Chapter 170: Beneath the Fool, the Pregnant Angel

The Mr. Fool beneath the Gray Mist cast his gaze down and used the mist's aura to grant the group concealment of their status.

The three arrived at the edge of the nameless island, gazing at the dense, dark forest; Zhongli and Su Lin vanished from sight, leaving Bernadette alone on the beach.

"Don't worry, we will guard you beside you."

Bernadette nodded and followed a path that appeared human-made, entering the forest of colossal trees, each of the smallest requiring five adults to encircle, their leaves and branches tightly overlapping to block out the sky, plunging the already gloomy environment into utter darkness.

No bird calls, no beastly horns, no rustling of insects—Bernadette could hear only her own footsteps, her breath, and the rustle of her clothing; the silence was terrifying.

Bernadette's expression showed no change, as if she had long grown accustomed to advancing through danger and strangeness, especially with two Ancient Gods beside her; she walked forward steadily, her only concern whether something valuable lay ahead.

After some time, the trees grew sparse, and an open space appeared ahead.

"No need to scout—we're here." Su Lin's voice echoed at Bernadette's ear; she lowered her arm and ceased her probing.

Two minutes later, she stepped out of the sparse woods and found countless creatures sprawled across the vast open ground.

Among them were crimson dragons with skin flowing with flame, tree-people with knotted growths for eyes and fissures for mouths, eight-legged demon wolves, giants with grotesquely elongated limbs, feathered serpents with murky green scales and oily feathers, their coiled forms resembling small hills, and all manner of hybrid creatures blending human and beast.

"Heh, this scene really drops the SN value," Su Lin laughed. "A newbie village nightmare."

"Mm, chaos of demons," Zhongli affirmed. "Like uncontrolled transcendents, full and incomplete mythological forms."

"Do you think we could wholesale transcendental traits here?" Su Lin asked Zhongli.

"Not advisable—they're all Rosser's anchors," Zhongli said, combining his analysis. "Destroying them would affect Rosser's few remaining anchors."

"True."

The two made no effort to hide their voices, yet the strange creatures before them seemed deaf; all bowed their upper bodies or heads toward one direction, worshipping the Black Emperor, whose location remained unknown.

The scene was utterly silent, like a mute play.

Among them were even several humans. Bernadette gazed—her blue pupils widened slightly; these humans wore luxurious garments, appearing noble, their pale-white skin like living corpses from a horror tale.

According to Rosser's diary, the contamination once present on this primitive island had nearly driven Rosser to defeat.

This contamination was exceedingly strange: it caused infected beings to return to this island at the end of their lives, resurrecting—but with an unknown horror within.

The appearance and adornments of those humans were all familiar to Bernadette.

Greene, William, Perry, Edwards—they were Bernadette's elders, even her swordmaster and horsemanship instructor.

At this moment, she confirmed the island's profound connection to Rosser.

After the creatures finished their ritual and departed, Bernadette spoke softly: "Why do they..."

"Perhaps contamination, perhaps the Black Emperor's doing," Su Lin said. "Keep moving."

Beyond the open ground lay another forest, branches slanting and obscuring the sky; the light dimmed again. Unlike before, the dimness concealed countless pale bones—on branches, in rotting earth.

The bones of transcendental beings, devoid of transcendental traits; yet the farther they advanced, the more decayed they became; by the time Bernadette reached the end, she witnessed transcendental beings regrowing flesh from bones and reviving.

Su Lin suddenly sensed a twisted force; he gazed left-forward, his golden-white eyes piercing the dark forest, revealing a black pyramid.

Rosser's final tomb stood there, fused with the hill.

"Over there!"

Bernadette used the "Eye of Secrets" to gaze left-forward; under the effect of fairy-tale magic, she began to glimpse the future, foreseeing possible events—then a streak of blood trailed from her corner of the eye, and pure white wings unfolded layer by layer behind her.

It was not Su Lin who acted—it was Bernadette herself using Rosser's legacy.

Meanwhile, the surrounding massive trees, deep green bordering black, swung their branches, uprooted themselves, and, like humans, advanced toward Bernadette.

The bones began to be covered in flesh; the crimson dragons with flaming skin soared swiftly into the sky; the eight-legged demon wolves sprinted wildly between the trees.

They had detected the intruders.

Kleen, viewing from above through the Source Altar's sight, realized the island had come alive!

A golden shield flared beside Bernadette; simultaneously, a thin white line slashed toward the black pyramid, severing countless trees and transcendental beings along its path.

Yet even so, the creatures severed by the ninth-rank spell "Flowing Radiance" still writhed; their shattered bodies began reassembling according to a rule.

Hum—

A golden torrent of power surged over, turning everything in the area to stone—temporary sealing; these things had not truly become stone.

Zhongli frowned; he sensed a rule eroding his power, attempting to rapidly twist this region back.

"Black Emperor"

From the outermost petrified ground, the petrification crept inch by inch toward the center, at a swift pace.

"As planned, enter the tomb first," Su Lin placed several blessings upon Bernadette.

Bernadette nodded; her right hand traced in the air, and starlit words appeared, summoning the "0-Class Artifact"—the Sage's Diadem.

A hundred-meter firebird with a massive wound on its belly spread its wings, gathering a fireball a kilometer wide at its beak.

Swish—

A spear interwoven with gold and Jin Xuan descended from the sky, piercing its skull all the way to the ground.

After Bernadette temporarily obtained Sequence 2 power, which flowed as an information torrent into the tomb, Kleen used the mark left on Bernadette to pry open the Source Altar's power, creating a passage for Su Lin and Zhongli into the tomb's interior.

"Damn you, Fallen Mother Goddess!" Su Lin cursed under his breath; as he cleared the mutated creatures nearby, he triggered some judgment mechanism—each one eliminated added a sliver of power; after he just used a move OE, the accumulated quantity reached a threshold, and a strange force directly acted upon his lower abdomen.

Thump, thump—a heartbeat sound emerged from his abdomen.

"No wonder even true gods fall for this," Kleen observed from the Source Altar; even Amon, the Mr. Error who would one day become Sequence 0, would be affected.

"Fortunately, it cannot transmit along historical projections to me," Su Lin gained his first clear understanding of the Elder Days' methods.

As an Elder Day of pillar status, the Fallen Mother Goddess's lingering methods on Earth were impossible to guard against—conventional barriers and blessings were useless!

Inside the Light God's avatar, a new heart seemed to have formed, expanding and contracting steadily, gradually taking the shape of a fetus.

A spear of light appeared in his hand; after spinning it once, Su Lin unhesitatingly thrust it backward into his own lower abdomen, piercing the infantile form still growing within.

Intense light instantly flooded the dark island; the infant within seemed unwilling, struggling to absorb Su Lin's power—but one second later, its absorption could not keep pace with the spear's released power; crushed by endless radiance, it could no longer sustain itself and vanished completely.

"Originally, this was meant for Bernadette—I just took the bullet for her?"

"What's this called? Surrogacy?!"

Su Lin, face grim, yanked the spear of light from his abdomen, gazed upward, and nodded toward the Source Altar, infinitely high above.

Kleine summoned two paper figures, shook them idly, and the paper figures rapidly thickened and swelled before flying into the semi-transparent vortex of illusory mystical symbols beside the Fool's chair; within the tomb, a source of light resonated with it—that was Bernadette.

Based on the imprint coordinates shared by Kleine and the resonance, Su Lin and Zhongli relaxed their resistance and, guided along, vanished from their spot.

(End of Chapter)