Chapter 553: Far Exceeding the Demon King's Expectations

The three-minute rest ended quickly.

Following Princess Ailin's order, the elite thirty-man squad reorganized their equipment and continued to advance into the darkness of the dense forest.

Surprisingly, the journey ahead was unexpectedly smooth.

The nearby rat-men seemed to have been scared out of their wits; for the rest of the way, the group didn't encounter any decent resistance.

Even the greediest and most reckless slave rats seemed to have evaporated into thin air, not even a shadow to be seen.

Only a few wandering stitched monsters and alchemy golems whose magic crystals hadn't burned out were aimlessly wandering in the forest.

These big guys were all "leaked fish" intentionally left behind by Alakto.

As one of the Demon King's most loyal mounts, that giant spider knew its master's wicked sense of humor well—clear the field, but don't clear it too cleanly.

After all, they had to leave a little sense of participation for the brave lady of Campbell.

Plus, its subordinates were very picky eaters and couldn't bring themselves to eat these strange-looking things, so they let them go.

However, Princess Ailin wouldn't let them go.

That silver lightning that swept across the battlefield was even faster than Prince Kelin's magic wand, severing that huge head in just half a breath.

With a dull thud, the giant beast that was enough to rampage on the battlefield collapsed, turning into a puddle of stinking rotten meat.

And Princess Ailin also returned to Kelin's side at the same time, the Light of Praise, which hadn't been stained with a drop of blood, slid slowly into its sheath.

"Well done."

Luo Yan gave Princess Ailin an appreciative look, the corners of her mouth lifting slightly, though it soon turned into a light cough.

"What next? Which way... do we go?"

Luo Yan said with a smile.

"This way, please."

As he spoke, the firebird circling in the sky let out a crisp cry and dived toward the dense forest ahead of the group.

Guided by the firebird, the group soon crossed the dense bushes and arrived before a huge karst cave hidden by the stream.

This was exactly where 【Ye Zhiqiu】 and the other players had encountered the BOSS and were wiped out.

But now, the scene here had changed.

Alakto and its spider army had swept through like locusts, not only killing the rat-men stationed here cleanly, but even disposing of the two lizardman player corpses that had fallen here until not even a bone fragment remained.

Including the dropped equipment, which had long been packed and sent back to the Necropolis.

However, seeing the spider webs covering the cave entrance and the large pools of green slime remaining on the ground still caused a hint of confusion to flow in Princess Ailin's eyes.

"This is... traces left by cave spiders?"

She picked up a strand of tough spider silk with the tip of her sword, her brows slightly furrowed.

Luo Yan walked up, squatted on the ground to examine it for a while, nodded as if deep in thought, his voice carrying the rigor of careful consideration.

"It seems so."

Watching the Demon King's serious appearance and Princess Ailin being led around by the nose, Shala couldn't help but twitch the corner of her mouth, her gaze drifting to the surroundings to guard against any movement from the rat-men.

"But... why would rat-men and cave spiders kill each other?" Princess Ailin was even more puzzled, a hint of confusion flowing in her eyes.

"Perhaps because the rat-men's recent expansion was too aggressive, encroaching on the cave spiders' territory? Or perhaps because those rats stole the spiders' eggs?"

Luo Yan took a glass reagent bottle from his bosom, pretended to scrape a bit of the slime sample from the ground with a silver spoon, sealed it, and stood up while wiping his hands with a handkerchief.

"Regardless, this is a good thing for us."

Hearing Prince Kelin say this, Princess Ailin didn't think much more of it. She nodded, turned, and whispered instructions to the soldiers behind her.

"Everyone, stay alert, watch out for the slime and traps under your feet! Follow behind me!"

"Yes!"

The crowd responded in unison, then lit the torches in their hands and followed behind Princess Ailin and Prince Kelin as they strode forward.

The flickering torchlight dispelled the gloom at the cave entrance, and the group stepped on the slippery ground, cautiously entering the depths of the cave.

Up to this point, this adventure was still just a righteous march, and everyone's face carried an eager expression.

However, as time passed, the deeper the group explored into the cave, the stronger the nauseating stench became, making everyone frown and feel heavy-hearted.

