “Source Power” condensed from the “Existences” swayed upwards under the girl’s control, splitting into smaller shining orbs that scattered like fireflies.

As long as they return to their original bodies, those who were stripped of existence and “disappeared” should be able to recover.

The light gradually faded away, but for some reason, the brightest among them did not immediately return to its original body. Instead, it circled around the White Fox Girl, swirling as if it were testing something or was particularly affectionate.

“Hmm?”

Miss Vilyric felt a bit puzzled.

“Existences” are a type of causal essence formed over years of living, and an ordinary person’s existence is quite weak. The previous ones were already a feat for being as small as fireflies, likely because they mainly came from the not-so-ordinary warriors of the Black Scale Army.

However, this particular “Existence” was nearly ten times larger than those ordinary ones, comparable to the brightness emitted by a small magical lamp, indicating that the individual it represented surely had a rather intricate and profound causal connection.

To put it simply, it’s well-experienced, strong, and clearly has an extraordinary lifespan.

Furthermore, “Existences” are not souls. While the energy of “Source Power” is conceptually more mysterious, it does not possess the clarity of rationality like the latter. Logically, as long as it loses its constraints and has not been thoroughly “refined,” it should automatically return to its original form, just as if drawn by a magnetic field.

What is going on with this “Existence”…?

Though somewhat incomprehensible, since it wasn’t willing to leave immediately, Miss Vilyric could only raise her hand and temporarily wrap it with sp, stashing it away. After taking a last glance at the White-armored Warrior guarding the center of the temple, she headed straight out of the place.

The prior “reconstruction” somewhat achieved a time-reversal effect, but ultimately, it wasn’t truly what one would call time magic. It merely restored various changes in the tomb and expelled the outsiders.

Moreover, the effectiveness of this depended on individual strength and had to be discounted further.

Hastening her steps, when she reached the target area, which was about a third of the total distance from the temple, the anxious inquiry from a middle-aged man clearly entered the ears of the now reverted Priestess Miss Vilyric.

“Why haven’t they returned yet… Is it really okay for us to just wait here? Ya Zi, what on earth is Miss Vilyric doing over there?”

“I don’t know either, but it’s my master’s order. We just need to wait.”

“Even so, it’s been so long. What if something happens to Miss Vilyric alone over there…”

“Ah, stop fidgeting; you’re making everyone anxious! Don’t worry, since she has made such assurances, nothing will happen. Miss Vilyric is stronger than you think.”

“I know she’s capable… But Senior Kong, you saw how strange things were earlier. The unbelievable events happening one after another in this tomb are too much. They expelled us all but left Miss Vilyric behind; how can that not raise concerns?”

“Come on, with your skills, if even Miss Vilyric can’t handle it, you’d just be a burden, so save your energy and chill out, will you?”

“Meow meow~”

“Regardless, until my master returns, no one is to act recklessly. I only obey orders and trust my master’s judgment.”

Just as that was said, the Black-haired Girl lightly stepped into the room, her smiling wave greeting everyone.

“Hey, you’re all here?”

“Miss Vilyric!?”

Upon seeing a certain someone finally appear, Miss Xiao Kong rushed forward, tightly gripping the Priestess’s hand, worry almost spilling from her bright eyes.

“Are you okay? What about the temple…”

Even though she had previously told Mr. Murong Yun not to worry, it appeared… she was probably the most anxious one here, perhaps merely putting on a brave face to stabilize the situation and support someone’s decision.

“Ow, ow, ow! Your claws! Your cat claws!”

“Eh? Oh, sorry…”

Seeing the Black-haired Girl suddenly grimace in pain, Miss Xiao Kong was startled and quickly withdrew her tight grip, intending to apologize. But then she immediately realized something.

“Wait, I’m using the pads, not claws… Hold on, Miss Vilyric, you…”

However, that unprincipled Priestess had already successfully alleviated the atmosphere and, with a mischievous grin, shifted the conversation to serious matters, leaving Miss Xiao Kong no chance to retort.

“Hehe, it’s fine, it’s fine! Everything over there is sorted out, and unless something unexpected comes up, we can just leave this place directly.”

As she smiled and dodged the temptation to smack her for the teasing and the irritation, which somehow felt a tad reassuring, Miss Vilyric turned her gaze toward the Silver-haired Girl who quietly came to her side.

“Hen, thank you for earlier.”

Though the praise sounded a bit inexplicably odd, the latter simply shook her head with a calm expression.

“I merely gave the destined one the trust and respect she deserved. Everyone possesses their own secrets, don’t they?”

“Haha, secrets and such…”

Actually, at the moment when the White-armored Warrior unleashed that power left by the Spiritual Fox Priestess, resetting the tomb and sending all outsiders back, Miss Xiao Kong promptly utilized her space ability to mitigate that profound power to some degree.

Therefore, they had only temporarily returned to a location somewhat distant from that temple and had not actually left the tomb outright.

Miss Xiao Kong noticed Miss Vilyric’s disappearance first and seemed to realize something from that. She initially wanted to rush to the temple for support, but someone was currently preparing to use the “Mask of the God Fox” to transform into Xī and resolve the issue with the Nameless Demon Lord, naturally not wanting too many people to see.

Thus, after sensing this point through the temporarily unhindered divine mind, Miss Vilyric quickly conveyed the message through a contract to Ya Zi, giving instructions that she was about to employ a very hidden special power to deal with the enemy and that no one should come intervene.

As Ya Zi was a pet captured by Miss Vilyric herself, he would fully obey her commands and promptly relayed the message. However, Miss Xiao Kong and Mr. Murong Yun were deeply concerned, and combined with some trust issues regarding the former, they simply couldn’t accept the beast’s “ My Master commands, everyone remain still” explanation, nearly leading to a spat.

At the critical moment, it was Hen’s sudden declaration, firmly standing with Ya Zi—or rather, with Miss Vilyric—that barely convinced Miss Xiao Kong and Mr. Murong Yun to cooperate, allowing the White Fox Girl time to slowly investigate the secrets related to the Spiritual Fox Priestess.

So this expression of gratitude was not without reason.

Indeed… even if she isn’t the real Hen, she always manages to make the right choices at critical moments. That is what they call rapport, I guess.

Taking a moment, Miss Vilyric roughly described the earlier happenings in the temple without mentioning the Spiritual Fox Priestess, simply stating she dealt with the Demon Lord inside and resealed it.

After all, the identity of the Spiritual Fox Priestess is too sensitive in the Ancient Spirit Realm; it’s better that fewer people know she can temporarily transform into her using a tool.

However, regarding the Nameless Demon Lord, Miss Vilyric openly shared the relevant information with the others, since that matter is practically settled. Next, she planned to personally act to seal the tomb again, leaving no room for anyone to take advantage.

Let that cruel and eerie power remain eternally sealed deep underground.

   

---