Chapter 38: The Arrived Outsiders

“Ah…”

Seeing the gray mist completely dissipate while Miss Vilyric’s hands remained unchanged, even though Little Dragon Daughter wasn’t quite sure what she intended to do, she understood that her master’s experiment had probably failed.

Leila and Renée also looked at the White Robed Girl with worried expressions, seemingly afraid that this failure would affect Miss Vilyric’s mood.

However, to the surprise of the three, the Priestess did not seem downcast; instead, she smiled as if she had gained a lot.

“What’s with those looks? Chill out, I’m not some glass-hearted person who can’t take a hit. A good experiment should be prepared for failure, and besides, the overall result this time is actually quite good.”

To be honest, Miss Vilyric never expected to control a god’s leftover power just by casually trying. If successful, that would be great; if not, no big deal.

Her true aim was still to study the essence of the “Laws” through this attempt and explore the application of spiritual points.

Understanding the truth of the Earth Mother Goddess Xi Fu’s authority of creation and decay in just one go was already a leap of progress and a delightful surprise.

Being able to achieve this was, after all, rooted in her possessive, extraordinarily powerful Soul Power, which likely served as the energy source to drive the “Laws.”

Since Miss Vilyric had expressed herself like this, and she didn’t seem to be putting on a brave front, the three girls who cared about her gradually relaxed.

“Well, as a mood-lifting experiment, this is about enough. Let’s head back… huh?”

Before she finished her sentence, the Priestess suddenly raised an eyebrow, and Xiao Guang seemed to sense something at the same time, almost instinctively turning her adorable little nose toward a certain point in the south.

Leila and Renée were weaker in strength and lacked the perception ability compared to Miss Vilyric and her pet, but seeing the unusual expressions on their faces, they quickly understood something must be happening.

“What’s wrong, Lady Vilyric?”

“I’m not quite sure yet, but it feels strange. Xiao Guang, can you smell anything?”

As a pure-blood dragon of the warrior type, Little Dragon Daughter had far superior perception, possessing several abilities to detect things through dragon sight or smell.

The reason Miss Vilyric was able to sense the anomaly simultaneously with her pet this time was thanks to her sudden burst of inspiration after finishing her SP application experiment.

Soul Power was a more comprehensive and multi-dimensional means of information perception than simple vision or hearing.

By imitating how she interacted with those “Disasters,” or what one might call “Decay” elements, she attempted to spread her vast Soul Power outwards, forming a special detection network akin to radar.

Through this method, Miss Vilyric realized she could hear the conversations of farmers far away at the foot of the mountain with clarity when she focused, with her visual reach effortlessly exceeding a ten-kilometer radius.

It was precisely because of this attempt that Miss Vilyric vaguely sensed something peculiar, seemingly from near the village on the previous path of the envoy group, an unmistakable feedback that did not belong to a normal creature.

“I’m not entirely sure, but there’s a really unpleasant smell in the air, like a rotten green onion stuffed inside a plate of meat… it feels out of place.”

Using a metaphor that was truly in line with her style, Little Dragon Daughter added, “I mean, it feels out of place in this world.”

“Out of place, huh…”

Miss Vilyric pondered with her chin on her hand.

The feedback from her Soul Power had a similar feeling; Xiao Guang’s metaphor was quite reasonable, but if the Priestess were to describe it, it would be more like a bright red mark suddenly painted on a white wall… something like that.

What that was aside, this method of detection using Soul Power was indeed very useful, though alas, even Miss Vilyric couldn’t constantly maintain such a wide-area surveillance state.

It wasn’t due to insufficient SP or excessive consumption; rather, it was too obvious—way too obvious.

Being watched has its own feeling, especially when the one casting the gaze far surpasses you in status.

Even normal people, as soon as the influence of Soul Power washed over them, would show faces of confusion and fear. Some with fragile minds or the devout would even kneel and pray right on the spot.

This was still in the sparsely populated outskirts of a village. If it were in a larger place, once this Soul Power scattered out, I’m afraid the whole city would have been stirred up, causing a commotion.

There must be better techniques for using a more discreet approach; maybe next time, she could slowly research it or seek guidance from a strong person who understands this method.

To be honest, Miss Vilyric was somewhat concerned about things that would cause the world to reject them.

In fact, she had some guesses.

Demons from another world, it was said, would cause the world itself to reject them upon their arrival, making it difficult for them to come here and hard for them to exert their full power even if they did arrive. The stronger the demon, the higher the level of rejection.

Thus, some exceptionally powerful demons could sometimes only force parts of their bodies, like hands or feet, into this world even after offering substantial sacrifices. Some couldn’t even get in at all.

Could what Xiao Guang sensed be a demon?

But who would summon a demon here?

“Let’s go check it out.”

“Yes, Master / Lady Vilyric.”

Including Leila and Renée, all four girls had wings, making it very convenient for them to move. This was also the main reason Miss Vilyric decided not to take Edwina along—she could only run slowly on the ground.

With three sets of white wings and one pair of dragon wings unfurling simultaneously, the four figures shot up into the sky, quickly vanishing from sight.

…

Tilysha was an ordinary village girl from the southern district of the Nobos Ironblood Empire, White City Village 27.

This method of naming villages seems to have been adopted by the Nobos Ironblood Empire from the far more prosperous East, the Ost Empire.

The principle was to prefix a significant and important main city of an area, numbering the surrounding various small villages and towns, planning them all as xx City xx Village/Town.

For example, Tilysha’s case was thus White City Village 1, White City Village 2, White City Village 3, and so on.

This so-called “semi-militarized” policy was said to facilitate the management of those in charge, having been utilized since the emperor ascended over a hundred years ago.

Tilysha grew up in White City Village 27 and although some long-lived elders in the village sometimes brought up an alternative name for the village, reportedly out of nostalgia for something or other… for Tilysha, not yet 20, it carried little resonance.

To her, the village was simply 27 Village—simple and convenient. Those traveling merchants or young people passing through from other villages called it by the numbered name; who would recognize the older names that time had forgotten?

By the way, Tilysha was of mixed blood, with three-quarters human lineage and one-quarter treant blood, the latter from her mother, who supposedly had half treant blood.

As for who her grandfather and grandmother were, whether they were still alive or not, Tilysha had no idea at all.

   

---