Chapter 160: Magic Array

Naga Eve adjusted her snake tail, striking a posture for launching an attack.

Rod, fearing the ritual's countermeasure would destroy the items on his person, stripped off his shirt and handed his spell satchel to Tally, who was hiding behind them.

As the countdown ended.

Both launched their charge simultaneously.

The difference was.

Rod charged with his physical body.

Eve let out a sharp grunt, and a white humanoid mist identical to her form burst from within her.

It was as if her soul had left her body.

Carrying fierce spiritual power, it slammed hard into the ritual seal.

【War Soul Impact】.

Caught in Yu Guang, Rod immediately recognized what kind of spiritual art this was.

It had been mentioned in 【Research on Native Spiritual Arts of Other Races】.

It was said that this was a spiritual art created by the Nagas to raid tombs and break tomb seals.

As a wise race obsessed with building magnificent tombs, the Land Nagas possessed quite a few skills born of tomb raiding.

Some believed the treasures in their tombs were meant for their descendants, and that the complex and dangerous traps and protective rituals were merely tests for the younger generation.

But the author of 【Research on Native Spiritual Arts of Other Races】 considered such talk utter nonsense.

He believed the Land Nagas were simply stupid and double-standard.

However, despite the author's contempt for this race.

He held 【War Soul Impact】 in high regard and believed it might spawn a new school.

Boom!!!

A deafening roar!

The tunnel immediately shook violently!

A fierce magical backlash erupted instantly, with red magic transforming into a colliding inferno.

Rod, standing at the forefront, bore the brunt of it.

But how powerful was the 【Dragon Scale Art】?

He withstood the damage without retreating a single step, even spreading his body to shield the two behind him.

Fortunately, the Rat People's space-stabilization technology prevented the tunnel from collapsing.

Pow!

The backlash came fast and left just as quickly.

Looking again, the dust had already settled.

"Sorry, I seem to have underestimated the intensity of the ritual's counterattack."

Eve, covered in soot, brushed the dust from before her face.

She looked forward, seeing that the aura within the dust had not changed; indeed, he might not have sustained a single scratch.

She couldn't help but mutter.

What a monster.

Rod walked out of the smoke and dust completely naked.

His clothes had been blown to shreds, revealing a set of perfectly coordinated and explosively powerful muscles.

And his base form, not yet transformed into the Giant Puff-shroom mode.

"The power of this is nearly Tier Seven."

He evaluated.

"Pfft!"

Eve covered her small mouth, pointing at him while laughing, "Just average."

Rod let out a cold snort.

His second heart pumped instantly.

This heart possessed immense pumping power, allowing him to enter his state instantly.

The Naga's beautiful eyes widened in shock.

She had only seen his complete form before; now, seeing him evolve from base form to complete form, the impact was extraordinary.

"This..."

"Anyway, Nagas can."

As this fellow slowly approached, Eve immediately realized what he intended to do.

She couldn't help but retreat.

"What do you think you're doing?! In this place? At this time?"

"You should know, I am someone who cannot withstand teasing."

Upon hearing this.

She felt a large hand press down on her shoulder, an undeniable force pushing her down half a body length.

Then, under the soft light of the 【Brighten Spell】.

Eve looked up in astonishment.

Her gaze gradually grew hazy.

Her tone softened.

"If it's just once... it's not impossible..."

Tally, seeing this from behind, hurriedly ran over in a panic.

"Ah! There's food to eat and you didn't even call me!"

With that said.

After a good while.

Rod, feeling refreshed and clear-headed, pulled up his trousers.

Tally, with a smile on her face, obediently fastened the buttons and straps of her master's clothes and trousers.

Meanwhile, Eve, her snake body coiled on the ground, coughed painfully against the floor repeatedly, as if she had choked.

"You... you did that on purpose!"

"Of course. This is a reward. Tally loves this the most."

"Nonsense... cough... she's a succubus! She has no gag reflex in her throat at all!"

The three stopped their foolish antics.

After dressing properly again, they continued forward.

Eve transformed back into human form.

Not long after.

The narrow and cramped tunnel reached its end.

This space, carved out to the size of a room, was covered on the floor with magical arrays.

In the center of the array stood an altar, upon which rested a massive ram skull.

Moreover, the surrounding area and the walls were covered with spells and filled with various bloody ritual materials.

Anyone could tell this was no legitimate thing.

"Ah, it's just an array?"

Eve looked disappointed.

She stepped forward, intending to take all the spell materials for herself.

"Wait."

Rod pointed to the edge of the space, revealing a hole slightly larger than a mouse hole, from which the array's lines extended outward.

It seemed this was not a standalone formation, but merely one link within a coordinated array.

"So what?"

The Naga indicated, "What does this have to do with me?"

"I'll loot this place and then slip away. Whether it's coordinated or not, what's that got to do with me?"

Rod could not act like her.

This clearly evil thing was located beneath Shi Ying Town. It appeared there was more than one, obviously the work of someone intent on striking Shi Ying Town.

Combining this with the prophecy issued by the half-centaur Miss Xiao Ke this morning.

Rod directly concluded that this was indeed the case.

However, destroying it prematurely might tip off the enemy.

Unlike the independent ritual seals outside.

This array was connected to the outside; once a mage checked the mana pathways, the anomaly would be discovered immediately.

Although his usual strategy was to tip off the enemy, the situation was different now. The enemy was in the dark while he was exposed. Shi Ying Town had countless abandoned mines; if the enemy simply refused to show themselves and secretly built more arrays, where would he find them?

Rod shook his head.

Destruction was definitely necessary.

"But first, we must have Dimia or Selena come to inspect the array's connections, so that after we destroy it, the enemy doesn't notice and change the lines."

"So you mean we can't take anything here?"

Eve asked dejectedly.

"Whether you take it or not, you lose. There are no treasures here at all."

"Wh-what do you mean no treasures! Look at that ram skull, and those lizardmen skins, so fresh. They are all treasures!"

Rod couldn't help but laugh.

Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly sensed the bacterial level of those items.

Thanks to the enhanced perception granted by his understanding of the 【Plague】 domain, he could detect how long these items had been placed there.

At this moment, he clearly sensed they had been placed here for no more than a day.

Generally, arrays involving fresh flesh and blood would be set up with spells to prevent rotting.

However, since a ram skull is naturally resistant to decay, the array's creator had skipped this step to improve the array's efficiency.

This was precisely why Rod detected the anomaly.

"No more than a day?"

Seeing the setup here was well-arranged, and finding neither footprints nor fresh residual spiritual mana on the path they came, he had assumed it was at least a week old.

"There is a small hole in the space leading to the outside; one doesn't necessarily have to enter via our route."

Rod thought of Fried Argyle, the noble descendant who had just arrived last night.

Deleted a bit; see the full version in the group chat later.

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(End of this chapter)