Everyone had a bad premonition.

What entered their nostrils wasn't just the stench of corpses.

Mixed into that odor was the chilling smell of blood, as well as the foul stench of large amounts of biological excrement after fermentation.

Rather than a tomb, this place was more like a farm, and what was being farmed inside was something chilling.

The ground had been trampled solid and slippery by countless claw marks, and the black soil was mixed with rotting straw.

When the group turned a corner, a shocking altar appeared in their line of sight, causing everyone to freeze in place.

The area around the altar was piled high with severed limbs, and bloody corpses were stacked into a small hill like trash; the visual impact caused everyone's stomach to begin to churn violently.

"……This is."

Princess Ailin's voice carried a hint of uncontrollable tremor. She stared wide-eyed with those emerald pupils, the longsword in her hand gripping until it creaked.

That was a "mass grave" piled on the ground!

Perhaps the number of corpses lying here didn't reach ten thousand, but a thousand was definitely a conservative estimate.

They were piled randomly in the corner, just like kitchen waste.

"Those demons!" Teresa couldn't help but curse, having to raise the back of her hand to cover her mouth and nose to avoid vomiting on the spot.

"Saint Xisi above... I simply cannot believe this is happening in the Second Epoch." A walking knight couldn't help but let out a sigh, silently making a cross on his chest to keep his spirit from being affected.

Unlike the slaughter on the battlefield.

There were no traces of confrontation here.

At least for those most prominent corpses, no wounds left by fighting could be found on them.

"I'm afraid even the demons of hell would feel... this is too blasphemous." Luo Yan dropped a thought-provoking sentence, then snapped his fingers, and countless vines extended from the walls, temporarily covering the mountain of corpses and sea of bones.

Enduring the double discomfort of physiology and psychology, the group bypassed the bloody altar and continued to explore deeper into the rear.

After passing through a long, narrow corridor, the space in front of them suddenly opened up.

Luo Yan waved the magic wand in his hand, and a hot wind blew along the walls, silently igniting the torches that had long been extinguished around the walls.

When the light illuminated this huge underground cavern, the knights from Campbell were once again shocked by the scene that came into view.

What the dim torchlight reflected was a scene like a pigsty, just like the purgatory depicted in the Holy Word Book.

Countless crudely made wooden cages were stacked layer upon layer on both sides of the cave, reaching all the way to the cave ceiling. The bars of the cages were covered in black grime and grease, as if grabbed repeatedly by countless dirty hands.

What was locked in the cages weren't livestock.

But living Ryan people.

According to the survivors in the refugee camp, most of them were refugees who had been driven out of Roland City during the Great Fire of the Winter Moon last year.

They were all naked, squeezed into narrow spaces like livestock, making it hard to distinguish whether they were men or women. Their eyes were all uniformly hollow, as if all light had been drained away.

Many of them were covered in severe abscesses and skin diseases, the product of long-term exposure to extremely poor sanitary conditions.

Some had broken legs with suppurating wounds, some were missing fingers with black scabs on the stumps, clearly suffering from severe infection.

When the group holding torches appeared at the cave entrance, the expected cheers didn't appear.

On the contrary, they instinctively curled up and covered their heads like frightened cockroaches, desperately trying to burrow under their companions.

A few people leaning against the edge of the cages, having nowhere left to hide, began to kneel down reflexively, kowtowing frantically toward Luo Yan and the others.

"Don't, don't kill me... I remember, I have two sons, let me write them another letter! Please give me another chance!"

"What do you want? I'll give you everything!"

"Master! Spare me, I won't dare again!"

The people here were so desperate that they couldn't even scream for help.

When the dignity of being human was stripped away from them, all that seemed to remain was animal instinct.

Watching these people who had been domesticated like livestock, Princess Ailin only felt a chill in her hands and feet, and a coldness that went deep into her soul.

"Who did this!"

A knight couldn't help but step forward, his teeth grinding. However, his actions frightened the people in the cages, triggering a distorted riot.

Luo Yan placed his hand on the shoulder of the flustered knight and said in a restrained voice.

