Chapter 161: The Invisible Things

“What is…?”

Seeing this, the Spirit Butterfly Girl hurriedly ran over to Miss Vilyric, lowered her head, and carefully identified the trace that the latter pointed to, quickly gasping in surprise.

“Ah! It seems to be the scale powder of our Spirit Butterfly Clan!”

The Priestess nodded.

“That’s right, and the scale powder here hasn’t been covered by the weakened light snow, indicating it was definitely just left behind. It seems it was only a few hours ago.”

Generally speaking, the scale powder of the Spirit Butterflies is used as a medium to unleash their powerful innate abilities. Vilyric had read about it in some books, but her real encounter was in Demon Town, where Tiyelu inexplicably pulled them into the sanctuary for refuge.

In both Edwina’s previous encounter and the two times she entered the sanctuary later, there was a noticeable silver powder left nearby; that was the scale powder used by Tiyelu.

Although the color of the scale powder here is different, its essence is quite similar, meaning Spirit Butterflies have fought nearby and at least unleashed powerful innate abilities.

Looks like we’re getting closer, but there haven’t been any signs of invaders or Spirit Butterfly corpses along the way. The avatar Vilyric left at the foot of Spirit Butterfly Peak also failed to observe any traces of invaders being sent out. This clearly deviates from the principles of the magic circle described by Xiao Lan and Lulu…

“Miss Vilyric! You must come and see!”

A warning shout suddenly came from a little further away, where Xiao Lan was observing her surroundings. The Priestess immediately turned her head in her direction, understanding the goal of Miss Slime without needing to be reminded.

After all, that thing was way too conspicuous.

“Tsk, just when we said there were no bodies, one suddenly pops up…”

After the mist was just cleared by Radiant Protection, a snake was lying sideways on the mountain path.

This type of snake, Vilyric had seen something similar in the territory of the Mountain Wolf Clan. Although there were some differences in size and details, there was no doubt it belonged to the same lineage.

The three girls approached the snake, and Vilyric crouched down, using her pastor’s staff to prod and examine its body, which seemed to have only its head hanging on the main path, evidently devoid of life, nodding in contemplation.

“Mm… Seems like it’s completely dead.”

“Miss Vilyric, how did this thing die? I don’t see any wounds on it.”

In response to Xiao Lan’s question, the Priestess, who had already activated her information detection, answered without hesitation.

“Psychic attack, that’s for sure. Don’t be fooled by its outward appearance; its head has been blown apart, Lulu, is this something your Spirit Butterfly Clan does?”

“Uh, even if you ask me that… I’m still just a child. Many of the Spirit Butterflies’ powerful abilities I only know by name, and the memory inheritance hasn’t reached the unlocking stage; I really can’t judge based on this…”

“Is that so… Alright then.”

Not wishing to continue the conversation, Vilyric just furrowed her brows and glanced at the snake’s corpse a few more times.

After the incident with the Mountain Wolf Clan, she specifically researched various species of snake magical beasts and had successfully found related records in an ancient book gifted by Edith.

The Devouring Serpent, a fearsome magical beast recorded since the mythological ages, inherited bloodlines of some extremely powerful existence.

The true face of this “extremely powerful existence” was also clearly described in the book.

That’s right, it was the legendary beast of doom—the World-devouring Serpent, Ymir, known in myths to have swallowed the sun, moon, and stars, plunging the world into darkness.

Of course, the Devouring Serpent pales in comparison to the World-devouring Serpent in all ways, and cannot be measured against it at all.

In fact, while the Devouring Serpent has inherited some of the bloodline of the World-devouring Serpent, it is very limited.

They are not in a parent-child relationship; rather, it is said that during a fierce battle between the World-devouring Serpent and the gods in ancient times, the blood of the former flowed out due to injury, and after being diluted, was accidentally consumed by another type of snake magical beast, resulting in the mutation that became today’s Devouring Serpent.

That said, the Devouring Serpent has thus inherited some innate abilities from that legendary existence—becoming stronger infinitely through consumption.

Due to its limited bloodline, the Devouring Serpent cannot possess an infinitely vast gut world like the true World-devouring Serpent, swallowing celestial bodies and gods; however, it does exhibit at least tier-four strength, with rare individuals living long enough to achieve tier-five and even some records of tier-six.

Such evidence shows how terrifying the power bestowed upon them by just that tiny bit of bloodline is.

The Devouring Serpent has a long lifespan, reproduces slowly, and is very rare; it’s said to only occasionally appear in the Mountains of Ten Thousand Demons, the land of magical beasts. Yet Vilyric unexpectedly encountered one twice in a short period?

Not likely; this cannot be mere coincidence.

This Devouring Serpent is most likely from the same source as the one eaten by the Snow Wing of the Mountain Wolf Clan, or rather, they are part of the same group.

This means that the identities of those attacking Spirit Butterfly Peak have already emerged.

In that case, many of their actions, such as gathering strength and lying in wait, make sense. Plus, with the message just received from Little Dragon Daughter…

Vilyric remained composed, while her Soul Web spread like delicate threads, enveloping an area of several hundred square meters around her.

Soon, the girl frowned.

“Nothing… Did they escape, or have they perished along with this corpse?”

“Miss Vilyric, what do you mean by ‘nothing’?”

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

The Priestess brushed off the snow and dust from the hem of her white robe, stood up, and shook her head in response to Xiao Lan, who cast a concerned glance. She then nonchalantly nudged the dead serpent’s head aside with her long staff to avoid obstructing their path up the mountain.

“Let’s go, we’re almost there. From here on, we need to stay alert. Remember, focus!”

For some reason, Vilyric emphasized those words again before leading the way forward.

“Huh?”

Xiao Lan and Lulu exchanged glances behind her. Although they didn’t quite understand what she was thinking…

“Since it’s Miss Vilyric’s instructions, we should keep it in mind.”

“Mmhm, that makes sense.”

Continuing upward, indeed, just as Vilyric anticipated, the path began to frequently reveal numerous magical beast and magical creature corpses fallen along the mountain path and surroundings, with representatives from various races, but just like the Devouring Serpent, none lacked the rare bloodline and special abilities, or at least they were of magical general caliber.

Similar to the initial discovery, these corpses were also remarkably well-preserved, with hardly any visible wounds, meaning they were all directly killed by some powerful psychic attack.

By the way, where Vilyric and the others currently stood, nothing was visible beyond the Radiant Protection; these corpses were all concealed beneath the thick fog of Spirit Butterfly Peak. If it weren’t for the barrier’s range coincidentally extending nearby, even if one were close, they would not be noticed at all in usual circumstances.

Perhaps this is the reason why they’re scattered everywhere yet remain unaddressed.

However, notably, there still wasn’t a single corpse of a Spirit Butterfly like Lulu. It seemed the battle conditions were relatively favorable for them.

Until… something slammed heavily against the barrier of Radiant Protection, making a loud “bang.”

   

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