Chapter 29: The God Buried Deep Underground

Is the soul fragment of Xi Fu in a place like this, having lifted part of the seal?

To be honest, the amount of information is overwhelming, making it hard for Vilyric not to project outward.

For instance, how did the other party manage to break the seal? And compared to Epunya’s description, is the 【Disaster】 here stronger than thirty years ago?

Thus, an incredible hypothesis formed in her mind.

【Xi Fu, have you heard of the term 【Southern Disaster Phantom Cloud】?】

【What is that?】

「…？」

Not Xi Fu? No, it could be that she was split and sealed after…

Forget it.

Thinking too much about it now would be meaningless; Vilyric decided to take action to uncover the truth.

【So, nearby, which direction?】

【Well… it’s all around, but the most intense should be directly below. I can’t really pinpoint it, sorry; this body’s perception of the outside world is quite hazy.】

That’s enough; it seems I’ll have to venture underground anyway.

Vilyric temporarily tucked the stone statue into her pocket. During the mental exchange with Xi Fu, she had already thought of a way to dig a tunnel.

Since I’ve already used 10th-tier magic, there’s no need to hide it anymore.

Thus, a vibrant 【Pseudo-Kabbalah Tree of Life】 sprouted once more in the Priestess’s palm and transformed right in front of Edwina and the others into a pair of adorable little yellow paw gloves resembling feline paws.

With a poker face, Vilyric put them on, then beckoned her teammates over. Once everyone gathered, still bewildered, she pressed both paws against the ground.

Shwoom.

「Wah!!」

The ground where the clawed gloves touched vanished in an unscientific manner, creating a neat circular void three meters in diameter and several meters deep.

Amid Edwina’s usual loud gasp, the six of them plummeted down.

Vilyric did nothing but press her gloved hands firmly onto the solid ground, making the point beneath them disappear once more, sending them further down.

Although the soil eventually turned into hard rock and even elemental magic ore at a certain depth, it still could not block the power of these seemingly ordinary paw gloves.

After repeating this process over a hundred times, they finally fell into an open stone chamber where, beneath the rocks, the surroundings suddenly transformed.

The ceiling and floor of the stone chamber were only a few meters apart. Despite the abruptness, everyone adjusted themselves and landed steadily, except for one unfortunate Holy Knight, who crashed down like a 「bang」 due to the weight of her armor and shield.

「Ouch, ouch, my butt… Hey? Where is this…」

Though her entrance was loud and her fall quite disastrous, Edwina quickly brushed off the dust and stood up as if nothing had happened, curiously surveying her surroundings like the others.

Deep underground in the Disaster Forest, several hundred meters down, there lay a man-made stone chamber.

Vilyric withdrew the equipment transformed from the 【Pseudo-Kabbalah Tree of Life】 and, while observing the environment, quietly communicated with Xi Fu enclosed within the stone statue.

【So, is there any feeling that you’re close to your soul fragment?】

【Hmm… The sense of resonance is incredibly strong; it should be very close now. Be careful, Vilyric, remember what I said earlier.】

【Got it.】

This was a place resembling some sort of sacrificial ground.

A sacrificial ground is a site where people in this world worship ancestors, heroes, or deities, with varying styles depending on the purpose.

This sacrificial ground spans over five hundred square meters, a significant feat at least a thousand meters underground.

More than twenty specially made thick stone pillars were arranged in a regular and tight formation around, supporting the ceiling, giving it a solemn and dignified overall style, although the hole where Vilyric and the others dropped in seemed a bit out of place.

On the stone pillars and surrounding walls were numerous exquisite murals. Although Vilyric only took a cursory glance, the presence of large monsters and strange figures battling them suggested tales of some kind of myth.

The sacrificial ground was empty, except for a roughly three-meter-tall statue of a woman carved from some kind of stone adorning the central altar—seemingly the protagonist depicted in those murals.

Her hair was incredibly long, nearly dragging on the ground, and her uniquely luxurious long dress broke into countless strands, concealing her legs and ankles, spreading out like the roots of a great tree, merging with her flowing hair.

Adorned with a crown of flowers, her eyes were closed, and her arms were outstretched, as if countless seeds representing the future of rebirth were scattering from her palms. A rich sense of 【Divinity】 emanated from the statue, allowing any witnessing being to understand without anyone speaking.

This was a deity statue.

Yet this was certainly not a representation of any deity Vilyric had encountered in myth from the books.

Without a doubt, this was a forgotten god, lost to history and time.

【Xi Fu, do you recognize the identity of this statue?】

Vilyric reconstructed the scene in her mind using her vast Soul Power to achieve a near-shared vision; although she didn’t quite know how to flexibly wield the power represented by sp, this simple operation was within her capabilities.

Xi Fu had claimed to have lost much memory, even forgetting who she was, but there was no doubt this was not all she knew; at least she still remembered that it was Minerva, the God of Sky and Freedom, who sealed Xi Fu.

Combining this with her earlier words, Vilyric had her suspicions about the true identity of this statue.

After a lengthy silence, an echo emanated from the glowing statue.

【Vilyric, seeing this, I seem to recall something… This posture… Yes, this is Xi Fu’s true form—the Earth Mother Goddess, the Earth Goddess Xi Fu, the truth that this body has forgotten.】

As expected…

From the moment the other party mentioned the term “soul,” Vilyric had sensed something, and Xi Fu’s attitude regarding Minerva was similar to that of addressing an equal.

Xi Fu’s true identity was that of a deity.

Named the Earth Mother Goddess, a god who had been torn and sealed by other deities, and whose existence was unrecorded in history.

While intensely curious about the past between these deities and the reasons for Xi Fu’s battle with Minerva that led to their current plight, this fragment of a soul clearly couldn’t provide Vilyric with answers.

Even her own identity was only recalled upon witnessing this former divine form.

Therefore, the other part of the soul, now partially unsealed, must lie within the statue of the Earth Mother Goddess before them.

The statue itself was an imprisonment, but because part of it had been lifted, it emitted this 【Divine Presence】.

The huge earth vein energy sensed earlier was also emanating from this statue.

Just as Vilyric pondered how to handle this thing and its possible relation to the 【Southern Disaster】, the statue of the Earth Mother Goddess on the altar suddenly opened its eyes!

The sky filled with gray mist, but like pure, magnificent gray gemstone light, it suddenly enveloped the entire sacrificial ground.

Vilyric instinctively raised her hand to shield her eyes, but she quickly realized, to her surprise, that her companions, including Xiao Guang, had once again vanished.

The girl squinted her eyes slightly.

This is… a virtual space created by 【Phantom Cloud】.

For the second time.

   

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