Chapter 76: Eye of Wisdom (Part One)
My scalp was tingling…
This was just too weird…
Following Sword Demon Miss’s gaze, I glanced down again at the High Tower, furrowing my brows as I gazed at the street below crowded with bodies, nearly shoulder to shoulder. Goosebumps erupted all over me, and I quickly averted my eyes.
Whoosh—
I opened my mouth, planning to talk to the Female Swordsman, but to my surprise, she suddenly leaped from the High Tower. The wind lifted her cloak dramatically, making a huge sound that startled my already tense spirit, and I jolted: “Hey! What are you doing?”
The Sword Demon Miss didn’t answer.
She jumped straight to the tower’s base. Since there was literally nowhere to stand on the street below, she found her footing on the stone edge of the tower’s entrance. As soon as her foot touched the edge, with a “clank,” she unsheathed the sword she’d been hugging tightly, and stabbed it into the gap of the stone wall. Grabbing the hilt, she hung half-suspended above the tower door, peered down, and slowly pulled back the hood of the nearest corpse.
?
What was she trying to confirm?
I stood at the top of the tower, utterly uninterested in joining her descent, just watching her actions.
That appeared to be a male corpse…
From the looks of his rags, he seemed like a refugee. His tattered hood was covered in dust, and the worn-out knees of his pants were even growing moss—most of the dead here bore witness to neglect, with moss sprouting in the gaps of the cobblestone, indicating they had been lying there for who knows how long, unnoticed.
As the Sword Demon Miss pulled back the hood, a hairless, shriveled head was revealed.
The corpse seemed to be only partly decomposed, but compared to when he was alive, he was definitely a shrunken version of his former self, looking dry and gaunt, with skin that resembled old tree bark.
In that instant, as the Sword Demon revealed his hood, a massive centipede the size of my finger “swooshed” out of the corpse’s eye socket, fully equipped with an abundance of legs! It seemed startled, wiggled its way back into the corpse’s slightly ajar mouth in the blink of an eye.
Ew…
A shiver ran down my spine.
However, the Female Swordsman appeared completely unfazed, her face calm as she leaned in closer, seemingly unbothered by the possibility of that centipede striking again. She began to examine the corpse’s face closely, tapping on its neck and gently touching the dry skin across the ribs, giving her fingers a sniff afterward… her expression became increasingly strange.
“Wow…”
Watching her actions from the tower, my discomfort intensified, and I was completely covered in goosebumps at this point. I couldn’t help but yell, “What are you doing? Stop touching those corpses and come up here! Let’s go check that way together!”
The Female Swordsman looked up at my shout, withdrew her hand, and gazed at the nearby pile of corpses. After a moment, she flipped herself upright back on the stone edge, swiftly yanked her sword from the stone crack, and, with a slight bend in her knees, propelled herself up the tower wall like a monkey, landing right in front of me.
Then, she wiped her sword on her sleeve, sheathed it, and hugged it close, frowning as she murmured to herself: “Strange…”
“…What’s up?”
I instinctively took a couple of steps back, worried her corpse-hand might accidentally touch me: “I mean, you don’t have any weird corpse fascination, do you?”
“Hmm?”
The Female Swordsman looked at me, a bit bewildered, as if she didn’t grasp my meaning, but she didn’t seem to mind much. She quickly continued, “These people… judging by the smell, they’ve been dead for at least six months…”
“Uh.”
My lip twitched.
How do you even quantify smell…
“With this climate, after six months, they should’ve turned to bones… but they haven’t. These are mummies. They’re more common in desert-like areas, but not always… In any case, something’s off. It’s like the moisture in their bodies has been evaporated by the heat… or maybe, for some other reason…”
“Make your point clearly, will ya?” I rolled my eyes.
But I kinda understood what Sword Demon Miss was trying to express.
Well…
“Whatever the reason, a stroll around the little chapel might clarify things.”
“Little chapel?” The Female Swordsman looked puzzled.
“Yeah, that way.”
I pointed northward: “These corpses worship strange things, which might also be what traps us in an illusion… whatever it is, it should be over there.”
The worship of the dead, and that horrific eyeball in the illusion—the pus and bl**d flowing from it—all lead in that direction…
If I remembered correctly…
That should be the location of the little chapel inside the fortress.
“Let’s go.”
I tidied my clothing a bit, then leaned down to rummage through my bag, pulling out a hair tie to gather my messy hair: “After we get there, we might be in for a tough fight…”
“Tough fight?”
“Yeah…”
“It feels like the church here is up to no good, so just be mentally prepared.”
I paused.
If we wanted to leave, now was the time to do it—this phrase spun in my throat but didn’t find its way out.
“…Let’s move!”
Bang—
I took a Moon Step and sped towards the direction of the little chapel, with the Sword Demon Miss following like lightning. The wind howled in my ears like thunder, and in just a few seconds, we soared over the ancient, towering inner fortress.
After crossing the inner fortress, I came to a stop on another tower in the square, not for any particular reason, but simply because I had a strong impression of this tower.
In a timely manner, I recalled that poor woman who had suffered so much torment, rejecting everyone who tried to save her life, determined to leap to her d*ath from here.
And I had stopped her just in the nick of time.
I didn’t know that woman’s name…
But perhaps she had held a grudge against me ever since.
Boom—
Azure lightning struck down from the sky, and the Sword Demon Miss landed next to me, looking at me with a puzzled expression, but she didn’t speak, just questioned me with her eyes.
I ignored her.
Resting one hand on the parapet, I extended my gaze, sweeping over the same square filled with kneeling corpses. In that moment, the phantoms of those who once knelt in the rain, weeping and begging for mercy, trembling in agony, flashed before my eyes.
Those shadows appeared for just a moment, before merging with the countless dead before me. I continued looking up, and when the majestic ancient castle came into focus, my gaze landed on that familiar yet strange open-air platform on the fourth floor, which suddenly caught my attention.
There…
Now, it was empty.
Thick moss and climbing ivy had claimed almost all the space on the terrace, overtaking the iron fence and surrounding walls. Vibrant flowers in various colors burst forth from behind the railing, creeping towards the shut windows, peering through shattered openings.
If one could overlook the eerie corpses, this place could resemble a beautiful residence fit for a fairy princess in a storybook.
I couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness, a complex mixture of emotions.
Those women who had survived hell…
In the end…
They still couldn’t escape, could they?
It was just…
From one demon’s hand to another.
…Huh.
Did I just feel sad?
“What’s wrong with you?”
Suddenly, the Female Swordsman’s voice pulled me from my thoughts.
