Chapter 251: Familiar Yet Strange

After figuring out what the so-called positive and negative “Blood of the Cross” really meant, Miss Vilyric briefly communicated with the Temporary Life Goddess before returning to the blood pool.

There, a certain Little Dragon Daughter, who was responsible for guarding the exit and observing the surroundings while also taking care of Eudora, was becoming a bit impatient.

However, she chose to address the main issue first.

“Master, it seems there’s something going on above.”

“Above? Oh…”

The Miss White Fox, who was sorting through a lot of information, froze for a moment before realizing where her pet meant by “above.”

Come to think of it, there had been a blood clan member who ran off to inform some Duke before the battle started, and judging by the residual spatial array aura left imprinted on the wall, it must have been a one-time-use subpar item that was scrapped right after teleporting that blood clan member away.

In other words, if the opposing side wanted to provide reinforcements, they could only move from the outside and reach this place via another short-distance spatial teleportation array inscribed near that blood tree on the ground.

If that were the case, they might bump into…

Ahem… The souls should still be alive, right?

“You all go up to help; I won’t be joining. Moreover, this child that grew from the seed of Xī’s life, though it has undergone some mutations due to Slutut’s killing intent over a long time, remains fundamentally a child of life. I’ve instructed it; it won’t attack you.”

Upon hearing the Temporary Life Goddess say this, Vilyric turned her head as if she sensed something.

“Xi Fu Lin, are you going back?”

The blue-haired girl smiled and nodded.

“I can’t just occupy Tilysha’s body indefinitely, right? I came here specifically because I sensed the aura of this life tree and the presence of that Lord of Killing. Now that the issue is temporarily resolved, I don’t have much to do here.”

“Um…”

Seeing the Miss White Fox deep in thought, the goddess smiled again.

“Alright, I know you have plenty of questions you want to discuss with me regarding the Demon World and the various situations in this Holy Empire. We can chat about it leisurely sometime later… And there are some follow-up matters that Tilysha will explain to you in detail later.”

“Then I’ll take my leave first. Vilyric, remember to get in touch when you can~”

“Okay, bye bye~”

“Swish.”

The hazy glow enveloping the blue-haired girl and the strong divine aura faded away, and the azure light in Tilysha’s eyes, symbolizing the deity’s influence, gradually retracted, indicating Xi Fu Lin’s divine consciousness had left her.

“Ah, I’m back! Xī…”

Like she had just made a circle in another world, the little girl blinked foolishly and looked around. Upon seeing Miss White Fox and the Little Dragon Daughter looking at her with different expressions, she hurriedly wanted to say something…

But Vilyric had already spoken first.

“It seems Xi Fu Lin has some task for you to handle? Well… no rush, let’s deal with the urgent matters at hand first, and we can discuss it later. Let’s go.”

“Ah? Oh, oh…”

With no time to worry about the blood clan members fainted by the pool, the three girls returned along the way to the initial room, forcibly breaking through space using the power of the Void Trace, ascending to the surface.

After the unstable floating sensation unique to space teleportation ended, they found themselves standing firmly under the gigantic blood tree once more.

“Boom!!!”

“What the?! What’s happening?!”

A certain dark energy orb suddenly erupted on the ground not far away, startling the slightly dazed Miss Tilysha, who had just completed the teleport.

“Oh?”

It was only at this moment that Vilyric realized that things outside… seemed to be much livelier than she had imagined.

At least a hundred figures, some floating and some standing, were engaged in fierce combat under the blood tree’s shade.

There were clearly two opposing factions among them.

Among those with a significant numeric advantage, most were dressed quite casually and in a variety of styles—some looked like civilians in everyday clothes, while others were clad in the standard armor of the Temple Knights of the Holy Nation, and a few wore light golden robes resembling priestly garments.

Amidst these people, the team known as the “Grim Reaper’s Scythe” caught the attention of the Priestess the most.

They stood at the front of the formation, their combined legendary strength resisting the most violent portion of the attacks, and their opposing enemies…

Were about five or six figures floating in the sky, constantly launching fierce attacks downwards.

However, these guys were not the blood clan members Vilyric had guessed.

They were demons.

Five Blade Demons and one Succubus, all of them high-ranking demons.

The appearance of the Blade Demons closely resembled that of the King of Slaughter Slutut they had seen before; though they only had two arms, they boasted metallic wings like Lucas, stood just over two meters tall, and were wrapped in high-quality, menacing black armor.

On their chest armor, there was a long, blade-like engraving, with extra blades on their shoulders and legs that could be used for melee attacks. They had a tail about a meter long covered in hard scales, adorned with deadly barbs, resembling a fierce, formidable wolf’s fang—everyone could tell how terrifying its swing would be.

When Vilyric and the others teleported in, the demons had just wrapped up their long-range bombardment or were perhaps annoyed by the lackluster effect of it, and the only four-armed Blade Demon that hadn’t attacked before flashed in, charging like a fierce hawk directly at the most outstanding Gray-clothed Swordsman in the crowd!

“Clang!”

The long sword and battle blade crossed in the air, sparking and ringing sharply.

“Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!!!”

Neither side spoke, but they immediately engaged fiercely, exchanging blows over a dozen times in an instant. The violent raging winds created by their clashes caused the other three members of the Grim Reaper’s Scythe to take a step back, clearing a wide area for their fierce battle.

However, once that particularly strong four-armed Blade Demon made its move—its power edging close to the transcendence realm despite being suppressed by the world’s power—the other demons ceased their attacks and merely hovered in the air, observing the confrontation while casting wary glances toward Miss White Fox.

This reaction… did Slutut instruct his minions about something?

While she noticed this, Vilyric didn’t rush to take action. Instead, she remained a passive observer, curiously glancing at the group that for some reason got entangled with the Grim Reaper’s Scythe.

These people were undoubtedly the patrol teams she had seen roaming the forests when she used SP to scan earlier, but now they had many more experts… Did more reinforcements arrive?

Speaking of which, where did they come from?

The eastern part of the Thanos Province was largely undeveloped, filled with primitive forests and low hills, making it a rarely visited area, and the appearance of such a sizable armed force was already strange, let alone considering this was currently a demon-controlled territory—how could demons allow such a large-scale armed group to operate freely here?

Hmm… well, “allow” might not be the right word; they were clearly in the midst of a fight.

Yet, it seemed these demons weren’t targeting the group but aiming for the underground sacrificial site here. The two sides just coincidentally ran into each other and started fighting.

Clearly adversarial, yet not deliberately targeting each other, huh…

“Um…?”

At that moment, a young girl with a brown short ponytail, carrying a long bow, suddenly caught Miss White Fox’s attention amongst the crowd.

   

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