Chapter 267: The Girl Seeking the Truth

There is only one answer to explain it — they gained some sort of new life or outside power assistance.

Faith-based magic.

…It all connects completely.

In other words, in true history, faith-based magic likely first emerged and spread in this world during the middle to late period of the Demon War, about three hundred years ago.

Moreover, the sudden appearance of this power and the transformation of the Church of the Goddess are likely closely related to the first president of the Lingyin Merchant Association, who experienced a similar situation.

“So that’s how it is…”

Under Fleidetrika’s puzzled gaze, Miss White Fox couldn’t help but let out a faint murmur as if refreshed.

Now, the final core fragment needed to fill in the nearly complete picture of the true history of the Holy Empire became clear before her eyes.

The actual operational method of faith-based magic.

…

“That’s enough for now. I’ll take it from here. You can go back.”

Beyond the lush forest, the girl who had just jumped down from the carriage, her appearance mostly hidden by a hood but with striking sapphire-like beautiful eyes, waved goodbye to the driver behind her.

The driver, a simple local villager, couldn’t help but remind the girl when he saw her unarmed and prepared to enter the forest alone.

“Little girl, don’t say I didn’t warn you. This is the legendary Holy Spirit Path, and there have been especially strange happenings lately. I’ve heard that many residents from outside the forest have mysteriously disappeared, and there are things like amnesia going around. It’s quite creepy.”

“Since you paid so much fare, let me give you one last piece of advice. It’s not too late to turn back now. If you go in, it could be nine deaths out of ten…”

The girl glanced back at the driver, paused for a moment, but only shook her head slightly.

“Thank you for your kind intention, but there are some things I must investigate. Also, if possible, please don’t tell anyone I’ve been here, especially… no, it’s nothing. Farewell for now.”

She abruptly cut off her sentence, quickly turned away, and casually waved at the bewildered driver as she stepped forward.

Diving into the thicket, the only thing left in the air was the girl’s fading last reminder.

“Please go back. This place isn’t very safe.”

…

Ella Light walked silently along the lush woodland path.

This was a well-known location west of the Holy Bergren Mountain Range, just over a hundred kilometers from New Yaster City, and a mysterious area filled with hidden dangers that locals dared not approach easily.

The Holy Spirit Path.

It is said that the remnants of the Holy Spirit clan, who once served the Light Goddess Aurora, lie hidden here. Although they wouldn’t leave the forest easily, they would mercilessly sanction those who dared to enter their territory with blasphemous or disrespectful intentions towards the goddess.

Because of this, locals even summarized three laws that made the area a so-called bizarre and unpredictable existence.

As a scholar, Ella certainly did not believe in ghost tales. To her, everything that seemed incredible or hard to comprehend followed its own rules and logic.

So-called ghost stories are merely the fabrications of fools who give up thinking or who lack the ability to uncover the truth, creating self-deceiving hoaxes to cover their ignorance.

Throughout her 200-year life, Ella had ventured to many places labeled as “mysterious” or “unsolved mysteries,” where she faced death several times but ultimately unraveled the truth of the locales.

This Holy Spirit Path was no different.

Of course, she wasn’t here for adventure… at least not simply for fun, but to conduct more serious investigative work.

From the confidential documents provided by the Cecelia Family, she learned that recently there had been special occurrences in parts of the areas around the Holy Spirit Path, similar to a “Blood Calamity,” where “faith-based magic failed” in a short time.

Although this news was instantly sealed off by the local church, and “professionals” were dispatched from the Holy Capital to handle it, the “strange occurrences” the driver mentioned were likely derived from this situation…

However, precisely because the Church of the Goddess took this so seriously, it made her feel there was some deeper intrigue involved.

After sufficient preparation, she crossed the “Sky Barrier” that spans the center of the Holy Nation and traveled a long distance to the vicinity of the incident area. After asking around in the surrounding villages and towns, she found a local person to guide her here.

The news was tightly sealed; including that driver she just met, none of the local residents living in New Yaster City or its surroundings, who lived merely dozens of kilometers away from the Holy Spirit Path, seemed to know that such panic-inducing events had occurred here.

“Memory erasure, or even directly making people disappear? The Church of the Goddess… truly stops at nothing.”

Muttering softly to herself, the girl cloaked in a robe and hood looked around.

As a forbidden danger zone shrouded in mystery, naturally, there wouldn’t be anyone idly wandering around inside. In fact, it had already been a full hour since Ella separated from that driver and entered the forest alone. Aside from a few not-so-intelligent small animals, she hadn’t seen a single person.

Let alone the so-called Holy Spirits or anything related to them.

Of course, this might also be related to the fact that she was simply strolling along the path without doing anything out of the ordinary, thus not violating any so-called “taboos.”

Ella remembered Miss Xī had mentioned during their information-sharing session that beneath this Holy Spirit Path lay many strange machines that clashed with Holy Nation culture, as well as a bizarre formation whose purpose remained unclear.

Although Miss Xī merely suspected that the things here might be related to the Light Goddess and faith-based magic, and their previous battle had nearly destroyed all the machines deep underground, it was said the traces left behind were still quite evident in the depths of the jungle, and as long as one took the time to search, they certainly would not miss it.

“…It should be around here.”

The Light Tribe Girl squatted down, gently stroking some barely noticeable incision-like markings on the nearby tree stumps, murmuring to herself.

Miss Xī had described in detail the situations she encountered here, which included the behavior patterns and attack methods of those “Mechanical Spheres.”

Although it was obvious that the targets of their attacks were not limited to the merchant caravan Miss Xī was with, it was likely such markings were abundant throughout the forest, but since they found scratches here resembling those descriptions, it indicated those things definitely had been nearby.

And… this scratch is new.

They’re very close.

The girl stood up, tightened her hood again, and pulled out a bottle of light gray potion from her newly acquired storage item. She opened the cap and poured it over herself from head to toe.

The slightly viscous liquid seemed to possess some spirit, quickly covering Ella entirely. Her figure gradually faded away in the thicket and finally vanished without a trace.

   

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