Chapter 613

Halfway along the path, Luo En suddenly spoke.

"No, this is clearly wrong—did we take a wrong turn?"

He saw that the scene before him differed greatly from where he had been before.

Here, he could not see the small, dilapidated temple at all.

Yet he clearly remembered entering the small, dilapidated temple, and meeting the villagers inside it.

Naizi heard Luo En's words and furrowed her brow tightly.

This place certainly did not resemble that small village.

"Could we really be caught in a ghostly loop?"

Luo En said, and immediately released his spell energy—only spell energy could make such curses hesitate.

"But judging by now, the curse we've encountered must be very powerful."

At these words, they both fully unleashed their spell energy.

Where the spell energy spread, everything returned to its original form.

It looked like a barren slope, with collapsed houses appearing continuously.

But no one had lived here for a very long time.

Seeing this, Luo En's brow tightened further.

He could sense the aura of curse energy emanating from here.

"Indeed, we've been deceived by the curse."

Luo En said coldly.

He had thought this trip would let him uncover the truth.

At the very least, he could find some villagers to ask about the situation.

What kind of great battle had the villagers suffered?

But he never imagined it was nothing like he had imagined.

Luo En spoke to Naizi.

"Let's leave this place quickly, don't linger—there's a very strong curse nearby."

Naizi nodded, and the two prepared to retrace their steps.

At that moment, they suddenly noticed the surroundings shifting constantly.

The barren hills before them transformed into a small village, and energy began drifting endlessly around them.

Luo En clenched his fist and concentrated all his spell energy into his fist.

If a curse appeared suddenly now, he would charge forward and strike first.

But to Luo En and Naizi's surprise, no spell energy appeared at all.

Though they saw extraordinary sights, none of them interfered with them.

Luo En said, puzzled.

"What's going on? Are all the curses hiding?"

Naizi shook her head and looked around.

Though the surroundings looked utterly eerie,

she could sense the true aura of the curse was extremely faint.

This proved the curse's power was not strong—otherwise, it couldn't deceive them with such illusions.

"Be careful—this curse is extremely cunning.

We must find it before it strikes."

After speaking, Naizi drew her twin blades.

The blades gleamed with cold light under the moon, and a sharp aura radiated from her.

She had already concentrated all her spell energy into the blades.

The next instant, she moved swiftly around them, searching for traces of the curse.

Luo En also focused completely, concentrating all his spiritual awareness.

In this state, he quickly detected traces left by the curse.

Luo En noticed a strange energy moving rapidly not far away.

He sensed this energy bore similarities to the aura emitted by the curse-bearers.

He believed it must be what the curses had left behind.

But since no curses appeared nearby, it meant they had likely moved elsewhere.

Luo En walked quickly toward it.

When he reached the energy, he noticed something new had appeared.

Though the small, dilapidated temple was gone, the statue lay half-buried in the soil, its body exposed only halfway.

It appeared severely damaged.

Not only had it lost both arms, but even its head was only half remaining.

Seeing this, Luo En felt a chill rise down his spine.

Perhaps the small village had endured until now precisely because of the statue's protection.

Now that the statue was destroyed, the village suffered its misfortune.

When he realized this, Luo En quickly dug the statue out of the ground.

Dirt clung to the statue's surface, impossible to clean off.

Luo En noticed the statue's eyes were half-open.

The remaining half of his face seemed to have something on it.

He quickly reached out, wanting to pull that thing out.

But suddenly Luo En felt a vast amount of strange energy surging toward them from all directions.

At that moment, Luo En suddenly saw a figure appear ahead.

It was the statue, standing four or five meters tall, entirely shrouded in thin mist.

Luo En stepped forward, and the statue gazed down at him.

"Who are you?"

Luo En asked loudly.

The statue did not answer Luo En's question, but slowly walked up to him and suddenly extended its hand.

Luo En saw a jade pendant lying quietly in its palm.

The statue's posture seemed to indicate it wanted to give him the jade pendant.

So Luo En extended his hand and took the jade pendant.

The jade pendant emitted a soft, warm glow.

Luo En was startled, then raised his head to look at the statue.

"What does this mean?"

Luo En asked in confusion, but the statue still gave no answer.

Suddenly Luo En felt the scene before him flicker.

He opened his eyes to find himself beside Nai Zi, still clutching the jade pendant.

Nai Zi stared at Luo En in surprise.

"What happened? You were completely motionless just now."

No matter how I called you, you didn't respond."

Luo En shook his head.

He glanced at the jade pendant in his hand and felt great astonishment.

What exactly did the statue want to convey to him?

When he raised his head to look at the broken statue, he found that all the energy within it had completely dissipated.

Nai Zi noticed Luo En's unusual expression and gazed at him with concern.

"What exactly did you see?"

Luo En said.

"This statue seemed to have manifested before me just now—I could see it."

As he spoke, he raised the jade pendant in his hand.