"Calm down, they don't know any more than those who have already escaped, we don't need to squeeze the last bit of information out of them... let them go."

The knight's Adam's apple moved, and in the end, he loosened his clenched fist and retreated into the team behind him with his head down.

Luo Yan chanted a spell, and milky white light emitted from the tip of his wand, instantly sweeping across the entire cave.

The warm light was like a late spring breeze, smoothing over fresh or old wounds, and allowing those terrified people to finally calm down a little... at least not wasting the little strength they had left.

Lowering his magic wand, he looked at Princess Ailin.

"They are seriously injured, I have managed to control their injuries for now, but follow-up treatment still needs to be handled by professional priests and physicians."

Princess Ailin nodded lightly, her voice a bit dry.

"Thank you."

Luo Yan lowered his brows.

"You're welcome."

Teresa looked around, watching the huge spider webs scattered on the ground and the slime belonging to arthropods remaining on the bars, her brows tightly furrowed.

"Strange..."

Hearing Teresa's voice, Princess Ailin walked over immediately.

"Any discoveries?"

"Hmm."

Teresa nodded slightly, pinching her chin with her index finger in thought.

"If this place was really attacked by cave spiders, why would the spiders eat all the rats but leave these humans alone?"

The crowd exchanged glances, clearly feeling this was a suspicious point.

Luo Yan didn't pick up the conversation.

This was indeed a flaw, but... what did this have to do with Prince Kelin?

He also showed a confused expression and cast his gaze toward Shala.

"Shala, do you have any clues?"

Shala was slightly stunned.

"Sorry, Your Highness, I..."

"Could it be because they were full?"

Unexpectedly to Luo Yan, a smart-aleck knight stood out, hesitated for a moment, and tentatively voiced his guess.

"After all, there are so many rat corpses outside, or they chased the fleeing rat-men to other places and didn't have time to deal with these 'reserve rations'."

Princess Ailin looked at Kelin, instinctively seeking his advice. And Luo Yan shrugged his shoulders, his expression calm as he said.

"I think this friend's analysis makes sense. For predators, live prey is far more attractive than those in cages. And cave spiders prefer to lay eggs on their prey, perhaps they intend to come back later to deal with these 'hotbeds'."

The knight, hearing the Prince's affirmation, scratched the back of his head embarrassedly, a hint of imperceptible pride appearing on his face, not knowing he had been used by the Demon King.

Pausing for a moment, Luo Yan interrupted everyone's thoughts and continued.

"Rather than analyzing where those spiders went... let's save these people before us first. Saint Xisi above, I'm afraid the priests of Cold Crow City won't be enough."

Soul and flesh are things that grow together.

Magic can make rotting flesh grow back, but wanting to heal necrotic souls is a long and painful process.

Especially looking at the reactions of these guys like frightened birds, Luo Yan knew very well that the damage they suffered was far more than physical.

Luo Yan's voice pulled Princess Ailin's thoughts back.

She took a deep breath, her eyes becoming firm and sharp again, recovering the calmness a commander should have, and looked at the knight on the side to order.

"Take half of the men and stay here to treat these wounded, then immediately send fast horses back to the camp to report the news, and let His Majesty send more men to reinforce us!"

With the few men she had, it was simply not enough to help so many captives.

And no one knew if those spiders would come back, she had to be prepared for the worst-case scenario.

"Yes, Your Highness!"

The knight hammered his chest armor heavily and left to carry out the order.

After arranging the rescue work, Princess Ailin turned around, her gaze cast toward the dark passage deeper in the cave, her voice firm.

"The rest of you, follow me and continue forward!"

Responding to her was a low growl suppressing anger.

"Yes!"

……

Passing through that suffocating "pigsty," the group arrived at a natural karst cave, which had been transformed into a laboratory, and added some things that rat-men couldn't possibly have.

However, the rat-men still incorporated some of their own characteristics here, for example, the huge millstone standing in the center of the cave was one of them.

That millstone was ten meters long and wide, as heavy as a mountain.

Its surface was covered with dried blood scabs and cracks, and in the depths of those cracks, it was covered with a layer of fresh red that hadn't yet coagulated, overlapping with the faintly visible runes.

The millstone was connected to two thick wooden push rods above, and there were even deep claw marks remaining on the push rods, clearly usually driven by giant beasts.

"……I finally know what those stitched monsters are used for." Teresa whispered.

And Princess Ailin, standing beside her, didn't speak.

She just silently took a step forward and looked at the few rat-man corpses lying by the millstone that had been sucked dry.

These guys should be rat-man supervisors, or handymen in this laboratory. As for their deaths, it was clearly the handiwork of cave spiders.

Cheap for these guys.

It wasn't just Princess Ailin who didn't speak; the knights standing beside her were also silent.

Even if they knew nothing about magic, seeing the glowing powder accumulated in the stone groove under the millstone, as well as the pools of nauseating dark red meat paste, they could guess what kind of cruel things had happened here.

The rat-men were processing the "parts" they had removed from the Ryan slaves here.

And at the end of the groove, there were several crude oak barrels.

The barrels contained some kind of turbid and viscous liquid, the surface shimmering with a layer of eerie oil—that seemed to be the "raw slurry" that hadn't yet been purified.

Shala silently walked to Luo Yan's side and handed out a handkerchief she had been hiding in her bosom for a long time. Luo Yan shook his head lightly, indicating he didn't need it, and then came to a wooden table beside the altar.

That table was also covered in blood, but among the messy torture instruments, several well-preserved draft papers were scattered.

Luo Yan reached out to pick them up, took a rough look, and his brows raised slightly.

The handwriting on it was elegant and neat, even carrying a hint of a scholar's unique reserve, completely out of place with the bloody and barbaric environment around.

"What's written on it?" Teresa leaned over and couldn't help but ask.

"Some experimental records. Or rather... a slaughter guide."

Carefully reading the content on the draft paper, Luo Yan continued to say expressionlessly, "They recorded in detail the 'parts' extraction process for different parts of the human body, as well as how to most efficiently purify the soul components within."

Princess Ailin was stunned, subconsciously pursuing the question.

"Purify? Soul... how to purify?"

Clearly, this was beyond the knowledge category of a knight.

But for a Prince who had studied in the Academic State, this was not profound.

"Grind, then filter."

Luo Yan turned around, his gaze cast toward the huge bloody millstone beside him.

"In the literal sense, for example, this is their workshop... one of them."

"Ugh..."

A few young knights finally couldn't hold it anymore, covering their mouths and rushing to the corner to retch violently. Even Princess Ailin, who was used to life and death, had her face turn pale instantly, her stomach churning.

Luo Yan continued to read the draft paper in his hand, but didn't read it out loud again.

The remaining content was full of obscure academic terms, these reckless men who hadn't received systematic education in the Academic State definitely couldn't understand it, and frequent questions would only interrupt his thinking.

The information on the draft paper was becoming increasingly shocking.

At this moment, Luo Yan finally understood why that Great Sage dared to openly open the library of the Source Magic Tower to him, letting him, a Prince from the Empire, inspect it at will.

Because those secrets that touched the soul simply weren't in the library, and weren't even in the mage towers on the snowfield!

These lunatics actually researched a method that could completely bypass the "faith system" outside the sight of the gods!

That was a standardized slaughter assembly line, realizing the "ascension of the soul" from a physical level using cold magic-guided technology!

This is the so-called "holy water"!

It's like a universal wish-granting machine, a liquid god!

People who crave power drink it to easily break through ranks, and people who crave longevity drink it to delay the aging of their shells—

It will realize the miracle that even the Emperor didn't truly realize!

"……This looks just like the 'Philosopher's Stone'." Flipping the draft paper in his hand to another page, Luo Yan muttered to himself.

Compared to this thing, Tafu and the wonders he built were minor matters, after all, this thing directly bypassed the restrictions of faith!

Harvesting the faith of the crowd?

Releasing the emotion of fear through shock?

Promoting the progress of civilization to achieve common prosperity?

That's too inefficient.

It's like picking fleas off a monkey, both wasting the monkey and wasting the fleas.

So these mages researched a more efficient way.

That is to throw the monkey into the pot and stew it into soup along with the fleas on its body.

Faith is originally the resonance of the soul, and it can resonate just the same after entering the stomach, also avoiding the waste of materials, and integrating the miscellaneous thoughts of the crowd.

That is true arrogance—

I don't care anymore.

Whether you believe it or not is not important, just like your joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness. Once you enter my stomach, everything about you is mine!

Thinking of the face of the Great Sage Duoliu-Ke, a hint of imperceptible cold sweat slowly slid down the neck of Prince Kelin.

"Philosopher's Stone?" Looking at Kelin with a heavy face, Princess Ailin felt a hint of worry in her eyes and asked in a low voice, "What is that?"

"Nothing, just a legend in alchemy."

Luo Yan brushed off Princess Ailin, who was confused, and continued to look down.

The theory written in the experimental records quickly reminded him of another old acquaintance, Professor Uli-Ye-Er A-Ke-Lai.

As a professor of the Holy Energy School and a candidate for sage who took over from A-Li-Si-Te Suo-En, his specialty was the forbidden soul-grafting secret technique called "Soul Weaving."

Even by the standards of hell, it was an extremely evil and dangerous technique.

It is equivalent to forcibly stitching the soul fragments of one person onto the soul of another, just like pinching two balls of plasticine together!

However, this secret technique clearly had hidden dangers, and any carelessness would lead to the subject's mental collapse, or even going directly crazy.

After all, using another person's soul to repair oneself often means "I" will no longer be "I," at least no longer purely "I."

Luo Yan remembered the witch named "Green Tooth" He-Ka-Jie-Lin he met on the way to the Academic State.

That was a typical failed case.

After devouring the souls of several innocent villagers, the magic apprentice, although gaining power and breaking through innate shackles, also became mentally split, turning into a "living lich."

In the end, she mixed into the bounty list of the Adventurer's Guild, and even if she hadn't been beheaded by Shala, she would definitely have been killed by later adventurers or local lords because the bounty kept piling up.

However, the researchers in this underground laboratory solved the most troublesome "soul rejection" problem in an extremely cruel way.

The method mentioned in the experimental records was not complicated, and could even be said to be simple and crude.

First is to ensure the unity of species; the rejection reaction between human and human souls is the smallest, and the same for rat-man and rat-man.

Secondly, according to the view of the Soul School, the human spirit body is composed of two parts: "spirit" and "soul."

"Soul" is the innate life source, and also a certain substance that will enter reincarnation. While "spirit" is the part that grows acquired, containing memory, emotion, self-consciousness, and even acquired learning experience, etc.

"Spirit quality" is different from "soul quality," the former often does not enter reincarnation, but dissipates along with it after the soul quality enters reincarnation or naturally dissipates.

"Spirit quality" often represents a person's existence in the mortal world, its preciousness is unquestionable, and it can even be said to be the entirety of "explicit consciousness."

However, it is precisely these "spirit qualities" with strong personal imprints that often lead to the subject's mental disorder and become the root cause of inducing "soul rejection."

Since that's the case, just filter out these "trash"!

Just like desulfurizing iron ore.

Through long-term research and tireless exploration, perhaps also referring to the experience in the Void Realm, that "professor" hidden in the Wan Ren Mountains finally successfully realized the separation of spirit and soul.

He first used rat-man torture to repeatedly torture Ryan slaves, destroying their personality and making them crazy...

This process is equivalent to the pre-treatment of ore; before sending it into the smelting furnace, the steel plant needs to crush the ore.

This is an indispensable link.

And this is why those survivors said that people who pretend to be crazy and seek death will be sent back to the prison and receive another beating.

Sacrifices that meet the conditions will be sent to the altar for the next step of processing, this process is no different from smelting ore... but Luo Yan could no longer bear to continue reading.

Too cruel.

Death is just a moment's thing, even if waking up as an undead, it's just like being reincarnated again.

However, this kind of slaughter like an assembly line, even the personality is extinguished in the bloody millstone, I am afraid that even demons would be shocked.

The purgatory depicted in the "Holy Word Book" is right here...

Through this inhumane way, this professor successfully removed the "spirit qualities" containing memories and emotions as waste, leaving only the purest "soul qualities."

But this is still not perfect.

This manuscript mentions that the density of soul quality in different parts is different, and the soul quality of different individuals also has tiny differences.

Many factors limited the purity of the final product, causing the effect of this man-made holy water on the improvement of "soul level" to be greatly reduced.

Luo Yan flipped the draft paper in his hand to the last page.

The handwriting there became a bit scrawled, seemingly left by the experimenter himself, and this will be an extremely important clue.

Not only that—

From that scrawled note, he also gradually read a hint of distorted excitement.

【The attrition rate of the adult body is too high... spirit quality impurities are difficult to filter completely... we need purer raw materials...】

【... I should have thought of it! We can actually get more efficient materials from the source, as long as we process them before they see the light...】

Luo Yan's expression froze slightly, and a hint of bad premonition rose in his heart.

Alakto didn't mention this matter to him at all, clearly they only took a rough look around the outside, didn't go deep here, and didn't carefully read these notes they couldn't understand.

And as if to verify his worst guess, a knight responsible for searching the surrounding area ran out from behind a stone door not far away.

His face was even uglier than when he was vomiting just now, as if he had seen the purgatory in the Holy Word Book.

"Your Highness! You... you had better come and see the room next door."

Princess Ailin's heart jumped, not daring to be slow, she followed behind that knight quickly, and Luo Yan also put away the notes and followed.

When they passed through that heavy stone door and stepped into the room next door, the scene that came into view caused everyone's breathing to freeze.

"Those beasts..." Teresa's voice was trembling.

The environment here was completely different from the bloody and dirty outside.

There was no nauseating stench, the air was even a bit dry and warm, the ground was covered with relatively clean thick animal skins, and fresh food and clean water were piled in the corner.

However, this unnatural "preferential treatment" carried a chill deeper than death.

Behind several low wooden fences, more than a hundred girls of different ages were locked up, some mature, some young.

Most of them were dull and listless, their eyes scattered, clearly having been fed some kind of medicine for a long time, in a semi-comatose state.

And the most shocking thing was that every one of their abdomens was bulging high...

Judging from the time of pregnancy, they clearly hadn't been sent here recently, but seemed to have been "raised" here for a long time.

If the outside was a farm, then this place was a production base.

However, what was eerie was that there was no sound of babies crying here, nor could a single child be seen, and there were no things like swaddling clothes.

Princess Ailin looked at the scene before her with dull eyes, those pupils that had lost their luster were like they were broken, and the longsword in her hand trembled slightly.

"……What is this doing?"

Even on the tragic battlefield of the Twilight Province, even facing thousands of dead bodies, she had never felt so desperate and powerless as she did now.

Luo Yan stood silently behind her, hesitated for a long time, and finally decided to tell her what he knew.

Concealment was already meaningless.

Even these materials could be found in this cave, the research of those mages clearly didn't start from the Great Fire of the Winter Moon, and it probably had been going on for a long time before the Brass Pass was crumbling.

Ten years?

Twenty years?

He didn't know either, perhaps only Saint Xisi knew.

"……According to the theory of the Soul School, the human spirit body is divided into 'spirit quality' and 'soul quality.' 'Spirit' is the sum of acquired memory, emotion, and self-consciousness. While 'soul' is the innate life energy, which is also a certain substance that will enter reincarnation."

Using the concepts of the information age, it could be explained more clearly, the former is software, the latter is hardware... but saying this would definitely make Princess Ailin even more confused.

But Tafu would definitely be able to understand.

"So?" Princess Ailin turned her head, staring straight into Kelin's eyes, full of pleading in her eyes, pleading that the answer she got wasn't that one.

However, she was destined to be disappointed.

The evil here far exceeded the Demon King's expectations.

"……Newborn babies, or those not yet born, their 'spirit' hasn't formed, or is extremely weak. But the 'soul' is no different from adults, and the time cost is lower."

"For these magic researchers who pursue extreme purity, that is the perfect raw material without any impurities."

"Holy water uses soul quality as raw material and spirit quality as impurity."

"They opened a shortcut to the abyss on a path we had never imagined..." ===== CHAPTER 554 =====